Alien Races

[tiagocc0]

I really like the concept art, feels "alien alien" enough for me. What I find a bit worrysome - if they use portals from one planet to another, wouldn't they "teleport" right into concrete material and would die through this mechanism? Or maybe I just didnt understand it well...

Thanks.

They could use the portals on big underground caverns if they find one or they would first teleport what's on the other planet back so they would bring lots of dirt and rocks opening a pocket on the other side where they could safely teleport. Or teleporting on one side always brings what´s on the other side back like in the Stargate movie.

 

[Surf Solar]

Some "parasite" alien race would be cool aswell, using bodies of other space faring species as their host and eventually using their technology to morph them on their own. Their actual "bodies" would just be tiny bacteria-like beings.

 

[tiagocc0]

Some "parasite" alien race would be cool aswell, using bodies of other space faring species as their host and eventually using their technology to morph them on their own. Their actual "bodies" would just be tiny bacteria-like beings.

That´s a quite nice idea, I think MoO 3 had a race like that, at least in the description, I've never played it though to know how it worked.

I will ask my friend if he can work on some concept art on this kind of race as well.

 

[Surf Solar]

Following some fungii patterns we have on earth (which could easily take the size of the entire state of arizona) some planet wide sentinel organism being kind of "fungii" would work too. Instead of dealing with an entire race, you would communicate to a single organism which is fucking huge. Ah well, just throwing some random ideas in here, your "I want to have alien alien" races just did sound really really good. ;P

 

[tiagocc0]

Following some fungii patterns we have on earth (which could easily take the size of the entire state of arizona) some planet wide sentinel organism being kind of "fungii" would work too. Instead of dealing with an entire race, you would communicate to a single organism which is fucking huge. Ah well, just throwing some random ideas in here, your "I want to have alien alien" races just did sound really really good. ;P

That's nice too, it would be like Alpha Centauri, this idea will definitely be used too!

We could have a race of a fungi-like creature that each one would take an entire planet, moon.

We could also have a race of enormous creatures that would "fly" trough the space going to planets to harvest them. Each one of them would act like a spaceships.

 

[Destroid]

If you want some ideas, I recommend you pick up a copy/scan or Cosmic Encounter, it's a great boardgame, and has tons of different aliens (50 in the base set), which have great art and a little flavour text each.

 

[tiagocc0]

If you want some ideas, I recommend you pick up a copy/scan or Cosmic Encounter, it's a great boardgame, and has tons of different aliens (50 in the base set), which have great art and a little flavour text each.

Thanks! I will take a look at these!

 

[tiagocc0]

New concept art guys, you can check it here: http://purpleorangegames.blogspot.com/2011/12/aliens-zombies.html

 

[Malakal]

MoO3 did have a parasite race, it was great in stats but hated by everyone. It also fed on other races inhabiting a colony until they were gone - then it kinda starved a bit (that was strange, just a bit?).

Anyway concept art looks great, I like it. Races not so much, but hopefully there is room for improvement and adding new ones.

 

[tiagocc0]

MoO3 did have a parasite race, it was great in stats but hated by everyone. It also fed on other races inhabiting a colony until they were gone - then it kinda starved a bit (that was strange, just a bit?).

Anyway concept art looks great, I like it. Races not so much, but hopefully there is room for improvement and adding new ones.

I remember this race in MoO3 but I never played it.
Those races descriptions that are on the site are aliens "aliens", they will have different gameplay mechanics than the humanoid race.
Humanoid races are still to be conceived and will look a lot like MoO2 races.

 

[tiagocc0]

I don 't mind humanoid races, but if they're similar to human beings, you better have a good explanation handy. Here are the usual ones:

1. Ancient Astronauts. Aliens from another planet are our ancestors. Or, in a inversion, ancient astronauts from OUR planet are ancestors of those aliens.

2. Snatched-up humans. Aliens kidnapped humans and put them elsewhere for some reason. (experiments? future servants/allies?)

3. Percusors were humanoid and everyone's derivated from them.

4. Lost Colony. Earth is actually the lost colony of another race. Or we once had space expansion and lost our colonies.

Also, it would be interesting if "similar" races had better relations. Human-like aliens would usually understand each other better than humanoids and lovecraftian monsters.

Yeap, a reason for them being so similar would help the story, those are great explanations. I will give this some more thought.
About the relations this makes sense, I will definitely implement it like that.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I think you need to design a robust race "character system", then use it to create different races and let the player create his own.

I'd start with the lifeform selection and take it from there:

- carbon-based
- silicone based (sentient crystal under high temperatures)
- energy-based (electromagnetic radiation?)
- plasma-based (cool link)
- cybernetic

Then select size, longevity, and maybe communication (oral, telepathic, hivemind?). They should define and modify other stats (for example, high longevity - low birth rate; size would probably affect mentality: behemoth-type races are slow, wouldn't rush into anything, build huge slow ships that can take a lot of punishment but lack maneuverability; hivemind - fastest info exchange but no individual thought: bonus for development (the MK 2+ technologies), slow new tech research, etc).

Then select (where applicable) aptitudes and personality traits like research, engineering, space combat, ground combat, piloting, xenophobia, compatibility (for the lack of a better word) - while radioactive life forms may not care about carbon-based life, the latter would definitely mind radioactive life form; while cybernetic life forms might see silicone-based lifeforms as a resource), etc.

 

[Average Manatee]

Also, it would be interesting if "similar" races had better relations. Human-like aliens would usually understand each other better than humanoids and lovecraftian monsters.

I think partially going in the opposite way would be more appropriate. The more similar races are, the more they will get into conflict for the same resources/territory. Simply being the same race certainly hasn't stopped humans from killing each other, presumably an entirely different life form living in volcanoes/under the ocean/in the air would have a lot less reasons to start conflicts when the only "gain" would be something the winning species doesn't need in the first place. And a race that lives around gas giants wouldn't have much reason at all to fight humans, barring a species naturally aggressive against everything (which some might consider humans to be).

 

[tiagocc0]

Also, it would be interesting if "similar" races had better relations. Human-like aliens would usually understand each other better than humanoids and lovecraftian monsters.

I think partially going in the opposite way would be more appropriate. The more similar races are, the more they will get into conflict for the same resources/territory. Simply being the same race certainly hasn't stopped humans from killing each other, presumably an entirely different life form living in volcanoes/under the ocean/in the air would have a lot less reasons to start conflicts when the only "gain" would be something the winning species doesn't need in the first place. And a race that lives around gas giants wouldn't have much reason at all to fight humans, barring a species naturally aggressive against everything (which some might consider humans to be).

Maybe the term is not better relations as in they would be friends but they would be a lot more receptive to have diplomatic relations be it good or bad, while an humanoid race would have a much harder time trying to communicate and thus form a bond with an truly alien lifeform.

I think you need to design a robust race "character system", then use it to create different races and let the player create his own.

I'd start with the lifeform selection and take it from there:

- carbon-based
- silicone based (sentient crystal under high temperatures)
- energy-based (electromagnetic radiation?)
- plasma-based (cool link)
- cybernetic

Then select size, longevity, and maybe communication (oral, telepathic, hivemind?). They should define and modify other stats (for example, high longevity - low birth rate; size would probably affect mentality: behemoth-type races are slow, wouldn't rush into anything, build huge slow ships that can take a lot of punishment but lack maneuverability; hivemind - fastest info exchange but no individual thought: bonus for development (the MK 2+ technologies), slow new tech research, etc).

Then select (where applicable) aptitudes and personality traits like research, engineering, space combat, ground combat, piloting, xenophobia, compatibility (for the lack of a better word) - while radioactive life forms may not care about carbon-based life, the latter would definitely mind radioactive life form; while cybernetic life forms might see silicone-based lifeforms as a resource), etc.

Interesting, I was planning on creating those truly aliens and then splitting them into traits, then choose what trait or group of traits would make them truly aliens and put them in the race creation module. Thus it would look scattered like in MoO2.
I was kind of avoiding something like this because it would implicate in a far more complex system where everything has to be balanced from start, but the way you explained it looks a lot easier than I had thought initially.

I will try to use this as a base and see if I can come up with a system for race creation.

 

[Average Manatee]

Also, it would be interesting if "similar" races had better relations. Human-like aliens would usually understand each other better than humanoids and lovecraftian monsters.

I think partially going in the opposite way would be more appropriate. The more similar races are, the more they will get into conflict for the same resources/territory. Simply being the same race certainly hasn't stopped humans from killing each other, presumably an entirely different life form living in volcanoes/under the ocean/in the air would have a lot less reasons to start conflicts when the only "gain" would be something the winning species doesn't need in the first place. And a race that lives around gas giants wouldn't have much reason at all to fight humans, barring a species naturally aggressive against everything (which some might consider humans to be).

Maybe the term is not better relations as in they would be friends but they would be a lot more receptive to have diplomatic relations be it good or bad, while an humanoid race would have a much harder time trying to communicate and thus form a bond with an truly alien lifeform.

Maybe you should give a diplomatic bonus to "similar" races (or diplomatic penalty to different races, same idea), but then give increasing penalties the closer they are (space-wise), representing the tension between the two races for a variety of factors, modified by their inherent aggressiveness?

End result being that humans and completely different life forms have less diplomacy, but also less inherent hostility, creating a more neutral, standoffish tone. Even aggressive non-humanoids would generally go after their own non-humanoidians rather than waste time with Human worlds that they aren't as interested in, unless they are REALLY aggressive or humans start to piss them off. Humans and other humanoids would have more diplomatic reactions between them, engaging the player very often and becoming suspicious and distrustful of players who aren't diplomatically active. Humans and other far away humanoids will probably be on good terms with each other most of the time, and humans + the prerequisite non-aggressive alien women race will still be quite happy to interact with each other constantly.

It would be really interesting if the galaxy was divided into multiple layers of life form types, with each one primarily interacting, warring, and trading within their own type. Quite different from your normal 4x game where every player has "their" territory where only they exist, different races could co-exist in the same geographic region so long as there wasn't competition between them for the same resources. Would be even more interesting if this could change over time depending on research or race actions. Humans devise technology to mine gas giants? Gonna make an enemy with the races that live on them. Some other race decides to throw asteroids at potential human colony locations to alter the climate to be more suitable for them? Humans gonna get pissed.

 

[tiagocc0]

Maybe you should give a diplomatic bonus to "similar" races (or diplomatic penalty to different races, same idea), but then give increasing penalties the closer they are (space-wise), representing the tension between the two races for a variety of factors, modified by their inherent aggressiveness?

End result being that humans and completely different life forms have less diplomacy, but also less inherent hostility, creating a more neutral, standoffish tone. Even aggressive non-humanoids would generally go after their own non-humanoidians rather than waste time with Human worlds that they aren't as interested in, unless they are REALLY aggressive or humans start to piss them off. Humans and other humanoids would have more diplomatic reactions between them, engaging the player very often and becoming suspicious and distrustful of players who aren't diplomatically active. Humans and other far away humanoids will probably be on good terms with each other most of the time, and humans + the prerequisite non-aggressive alien women race will still be quite happy to interact with each other constantly.

It would be really interesting if the galaxy was divided into multiple layers of life form types, with each one primarily interacting, warring, and trading within their own type. Quite different from your normal 4x game where every player has "their" territory where only they exist, different races could co-exist in the same geographic region so long as there wasn't competition between them for the same resources. Would be even more interesting if this could change over time depending on research or race actions. Humans devise technology to mine gas giants? Gonna make an enemy with the races that live on them. Some other race decides to throw asteroids at potential human colony locations to alter the climate to be more suitable for them? Humans gonna get pissed.[/quote]

That's a quite nice idea. Instead of giving them a penalty for being close first we would check if according to the current technology there are conflicting interests. I'm gonna write this down!
And about being different kind of species would give less diplomatic options is nice too as in similar species would likely interact more with each other but as long as they aren't competing for territory.

 

[Average Manatee]

I would think in the majority of cases there would be conflicting interests between two humanoid races, unless there are wildly different tech paths for each race to go down or something. You could definitely do some technology checks though to tilt the checks one way or another though. If current human tech can reach planets up to 20 Ly away and an alien race that isn't already on very good terms with Humanity starts snatching up the only reachable planets colonizable with current human tech, things might get tense. On the other hand if both races have large empires there would be a lot less of a diplomatic negative assuming the races weren't predisposed to hate each other for another reason.

 

[tiagocc0]

I would think in the majority of cases there would be conflicting interests between two humanoid races, unless there are wildly different tech paths for each race to go down or something. You could definitely do some technology checks though to tilt the checks one way or another though. If current human tech can reach planets up to 20 Ly away and an alien race that isn't already on very good terms with Humanity starts snatching up the only reachable planets colonizable with current human tech, things might get tense. On the other hand if both races have large empires there would be a lot less of a diplomatic negative assuming the races weren't predisposed to hate each other for another reason.

Sorry about the delay.
I see, we could make them hate each other based on their goals. On distant world and I think some other might have this too, each race can have their own goals to complete the game. Like one race is to control 33% of the galaxy, another is to be the race that lost less ships in the game.
Races that make you distance from your goal would generate conflict.

 

[Destroid]

It wouldn't make them very resistant to kinetic bombardment. Better than living on the surface though!

 

[deuxhero]

Personally, I'd love to see humans NOT be average/balanced.

Outside of advantages any sapient biped would have, real life Humans have great stamina, shoulders/arms that are great at throwing things and a brain that is good at knowing how to throw stuff well (which adapts well to "shoot stuff well").

 

[Norfleet]

I think humans are typically "Average/balanced" because of the fact that people tend to evaluate the fictional races based on how they compare against what they know, namely, humans. Humans are therefore non-average only if there exists no race in the lineup that happens to be better than humans at it. And honestly, people aren't very great at throwing things. Our arms don't actually have the kind of musculature that allows them to really catapult stuff, and our brains aren't really optimized for ballistic calculations. In fact, people are amazingly shitty shots. This is readily apparent to anyone who has played against the public in any kind of artillery game. I am endlessly accused of outright cheating when I simply give up on trying to rely on "humanness" and whip out my slide rule.

 

[deuxhero]

Compared to other species however, we are amazing at it.

 

[Destroid]

Things will probably go well if we have intergalactic wars against chimps or dogs.

 

[tiagocc0]

The mole-like aliens (let's call them diggers until you find a better name) are actually fairly interesting. For starters, they got a excellent mean of star expansion, needing only to make portals to other planets. The fact they live far underground could make them immune to the bane of star-faring civilizations called Orbital Attacks. Depending on how much underground they live, a planet's crust could protect from pretty much anything weaker than RKV or somekind of very strong anti-matter tunneling shaped charge.

Yes, if they only lived underground they might have a hard time understanding other space faring species.
While they could be a lot more secure at expanding, the way they expand could a fairly slow process. Finding a planet trough lots and lots of scanning and calculations, then building a gate capable of reaching the planet, then teleporting stuff back and forth until the colony reach a suitable size.
Teleporting could be very energy consuming.

Phisically, considering humans average makes sense, but on cultural sense it depends on which human polities appear in the game. I hope we never see some generic "Terran Federation" but rather one or more very different human polities. If there's just one human polity, let it be more than GENERIC FEDERATION CLONE 28419AB-2012 (I'm looking at you three, MoO2, SEIV and Galactic Civilizations 2) with the serials written off. Look at the Imperium of Man, that's a original polity right there and one I can complete see existing.

I'm thinking more like Alpha Centauri.

 

[Destroid]

The mole-like aliens (let's call them diggers until you find a better name) are actually fairly interesting. For starters, they got a excellent mean of star expansion, needing only to make portals to other planets. The fact they live far underground could make them immune to the bane of star-faring civilizations called Orbital Attacks. Depending on how much underground they live, a planet's crust could protect from pretty much anything weaker than RKV or somekind of very strong anti-matter tunneling shaped charge.

Yes, if they only lived underground they might have a hard time understanding other space faring species.
While they could be a lot more secure at expanding, the way they expand could a fairly slow process. Finding a planet trough lots and lots of scanning and calculations, then building a gate capable of reaching the planet, then teleporting stuff back and forth until the colony reach a suitable size.
Teleporting could be very energy consuming.

Phisically, considering humans average makes sense, but on cultural sense it depends on which human polities appear in the game. I hope we never see some generic "Terran Federation" but rather one or more very different human polities. If there's just one human polity, let it be more than GENERIC FEDERATION CLONE 28419AB-2012 (I'm looking at you three, MoO2, SEIV and Galactic Civilizations 2) with the serials written off. Look at the Imperium of Man, that's a original polity right there and one I can complete see existing.

I'm thinking more like Alpha Centauri.

1. I did find a problem with the Diggers, though: How they expand, exactly? Won't that make it too easy for them? They could easily blitz-colonize planets without needing those bothersome spaceships to carry their people. Also, one thing to notice: They're a underground species, they might be blind. That would make them rather suck at the whole spaceship thing;

2. Good. Sci-fi 4X has been suffering a serious case of Star Trekitis, look at GalCiv2, where most races are pratically Star Strek races with the serials written off. Like I saw some guy in Atomic Rockets say, Star Trek needs to advance with the rest of sci-fi.
Alpha Centauri is a excellent font of faction uniqueness.

Typically the way portalers are handled is that they must build a conventional spacefaring craft to carry the end point to a new planet. There are aliens in sword of the stars like this and in MoO2 the portal technology was also like this, although you needed a colony to build it.