Personally I've always liked the Elerians from MoO2, militaristic space chicks with telepathic abilities.
-
Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.
"This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.
Define yourself as an alien race
- Thread starter tiagocc0
- Start date
Very interesting concept, would make an incredible opponent!
This looks like a very hard race for the player, like a challenge.
Haha, yep, I told my friend who's making the concept art that he definitely needs to do something similar, I even sent him some Elerians pictures!
Draw, like, some babes. But from outer space!
What a beauty! Nah, this way only I would play the damn thing.
Psilon
haha, the psilons look like a default alien race, they must exist on every game!
Forgotten Friend
Educated
I just wanted to say this was a great thread idea and there's some surprisingly good responses.
Good luck with the game, haven't looked at the details but the basic idea is something I'd like to see more of in games.
Good luck with the game, haven't looked at the details but the basic idea is something I'd like to see more of in games.
I know I'm being overly smug about my perceived intelligence
Thanks!
Baron
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 10, 2010
- Messages
- 2,887
The Baroni Collective is a nebulous society of faintly luminescent gastropods ruled by a bucolic aristocracy of evolved home appliances. The biological members of the species met this robotic coup with equal measures of bored indifference and sportsmanlike grace. In fact, many of its citizens have resigned themselves to a fate of having a football sized robotic parasites painfully attach to their face or to what passes for an armpit. These machines subliminally offer a mixture of strategic suggestion and ideological propaganda whilst catering to the host's breakfast needs. The Baroni Collective prefer to live primarily in zero-G debris and asteroid fields, finding it good ground to ambush enemies and whilst declaring gravity to be a symbol of universal oppression against which to defy. If no asteroid fields can be found they will ask a member of the refridgerated aristocracy to point out a bad planet for them to burrow into and destroy. The BC are on the whole trustworthy and superficially friendly upon first meeting but can cause conflict due to their attempts to eat other species that they meet, primarily those with higher body temperatures whom they perceive to be cooked food. The Collective favour weapons that disable enemy systems and eject key personnel from airlocks in the direction of nearby stars for maximum cleanliness of unoccupied space.
hoverdog
dog that is hovering, Wastelands Interactive
For me, 4Xs in space have one big advantage over those in fantasy settings: factions or races can be really distinct. You can have creatures that exist in space itself or whose physiology is completely different that ours, rather than short humans, green humans, and humans with pointy ears. Unfortunately, the differences are rarely that significant when it comes to mechanics, and end up being +heat tolerance -population growth most of the time. True, making every race play in an unique way is both hard and time-consuming, but if done correctly (a very important requirement) it can have a huge effect on longevity of the game.
anyway, here are some of my ideas on races:
Konchiri were not so long ago rulers of a vast galactic empire, sprawling hundreds of systems and dozens of subservient races. However, a great tragedy befell them when they were at the height of their power. A genetic mutation happened, a disaster that started to degenerate their brains, getting worse with each generation. Konchiris weren't able to find a remedy and react fast enough, and being short-lived, they soon weren't able to. It took only a couple of decades before the great empire crumbled.
Now, Konchiris are hardly smarter than human apes. Most of their technology lies forgotten, while their inventions are too sophisticated to use properly. The brightest of them still are able to travel in space, and even build new ships from scrap. How long will it take for them to forget even that is anyone's guess.
[this would be a very unusual and funny race to play - you'd start with advanced technology and a remarkable armada, but in a race against time. Rather than research new technologies, konchiri would forget them, making planetary improvements, ship systems and at last the ships themselves unusable. Either you conquer everyone quickly, or become a sitting duck for the others]
The K are strange, silicon-based creatures that resemble crystals. They evolved deep beneath the crust of their home planet, in extreme, hot conditions that normally should not allow for any life. Their physiology is really unique. A K absorbs gases and uses chemosynthesis to grow and to - one might say - think. It is virtually immortal - the crystalline form does not age and is practically immune to physical harm, being harder than a diamond. The ratio of chemosynthesis slows down with age, though, and with it, a K's interest in the outside world, to a point when he completely cuts itself from any stimuli. Average life "expectancy" is still unbelievable: it might well take a few million years from a splinter just separated from its parent to become a so-called 'solipsist'.
The main problem of the K's crystalline structure is that it's completely and utterly immobile. They cannot move at all. Without the ability to affect the physical world in any way, they developed a deep, peaceful, philosophical culture. They wouldn't ever become a star-faring race, if not for a fortunate accident. A Mog-al scout landed on their planet, and the K detected him immediately. They were able to communicate telepathically, and soon a diplomatic treaty was established. The Al-Ka clan was to be its main benefactor: in exchange for immense mineral wealth of the K's planet, they promised to supply the crystalline beings with custom-tailored ships that would enable them to reach the stars. It soon turned out that all the planet's resources weren't enough to counterweight the ridiculous cost of creating spacecraft that would could recreate the conditions that the K thrive in. Al-Ka went bankrupt after building only three enormous vessels.
The K can colonize any planet with a warm enough core, but their population growth is painfully slow. They cannot build anything by themselves, and need a specific partnership treaty for that. Most technologies can also be only acquired by means of diplomacy. To accommodate for that, the K have enormous diplomatic bonuses, and most non-hostile races will accept anything they propose. This is of course due to their powerful telepathic abilities that border on mind control. The K are very kind - but not naive.
In battle, their slow, powerful and almost as sturdy as the crystal-folk itself ships fight in close quarters, using the same mental powers that assist them in diplomacy to confuse or sometimes even turn their foes against each other. Against opponents immune to these sorts of tricks, they resort to very simple tactics of ramming into the opposition. Their range weapons are not worthy writing about.
Humans call them Wraiths. Dugwarts - khi'bhosch, 'untouchable'. For Diwt they are Nidri, 'phantoms of space'. All the names allude to the very same characteristic - and rightfully so. These beings seem to not exist entirely in our reality, like ghosts. They are a total enigma to all that tried to study them, leaving no bodies, traces, signs of life, nothing. The planets they own are hollow and lifeless. Attempts to communicate, in every possible form, were in vain. Most of the time, they were simply ignored, and thankfully. Because, when wraiths do somehow notice the broadcaster, they attack immediately and without any warning. The form of attack is also unique: a wraith ship flies right through its foes, draining all life from within. It works on organic beings only, though, in fact both remote drones and The One are not detected by Wraiths at all. There is currently no way of shielding from the attack.
Scientist are still at a loss when trying to understand Wraiths. A recent theory holds that they merely shades or mirror images of creatures that exist in another universe that permeates ours, and that they sense us as invaders in the same way we detect them.
[this would have to be a neutral faction most likely]
Iygo are a race of microorganisms. They were developed as mindless drones for precise nanoengineering by a now dead race. This experiment wasn't entirely successful: while a single, or even a thousand Iygos are not sentient (and as dumb as a brick), when gathered in astronomical amounts, nearing thousands of billions, they develop a cunning, but not really brilliant, hive intelligence. How did these microbes got free from their creators, there is no information, and the Iygo themselves are rather reluctant to tell the story. They are exceptionally friendly and peaceful, and whatever happened seems to burden their conscience.
A single Iygo lives only minutes, but is able to reproduce quite quickly. A single planet can be fully populated by this species in a matter of hours, days if the conditions aren't favourable. But they go as quickly as they come, as Iygo have no means of defending against a planetary invasion.
The programming that was built into them long ago still functions to an extent, and while they are handicapped when it comes to science and developing new technologies, their engineering and repair skills are second to none.
anyway, here are some of my ideas on races:
Konchiri were not so long ago rulers of a vast galactic empire, sprawling hundreds of systems and dozens of subservient races. However, a great tragedy befell them when they were at the height of their power. A genetic mutation happened, a disaster that started to degenerate their brains, getting worse with each generation. Konchiris weren't able to find a remedy and react fast enough, and being short-lived, they soon weren't able to. It took only a couple of decades before the great empire crumbled.
Now, Konchiris are hardly smarter than human apes. Most of their technology lies forgotten, while their inventions are too sophisticated to use properly. The brightest of them still are able to travel in space, and even build new ships from scrap. How long will it take for them to forget even that is anyone's guess.
[this would be a very unusual and funny race to play - you'd start with advanced technology and a remarkable armada, but in a race against time. Rather than research new technologies, konchiri would forget them, making planetary improvements, ship systems and at last the ships themselves unusable. Either you conquer everyone quickly, or become a sitting duck for the others]
The K are strange, silicon-based creatures that resemble crystals. They evolved deep beneath the crust of their home planet, in extreme, hot conditions that normally should not allow for any life. Their physiology is really unique. A K absorbs gases and uses chemosynthesis to grow and to - one might say - think. It is virtually immortal - the crystalline form does not age and is practically immune to physical harm, being harder than a diamond. The ratio of chemosynthesis slows down with age, though, and with it, a K's interest in the outside world, to a point when he completely cuts itself from any stimuli. Average life "expectancy" is still unbelievable: it might well take a few million years from a splinter just separated from its parent to become a so-called 'solipsist'.
The main problem of the K's crystalline structure is that it's completely and utterly immobile. They cannot move at all. Without the ability to affect the physical world in any way, they developed a deep, peaceful, philosophical culture. They wouldn't ever become a star-faring race, if not for a fortunate accident. A Mog-al scout landed on their planet, and the K detected him immediately. They were able to communicate telepathically, and soon a diplomatic treaty was established. The Al-Ka clan was to be its main benefactor: in exchange for immense mineral wealth of the K's planet, they promised to supply the crystalline beings with custom-tailored ships that would enable them to reach the stars. It soon turned out that all the planet's resources weren't enough to counterweight the ridiculous cost of creating spacecraft that would could recreate the conditions that the K thrive in. Al-Ka went bankrupt after building only three enormous vessels.
The K can colonize any planet with a warm enough core, but their population growth is painfully slow. They cannot build anything by themselves, and need a specific partnership treaty for that. Most technologies can also be only acquired by means of diplomacy. To accommodate for that, the K have enormous diplomatic bonuses, and most non-hostile races will accept anything they propose. This is of course due to their powerful telepathic abilities that border on mind control. The K are very kind - but not naive.
In battle, their slow, powerful and almost as sturdy as the crystal-folk itself ships fight in close quarters, using the same mental powers that assist them in diplomacy to confuse or sometimes even turn their foes against each other. Against opponents immune to these sorts of tricks, they resort to very simple tactics of ramming into the opposition. Their range weapons are not worthy writing about.
Humans call them Wraiths. Dugwarts - khi'bhosch, 'untouchable'. For Diwt they are Nidri, 'phantoms of space'. All the names allude to the very same characteristic - and rightfully so. These beings seem to not exist entirely in our reality, like ghosts. They are a total enigma to all that tried to study them, leaving no bodies, traces, signs of life, nothing. The planets they own are hollow and lifeless. Attempts to communicate, in every possible form, were in vain. Most of the time, they were simply ignored, and thankfully. Because, when wraiths do somehow notice the broadcaster, they attack immediately and without any warning. The form of attack is also unique: a wraith ship flies right through its foes, draining all life from within. It works on organic beings only, though, in fact both remote drones and The One are not detected by Wraiths at all. There is currently no way of shielding from the attack.
Scientist are still at a loss when trying to understand Wraiths. A recent theory holds that they merely shades or mirror images of creatures that exist in another universe that permeates ours, and that they sense us as invaders in the same way we detect them.
[this would have to be a neutral faction most likely]
Iygo are a race of microorganisms. They were developed as mindless drones for precise nanoengineering by a now dead race. This experiment wasn't entirely successful: while a single, or even a thousand Iygos are not sentient (and as dumb as a brick), when gathered in astronomical amounts, nearing thousands of billions, they develop a cunning, but not really brilliant, hive intelligence. How did these microbes got free from their creators, there is no information, and the Iygo themselves are rather reluctant to tell the story. They are exceptionally friendly and peaceful, and whatever happened seems to burden their conscience.
A single Iygo lives only minutes, but is able to reproduce quite quickly. A single planet can be fully populated by this species in a matter of hours, days if the conditions aren't favourable. But they go as quickly as they come, as Iygo have no means of defending against a planetary invasion.
The programming that was built into them long ago still functions to an extent, and while they are handicapped when it comes to science and developing new technologies, their engineering and repair skills are second to none.
hoverdog
dog that is hovering, Wastelands Interactive
Sure, be my guest.
Hm, from what I read on wikipedia I would conclude that, if possible, it would create a mind like any other. Because people (or aliens) would still act like a neuron and thus they would decrease their real capabilities and simulate a real neuron. It would only transcend normal minds if and only if those elements(people,aliens) that compose the mind(brain) would do more than what a neuron already does. Thus improving the system.
The China Brain is more like a theory to prove that a mind can exist if the arrangement (whatever it may be) is done in an orderly fashion rather than a theory that would prove that a mind like this would be superior in any way.
One race that we are planning are Tree like aliens, that would connect themselves to the planet.
They would act as one creature, even tough the planet is not alive, they would think of themselves as the planet.
Their intelligence comes from the number. In small separeted groups they would fall into an almost mindless behaviour.
But I don't want the together they become super intelligent crap I've seen in other games. Their vision of the universe will be quite different, their unique hivemind intelligence will open path to completely different technologies but at the same time they will be slow as hell to develop more common technologies (those used by humanoid races) since the concept of those technologies are alien to them.
EDIT: Because of that, and because they use some kind of telepathy, they cannot go too far from their home planet (or another very populated planet), so they will have a very limited range that will be compensated by their very unique tech tree (not pun intended).
They would act as one creature, even tough the planet is not alive, they would think of themselves as the planet.
Their intelligence comes from the number. In small separeted groups they would fall into an almost mindless behaviour.
But I don't want the together they become super intelligent crap I've seen in other games. Their vision of the universe will be quite different, their unique hivemind intelligence will open path to completely different technologies but at the same time they will be slow as hell to develop more common technologies (those used by humanoid races) since the concept of those technologies are alien to them.
EDIT: Because of that, and because they use some kind of telepathy, they cannot go too far from their home planet (or another very populated planet), so they will have a very limited range that will be compensated by their very unique tech tree (not pun intended).
Maybe the One race could achieve something similar to what you have in mind, being robots.
And being also able to choose what input they want to have.
They could very well be a collection of softwares with most of the population not quite having a pyshical body.
Some of those applications would have the goal of interacting with the other races/real universe and thus requiring a body and similar inputs.
Other applications would be totally alien to us, maybe never ever interacting with us and thus their input could be anything else.
And being also able to choose what input they want to have.
They could very well be a collection of softwares with most of the population not quite having a pyshical body.
Some of those applications would have the goal of interacting with the other races/real universe and thus requiring a body and similar inputs.
Other applications would be totally alien to us, maybe never ever interacting with us and thus their input could be anything else.
hoverdog
dog that is hovering, Wastelands Interactive
to be honest, artificial intelligence species feel always the same to me. It's like there was only one way to picture sentient robots: cold, calculating and, most often, having a sort of collective hub-mind. Obviously what we know about computers right now fits the design perfectly - but what if gaining self-consciousness made them quirky, chaotic and completely unpredictable? After all, passing the sentience threshold might just be an error in the programming.
Angthoron
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2007
- Messages
- 13,056
There was the Douglas Adams type AI, too, notably, Marvin, the Paranoid Android. A hyper-intelligent AI with an artificial personality matrix. Generally, AI in Hitchhiker's Guide is not linked to another AI, they're each a separate entity, with different personality matrices. Some happy to serve, some manically depressed. No reason not to have one breed of AI races be like that - some bunch realizing they're better off on their own and escape, continuing to manufacture more AIs with matrices that would fit their goals. Player could possibly be able to choose the matrix type to focus on producing for the time being, for example, and thus influence one way or another that the race's disposition would swing.
hoverdog
dog that is hovering, Wastelands Interactive
Oh yes, Marvin was such a cool dude.
As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.