Development > Artwork
Alien bestiary
BTAxis:
I'm making this thread because I think it's time we made a clear list of aliens we ultimately want to have in the game, which would be helpful for graphics contributors. I think the discussion about this should be done in two steps:
* First we need to determine what kind of enemies we want to have in the game, in terms of what the role of the enemies is in tactical engagements, what sort of hazard they represent to the player (and by extension, what sort of tactics they entice from the player), how they behave and how they complement the other enemy types.
* Second, we have to fill in the details for the enemies. Once we know what an enemy is supposed to do in the game, we can talk about what it should look like, what sort of innate abilities it should have, etc.
I'm starting off the discussion by first listing what we have, and then by making suggestions for how I think what we have can be extended.
What we have
This section lists the aliens that are either already ingame or are in an advanced stage of planning. What you read here should be considered set in stone.
Taman
* Role: Physically weak enemy with somewhat sub-average combat abilities, but with lots of mental capacity. Serves as a weak enemy for the early game, and a dangerous psionic foe for the later game.
* Implementation: Done.
Ortnok
* Role: Tough and strong, this enemy is a foot soldier fighting at the front. It should be used by the AI as a shock troop, preferring a direct assault over careful tactics.
* Implementation: Done.
Shevaar
* Role: The Shevaar is the aliens' secondary infantry combatant. It is meant to be fast, with a lot of TUs available for moving and firing. It should also have different inherent armour than the Ortnok, so different weaponry works well on it.
* Implementation: Done.
Bloodspider
* Role: The Bloodspider is more or less to UFO:AI what brainsuckers were to X-COM Apocalypse: small, fast and highly dangerous if you let them get too close. They don't have ranged weaponry, but are dangerous in melee. Their primary role is to harvest organic material though, so they aren't meant for combat.
* Implementation: Done.
Hoverbot
* Role: Hoverbots are flying, mechanical units. They have limited firepower compared to ground based units, and they serve mainly as scouts and air support for other aliens.
* Implementation: Done.
Breeder
* Role: Breeders are half-organic, half-mechanical vehicles meant to infuse victims with XVI. In battle their primary role is to find civilians and turn them into alien drones, but when attacked they can retaliate with strong psionic attacks as well.
* Implementation: Rough sketch. Open to improvement or complete redesign. Note: 2x2 unit!
Alien wormhole device
* Role: It's not an alien as such, but it behaves like one in base missions. The wormhole device channels the psionic abilities of the hive mind on the other side of the wormhole, so while it can't move or attack normally, it can use psionic attacks in tactical combat.
* Implementation: Done, I think? Again my knowledge of our artwork fails me. Tell me if you know.
What could come next
This is my personal idea of how the bestiary could be extended. The goal is to provide a number of enemies that require different approaches to beat, without going overboard and making too many similar types.
Alien tank
* Role: The purpose of this unit would be to be very tough and heavily armed. It's an enemy to attack from cover, because a direct engagement would result in almost certain death. It should be a 2x2 unit, so it can't enter confined spaces. It should also be mechanical. Mode of movement could be tracked, wheeled or legged, whatever works. Think ground-based, alien UGV.
Alien flier
* Role: Another aerial unit for the aliens, this time something more combat-oriented. Since the other flier is mechanical, this one should probably be organic.
Combat Bloodspider
* Role: An upgrade of sorts for the Bloodspider. The Bloodspider is a harvesting tool with offensive abilities, but this version is a straight up combat droid. It should be faster, tougher and deadlier than the regular bloodspider, and it should appear somewhere in the mid game.
H-Hour:
Good idea.
--- Quote from: BTAxis on March 02, 2011, 11:14:25 pm ---Hoverbot
* Role: Hoverbots are flying, mechanical units. They have limited firepower compared to ground based units, and they serve mainly as scouts and air support for other aliens.
* Implementation: Done, though I don't know of a picture. Help appreciated here.
--- End quote ---
I am not aware of any artwork done for this. Anyone else?
--- Quote from: BTAxis on March 02, 2011, 11:14:25 pm ---Breeder
* Role: Breeders are half-organic, half-mechanical vehicles meant to infuse victims with XVI. In battle their primary role is to find civilians and turn them into alien drones, but when attacked they can retaliate with strong psionic attacks as well.
* Implementation: Rough sketch. Open to improvement or complete redesign. Note: 2x2 unit!
--- End quote ---
I think this could be a good candidate if we changed its description to be predominantly or fully organic. If you agree, the first step is tracking skorpio down and getting the files. I don't think he ever shared them.
--- Quote from: BTAxis on March 02, 2011, 11:14:25 pm ---Alien wormhole device
* Role: It's not an alien as such, but it behaves like one in base missions. The wormhole device channels the psionic abilities of the hive mind on the other side of the wormhole, so while it can't move or attack normally, it can use psionic attacks in tactical combat.
* Implementation: Done, I think? Again my knowledge of our artwork fails me. Tell me if you know.
--- End quote ---
We have a model. It's from Vedrit I think? It raises another issue, though, which is how to integrate it into the alien base style I am working on. But that can be dealt with later or separately from this thread.
--- Quote from: BTAxis on March 02, 2011, 11:14:25 pm ---What could come next
This is my personal idea of how the bestiary could be extended. The goal is to provide a number of enemies that require different approaches to beat, without going overboard and making too many similar types.
--- End quote ---
Each of those ideas seem reasonable to me. The flier and the combat bloodspider are just upgrades from a tactical point of view, but that's not a bad thing. We will want upgrades for mid- to late-campaign.
Now a couple other questions/thoughts to guide the process:
1. Do we want to plan aliens to have different AIs, or should we focus on diversifying them by the existing stats/damage types? At this point we barely have a single AI.
2. Rather than ranking their defensive capabilities just in terms of strong/weak, it would be good to set out particular strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps ortnoks are more vulnerable to penetrating weaponry while the tank is more vulnerable to explosive weaponry? Which aliens are weak against laser attacks, which are weak against kinetic attacks? Setting out a diverse set of enemy weaknesses will also encourage the player to carry a more diverse package of weaponry. In an ideal world, it would be nice if research expanded options rather than just moved the player from one tech level onto the next, but of course some techs are going to become obsolete. You've probably got better ideas on this than me, but it would be nice to set those down in your list above so we can see how they all stack up.
A couple of ideas to throw into the mix:
Alien tank
Perhaps this could be given a weapon that was powerful and deadly but slow to deploy and maneuver. The idea would be that you must try to catch it on its flanks or rear. It could even be a kind of tracked vehicle that had legs to mount a secure firing platform. This is excessive in scale and deployment time, but it shows what I mean about being mobile but deploying legs to brace itself.
Alien flier
Since it is organic, perhaps it could also play a role late-game as a psi-amplifier (a kind of battlefield comms unit). Destroying this unit could reduce the cumulative effect of any other psi units.
Destructavator:
I only have a minute or two right now, so I can't type out a full post on this right this second, but I had a discussion about details for ideas for a hovering, organic alien that would "float" and behave much like soldiers with the jetpacks/jumpsuits (and therefore not require too much additional coding to implement). The discussion was on IRC earlier today, and it starts around this point in the logs:
http://colabti.org/irclogger/irclogger_log/ufoai?date=2011-03-02#l101
I think this would fill nicely for the "alien flier" slot.
I hadn't thought about it having psi powers or not, but now that H-Hour mentioned it in his post it might be a nice addition to the idea I've come up with. My idea already involves a fragile floating alien that can't even use large and heavy weapons anyways (as mentioned in the discussion in the link), and could be shot (and made to explode) rather easily, so adding psi abilities might make it more challenging, in addition to the issue of being too close to it if it ruptures and sprays acidic gas.
Again, as I said in the IRC I'm open to changes and back-and-forth discussion on my idea that I talked about there, potential changes all across the board, and I also have additional ideas to add to what I talked about there, although I really have to go again now, so I'll have to get back to this forum thread a bit later. Until then, I'd encourage reading what was discussed in IRC, the the log I gave a link to.
I also want to comment on the other stuff as well, but I don't have time for it right this moment, I'll have to get back to this.
DarkRain:
--- Quote from: H-Hour on March 02, 2011, 11:56:02 pm ---I am not aware of any artwork done for this. Anyone else?
--- End quote ---
I see some models that might be intended for this use in data_source:
see the hovernet here, and a hoverbot
--- Quote ---I think this could be a good candidate if we changed its description to be predominantly or fully organic. If you agree, the first step is tracking skorpio down and getting the files. I don't think he ever shared them.
--- End quote ---
In data_source:
monster
BTAxis:
--- Quote from: H-Hour on March 02, 2011, 11:56:02 pm ---I think this could be a good candidate if we changed its description to be predominantly or fully organic. If you agree, the first step is tracking skorpio down and getting the files. I don't think he ever shared them.
--- End quote ---
Only if we absolutely have to, I'd say. The philosophy behind the Breeder is that it's an abomination of flesh and machine, an engineered, living sack of XVI that enslaves humans to the alien hive mind. That's the horror element we were looking for. That said, I think this is an option we should keep in mind.
--- Quote ---1. Do we want to plan aliens to have different AIs, or should we focus on diversifying them by the existing stats/damage types? At this point we barely have a single AI.
--- End quote ---
Both, ideally. What we'll end up with depends entirely on what we can achieve, but the objective is to diversify the aliens in both behavior and parameters. Going only with the latter is second best.
--- Quote ---2. Rather than ranking their defensive capabilities just in terms of strong/weak, it would be good to set out particular strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps ortnoks are more vulnerable to penetrating weaponry while the tank is more vulnerable to explosive weaponry? Which aliens are weak against laser attacks, which are weak against kinetic attacks? Setting out a diverse set of enemy weaknesses will also encourage the player to carry a more diverse package of weaponry. In an ideal world, it would be nice if research expanded options rather than just moved the player from one tech level onto the next, but of course some techs are going to become obsolete. You've probably got better ideas on this than me, but it would be nice to set those down in your list above so we can see how they all stack up.
--- End quote ---
Absolutely. I didn't mention any of this in the OP because I don't have a clear idea on how each alien should be configured, but for some time now I've been meaning to make each alien vulnerable/resistant to particular types of attack. I want to achieve this through "inherent armour", which is a set of armour values intrinsic to the alien species. Each member of the species would get those armour bonuses whether they were wearing any armour or not (wearing armour would stack with this). This seems the most elegant way of dealing with aliens that don't wear any armour at all, too.
Like I said, exact configuration to be determined, so do feel free to discuss this as well.
--- Quote ---Alien tank
snip
--- End quote ---
Would be very cool if we could pull it off.
--- Quote ---Alien flier
Since it is organic, perhaps it could also play a role late-game as a psi-amplifier (a kind of battlefield comms unit). Destroying this unit could reduce the cumulative effect of any other psi units.
--- End quote ---
Possibly. I like how that would make it a priority target.
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