Design: Aliens

[BTAxis]

Purpose of this thread: brainstorming aliens to create for the main UFO:AI game, deciding on what aliens to include.

Preliminary ideas here.

Some brainstroming from my side... i'm not arguing for anything of that to get included, just listing it.

Alien types that came to my mind:
* Parasites - Small worm-like creatures that infect your soldier and kills/mutate/whatever it. If the target is killed the worms duplicate and spread.
* Cyborg cows - for the ufo-fanboys out there ... just kidding
* Alien plants - Extra terestial plants that are hazardous (pollen/dust) to humans when standing next to them. (in alien bases/ships)
* Small attack critter - basically the 'nicer' (do not mix that up with "non-lethal") and smaller version of the Shevaar (EDIT i don't mean the shape/species here)... that is a pretty fast close combat (and maybe ranged combat) attacker.

Those alien plants sound interesting. They'd give players a gas-based hazard outside multiplayer. They'd have to be in alien botanies, though. No walking plants!
Otherwise, the aliens you propose sound reasonable, though I think we shouldn't create too many of them. However, it did occur to me earlier that I had not catered for a typically psionic alien (I keep wanting to use the term 'psyker', because I like the word, but the Warhammer people would be all over me if I did). I don't really want to create an Ethereal ripoff. It is reasonable to have the Antareans themselves use psi later on in the game, but perhaps we should add a fourth "caste", the Psionics. Workers wouldn't have that kind of delicate equipment or training, Soldiers are too busy pulling triggers and Commanders are too few in number.

[BTAxis]

Those alien plants sound interesting. They'd give players a gas-based hazard outside multiplayer. They'd have to be in alien botanies, though. No walking plants!

Hmm, walking plants, that sounds funny ... but no, you are right. "The thing" has already been made.

Howe aboput we create a similar (genetically engineered) caste of the Antareans, that is e.g shorter/slimmer/whatever and has additional implants to enhance psi-skills? ... i doN#t really like 'natural' psi-abilities (maybe they _enable_ you to use it, but you still need implants)

Good idea.

[Killertomato]

Excerpt from my other post:

The parasites are a good idea.
Psionic aliens should also be in which take control over- or stun team members.

[overridetzx]

Added provisional autopsy descriptions to all the aliens.

Comments? Suggestions?

[XCOMTurcocalypse]

Sweet.But Antareans lack a Bio-Tech class.I mean,an Bio-Chemistry suit clad smaller Grey with poison-acid-green goo attack,healing capability and special stuff like entangling an enemy with slime and stuff.Anything disgusting would pass.

And a pure-psyche alien as a large walking brain with perfect shielding against beam weapons would pass nicely,with a decent vulnerability to fire and piercing rounds.

[BTAxis]

I don't know how the rest of the people who are working on the design feel about it, but I detest bio-tech weaponry and equipment. It's so terribly cliche. Practically ALL alien races since Apocalypse have been bio-tech based. Besides that, I don't like biological weapons. It just doesn't feel right to be walking around with a mobile anus that poops bullets at the enemy. For that reason, I've consciously avoided anything of the sort in my contribution to the design.

[Hoehrer]

I don't know how the rest of the people who are working on the design feel about it, but I detest bio-tech weaponry and equipment. It's so terribly cliche. Practically ALL alien races since Apocalypse have been bio-tech based. Besides that, I don't like biological weapons. It just doesn't feel right to be walking around with a mobile anus that poops bullets at the enemy. For that reason, I've consciously avoided anything of the sort in my contribution to the design.

I mostly argee with that .. the thing that would be nearest to some sort of biological weapon would be gas or bacteria-fog based (which i don't really per se) or some kind of parasite (which we might include ... depends on how it would influence the gameplay and how hard it is to implement).

In alot of SciFi creations the 'bio-tech' has been made into the 'explains it all and can do everything' sort of thing. ... let's not go there. Even the original UFO:EU had this sort of things (remember the alien 'element' for a power source? -> It was partly organic) not that i do not want the feeling of the orininal, but we don't need to reproduce/copy everything.

Werner

[BTAxis]

In alot of SciFi creations the 'bio-tech' has been made into the 'explains it all and can do everything' sort of thing.

Well said. How organic material is always supposed to be invulnerable to bullets, rockets, lasers and acts of god always makes me go "uhhhhhhh". That's when it stops being science-fiction and starts being bollocks.

On the topic of biological weapons, maybe we can incorporate that into stun grenades or something, or an improved version of stun grenades, after you learn more about the aliens' biological makeup.

[XCOMTurcocalypse]

At least a greenish mutation agent could be coded into the game.Like corruption in A.D.O.M,after hitting the Agents,it should harm him,and also change one of his stats with another stat,provided it is a logical change,such as taking Strength,reducing ti by 10,and swapping it with Psionics,which is also reduced by 5.It should happen AFTER the Battle of course,adding an element of surprise.

[BTAxis]

An element of annoyance, more like. Though I wonder if people would even notice - mostly people don't remember the exact stat values for every soldier. Also, though this is a mere idea at this point, there might be implants for soldiers (mechanical ones, of course). A "mutation" would not really apply to them.

[XCOMTurcocalypse]

Maybe there could be a line in Agent's stats:

cyber_consent=false/true(I don't know coding but it may be something like that)

And thus:

With the Agent's consent you may imbue him with cyber implants which cost a bit time and a lot of money,such as STR+10,AGI+7 etc...

Every time you recruit an Agent,there could be a chance that he allows cyber-implanting.Say:

If he is male,chances could be 50-50


If she is female,chances should be in favor of NOT implanting.After all,females are more caring for their body integrity and health in human society ( no misogynism intended,it is a fact)

[BTAxis]

X-COM doesn't employ men and women. It employs soldiers. Soldiers who are willing to put their lives on the line for Earth. They're not asked to do anything, they're ordered. So no, no bothering with a soldier's "consent".

Though, what I had in mind for actually putting an implant into a soldier's body is spending of resources (obviously), and a set time interval in which the soldier is unavailable for missions. That way you have to be careful not to beef all your men at once, or you'll end up having nobody available to fight. In addition, there could be minimum requirements for implants so you can't use them on a newbie recruit right away. Also, there could be a maximum number of implants a soldier is able to take. Two, for example.

[XCOMTurcocalypse]

Proposal Alien type : Thrall

Gray-skinned,short,stubby aliens which construct small,pylon-like structures in remote (mostly mountainous) areas.Hard to discover.However,some governments realize to their horror that the tiny pylons emit high radioactivity,and a deep scan in the area shows that the pylons are draining heavier,radioactive materials at a very fast rate from earth.It is apparent that the Antareans have begun small-scale exploitation zones to fund their war-effort,as materials like Uranium or Thorium are (I don't know if true) rare in oter areas of our solar system.

Even if they are not rare,imagine this as the gold-rush of North America,they the White Men in individual "New World Trading Companies",YOU the Indian.Scary now,right?UGH!

Discovered pylons should make Governments REAL ANGRY unless you demolish it fast.And demolishing it requires an assault,which will be resisted by a large group of Thralls which operate the tachyon mining system(OK its fiction I know),a few Antarean Soldiers,and an Antarean Commander (acting as Governor of exploitation area)

Thralls use basic plasma weaponry,but are resistant to earth based bullets,also especially flamethrowers,since they are indigenous creatures of a Volcanic planet.They don't like meleé,they are not even ferocious warriors.They just do the job for their Whitey...err Antarean bosses.

[XCOMTurcocalypse]

Another Proposal : Termite

Annoying chitinous creatures who wield small laser pistols,run fast,with bad accuracy and can fly to a place for one turn.Encountered in hot areas such as Arabian Desert or outskirts of an Alien base

[BTAxis]

Hmm, outskirts of an alien base? Why would it be hot there? Also, I'm not sure if there are going to be any missions in a setting like that. It's more likely that base missions will start inside the alien base. It's an interesting idea to make it two-stage, though.