UFO:Alien Invasion
Development => Design => Topic started by: BTAxis on April 07, 2006, 11:38:44 pm
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Purpose of this thread: brainstorming aliens to create for the main UFO:AI game, deciding on what aliens to include.
Preliminary ideas here (http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.cgi/ufoai/ufoai/trunk/src/docs/alien_types.txt?view=markup&rev=416).
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.
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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.
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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.
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Added provisional autopsy descriptions (http://svn.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.cgi/ufoai/ufoai/trunk/src/docs/alien_types.txt?view=markup&rev=537) to all the aliens.
Comments? Suggestions?
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Well they might live there because they are low IQ pets.
An entrance stage should be quite easy,maybe to accustom players to first blood and all
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Another Proposal:
Vehicle Riding Antarean.The Vehicle could be a late game add-on,and something like a bike (since the Antarean Campaign is also based on a capitalistic system and Antarean warbands don't want to spend much)
When the Vehicle(rigged with a slightly more powerful Plasma rifle) is destroyed,an Antarean Soldier could pop up with a 40% chance.
How about that?
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a HUGE creature ,like Overspawn,could be included in Terror missions,just to get shot or bust wrecking buildings
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There will be no wrecking buildings. It's been covered extensively before, so please don't argue it.
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And you don't get suddenly pissed off at a suggestion.Just say no.I'm trying to help here.
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I'm not pissed, I was just trying to forestall a post like "well, then please add destructable buildings", which we have had too many of already.
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My apologies.Then I propose yet another Alien species.
Brain-Drone(will write more about it)
I think a flying "Cyber Disc alike" drone with formidable psychic powers,low mobility,high piercing weapon resistance,High Tachyon resistance and low Laser resistance should cover enough space in psi war.
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Are we likely to end up in a situation where, even after researching the Ultimate Weapon Technology (TM), we still have arm people with assault rifles, laser rifles etc. because certain aliens are highly resistant to certain projectiles?
-PsyW
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I don't know, but that would be desirable, don't you think? Equipping everyone with The Best Weapon is kind of bland.
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In a way, yes, everyone having exactly the same weapon is a bit dull...
However, having to mix all weapons is also tedious - you have to make sure every group of people you send out has at least one laser, one tachyon, one bullet-based, explosive, plasma... you can't split your 8-man team into two any more, because there's a good chance one of your teams will run into something it doesn't have the weapons to handle.
The alternative is to send all of your people around in one big group, so that the weapon you need to deal with a specific alien is never far away. Disadvantage: When the aliens land some high explosive in the middle of the group, it's not going to be good...
The game's pretty interesting in the beginning, anyway, even when everyone has basic weapons - you have a couple of assault rifles/pistols/SMGs, sniper, rocket launcher, shotgun and flamethrower - you don't have everyone carrying the assault rifle. Effectively, the troops could be armed with all one 'type' of weapon without everyone carrying around the exact same weapon.
There's also the issue of complexity - there is no chance I'm going to memorise which aliens are resistant to which technologies, and I don't want to be minimising the game and flicking through the manual to work out what to shoot the damned thing with...
I don't know... it seems sad to research a tachyon rifle, and then it's ineffective because the aliens on a certain mission are all resistant to it (but your old assault rifle you started off with would have worked perfectly).
Returning to an earlier point, two stage base assaults is a concept worth exploring - after all, it's likely the aliens wouldn't just allow you to walk into their base, and you'd have to land your Dropship outside and break in...
Maybe the development of stealth craft could skip the first stage...
-PsyW
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It would be good that each alien race or type has a default. For example, Mutated Ortnok could be easier to kill with laser weapons than with plasma. But it would mean that coders input various armor values according to type of weapon (bullets/laser/fire/plasma for example).
Malick
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But as stated above, how do you get over the tactical problems?
How do you explore an area, while always keeping at least one weapon from each type in range the whole time, in case you encounter an enemy? Very, very slowly...
Am I talking gibberish and it might work perfectly? Maybe. But there's also the possibility that I might make sense for once :roll:
Even in an average RTS, it's simple - You shoot flying things with missiles, infantry with machine guns, and tanks with cannons or missiles. If you have well armoured aliens, yes it makes sense that they would be resistant to bullets. But if individual aliens are just randomly vulnerable to only one weapon for no adequately explained reason, it makes no sense and is difficult to remember. Result: A dirt nap for you and your men because you can't remember that this alien is (for some reason) resistant to lasers.
-PsyW
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On the other hand, I don't want to see aliens resist a specific kind of weapon, rather the opposite. All aliens should be "killable" with any kind of weapons, really. Rather, some should have particular deficiencies or weak spot if you prefer. Like I said, you can kill this enemy with your SMG if you like, but it goes real faster with a laser beam...
I agree with you, it's too frustating to land for a mission just to realise that all enemies are imune to your weapons. I think it's better to apply the field manual in every case: "If you can't do it with style, do it with firepower". Go blasters all the way baby, yeah !!! ;)
Malick
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Malick makes the point I was thinking of when I read "tactical problems". It isn't a matter of NEEDING the right weapon for the right alien. Some aliens are just vulnerable to some types while other types are not as effective. So you don't have to take one weapon of each type, you just fight with the weapons that best suit you.
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Hmm, well we always have grenades :roll:
Okay, so I'm reasonably happy with no resistance. Weaknesses I can discover by playing the game and noting 'ooh, that laser blast did a lot of damage', without having my non-laser carrying troops annihilated. In short, I don't have to memorise a load of statistics to be successful, and if I don't happen to have the soldier with the correct weapon... I can just shoot the aliens anyway.
Note: I picked up the wrong end of the stun rod, it seems. Never a good thing...
-PsyW
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Make no mistake, though - aliens are not cannon fodder, at least not all of them. I think having, say, a completely mechanical unit be immune to poinon gas is not unreasonable at all.
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Oh yeah, but that makes sense. Just like 'don't shoot a tank with a machine gun'.
Mechanical units immune to poison / organic units immune to EMP is fine as far as I'm concerned. It's my own fault if I equip my entire squad only with poison grenades anyway... :P
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Also,please don't forget to add some upgrades to anti alien gas/or toxin launcher...Like XCOM 3
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I think guns and rifles are rather a question of providing players with different options regarding fire rate, fire rounds and destructiveness, combined with the level of accuracy of a unit. This will make the basic physical constraints, time and distance, important factors in employing and developing tactics.
A heavy gun which is not highly destructive but has high fire-rates and fire-rounds, is good for close combat, as even with low accuracy, chances are high that you can hit the enemy several times without running out of ammo. But its a waste when a low accuracy unit fires a whole clip on an alien which is on quite a distance. Typical example: Machine Gun.
To the opposite, a heavy gun with low fire-rate and low fire rounds, but high destructiveness, would be a good way to kill enemies before they get too close, especially when your unit is one with high accuracy. Noone wants his ammo to run out when the alien stands in front of us. Typical example: Sniper Gun.
Variations could create interesting combinations of fire-rate, fire rounds, destructivenesz, maybe even featuring special ammo types. Some could use these features in extrelemely polarized ways. Like they could be highly destructive, but fire at very low rates, very often not more than two or three rounds with a single clip. An example for extremely polarized stats is the rocket launcher. Just talking about rocket launchers, you could also have a class of intelligent guns, with guided ammo. These would eliminate the problem of accuracy. But they would be either expensive, rare, low ranged or a burden on the units mobility.
Then there could be a class of special purpose weapons. Purpose is more important than the fire rates etc here, as the name already suggests.
There could be made a distinction between "aggression" weapons and "defense" or "just in case" weapons. I rather would attack an alien with a heavy gun than a light gun. But even with a heavy gun in hands, I would like to have a light gun in my inventory, just in case... you know.
I think there must be a class of general purpose weapons, able to kill all sort of aliens. In the long term, when accuracy has increased amongst all units, the significance of the gun type will parish, since time and distance will not be as important as they were when accuracy rates were low.
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That's kind of stating the obvious, altugi. Also, you're in the wrong thread again. Go read this (http://ufo.myexp.de/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=85) one.
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Yeah, it's often forgotten because it's so obvious :wink:
Wrong thread again? :shock:
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You're talking about weapons. This thread is for aliens. The discussions about weapon effectiveness earlier had more to do with alien resistances than with weapon behavior.
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suggestion for alien terror unit:
They're small (half human size) worm like, can climb but not fly (climb attch to wall and go higer) can jump down from higer on top of your mans or aliens:
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attack one acid - not far attack maybe 5-7 squares hit + after that falls on ground causing a toxic land (if u step on it u lose H points) its attack should be medium to weak
attack two eating: when near live human or alien it will grab it and dissaper (eats himself in human or alien).
1 turn nothing happens you can still controll the man (so do aliens can control aliens).
2 turn infected will run to nearest building if no building near then hides himself behind something)you can't controll it or see the mans wiew. It will be hostile to bolth so aliens and humans and you. it can spit acid and droped all its weapons and armor
3 turn. runs futher hide, can spit acid
4 turn goes as corner as possible (protects its sides) and changes itself to cocon.
5th-7th he can still shoot acid but can't move
8th turn 2 new worms come out from the body and move futher (not counted as hostile units by cocon) and worms can't use acid first turn
9th turn cocon will be broken and a Bugger (cryssalid type unit comes out)
Bugger is a unit that has 2 attacks one is acid (lots of weaker) and other one is sharp fangs(close combat). Buggers can't multyply they are ment to protect the worms.
You can stop cocon from evoluving by using stun rod (anything that can stun or pulse)on it . Infected soldier gets stunned and fill fall on ground enemy worms and/or buggers are destoyed.Recovering Debends how long he was under control if longer than 5 turns man won't wake up turning the battle. and needs time to recover at homebase.
Autopsy should be something like this:
[insert alien name here] is a small worm like a creature. It has total 3 muscels in its body. 1 in its movment organ 1 in hearth-lungs(same thing)and 1 in its mouth. Its body is filled with strong acid. It also has two eggs inside of its head. Acid catches easly fire. It has no eyes it feels air vibrations. It is hostile towards everyone.
[buggers] Is a human sized creature and it is scared by fire (runs like hell futher). Buggers are [insert name here(worm)] next version. They are stronger but theyr acid attack is weak. they can move little less than normal alien. it can't reproduce. and it can't climb
easyer graphic (not so many typos):
Human or alien + worm = infected person=hides= can shoot acid= can't move= evoluve to two worms and 1 bugger
infected + stun or pulse weapon = 0bugger 0worms = infected will save when its wounds are not big= if longer than 5 turns under control can't wake up in battle but will recover at hospital.
worm + pulse= no worm
worm + fire= worm explodes like grenade
worm + any other weapon= worm dies squer where it was will become acid full
SORRY fOR TYPOS
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parasite aliens
For whateven reason I really detest that idea. And most other ideas that are about goo, yuck, intestines, hybrid alien/humans, aliens popping out of your neck, mystic psychic mind-control (but I like the general idea of taking control, e.g. of an alien drone by intercepting its communication, etc.). Where is the technology/chivalry science-fiction gone, where you shed blood and tears and not goo!
Equipping everyone with The Best Weapon is kind of bland.
Sure. But perhaps we can agree that some weapons, e.g. pistol _is_ going to be obsolete at some point. Then we can concentrate on making sure all the reamaining weapons have their advantages to the end of the game. As Altugi points out in his OOT post, this is possible by varrying range/accuracy/damage/firerate and, at least at the beginning, ability to buy ammo for. Moster succeptibilities are a welcome bonus factor, of course.
However, having to mix all weapons is also tedious - you have to make sure every group of people you send out has at least one laser, one tachyon, one bullet-based, explosive, plasma...
You already have to mix your weapons, since you have to have long range ones (for your sniper), explosives (to damage hidden enemies), assault (for the standard sweep over the battlefield), short range ones (for clearing encountered buildings/ufos). Now just make sure that each guy that has a tachyon assault rifle, also has a laser pistol, and vice versa.
you can't split your 8-man team into two any more, because there's a good chance one of your teams will run into something it doesn't have the weapons to handle.
The alternative is to send all of your people around in one big group, so that the weapon you need to deal with a specific alien is never far away. Disadvantage: When the aliens land some high explosive in the middle of the group, it's not going to be good...
This is called trade-offs. And imagine the fun of running away from resistant aliens towards your other team that sets an ambush for them... :D
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How about an alien, that implants a device/cocoon into an agent? Or gets inside the agent? Something very small. Lices or something. Swarm of them?
The alien would sneak on the agent, then implant him, making him unconscious. After a while, he would wake up. Other aliens would avoid him, knowing that the agent is infested.
After the mission is completed and the agents have returned to the base, the new alien would hatch, unless noticed and removed in a hospital or similar?
(Instead of hatching, it could grow and take control of the agent, while spawning another one to roam loose on the base... )
It would be fun to do a bug hunt within the base. It would also give long term effects after the battle, giving them more meaning than just simple shoot-outs.
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<where is the throw-up emoticon, when, once upon your lifetime, you need one?>
:oops: Sorry. :) Apparently your idea was intended to be disgusting. Well, you succeeded...
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Nope, not intended as disgusting, just alien. :D
I mean, what would be most robust, low cost and "subtle" means of conquering/dominating ? :)
I'd guess it hasn't been implemented in any game yet?
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I mean, what would be most robust, low cost and "subtle" means of conquering/dominating ? :)
Aliens spread a few tons of well-engineered bacterias over the world. Game over.
I'd guess it hasn't been implemented in any game yet?
I guess so. Your idea seems more sensible game-play wise that the one above, but still I prefer pure chivalry science-fiction, both for the ability to eat while I play, without a risk of an incident, and for the game-play quality.
Adventure-detective games are nice (tell by the speech patterns of my solderis which one is infected), but still I prefer squad combat with a nontrivial resource-gathering strategy element and a splattering of plot that gives athmosphere. If you kill my best soldier not in a fair combat on the battlefiled, but by popping an alien out of his neck, because he's forgotten to change his panties after coming back from the battle, I'll bite. :x
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If you kill my best soldier not in a fair combat on the battlefiled, but by popping an alien out of his neck, because he's forgotten to change his panties after coming back from the battle, I'll bite. :x
......Your soldiers wear panties?
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......Your soldiers wear panties?
Of course they are high-tech armoured panties, with PSI-screening capabilities, etc. The only problem is that you have to change them after every battle, or alien parasites might infest you (this is the real reason for what media call "hygiene").
BTW, I've forgotten to mention RPG elements of UFO:AI --- this is why loosing my best soldier, with his elaborate battle history, medals, background, skill advancements, etc. is so dramatic, and loosing him to a plot twist is unbearable...
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http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=panties
To be fair, though, some of the soldiers are women. However, it seems likely that the uniforms the soldiers wear are unisex.
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Why, of course my favourite UFO:AI soldier is an akimbo female in shorts (and panties underneath). Didn't I mention that? Are we still on topic, BTW? :D
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Back to topic: My favorite part of Xcom was the PSY.
So before modelling I drew some things during lecture:
Alien Pictures (http://ftp://scriptum:scriptum@192.168.200.1/Aliens/aliens2.jpg)
In order of appearence:
- soldier in psy-amp armor (light, increased psy-activity, while no flying and no good protection)
- psy amplifier. needed for large attacks
- psy sonde needed for small tests
- psy drug of aliens
- antarean psyonic without armor -- uncapable of wearing wapons
- antarean psyonic with armor & psy sonde - capable of flying an hold weapons
Hope you like some of it.
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^^cool that you link your local ip :-D
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I think that each kind of weapon have his use ingame, is a great idea. And I think that making the "Autopsy of the Alien X", should give you information of vulnearabilities of each alien when you have the cursor above that kind of alien.
In that way you dont have to read the manual, or other ways to obtain the information about the vulnearabilities of that alien. :wink:
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I think that each kind of weapon have his use ingame, is a great idea.
You mean each kind as in each damage type and each range/power combination, or just every single weapon in the game? And each weapon in some part of the game, or all even in the late game?
In that way you dont have to read the manual, or other ways to obtain the information about the vulnearabilities of that alien. :wink:
Nice idea. But I hope the vulnearabilities will be easy to remember, that is, simple and rather rare. Just a bit of spice, not mandatory micromanagement.
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I mean each kind as in each damage type and each range/power combination, yes.
And each weapon in some part of the game, i dont see a soldier of the late future wearing a MP5. :D
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I mean each kind as in each damage type and each range/power combination, yes.
I hope it is that way right now. See the wiki and then test ingame if what wiki says is true... :)
And each weapon in some part of the game, i dont see a soldier of the late future wearing a MP5. :D
Yeah, Assault Rifle is obsoleted by several other weapons...
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I don't want to unnecessarily necro a thread, but I'm pretty sure this doesn't warrant a new post.
The most oft repeated Trope of alien lore is the bipedal humanoid, and I think it would be a brilliant thing if there were more games that challenged the status quo on this one. So I guess in this post I'm aiming to think outside the box a little.
Firstly, if there is not a common evolutionary lineage within the past few million years then there is no reason to assume aliens would be bipedal, the vast majority of creatures on earth are not bipedal. The majority are quadrupeds, but even that is likely a shared evolutionary trait inherited from previous successful organisms and requiring a significant beneficial mutation to overcome. In short, bipeds are likely to be rare, some examples of alternate forms on earth might include:
Millipedes
Octopi
Squid
Jellyfish
Snakes
Fungi
Swarm
Fish/Shark/Dolphin
And the more familiar intelligent forms:
Pig/Elephant
Cat/Dog
Bird
Ape
Other forms not found on earth might be:
Cloud
Energy ball
Shape changing
Invisible
Any of these forms could conceivably give rise to intelligence and tool manipulation, and should be considered as likely as a biped.
It is also worth considering that if Alien beings were composed of substances lighter than air then it might be possible for them to float naturally in our atmosphere, or perhaps they have developed some technology to help them move. Following along those lines, realistically if we were to visit another planet we would be unlikely to be in our raw forms even if the atmosphere were breathable. These points would lead us to believe that an alien on earth would most likely be inside some kind of shell, both for protection and for life support. Possible forms might include:
Quadruped
Wheeled
Tracked
Hovering
burrowing
Flying
Teleporting
For these reasons, and others, I would like to submit the following Ideas:
rocket propelled shark (flies, fast, strong against physical bullets, weak against fire, uses melee attack)
Diamond Covered Octopus (slow, heavily armored, uses multiple weapons )
Teleporting Armored Energy Ball (heavily armored, can teleport through walls, weak to energy weapons and explosives).
Shape Changing Cloud (immune to physical weapons, can move through windows, can take on the form of any other creature, weak to fire, explosions and energy weapons)
Burrowing suicide torpedoes (very hard to target, moves under walls, explodes on impact)
Hovering Jellyfish (paralyzing melee attack, can move over debris, weak to physical weapons)
Snake.
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For these reasons, and others, I would like to submit the following Ideas:
rocket propelled shark (flies, fast, strong against physical bullets, weak against fire, uses melee attack)
Diamond Covered Octopus (slow, heavily armored, uses multiple weapons )
Teleporting Armored Energy Ball (heavily armored, can teleport through walls, weak to energy weapons and explosives).
Shape Changing Cloud (immune to physical weapons, can move through windows, can take on the form of any other creature, weak to fire, explosions and energy weapons)
Burrowing suicide torpedoes (very hard to target, moves under walls, explodes on impact)
Hovering Jellyfish (paralyzing melee attack, can move over debris, weak to physical weapons)
Snake.
These are toooo RPGish/futuristic/overcomplicated. I think we need somewhat closer what we have: flesh and bones. it can have more legs than two - more arms can be problematic on inventory though - it should just fit into the boxes (the 1x1 or the 2x2) and have the the animations.
-geever
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So hypothetically speaking, the only thing stopping me from creating a thing that has 8 legs and 2 arms (and lots of stranger stuff) might be size limitations that either force it to be a bit small or large?
Hypothetically, that is. I'm no modeler.
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I am currently working on some retextures of the existing aliens, and I was just wondering if there was any concept art or design directions for how they should look, what their culture is like and anything else that might help. Currently I've made the Ortok more evil, giving them scales and veins, darkening their skin a bit as well as covering some in blood. I've also done some work on the bloodspiders, making them a bit less clean and clinical, making them look more dirty and making some covered in blood, particularly the legs. Are these ideas ok? does anyone have any ideas on how the existing aliens might be spiced up a bit?
I've already done some alternate textures for the alien weapons, just making them different shades of blue and making the kerrblades dirtier and bloodier, here are some of the ones I've done so far:
http://opengameart.org/content/50-modern-weapon-textures-ufoai
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I believe, somewhere, I mentioned introducing the Vipon/Snakeman alien. This guy was always cold-blooded and difficult an aversary. Like to go up against him agian, someday...
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Cloud
might include:
Hovering
Flying
Like a swarm of nanites? or small alien bees?
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This game needs something like Chryssalid.
An alien melee monster with lots of TU's.
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Indeed the Chryssalid (the ******* ******** ) was an iconic enemy in UFO:EU, no mater what, everyone feared coming up against one, especially in the dark and early in the tech tree.
Perhaps change things around a little, for example make it more of a fragile creature and change the effect so that instead of injecting an egg it injects a venom that disorientates the victim for a time causing them to fire on anything that moves, be it alien, goodguy or civi, then after 5 turns the venom kills the soldier or have it cause so much health damage per turn.
It could also open up a research avenue to develop a counter toxin
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Indeed the Chryssalid (the ******* ******** ) was an iconic enemy in UFO:EU, no mater what, everyone feared coming up against one, especially in the dark and early in the tech tree.
Haha yeah, i already mentioned the same in another thread (http://ufoai.org/forum/index.php/topic,6512.msg51154.html#msg51154) - my codename for it was "Eggman" - that damn bastard!
Something like a XVI (Spoiler) (http://ufoai.org/wiki/index.php/Translation:Xvi_census_txt/en)Transformer/Injector makes more sense. Injecting the virus in a high amount directly in to the victim causing him to go bad instantly.
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How about something that shoots XVI darts at range?
Accuracy doesn't matter because no matter how far away you'd be, you'd still be too fucking close.
Cryssalids are scary and stuff but they've been done before.
And if it's a timed effect, there's an extra bonus: Either you take a chance and try to win before the guy/gal loses it, or you just shoot him on the spot.
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I was thinking the time delay was before the poison/toxin killed the affected soldier (on top of them going nuts) but a couple of turns time delay before starts to kick in might be more realistic.
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This thread is outdated. Check out the alien bestiary (http://ufoai.org/forum/index.php/topic,5828.0.html) for existing alien ideas and new alien ideas. The chrysalid-like alien we have planned is the breeder in that thread.
I'll close this thread just to keep discussion in one place.