Ive been gear grinding for a few days now. What I thought might be fun to mod in later is a Hive faction/race. In line with Tyranids or Zerg. But with a more simple animistic motive.
They would work similar to Pirate bases and Pather bases. Cropping up infesting a system and launching the occasional raid. If the raid is successful (if possible to code) shrink a colony population by 1 and destroying a industry built on colony. As well as the usual unrest for 3 months as the population is in chaos. Damaging the star base and all.
If asking why? Why not. Its fun to fight space bugs.
Speaking of bugs. Hive structure and ship design would follow into a style of worms, insectoids, crustaceans, and the rare COSMIC HORROR! I like the idea of the final "ship" sizes to be like something from H.P. Lovecraft like Azathoth.
Weapon Designs
Spoiler
PD-Needler.- Close range shotgun of small spines for taking out fighters or missiles.
Explosive/Kinetic spine tooth launchers.- Some solid some hollow filled with compounds when mixed go boom.
Plasmid projector.- Using trace amounts of volatiles and warp fuel in a destructive space lugy.
Space Quake projector.- Short range High intensity waves shake ships apart. ("we are experiencing turbulence")
Mind strike Organ.- Used by special Bio forms to stun ships. Using both signals and bio electrical fields. ("I think there for you DIE!")
The voice of Azathoth.- Special upscale version of the Mind Strike. Sending a large bolt of disruptive energy that can jump to near by ships. (found only on cosmic Horror ships)
Unique fleet aspects
Spoiler
To make Bio ships kinda in line with rational thinking.
#1 No shields on anything. Fighting them is made easier as you can load out H.E weapons and be quite effective. As a balance they have hull and armor value set to their bio rolls in the fleet but are higher in general as they need to survive in space.
#2 Low burn speed but faster combat speed and maneuverability. Idea being they just barely can use warp movement. But up close they can be quick and they can bend their bodies to tun faster. The fleet has a low sensor profile. as they don't broadcast electric signals. So you can be wandering around and BAM! you are in a trap! They tend to hide in nebula and asteroids. Even in debris fields. That's where their food goes or gets stuck.
#3 EmP defense and auto repair boost. You can shock them but they tend to shrug it off. The trade off is VERY low CR. The swarms tacit is to attack fast or it gets tired out fast. Tending to prefer travailing in a kind of trance state feeling for living things or the subtle shifts of gravity and solar fields to find planets.
#4 Limited ammo on most weapons. But high damage. If you can take their abuse they can be killed rather easy. Don't let your ships be isolated and be careful of your fleet being broken up. A number of Bio form tactics are to rush you and break up your fleet wile a mass presses into you. Skirmishers will lash out in pairs and try and pick off lone ships.
The general gyst of them are needing to survive in space is taxing. But evolution has made them tough. They need to wake up from their travel trance and attack fast. They can suck nutrition from all kinds of things but they hunt bio mass for more complex needs. You can live without some things for a wile but you get sick they do also.
Ship design outlines (11/7/19)
Spoiler
Frigate size ships.
Harvester-basically a drone ship that closes in to support its scavenger drones. Having a worm larva like appearance with 6 nodes on its body to transport the scavengers.
Minders- Stand in for Omen style of ships. Engaging in ECM and ECCM. Stunning ships to make it easier for bigger stuff to it to it. A Jelly fish like ship delicate and requiring support.
Solders- Tough ships fulfilling a Lasher kind of roll. Having a number of spine launchers and a pod rocket launcher. (Haven't envisioned a basis of appearance)
Ill work on this more later. Dad duty calls. But feel free to toss out thoughts. Id like to hear if people would want to become galactic exterminators.