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Author Topic: Hostile Hive race faction mod Brainstorm.  (Read 1691 times)

Noviastar

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Hostile Hive race faction mod Brainstorm.
« on: November 07, 2019, 08:12:49 AM »

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)
[close]


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.     

[close]

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)   
[close]
   

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. 
« Last Edit: November 09, 2019, 07:14:47 AM by Noviastar »
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Scorpixel

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Re: Hostile Hive race faction mod Brainstorm.
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2019, 12:17:50 PM »

Sounds really interesting! Just case a bit of other factions you probably already know about:

-The Prethoryn Scourge from Stellaris, shieldless bioships with a focus on missile/fighters (they are however the weakest crisis).
-The bugs from Starship troopers, no actual spaceships but are a pain to exterminate, can send invasion forces by slingshot, they don't really change between the movies and books.
-The Cravers from the Endless franchise, bio-mechanical insectoïd soldiers driven by "hunger", the most aggressive faction in the games.

The problem with many biospecies is that they tend to simply invade worlds so a raid may feel a bit out of place, or are you perhaps viewing this new "faction" as raiding for food? Like a wandering swarm of locusts/army ants?
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Noviastar

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Re: Hostile Hive race faction mod Brainstorm.
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2019, 07:13:06 PM »

The problem with many biospecies is that they tend to simply invade worlds so a raid may feel a bit out of place, or are you perhaps viewing this new "faction" as raiding for food? Like a wandering swarm of locusts/army ants?

The other 3 main hostile factions have rather understandable motivations.  Pirates=money+chaos.  Pathers=Holy mission+Destruction.  And with the Remnants they just have their old orders they attack ya more because you are not IFF coded.  The practical effects of the first two are rather disruptive and require you to deal with them eventually or you have problems.  The other one is just a static obstacle to be overcome.   

Now with a bio fleet.  Its motivation is just simple survival.  Its not exactly evil or good.  But if you don't deal with it you are in trouble.  Its either you live or they eat you. 

Some games like to show Bio forms with a take over the galaxy or malevolent desire.  Like the Flood, Zerg, or the Beast from Homeworld. Even the bugs from Star ship Troopers have some more human like hostility.

These simply want to eat and breed and humans just happen to be tasty.   
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Morbo513

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Re: Hostile Hive race faction mod Brainstorm.
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2019, 09:07:32 PM »

I'm from Jangala and I say KILL EM ALL!
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Noviastar

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Re: Hostile Hive race faction mod Brainstorm.
« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2019, 03:18:24 AM »

I'm from Jangala and I say KILL EM ALL!

Well easier said then done.  In a dedicated migration you may encounter numbers that would black out the sun.  Ever seen footage of biblical locust swarms.  When they descend to feed will their be anyone left?  A tree. 
Spoiler
[close]


And to think you are just food and they are just hungry.  Their babies are !SUPER KAWAII!

Spoiler
[close]
« Last Edit: November 08, 2019, 03:23:29 AM by Noviastar »
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Igncom1

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Re: Hostile Hive race faction mod Brainstorm.
« Reply #5 on: November 08, 2019, 09:49:48 AM »

I think it's a bit unfortunate that hive species are always paired with bio-technology and bug like architecture.
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Noviastar

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Re: Hostile Hive race faction mod Brainstorm.
« Reply #6 on: November 09, 2019, 06:38:45 AM »

I think it's a bit unfortunate that hive species are always paired with bio-technology and bug like architecture.

Well you could go with a AI biased machine "hive"  But we kinda have one. 
Something similar is a psychic collective.  They can be anything but are all of sorta 1 mind. 

I think we tend to default to Bees or ants as they are major examples of a monarchical like group collective. 
When Humanity goes into the stars (Thanks Musk) we may encounter other life that forms similar social structures. 
Humans can be hive like in nature we just need to toss out this silly notion of self determinism.

In this concept I imagine a evolving planet of life forms that from a supportive ecosystem.  The fleet is not just bugs.  Its psudo jelly fish, Space lobsters, or space snails, possibly fish.  Think if evolution didn't go the land route.  Ocean world animals evolving together and attaining a collective mind. 

Schools of space ship eating Angler fish.
« Last Edit: November 09, 2019, 06:48:07 AM by Noviastar »
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Harmful Mechanic

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Re: Hostile Hive race faction mod Brainstorm.
« Reply #7 on: November 09, 2019, 06:46:56 AM »

I think it's a bit unfortunate that hive species are always paired with bio-technology and bug like architecture.

I think it's a bit unfortunate how often this stuff degenerates into unironic genocide fantasies.

Making a eusocial hive race based on naked mole rats would be cool. I personally love the space-buggoid aesthetic and I wrote up a design doc for one back in the mists of time that I'd like to get around to eventually. So I'd be open to doing some art or brainstorming and contributing to a mod like this, provided it didn't become a stalking horse for people who get off on mass murder.
« Last Edit: November 09, 2019, 06:51:12 AM by Soren »
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Plantissue

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Re: Hostile Hive race faction mod Brainstorm.
« Reply #8 on: November 09, 2019, 09:29:37 AM »

One of the things I liked from Stellaris was that "hive mind" races could come in any form, including robotic and they can mostly operate diplomatically similar to other races. Shame about the rest of the game.
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Igncom1

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Re: Hostile Hive race faction mod Brainstorm.
« Reply #9 on: November 09, 2019, 11:38:37 AM »

I think it's a bit unfortunate that hive species are always paired with bio-technology and bug like architecture.

I think it's a bit unfortunate how often this stuff degenerates into unironic genocide fantasies.

Making a eusocial hive race based on naked mole rats would be cool. I personally love the space-buggoid aesthetic and I wrote up a design doc for one back in the mists of time that I'd like to get around to eventually. So I'd be open to doing some art or brainstorming and contributing to a mod like this, provided it didn't become a stalking horse for people who get off on mass murder.

Now that you mention it, yeah that's fair. Most hivemind or social species like this tend to be examples of highly extreme xenophobia on our part that needs to be exterminated. Not they are much better in those settings but there is rarely ever a chance for peace or reconciliation that isn't just a lull in the fighting or the total annihilation of one side or another.
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Harmful Mechanic

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Re: Hostile Hive race faction mod Brainstorm.
« Reply #10 on: November 09, 2019, 01:10:45 PM »

What would be cool is a eusocial species that has radically different diplomacy; either through Nex or through custom scripted events. So the player would have the ability to start incidents and problems by accident, and then force the player to discover ways to placate them through repeating partially-randomized story missions. That gets you a 'hostile' faction that provides plenty of shoot-em-up, but also stuff to do besides mow down wave after wave of disposable drones until there aren't any left, which can get old.
« Last Edit: November 09, 2019, 01:19:05 PM by Soren »
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