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[Starmantis]

I was wondering how I might possibly be able to do this, generally it would create interesting alien species (mostly made for sentient ones with civilizations and such). right now Im just rolling dice to create them, but I wanted to have something more like http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=alienrace this, I was going for a more nonhumanoid hard-sci fi feel to this.
Idealy the generator would give
-a basic description of the aliens appearance
- a few modifiers to the aliens appearance, such as, "Has an exoskeleton" "Has tentacles" "Has a lovecraftian feel" and stuff like that
-a general overview of the aliens psychology, do they have a hivelike structure? do they not understand humor?
-based on their psychology, what is their society like and what technological level have they reached.


Anyone have any suggestions for how I should proceed.

[sjm9876]

Well here's a python script to give keywords for a civilization (see the improved version). with modification (mostly additional detail) it could probably do what you specified.

edit: Added link. *facepalm'd*

[Randos]

This is a cool idea.  I've done something like this for a game I am working on before that was also particular for aliens.  But you can even branch it out to be for sci-fi/fantasy creatures in general.

Some trait arrays that might be cool to get started:

terrain type = land, air, water,
body type = 4 legged, 2 legged and 2 armed, snake like
can fly = true/false
main sense = sight, smell, hearing, feeling
intelligence = number from 1 to 10
domination = friendly, chaotic, neutral
dexterity = can hold items, can manipulate items, can build structures, etc.
food source = aquatic, herbivorous, carnivorous, omnivorous

What type of traits are you using for your dice rolls?

[professorlamp]

I've just done a very rough one for you (and my own amusement). It takes into account intelligence, where they live and more...
I would have added the other attributes that you requested but it takes time

Here's the code

Code: [Select]

import random
#randoms
 
frst = ("Ergok","Blerg","Schmlor","Geelob","Rabola","0010010")
last = ("Schilf","110010","Corb","Dorb","Lerob","Korol")
kill = ("Ox","humans","dog","rotten flesh","scrap metal")
adj  =["stiff","hairy","enormous","titanic","miniscule","scaled","scarred",]
terrain = ["woodland","swamps","desert","arctic","mountains"]
flies = ("cannot fly", "can fly")
trait = ("no bones","no teeth","an exoskeleton","collected a large palette of stamps")
fname = random.choice(frst) +" " + random.choice(last)
terra = random.choice(terrain)
kills = random.choice(kill)
legs = random.randint(0,8)
arms = random.randint(0,6)
fly = random.choice(flies)
tra = random.choice(trait)
 
intelligence  = random.randint(0,5)
 
def main():
    print ("Your aliens name is",fname,".")
    print (fname, "lives in the",terra,"and has a hunger for",kills,".")
    print ("He has a few strange characteristics. He has",legs,"legs",arms,"arms and",fly,".")
    print ("The most unusual trait is that he has",tra,"and is",end=" ",)
    if intelligence == 0:
        print ("retarded")
    if intelligence == 1:
        print ("of average intelligence")
    if intelligence == 2:
        print ("intelligent")
    if intelligence == 3:
        print ("well on his way to med school")
    if intelligence  >= 4:
        print ("A FREAKIN GENIUS!")

main()
and a few samples of what it outputs

Your aliens name is Ergok Dorb .
Ergok Dorb lives in the desert and has a hunger for scrap metal .
He has a few strange characteristics. He has 2 legs 2 arms and can fly .
The most unusual trait is that he has no bones and is A FREAKIN GENIUS!

Your aliens name is Rabola Schilf .
Rabola Schilf lives in the mountains and has a hunger for Ox .
He has a few strange characteristics. He has 8 legs 0 arms and can fly .
The most unusual trait is that he has an exoskeleton and is retarded

[Starmantis]

This is a cool idea.  I've done something like this for a game I am working on before that was also particular for aliens.  But you can even branch it out to be for sci-fi/fantasy creatures in general.

Some trait arrays that might be cool to get started:

terrain type = land, air, water,
body type = 4 legged, 2 legged and 2 armed, snake like
can fly = true/false
main sense = sight, smell, hearing, feeling
intelligence = number from 1 to 10
domination = friendly, chaotic, neutral
dexterity = can hold items, can manipulate items, can build structures, etc.
food source = aquatic, herbivorous, carnivorous, omnivorous

What type of traits are you using for your dice rolls?

Well, Its just a rough version right now, but what I have so far is more made for me to get a general idea and so some of the things may be horribly misspelled or misapplied or completely nonsensicle but....

Code: [Select]

1: cephalopod
2. humanoid
3. fishlike
4. amoeboid
5. crablike
6. centipede like
7. insectoid
8. cthulhoid
9. plantshaped
10. crystal shaped
11. centauroid
12. birdlike
13. rodentlike
14.tripods
15. pentapods
16. mollusks
17. arachnids
18. beatles
19. draconic
20. mermaid like
22. elephant like
23. turtle like
24. crustacean
25. crustacean cephalopod
26. insect cephalopod
27. cephalopod-roll again
28. fungoid
29. delphine
30. rolly polly like
31. whale like
32. elder thing like
33. jellyfish like
34. mollusk like
35. humanoid roll again
36. wormlike
37. tumor-like
38. humanoid with more limbs
39. winged humanoid
40. manta like
41. beatle like
42. insectoid roll again
43. mantis like
44. leech like
45. toad like
46. aquatic-roll again
47. batlike
48. starfish
49. starfish roll again
50. lovecraftian roll again
51. mobile plants
52. sacks
53. snake like beings
54. shapeshifters
55. octopus
56. sea-slug
57. octopus
58. network of roots
59. bacteria network
60. semi-humanoid
61. flower
62. serpent
63. deep sea fish
64. semi-humanoid x
65. radial x
66. very bizarre
67. reptillians
68. many limbed beast
69. maggot
70. phallic
71. mole like
72. like race 194
73. shrimp like
74. plantlike growth
75. giegeresque
76. brutish humanoid
77. tentaclebug
78. alien x
79. mushroom
80. hybrid of plant and animal traits
81. walrus like
82. kangaroo like
83. tube-like
84. conical
85. neo-squidlike
86. scorpionlike
87. spiderlike'
88. shapeless
89. mold
90. Tyrannid like
91. unearthly roll again
92. earwig like?
93. hiver like
94. hydra
95. pupeteer like
96. mi-go like
97. elder thing like
98. crystaline
99. bizarre
100. roll three times

Noteable traits

Code: [Select]

1. tentacled
2. ropy tendrils
3. assymetric limbs
4. necrotic appearance
5. sinowwy
6. centauroid posture
7. glowing
8. symbiotic lifeform
9. armored plating
10. many eyes
11. magnetic manipulation
12. fluid body
13. sessile
14. pseudopods
15. harmony with environment
16. leechlike mouth
17. aged appearance
18. redundant parts
19. complicated looking
20. clearly artificial
21. fleshy
22. mounted on another creature
23. large headed
24. strangely human looking
25. large
26. aquatic
27. very slow
28. branchlike limbs
29. most of its body is a sense organ
30. three primary limbs
31. vacuumorph
32. many jointed limbs
33. crest
34. saclike organ for croaking
35. deformed looking
36. three eyes
37. two mouths
38. predatory
39. webbed hands and feet
40. frail
41. squid like head
42. floral
43. antenna
44. frills like lizard
45. branch like fingers
46. thin body
47. long hair
48. embryonic appearance
49. claylike appearance
50. many limbed
51. hammerhead
52. grazer
53. herbivore
54. alien
55. stone-like
56. spikey
57. cthulhoid mouth
58. venomous
59. web spinner
60. large mouth
61. featureles
62. probuskus
63. flying
64. tusked
65 geometric
66. exoskeleton
67. scaled
68. feathered
69. brutish
70. plantlike
71. acidic
72. burrowing
73. clawed
74. long tongue
75. mammaries
76. warped appearance (think the daemons of 40,000)
77. beak
78. horns
79. growth with age (they dont stop growing, so elder ones will be gigantic)
80. mouths in bizarre places
81. eyes in bizarre places
82. lack of eyes
83. bioluminescence
84. color shifting
85. dimorphism
86. gigeresque
87. monstrous
88. small
89. odd number of limbs
90. large sacs
91. bizarre sex organs
92. microorganism infestation
93. tails
94. fractal limbs
95. prehensile trunk
96. multiple heads
97. odd mouth part
98. large eyes
99. humanoid appearance
100. grossness

brain type

Code: [Select]

1. single brain like humans, has near direct control of the body, some things are still subconcious though.
2. distributed brain like an insect, different parts of the bopy control specific functions, however, they all work together to form a whole. the concept of a hivemind is not
frightening to a being with a distributed brain, as they are already networked together within one body
3. hybrid centralized distributed: there is a centrilized brain and various sub-brains throughout the body, the centrilized brain is usually sentient while the subbrains are not
the main brain controls the functions of the lesser ones, but unlike the single brain, has to "train" them and does not have direct control. generally these beings tend to be
psychologically more detached from their bodies, and getting prosthetic limbs is probably considered quite normal or even encouraged.
4. Network: although the individuals brains might be small, these creatures can connect directly to one-another through a system of roots or possibly mating with one another, when connected
in this way they gain higher intelligence, generally networks try to grow as large as possible.
5. Social: the individual creatures are little more than animals but they have advanced communication and have formed a collective conciousness, none of the individuals can quite understand whats going on
but some "unseen force" seems to drive their every action, they may behave somewhat like ants.
6. roll twice and combine the results
I still need to do alot of work on culture and psychological traits

[RedWick]

I recently made a couple of VB programs that would randomly generate a world history and a pantheon.  I cribbed a couple of pages from the 2E D&D World Builder's Guidebook for the tables.  In essence, after I found a decent random number generator, I just made a handful of Select Case look-up lists, generated the number of traits I wanted and ran a number of loops to generate the details.  it's more or less what you're doing here.  I can put up the code when I'm back at my computer, if you'd like, though it is in VB and not Python...

[RedKing]

I had something like this that I downloaded years ago, quick and dirty VB prog to generate aliens.