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[TempAcc]

I like settings in which the usual alien and human positions are inverted and humans are basically cthulhu to the alien species. I remember hearing of a certain book in which humans are basically legendary space beings considered to be nothing more then a lost civilization due to leaving ruins in tons of planets that were later found by recently spacefaring alien species... Then those alien species find out that humans actualy exist but evolved to a point in which they decided they didn't want to expand anymore and now earth is a tech-organic paradise that can move around like a spaceship and humans are psychic demigod things that uplifted other earth species like dogs and cats who basically worship them.

[forsaken1111]

I like settings in which the usual alien and human positions are inverted and humans are basically cthulhu to the alien species. I remember hearing of a certain book in which humans are basically legendary space beings considered to be nothing more then a lost civilization due to leaving ruins in tons of planets that were later found by recently spacefaring alien species... Then those alien species find out that humans actualy exist but evolved to a point in which they decided they didn't want to expand anymore and now earth is a tech-organic paradise that can move around like a spaceship and humans are psychic demigod things that uplifted other earth species like dogs and cats who basically worship them.

Source?

[TempAcc]

Look for the following entry under literature

His short story With Friends Like These... takes a look at the theme from another angle. Ages ago, the old galactic civilization deemed humanity too dangerous and sealed off Earth until it became a myth, but now aliens needs Mankind's skill at battle against another alien race. So a few representatives go to Earth, see a quiet pastoral culture relaxing in a hammock, and ask the "mythical creatures" to help. Cue the little shock when aliens see that humans are so calm because their hammock is too high on The Kardashev Scale to worry. Not only have humans evolved psionic powers and are in telepathic contact with various other mammalian species (which presumably they Uplifted), not only is the whole planet filled with machinery and computers for miles below the surface, but the entire freaking planet Earth (with moon) breaks orbit to follow the aliens' starship!.

[Puzzlemaker]

I mean, in the animal kingdom, humans as a species have the following pros/cons (At least in my opinion):

-Slower Max Speed
-Less Max Strength
+Huge amount of endurance
+Capable of moving over any terrain (Including the ability to climb and swim)
+Good vision (Color and depth perception!)
+Instinctive spacial awareness (We can throw stones and hit targets at a very young age)
+Naturally social animals (Good at group work)
+Omnivorous (Compared to most animals, we can eat ANYTHING.)

So if humanity was a group in some sort of turn based strategy game, I would give them

+Huge stamina bonus
+Much easier supply lines
+Large bonus to ranged combat
+Leaders give extra bonuses
+Capable of climbing over any terrain
=Normal Health
-Lower Speed
-Not as good at hand to hand combat

Which would make us great scout/snipers/infiltrators.

Just my opinion, hehe.  We are pretty fucking awesome at getting into places.  I mean, we spread across the entire globe even before civilization arose.  We can literally chase down gazelle given enough time.

[sebcool]

Don't forget that we have, most of the time, a very good ability to cooperate with each other. Especially when faced with an external threat. We can also get really nasty against anything threatening our homes, etc. We are also very good at adapting our tactics and technology when facing a new threat, not to mention we can get pretty crafty at times.

That could probably translate into a big research boost and a combat bonus when defending. So humans are a turtling research-focused civ.

[Shadowlord]

So humans are a turtling research-focused civ.

I'm skeptical. You can look throughout history and see examples of nations and leaders which expanded across continents or even the world; Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, the British Empire and all the colonial European powers during the 18th-20th centuries, Germany and Japan in WWII, and the USSR under Stalin, and so on...

[forsaken1111]

How about a human race with stats which change randomly (within certain bounds) each generation? You never know how a generation is going to grow up.

[sebcool]

So humans are a turtling research-focused civ.

I'm skeptical. You can look throughout history and see examples of nations and leaders which expanded across continents or even the world; Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, the British Empire and all the colonial European powers during the 18th-20th centuries, Germany and Japan in WWII, and the USSR under Stalin, and so on...

Hmm, maybe have them be a military/science focused race, with poor diplomacy. We are pretty xenophobic towards our own species already, it would be even worse with other species.

[BFEL]

How about a human race with stats which change randomly (within certain bounds) each generation? You never know how a generation is going to grow up.

You do if you genics.

[Sonlirain]

How about a human race with stats which change randomly (within certain bounds) each generation? You never know how a generation is going to grow up.

Your Human Space republic is evolving!
*din din din din din din*
Congratulations your Human Space Republic evolved into Space Reich.
Space Reich wants to learn mass militarization but Space Reich already knows 4 moves.
Forget democracy?
Democracy forgotten.
Space Reich now knows mass militarization!

This would actually be cool if human civs could get massive regime changes in games like Master of Orion.
MoO has somethingl like that in form of rebelions sometimes happening to enemy Civs when a race fares badly and the new goverment replacing the old one usually had an different (with a larger change to be totaly opposite) personality so if the old psilon goverment was defensive and peaceful the new will likely by agressive and warmongering.

[alexandertnt]

I mean, in the animal kingdom, humans as a species have the following pros/cons (At least in my opinion):

-Slower Max Speed
-Less Max Strength
+Huge amount of endurance
+Capable of moving over any terrain (Including the ability to climb and swim)
+Good vision (Color and depth perception!)
+Instinctive spacial awareness (We can throw stones and hit targets at a very young age)
+Naturally social animals (Good at group work)
+Omnivorous (Compared to most animals, we can eat ANYTHING.)

So if humanity was a group in some sort of turn based strategy game, I would give them

+Huge stamina bonus
+Much easier supply lines
+Large bonus to ranged combat
+Leaders give extra bonuses
+Capable of climbing over any terrain
=Normal Health
-Lower Speed
-Not as good at hand to hand combat

Which would make us great scout/snipers/infiltrators.

Just my opinion, hehe.  We are pretty fucking awesome at getting into places. I mean, we spread across the entire globe even before civilization arose.  We can literally chase down gazelle given enough time.

This would probably work if the other spacefaring species were literal lions, gorillas etc.

But given they can build spaceships they are probably are not.

Its likely any species that has advanced that far would have to have most of those traits too. They would have to spread across their world to harvest resources, they would have to have good eyesight (or similar sensor), they would need good spacial awarenes to construct all those machines, and they would most certainly need to co-operate with one another in order to build them too.

[Sonlirain]

I mean, in the animal kingdom, humans as a species have the following pros/cons (At least in my opinion):

-Slower Max Speed
-Less Max Strength
+Huge amount of endurance
+Capable of moving over any terrain (Including the ability to climb and swim)
+Good vision (Color and depth perception!)
+Instinctive spacial awareness (We can throw stones and hit targets at a very young age)
+Naturally social animals (Good at group work)
+Omnivorous (Compared to most animals, we can eat ANYTHING.)

So if humanity was a group in some sort of turn based strategy game, I would give them

+Huge stamina bonus
+Much easier supply lines
+Large bonus to ranged combat
+Leaders give extra bonuses
+Capable of climbing over any terrain
=Normal Health
-Lower Speed
-Not as good at hand to hand combat

Which would make us great scout/snipers/infiltrators.

Just my opinion, hehe.  We are pretty fucking awesome at getting into places. I mean, we spread across the entire globe even before civilization arose.  We can literally chase down gazelle given enough time.

This would probably work if the other spacefaring species were literal lions, gorillas etc.

But given they can build spaceships they are probably are not.

Its likely any species that has advanced that far would have to have most of those traits too. They would have to spread across their world to harvest resources, they would have to have good eyesight (or similar sensor), they would need good spacial awarenes to construct all those machines, and they would most certainly need to co-operate with one another in order to build them too.

Yeah but we assume thet depending on their evolved traits they would act and progress differently.
A race that evolved on an abundant planet without many or even no wars at all would have a different mindset and phycial characteristics than a race that evolved on an arid death world even if both are vaguely humanoid.

[alexandertnt]

They would be different, to a degree.

However, there are certain traits which humans posess that other animals do not which would be necessary for space travel, to the point where basing human advantages/disadvantages off of terrestrial animals doesn't really make sense.

There is absolutely no reason to make humans slow and weak physically, or particularly social, relative to other intelligent species just because lions are faster and gorillas are stronger.

You can give humans these traits, but personally I would want a decent explanation as to why these aliens are different in whatever ways they are, rather than just assuming that by default aliens are terrestrial animals.

But I'm a hard-scifi nut

[Nelia Hawk]

the first thing that came to my mind reading this is "warhammer 40k".

in warhammer fantasy i would say humans are pretty much "the default" (33333 stats), but in 40k they seem way less "the default" with the lore like: xenophobic, technology based on machines, religion based on "imaginary gods" (? well at least the chaos gods are "existent" i guess compared to the human "god" (or was in 40k the emperor basically "the god" ? hmm)), aggressive, can colonize in various climates, etc. (but i guess these are all "default human traits" nowadays) still i would say that warhammer 40k humans are kind of portrait differently then the normal "default humans".
i guess in 40k the humans are considered more leaning to the evil role, but what is not evil in warhammer 40k.... (tau maybe? eldar?)

not sure how humans are represented in all the warhammer specialty lore/rule sets necromunda and all these...but i guess warhammer humans are always kinda twisted away from "the normal default".

[Sonlirain]

They would be different, to a degree.

However, there are certain traits which humans posess that other animals do not which would be necessary for space travel, to the point where basing human advantages/disadvantages off of terrestrial animals doesn't really make sense.

There is absolutely no reason to make humans slow and weak physically, or particularly social, relative to other intelligent species just because lions are faster and gorillas are stronger.

You can give humans these traits, but personally I would want a decent explanation as to why these aliens are different in whatever ways they are, rather than just assuming that by default aliens are terrestrial animals.

But I'm a hard-scifi nut

Well you can imagine that race x evolved from their planets equivalent of a lion (pradatory animal) and therefore has a different optimal climate range and views on things than an evolved omnivore or herbivore.
Also noone says they have to be as smart or fast/faster as we?
What if the enire planet biosphere was made out of slow animals similar to turtles and the local sentients live 300 years but act really slow... or in reverse a short lived rodent like sentient that lives for 20 years at most percieveing us as VERY slow witted.

The animal kingdom and variety created by evolution on out own planet might hint what aliens might be like... assuming we don't take their traits we percieve too stiffly and assume that a civilization of people that vageually resemble terrestial foxes will surely love stealing chickens and rummaging through trashcans.