Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: (Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race  (Read 2914 times)

bluwolfie

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
(Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race
« on: October 12, 2014, 07:14:32 pm »

I was just thinking, we could make a Xenomorph species and add it to the game, or even create an off shoot mod of it. Or maybe even add it to masterwork. The species would be large, sleath focused with a Tough chitin exoskeleton, a huge barbed tail, claws and a second mouth inside the other mouth which does lethal headbites.. It could have a high velocoty in it's headbite (Because of the piston like nature of the bite)

It could have face huggers, maybe as a pet or even a life stage that only exists to ambush prey. Different types of aliens could spawn depending on who got facehugged, Dwarves could create small but powerful Xenos with a preference for Close combat and hard work.. Oh and Alcohol.

Humans could be the typical, 7 feet tall Xenos. You could have a queen who lays eggs, and the differet life stages of the Xeno.. Drones evolve into warrors(Of each class, like Runners get the charger Xeno when they become Preatorian) so a Runner can be a Drone then a warrior, and then a preatorian but all of it's forms will have it on all fours.

The Xenos could potentially have it's stats be based on the specific character's stats (Or at least it's races trends), Highly intelligent Xenos (Possibly ones derived from an industrial race like the gnomes or an intelligent race like the Elves or Humans) can do basic level crafts of some kind, perhaps hive related or giving face huggers advantages to further the species.
Logged

IamanElfCollaborator

  • Bay Watcher
  • Resident Shipper God and Freyjapiller
    • View Profile
Re: (Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2014, 12:06:37 am »

Hm. Pretty sure that you could work this. Hell, you could use DFHack to render the transformation permanent to allow the transformed victims from facehugger bites to actually be controllable parts of your civ.

As for evolution, someone far more experienced than I will have to answer that, but that would probably involve castes, multi-stage transformations and more DFhack wizardry.

Findulidas

  • Bay Watcher
  • [NATURAL_SKILL:OFFTOPIC:5][NOTHOUGHT]
    • View Profile
Re: (Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2014, 12:08:36 am »

I thought masterwork had this already, except not playable. They are only in the caves there if i remember correctly. Perhaps they werent as complicated though.
Logged
...wonderful memories of the creeping sense of dread...

bluwolfie

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: (Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2014, 01:27:26 am »

It would be fun to play this race, or deal with the fun it creates if you're not the race. It would be cool if the Xenos were more fleshed out and had a working civ, especially if you can get the life stages, like a helpless (But fast and with high stealth) chest burster would have to hide for a while to transform into a fully formed Drone, of whatever class it is (IE: Runner if it was from a canine or ox) and then go through the stages of that type.. I think the dwarf ones would be hardy, with thicker chitin and muscles, but they wouldn't be as tall or as agile as the others (But still pretty damn agile, they are Xenos after all)
Logged

Eric Blank

  • Bay Watcher
  • *Remain calm*
    • View Profile
Re: (Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race
« Reply #4 on: October 13, 2014, 01:49:47 am »

Hm. Pretty sure that you could work this. Hell, you could use DFHack to render the transformation permanent to allow the transformed victims from facehugger bites to actually be controllable parts of your civ.

As for evolution, someone far more experienced than I will have to answer that, but that would probably involve castes, multi-stage transformations and more DFhack wizardry.

You can just supply no END token on the final transformation effect to make the transformation permanent. And multi-stage transformations should work fine: as soon as (or maybe just before, not sure if it matters) one transformation ends, another one begins. Using different castes of the same creature will work fine, and would be important if the xenos are supposed to be crazed. If the facehugger caste has a pop_ratio a few thousand times higher than any of the others then it will be the only one the player would normally see born through sexual reproduction. Give them 3-4 different attacks or interactions that start a target down one evolutionary road or another (and a CDI to instantly kill the facehugger) depending on which one was used first.

Specific ones could be restricted to specific species like the OP said by using the syndrome immune or affected creature tokens, and can just transform the target into a caste that shares some attributes with the original species. They won't share physical traits like skin color or nose length or anything: the traits of the creatures you transform into are separate from those of your birth form, so if a short fat red haired dwarf with a double braided beard and wide cheekbones is a werehuman the human he transforms into won't necessarily have any of those traits. He might be incredibly tall and skinny with blond hair, no beard, and narrow eyes. It would be an incredible fluke of luck if they shared more than a handful. You could use dfhack, though, to force some of them, I suppose. But xenos don't have hair or eyes or anything remotely human if I recall.

But dfhack would be necessary to get them all on the same faction/civ, and they might end up counting as pets instead of citizens anyway. If theyre crazed they will be friendly exclusively to other crazed members of the same species (make the whole xeno species crazed and those born naturally, like facehuggers, will be pals with anything they transform through their life cycle) but they won't act like a civilization by any real means. They'll just be crazy bloodthirsty monsters which shove eggs down other people's throats with only a loose affiliation to a civ that might be voided by their violent streak if they ever had one to begin with.
Logged
I make Spellcrafts!
I have no idea where anything is. I have no idea what anything does. This is not merely a madhouse designed by a madman, but a madhouse designed by many madmen, each with an intense hatred for the previous madman's unique flavour of madness.

Enemy post

  • Bay Watcher
  • Modder/GM
    • View Profile
Re: (Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race
« Reply #5 on: October 13, 2014, 09:19:26 am »

The fallout mod has xeno's that could be converted to a civ I think.
Logged
My mods and forum games.
Enemy post has claimed the title of Dragonsong the Harmonic of Melodious Exaltion!

Deon

  • Bay Watcher
  • 💀 💀 💀 💀 💀
    • View Profile
Re: (Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race
« Reply #6 on: October 14, 2014, 12:05:50 am »

I don't remember if Meph took my Xenos and added them to Masterwork, but Enemy Post is correct, the Fallout mod has them (with all appropriate castes). They work as antmen there, but you can always go further and modify them to be a playable race.
Logged
▬(ஜ۩۞۩ஜ)▬
✫ DF Wanderer ✫ - the adventure mode crafting and tweaks
✫ Cartographer's Lounge ✫ - a custom worldgen repository

Meph

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
    • worldbicyclist
Re: (Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race
« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2014, 09:02:24 am »

No, I didnt. Only thing I have is a facehugger-vermin in the third cavern, that can bite people, which causes them to hatch (transform into) a green devourer a couple of months later.
Logged
::: ☼Meph Tileset☼☼Map Tileset☼- 32x graphic sets with TWBT :::
::: ☼MASTERWORK DF☼ - A comprehensive mod pack now on Patreon - 250.000+ downloads and counting :::
::: WorldBicyclist.com - Follow my bike tours around the world - 148 countries visited :::

goodvibesforyou

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: (Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race
« Reply #8 on: October 14, 2014, 09:20:16 am »

Sounds neat. Would each hive have a Queen by default then? Also, is it even possible to have failure conditions in the game like if a particular creature dies, the fortress is considered destroyed? A hive without a Queen wouldn't function, the xenos would just go into instinct mode, wander off into the world.
Logged

bluwolfie

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: (Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race
« Reply #9 on: October 14, 2014, 02:25:55 pm »

Sounds neat. Would each hive have a Queen by default then? Also, is it even possible to have failure conditions in the game like if a particular creature dies, the fortress is considered destroyed? A hive without a Queen wouldn't function, the xenos would just go into instinct mode, wander off into the world.

No it would just cause a praetorian facehugger to be born, or an alien to evolve into a praetorian and then a queen.. There would be one queen by default but if for some reason the queen dies, so long as there are aliens to evolve or eggs to hatch there is a chance you can get another queen. I think it should take a bit for the queen to grow though so you are fairly vulnerable during that stage.

I think that's how the castes work in the actual mythology, there are certain things which aren't fully agreed on but I would kind of fill in the blanks, like I'm pretty sure the aliens can evolve into a queen if one is needed.
Logged

goodvibesforyou

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: (Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race
« Reply #10 on: October 14, 2014, 03:10:15 pm »

Ah yes, castes. Hunters, defenders etc. Pretty sure one of them could morph into the Queen variant when required.
Logged

Enemy post

  • Bay Watcher
  • Modder/GM
    • View Profile
Re: (Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2014, 04:47:07 pm »

I'm not sure, but I think the way to make sure the xenos are ruled by a queen would be to make Queens an extremely rare caste that is also the only kind that can hold the Queen position.
Logged
My mods and forum games.
Enemy post has claimed the title of Dragonsong the Harmonic of Melodious Exaltion!

bluwolfie

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: (Xeno-Hive) Xenomorph Race
« Reply #12 on: November 10, 2014, 07:23:20 am »

BUMP: I really wish this was a thing.

Especially having genetics play a role.. Sturdy dwarf aliens
Logged