My ideas on expanding the concept of alien units for BE.

[UnderKingDuck]

If there are one thing I hope to see greatly expanded on after the game's release and in a possible expansion pack, it would be to see a greater verity of alien units. We only have six at the moment and those six aliens will be on all 3 of the different biomes. There are three things that I would love to see that could improved this aspect of the game.

1. Have all the aliens have a different skins for each biome type. This is just a cosmetic change, but I think it would be really interesting and add an even greater "feel" from the biome that the player is experiencing in that game.

2. Add a greater verity of aliens for both land and sea. Like I mention before we only have six aliens in the base game. Four of them seem to be land base, one is sea base, and I assume the "Drone" would be a alien that can fly. Seeing this number greatly increase would really be nice. This is especially needed for aliens that are strictly sea base.

3. Add an alien archetype system and integrate it to to the map generation system. This is what I really want to talk about. My idea is have six to eight alien archetypes, one to two aliens in-game for each archetype that the game selects when generating a map, and four/six aliens for the game to choose from for each archetype. This is a very rough idea on what I mean...

Land Base Alien Archetypes:

Melee alien- 6 options, 2 selected when the map is generated.
Examples would be the Wolf Beetles and Raptor Bug.

Range alien- 4-6 options, 1-2 selected when the map is generated.
An example would be the Manticores.

Elite land alien: 4 options, 1 selected when the map is generated.
Example would be the Siege Worms.

Sea Base Alien Archetypes:

Melee base alien- 6 options, 2 selected when the map is generated.
No example.

Range base alien- 4-6 options, 1-2 selected when the map is generated.
No example.

Elite sea alien: 4 options, 1 selected when the map is generated.
Example would be the Kraken/Leviathan/Sea Dragon. I still don't know what it's name is.

Air Base Alien Archetypes:

Melee base alien: 4 options, 1 selected when the map is generated

Range base alien: 4 options: 1 selected when the map is generated

Like I said before the "Drone" alien might be a flying alien. So it might be a example. Should air base alien archetypes have a elite/super unit like the siege worm and the Kraken?

That the very basic idea of what I had in mind. What do you think about this system and the other ideas I suggested? Would you like to see something like this added in an expansion pack? I have some idea for units and even a day and night system they can implement that can effect some units, but that is for another post.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Different graphics for biome
Air Alien ? not necessary?

Instead of having multiple different types, I would start out with the same 6 types and have them upgrade as time went on... and the actual upgrades they got would be semi randomized.
So you stick with the 6 roles... but you don't know what they will be like at the end of the game

weak melee alien (could become raider/flanker... or dies and creates miasma... or semitough.. depending on which promotions it got)
medium melee alien
ranged alien
Siege worm

light ranged naval
heavy melee naval

I could see the aliens being added onto in an expansion pack. (and would like to see it

 

[UnderKingDuck]

Different graphics for biome
Air Alien ? not necessary?

Instead of having multiple different types, I would start out with the same 6 types and have them upgrade as time went on... and the actual upgrades they got would be semi randomized.
So you stick with the 6 roles... but you don't know what they will be like at the end of the game

weak melee alien (could become raider/flanker... or dies and creates miasma... or semitough.. depending on which promotions it got)
medium melee alien
ranged alien
Siege worm

light ranged naval
heavy melee naval

I could see the aliens being added onto in an expansion pack. (and would like to see it

Did you reply to both of my threads on the same topic on two different forums? lol

anyway ill repeat what I said there...

There is a reason for a flying alien. First it would not be restricted in land or water. Second they could if they wish make it so they can attack satellites. Third they could move through impassible terrain and ignore terrain cost.

Though I like your idea overall. It make it so aliens remain a threat mid/late game which is something I am a little concerned about for the lack of info we have atm.

 

[Lord Gruin]

If there are one thing I hope to see greatly expanded on after the game's release and in a possible expansion pack, it would be to see a greater verity of alien units.

I agree that some different types of aliens would be nice. Most science fiction books have alien mammals - cat type, bear type, ape type - and alien birds - vulture type, bat type, as examples. They wouldn't have to show up on all worlds.

Just a suggestion.

 

[GhostSalsa]

Instead of having multiple different types, I would start out with the same 6 types and have them upgrade as time went on... and the actual upgrades they got would be semi randomized.

This would work with the game story. Since alien biology is touted as so wonderful by all the quest texts - we have super-fast alien evolution, all the lil alien wasps and beetles compensating for the new human intruders in their environment.

As far as gameplay there might be a balance issue with the Scavenging virtue if alien strength values went up all game, leading to cheesy alien farming strats.