Additional alien types are an often requested content for future DLC. I too would love to see a greater variety, leading to always new combinations whenever you start a new game.
Now, as aliens are more unique and sophisticated (AI-wise) than ever a barbarian was in the Civilization franchise, I dared to explore future possibilities for new and (hopefully) exiting alien concepts. For the most parts, I tried to stay reasonable (in regard to necessary coding) and limited myself to already existing abilities. Sometimes, however, I went a little bit further...
Most of the proposed characteristics are interchangeable and may be combined in different combinations if desired. However, I tried to create unique, believable and recognizable species, sometimes featuring real biological models.
Let's start:
0) “Standard” variations:
- Usual and straight forward abilities, such as range-attacking flyers, double-strikers, first-strikers (=Impi) and equivalent ideas.
1) Aliens with alternation of generations:
- “Generation A“ does not attack units (but may defend against attacks). When moving on a farm-improved tile, it will pillage this tile, creating a new alien of “Generation B”. (Maybe the number of pillages is limited to 3 to reduce the number of created offspring).
- “Generation B” does not pillage, but actively hunts for units. Weak units (like workers or caravans) are preferred, but killed military units will have the same effect: Whenever a unit is killed, “Generation B” changes into a “Generation A” alien and the cycle starts over.
2) Swarm I:
- Each single unit is relatively week. But...
- Alien-generation in the hive is higher than the usual (1,5x – 2x)
- “Royal pheromones”: +15% strength when fighting in a 3-tile-range from the hive. (Equals the Civ5-general's bonus)
- +25% strength when adjacent to another swarm-member.
- Doubled flanking bonus
3) Swarm II:
- Each hive may breed a variety of different castes:
- Warrior caste: “normal” alien (maybe a bit more aggressive than usual?).
- Martyr caste: if the hive is attacked (and then only), these “kamikaze-warriors” rush towards the enemy, lock their jaws into him and self-destruct in an acid-explosion inflicting exorbitant damage (possibly area effect).
- Worker caste: Improve tiles surrounding the hive. Whenever a human city is founded near this hive (or it's remains) and the cultural border incorporates those “alien-improved” tiles, a positive effect is granted. This could be one of the following (whatever seems fitting for you): +1 food on this tile; farm improvements may be constructed in only 1 turn; one-time energy- food- or “hammer”-bonus when improving this tile.
4) Parasitism:
- Whenever an infantry-unit is killed by this alien, the unit is infected and “turns alien”. This effect equals the Civ5 privateer.
5) Adaptive:
- This ability requires “promotions” for aliens; This should be possible – at least in principle.
- The alien adopts very fast against threats. Every two fights it gains 10-20% strength (with some upper limit, of course). So, if you attack this species, you should finish him off fast...
- Combines well with 'Regeneration'.
6) Regeneration:
- Doubled (tripled?) healing rate (do aliens heal in general without moving into miasma? Well, this one DOES!)
- Additionally: Civ5's “march” promotion.
- Combines well with 'Adaptive'.
7) Mimikry:
- Alien in invisible in forests (or maybe rough terrain in general). This effect equals Civ5's submarines.
8) Symbiosis:
- Two alien species live in one lair. The lair may only be placed on a forest tile.
- Alien A: week in combat; may “plant” forest tiles (only on plains and hills with no other feature, new forest must be neighbored by an already existing forest; alien is “consumed” in the process).
- Alien B: very strong in combat; may only enter tiles with forest; low movement-costs in forests (=fast!); might possibly be combined with forest-Mimikry.
9) Psychoactive pheromones:
- Alien does not attack (but defends as usual).
- All adjacent units (whether attacking or not) suffer 10 damage (like miasma). This effect equals Civ5's fortress' effect.
10) Toxic remains:
- When being killed, the alien creates miasma.
11) Final blow:
- When this alien is killed, a melee(!)-attacker suffers additional damage (equals an extra attack with full strength by this alien).
12) Living (moving) colony:
- Alien “nests” (actually, these “nests” are gigantic creatures hosting and nourishing their breed in their own skin) move 1 tile/turn.
- When moving, these “nest-creatures” try to avoid cultural borders and may only enter tiles with at least one not-owened tile in its neighborhood. However, IF they enter improved tiles, the improvement will be pillaged automatically.
- Like any other alien nest, nest-creatures can not defend themselves and may be destroyed as usual, leaving a biomass-resource at the place they died (if this tile doesn't feature another resource already).
13) Breeding grounds:
- Aquatic aliens will use algae resources to spawn, whenever they end their turn on one of those tiles. (Maybe they will actively end their turn when crossing an algae tile; whatever is balanced better).
- Tile improvements will be destroyed.
- However, some a bunch of “alien eggs” will remain for 10 turns on the algae field. If harvested (by a worker) during these time-span, the player will receive a certain (relevant!) amount of energy, food or ”hammers”.
- If not harvested, a new alien will hatch.
The idea of 'Breeding grounds' and the 'Swarm II'-Workers (and to some extend 'Living colonies' and 'Toxic remains') is, that there may be some positive effects related to the alien lifeforms. Effects which may be used by the careful player and add an additional dimension to some of the new alien species.
14) Worms swarm:
Okay, this one is unorthodox and probably not possible (maybe not even desirable). I want to mention it nevertheless, because I think it is at least intriguing.
- Worm-like alien swarms (SCAM-reminiscence!
) do not move themselves, but simply occupy one tile. The tile consumes all movement points when entered and may only “battled” by workers removing the infestation. Worm-swarmed tiles suffer -2 food and -1 production.
- The worms behave as “Cellular automaton” (Please inform yourself as it is to long to be explained here. Of course, the rules must be adopted from square to hexagonal tile-set.)
I hope you enjoyed my ideas and I would be interested to read about your own proposals!
Maybe, if some of the collected ideas are interesting and easy enough to implement, we might actually see an “Alien-DLC” in a brighter future. A DLC that contains more than simple re-skins and variations of the already existing creatures.
I would love this!
Cheers,
Deggial
Now, as aliens are more unique and sophisticated (AI-wise) than ever a barbarian was in the Civilization franchise, I dared to explore future possibilities for new and (hopefully) exiting alien concepts. For the most parts, I tried to stay reasonable (in regard to necessary coding) and limited myself to already existing abilities. Sometimes, however, I went a little bit further...
Most of the proposed characteristics are interchangeable and may be combined in different combinations if desired. However, I tried to create unique, believable and recognizable species, sometimes featuring real biological models.
Let's start:
0) “Standard” variations:
- Usual and straight forward abilities, such as range-attacking flyers, double-strikers, first-strikers (=Impi) and equivalent ideas.
1) Aliens with alternation of generations:
- “Generation A“ does not attack units (but may defend against attacks). When moving on a farm-improved tile, it will pillage this tile, creating a new alien of “Generation B”. (Maybe the number of pillages is limited to 3 to reduce the number of created offspring).
- “Generation B” does not pillage, but actively hunts for units. Weak units (like workers or caravans) are preferred, but killed military units will have the same effect: Whenever a unit is killed, “Generation B” changes into a “Generation A” alien and the cycle starts over.
2) Swarm I:
- Each single unit is relatively week. But...
- Alien-generation in the hive is higher than the usual (1,5x – 2x)
- “Royal pheromones”: +15% strength when fighting in a 3-tile-range from the hive. (Equals the Civ5-general's bonus)
- +25% strength when adjacent to another swarm-member.
- Doubled flanking bonus
3) Swarm II:
- Each hive may breed a variety of different castes:
- Warrior caste: “normal” alien (maybe a bit more aggressive than usual?).
- Martyr caste: if the hive is attacked (and then only), these “kamikaze-warriors” rush towards the enemy, lock their jaws into him and self-destruct in an acid-explosion inflicting exorbitant damage (possibly area effect).
- Worker caste: Improve tiles surrounding the hive. Whenever a human city is founded near this hive (or it's remains) and the cultural border incorporates those “alien-improved” tiles, a positive effect is granted. This could be one of the following (whatever seems fitting for you): +1 food on this tile; farm improvements may be constructed in only 1 turn; one-time energy- food- or “hammer”-bonus when improving this tile.
4) Parasitism:
- Whenever an infantry-unit is killed by this alien, the unit is infected and “turns alien”. This effect equals the Civ5 privateer.
5) Adaptive:
- This ability requires “promotions” for aliens; This should be possible – at least in principle.
- The alien adopts very fast against threats. Every two fights it gains 10-20% strength (with some upper limit, of course). So, if you attack this species, you should finish him off fast...
- Combines well with 'Regeneration'.
6) Regeneration:
- Doubled (tripled?) healing rate (do aliens heal in general without moving into miasma? Well, this one DOES!)
- Additionally: Civ5's “march” promotion.
- Combines well with 'Adaptive'.
7) Mimikry:
- Alien in invisible in forests (or maybe rough terrain in general). This effect equals Civ5's submarines.
8) Symbiosis:
- Two alien species live in one lair. The lair may only be placed on a forest tile.
- Alien A: week in combat; may “plant” forest tiles (only on plains and hills with no other feature, new forest must be neighbored by an already existing forest; alien is “consumed” in the process).
- Alien B: very strong in combat; may only enter tiles with forest; low movement-costs in forests (=fast!); might possibly be combined with forest-Mimikry.
9) Psychoactive pheromones:
- Alien does not attack (but defends as usual).
- All adjacent units (whether attacking or not) suffer 10 damage (like miasma). This effect equals Civ5's fortress' effect.
10) Toxic remains:
- When being killed, the alien creates miasma.
11) Final blow:
- When this alien is killed, a melee(!)-attacker suffers additional damage (equals an extra attack with full strength by this alien).
12) Living (moving) colony:
- Alien “nests” (actually, these “nests” are gigantic creatures hosting and nourishing their breed in their own skin) move 1 tile/turn.
- When moving, these “nest-creatures” try to avoid cultural borders and may only enter tiles with at least one not-owened tile in its neighborhood. However, IF they enter improved tiles, the improvement will be pillaged automatically.
- Like any other alien nest, nest-creatures can not defend themselves and may be destroyed as usual, leaving a biomass-resource at the place they died (if this tile doesn't feature another resource already).
13) Breeding grounds:
- Aquatic aliens will use algae resources to spawn, whenever they end their turn on one of those tiles. (Maybe they will actively end their turn when crossing an algae tile; whatever is balanced better).
- Tile improvements will be destroyed.
- However, some a bunch of “alien eggs” will remain for 10 turns on the algae field. If harvested (by a worker) during these time-span, the player will receive a certain (relevant!) amount of energy, food or ”hammers”.
- If not harvested, a new alien will hatch.
The idea of 'Breeding grounds' and the 'Swarm II'-Workers (and to some extend 'Living colonies' and 'Toxic remains') is, that there may be some positive effects related to the alien lifeforms. Effects which may be used by the careful player and add an additional dimension to some of the new alien species.
14) Worms swarm:
Okay, this one is unorthodox and probably not possible (maybe not even desirable). I want to mention it nevertheless, because I think it is at least intriguing.
- Worm-like alien swarms (SCAM-reminiscence!
) do not move themselves, but simply occupy one tile. The tile consumes all movement points when entered and may only “battled” by workers removing the infestation. Worm-swarmed tiles suffer -2 food and -1 production.- The worms behave as “Cellular automaton” (Please inform yourself as it is to long to be explained here. Of course, the rules must be adopted from square to hexagonal tile-set.)
I hope you enjoyed my ideas and I would be interested to read about your own proposals!
Maybe, if some of the collected ideas are interesting and easy enough to implement, we might actually see an “Alien-DLC” in a brighter future. A DLC that contains more than simple re-skins and variations of the already existing creatures.
I would love this!
Cheers,
Deggial
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