Recently bought the game, and I'm really enjoying the uniqueness of each faction, along with their play-style. So this got me thinking... Why should every faction be entirely organic? Why can't there be some silicon based organisms? So after doing a little searching for melting points and temperature ranges, I came up with a species that lives in volcanic temperatures and has a hardened exoskeleton shell to protect them from the 'freezing' surface...



The Terratrytes (Name subject to change, just a place holder)



Lore/description:

Born within the deepest parts of Auriga, The Terratrytes are a silicon based race that has lived beneath the surface, living in peace and caring nothing for what lay beyond 'The womb'. That was until the culling; the planet's depths suddenly changed in their currents, magma rising and falling to new levels, pressure and heat too great for their bodies to handle, many millions of their kind perished in but a few short days of continental mayhem.



Resembling Nagas from Earth mythology, their bodies are covered in dense silicon based plating that is incredibly good at both retaining and resisting intense heat, though their 'faces' are also covered in these plates in a variety of patterns, mostly in a triangular or wedge shape pattern. Their overall texture resembles that of a crystal, with many sharp edges and few organic curves to their limbs and tail, and with glassy surfaces to certain parts of their bodies, such as on their faces or their claws.



"The mother does not love us anymore, the mother has forced us, cast us from her nest, and we... we are now alone..."

"There is no protection on the surface, no warm vents to soothe the limbs, no respite from the biting cold that only gets worse and worse..."

"But there is hope... We lived together... We shall survive together... We shall build new havens, places of warmth and security... of power and influence"

"Though there is nothing above our heads... The warmth of the sun beckons... As does the light of the stars...."



Their main plotline quest is to build a wonder that will terraform Auriga into a warmer more volcanic planet that should dispel the worst of winter, if not banish it permanently.



Traits:

From the Ashes: This faction cannot buyout or produce settlers, Instead it must 'Salt the earth' upon one of it's cities; the function is now relabeled as the trait's name. For every three population that is sacrificed, one Settler is produced rounded down. In Addition, 25% of the total production value of each building, along with any strategic resources used are refunded to the empire; the former as industry stockpiles rounded up to the nearest ones place.



Trial and Error: This faction does not use the Science quantity, and it will not appear on the world tile grid. Instead this faction uses Production to Research new Technologies, and each city that adds the currently researched technology to their production Que will use it's production to 'research' it.



Winter Woes: This faction is penalized an additional negative trait during winter as if it was one winter further along in game. In addition all of this faction’s cities regenerate health at a 50% rate regardless of time of year, and they cannot create new cities with settlers during winter time.



Roots of the mountain: +3 production, dust, and food from Mountain(Proposed tile), Ridge, and Fissure(Also proposed) tiles. Units and cities recieve +20% defence when adjacent to the former tile types, and this stacks multiplicitively for each adjacent such tile.



Need for warmth: This faction's units Recieve a +5% damage and attack bonus when on 'Volcanic'(Perhaps a new tileset/Environment) to consider and 'desert' Tile sets, but recieves a 10% penalty to attack and defense when on 'Tundra', 'snowy', or 'river' tilesets.



Heat Death: If this faction's units are wounded in combat, they lose 10% of their maximum health each turn, or 2% during each combat phase. To reverse this effect they must be garrisoned in a friendly city or enter a tile set with the 'volcanic' subtype for one turn.



Colonies: This faction cannot produce Expansions, but it can produce up to 3 cities within it's territory, 4 with the appropriate tier 3 research. Expansion disapproval applies to these new cities as if you had produced a new Burough.







Units:



Guardian- Infantry, melee



Salamander- Ranged



Heirophant- Support, melee,claws



And this is all I have so far...

Sounds nice.

Thou I remember a video or a interview about the very races of Endless Legend. As they are somehow similar to generic fantasy races but with a twist, and relative to endless space. Wild walkers are elf-like creatures that abandon forest to build wondrous cities. Broken lords, the virtual endless, that are the undead-like. Human underground hi-tech Nordic mythology race, dwarf-like. Etc.



As in Endless Space the Harmony brought the fighters and bombers, I would suggest a race with some nautical affiliation, in expansion bringing the naval combat. Obvious difficulty would be balance, and no problems with "Colonizing" ocean areas. So This is how I see a new race:



Concept:

A bit of Tibetan monk's balance/harmony, Aztec/Polynesian mysticism and dependence on water, extrapolation of using water to collect dust => use dust to make water to collect Dust in crystals [moreefficient]. The very name or visage of them doesn't come to me easily. As I tight of Naga, Lizardman, or Tritons as too generic, and overused in over settings. Maybe something simple yet special. Bald pale human with reptile eyes, bad dust glowing water swirling around them and maybe through their glowing dustwater crystals, which they have plenty as jewelry or inside armor and weapons, or simply inside them. A proper representative of this race would have a small glowing dustwater crystal in centre of his forehead and few around him while he meditates.



Main trait pros:

Bonus to Naval combat;

Ability to create districts on coast, or lake tiles. [probablytemporary,becauseifotherracewouldtakeacitytheywouldnothavethatability,...Intheenditwouldrequirecreatingnewmodelsespeciallyforthisoccasion]

Ability to create 3 level districts, only when the district is on a river or coast.



Main trait cons:

Dependence on water. If a city has no access to fresh water a -50% penalty to FIDS. [or] Even more, a single water tile can support certain population, like 1 river = 2 pop, 1 coast/lake =4 pop.



Tech:

Simple watergardens/rivergardens Boats and rafts maybe atolls placed on water and all covered in simple hydroponics.

Mostly based on water/dust/balance with tech like:

Giant crystal coast farms, covering hectares of coast with crystal levitating few feets over ocean waves and sucking up dust,... Sometimes live oceanic fauna [bonusdustandfood]

Dustwater Crystal domes, that can sustain a citysize greenhouse

Dustwater Crystal Forcefields for personal protection



Units

I can see those simple Monks with their bare hands fighting in front lines.

Heavily shielded muscle that hardly bares weight or few massive crystals that create few layers of barriers around him, and somehow wield [orlevitates] weapon for him [twohandedofcourse]

An old and venerable man, that is blind and his body is cover in so many crystals it resembles a giant Dustwater tattoo. He is a healer. But can by his own will rip water, and dust out from his opponent, will work on humans and dustlords alike

And of course the Settler, who sacrifices himself while settling to release all water in his body to create the everlasting fountain that is the heart of each city.



I spend just an hour while writing this down on forum.

I've been thinking recently on what new faction designs the community could come up with. It would be cool if there was a place where we could collect them all. I'm sure we could come up with some interesting ones.



I've been thinking up some ideas.



Cons: Cannot assimilate minor factions or use minor faction camps (aka get the population bonus for having them built)



Play-style: I was thinking what the game was missing, currently each faction has buffs towards different things, such as production, science, influence ect ect. I was thinking about making a faction which is instead based around de-buffing others. I would have them able to cast spells with influence which effect regions, reducing the FIDS of their tiles, or spawning neutral armies to harass their cities. So the faction would be based around screwing up other players without directly going to war with them.



Preferred Victory: I was thinking of having them wonder victory focussed, since i want them to damage other players in ways other than war, so one of the defensive victories seemed best. To make up for the fact that they lack the production bonuses of the wild walkers perhaps they should get a direct production bonus to the wonder, perhaps having it requiring half the production.



Art Theme: I was thinking slightly lovecraftian, though ofcourse the lore guys would need to think about how this could possibly fit in. I would like them to be unsettling to other players, though unlike the necrophages for these guys playing the diplomacy game is something they should do. They can still cast de-buffs on allies regions so going for peace with everyone is recommended since as they cannot use minor factions they cannot fill up any holes in their army roster.