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DISCLAIMER:

I'll post here some ideas of factions I got, if you're interested in them, have in mind I got no modding nor artistic skills, so feel free to use any of my ideas, as long as you give credit.

Also feel free to comment anything you want.

I'll always start with a summary post and develop it further, so if you like better wait, because I'll expand the ideas in further posts but won't be fast.

I'll do some updates in its originals posts, so I'll try to keep, at least, an update date in each post. As EA progress and game is changed after release, I also will try to update according its pace. Like before, I'll take may long time, and won't be fast.

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Summary

When I though about them I want not an elder and ancient faction, but a young one who is pushing hard. Also I thought about scientist, but not the good and pacifists ones like Sophons, but the mad scientists. Also I want to inspire this faction under transhumanism influence (hence its name, they're not humans, but as this philosophy they try to overcome their physical limitations by any means). Then I get to this.

To add to this faction, have in mind I enjoyed a lot Ardent Mages in EL, so don't be surprised if you found something remembering them in this faction. I think this is the one can fit better from all my occurrences.

Origins:

The Transbiologists come from a religious and peaceful traders species. They live on a single planet, alone, and undisturbed, following a naive, but strict religion.

Suddenly an explorer found a new substance in their world. Some of them start to study it, but most refuse, as they see it impure. The ones who studied this substance, start to use it in very different ways, and modifying its bodies, breaking all religion precepts. It bring to a war, which surprisingly was won by this transgressors, and all in the loosing side where banished in spaceships into the void.

After that, Transbiologists start doing each time more modifications to themselves using dust, until the point they became dependent of it, and it force them to abandon their planet and go into stars in search for dust.

Gameplay:

I want them to be dust-dependent, so I thought about its main affinity giving them bonus in most of game aspects related to its dust income. But there's a dark side to it: as they're addicted if dust income get negative, they'll receive penalties.

Regarding its other traits, I want them to be as mad and weird as possible, so I thought of allowing them to process other factions pop into dust/science, overload its ships, or adapt quickly to harsh environments.

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If you like the idea, more will come in successive posts: developed gameplay, and history, heroes, and all that a faction deserves.

Thanks for your time!

Affinity, faction traits and techs

Main affinity: Dust addicts.

Gameplay effects: Transbiologists will receive bonuses related to its dust income. WARNING: if dust income is negative, it will be turned into penalties with same proportion as bonuses when dust income is positive. The bonuses are the following:

• 10% dust income received as Science at empire level. Notes: if science income is negative, research will be stopped, but you'll never go backward (you can't forgot techs once learned, but your research can be crippled). I considered it empire level, because I think that making it system level can bring awkward situations.
• 5% dust income received as Industry at system level. Notes: if industry is negative construction will be stopped, but you'll never go backward, because when dusts goes below 0, you'll have to sell improvements, and it will be too punishing if more buildings are destroyed this way. I consider it at system level, because it can be overpowered if at empire level.
• 5% dust income received as Food at system level. Notes: yes, if food is negative you'll loose population, transbiologysts are so dependent that their body modifications doesn't work well without dust. This is also system level, as I think empire level may be too powerful / punishing depending on your dust income.
• 5% dust income received as influence at system level. Notes: if dust is negative your influence area will shrink. This is also system level, as I think empire level may be too powerful / punishing depending on your dust income. Have in mind that you can go into negative influence, substracting it from your pool and leading to asituation where you can't maintain your active laws.
• When dust income is positive, you'll receive a flat 5% bonus to damage during battles. If dust income is negative you'll receive a -5% damage penalty during battles. If dust income is 0 there's no effect. Note: I made this a flat bonus to avoid it overpowered or too punishing like in F and Inf.

To clarify, this bonus are not subtracted from your dust income, they're calculated from it and applied at corresponding level.

Lore & reasoning: I wanted transbiologists to be like mad for dust. This way, they'll receive vary good bonuses when it is positive, but malus when negative, forcing the player to search for dust at any cost. It is a kind of mixed BL, Cravers and Hisso mixed, but with very different lore.

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Faction trait: Adaptable bodies.

Gameplay effects: All approval bonus from planets and anomalies are doubled. All approval penalties from planets and anomalies are halved.

Reasoning: I think that approval penalties may be too punishing for this faction, as they're sensible to dust income drops, but didn't like the optimists trait.

Lore: They're not optimist. but they don't hesitate on modifying their bodies to adapt to new environments. On the contrary, most of them feels happy with the idea of a more resistant body, that can endure more hostile environments.

Faction trait: Test subjects.

Gameplay effects: Can process a unit of another faction population into flat science bonus. Further technological development (still WIP, pending of new tech tree) will allow to receive better science bonus and in late game some dust.

Lore: Mmm.. seems obvious that they test some extreme body modifications on other species before applying to themselves.

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Faction tech: raw dust injectors.

Gameplay effects: you can pay dust before a battle (costs are WIP as battle system is reworked) to ensure a 50% (may be changed as game evolves) bonus to damage and defense during this battle. It also come with a drawback: each time you use it on a ship it gains a cumulative 10% chance to explode at the end of the battle (in other word, if it endures it 9 times, at 10th times it has 100% chance of explosions at end of the battle). This is an early game tech.

Reasoning: I wanted something like ardent mages battle spells in EL. I wanted it to be very powerful but at same time with some drawback, to make the player think if the risk otweights the benefits, and only using it in crucial battles (Craver fleet knocking your door?).

Lore: just and injection of raw dust into your ships engines to amplify their power. Risky?, of course!

Population

Bonus from population:

+1 science per pop if dust income is positive.

+1 science per pop if scientist party in government.

+1 science per pop on systems with scientific hero assigned.

Population collection bonus:

WIP

Political traits:

Materialists (actually in game, think this is the correct): scientific events has greater impact, while religious has lower impact.

Mad scientists: both industrial and military events will also have scientific ideology impact (no matter if it growths or shrinks)

Ideology:

Scientists

Starting government:

Democracy.

Lore: as most of transbiologists are centered in improving themselves, instead of gaining power or doing politics, goverments is only a tool that they need, but don't want. This way politics are most of rude statistics about waht most of they want, not being votes like in our understanding of democracy, but in teh end having a similar result (of course reagarding game effects).

Background:

WIP

Homeworld

Their homeworld, called Loon, was in its origin a beuatiful one. Not harsh to live there, but still with noless difficulties than other worlds, like Raia or Horatio Prime.

But thing start changing after the transgressors won the war against their predecessors and banished them. They started to apply the same modifications to the planet than their did to themselves, mixing all live with machines in all possible ways to make them hardened and more efficient.

Now Loon still retains tis name, but has changed to a grotesque mis of machine and life in its surface, all doted with some spots of bright dust, beig all its surface a giant living machine, that can be even seen from space.

Teh planet is actually as dependant from dust as transbiologist are, risking its homeworld death if they run out of this precious substance.

Heroes

Before starting, I'll put here a few letters about each hero aspect, because transbiologist are very different one from other due to their body alterations, and IMO each one deserves its own picture, not following any specific common rule for aspect, except being cyborgs (that sometimes will even go unnoticed)

Nietzs-Bern

Class: Seeker

Political party: Militaryst

Aspect: a plain transbiologist warship.

Lore:

Nietzs-Bern was one of the first to follow the transbiologist ideas. As a former space-travel researcher, he was obsessed in founding the most optimal way to make its people apt for spacee travel, specially to adapt them to the void, allowing them to survive in space without wearing a aspace suit.

His obssession reached a point where he tried to fuse his biological components with and space ship. The required dust was so high and experiment so risky that he exploded into an explosion, leaving a spontaneous wormhole entrance, which dissapeared few moments after this experiment. It was so big that could be seen from the surface of Loon.

After some time, nobody expectin him being alive, a transbiologist ship landed on the Academy. When the guards entered the ship, nobody was in there, but all teh coms were on and they started receiving messages, and hearing someone speaking from the internal com system.

As there's no clear explanation about what was happening, until the Nietzs-Bern tell them the real situation: he himself fused with the ship at a point that he was the ship, fulfilling his objective of finding a perfect body for space travel.

Vita-Hux

Class: Conseulor

Political party: Religious

Aspect: Don't look like a fearful horrible cyborg, but instead of it like an androginous and extremely beautigul living entity, with some technological enhacements that perfectly fits as a very light dress.

Lore:

Vita-Hux is a very young transbiologist, bor - if you can call that a transbiologist is really born - in last times after space travel was improved enaough to go to stars.

She started a carees as assessor in locar scientific affairs working for other races, as her mind was artifiacilly improved to be able to manage lots of data. At some time she contacted with a banished one, and out of curiosity was able to get one of their sacred religious books. Reading it she get impressed with the way tyhey reverenced their beautiful bodies, considering them a give of their God, and translated it into her understanding of transbiologists thinking, trying to reach the perfect image in her body.

All that lead her to abuse dust at a point the her capacieties where enhaced enough to call the Academy attention.