Wow, so many serious factions created as an 'experiment of the endless'~ :P

Here's one which is a bit more light hearted.



The Wayfarers



History



During the Reclusion, the Endless passed worlds by, glancing curiously down, while the watchers waited and weighed and contemplated from their observation posts. Technically the star had a designated identification code QST-8902331, and the planet, being the third was poetically named QST-8902331-III. A frozen and unremarkable planet, it received some initial terraforming before the operation was drastically scaled back after the unfortunate incidents on Kyros, but that left it... seeded.



Creatures based on the genetic templates of the great white snow creatures on Tor, initially envisioned as worker beasts with some primitive intelligence spliced in to facilitate receiving orders, the herds were cultured and dispersed on the surface of the planet with the overriding directive; make it bloom.



The Endless eventually lost interest, stalled out on the colossal red tape surrounding planetary colonization and the moon base (a volunteer effort at best) was soon deserted. The herds remained though, and they remembered.



Slowly, the fragmented tree farms, carefully tended and maintained spread and as time passed the woods became forests and the herds celebrated, their trumpeting calls singing out beneath the trees. The herds remembered the moving stars of The Endless as their ships passed through the system in their Lifesongs, passed from herd to herd as they roamed their world. They remembered the tree seeds, entrusted to them.



...and they realized that having made Qsteightnineohtuthreethreeonethree bloom, it was time to report back.



Carefully they picked apart the holy remnants of the old times and learnt the secrets of space flight and in a mad dash sent their emissaries to the orbiting moon; only to find it empty. All that remained in the archives was a series of still images received and recorded on that remote outpost of the dust wars. Worlds put to the torch. Machine worlds where no organic thing survived. The virtuals and the concretes fighting, and everywhere trees burning.



Returning to Qsti, the great leader Paratuuuuumbliiuu passed these tidings on to the herds and as one they raised their trunks and trumpeted in unified purpose. The Endless had passed, and in their wake left a million dead worlds. It would be up to them to make those worlds bloom again!



History - Part II - Recent History



The name 'The Wayfarers' comes from the fact that they do not colonize planets; they settle there and terraform the planet until the compatible, then they pack up and leave; essentially a nomadic specifies drifting from place to place leaving empty welcoming planets behind them for whoever finds them.



For this reason they are welcomed by their somewhat puzzled set of contemporaries.



When they first drifted into occupied space and declared a set of massive terrforming projects, many factions were upset, and a number of fierce battles were fought over the issue. However, when, after a modestly short period of time they delcared the projects a success one by one and simply left, providing new colonizable planets, most opposition drifted away with them.



These days the Wayfarers are thought of as eccentric do-gooders, and largely tolerated despite their complete inability to comprehend tactical borders and restricted space containment.



Description



The Wayfarers are the a herd species, primarily focused on terraforming worlds to match the "original" standard of Tor, the lost homeworld of The Endless. They have little interest or skill in manufactured items, but delight in finding new worlds to 'fix' and have a series of rapid dispatch ships to search for new worlds and are heavily focused on biotech.



Homeworld



Terran? (NB. I'm not actually sure; what ever Tor was; Its not entirely clear to me from the history)



Afflication



Good



Visual & Style



Woolly mammoths with two trunks that wear flowers and talk in poetry about the Lifesong incomprehensibly during diplomatic communications.



Flowers braided in their fur and elaborate tribal hair styles.



Their eyes are deep and blue, showing the influence of the gene-splicing from The Endless that originally granted them sentience.



Affinity



Just day dreaming here, but ideally: The ability to de-colonize a planet into a mega-colony-ship once it has been completely teraformed.



Traits



Terraformed Planet Negative A', B', C' -16

// The Wayfarers obvious settle on the worlds that need the most work



Tolerant Positive 25% 20

// ...and they can settle anywhere



Optimistic Positive 20 15

Growth Plan Positive 10 15

// They grow quickly



Fearless Warriors Positive 2 12

Hunger for battle Negative -10% -6

// They don't look for fights, but they'll fight hard to defend their planets



Naive Positive 16 10

Symbiosis Positive _30 15

Diplomats Positive 50% 15

// They're good at coming across as weird, kind of harmless.



Comments



It'd be pretty awesome if you had a victory condition which was: terraformed all planets for this race.



This might sound like a dumb race to play if you a gun-head who likes blowing things up, but there's something to be said for a fleet that drops into the system, colonizes every planet on the system, terraforms them, then picks up and moves onto the next system with it's colossal herd ships, while sending lovely messages full of poetic nonsense to the other players. <3

Name

A’Ten (pronounced ah-ten)



Visual Style

Physical appearance

Bipedal with stocky limbs with articulated digits on both arms and legs. 3 long and flexible digits on both hands and feet. Vague reptilian features with a grey gravel texture to the skin (rough and hard). 3 eyes on each side of the head (arranged in a tight triangle) with 3 bony spurs at the back of the head.





As their body is based on silicon, the addition of artificial implants and prosthetics have come easily and most individuals have some form of artificial augmentation on their bodies. This may come in the form of replacement or extra limbs, miscellaneous technology grafted to the face or torso.



Architecture/design

As with their bodies, the buildings and ships of the A’Ten are built with the number 3 and tringles as their core themes. Tall spires arranged in triangles with the buildings clustered on the points, communication arrays, weapon ports, and engines all built in 3s.



Very little subtlety is used in their designs. Large buildings and bulky equipment. Cleary marked access ports and unit designations covering entire sides of ships. Efficient and practical is the name of the game.



Story

As the endless explored the universe around them, they came across a world that harboured life based on silicon, not carbon. Little more than base plants and a smattering of simple animal life existed at the time but none the less, the endless constructed a temple on the orbiting moon so that they could watch.

Shortly after construction on the temple was complete, there was a disaster that destroyed the temple and the moon that it was built on. For centuries rubble rained from the skies but with it came Dust and with the Dust came change.

The primitive life that once struggled for a foothold began to thrive. The A’Ten rose from a mistake of the endless and they grew, and as they grey they built. The more they built, the more they were able to build and in this, their meaning for being was found.



The A’Ten are a silicon based life form created from simple life that was contaminated by Dust. The micro-machines left their mark on the life that evolved after the destruction of the Endless temple, it left the desire to organise, to replicate and to build.

At first glance the A’Ten may seem to follow similar lines to the Cravers however this is not the case. The Cravers consumer everything untill there is nothing of worth left The A’Ten however, seek to take the raw materials of the universe and organise them into something more, into universe where everything is in its place, into perfection.



Affinity

Building and industry (refelcted in traits)



Allignment

Nuetral.

 

Traits:

Economy

Merchants -3

The minds of the A'Ten are as different from other races as their silicon structure is to their carbon counterparts. Finding common ground for trading is difficult.



Terraformed Planet (negative anomaly) -6

Their home world has been damaged by a past catastrophe.



Population

Optimistic 15

A common goal amongst the population lends itself to order and happiness.



Crowded planets 20

The Dust that birthed them has driven the A’Ten to build highly organised cities with densely packed population centres.



Science

Tolerant 20

Their silicon nature makes the A’Ten highly resistant to different environmental conditions.



Scientists -8

The inborn desire to build has resulted in a society that does not think “outside the box”. Innovation is a difficult concept for the A’Ten.



Building

Builders 24

Militarists 16

The Dust wrote the desire to build into their very nature.



Total points: 78

I Love *____*

I absolutely love the Wayfarers, Shadowmint! I think they and my moldy dudes could be friends~ They could fly around the universe and make it bloom! What can I say; that's probably the only way I'd play if such a race/victory condition were added.



Dubb - Is the reference to A'ten also a reference to Akhenaten? Either way, nice to see a faction of builders! I also like the description of their equipment and tech design.

Alright, i updated my faction a bit. Here's the latest part





The Faction



Race: TimCORP



Background: Ancient starfarers from many other galaxies, they have been travelling space since humanity was in the cradle of birth. While humanity was in the industrial revolution, the TimCORP where unlocking many secret technologies while they where in the long war between them and an other faction, which they won over. Cruel, smart, and brutal, they won't be shy to use every means nessecary to decimate their opponents, but thos who are clever enough to for alliances with them will find that they gain more than they wanted, if they are of worth to the TimCORP.





Affinity: Quick Reactions: They react extremly quickly to anything they see as a threat or something that needs to be taken care of (Grants extra fleet speeds (including warp) when in a war with other factions)



Visual: Args! I don't have the sufficent skills to draw something nicley (I need an artist.)



Visual in words: They look like your ordinary human, expect for that they are slightly taller, and their genetic codes are different from humans. The genetic code difference is used by TimCORP biological weapons to identify a viable enemy host, which means that TimCORP biological weapons can be used on TimCORP planets, since the virus won't kill TimCORP pepole.



Traits:



Scientists: their technology gives them huge advantages. +30% in science per system. Cost: 45 points.

Businessmen: They gain +10% dust per starsystem. Cost: 15 points.

Militarists: Their need to test everything trice takes twice the amount of resources nessecary. Gives them also better ships.. +20% Industry cost for ship production. Cost: -8 points.

Strong Alloys: Their ships use special material for construction. Makes them incredibly durable. +30% max hp/ship. Cost: 20 points.

Diplomats: Grants them better understandings with other factions. +25% ai positive behavior.

-25% ai negative behavior. (With ai)

+25% dust per trade route with players.

Terraformed planet: The homeplanet starts out with bad soil. Cost: -5.

Builders (negaive) +10% industry cost for system improvements and planetary infrastructures when being constructed. Cost: -4

Optimal Structure: The improved bulheads of ships leave little room for cargo. -10% storage per ship. Cost: -5

Masters of destruction: -25% industry cost on weapons mods. Cost: 10



Total points: 74

Just a short Question: Is there an Limit for how many Faction a single Person can create?

Alucard1986 wrote:
Just a short Question: Is there an Limit for how many Faction a single Person can create?

For the competition it should be one. Was that way for each hero creation competition, at least.

The Kürmeus.



Story:

The Kürmeus is not very friendly to other races, they are "nationalists" and do only trust other races if they are forced to trust them.

The reason that the Kürmeus don't trust other races is that they once got betrayed and enslaved, however they made a revolt and broke free from their chains and fled from the planets they were located on.

They fled to their home planet, a planet that is full of mountains and sand named "Ürlain".

When they had rebuilt their home they started to use cloning to clone themselves to be able to expand fast and they also started to build ships to create a large navy.

With their new navy they started to conquer nearby planets and enslaved the natives.

The Kürmeus had risen and they were back for revenge, their goal is to destroy any navy that is brave enough to cross their way if however they fail they will die with pride!



Visual: human sized lizards without tail on 2 legs with sand on their back, tentacles growing from the head and a grey/black tint on them.



Traits:

(+15)Cloning: Level 3, +1 food per planet having a base production lower or equal to all planets.

(+10)Big fleets: +1 CP max per fleet.

(+5)Rebellion: +40% ownership gain per star system.

(+5)Terraformed Planet: Homeplanet rich on minerals:

(+24)Militarists: -30% industry cost for ships when being constructed.

(+30)Scientists: +20% Science per star system.

(-6)Heroic Medicine(Neg): +80% Dust cost for Hero healing

(-10) Eternal War(Neg): At was with all factions, no Diplomacy avaible.

damn auto log out ate my post -.-



gonna repost sometime else when I got it safe in notepad...

Cryterons



History:



At the peek of the Endless civilization, a silicon based life form was created. The creation of this life form was purely based on a bet between two



Experientialists as a challenge to make lifeforms that lived on rock alone. Once created this life form lived on over the ages and evolved into the



Cryterons.



Physical Description:



These silicon rock like creatures have no defined internal organs aside from the crystal that forms what would best be discribed as a brain. The brain crystal itself ranges from a size of 3 cubic feet to 1 cubic foot. While it is always growing the brain crystal will split around 3 cubic feet and each part of becomes a new Cryteron.



The body of a Cryteron is more like a shell. The Cryteron conciousness is just the crystal itself, but that crystal is able to manipulate the stringy slime it creates to move minernals around it. When a Cryteron needs to complete a task it will form apendages for that task. If a Cryteron needs a third arm to hold a large bulkhead up, then it will make one from it's center mass. If it needs to see in the far distance it will create a 2nd eye stalk to see depth.



The rock like look comes from the brain crystal always wanting a solid food supply as well as protection. So they commonly will keep the rocks with them, as they evolved the rocks became a form of communication, decoration, and symbols of status in their culture.



In terms of pure age, the Cryteron have been very slow to move into being a space fairing race. It was only recently that they have evolved to a state that allowed them to think beyond the mundane. Even now compared to most races these "rock heads" are very slow to grasp any kind of new technology and in general tend to use what they already know how to do.



Visual Style:







lol, no. They look more like a mass of jelly with a crystal deep inside. Then around that would be rocks of all sizes that are used to create appendages when needed.



As for ship design they would have a lot of pointed edges with large hunks of rocks built into the hull.





Affinity and traits:



(+) Preferred Projectile Weapons: -10% tons on projectile weapons

(++) Great Builders: +20% to production

(++) Hardened Shells: +2 Ground combat due to having natural armor

(++) Natural camouflage: +1 Ground combat and +1 Spying from be able to blend naturally

(+++) Eats anything: All planets have +2 food per population



(-) Preferred Projectile Weapons: +10% tons on beam and missile weapons

(--) Diplomatically Short sighted: When dealing with other races, any diplomatic benefits are halved

(---) Slow to adapt: -30% Science

Eaters of the Dead



History



During the Dust Wars, on a particularly prosperous Concrete planet, the Virtuals let loose a plague of destructive Dust, because of the size of the planet the Concretes had time to attempt to counteract this by counter releasing a huge amount of Dust programed to repair. While this stopped the Virtuals from completely destroying the world's infrastructure the resulting chaos that ensued made it so the Concretes had to abandon the planet, leaving behind empty cities that were perpetually being torn down as they were being rebuilt.



As time passed the infrastructure and dust devolved, and then evolved, into a mechanical form of life: plant like stationary leach mining fabricators, herbivore like mobile harvesters, and predator like mobile deconstructors, along with all sort of other types of life, every niche imaginable.



When the Endless had left they had not taken all biological life with them and a small but viable bio ecosystem remained. As both the bio and the mech ecosystems evolved, neither interacted very much for a great deal of time. Occasionally a predator from one or the other would mutate and attempt to prey on the other type of life, this however invariably led to a dead end. Eventually a species of mechanicals developed the habit of infesting dead biologicals to use as a form of camouflage to hunt other mechanicals, this was highly successful and led to a fully parasitic evolutionary line that infested live biological organisms some species even became able to hijack the organisms full neural system, including the brain.



When some sophants landed on that planet and became infested with a species of neural hijacking mechanical parasites, the Eaters of the dead were born.



Visually



Eaters of the Dead can look like any sentient biological race. Some will look no different at all, but usually because there has been some damage to the bodies they are infesting the underlying mechanical organism will be apparent through the wounds. Imagine Terminator with some synth flesh missing but instead of a smooth steel skeleton you see a mechanical underlay that looks grown not manufactured(Think like the inside of 2001: A Space Odyssey androids).



Affinity



Bizarre Life (Switched Food/Industry)

Eaters of the Dead can not use purely mechanical technology as their natural ecology consumes it because of this they primarily use biotech, including bio mechanical ships. This along with their diet of refined mehanicals makes it so the race uses Industry as food/growth and uses Food for production.



No Tech Trading

Because all their technology is extremely specific to themselves they can not receive or give technology.



Traits



Knowledge Gathering (50)

Eaters of the Dead scavenge after spaceship combat eating their opponents ships and using the biological refuse for bio material in experiments and even infesting the rare whole sophant. This along with their appearance being somewhat zombie like is what led to their name, as others mistakenly believe they eat the dead after battle.



Scientists (-10%)

Biotech tends to be harder to use and often mechanical adjuncts must be used, these must be protected from the Eaters natural mechosphere, which would consuming that technology. This difficulty causes a 10% loss in Science.



Tolerant (25%)

Because Eaters of the Dead are not wholly biological and are not traditionally alive, they can live in extreme conditions easily.



Terraformed Planet(A,B,C)

Eaters of the Dead start on the ruins of an Endless planet.



Growth Plan(20%)

Biotech may be hard to research but it is very easy to produce.



Total



Knowledge Gathering (50)

Scientists (-10%)

Tolerant (25%)

Terraformed Planet(A,B,C)

Growth Plan(20%)



10+(-8)+20+18+30=70

I see that multiple Silicon based lifeforms have already been suggested the A'Ten (/#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/13099-official-amplitude-studios-endless-space-faction-creation-competition) and Cryterons (/#/endless-space/forum/28-game-design/thread/13099-official-amplitude-studios-endless-space-faction-creation-competition)



I don't see why we can't have multiple, so here's mine:



Faction:

The Lithoids (Stone-like in texture, appearance or other characteristic.)



Story:

The planet of the Lithoids was once home to the Endless, but a cataclysmic event, likely related to experimentation with Dust, basically turned the planet inside out. After fully becoming a Magma planet, the Dust caused the silicon life form to evolve, and eventually the Lithoids came into existence. The Lithoids are a relatively young race, but they somehow retain knowledge from the Endless, perhaps through undiscovered properties of Dust.



Now the Lithoids have heard the call of the Harmony, and are looking to the stars, to figure out what this is, and also claim all the Dust they can get. (Economic/Conquest Victory).



The void between stars is a dangerous place for a Lithoid, whose core temperatures range from 800 to 1200 Celsius. If their temperature drops below this, they get stoned. (Their term for dead)

As a result of this, any planet with a cold atmosphere (anything below 50 C), is directly lethal to them.



When first encountered, the Lithoids were formless, but they are shapeshifters, able to melt their outer layer of "skin" and reform it into any form they wish. This allows them to use tools, in some cases after long training, they are their own tool.



Visual Style:

Lithoids are shapeshifters, and can recreate nearly any form, but always keep a grey rocky look if not in the shapeshifting process. While changing appearance, they turn bright orange, nearly yellow.

Their ships look much like oval dried rocks of Magma.



Traits:

Silicoid: (Silicon based life forms, which consume Industry and Dust instead of Food. Costs 60 points)

(This will not fit in with the current sets of traits, and you will need to create a new one to fit this race)

* Starting planet - Magma

* Starts with Colonize Magma and Desert.

* No planet type population penalty (All planets have same population max as if it was a Tier 1 planet)

* Planets of type Gas and Asteroid have -25 approval rating.

* Planets of type Ocean and Arctic have -20 approval rating.

* Planets of type Jungle, Tundra and Terran have -15 approval rating.

* Planets of type Arid and Barren have -10 approval rating.

* Planets of type Desert has -5 approval rating.

* Planets of type Magma are neutral.

* Do not produce Food.

* Eats 1 Industry and 1 Dust / population.

* Population growth is similar to other races, but based on (Industry+Dust)/2 instead of Food.



Dust Recyclers ++ (+20 dust/destroyed CP in battle you win. Affinity to Dust makes for effective reclaiming. 20 points)

Power Masters -- (+50% dust cost for hero abilities. Affinity to Dust increases Dust needed to get same effect. -4 points)



Anamoly: Dust Storage + (Planet has abundant amounts of Dust. 5 points)



Eternal War - (Their lifeform is so different, other races do not know how to communicate with them. -10 points)



Militarists --- (Constructing Lithoid ships is a very ineffective process, as it generally involves ejecting massive amounts of Magma into space. +30% ship construction costs. -12 points)

Strong Alloys ++ (The very same construction methods, makes very solid ships. +30% Max HP per ship. 20 points)



Bonuses: 60 + 20 + 5 + 20 = 105

Penalties: -4 - 10 - 12 = -26

Total: 105 - 26 = 79





This race will also need its own Techs, and would benefit from a change in the research tree layout. (Their wishes in planet colonization research is different from others).



New Techs:

This race could get a Research for "Moon Deconstruction" -> You can research Moon Deconstruction, a tech that allows you to entirely deconstruct Moons, and gain a one time benefit of Dust, destroying the moon in the process. Located deep in the Economy tree.

All techs and buildings for Food should get removed. (Exact implementation may be between leaving empty research nodes, or just changing the tree layout)

They also need new techs to improve their Dust income, to make up for the fact they cannot make trade routes.





How does this race play?

By now I'm sure you already can understand it. You want planets nearly in reverse from other races, and you want to terraform everything down to Magma. This should in my opinion produce a very interesting late game. Imagine ending up in a 3 way war with Lithoids and Cravers. Everything is depleted or Magma.

wrycage wrote:
The Wol Commune



Background



The Wol are a race that evolved out of sight of the stars, and the Endless, beneath the waters of their ocean world. Their physiology reflects this, with their large eyes, tentacles, and lack of lungs. They feed by maneuvering bits of food close to their jaw-less mouths with a tentacle, and then gulp in the food item along with any of the surrounding sea water. The Wol do not communicate with sounds, but rather with intricate flashing of bio luminescent organ clusters along their bodies.

The Octopus Overlords awaken!!

The Union

The Ttur first evolved on a continent, Tcha, of their home world. A long lifespan led the Ttur to grow complacent, and a land with no predators led them to be naive. They resolved that time was best spent at leisure than learning or fighting. Each individual would spend the majority of life travelling alone in search of new experiences in nature, until eventually settling in any place of their choosing. They were possessed of a common language and would not shun company, though their view of all things as being transient, as well as a land mostly free of danger, led to a lack of long term associations and governments. For an unknowable length of time, existence continued with little scientific or cultural advancement, each perfectly happy with their own existence.

Eventually however, certain young Ttur became anxious of what lay beyond the vast body of ocean surrounding their continent and managed to create a rudimentary ship, in which they could explore. When they arrived on a distant coast they found it to be much less agreeable than their home, with predators easily picking off individuals, Ttur began to form covenants with one another in the name of mutual defence, and began advancing technologically. The new land however took its toll and lives became much shortened, memory of the land of Tcha faded, and they became the H’nuh.

After a time, technological advancement brought the H’nuh back to Tcha. The Ttur welcomed the H’nuh and the two began a mutual existence. Together the two species turned their efforts to the stars, seeking, they knew not what.

Now the Ttur and H’nuh now live in a single society with a single culture, despite the incompatibility of genes. They are a democratic republic interested only in peaceful exploration of space in order to experience anything different to what they have already seen. Other advanced races think them naive, though as they would be useless as slaves (as poor in stature) claim little territory, and pose no significant threat they are generally allowed to go about their business unhindered. They are little interested in colonizing or trading; only desiring peace and safe travel through diplomacy, in order to further their experience.

The reality however, is a little different. During the period of separation, a meteorite sized artefact of the Endless, fell upon Tcha, the Ttur witnessing this event went to investigate. Ultimately managing to open the container and following their natural inclinations, they proceeded to eat the dust inside, and began to be changed slowly. Several of the ttur who had been most affected by the dust however became dissatisfied with their experiences, and began to use underhanded methods to manipulate other Ttur so they could spend less time on the menial tasks of food gathering and the like. These became known as the Sectum, though only to one another.

The Sectum became increasingly obsessed with the idea of finding more dust, gently encouraging their fellows to seek out strange object on their travels and return it to them; and importantly, to return it, exactly as it was found. Though this was to no avail. Eventually they would find their opportunity, in the H’nuh. The Sectum looked upon their daughter species with contempt, viewing the technology with covetous eyes. They sowed the seeds of curiosity amongst the others, encouraging them to explore the stars and increase their own field of experience.

Since mastering space flight the Sectum have been secretly amassing large quantities of dust, while keeping their general population oblivious to its existence through censorship and carefully constructed laws. They use manipulation, shrewd diplomacy to ensure any deal made with another race is in their favour, and to their ends, whilst keeping their true purpose, and themselves hidden behind the politics of the Union. They use the view other races have of the Union to achieve this, and when their preferred routes of manipulation are closed to them, would prefer to assassinate key players rather than turn to open warfare. If forced into open conflict, would appeal to allies for assistance, besides using its own forces. The Sectum use dust to secretly create loyal agents (heroes) who work alone on such missions. Besides the gathering of dust, the Sectum are frantically seeking any artefact of the Endless, but what they hope to achieve is to this point a mystery.



Visual

Ttur: 3-4 foot tall. Kind of like a tortoise (a little less cumbersome) with 2 thin trunks ending in 3 finger like things. Slow moving

H’nuh: 4-5 foot. Thinner, faster, smaller shell

Architecture: Minimalist, reflect patterns in nature, small, can withdraw into shells so never really needed to construct shelter. Large part of inside of ships is devoted to housing plants. Each ship can carry a small secret compartment to house an agent but not visible from outside. Favour cloaking technology. Lots of windows, rely on shields rather than hull integrity.





Affinity:

Dust Obsessed: something along the lines of +5% dust from all sources, but not sure of exact value due to balancing



Traits:

Mutual understanding: +10% weapon mod damage per ally 10pts

Naive: +16 approval per star system for each faction at peace or allied with 10pts

Optimistic: +20 approval bonus per star system 15pts

Diplomats: 50% 15pts

Power Masters: -50% dust cost for hero abilities 6pts

Legendary heroes: +20 Xp for heroes when hired 10pts

Terraformed: planet C guarantee of positive anomaly on starting planet 8 pts

Optimal defence: +10% efficiency per defence mod 10pts

Strong alloys: -15% max hp per ship -5pts

and a couple of other negatives

My Faction



The Shyk'ni



History and Classes:

The Shyk'ni evolved at a giant planet full of Jungles more rich in species than any known planet. Grown up on a planet full of flesh-eating plants and giant predators the evolution donated them extremely hardened chitin -plates to save their internal organs from all the different poisons created by all the creatures and plants of their homeworld. Reared by the first intelligent species on their planet, called Kusch'ro, the Shyk'ni were used for digging mines, fight to the death in coluseums or just like the human race keeps dogs as pets. They were first breeded to make armor of their naturally hardened exoskeleton as the Kusch'ro lived in tribes comparable to the early humans. Later on as their masters revealed the secrets of electricity, gunpowder and cannons the Shyk'ni were used to maintain supply-routes by carrying heavy weapons and ammunition. Split into proud nations, whose names were composed by the name of the tribe of their origin, the Kusch'ro began to supress their brothers and fight eachother with devastating weapons. When they build the first weapons of mass destruction their end approached. The biggest nations called Diz'nai and Wes'arkay were at war since years when the Diz'nai used a nuclear weapon which detonated kilometers above the athmosphere. The gammarays sent out by the detonation overloaded the energy system on the planet. That threw the Kusch'ro back into the stone age. Weakened by their own technology they became extinct. The Shyk'ni were free. Thousands of years passed while the evolution created more and more foes for them. But the Shyk'ni didn't stop to evolve and they became a sort of swarm consensus. Different mutations of their race worked together and created tunnelsystems spreading over up to 100 kilometers.

They specialized in living in groups so the mutation became more and more specific. Caused by an experiment of the endless big masses of dust entered the home tunnels of the Shyk'ni. Under the influence of the dust Queens, Warriors, Drones, Workers and Farmers established in the rank system. Having a completely different biology the "classes" took exercises in their own sections. Queens were scaled on breeding and growing the population while drones were the strongest warriors and had to fertilise the queen so she could breed Workers, Warriors and Farmers. Warriors build 15% of the population and their purpose was to defend the tunnels from invaders. Accounting for 40% of the Shyk'ni people the Farmers carry the biggest burden by farming mushrooms and cattle. This cattle is represented by 5meter long worms whose "milk" is the biggest origin of proteins that the swarm can get. Otherwise they drink the juice from the roots of bigger trees. 20% are Workers who dig new tunnels and nestchambers. The elitary fighters of the Shyk'ni called drones are just 10% while the biggest and most important Queens which bear drones to build tunnels. When the queen is fertilized it will pull off her hard chitin plates to make more room for her abdomen to have more space for eggs. They are only 5% of the population. When the Shyk'ni started to make the exploration of the space their greatest wish they fastly invented the first spaceships built with stone parts and they experimented whether they could plant some of the plants they grew down the tunnels on this stone parts so the ships would resupply themselves. The technology of their ex-masters helped them very much so they invented a system how to let the roots withstand the low gravity and the missing oxygen. Under these conditions the Shyk'ni were able to build cheap chips which were also self-maintaining. The first colonies of them were hermetic sealed bunkers on the moon of the planet. Tunnels filled with Shyk'ni feared of the missing athmosphere and provided by underground nuclear reactors. Of course this plan didn't work so they were forced to evacuate 10.000 people from the moon.

The Shyk'ni invented terraforming systems, new sealing systems and they searched their jungles for high-productive athmosphere building plants. And they found it: Ra'tosh Moss. This plant is a very fast growing moss which became the most important ressource used for colonization an ship engineering. Adapted to the poisonous plants of their home the Shyk'ni planted native flora on their ships to prevent them from being captured, abandon life support systems and to have supplies on their ships so they wouldn`t have to resupply on planetary stations. Down to the present day the Shyk'ni didn't change the main design of their fleet they only modernized some parts.



Culture

Being a race with a swarm consensus the Shyk'ni are very good at exercises which require teamwork and complex planning. In the culture of them there is no I there is only a We. Everybody does the work he is best at so the whole colony makes profit of it. It is like a human ideology called "communism" but in contrast to the communism it works. Everybody earns the same wage represented by food and water. The Shyk'ni feel no need of luxury goods the only things they need is the things keeping them alive. In the event of war the whole monarchy is bound by their genes to save the queen with their lives. Fanatism that was never seen in any races` behavior.





Visual

The Shyk'ni are an Insect Race (6 legs) whose forward legs evolved into hands with three fingers to hold guns. The different monarchies established many skincolours but the oldest monarchie under the oldest and biggest queen called Sovereign by the forces of the United Empire has the purple colour which also represents the hole Shyk'ni as a race. They have tentacle as mandibles and they are covered with a sort of spit. I´m searching for somebody to draw them.



1. They don`t need ressources any luxuries they don`t need dust.-30% dust per system -24

2. Evolution worked very well on them. Terraformed planet. +18

3. Very ambitious Queens and Farmers. +30% food per system. +45

4. Hardened in the fires of a carnivore planet. +20 approval bonus. +15

5. The Shyk'ni are clever but they are still insects. -20%science per system. -16

6. Swarming. +2Fleet size. +25

7. Fanatism. +2ground defense. +12

8. Tunnel Systems. +80% ownership gain. +10

9. Everybody gets the same treatment. heroic medicine-80%. -6



I´m open for every constructive critics

Your idea with the organic faction sounds good for me because I would like to have an insect race like this in the game

My Faction -



Name : The Xen



Background :



A product of the virtuals civilisation, the Xen was designed to be the final answer to the problem of mortality, namely how to live in a physical form without suffering the ravages of age, machine sentient beings that could be piloted by a 'soul-controller' hosted within the frame. Each Xen is little more than a highly sophisticated technological shell, ready for a soul, little more than an ephemeral mass of energy, to enter it and bring it to life. The advantages were obvious, virtuals retained their distinct personalities and were unburdened from the shackles of ageing, allowing them not only to enjoy the fruits of their labour, but to be able to reside in effectively invulnerable bodies, walking on terrain and planets that would be otherwise uninhabitable.



During the dust wars, a few virtuals took the final step of allowing themselves to be transformed into literal code, code that now can self modify, adapt and be cloned to pilot the many empty Xen husks that remained. Only one soul-controller remains, and this controller has ascended to a form of godhood within the society, the Xen were forgotten long ago, artifacts from the time of the Endless, now they return, and they will be remembered.



Appearance :



Without the need to consider aesthetics or the environment, Xen designs are unitary and functional, hovering cylinders with multiple arms that allow them to work on several tasks at once, as well as being pre-fitted with weaponry, one might have considered them to be the ultimate incarnation of "Daleks" had Dr. Who not exterminated them.



Ship Appearance :



In much the same manner, Xen ships are fairly featureless and smooth, dark slabs of metal that only glisten among the stars, moving near silently until they are ready to strike, the sides of the ships literally "opening up" and creating walls of firepower that can be unloaded on the target in a matter of seconds.



Traits :



Xen special trait : Xen do not use food, their systems are instead tuned toward industry output and the creation of code through constant scientific development. As a direct result FIDS values are in effect shuffled - Food becomes Dust (For trade), Industry becomes Food (they rely on parts to self manufacture), Science becomes Industry (code allows them to inhabit larger structures such as ships) and Dust becomes Science (through a constant system of micropurchasing technology elements, research is not so much conducted, as it is borrowed from other races and adapted). Additionally Xen cannot be affected by approval modifiers in either direction, they cannot be happy, nor can they be on strike.



This race starts with no pre-gained technologies.



Lesser traits :



Self managing networks (Merchants positive : + 2 trade routes / Cost : 12)

Adaptive Trading (Blockade breakers / Cost : 6)

Food ignorant ( Growth plan negative : -30% / Refund : 24 )

Optimised planetary distribution ( +2 pop on tiny and small, +1 pop on medium : Cost 20)

Robotic Colonists ( Tolerant : FIDS penalty of 25% : Cost 20 )

Rapid prototyping ( Militarists : -20% cost / Cost : 16 )

Enhanced Command and Control ( Big fleets +1 / Cost : 10)

AI Defence subroutine ( +10 efficiency on def mods / Cost : 10 )

Automated financial speculation ( Dust Recycler : +20 per CP / Cost : 10 )



Final Point Cost : 80

Thank you, Dr0m

waitingtoconnect wrote:
The Octopus Overlords awaken!!

They come from beneath the waves AND beyond the stars!



Really though, I imagine them less as lovecraftian horrors and more like octopi living in an idealistic communist sort of system. I want to make a race that got away from the standard anthropoidal body shape, and a direct focus on industry and cultural cohesion, since none of the other races already in the game fit that role exactly.

I was writing for days to create my race and now i read the others and it looks like i stole everything from you I really didn't sorry if it looked so