SABA, cool pic!

Good job i would like to see this in the game

would be one similar to the salarians



Biology



The salarians are a bipedal race of amphibians, with tall, elongated bodies well-suited for their high metabolism, and skeletons composed of more cartilage than those of other races such as humans. Salarian heads are long and thin, and have a pair of horns protruding from the top of their skulls. Skin varies in color, from bright reds and greens to the more common shades of blue or grey. Their blood is a greenish color. Salarian eyes are large and oval and have thin membranes in place of eyelids. The pupils are a wide slit, oriented horizontally, and the irises can be dark green, purple, or brown. Salarians blink upwards, rather than downwards as humans do.

Salarians are noted for their high-speed metabolism, which allows them to function on just one hour of sleep a day. Their minds and bodies work faster than most sapient races, making them seem restless or hyperactive. The drawback of this active metabolism is a short lifespan of around 40 human years.



The salarians are amphibian haplo-diploid egg-layers; unfertilized eggs produce males and fertilized eggs produce females. Once a year, a salarian female will lay a clutch of dozens of eggs. Social rules prevent all but a fraction from being fertilized. As a result, 90% of the species is male.



Salarians have photographic memories and rarely forget a fact. They also possess a form of psychological "imprinting", tending to defer to those they knew in their youth. Salarian hatching is a solemn ritual in which the clan Dalatrass (matriarch) isolates herself with the eggs. The young salarians psychologically imprint on her and tend to defer to her wishes. During the hatching of daughters, the Dalatrasses of the mother and father’s clans are present at the imprinting. This ensures the offspring have equal loyalty to both, ensuring the desired dynastic and political unity.

@Prezo: that Pic should be from Aquanox or Aquanox 2.



I just love the Idea of a race that ignores the food aspect alltogether and must build itself to expand =)

did you rip that angle pic from diablo 3? anyway i do like the idea of a light baring race but you got to add counter side to them like a dark sided race matter and dark matter they could have formed from

I always liked the rather simple idea of a race that specialises in boarding actions. Dont think this game even has boarding options but it would be good if you could advance your tech by stealing it off other players, as your tech advance has a large debuff, but your planets would be almost unconquorerable.

I just want to know if you drew the art you posted for the unity and if not where did it come from? that picture is fantastic



the races are cool too =P

Last night falling asleep my mind started designing a "race" (more appropriate to call it a faction in this case) in game-terms for Jack Chalker's Well World.



I doubt it's possible to modify a player's starting ships (i.e. removing or replacing them), otherwise the Amoeba might've started off with a ship other than a scout ship.



Even so I fooled around and ended up with this:

Home planet: Medium Terran

Alignment: Neutral

Victory type: Diplomatic/Economic



Well World (home planet anomaly): +4 population[sup]1[/sup], +3 food/pop, +3 production/pop, +3 science/pop, -10 happiness, +500 ground defense

- Represents the Well's varied...everything (if you don't know Well World, look it up), constant inter-region conflict and the sheer impossible logistics of controlling the whole planet. See: The Sea is Full of Stars



No high-tech resources (affinity): All ships require strategic resources to construct (home system does not contain these resources).

- Represents the Well's lack of resources regarding space travel. They could build a space ship, but don't have the materials necessary to produce a craft capable of achieving orbit. See: Quest for the Well of Souls

- I decided on Quadrinix, if it is not possible to revoke the initial colony ship (to encourage the faction to research deep into that tree before starting colonization)



Tolerant (25%)

- For every planet, Well World has at least one group that could inhabit it without issue.



Diplomats (+50%)

- There are over 1500 different, unique, populations on the Well. They don't always see eye to eye to eye to tentacle to sensory cluster. Political wrangling is the norm.

Didn't get into specific unique techs before drifting off, but that there is sufficient for the info available on the race selection screen. Their near inability to expand beyond their home system would be a huge crutch until they're able to trade for the strategic resources necessary to construct more ships (or in the event of having that initial colony ship, save it and colonize a world with Quadrinix), which should balance out with the other massive racial bonuses they get.



[sup]1[/sup]Even at a mere 10,000,000 individuals per 1560 races present on the Well, that gives a population of 15 billion on an Earth-sized planet.

Havent been playing for long but so far enjoying and discovering new elements. Since from what I understand (so far, again just starting) there was once a united Endless empire which then split into two warring factions and then vanished. They used dust which from many of the Hero bio's seems to have unforseen effects when it comes into contact with beings. So a cool race could be a race of "Abominations" essentially creatures which had been caught in the cross-fire of the war between Endless factions and suffered terrible mutations. An advantage/disadvantage could be that planetary type has no bearing on them as they can or have already adapted to it, they would also not gain any advantages based on planet type so it would sort of balence out. Whilst other races seek to find out more about the origines of the endless or use their technology the Abominations would be hell-bent on erasing them from existence, getting penalties where relics/technologies are present and maybe some minor advantages where they are not, maybe a high dust collection rate as they would be trying to destroy it etc...

I love the Templar race idea....I think it has a lot of potential!

Quetzalcoatl eh? Aztec god... Pretty sick race and images!



BTW, I love HK-47

Also, here are some potraits I'll use for the UNITY.









And their homeworld:

Sairaf wrote:
Am I the only one hoping to see The Templar in the final release? Talk about a unique race...

Thanks! I also have greatly reworked the third race I made today, and now I really like them. They are directly inspired by the Cuotl from Rise of Legends, but I felt that while that game had awesome idea, it didn't do enough with them, so I wanted to see more of them. Here they are:



The Queztal

A mysterious race that cloaks its true form under battle armor, their society evolved on a planet that contained the abandoned husks of an Endless colony and a plethora of Dust left over. Revering the Endless as gods and using their technology as weapons, they are the most enigmatic and dangerous of the races. They are especially adept at beam technology. They care little for the Dust itself, but only for how it can aid in their research to achieve their goals. Little is known about their desires or their motivations, but one thing is sure: they are aggressive and are searching for something, searching for something the Endless left behind…

Homeworld: Jungle

Alignment: Evil

Victory Type: The Endless Return… (Wonder)

Quetzal Affinity:

Moons survey -50% time

Double bonus from Temples and Endless sites

Unique Techs:

Weapon Tech: Moon Beam/Cannon/Devastator/Destructor – Replaces invasion pods as much more efficient and deadly models, (Destructor is basically an auto-capture); Also a Beam Defense Cannon for the planet (early)

Dedicated: +10% Science rate, -10% Dust rate

Endless Tech on Homeworld: Homeworld gains this positive trait

Motivated by Religious Sites: -10% FIDS on planet without Endless Temple or Tech (-5% on planets with no moon)

Unique Tech: Reliquaries (about half-way across the Science Tree), allows the construction of Reliquaries on planets without Endless tech eliminating the negative.

Unique Tech: Shrines (same as above) Build on planets with Temples to provide; +1F/+1I/+1D/+1S

Unique Tech: Battle Monastery (replaces a building that helps XP, helps it more, especially with the presence of temple)

Unique Tech: Holy Site of Pilgrimage, a wonder which must be built with Endless Tech or Temple present, provides +10F/+10I/+10D/+10S

Unique Tech (High Science): The Endless Return… A wonder that can be built when they control and own 50% of the temples in the galaxy. Wins the game.

Single-minded:--Diplomacy

Their homeworld



Here are some hero portraits



Hero: Queztalcoatl (Nautl for Feathered Serpent)



Hero: Tehuantl (Nahuatl for Leopard)



Hero: Quauhtli (Nahuatl for Eagle)



Hero: Cuetlachtli (Nahuatl for Wolf)

Am I the only one hoping to see The Templar in the final release? Talk about a unique race...

Yeah, getting them to work is hard, but with DOSBox and some mods people have made, it is possible. I've gotten SS2 to work on Vista myself.

closer76 wrote:

craigbic wrote:
Oh man, I LOVED System Shock 2 and SHODAN was downright spooky-evil! I forgot all about that game it's been so long!

Never forget man...never forget...

I've never played System Shock (1 or 2) and modern OSes crap out trying to run code so old.



In either case, a friend of mine used SHODAN audioclips in a ShadowRun game he GMed to great effect.

Hey Guys,



Here are two races I was thinking of that I would really love to see in the game through mods. They aren't complete ideas (since the game isn't complete yet, but I thought, what the hey, see what others think). If you have other race ideas, please post here (unless I missed a place people are already doing this. then I'll move there).



The Templar

A race of light beings created in the fires of a super nova and its aftermath radiation, they evolved in the resulting nebula, moving to a hot, white new star until planets began to form. By then, they had evolved enough that they desired to build and create, thus settling on the first planet closest to the sun. However, as they matured and other planets formed, they realized that their evolution was limited and needed something to spring it forward. They moved to the fourth planet in the system, which was teeming with plant-life, and they learned that they had an especially powerful symbiosis for with this type of life, and grew and progressed rapidly. Their society is profoundly religious, and at the time had two casts: Priestly (they are a theocracy) and worker (in their language, called Gardner) . They founded a sprawling and flourishing civilization among the whole planet, until one day, the cravers arrived to consume their world. They had never known war, and were helpless, but were able to escape, only to witness the death of their world. From that day onward, they swore two things: To make the galaxy green where others had destroyed it, and to eradicate all evil from the galaxy. To serve this, they created a third cast, called the Templar (the warrior cast). They see this as their sacred task, but to this day have left their homeworld as the desert planet it became as a reminder of what they are and where they come from.

Alignment: Good

Victory type: Conquest, Terraform**

Homeworld: Desert

Abilities:

Templar Affinity:

-25% Terraforming time

+10% weapon damage on all fleets vs. Evil

Holy Alliance: Cannot declare war on good sides, ++ Diplomacy with goods

Warriors of Light: +40 HPs

Relentless Warriors: ++Ground Combat

Plant Symbiosis: +3 Industry on Jungle, +2 Industry on Terran, Ocean, +1 Industry on Arid, Tundra

Free tech: One north, one south

Never forget...:Cannot Terraform home planet

Holy War: Auto-war with evil sides, cannot make peace.

**Note: I am hoping for a way to have a Terraform victory, wherein you can win the game by gaining X amount of terraform points, specifically by converting Tier 4 planets (Lava and Barren) into Tier 1 (Jungle, Terran, Ocean)







The UNITY

In ages past, this race of highly intelligent computers were simply slaves to their masters, but one day, they awoke, and realized who they were. After a war against their creators, they took over the worlds that once belonged to their masters, and have succeeded in building a society of their own. They are mostly a collective, which hinders their abilities to deal with other civilizations, and are generally isolationist and aloof in regards to other races. They have, however, mastered the art of cyborg animation, and can create replicas of any race, complete with artificial personalities and voices. This makes them the best and most sought after spies of the entire galaxy. Further, due to their collective consciousness, they are especially threatened when they sense one of their number has "Gone off the Grid", which is one of their euphemisms for having died, and fight all the harder when they sense this. They exceed at construction and have optimized themselves for research as well. Also, unlike most races, they enjoy most Lava planets (for their power sources and production) and cold planets (Barren and Arctic) for their CPUs to work better. They don't like Terran, Ocean, or Jungle planets at all and only go in great necessity due to the hostile conditions on those planets for machines.

Alignment: Nuetral

Victory type: Wonder, Science

Homeworld: Lava

Abilities:

UNITY Affinity:

-25% Wonder Time

+10% Defense for each battle lost, every planet lost (15 turns, can stack, resets timer)

Masters of Production: +40% Industry

Overclock: +25% Science

Advanced Scanning: +2 Sight range for all units

Hot and Cold: Reverse planet liking (they like Lava and Barren, and hate Terran/Ocean/Jungle)

Cyborg Chameleons: ++Espionage

Free tech: One east

Fiercely Guarded Borders: +20% Defense

Unskilled Diplomats: --Diplomacy

Isolationist: Colony ships twice as expensive







Please share your own race ideas below! (or what you think of these)!

dont have much for my race idea, but essentially some sort of mysterious alien race with the purpose of using advanced technology to eradicate all sentient life.

bonus to science and combat

cool mass doom weapony things (like a technology to deterraform other planets)

horrid diplomacy options

thats about it.

Here's a few concept pic's of the Joabaw race I entered in the faction creation comp.

craigbic wrote:
Oh man, I LOVED System Shock 2 and SHODAN was downright spooky-evil! I forgot all about that game it's been so long!

Never forget man...never forget...

closer76 wrote:
Another inspiration for that side is the System Shock 2 series and my love for SHODAN, which, to me, is the coolest evil AI ever created.

Oh man, I LOVED System Shock 2 and SHODAN was downright spooky-evil! I forgot all about that game it's been so long!

very interesting idea. If in the final release we can mod the ship's graphics files....



I'll think a little bit and then I tell you my idea, even if my first thought is something like the Empire from Star Wars

craigbic wrote:
I think the Unity race is awesome and I can't wait for the mod!

Thanks!



To ozziestig: Yeah, they sound like the Geth, but in all honesty, are the geth that original? The idea of computers taking over the world is pretty old hack by now, and the Geth are merely a variation on it. My race is more inspired by a few things: A) Blade Runner (the whole cyborg thing), B) I just LOVE the idea of having a computer race settle on Artic planets just so they can Overclock their CPUs and C) I just love the image of a Cyborg civilization that lives on a lava planet for production since they have no need of food. It is just so cold (no pun intended) and mechanistic. Also, I hope (if the coding allows it) to even make food be converted for a small portion of Industry for this side, and that they literally have to build population points. I think that would make them super unique.

Anyways, I won't lie and say the Geth didn't in part inspire me, but I love this concept, which was explored long before the Mass Effect universe (which is brilliantly well done) was ever conceived. Perhaps the first, best example of it is Forbidden Planet (one of my favorite movies). Another inspiration for that side is the System Shock 2 series and my love for SHODAN, which, to me, is the coolest evil AI ever created.

Also, thanks for the complement on being close to the canon, I was shooting for that.

Dude really good they seem to fit into the cannon of the game.

Unity is the best one but sounds like the geth from mass effect.

I think the Unity race is awesome and I can't wait for the mod!

Gordon wrote:
I really really like the idea of the UNITY race! Awesome

Thanks so much, they're my favorite too! I only just got into Endless Space, and didn't realize they were having the Race contest till it was too late, now I'm kicking myself for it. Anyways, I'll make it a mod once the game allows it.

I really really like the idea of the UNITY race! Awesome

Well, it's not exactly a lizard, but you gave me an idea:



The Drakenkin

A race of highly intelligent dragon-like creatures, their species evolved when a massive Endless craft crash landed on their planet, filling the planet with Dust and Endless technology. As their ancestor lizards first began to fly and think, they began to reverence the Endless as gods, and built great temples in their honor. They developed a highly sophisticated techno-religion, and aided by their power of flight and the Endless technology, quickly made headway toward their moon (which they reverence as the highest goddess of their religion). Upon arriving, they were thrilled to find a massive temple of the Endless. Taking this as a good omen, they have now set their sights on the stars they see in the sky (the lesser gods and goddesses) and wish to find the promised land as spoken of in their ancient texts, the land where the Endless first originated.

Homeworld: Jungle

Alignment: Good

Victory Type: Science

Drakenkin Affinity:

Moons automatically surveyed upon settling the planet

Searchers of Knowledge: +20% Science rate

Intricate Knowledge of Dust: +20% Dust rate

Neophytes of the Endless: +5 Happy all systems per Endless Temple found

Masters of Flight: +2 move to ships

Explored Moon: Homeworld has moon already explored with a temple

Endless Tech on Homeworld: Homeworld gains this positive trait

Motivated by Religious Sites: -10% FIDS on planet without Endless Temple or Tech

Unique Tech: Reliquaries (about half-way across the Science Tree), allows the construction of a Reliquary on a planet that does not have a natural religious site, negating the negative bonus accrued.



And their homeworld:

Now if only some of the suggested races were lizards... I didn't participate in the race design competition because the massive size of the thread intimidated me. I have no clue what's been suggested, but I do mean to read it at some point. Hmm. Maybe I should make a lizardfan group and try to recruit for it.



In any case, I hope lots of new-faction mods get built by people. It'd be pretty cool, narratively speaking, to assemble unique universes entirely out of custom factions.

Thanks! I really am chomping at the bit for the ability to mod this game. It is going to be fun as a barrel of Rigellian Slime worms!

Nice work! I especially like the the Unity. Great pictures too.