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I hate during-dev secrets.
Something amusing I found while mulling this problem: http://everything2.n...?node_id=450281
An exhaustive list of the types of alien race archetypes that science fiction has come up with, from the Steotypical Grey Aliens to the Space Nazis. Also serves as proof that everything I can think of has already been done, several times over.
Current working concept: Short, armadillo-like creatures with six legs who subscribe to a religious system that requires them to attack everybody not a member of their race. Got their hands on some technology accidentally left behind by a more advanced race, and went from a small scale annoyance to a full-blown interstellar nuisance. A spokesman for one of their neighbors said, "They attack us, we destroy them. It seems to make them happy."
This post has been edited by Otter : 19 September 2007 - 08:42 AM
You could always go the way of the Delphi novel series (as yet uncompleted) and create an intelligent race of what are essentially animals if you had to define them, but seem too cunning and full of guile to be simple instinct-driven creatures. Back them with a slight dash of a paranormal element, and you can create a real ambience for them.
Useful generic types of alien races:
Warlike and brutish - use very rusty, industrial tech, with a purely atheist outlook on life.
Intelligent and Contemplative - elegant technology, with a mystical sense about them. Possibly what you could call "partially-transcended".
Intelligent and Cunning - stealthy technology, often elegant, mystical, but perhaps more toward the darker end of the spectrum. May have the ability to communicate with humanity, but either are technologically far above such primitive practices or simply refuse to engage in communication. (Though not alien, see: "Polaris" of EV Nova)
Instinctual and Terrifying - no (apparent) technology, or very difficult to understand tech, purely alien visage and zero capacity for communication with humanity. Highly xenophobic and predatorial. No spiritual aspect about them, but a mood of darkness is always present when they are around; a sense of urgency, if you will. (See: "Alien" quadrilogy)
Intelligent and Terrifying - technology that is rarely seen and/or impossible to describe; these beings seem to just generally "be". Decidedly malevolent toward other life, possibly even each other. Paranormal events may follow in their arrival, such as horrifying sightings and ghostly encounters, aside from the monstrosities they cause themselves.
Purely Mystical - Godlike beings that seem to negate the need for technology, and either communicate with humanity and guide the story along through brief moments of seemingly divine intervention, or are simply glimpsed occasionally. Nobody understands their purpose in depth, only knowing they must be important to the universe.
Combine a few of these elements from the suggestions above, and see what kinda multi-classed aliens you can come up with!
The best races are those that don't fall into the normal stereotypes.
You can have peaceful aliens become hostile through many different ways. Such as breakdown of communication on first contact (accidentally mistranslating "hello" into something about the creature's mother usually ends up with someone shooting somebody), territorial conflicts (that planet is mine!), history (our ancestors speak of a great evil, humans are that evil), or genetics (no mixing of the species!).
Religion is probably the most tacky stereotype, its basically saying you have no good reason at all so you're playing the religion card to cover the fact that you didn't spend the time to work up a decent reason for them to be hostile.
@skyfox, on Sep 22 2007, 10:00 PM, said in Looking for a little inspiration:
accidentally mistranslating "hello" into something about the creature's mother usually ends up with someone shooting somebody
Anyone see Mars Attacks? The aliens say that they come in peace, and a guy lets a dove loose to celebrate and the aliens freak out and invade earth. It was funny.
The Aliens in Ashen Galaxy use religion as an excuse for starting a war with humanity. Their goal is to seize valuable planetary real estate: humans have a number of Terran type worlds that don't require terra forming. These worlds are quite rare and have an astronomical value. There are also several human colonies rich in valuable minerals, and of course, the requisite mysterious alien construct. This gives my aliens plenty of motives. Further, the Aliens aren't a cliched monolithic government. They have a senate with various political parties, one of which favors peace with the humans on the grounds that making war on false pretenses is worse then the war itself. Idealists.
With all that being said, I can't leave out the Raler and the Draklttur, two physically similar races with widely divergent technology and a blood feud. Both races are friendly to the humans, but refuse to discuss their feud with them. One theory that the humans have developed on this subject is that the two enemies have a common ancestor (the Chalce) and consider the other race to be inferior sub-Chalces that must be destroyed.
(/ramble)
Religion is a bit tacky? What did you do in History class? Ever heard of the Crusades? All those other wars started in the name of God (or god, w/e you want to think)? Religion, if not the reason behind a war, usually drives it. Though, understandably, it would be better if you steered from using it unless you could combine it with something else.
Friends, we go to war! Let us appease the gods... ...and pilfer the Pizza Hut down the street.
No. You misunderstand me. The Aliens didn't go to war for religion. They did it for economic purposes. Instead of coming out and admitting this, the Aliens chose to hide behind a flimsy shield of religious rhetoric. Of course, as a human, the player doesn't learn about this until part-way through the main plot line.
Quote
Of course, as a human, the player doesn't learn about this until part-way through the main plot line.
Bwahahahhaahhaa!!!! We have secret knowledge of the future!
In Apophis, The aliens annex earth to protect humanity from a more powerfull alien race which would have destroyed it utterly. I would reveal the reason the greater race is going to destroy earth, but it is meant to be a secret.
A secret. :laugh: Too many secrets.
@zapp, on Sep 22 2007, 08:00 PM, said in Looking for a little inspiration:
Do not mistake OUR history with ALIEN history. Growing up as an entirely different species, and with an entirely different history and understanding of life, "religion" as we think of it would probably not exist for other species.
And besides, everyone has already read our history (well... most everybody), so playing the "religion" card like they've already heard of a million times before bores them. Your audience wants to see/hear something new and refreshing, not something that is repeated every two pages in a history book.
This post has been edited by Skyfox : 23 September 2007 - 07:50 PM
Just make 'em all slavers. That's the idea behind Marathon. They don't even have a religion to speak of-- just a "Pathetically Boring" one that takes no precedence over their lives.
This post has been edited by Cosmic_Nusiance : 23 September 2007 - 09:27 PM
Good aliens should do things for ALIEN reasons. Maybe they think lines are uncrossable. They draw a 'line' around their space systems. Humans cross the line inadvertantly. The result? Humans must die, as long as the aliens don't pursue the humans beyond the line. Maybe a alien fleet does pursue a human fleet beyond the line, and starts a civil war between the 'uncrossable line' faction and the 'conquer the humans' faction. Sound bizarre and stupid? It should, because this bizarre and stupid thing should seem perfectly reasonable to an alien. The possibilities are endless. This is one reason that I haven't made any aliens yet, because it takes a lot of work to make them good.
As a person who is taking a course in Psychological Anthropology, I entirely agree of the above post.
In some cultures the first thing you do when you meet a new person is get angry as piss and start chucking things at them. True story.
Did I mention that upon release AG will become open-source? So when it comes out, feel free to come in and tweak the story-line to suck less. Send me your results, and I may include them.
And that has what to do with aliens?
Also, something occured to me. Religion should not be treated as universal. Religion was a means of explaining stuff like lightning and fire (and yes, there are many political reasons for religion but let's not go into that), because humans have a need of explaining and codifying what we don't understand. Why must we explain what we don't understand? Because we have a fear of the unknown that is probably a survival trait. Aliens probably don't have that, and hence they probably don't have religion.
Another thing. Humans are predominantly tool users. Exclusively. We don't got nothing else. The aliens are more than likely to be tool users too (since they have spacecraft), but they may not specialize in tool using.
@shlimazel, on Sep 25 2007, 11:06 AM, said in Looking for a little inspiration:
Aliens probably don't have that, and hence they probably don't have religion.
Well, for them we'd be the aliens, so you can't say that an alien (which is just something strange or out of place) wouldn't have that just because they are strange or out of place. Depending on the planet that they come from, they might have way more things in need of explaining, and thus religion very early in primitive societies.
Good points. I'm just saying that just because we'd regard religion as a understandable motivator for aliens to slaughter humans, it doesn't mean it's a realistic motivator. Like it or not they are inhuman in all ways, after all. The unreasonable and incomprehensable motivators are more likely to be realistic ones, since they aren't human.