What Creatures/Aliens and other life forms would you like to see?

[mindlord0013]

I've said this before, but I don't think anyone noticed, so I'll say it again: Builders.
Basically, mysterious, ancient aliens that build equally mysterious structures, then abandon them, slowly moving out from spawn (5.5.5.- -1.-1.-1) in a specific direction, almost as if they're fleeing something...
Kind of like a combination of Protheans/Forerunners/Eridians but with random characteristics.

That reminds me of SW:Kotor and the Rakata.

 

[Darth Cestual]

I ran across twin pyramids once, I just assumed ruins were already in game just rare.
But regardless of what kind of critters we get, a couple of things would basic "realities" on SMfauna, they are a source of resources, competition for resources, or a threat to players/ships/bases. On the weapon thread regarding microblocks to make custom weapons, the same could be applied to life forms. I'm sure a few of us will be making all kinds of beasties to populate worlds. Or at least add them to the catalog for spawning life.

 

[marcus87]

I think they plan a system where creatures get generated from a katalog of parts. So you wont get your basic spider or worm everywhere.

 

[Darth Cestual]

However spiderworms sound totally appropriate.

 

[Omni]

I've said this before, but I don't think anyone noticed, so I'll say it again: Builders.
Basically, mysterious, ancient aliens that build equally mysterious structures, then abandon them, slowly moving out from spawn (5.5.5.- -1.-1.-1) in a specific direction, almost as if they're fleeing something...
Kind of like a combination of Protheans/Forerunners/Eridians but with random characteristics.

Similar to many other things like infestations, that sort of thing is much more complex than the basic Fauna setup. While I think just about anyone would agree that would be awesome, it's important to get the most basic systems/gameplay components/features in before working toward more complex and rare phenomena. I do like the idea of them moving in one constant specific direction... kind of interesting. Wouldn't really make much sense if it was literally just a line of planets, though. If they had space travel, why would they wait until being chased before trying to colonize other nearby worlds? Colonizing in a line reminds me more of Fwiffo moving planet by planet away from the center of our solar system out of fear. (I love Spathi. Good old Star Control.)

I ran across twin pyramids once, I just assumed ruins were already in game just rare.
But regardless of what kind of critters we get, a couple of things would basic "realities" on SMfauna, they are a source of resources, competition for resources, or a threat to players/ships/bases. On the weapon thread regarding microblocks to make custom weapons, the same could be applied to life forms. I'm sure a few of us will be making all kinds of beasties to populate worlds. Or at least add them to the catalog for spawning life.

I think they plan a system where creatures get generated from a katalog of parts. So you wont get your basic spider or worm everywhere.

Indeed, Fauna would be pieced together from a wide selection of parts, meaning the system would automatically offer you new lifeforms to encounter as you travel the galaxy. I do like the idea of being able to add pre-defined mixes to a catalog, though, so you could design your own mixes and sometimes find them in the galaxy. I also think pointing out the use of Fauna as a potential source of valuable resources is sharp; people might even start farms, assuming they can keep the Fauna in line.

However spiderworms sound totally appropriate.

Worms? He who controls the spice controls the universe. However, I don't remember them being spiderworms.... (Still, cool concept. Or spider-pigs. Err, just kidding.)

 

[Ithirahad]

hehe! Well, it's actually methanol, which you might find in formaldehyde, antifreeze, or fuel (it's actually an excellent alternative to petroleum-based fuels!).... ethanol is what you'd get drunk off of :D You can read about the first discovery of methanol in space here -- it's a cloud that spans around 288 billion miles!

Ah, since you hadn't specified and I didn't know about that, I had no idea... lol. Generally speaking, you should probably specify unless you mean ethanol. :p

 

[Iskandar]

Ah, since you hadn't specified and I didn't know about that, I had no idea... lol. Generally speaking, you should probably specify unless you mean ethanol. :p

Well, that was 1adog, actually haha! :p I just wanted to point out the methanol vs ethanol issue since it's a pretty common mixup with that particular discovery :D

 

[0ldSkull]

Tribbles! And a special gun which can launch them into enemy ships/stations.
Thanks to CyberTao for inspiration.

 

[Jerry_Brinefield]

I'd like the ability to submit custom models for player races, so if you want to play as a turian or a space alien or some sort of lizard man, you could submit it and get it approved.

 

[Rickswan]

Indeed, Fauna would be pieced together from a wide selection of parts, meaning the system would automatically offer you new lifeforms to encounter as you travel the galaxy. I do like the idea of being able to add pre-defined mixes to a catalog, though, so you could design your own mixes and sometimes find them in the galaxy. I also think pointing out the use of Fauna as a potential source of valuable resources is sharp; people might even start farms, assuming they can keep the Fauna in line.

I'd like the ability to submit custom models for player races, so if you want to play as a turian or a space alien or some sort of lizard man, you could submit it and get it approved.

That would be quite awesome, even if it was only a consistent uniform for your faction, as long as it still allowed you to use custom skins.

Giving way to an insanely diverse universe? That's the plan. :D I'll be doing everything I can to make things as variable, unpredictable and diverse as possible. And NOT like Spore, where everything may look different but it all acts exactly the same. (Also true of Starbound, though it isn't nearly as much of a problem there.)

I would love to have enough depth to the NPCs that you could set up a station that basically runs itself, and runs like clockwork. Even better, one that can react to different situations, such as telling crew or ships to only be sent out if they are in good enough condition. (As you mentioned.)

Things like this can actually be surprisingly simple as long as the foundations are in place, such as the ability of the NPCs to take the commands and do things like pilot ships, or dock them. Mix it with some basic priority systems (so NPCs act based on which action that needs to be done is highest priority on their list), the ability to coordinate (have stations/groups send certain set numbers or percentages of available NPCs to do tasks, to avoid having some problem come up and suddenly every NPC you have runs to fix it), and the ability to have it manage NPCs based on location, condition or settings (so if something needs to be done by a few engineers, it would find the closest NPCs who are both engineers - as opposed to soldiers or something - and in proper condition to do the task - such as not in critical medical condition or busy with a much higher priority task) would allow amazingly effective and detailed NPC activity. (This is not a statement of what will be in the game, rather a discussion on NPC artificial intelligence programming in games as it could theoretically relate to StarMade.) I can't say exactly what you should expect from StarMade's NPC control and AI, but I'd certainly love it if what I just described came to fruition.

So there ARE plans to have NPC's - great! As for the aliens, I think the procedurally generated model would be awesome. Even more awesome would be the ability to edit them a yourself a bit - then you could find some empty dodecahedron planet and seed it with your monstrosities :D.

Oh, and here's an idea: if there are any plans for a survival system in StarMade, and your character needs nourishment... perhaps you could use aliens as food?

 

[Omni]

I'd like the ability to submit custom models for player races, so if you want to play as a turian or a space alien or some sort of lizard man, you could submit it and get it approved.

It is unlikely you would be able to submit it for use in default StarMade. However, it is certainly my hope that modders will be able to make such things happen. In other words, while I make no promises on future features or their details, I would certainly like players to be able to play in Sci-Fi universes that have multiple races and choose which race they want to play as. Turians being a clear (and good) example. Something like that would also probably pave the way for people to make and use more realistic player models if they wanted. And ideally, this could all vary from server to server.

That would be quite awesome, even if it was only a consistent uniform for your faction, as long as it still allowed you to use custom skins.
So there ARE plans to have NPC's - great! As for the aliens, I think the procedurally generated model would be awesome. Even more awesome would be the ability to edit them a yourself a bit - then you could find some empty dodecahedron planet and seed it with your monstrosities :D.

Oh, and here's an idea: if there are any plans for a survival system in StarMade, and your character needs nourishment... perhaps you could use aliens as food?

Well there already is a Trading Guild NPC and purchasable crew, it seems logical to assume these features will gain much more depth over time. Perhaps even blur the lines between each other.

Editing Fauna, such as DNA manipulation, is a fun and powerful concept that has certainly been considered plenty. What exactly you'll see I can't say, but I for one would like to see a means of altering Fauna, though not an easy one. I think it'd be more interesting if such experiments were unpredictable and would require many attempts or generations to alter something to what you want. That's just my personal thoughts, though. Even if the default game didn't come with a means of editing Fauna, I'm pretty sure modders would be quick to add something like that in.

As for survival and food, I can't say what to expect, though I think it's reasonable to assume that - if you needed to eat - Fauna could be a source of food. Who knows, maybe not all Fauna would be edible. Many only a small percentage of them would be. Maybe there would be a way of converting some non-edible Fauna meat into something edible. That's just what came to mind immediately in response to your idea. (Just personal thoughts, not planned features.) As for what to expect or what might be added, you'll just have to wait and see. And just like the last idea, even if it wasn't in the main game modders would be quick to add in something like it!

 

[Iskandar]

Editing Fauna, such as DNA manipulation, is a fun and powerful concept that has certainly been considered plenty. What exactly you'll see I can't say, but I for one would like to see a means of altering Fauna, though not an easy one. I think it'd be more interesting if such experiments were unpredictable and would require many attempts or generations to alter something to what you want. That's just my personal thoughts, though. Even if the default game didn't come with a means of editing Fauna, I'm pretty sure modders would be quick to add something like that in.

I loved the genetic experiments we could do in Star Wars Galaxies to create new mounts and pets -- that was a LOT of fun to play with! ^_^ The Tribble breeding in Star Trek Online was similarly fun.

SWG was a bit involved, and the investment of time and effort turned a lot of players away from it -- STO, on the other hand, just needed a pair of Tribbles and a bit of food. But overall, I'd say I preferred the SWG approach the most... while it took more effort/resources and had a bit of a learning curve, my results there felt far more "earned" than just plopping a pair of Tribbles in the bank with some food :p

Since SM wouldn't be limited to just mounts and pets, it'd be interesting to see what players could come up with if given the full and unrestricted genetics kit

 

[Websterandy42]

Decided to mess around with blender, a space crab was the result.
http://imgur.com/a/YV9UK

 

[Omni]

I loved the genetic experiments we could do in Star Wars Galaxies to create new mounts and pets -- that was a LOT of fun to play with! ^_^ The Tribble breeding in Star Trek Online was similarly fun.

SWG was a bit involved, and the investment of time and effort turned a lot of players away from it -- STO, on the other hand, just needed a pair of Tribbles and a bit of food. But overall, I'd say I preferred the SWG approach the most... while it took more effort/resources and had a bit of a learning curve, my results there felt far more "earned" than just plopping a pair of Tribbles in the bank with some food :p

Since SM wouldn't be limited to just mounts and pets, it'd be interesting to see what players could come up with if given the full and unrestricted genetics kit

Hmm, never got a chance to play Star Wars Galaxies. Wonder if any emulators are far enough along to have those features. (Since the official servers have been shut down.)

But yes, I imagine genetic manipulation with possibilities so much wider (as they would be in StarMade) would be quite interesting. Gives an image of the classic sci-fi "experiment broke out of its containment and killed everyone" type scene. No clue what types of things would actually be possible in a system of that type were it implemented in StarMade, but it's fun to imagine the possibilities. :D

Decided to mess around with blender, a space crab was the result.
http://imgur.com/a/YV9UK

Your images do not appear to be showing in the thread, you are correct. Nevertheless, cute little guy... hmm, might keep those images around. Never hurts to have tons of little things to draw inspiration from. You never know which one might suddenly spark an idea, even if the actual idea it sparked is very different from what caused it.

 

[Websterandy42]

Glad to help, even if it's only a little. I was going to try my hand at a space whale next; I hope it turns out a little better.

 

[Killbot101]

hey,has anyone here ever heard of spore? we could have a creature creator so we can create our own aliens,and even better,choose in what kind of planets or even asteroids they could spawn!

 

[Websterandy42]

I first got into modding with spore. So much potential.

 

[GaeasSon]

1m in length. Reptilian-ish. Says "hi" when approached. Will not attack even when provoked. Just one of him should be randomly generated on a random world in EVERY universe. There should be a server setting to disable Winslow spawning. That setting should do absolutely nothing! All damage to the Winslow is reduced to 0.

More information: http://www.thugdome.com/slagblah.html

 

[Deleted member 301635]

1m in length. Reptilian-ish. Says "hi" when approached. Will not attack even when provoked. Just one of him should be randomly generated on a random world in EVERY universe. There should be a server setting to disable Winslow spawning. That setting should do absolutely nothing! All damage to the Winslow is reduced to 0.

More information: http://www.thugdome.com/slagblah.html

Better idea: Armok, God of Blood.
Will randomly spawn on one planet.
Indestructible and intangible.
Slowly covers said planet in 'dwarves': alcoholic, aggressive, utterly insane midget psychopaths with beards and a penchant for giant axes.
BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, SKULLS FOR HIS THRONE.

 

[Ithirahad]

Anything but Star Trek style aliens. So boring.

Also, I don't see where all this love of space whales is coming from. They aren't really that cool. Space jellyfish are much better.
If space whales get added, I'm going to kill the freaks of nature on sight.

...Then I guess I have to build a titan after all, just to hunt you down and get rid o' you.