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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

The Alien Homeworlds


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Overmind is, as X-Clu-zif said, council of Ancient Etherals.

- Ethereal's Overmind has enslaved several spacies from Galactic Council but not all of them. The Galactic Council realised that Overmind is a threat to all Inteligent Races. So they decided to destroy main planets of enslaved spacies and Etherals. Council Forces are now aproaching to Shii-yin. However they will get there in ten earth years. It's enough time for etherals to colonise earth and make from it thier Stronghold. Etherals decided to colonise earth because it's far away from galactic core where all inteligent races live and it is situated at Uncharted Areas(sp)? Another reason is that Earth is very similar to Shi-yin.
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Based on the original game, the Overmind/Big Brain from x-com was a seperate alien from the ethereals, I would keep it that way for Xenocide as well. If the Ammonites found a habitable planet but were then caught by the Overmind, there could be genetic goodness happening between aliens later. Sorry, don't have time to read the text yet, will get to that soon.
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I always pictured the Overminds as sessile creatures...they physically can't move from where they are born . Overminds reproduce by implanting an egg in a mobile creature, and releasing it (sort of a reverse of how digger wasps do it). The egg takes a few weeks to gestate, while the host wanders . When the egg hatches, it kills the host, and the new overmind eats the remains, implanting itself in the local soil.

They use telepathy to stay in contact, but never developed much technology...they focused on bio-engineering captured mobiles within their own immovable bodies.

Then one of them captured an Ammonite, and wacky hijinks ensue.


Quick note on the Snakeman homeworld...I actually meant it to be almost identical to earth. Erath has a very wide range of climates and temperatures (50C to -50C can be found somewhere on the earth on any given day).

I'd really like to stay away from the star wars-type worlds, with one climate for the whole planet. There isn't any known planet with an atmosphere that has the same climate everywhere on it simultaneuously.

-The Captain

edit : spelling Edited by Cpt. Boxershorts
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I agree with Cpt about climates, even planets with perfect orbits centered right on the equator would have colder climates at teh poles, given enough atmosphere to breath. But that doesn't keep you from having an extreme continent where it's all hot desert or freezing ice, etc.
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Well, Cpt. Bshorts, your idea of the overmind seems rather similar to the chryssalid. :) I always imagined the overmind to be sessile, as you thought, but I figured that if they had someone to carry em, they could up-root and move into another location.

Ex: Humans are coming to attack cydonia, so the overmind uproots itself and has a bunch of mutons carry it to an escape ship.
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The uprooting idea is a good one...I was more thinking about making them a viable species, rather than just a bogeyman the way it was in x-com 1 and 2.

I actually stole most of it from a race called (IIRC) "Mothers", created by (I think) Phillip K. DIck. Essentially, all Mothers were sessile and female & communicated via organic radio. All mobile organisms were male (and food), and used to attack a 'conception spot' where damage would in induce parthenegenesis. Newborn Mothers were slighly mobile, and would crawl to permenent spot.

-The Captain
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New update... still in the idea state, but I have finished some of the actual wording now, mostly in the new Sectoid section, and in the Overmind section...

Please comment all you can... I won't take it personal as I am used to both saying and being told that something has to be changed...
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Here is an updated text for the home world ideas. I made a few grammar changes at first, but since it's not a final draft I stopped. The main thing I did was put each xcom term in brackets and bolded it. Everybody should start doing this in their texts for names from the original. We'll need to change them later, and this will make life easier when when get to that point. Example:

Sectoid becomes [b][Sectoid][/b]. Everybody please start using this technique on your entries.

All this text will eventually be put in the game using XML format. The cool thing regarding that is the use of variables. When we have a scientist's name for a quote for example, we can use something like <FULLNAME> as a variable, and have it pull a name from the game's database. Every game you played would give you a new researcher when you discovered a technology then. Once we have more info on the format we can start adjusting text to fit this framework as well. We might even use <ALIEN1> for a certain alien, and the player gets to name it when it's encountered. But that's a v1+ thing for now. But we can put the format in place now to make it easier in the future.

Thanks, and keep up the good work! Let me know if you have any questions, or this doesn't make sense. Edited by Breunor
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Thanks mate... and I will use the variables (actually I really like it, as I hate making up names and such) and the bold thingie from now on... and I know I make lots of grammar and writing mistakes, but it's becuase english is my second language and to write perfect I need to concentrate on just the grammar part and wording afterwards, this is just to get my ideas across... and to get them commented on, but it's nice to know that someone will make a good entry perfect... :wub:
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rtf is prefered, as it gives you word wrap among other things. You should avoid hard carriage returns, and txt format makes the lines run on and on, and that's a pain to read. rtf also gives some formatting options, which helps with clarity.
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Uh had some more time...

And this time it was a bit of research for the info box...

I've made a collection of data from Earth to compare with the other planets...

Maybe it could even be used as an entry that you know from the start, as in the human homeworld, so the player has the info to compare with as well...

Edit: It probably needs to be confirmed if that should be the case, but yeah... Edited by X-Clu-Zif
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v0.4 is good :D

I seem to have lost the ammonites somewhere?? Are they they supposed to be the pre-overmind species or what?? How about the overmind being a genetic experiment, one that failed ultimately of course?? ( I am thinking about the psilords in XCOM 4)
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Something that I don't think has been addressed yet that could tie into the Ammonite homeworld issue is their gentic changes after leaving earth. They started out as squid-like creatures, somehow became amphibious enough to live on land, and then went into space. They made some change once out there on whichever planet they found, perhaps that can tie into why they have their current shape? Maybe they were [i]slightly[/i] reminiscent of the "squiggly" machines from the Matrix, having a large head and various limbs for movement? Then the overmind caught them and modified them to fit its needs? The Ammonites could have the levitation ability before or after the changes took place. Just some thoughts.
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See now I understand... in my mind the Ammonites where just there as past of the background story... ok I guess I do need some Ammonites homeworld thingie... back to the drawing board... should have an almost final version of the homeworlds ready by the end of this week, but so far only with the [b][MUTONS][/b], [b][OVERMIND][/b], [b][SNAKEMEN][/b], [b][AMMONITES][/b] [b][SECTOID][B]and [B][HUMANS][/b]...

P.S. are there any other races finished by now... can't seem to find any other models, and the sectoids I've just based on the picture from XCOM 1...

:master: Keep up the good comments... it makes it so much easier to write... :happybanana:
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[quote name='mikker' date='Nov 24 2003, 12:57 PM']the ammonites are from Earth. But i dunno where they went after that.[/quote]
They went into space, started losing their hair, became terrible actors, and hit on anything remotely female whenever possible... oh wait, that's Star Trek... ^_^
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[quote name='Breunor' date='Nov 24 2003, 09:59 PM'][quote name='mikker' date='Nov 24 2003, 12:57 PM'] the ammonites are from Earth. But i dunno where they went after that.[/quote]
They went into space, started losing their hair, became terrible actors, and hit on anything remotely female whenever possible... oh wait, that's Star Trek... ^_^[/quote]
Hey, as a senior member, you should know two things:

1) never have an ENTIRE post dedicated to drivel in an otherwise perfectly servicable thread, and
2) NEVER, EVER EVER insult Star Trek, or any other science fiction, but especially Star Trek.

Oh, and anything else you wish :D But make sure that this doesn't happen: :explode:

******************** WARNING THE FOLLOWING IS ON TOPIC******************

Right, just so we make sure what one of those ammonite thingies is then.

I have to ask these questions:

Why did the ammonites leave Earth?? Did we, or any other creatures (eg dolphins etc) evolve from said creatures of the dark side?
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I'm sorry Dipstick, shame on me... :spank:

Now it's my turn to admonish you-have you read the current text for the alien origins? While I'm sure the hard science of the catastrophe isn't perfect, it's a fun way to tie the Ammonites into our ancient history. It's open to change of course, it was a compilation of the previous ideas we'd had up till then.
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Dippy: Essientially the ammenomites (damn I don't think I will ever learn to spell it right! :)) evolved from crusteceans or some other undersea creature. In time they evolved psi capabilities and attempted to engineer some of these traits into human ancestors (homo erectus probably) Then they gen. modified themselves to survive on land. Fast Foward X years. The Amms leave earth for some reason (I forget :P) and experience genetic deteoriation on the way to their new home. They stumble on an evil overmind, who rapidly enslaves them and partially repairs their genome. Thus the Ammemoites donned their costumes to become The Etherials!
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[quote name='Cpl. Facehugger' date='Nov 24 2003, 08:45 PM']Dippy: Essientially the ammenomites (damn I don't think I will ever learn to spell it right! :)) evolved from crusteceans or some other undersea creature. In time they evolved psi capabilities and attempted to engineer some of these traits into human ancestors (homo erectus probably) Then they gen. modified themselves to survive on land. Fast Foward X years. The Amms leave earth for some reason (I forget :P) and experience genetic deteoriation on the way to their new home. They stumble on an evil overmind, who rapidly enslaves them and partially repairs their genome. Thus the Ammemoites donned their costumes to become The Etherials![/quote]
because the Dinosaurs (which they made) attacked them, and they couldn't escape back to the water, because they had GMed themselves so much that they could not survive in water any more...
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  • 1 month later...
Hey guys, long time no see...

I must admit that I haven't done anything at all since my last update... Christmas was a pain enourmous one, if any of you has seen the budgets for Lego you would know why... anyways a lot of work for those of us that are left...

I won't have time to do anything on Xenocide for a while, since I just got a new job (same place but different job) and it's a bit more work...
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  • 5 months later...
Well I have rejoined the effort again, and I'll be working on my little "baby" also know as the alien homeworlds... any ideas and comments are most welcome, and this may change a lot of things, especially because I haven't been working on Xenocide for a couple of months... I have found my old draft, and it's attached in the post... otherwise nothing to report other than the fact that I am back...

/X
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