AvP Mod

[Goatfoam]

Didn't get an awful lot of stuff done today, and I'm working over the weekend. But I did do some work on the aliens tech and facilities, and here's what I've got so far.

Tech
The Alien Life Cycle
Secreted Resin
Hormonal Discharge
Hive Mind
Applied Evolution
Infiltration
Cystic Spores
Projectile Vomitting
Prey Control

Facilities
Queen Mother
Egg Chambers
Hive Expansion
Pheromone Dispensors
Pheromonial Miasma Cloud
Hive Mind
Drone Horde
Royal Guard Chambers
Cystic Drone Horde
Boneyard
Animal Herd
Bio-Genetic Pools

More to come.

[Goatfoam]

Another update. Been a busy couple of days so I haven't managed to get much done. So if anyone wants to help out, whether it's shipsets (I haven't got an artistic bone in my body), sounds, artwork or general legwork like I've been doing with the body of the mod, or just suggestions, advice or their two cents, that would be great.

Anyway, more stuff for the xenomorphs.

Tech
Alien Stealth, Organic Flight, Organic Propulsion, Sentience, Hybrids, Purebreeds, Alien Hive Structure, Organic Regeneration, Psychic Projection, Survival Instinct, Royal Jelly, Alien Metabolism, Alien Senses.

Ship Sizes
Hived Science Vessel, Hived Mining Vessel, Hived Destroyer, Hived Battleship, Alien Scouts, Alien Sentries, Alien Horde, Alien Incursion.

Components
Projectile Acid, Acid Spray, Pheromone Discharge, Psychic Disruption, Hive Compartments, Alien Drones, Alien Runners, Alien Warriors, Predaliens, Alien Horde, Pheromone Saturation, Light Chitin Layer, Medium Chitin Layer, Heavy Chitin Layer, Photosynthetic Carapace, Excretion Outlet, Dampening Resin, Praetorian, Young Queen, Queen, War Empress.

[Goatfoam]

Also, some notes on how the three main races (UAAC, Xenomorphs, and Yautja) will play. They will all have different styles of weaponry, defenses, movement point generation and power supplies, etc. so hopefully each one will be a completely different experience.

The UAAC will be the predominantly most "generic" play-wise, with a lot of the standard equipment types we see in the unmodded game. They'll be the most "Technologically Active" race, too, with plenty of research to keep them busy (some of which will only become available when they 'encounter' certain races -through use of ruins and events). The UAAC will probably make for the best "all-round" single-player experience, as they strive to update their technology to deal with new alien threats. There are also plans to include the Anglo-Japanese military, the French, the Russians and the Spanish Coalition once the five main races are sorted out - which will be the UAAC's main opponents.

The aliens will play very differently. Their main area of expertise will be Intel, with the ability to infiltrate colonies, impregnate the colonists, and then begin hiving the planet. Their ships will be quite specialised, since they have no technology to speak of, and tactics will consist mainly of boarding actions - the ships will be fairly damage-resistant to achieve these ends. They will also have the unique ability to completely enshroud their planets with pheromones and ultra-dense resins which will effectively render them invisible to most RADAR and conventional scanners. Diplomacy simply won't be an option with them, obviously, although once the Human Cultists are done, this will at least give them some support.

Predators will be the ultimate hunting machines. I'm toying with two ideas right now - either make them completely nomadic, or limit reproduction to such an extent that they'll never have a huge empire. Their ships, while small, will be powerful enough alone to take on several enemy vessels, with awesome weaponry, cloaking devices and even a form of shielding. Of course, their ship crews will be excellently trained too - both by shipboard and planetside facilities (Xenomorph 'farms', Alien Safari Parks, etc) and by the use of Intel missions.

Other general features of the mod will mean that glassing a planet will be very hard without ultra-high technology levels (which the elephant men will no doubt have access to once I start work on them), with a greater emphasis on ground combat. The concept is one of adding individual elements to each troop unit to increase hit points - grunts, sergeants, medics, etc. - and then adding weapons and equipment with various effects afterwards - pulse rifles, motion trackers, armor, etc.

[Ragnarok-X]

well im really excited about the Aliens aka Xenomorphs. Keep us informed about updates

What kind of weapons will the Aliens have ? Only boarding thingies or maybe some sort of organic weapons ?!

[Goatfoam]

Yeah, I think the aliens are going to have a pretty distinct flavour and should be a lot of fun to play for those of us with 'evil' leanings.

As for weaponry... They've got Projectile Acid, Acid Spray, Pheromone Discharge, Psychic Disruption and Alien Runners for their main weapons so far. Projectile acid is the most conventional weapon, doing medium damage over a fairly short range. The Acid Spray is a point defence weapon, again with short range, which will dissolve any missiles or fighters that run into it. The other three weapons are all really for aid in boarding attacks. The Pheromone Discharge increases enemy reload times, Psychic Disruption works like a tractor beam, and the Alien Runners are a precursor to any boarding action - they have a range of 1, and do damage to any security/boarding teams on the enemy ship, which will leave them open.

The one thing I'm not sure about is the boarding actions themselves, which I haven't got too far into looking at as yet. Once the aliens have boarded a ship (assuming it doesn't self-destruct), I really don't want them to have access to the technology - is there any way to force the alien player to strip the ship of components and replace it with hive sections at a space yard before they can use it?

[Ragnarok-X]

hm as far as i know, there is no way to achieve what you want. There are a few options, such as making a ship "uncontrolled" until the combat ends (so the capturer cannot move or fire until the combat is over). Maybe there is an option which will make will give no new tech if the ship is analyzed (maybe something about the tech tree, to make it impossible to further research the analyzed techs by restricting them to traits?)


anyway another question: im a bit confused by the races. You say Xenomorphs and Aliens. I guess the "Aliens" are the ones from the "Alien" movies, but what are Xenomorphs again ?!

[Goatfoam]

"Xenomorphs" and the Aliens from the movies are the same thing. "Xenomorph" is just the term that the Colonial Marines have given them, since there are hundreds of different alien life-forms out there.

As for tech... yeah, all the techs are specific to the races in the form of traits already - but the aliens will still be able to control captured ships after combat - unless the ships are fitted with self-destruct mechanisms. I suppose the aliens could make use of many smaller vessels with boarding parties to exchange ship deaths with the enemy, which would make them a "swarmy" player... that could be fun, so long as the constant loss of ships in combat wasn't too much of a disadvantage.

I don't suppose there is a way to completely remove components from a ship after capture (other than making them simply "destroyed"), is there?