Ancient Beings and Monstrous Races

how the Zerg and the Tyrannids inadvertently tie in to most works of fiction (seemingly)

from Elemental Forums

I love how James Cameron's Alien(s), Starship Troopers Bugs (the movie, not the awesome book), the Zerg, and Warhammer 40k's Tyrannids all run together in one happy family. Obviously some of these races have relatively civilized, cognitive thought (Bugs, Zerg), and others are mindless machines of death perpetuated by their need to feed and expand (Aliens, Tyrannids) ... they are all organic reptilian/insect machines of flesh with the potential to rend Humans armed with Modern (and Future) technologies into tiny gobble bits.

Personally my favorites are the Zerg and the Tyrannid, if only due to familiarity. Personally I think every good sci-fi game nowadays has some sort of faction like the Zerg ... and Warhammer 40k has (currently) two! The Necrons and the Tyrannid. While the Necrons do not fit the specific distinction of previous races, they fulfill the same storyline element of a "pure evil" bad guy, who, at the end of the day, is the ultimate enemy of everyone. Now, perhaps in Starcraft2 the Xel'Naga will be the new "tyrannids" of the series ... however there is without a doubt that same evil presence within the Zerg faction as well.

Their threat is more feasible than the relatively fleshy Dinosaurs of the Jurassic Park series ... and when you come down to it, the "Zerg" are kind of like the baby of a Dragon Movie and a "Giant Ants" movie. While Protoss, Eldar, and Elves all fit their own role as those races that have lived far longer than humanity, and usually hold some dark secret, yet are the only ones with the knowledge of how to avert X,Y,Z disaster ... yet ultimately do not have the power to succeed by themselves, and thus need an ally of some sort (only when necessary).

Well, elemental has no "Ancient Forerunners (eldar/protoss/elves)" and has no "Monstrous SuperEnemy (Demonic Hoard, Zerg, Tyrannids, Undead Legion, Burning Legion)" ... or at least to my knowledge. While the playable races will only be Men and Fallen, I would certainly like to see elements of a Forerunner race and a Monster race woven into the story element. (Wait ... Halo copied from Starcraft!!! lol) For a game like Elemental, the Monster race would most likely be an "unstoppable" Undead Force led by titanic Daemons or what-not, while the Fore-runner race could simply be the titans themselves ... or rather relics and caretakers left behind by them.

elemental
3,529 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I was thinking about this the other day about an occasional serious threat that snowballs and snowballs unless it's dealt with. A rampaging neutral undead horde that cannot be treated with and grows with every victory would take some focus away from the Empires an add another element of danger. Civ:IV colonization had the natives and other europeans to deal with that you could play politics with. Simply facing other empires/kingdoms is all very well, but something that is a threat to all and adds a bit of spice to the game could be welcome. It'd have to be balanced well tho, you don't want to win because all your enemies got crushed by Lord Mortimer V and his undead horde! It could double as the ancient forerunner enemy as well, I suppose.

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Well, the Dragonlance Mod will have a super enemy that will be unstoppable if left unchecked. Takhisis and the Dragon Armies. The Ancient/Ultimate Powers that can stop them will be the Dragon Orbs and the Dragonlances.

It would be cool if vanilla Elemental had some kind of Ultra Rare quest event that could be a super/evil/world ender type of thing. Elemental will already have Ultra Rare quests that can give a good event (Frogboy's Diamond Golem Rare Quest that might happen every 200 games). It would make sense to have one of these types of things that was evil in nature or just as "Bad" for the player as the Diamond Golem would be "good" for the player. The Diamond Golem would give the player the power to kick everyone's ass. Normally that would be hugely unbalancing but since it only has a chance to happen very rarely it's ok. There should be a equivalent event that will have such a Negative Impact for the player as well, but it would be really cheap too unless it only happened every 200 games or so.

Awesome Idea though. Speaking of "Idea's", I'm seeing a Lot of posts in the Elemental General section that need to be moved to the Elemental Idea's Section. There are some really good idea's floating around but I might miss them if they aren't in the right place for me to add them to the list.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Carebears?

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Does anyone actually know what the campaign will be like or if there is a campaign for that matter?

As for the ancient threat/monstourous races Stardock is very good at creating events where an all powerful race might pop up in the game to threaten your empire (like the Dread Lords of GalCiv 2). I think that the Titans can't be counted out of apearing in the campaign or multiplayer.