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 Trickster Inc. presents: Xenobiology 
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 Trickster Inc. presents: Xenobiology
Midas is extensively targeted by mining companies for its abundant natural resources, but it absolutely cannot be overlooked for its biodiversity. As is often the case in situations like this, habitat loss and pollution has led to huge declines in plant and animal populations across the surface. Trickster's Xenobiological Research Crew has been working around the clock to collect as many individuals as they can to build up our artificial gene pool. After years of research, we have finally compiled a partial list of species on Midas.

Midean Trudgers
One branch of the planet's two dominant groups of animal life, Trudgers are near-omnipresent on the surface of Midas, even in otherwise hostile habitats. Though they vary in appearance across the globe, phenotypically they are quite similar: bipedal plantigrade locomotion counterbalanced with a heavy tail region and an apparently oversized head. Dissection of the latter reveals that the size is due to the partial incorporation of shoulder and upper-arm bones, leading to the startling revelation that they were originally quadrupedal or - more likely - upright bipeds.

Lacking a mandible bone, the vestigial forearms and hands act as graspers directing food towards the mouth orifice. The digestive process takes place at least partially outside the body with the secretion of aqua regia from glands to either side of the mouth (these glands can be carefully extracted and returned for research or used as impromptu grenades). Aqua regia is incredibly corrosive, able to dissolve most metals and - notably - gold. Perhaps as a consequence of this ability, Trudgers have an astoundingly efficient digestive process and are able to incorporate a diversity of elements into their physical structure.

Their skin, muscles and bones are dense with nodules of metal compounds, making them extremely resilient - not to mention valuable to collectors. A standard mining tool should suffice to extract most elements, but specific ingredients will have to be shipped back manually.

    Heavy Trudger -

    Mountain Trudger -

    Armored Trudger -

    Striding Trudger -

    Pygmy Forest Trudger -

    Cave Trudger -

    Bog Trudger -

    Celadwen -

-----------------------------------------------------

Midean Crabs
Obviously not true crabs- though they share several analogous features, including exoskeletons and segmented legs, they are quadrupedal and completely terrestrial, and have a very complicated birthing process.

Rather than being direct live births or eggs, crabs are instead generated in a transitional gestational sac, which is usually affixed directly to a mineral structure. This tough, fleshy sac is anchored by roots sunk deep into rock in a process more closely resembling earth's plants. The minerals leeched out of the surrounding soil strata form the basis of the exoskeletal structure, leading to markedly different adaptations for each species of crab depending on where they are localized.

A juvenile crab, fresh from the the sac, immediately begins the process of gathering and metabolizing any nearby nutrients, whether they be animal, vegetable or mineral. Their shells are soft and relatively pliable at this stage, but there is a market to be found for their succulent flesh.

The transition from juvenile to adult crab is marked by the release of a gestational sac composed of excess genetic material - this sac, though initially quite small, it rapidly balloons in size as it takes up surrounding soil chemicals. With the release of the sac, the crab undergoes rapid hormonal metamorphosis to reach their adult stage. While the adult continues to grow and eat, it is living on borrowed time - the hormonal shift starts a slow process of decay in the crab, allowing it long enough to care for the juveniles before itself passing away. The average lifespan of a Midean Crab is a scant few years.

    Aerial Crab -

    Iron Crab -

    Plains Crab -

    Grass Crab -
-----------------------------------------------------

Plants
Midean plants are hugely variable and have developed a host of highly specialized seed dispersal techniques. This selection is but a small subset of the species on Midas, but its certainly given them a better chance at existence than they would have had otherwise.
    Grass -

    Sticky Grass -

    Armor Moss -

    Shooter -

    Cannon Seed -

    Spinner -

    Flowers -

    Red Berries -

    Blue Berries -

    Orange Berries -

    Scado Tree -

-----------------------------------------------------


The Xenobiological Archive can be acquired from the following co-ordinates.
--DOWNLOAD ARCHIVE--


Thu Oct 18, 2012 4:03 am
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Oh my GOD ANIMALS IN CC I LOVE YOU!


Thu Oct 18, 2012 4:09 am
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painbringer1998 wrote:
Oh my GOD ANIMALS IN CC I LOVE YOU!


Yepppp. Realistically, there's nothing to them. They have no AI or anything, they just walk around and explode real good. I figure they can be worked into scenes, and I'll be adding stuff to them periodically (hopefully), but mostly they're just for decoration. Play around with em!


Thu Oct 18, 2012 4:12 am
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Very nice.

Lots of content.


Thu Oct 18, 2012 4:13 am
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REAL AMERICAN HERO
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this mod has been a work in progress I've been looking forward to for longer than minecraft has existed

so yeah good job on finishing it djinn


Thu Oct 18, 2012 4:25 am
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That is all. Very, very creative mod. Great work with it, although it would be much better with some sort of AI, like you said.


Thu Oct 18, 2012 4:32 am
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Poor animals when they will meet with one army on the left a the second army on the right...... :)


Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:03 am
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Yeah, the ones you said have defensive measures should probably have defensive measures. Y'dig?

EDIT: For Mac users, this mod is FILLED with backslashes. Literally hundreds of them. I recommend a search/replace function searching for '\' and replacing with '/'.


Thu Oct 18, 2012 12:06 pm
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Post Re: Trickster Inc. presents: Xenobiology
(Insult) wrote:
Yeah, the ones you said have defensive measures should probably have defensive measures. Y'dig?

EDIT: For Mac users, this mod is FILLED with backslashes. Literally hundreds of them. I recommend a search/replace function searching for '\' and replacing with '/'.


Wow, I didn't know that was actually a problem with Macs! I'll make sure to update that in the next version.

Also yes, yes, I'll be adding weapons to those that need em in the next update, I just needed to release it or I'd never get it out there.


Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:28 pm
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Man, it would be cool if the game procedurally generated wildlife spawns on maps that are set to allow wild life with some kind of lua value.


Thu Oct 18, 2012 2:59 pm
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i think it would be awesome if there was a mode where you have a small squad of lost soldiers and you have to try and get them from one side to the other side of a very large, non looping map. and along the way is plains, caves, mountains, and hills all populated with highly lethal wildlife who can charge at your soldiers and rip them apart with there beastly teeth or alien defense mechanics (shooting infective spores into the air, burrowing and popping out when you get close, etc.) and at one point of the mission a hostile faction base that you have to get through blocks your path to the finish.

i have a feeling that if you add AI and give the creatures special ability's this mod will become big and map makers will love to use wild life in different missions and perhaps even make a mission like the one i described above.


Thu Oct 18, 2012 4:56 pm
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I glanced at all the pictures and thought the mod looked pretty cool, so downloaded it, and went into a survival to see about placing things to see how it all worked. At first I thought the basic grasses and mosses to be kind of cool in now they spread. Next I planted a Spinner and watched in amusement as the stalk rose out of the ground and curled up and thought to myself that this is pretty neat, but then the head fell off and went spinning off and started a new plant and I was seriously impressed by the creativeness. I really like how things spread and grow, but I think they might do it a little too fast in both the individual plant's growth, and the rate at which they create new plants. The current rate is pretty good for demonstrating how cool the plants are, but I feel that for actual gameplay slowing them down a little might be nice.

One addition that I think would be pretty nice is some sort of herbicide/weed-killer/Agent Orange style tool and or bomb. I noticed that the map I was tinkering with was getting extraordinarily dense with foliage and found that Major's Gasu weapons from the Empire of the Rising Sun faction did an absolutely amazing job of clearing out the foliage.


Thu Oct 18, 2012 7:11 pm
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FINALLY SOME BIODIVERSITY ON CC

Great mod, I really enjoy having non-humanoid aliens in the game. Also, you did a great job with plants, now some maps can feel much more natural and un-explored and that kind of stuff.


Thu Oct 18, 2012 7:34 pm
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Post Re: Trickster Inc. presents: Xenobiology
Hey man, this mod is EPIC... Oh, and i managed to kill well over a hundred of those giant Trudger dudes, just like you recommended. (You DID recommend that right...? Right?!)

So, On another note, I have always drooled over the fossils buried around. I would LOVE it if you could include at least one of those kickass-looking (Fish?) (Reptile? I don't :x'ng know.). Anyways, the really dark ones. I would do it meself, but i have NO actor coding knowledge.


Fri Oct 19, 2012 5:49 am
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Post Re: Trickster Inc. presents: Xenobiology
Asatruer wrote:
I glanced at all the pictures and thought the mod looked pretty cool, so downloaded it, and went into a survival to see about placing things to see how it all worked. At first I thought the basic grasses and mosses to be kind of cool in now they spread. Next I planted a Spinner and watched in amusement as the stalk rose out of the ground and curled up and thought to myself that this is pretty neat, but then the head fell off and went spinning off and started a new plant and I was seriously impressed by the creativeness. I really like how things spread and grow, but I think they might do it a little too fast in both the individual plant's growth, and the rate at which they create new plants. The current rate is pretty good for demonstrating how cool the plants are, but I feel that for actual gameplay slowing them down a little might be nice.

One addition that I think would be pretty nice is some sort of herbicide/weed-killer/Agent Orange style tool and or bomb. I noticed that the map I was tinkering with was getting extraordinarily dense with foliage and found that Major's Gasu weapons from the Empire of the Rising Sun faction did an absolutely amazing job of clearing out the foliage.


Ha, thanks for the anecdote. Yeah, the rates are pretty high as a demonstration, but they're really easy to change and I'll do so as I balance the rest of the critters out.

I'm also trying to find a way to limit the growth of the plants, although it'll be more likely that they'll be in the form of beacons that simply don't allow plants to grow within a certain radius of them rather than a specific tool to get rid of them.


Fri Oct 19, 2012 5:14 pm
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