20 replies to this topic

[biomekanic]

Based on the Euprymna scolopes species (http://www.thecephal...g/Escolopes.php), the Euprymna are small, highly advanced cephalopds. Roughly 1.1M years ago, their homeworld exited the long interglacial period it was experiencing and the ice sheet rapidly returned. Ocean levels dropped, and with it the shallows seas retreated.

The proto-Euprymna were forced to deal with a shrinking environment, and increased competition. They made the jump from strictly being a marine organism to one capable of an amphibious existence. The move to land was a temporary respite, as they were now vulnerable to land as well as sea based predation.

At some unknown point in their history the proto-Euprymna discovered fire... which worked well at keeping the land based preditors at bay, but not so well with the oceanic ones. Shaped stone tools eventually provided for this contingency.

Since that forgotten era, the Euprymna continued to evolve, much like their ancestors they are very curious, and natural puzzle solvers.

LIFEFORM Amphibious Cephalopod 140
SHAPE Decaped 30
SIZE Very Small (240)
REPRODUCTION Superior 400
BODY ARMOR Thick Skin 60
STRENGTH Weak (240)
AGILITY Deft 140
CONSTITUTION Excellent 170
INTELLIGENCE Superior 740
SENSORY Excellent 230
COMBAT A Heavy Beak 4
COMBAT A Crushing Jaws 4
COMBAT B Chameleon 165
SPECIAL Linquistic 50
SPECIAL Attractive Features 20
SPECIAL Long Life Cycle 250

1,923 +4 +10 +4 +10 +12 +3 +5 +9 +9
Pts Size App RB CB SB SCB GCB CCB DB


Stuff I've considered:
adding temperature intolerance: cold
Diet: carnivore
adding low gravity tolerance
Maybe adding ESP and TP one
Poison
Gas Expulsion - DEF

Comments welcome.

[Octus Imperium]

biomekanic, on Aug 24 2007, 05:39 PM, said:

Based on the Euprymna scolopes species (http://www.thecephal...g/Escolopes.php), the Euprymna are small, highly advanced cephalopds. Roughly 1.1M years ago, their homeworld exited the long interglacial period it was experiencing and the ice sheet rapidly returned. Ocean levels dropped, and with it the shallows seas retreated.

The proto-Euprymna were forced to deal with a shrinking environment, and increased competition. They made the jump from strictly being a marine organism to one capable of an amphibious existence. The move to land was a temporary respite, as they were now vulnerable to land as well as sea based predation.

At some unknown point in their history the proto-Euprymna discovered fire... which worked well at keeping the land based preditors at bay, but not so well with the oceanic ones. Shaped stone tools eventually provided for this contingency.

Since that forgotten era, the Euprymna continued to evolve, much like their ancestors they are very curious, and natural puzzle solvers.

LIFEFORM Amphibious Cephalopod 140
SHAPE Decaped 30
SIZE Very Small (240)
REPRODUCTION Superior 400
BODY ARMOR Thick Skin 60
STRENGTH Weak (240)
AGILITY Deft 140
CONSTITUTION Excellent 170
INTELLIGENCE Superior 740
SENSORY Excellent 230
COMBAT A Heavy Beak 4
COMBAT A Crushing Jaws 4
COMBAT B Chameleon 165
SPECIAL Linquistic 50
SPECIAL Attractive Features 20
SPECIAL Long Life Cycle 250

1,923 +4 +10 +4 +10 +12 +3 +5 +9 +9
Pts Size App RB CB SB SCB GCB CCB DB


Stuff I've considered:
adding temperature intolerance: cold
Diet: carnivore
adding low gravity tolerance
Maybe adding ESP and TP one
Poison
Gas Expulsion - DEF

Comments welcome.

Very interesting design. If you've read the boards, you'll know that species engineering will help you resolve the relatively weak ground combat abilities you are probably faced with. Since the pattern is delayed interactions with other races for a considerable time, it is likely you'd have 1st or even 2nd gen species engineering before any likely ground combats. If you invest RC's correctly.

Attractive features are probably not a good buy with the current state of the diplomatic rules and player experience. I would consider saving those points for research bumps. Linguistics may also fall into this category, but perhaps not.

You may regret not keeping more points for tech bumps early on. But get this in before the tech point anniversary present coming up soon (we all hope)!

Octus

[RTGPete]

biomekanic, on Aug 24 2007, 06:39 PM, said:

Based on the Euprymna scolopes species (http://www.thecephal...g/Escolopes.php), the Euprymna are small, highly advanced cephalopds. Roughly 1.1M years ago, their homeworld exited the long interglacial period it was experiencing and the ice sheet rapidly returned. Ocean levels dropped, and with it the shallows seas retreated.

The proto-Euprymna were forced to deal with a shrinking environment, and increased competition. They made the jump from strictly being a marine organism to one capable of an amphibious existence. The move to land was a temporary respite, as they were now vulnerable to land as well as sea based predation.

At some unknown point in their history the proto-Euprymna discovered fire... which worked well at keeping the land based preditors at bay, but not so well with the oceanic ones. Shaped stone tools eventually provided for this contingency.

Since that forgotten era, the Euprymna continued to evolve, much like their ancestors they are very curious, and natural puzzle solvers.

LIFEFORM Amphibious Cephalopod 140
SHAPE Decaped 30
SIZE Very Small (240)
REPRODUCTION Superior 400
BODY ARMOR Thick Skin 60
STRENGTH Weak (240)
AGILITY Deft 140
CONSTITUTION Excellent 170
INTELLIGENCE Superior 740
SENSORY Excellent 230
COMBAT A Heavy Beak 4
COMBAT A Crushing Jaws 4
COMBAT B Chameleon 165
SPECIAL Linquistic 50
SPECIAL Attractive Features 20
SPECIAL Long Life Cycle 250

1,923 +4 +10 +4 +10 +12 +3 +5 +9 +9
Pts Size App RB CB SB SCB GCB CCB DB


Stuff I've considered:
adding temperature intolerance: cold
Diet: carnivore
adding low gravity tolerance
Maybe adding ESP and TP one
Poison
Gas Expulsion - DEF

Comments welcome.

Be aware that saved lifeform points are used to help speed research along. Spending close to the 2000 available bio points can make for an impressive lifeform, while saving a few hundred (or more!) can help quite a bit to get down key research paths quickly (Jump Survey Sensor spring to mind).

[ali-t-akua]

biomekanic, on Aug 24 2007, 05:39 PM, said:

Based on the Euprymna scolopes species (http://www.thecephal...g/Escolopes.php), the Euprymna are small, highly advanced cephalopds. Roughly 1.1M years ago, their homeworld exited the long interglacial period it was experiencing and the ice sheet rapidly returned. Ocean levels dropped, and with it the shallows seas retreated.

The proto-Euprymna were forced to deal with a shrinking environment, and increased competition. They made the jump from strictly being a marine organism to one capable of an amphibious existence. The move to land was a temporary respite, as they were now vulnerable to land as well as sea based predation.

At some unknown point in their history the proto-Euprymna discovered fire... which worked well at keeping the land based preditors at bay, but not so well with the oceanic ones. Shaped stone tools eventually provided for this contingency.

Since that forgotten era, the Euprymna continued to evolve, much like their ancestors they are very curious, and natural puzzle solvers.

LIFEFORM Amphibious Cephalopod 140
SHAPE Decaped 30
SIZE Very Small (240)
REPRODUCTION Superior 400
BODY ARMOR Thick Skin 60
STRENGTH Weak (240)
AGILITY Deft 140
CONSTITUTION Excellent 170
INTELLIGENCE Superior 740
SENSORY Excellent 230
COMBAT A Heavy Beak 4
COMBAT A Crushing Jaws 4
COMBAT B Chameleon 165
SPECIAL Linquistic 50
SPECIAL Attractive Features 20
SPECIAL Long Life Cycle 250

1,923 +4 +10 +4 +10 +12 +3 +5 +9 +9
Pts Size App RB CB SB SCB GCB CCB DB


Stuff I've considered:
adding temperature intolerance: cold
Diet: carnivore
adding low gravity tolerance
Maybe adding ESP and TP one
Poison
Gas Expulsion - DEF

Comments welcome.

But you left out the part about how tasty they are especially when served on a little bit of rice with wasabi.

Welcome to SN: ROTE.

[Hughestrog]

"Temperature intolerance: cold"

Also depends what temperature your starting Homeworlds at. Luckily mine was very low and allows me to colonise asteriod belts relatively easily.

Although having saved start-up points helps, I only had about 80 left over (I think) and I've managed to do OK (again I think).

Pete's right though in researching the Jump Survey Sensors, they help, as do working down the engine path. I'm sure others here will have their own suggestions, but if you look on the Board this should already be covered.

[WKE235]

Note that the Size: Very Small and Strenght: Weak do not show anything in the guide for how the effect the race. But these do impact ground combat operations. If you do get into a fight and have to battle someone, your race will be far less effective at fighting. Basically your divisions will not absorb damage as well as others and so will be eliminated more quickly on the battle field. A hidden disadvantage to these points.

Also, you will eventually be able to research Species Engineering. 1st gen gives you 150 more racial points to use, 2nd gen gives 250, and there are more for 3rd, 4th, 5th... So, you might want to consider not buying some things right at the start, and getting them later. For example, things like Body Armor, Crushing Jaws, and the Beak are all cheap, and mostly benefit ground combat. Since the beginning of the game is colonization, space exploration, and research mostly, you might hold off on those and use the points for something else now or use them for R&D. These added racial points can also be used to buy back negative traits. So for example, you could change to Small from Very small for a cost of 120 .. or Average from Very Small for 240.

[Lord Uriel]

What is the difference between an attractive, plain, and ugly squid?

I would suggest dropping the attractive features.

[Paradigm]

Lord Uriel, on Aug 25 2007, 06:01 PM, said:

What is the difference between an attractive, plain, and ugly squid?

Odds of finding a date for Saturday night.

[WKE235]

Paradigm, on Aug 25 2007, 06:27 PM, said:

Lord Uriel, on Aug 25 2007, 06:01 PM, said:

What is the difference between an attractive, plain, and ugly squid?

Odds of finding a date for Saturday night.

The look of the food is important in all well prepared dishes.

[Clan Elder 'Keen]

Due to the slant of the current game mechanics, I would also drop anything to do with colonization and instead do a forum search for "Deep Core Surveyor" and start buying those tech prereqs with saved SRPs.

[Lord Xaar]

Yeah, DCS are great. Nothing quite like getting that first 1000+ yield...



-LX

[Octus Imperium]

Lord Xaar, on Aug 29 2007, 08:16 AM, said:

Yeah, DCS are great. Nothing quite like getting that first 1000+ yield...



-LX

Unless it's coal or mineral fertilizer. However, this may work for the cattleput tech tree.....

Octus

[cestvel]

Lord Xaar, on Aug 29 2007, 05:16 PM, said:

Yeah, DCS are great. Nothing quite like getting that first 1000+ yield...



-LX

Don't dismiss ICE-x for a headstart on DCS.

[biomekanic]

cestvel, on Aug 29 2007, 08:41 AM, said:

Lord Xaar, on Aug 29 2007, 05:16 PM, said:

Yeah, DCS are great. Nothing quite like getting that first 1000+ yield...



-LX

Don't dismiss ICE-x for a headstart on DCS.

There wouldn't be a handy dandy guide to the acronyms in this game, would there? Because ICE to me means "Intrusion Counter Electronics" ( why yes... I did play a lot of Cyberpunk 2020... )

[Breoghan]

biomekanic, on Aug 29 2007, 12:08 PM, said:

cestvel, on Aug 29 2007, 08:41 AM, said:

Lord Xaar, on Aug 29 2007, 05:16 PM, said:

Yeah, DCS are great. Nothing quite like getting that first 1000+ yield...



-LX

Don't dismiss ICE-x for a headstart on DCS.

There wouldn't be a handy dandy guide to the acronyms in this game, would there? Because ICE to me means "Intrusion Counter Electronics" ( why yes... I did play a lot of Cyberpunk 2020... )

ICE, or Instant Coalescing Embrace, is a highly unstable material used to alter the molecular structure of other objects.