[General Battuta]

Battuta:  Your bullet bugs, I think, are a little too contrived even for this discussion.  Let's try to keep it to single organisms working in groups or hive mind more conventional forces to keep the Naysayers happy, no?

They honestly don't seem particularly different from existing insects to me, so, no, I don't see any particular problem.

If adding some additional detail and flair is the price of criticism, that's fine with me, but I think it funny that an organism that consists of 95% existing organism behaviors on the fundamental level (the variants are the only really fantastic part) is called 'contrived'. It just shows how crazy nature can be.

Trashman:  "We" aren't using those things.  Contrived they may be, stop looking at this from a "human bio-engineering vs. human technology."  I came up with a slightly less contrived example than Battuta's in free time during Psych today.  I would be happy to type it up, on the condition you don't rant at it for not being able to single-handedly PWNXORZ anything not organic.  This discussion isn't meant to prove how organics trump tech, it's an attemp to DISPROVE how Tech always trumps organic.

Yeah, I think this is what Akalabeth is missing.

[Scotty]

Point you, Battuta.  Something just seemed a little... off about it.  Maybe it was the selective adoption of traits based on (then) current circumstances.  Then again, I'm inclined to think more in terms of the conventional and more visibly "normal."

I need to stop thinking criticism is an inherently bad word.

[General Battuta]

One of the givens of the scenario was a race of 'biotech enemies' who had put as much effort into advancing their biological science as we have into our physical approaches. Biology has always been the retarded child of the sciences - especially before the discovery of DNA. So there was definitely a certain degree of handwaving involved to account for a whole different path of development.

Some people seem to be choking on it.

I mean, I could've taken two minutes and written up a halfway plausible treatise on beetle hives that just make bullets and gone off on how that was more efficient than the comparable factory model, but it wouldn't have been as much fun.

[Ghostavo]

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned before as I didn't read through all 9 pages of this argument, but "evolution" can also be applied to machine design via evolutionary algorithms.

Hence, in the end, it could be just as easy/difficult to control a horde of drones, biological or otherwise.

[Aardwolf]

Hay guis, the game might actually be fun / worth having its own thread...

THREADSPLIT PLZ   

[TrashMan]

Honestly most of the objections just seem to be a consequence of failures of imagination. This whole thread is a what if, not a how likely: plausible, grounded, but nonetheless fantastic illustrations of a point.

And I honestly see this a faliure - desrigarding the how likely bit.
You can't say that's unimportant. It's very important.

Frankly I doubt we'll ever have the bioengineering knowledge to create bio-bugs...or the technical knowledge to create nano-machines.

Also, I wouldn't call this a "technology vs. nature" debate. Not really. Our technology is the product of our nature.
This is a tech-equipped organism vs. purely bilogical organism debate.

[General Battuta]

*shrug* Up in the air. None of us can make accurate predictions about what we'll be able to do in the future, let alone what another species might manage.

[Stormkeeper]

HLP;

The only place where the introduction of a game can turn to predictions about the future.

[karajorma]

Hay guis, the game might actually be fun / worth having its own thread...

THREADSPLIT PLZ   

Given that no one has mentioned the game until you did for at least 3-4 pages. No.

And stop telling the admins how to do our job.

[Aardwolf]

LAND SHARKS, RAWR!!!!!!1

Hay guis, the game might actually be fun / worth having its own thread...

THREADSPLIT PLZ   

Given that no one has mentioned the game until you did for at least 3-4 pages. No.

And stop telling the admins how to do our job.

Pretty please with a cherry on top?

[StarSlayer]

So...  they've got Sharky the Sharkdog. 

Any chance of Thunder Lizards?

[Thaeris]

I cast my vote for worgs. If the angry goblin on top doesn't kill you, that irritable dog-thang will...

[Colonol Dekker]

So will this game be download only, or will I be able to pop into my nearest high street retailer to purchase?

[Vidmaster]

Download only. At first at least. If they are ever able to, they are planning to release 360 and PS3 versions as well.

[Flipside]

Of course, in real warfare, the smaller the bugs are more dangerous. Battuta's bullet bugs are, in many ways synonymous with locusts, but even they aren't the most effective organic killers out there. Consider that the common flu has killed more people than all the wars that have ever taken place, and you'll see that there are two ways to avoid armour, one is to be big enough to break it, the other is to be small enough to fit through the cracks, that's the real danger of any organic-based warfare.

[General Battuta]

Yeah. Thus the earlier discussions about Native Americans vis a vis human-alien contact.

[Flaser]

You're all being a bit naive. To destroy a civilization there's no need to kill each and every member. All you need is to disrupt the foundation.

A prime being the whole eco-sphere. Just changing the environment could do in the humans. If you're interested read the "War on the Chtorr" cycle.

[Vidmaster]

hey, they opened the Vault to the public. DID ANYBODY CHECK IT OUT INSTEAD OF DISCUSSING ALIEN CREATURES?

It really is the next generation of screenshots.

[Polpolion]

hey, they opened the Vault to the public. DID ANYBODY CHECK IT OUT INSTEAD OF DISCUSSING ALIEN CREATURES?

It really is the next generation of screenshots.

It's pretty neat. I was kinda hoping it'd open up with more content, but I'm not complaining. Anyway, I'm wondering how the actual game is coming along. I guess We'll know more when the other areas are opened.

[carbine7]

hey, they opened the Vault to the public. DID ANYBODY CHECK IT OUT INSTEAD OF DISCUSSING ALIEN CREATURES?

It really is the next generation of screenshots.

I did