Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The Modding Workshop => Topic started by: starbug on May 27, 2011, 09:54:36 am

Title: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: starbug on May 27, 2011, 09:54:36 am
OK, I am working on a mini campaign at the mo, when I've got free time from uni. My campaign features a new race called the Tal'Seth. A aggressive reptilian with slight avian feature humanoid. Their not going to be a mysterious race like the Shivans.  They can be communicated with etc. They see the Terrans as either slaves(their the lucky ones) to serve in their empire or as food. The Vasudans are of no use them so they are trying to wipe them out, also due to their appearance some terrans have named them Dragons. Technology wise they are about the same as GTVA, but they have no beam weapons. They instead use railguns, Mass drivers, and a type of energy torpedo. Also their ships have a lot of Armor, which helps them survive an encounter with say the broadside of an Orion. I'm not really wanting to give to much away. Also i thought it would be a change to do a race that isn't Shivan/Shadow/Vorlon/Vishnan, extremely advanced and mysterious but something on a more level playing field.

Anyway here is a screen shot of the Heavy Destroyer the TSD Varcan, (a re textured Kismat) armed with 9 Mass drivers(name will change when i come up with something better) 4 torpedo launchers and 20 standard laser turrets. The ship is designed for smashing through other capital ships, so most of her firepower is facing forward, although the torpedo launchers are mounted along the side. Main weakness are no figtherbay and a server lack of anti-fighter weapons, so she is vulnerable to fighter/bomber attack. Sofar in tests facing a single Orion the Varcan always wins. When the Orion has an escort of Aelous cruisers its more down to who gets the first salvo in, as the cruisers flak and AAAf can intercept most of the torpedo barrages. A single Orion can win if it attacks from the rear but will take a fair bit of damage from the torpedo launchers.

Thank you to Destiny and Dragon for helping me get the Energy torpedos to look the way i wanted them. will try to post a video of them working later, :)


[attachment deleted by ninja]
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Luis Dias on May 27, 2011, 10:23:12 am
Maaaauuure aliens ftw !!

What's their story? Did they invade anyone else? Do they know the shivans? How did they survive them? What is their metaphysics? What is their vision of their place in the galaxy (apart from seeing lower things as food). Why do they even see mankind as "food"?

Perhaps you haven't covered this or even thought much about this yet, but they could prove to have very interesting and chilling answers.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: starbug on May 27, 2011, 11:01:14 am
I am still working on the storyline for them, but for the sector of the galaxy they inhabit they have conquered serveral other species, and on their homeworld they are at the top of the foodchain and hunted the primates and mammals of their world for food, which is why they have taken a taste to humans, also they are Predators. They view themselves as masters and are very intelligent and cunning. They come into contact with the GTVA, via Knossos portal. The GTVA enter the system which the Tal'seth view as an invasion into their space and learning of humanity they find a new food source. They are about 6 to 7 foot tall, they are very strong but also lean, as they appear to be descendend from flying reptiles. Thats the extreme basics of them. As i said i am still working on this.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Luis Dias on May 27, 2011, 11:04:18 am
Why not having them 30 feet tall with wings? Picture something the size of Chronos eating a human...
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: starbug on May 27, 2011, 11:11:12 am
Chronos???? who and what is that?
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Luis Dias on May 27, 2011, 11:11:58 am
google "chronos eating a human" in the image section, you'll find it pretty quickly
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: General Battuta on May 27, 2011, 11:13:21 am
That is silly, don't do it.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Luis Dias on May 27, 2011, 11:14:36 am
Silly is having all the races with mostly the same size....
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Snail on May 27, 2011, 11:16:11 am
Have you heard of the square-cube law?
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: starbug on May 27, 2011, 11:17:45 am
Yeah, no i won't be doing that. i'll stick with 6-7 ft tall size thank you.

No i haven't  heard of the square cube law,

Edit just googled it, interesting, never knew that.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Luis Dias on May 27, 2011, 11:21:21 am
A small planet with little gravity and, say, little heat (where storing of heat is essential), would probably have a selection pressure towards big animals.

starbug, no pb, just throwing random stuff... I'll behave.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: G0atmaster on May 28, 2011, 04:02:22 am
Well good, I was gonna ask why they didn't consider the Vasudans in the same light as the Terrans.  It makes sense though, if they hunted primates.  Good job explaining that. 

What, exactly, are Vasudans supposed to be?
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Droid803 on May 28, 2011, 01:06:30 pm
[insert grumble about apostrophes in alien race names]

Really, especially adding an apostrophe after the first three letters. WHY!? T_T

Uh... sorry, I doubt anyone wants me to get into why I hate it again.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Luis Dias on May 28, 2011, 08:59:35 pm
Well it's kinda awkward, if the explanation is they eat "primates" since that is a category of very specific terran animals....
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Snail on May 28, 2011, 09:02:40 pm
Convergent evolution...
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Luis Dias on May 28, 2011, 09:05:13 pm
Ok, I'll suspend my disbelief!
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Snail on May 28, 2011, 09:10:40 pm
Ok, I'll suspend my disbelief!
Fiction does require you to do this.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Luis Dias on May 28, 2011, 09:12:08 pm
Ok, I'll suspend my disbelief!
Fiction does require you to do this.

Good fiction doesn't require any of this, it commands your will to do so like it is a slave of it.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: SypheDMar on May 28, 2011, 09:54:08 pm
[insert grumble about apostrophes in alien race names]

Really, especially adding an apostrophe after the first three letters. WHY!? T_T
I have to agree. Adding the apostrophes make it look less "professional". I'd only use an apostrophe if you were trying to separate vowels (e.g. Ta'el so that it'd be 'Tah-Ehl' instead of 'Teyhl'). Adding an apostrophe between consonants does nothing with pronunciation, unless it's something like K'nife.

As for primates, I agree with Luis Dias here. 'Primate-like species from their homeworld' might fit better. I don't know. You decide, but to be honest, I don't really like the background much and would rather you do a rewrite.

As for as the ship itself, the texture looks pretty bad (and Vasudan-like). :<
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: TrashMan on May 30, 2011, 09:03:39 am
So this intelligent space-faring species....hunts humans for food?

I assume it can produce it's own food - they have the equalent of farms and stuff. So why would they bother? They have acess to food that doesn't try to fry them with a beam cannon.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Hades on May 30, 2011, 09:36:38 am
So this intelligent space-faring species....hunts humans for food?

I assume it can produce it's own food - they have the equalent of farms and stuff. So why would they bother? They have acess to food that doesn't try to fry them with a beam cannon.
Beam-fried humans are just that much better
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: BengalTiger on May 30, 2011, 03:36:17 pm
Humans could have some protein or something that's really healthy or perhaps required for the Tal'Seth, and producing it is expensive for some reason.
There, that's my little contribution to this project. :P
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: SypheDMar on May 30, 2011, 03:52:32 pm
I'm sure we can always work up a trade bargain that deals with cows. :p
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: starbug on May 31, 2011, 04:30:59 am
Ok thank you for the suggestions. As i said i am still working on the idea and back story. The whole back story may change, one thing that will not change will be the no beam weapons. Yes Beam weapons are big powerfull wow weapons but the problem i find with them is you take out the say the main cannons on a deimos and she can longer fight against capital ships. Were as, and this is why i love the UEF and Blue Planet. The UEF capital ships have an array of anti-capital ship weapons. torpedos, lasers, railguns etc. Thats my reason for not giving the talseth any beam weapons, don't want to place all their eggs in one basket.

Ps yes i know the re-textured kismat is not the best but that is a very old model.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Reprobator on May 31, 2011, 03:41:05 pm
And what about hunting for pleasure? :p
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Scourge of Ages on May 31, 2011, 09:23:17 pm
Maybe we just taste really good, and because we're hard to get, we become a delicacy?
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Snail on May 31, 2011, 09:59:41 pm
Sorry, I don't think I'll ever be able to take the premise of intelligent aliens who want to eat us seriously.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: AndrewofDoom on May 31, 2011, 10:34:10 pm
Maybe we just taste really good, and because we're hard to get, we become a delicacy?

There's only one thing left then.

BEGIN OPERATION HUMANS TASTE BAD! Totally original idea that I definitely didn't steal from someone else.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Luis Dias on June 01, 2011, 05:32:02 am
Sorry, I don't think I'll ever be able to take the premise of intelligent aliens who want to eat us seriously.

This.

It's like a good premise for a JAD campaign ;)
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Mobius on June 01, 2011, 06:24:45 am
Isn't that a reskinned old SD Kismat?
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: MatthTheGeek on June 01, 2011, 06:32:37 am
Sorry, I don't think I'll ever be able to take the premise of intelligent aliens who want to eat us seriously.
FEEEEEEEEEEEED SOOOOOOOOOON

(as a Snail, do you consider Frenchmen as intelligent aliens that want to eat you)
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Snail on June 01, 2011, 06:49:31 am
(as a Snail, do you consider Frenchmen as intelligent aliens that want to eat you)
Aliens yes, intelligent no.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: BengalTiger on June 03, 2011, 07:07:35 am
Well humans eat lots of intelligent animals- cats, dogs, pigs, cuttlefish....

I see no problem with aliens wanting to eat humans.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Lester on June 03, 2011, 07:51:13 am
Well humans eat lots of intelligent animals- cats, dogs, pigs, cuttlefish....

I see no problem with aliens wanting to eat humans.
There is a difference between a space-faring civilisation and an organism capable of mental activity.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: BengalTiger on June 03, 2011, 07:57:18 am
Well, for us.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Luis Dias on June 03, 2011, 10:51:48 am
The problem lies more in the fact that humans are a lot more effective at actually preventing being eaten than cows.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Lester on June 03, 2011, 11:18:21 am
And that a species that evolved in an entirely different environment from ours most probably wouldn't find us eatable, let alone tasty.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Snail on June 03, 2011, 12:01:18 pm
And I still don't find myself able to take this concept seriously.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Hades on June 03, 2011, 12:53:38 pm
And I still don't find myself able to take this concept seriously.
You just don't like the concept of space frenchmen and we're the snails
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: LoneKnight on June 03, 2011, 12:58:07 pm
Humans could have some protein or something that's really healthy or perhaps required for the Tal'Seth, and producing it is expensive for some reason.
There, that's my little contribution to this project. :P

Certainly couldn't be intellect.

Maybe they just want to assimilate everyone?

Going out on a limb here...why hasn't the GTVA encountered Daleks yet?
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: BengalTiger on June 03, 2011, 01:07:25 pm
Due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire Dalek battle fleet was swallowed by a small dog. This sort of thing happens all the time.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: SypheDMar on June 03, 2011, 05:55:32 pm
Due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire Dalek battle fleet was swallowed by a small dog. This sort of thing happens all the time.
xD Nice.
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Scooby_Doo on June 03, 2011, 11:59:16 pm
My God! What if the secret ingredient ... is people!!!
No. There's already a soda like that. Soylent Cola.
Oh. How is it?
It varies from person to person
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Trivial Psychic on June 04, 2011, 07:23:56 am
Awesome Futurama reference! :yes:
Title: Re: New Race the Tal'Seth
Post by: Luis Dias on June 05, 2011, 10:43:13 am
Due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire Dalek battle fleet was swallowed by a small dog. This sort of thing happens all the time.
xD Nice.

It's Douglas Adams.