[Idea/WIP]New Race/Faction: Hivemans

[robotguy4]

I have an idea for a modded race/faction I've started to call The Hivemans. I've started to look through the modding documentation and so far, it seems somewhat possible, however, due to the scope of my idea and my track record with mods in the past, I think I'll try getting some input before starting. This would be a BIG mod. If you have any suggestions where to start (maybe which chunks to start working on first?), that would probably be helpful. Things are subject to change.

The Hivemans are a playable eusocial alien race that utilizes near-instantaneous interstellar travel to spread from planet to planet.

Before you type "READ THE LORE!" I should say that 'alien' and 'instantaneous' should have quotes around them.

The Hivemans are a race that are more alien in terms of the definition of alien that is "strange or otherworldly" than "not human". If you were to study a Hiveman's genetic code you'd find many sections are similar to human beings. This suggests that the Hivemans are most likely highly engineering human beings. It's most likely that the Hivemans are either the product of Transcendent/Near Transcendent technology. "But Robert!" You may say, "Why are you so awesome and also shouldn't you just call them modified humans? Also, can I have your babbies?" Oh, ho, ho! Hypothetical question asker! Thank you for your flattery! While you can call them "modified humans", but due to their differences in culture, biology, gameplay and emotions, we may as well be calling them "aliens" even if their lineage is human. And, no, you can't have them. I'm throwing a barbecue later.

Now for the "near-instantaneous" travel: transmissions are only "near-instantaneous" to the occupants. While hours or days have passed for the occupants, in the outside world decades or centuries have passed. Yep! Time dilation! The exact mechanisms of these devices have been lost to time, even to the Hivemans (they just build the things and use them) but it probably warps space time. Whatever goes through them is subject to time dilation. These systems use a TON of power and release a TON of heat during a transmission but can be reused for multiple transmissions of colonies and also makes Hiveman colony ships less resource hungry (they only need to be designed for traveling a few years in interplanetary space vs decade or century travel in interstellar space). This is VERY useful for the Hiveman's end goal.

The Goal
The end goal of the Hiveman race is simple: Spread to as many worlds as possible by any means necessary. Instead of the game ending when you send out a colony ship, the game will continue and a counter will go up by 1. The only reason your game will end is if every single colonist dies (or should it be if the queen dies?).

Hivemans are eusocial. Basically, think ants: there's a queen, warriors, and drones. Let's look into that:

Queens
They shit out eggs that can be turned into more Hivemans. Most important Hiveman; always keep at least 1 alive and happy.

I've been thinking about how age would affect this. A young Queen will only output 1 egg per gestation cycle, while an old one will output in the tens. A young Queen would also be more mobile and eat less. I'd probably have to add in a mechanism for artifically increasing age.

Eggs can be seen like rock chunks: you need to process them before they're useful. Unlike rock chunks, you can choose what they turn into probably using something like a spawning pool which turn the unset eggs into set eggs that then hatch into the other classes.

There'd probably be different kinds of queen like one that is able to do work, but I haven't decided anything yet. I'm also thinking they'd be the only ones who would be affected by beauty.

Not sure if you can only be limited to one Queen (the one you get at the beginning) or if you'd be allowed to hatch more. You will be able to hatch Princesses for the colony ships, but they won't lay eggs.

Warriors
So far, I've thought of two kinds of warriors: Tank and Flanker. Tanks are slower moving but have high damage tolerance. Flankers are fast, but weaker than flankers. I'd probably throw in some ability for built-in biological weapons like knife claws or acid spitters.

Most of them don't do work. At most, they'd be able to do some socializing, healing and hauling. The rest is all melee and ranged.

In terms of modding, I see that the differences between Tank and Flanker would be set via the backstory, seeing as this not only changes the stats and adds certain modifiers, but also changes the appearance of the pawn allowing me to make Tanks big brutes and Flankers smaller and skinnier.

Drones
They do all the work and they're all specialized for specific types of work. Each drone is good at one skill and maybe a second, partially related, skill. Again, this would be controlled via backstory, which not only increases the skills but disables the rest (maybe not social?). I'd probably make their main skill have a burning passion. I haven't decided what combo drones there should be. Probably no Artistic specialization drones, or if there are, they're "glitches".

Along with one of each skill, I'm thinking of one more worker:
Logistics. They haul and clean shit. Fast moving and high carry capacity. Can't do much else. I'm also thinking that they could be able to regenerate organs and act as organ donors. If this is the case, they'd have two hearts.

Structures
I'd probably implement Hiveman structures like every other structure, meaning that Humans could build these structures as well, however, one resource required would be a special material which can only be generated by Hiveman drones, the generation of which would probably be similar coding-wise to chickens and unfertilized eggs. I'm currently calling this resource Bio-Resin.

I haven't thought much about structures besides the end game transmitter and Hiveman colony ship.

There's a few gameplay changes that I'm thinking of such as everyone being hostile, cannibalism is OK (Er, I mean to Hivemans. Disregard the earlier babbie joke.) and being around the Queen gives a social buff.

TL;DR: Hivemans are human ants.

Please let me know what I'm going to have to worry about, if I'm being too ambitious (probably am), some modding tips, ideas of your own, or Chinese lemon chicken recipes. I'm probably going to work on it in chunks.

[123nick]

this seems a bit too ambitious.

[mew_the_pinkmin]

This seams very difficult. although i like the idea as being able to play as no human beings.

[DRevD]

Maybe this is too ambitious, I don't know...but I would love to play a non-human hive like race.

I'd start small, and with something already in game.

The game and lore already provides us with a hive race of xenomorph-ish, genetically engineered species...the insectoids. The lore is there to support it, but maybe more importantly in-game assets to start with. It would be cool to control a small hive, and slowly build it up to a goal of achieving a 'hive-mind' with sentience that can communicate with humans (trade/war). Eventually with  other goals of building bio-ships for space travel conquest infestation.

[robotguy4]

My idea is to start small.

I'm currently working on a mod that temporarily accelerates aging and a basic new race.

As far as I can tell, I'll need to look into DLL mods.