[Requests]The Arachnids from starship troopers as a non mechinoid faction

[xanatosxan]

I've been looking through the mods on forums and I noticed that we don't have an insect infestation( though there are many great mods) and I was wondering if it would be possible craft the different types of bugs seen in the Starship troopers franchise.  I am for the most part sure that I can make the xml part of  the mod but I do not know how to make the textures for the various bugs and their functions and I'm not entirely sure how to make the various incidents for specific type bug assaults and sieges I have swimming around in my brain. I can attempt to make the assemblies for those myself but that may take a a while longer if I couldn't get assistance on it as I am still learning c#(though it seems more tedious than actually hard). 

Ideas I currently are:
-the Warrior bugs as the main fodder force, melee force
- The tanker beetles as the slower, more heavily armored mid ranged shock troop( think of a flame-throwing, fleshly centipede-esqe type enemy)
-The Plasma beetles as the the super-long range but very inaccurate mortar type enemy that are very slow moving but more heavily armored to protect against retaliation from colonist mortars.
-either the kamikaze bugs or the blister bugs make up the final role.( or just add in both to fit the kamikazes act as quick and squishy grenadiers while the blister bugs act as the mid-range "regular" fire troops.)
- maybe add in the control bugs but I think that they would require a corresponding incident akin to zombie making and as such requires potentially a lot of coding so maybe save that for a later date.My thought on that incident though is that during the infection the colonist(s) would have a large custom made thought penalty to show the control bugs effects on the colonist(s) thought process potentially leading to more breakdowns(maybe even making it tiered to represent different levels of the infection if possible), then when or if the infection succeeds the colonist(or whoever is infected) would explode with more control bugs seeking to proliferate their ranks. The control bugs would be squishy and easy to kill but with would appear in large numbers. They would also be very agile and one bite or scratch from the bug could possibly lead to larger, more persistent issues for the colony proper down the road if not properly maintained.( Flamethrowers are your friend ) I am not sure if this event would even be possible though.

The type of incidents I have in mind if possible:
- a special drop pod type assault for the arachnids maybe meteors, on a transport bug or oaganic looking drop pods.
- also in the same line of thought would it be possible to create a self propagating mini-raid type nest(similar to miniami's mech cocoons and raider command posts) or a space part event
- A special siege using the plasma bugs instead of building mortars. is this possible? Can this be done through just a custom think tree
- the aforementioned control bug incident
-Would it be possible to create the brain eating, talent stealing brain bug to act as a special assault incident in which the brain bug acts as a hive mind core( similar to Apothecarius' mod for the colonist's hive mind except implemented for the arachnids through the brain bug event) that goes around to the wounded colonists-raiders-prisoners and takes their brains/kills them to supplement the current arachnid invasion forces abilities? kill it to drop their skills back down to a manageable level. Alternatively is make it as a very slow moving and easier to kill unit that spawns rarely among the arachnids but that grants a boost to the arachnids skills/thoughts over time but demoralizes them if killed. The demoralizing part could be left off if that would make raids with the bugs too easy.
Either way I'm not sure how viable the brain bug actually is which is why I mentioned it here and not in the Arachnid potential faction list.

I guess what I am asking is if I took time to build the xmls would someone be willing to build the textures and maybe the assemblies for the incidents?  As I said at the beginning of the post I could try my hand at the assemblies part but I don't know if I would be able to make them very well as I'm still learning c#. Feedback and ideas on potential content as viability of incidents would be much appreciated if possible.

[skullywag]

i thought Evul was updating his bug mod.

[xanatosxan]

Is there already a bug mod? I must of missed it. I was hoping to be able to build my own mod or at least part of it though.

[mipen]

Yeah, Evul has a mod called arachnid threat (it's in the unfinished mods section) but that doesn't mean you can't make your own! more mods = better mods as you can learn from each other and help each other grow. I think a mod like this that adds a new faction that sends waves of bugs at you would be fantastic!

[xanatosxan]

I shot my ideas over to his thread just in case he likes any of them and wants to use them. I think until he gets his Arachnid mod up and running for the current alpha though I'm going to at least take a shot at building my own and see how far I get with it as doing this will be good practice in crafting .xmls and maybe I'll try to make my own assemblies for it as well but I'll do that after I'm done building the xml files provided nobody comes forward before that point.

I already have the faction.xml built for the most part minus the special incident bugs, the race.xml is partially done though it looks like I do have to build xmls for the "standard" arachnid bodies(luckily there are the megascarabs that I can use as the body template for the Tanker,Plasma, and Chaser Bugs so that's three bodies down) and I'm currently looking over the mechanoids to get an idea of how to do the projectile type attacks for the bugs. I am having trouble locating the death action for the boomrats though in the core defs folder because I would like to modify it in order make a little more powerful on death version with a generally larger range(not by much of course) for the Chaser bugs without making their main attack essentially just run forward and explode(though maybe that would be more fun and fits how the chaser bug acts in the starship troopers universe). I guess I could add the boomrats' death action as is to give the chaser's a smaller explosion on death while giving them a 'weapon' that they trigger  for when they get in a certain range as well for the larger explosion on a successful...Duel explosions on a successful hit might be too much though.

Now I just need to figure out what to do about the textures but if I'm going to ultimately attempt to make those myself then they can wait for the time being until I finish most the other .xml work and maybe the assembly work when(if) I get there. When I get the .xmls built I'll set up a test game using the base muffalo textures for hilarity and fun ... to see how the mechanics as I set them up function and if the mod needs to be tweaked a little bit damage-wise so the bugs don't just overrun unsuspecting colonies.

Thanks for the suggestion mipen, I would've likely left this in the idea state after hearing about Evul's mod without your input.
Also, I apologize for any spelling errors in either my posts, I'm just really excited.

[Evul]

The mod is listed in my signature.
Not working yet tho. One of the problems i have with it is that the bug's don't have a custom AI so they use the psychotic code making them just run towards any pawn.

[mrofa]

 Thats actually best ai for bugs not sure why you would think its a problem

[Evul]

I want them to actually desecrate stuff ^^

[xanatosxan]

Doesn't JuliaEllies' 'your own motes' mod try to accomplish a similar effect compared to what you are trying to do with the desecration/dismemberment of caused by the arachnids? If you haven't already that might be something to look into in order to get a better idea of how you might go about creating the gore effects for humanoids in your mod.