>>12724034

The game is actually meant to be played campaign style, with multiple players on each 'team' forming a command hierarchy, we've got some cool kriegspiel style campaign map stuff going, but the real meat of the game is your standard squad-level tactical tabletop wargaming. Though it is science fiction and we're trying to keep things as hard-scifi as possible (which I mean relatively, given that we've included psychics, subspace, humanoid aliens and strong references to Lovecraftian mythos.) we've settled for erring on the side of cool when we come up with a conflict between scientific plausibility and playability. Trench warfare happens, we've actually seem people perform the equivalent of creeping barrages successfully, and on one of my favorite occasions, a platoon of Confederate “Echo” supersoldiers charged a Chironic squadron holding a building, and cleared them out with swords and bayonets to seize an objective at the cost of huge casualties on the turn before the game ended, rather than risk them surviving the gunfire.
Pic related, bayonets will always have a place on the battlefield, because bayonets are freaking sweet.

>>12724048
TL;DR: Mankind's eternal struggle to get itself wiped out... IN SPAAACE: Make a faction! I'm as interested in ideas for fluff as I am in more detailed army ideas, all thoughts are welcome.
The factions we've got so far, I'll list 'em one post at a time, but you don't need to wait for me.

...Shoulda probably put this in the OP post, now that I think of it. Ah well.

>humanity nuked itself into the dark ages, arose again, and re-united with its off-world colonies
>Aliens are now on the borders, contact has been less than friendly
>Trench warfare happens
>Confederate “Echo” supersoldiers charged a Chironic squadron holding a building, and cleared them out with swords and bayonets
>war is basically brewing everywhere

So you've made 40k?

>>12724056
Solar Confederacy: Earth and most of her colonies, a semi-effectual UN style bureaucracy, except when one or more superpowers push agendas forward. Usually military ones. Then it starts channeling Sulla against the Mithridates, and launches huge total wars. Mid-priced versatile infantry, with strong heavy weapon support spread out through all elements. Have access to excellent specialist troops including bio-engineered supersoldiers called “Echo” but must rely on the strong center of their human powered infantry to keep from being overwhelmed. Have extremely strong leadership as a result of long-standing military academies on Earth, and a system of cycling experienced troops and officers out of combat to act as instructors. This does have the side effect, however, of preventing them from deploying a lot of veteran troops.

Pictured was our inspiration for the Echo. I guess it's kind of... You know, typical, but the idea of bio-engineering elves as expendable cannon fodder really appealed to us. The lovecraftian implications of their creation are also really, really cool, but I don't know enough about 'em to explain it adequately here.

>>12724065
I feel that's an unfair comparison. The setting is on a much smaller scale than 40k, we didn't put in... You know, chainsaws and acid spitting mutants and stuff, and the game does acknowledge how stupid it is to try things like what you quoted. Overwhelming numbers can make a frontal assault work with the tinfoil-armored space elves we call Echo, that doesn't mean it's a good idea. Just awesome when it works.

>>12724066
Republic of Chiron: Human religious fanatics from Alpha Centauri and a few other colonies, pay lip service to the Confederacy, but do their own thing mostly. Lots of cheap, fast infantry with good close range weaponry but mediocre ranged weapons, and versatile and powerful grenades that can provide cover, disrupt enemy suppressive fire, and even slow enemy movement in addition to simply killing them. Also have access to psychics, who screw with enemy leadership and morale by crucifying themselves inside big mechanized walkers, and projecting their pain into the minds of their enemies every night.
Pictured is more or less the aesthetic we're going for. These guys are sort of our token jackbooted thugs, but with a lot more religious iconography. Apparently they're actually not Christian specifically, but a sort of unified abrahamic religion that worships the Three Prophets equally, but I really can't see them as anything except Space Nazis with more crosses. Their weapons seem more Soviet in design though, one of their guns is basically just the Ppsh with christmas lights on it.

>avergent religious
ok now that's creepy.

A race of gestalt super computers, kidnaps humans to put in logistics engines (the humans are in comas and their brains re-written.) to fuel their crazy wacky warmachines, only catch is that the logistics engines have to be within a certain distance, so protecting them is a challenging dynamic.

Also, winch balls.
I'll see if I can pump some more out, I would imagine that theyre shit but meh I'm bored.

>>12724089
Soldarin Empire: A militaristic warrior society, with two castes (soldier and slave) based on genetic compatibility with certain symbiotes that enhance performance and allow psychic communication. Lumbering alien warriors, extremely durable but slow, wield powerful weapons with high rates of fire, but suffer from mediocre fire support and very expensive mobile troops. Can field auxiliaries from conquered races to fill some of these gaps, but these are usually overpriced and of middling efficacy. These weaknesses are made up for by the inhuman durability of the troops, and their unmatched advantages in direct firefights. They also have poor leadership, but compensate for this somewhat by having strong individual initiative and unbreakable morale.

Pic related, if you ask me. I didn't design this army or the aliens in it, but they sound an awful lot like Krogan to me, though societally they're a lot more organized, with a strong hierarchy and an actual Empire that functions. Well, as much as an empire like that can function. They've got the hunchback, the reptilian features, the goofy hands, the redundant organs, and the regenerative properties, but maybe that was just confirmation bias kicking in. I've been told the idea predated Mass Effect, and that if anything, they're supposed to be more like those creepy underground guys from Gears of War.

>>12724066
...Are Echo actually spess elfs (like, with pointy ears and stuff)? Or are they just super fast bio soldiers? Spess elfs feels like a 40k knockoff.

>>12724107
Kodin Union: Communist fish people, specialize in massed charges, get more dangerous in close quarers the more of them are killed because of feeding frenzy instincts. Wield weapons that hit rather weakly, but can effect light infantry, heavy infantry, and even vehicles of all sorts at more or less the same level of power, meaning that they require little in the way of fire support. Rely on their 'alpha' troops, who keep the rest of the swarm from breaking, and carry weapons whose power is dependent on the size of their swarm, meaning that the Kodin start out with strong shooting abilities, but as they suffer casualties become more and more inclined to melee assaults.

Pic related, the concept art on these guys isn't done yet, but it's the first one that our artist is seriously working on because he likes bipedal sharks, apparently. So, until I've got a better picture, I assume that they're sahuagin with guns, or deep ones. I've been told it isn't like that, but I was also told that Dead Space was a good horror game. Then I pistol whipped a zombified Hook Horror to death, and all fear left me. I expect a similar turnout here.

>>12724096
Keep the humans conscious and willing. The gestalt machines offer immortality, heightened senses and access to their amazing technology - all they need is to transplant your brain into a mobile device, and you can plug into and out of any number of awesome mechs. The catch being that these little machines which are your day-to-day transport all have explosive destruct mechanisms built into them, so the moment you disobey your new machine overlords boom. You dead. Considering these people betrayed humanity for the promise of immortality, I imagine the prospect of death is doubly terrifying for them and is enough to force them into combat.

Of course some psychopaths will enjoy their detachment from humanity and revel in the killing, these individuals get rewarded with bigger, killier machines and promoted to generals.

Taking a pause because I'm out of pictures, and because you guys are just the most interesting people in the world.

>>12724109
I'm a little hazy on it. I know that they're humans who were engineered into killing machines via horrible, Lovecraftian Unit 731 experiments in an underwater laboratory somewhere, but the descriptions and the concept artwork seems to wobble between them being mostly human but having conical ears and fucked up legs, and being horrible albino monsters only tangentally recognizable as human.
I feel that the result will be somwhere in between, but for now, the picture I've got looks like an elf, and there are machinegun bullets that need soaking up!

>>12724096
Machines requiring a human element to function is a really creepy concept, and I've always liked it.

>>12724114
Machine Tide: An ancient terraforming project gone awry, an endless army of mechanical horrors who were programmed to transform planets from whatever their current state was, into a specific, eerily Earthlike state. The fact that the machines clearly predate the human space age by about 12,000 years raises a lot of questions that nobody is prepared to answer. This army relies heavily upon morale attacks, as well as large numbers of cheap robots supported by larger, specialty units that are usually modeled after the demons and nightmares of whichever culture they are fighting at the moment. Even the Soldarins are afraid of the machines (because there is no honor in getting bitchslapped to death by a lawnmower,) and the Chironites actually thought the Book of Revelations was happening when they first encountered them.

Pic Related. Straight from my nightmares to yours, anon.


>>12724131
And you! You beautiful son of a bitch, this is such a good idea I'm going to try and get it put in immediately.

>>12724145
There's one more that we're just working on now, called the Talon Alliance, which is supposed to be a society of transhumans who avoided the dark ages when Earth microwaved itself. Cybernetically enhanced soldiers, lots of A.I. Drones (which the other civilizations consider dangerous because of the Machine Threat, that often talks A.I.s into siding with it) but I'm not sure how such an army should look and play like. If you've got ideas for this, I'd love to hear 'em.
Pic related, I guess? I don't know where we're going with this, but the running theme has been that everything is a dystopia, so why not these guys too?

>>12724131
An interesting change, I like it. So now we need tech levels and descriptions and shit. I was thinking supercomputers (like in the movies), I always found those ominous, being able to calculate and such a million billions times better than we ever could.

I however was thinking along the lines that the logistics engines were like huge buses crammed full of people (ala the row houses in Junji Ito's Uzumaki), wirelessly communicating to unmanned super bio-hybrid mechas.

Game mechanics, I would have them as an elite army that relies on its logistics (these could be turreted, perhaps spawning swarms of nanomachines to defend them up close?). Lots of lasers & missiles, as I think they would take massive computing to use effectively. God tier accuracy though.

This is the dude who came up with that idea btw, not OP.

OP, this game looks very promising and not particularly 40k-ish (the mention of the words Hard and SciFi together disabuses us of this notion surely?)

>>12724137
There's quite a bit of space between elves and bipedal nematodes. Why the waffling? Did you guys go into this thinking "well damn, we need an army of expendable badass supersoldiers, but should they be hideous abominations, or drop dead sexy?"
Because that's what it's looking like.

>>12724145a
Robo-demons = kickass idea.
If you guys ever put out decent minis count me in.

>>12724131
>>12724178
http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Cymek

>>12724178
You are too kind. I mean, we put suppressive fire and whatnot in the rules to make 40k tactics a bit less viable, but I'll admit, we're not exactly hard... We just try where we can to play it straight across the board, even with some ridiculous premises *cough*Echo*cough* and then try to have them affect the world realistically. Hard where we can, soft where we can't. You know how it is.
I'll don an OP tag henceforth, if it'll make conversation easier.
I for one, by the way, think the human brain in a robot horror-body business is bangin', and it'll fly well with people who might've found the obligatory robot faction a bit bland. Nothing like a bit of personality to spruce up a team.

>>12724195
If we succeed, /tg/ will be the first one to know.

>>12724164
Well, you can always check out Transhuman Space for ideas, or Eclipse Phase. I'm not sure how you'll slap a bunch of cyborgs into something while justifying regular humans being able to take them on. Though this does raise a question, is this setting mostly pre-cybernetics? Has the singularity not happened yet? How are these guys keeping up with the machines?

Oh also, look up the Kae'Moda republic, bumped into it a million years ago on a 40k site. It was someone's attempt at a fan codex of a cybernetically advanced society inserted into 40k.
Didn't work too well, but it had a good aesthetic to it, and quite possibly that very picture in the codex.

>>12724209
Not human into machines, Machines controlling humans (A.I.?)

So, willing human slaves (other dudes' (awesome) idea) or stolen, rewritten mind slaves
(mine, though I'm sure it would have been done before, somewhere).

Perhaps combine the two? I like the idea of logistics engine bus thingies purely militarily though, but if they willingly went into those with the idea of bliss, to find they're simply calculating how to kill their would be children/kinsmen, whilst being able to collectively communicate.. well thats a whole 'nother level of fucked up.

>>12724212
I'm just sick of that retarded ass 'game' (40k) being the yardstick for upcoming games by people such as OP. lern2imaginations 40kids.

Are you wanting us to flesh these ideas out or just pitch them to you.

>>12724180
I guess I sort of know the answer to that, I'm just not clear enough on it to really conjecture, so take this with a grain of salt.

The Echo are supposed to be humans who are basically... Cheapened. They're a bit dumber than humans are, but make decisions faster, and their emotions are more subdued, but fundamentally, they're just humans with more impressive physical abilities, but dramatic weaknesses built in, like an addiction to a drug that will kill them if they are deprived of it for more than 24 hours, and low-grade hemophilia. The idea being, they can't defect, and they can't be captured. They're supposed to be pitiable, because even if they're the result of something horrible, they're still just people, who were made for the sole purpose of running into machinegun fire.
The humanity of them was meant to make them more pitiable, the elf ears were, I think, supposed to make them distinctly aesthetically non-human, without making them too alien. I'm personally hoping we find a better way than that, but I guess it's also not likely to hurt their popularity

>which is supposed to be a society of transhumans

You know, if everyone could decide to be anything as in a transhuman society, on what basis would they find a common interest to unite them towards a war? It's basically like 1/3 of them decided to become Tigers, 1/3 is Penguins now and the remaining third are Slugs.

They could even simply decide to live as Parasites to any and all of the other factions for a while. The possibility of Transhumanism makes for very wierd shit.

>>12724241
Oh wow, sorry, just addressing that last thingy. Personally, I love watching people go through the full line of thought on things, because by my understanding, most folks are a bit more clever than I am. I encourage you and others to flesh things out, we've got a lot of blank slate here to work with.

>>12724260
>like an addiction to a drug that will kill them if they are deprived of it for more than 24 hours

Eh, that doesn't make much sense. Make it a week or so and I can see the point, but 24 hours? One supply fuck-up and you just lost a load of troops for no good reason.

So wait, we've got the UN, except with space elves, Space-Nazi-Russian-Zealots, Krogan-Locust-Klingons, Environmentalist Necrons, and Fish. And these are all trying to kill each other?

...Yeah, ok. I can see it.

>>12724285
This. Plus, such a short timeframe would prevent them from doing one of those tasks expendable cannonfodder would normally be most wanted for: Rear-guards doing a stand to buy time for the remaining troops to draw back.

>>12724285
Individual soldiers can carry a supply...

>>12724285
Writin' that down, because that's a good point. Life is hard enough without your men dropping dead because nobody told you it was Daylight Savings time.

>>12724241
cont. Army structure: High Command (in a starship/bunker somewhere, with a fuckhuge logistics engine. This would be the intelligent, self aware part of the datacore that makes up the system. Redirects and controls the secondary command, develops new programs/war machinery.

Secondary command-oversees the construction/maintenance of the war machine. mindless/slave to primary command.

Tertiary command units-logistics busses, individually control mecha lances/platoons of soldiers.

Next up-weapons, troop type, vehicles.

>>12724311
>>12724300
Oh my god, not only are all of you better at this than me, you type faster!
I can feel my job security sliding away already.

>>12724297
don't forget the A.I driven brain slaves that've been dumped in mecha under threat of 'splodin being co-ordinated by literal think tanks.

>>12724311
If the original notion were to prevent capture, giving the enemy a supply with each prisoner would be counter-intuitive.
But let's actually address this frontally, the ultimate point of the drug is to make defections by these 'Echo' unlikely. Given that they're usually used as suicide troops, and they all probably know it, (because seriously, look at those ears) that's a fair point to address.
My bet, however, is that you'd get a lot further just by making defection pointless: Make them sterile, unless they're on a drug. Make sure only the government has said drug. Make their genetics confusing and 2/3rds junk genome. One Echo probably isn't worth much, it's just one guy who can run fast and has a sword. Whoopdie damn doo, you send ten of those to die on your way to breakfast every morning, and ten more die bringing you lunch. Your only real problem is if they get away and start breeding, and suddenly you have an infestation of supersoldiers.

...Supersoldier infestation. That is the worst situation I can imagine. Once you take that out of the equation, just rely on intense indoctrination, patriotic spirit, show them pictures of Monterey and tell 'em they'll get to live there if they serve Mankind well enough.

Tossing in my two cents, take the borg, but then go in reverse. A biological entity that believes its duty is to assimilate all organic matter into the same species, creating the master race!
Include dire implications of rape, they become the perfect villains, and the ideal counterpart to the horrible terraforming machines.
You know how much people hate the idea of being swallowed into something homogenous, and losing their identity? It's the same part of the brain that makes people racist, nationalist, etcetera, and it's not one that's going away. Tap into that, but with something legitimately horrific, and you've got gold.

>>12724320
>2174: Project Dogma, a self-sustaining dreadnought-class (over a kilometre long, usually requiring thousands of people to crew) capable of producing its own light attack craft, is launched on its three year tour/shakedown flight of the colonies. The experimental starship requires only 1/10th of the crew as an Automated Intelligence controlling hundreds of bipedal drones oversees many of the ships functions.
>2176: Dogma fails to appear at Colony Hytherion, a desert planet with vast mining capabilities.
>2177: Hytherion is lost after a pitched battle with an as yet unidentified species heavily reliant on mechanical constructs.
>2180: Mercantile fleet lost without a trace near the former location of Colony Hytherion.
>2189: Project Dogma's IFF signal picked up near Centurai Colony for forty-three minutes, attempts to hail the possible ship raise nothing but silence.
>2201: Newly established Colony of Yirrowa is razed, the new colonists find many bodies mutilated - some seemingly willing, others violently. No survivors.

>>12724427
>2207: The Promise Of The New Flesh, immediately classified as a dangerous cult, appears on Terra. Chapters of the cult quickly spread throughout the human colonies; Doctrine includes worshiping metallic constructs, the promise of immortality and the taking of slaves for their god.
>2218: Military Outpost Ceta-V repels an attack by a 'vast construct' starship which spawned thousands of light attack craft and landed tens of thousands of robotic entities on the planet. Command convinced it was a Machine Tide assault, Gen. Hayden of the Outpost reports differently: "Some of these stood taller than our own Echo soldiers, a few were like enormous battle tanks. They took prisoners and recovered their dead - a strange thing for the Machine Tide to do - before retreating. I'm convinced we're facing some new threat."
>2229: The last cult of The Promise Of The New Flesh disappears, all three million members across the colonies having vanished over the past decade without a trace.
>No new unclassified data available.

>>12724368
>>12724408
>>12724427
>>12724432
*scribblescribble*
Notes. I take them.

>>12724432
>>12724427
So it's a robot ship that at some point went crazy and became a bad guy? Or was that actually for the machine tide?

OP, a question from a somewhat-devoted spacenavyfag: how's space and space combat handled in your game? Seeing as it's hard sci-fi, I already envision some good old longrange missile salvos and stuff, but... could you elaborate?

If there's nothing, then maybe I can help.

And other thing. Extrasolar colonies, eh? Obviously you have FTL travel then, so... how is it explained? Wormholes, hyperspace, tachyons, what have you?

>>12724464
I dunno, but I'm liking it.

>>12724464
In my head the new mecha slave race started out as an experiment in automated starships which went wrong after a run in with The Machine Tide fragmented the A.I. The ship then turned on the crew, converted the unwilling to the first Think Tank's and the willing into the first Lancers. Building on this idea, Dogma then started raiding mercantile fleets, outlying/new colonies and planting agents on planets to start cults of willing participants to serve in its mecha armies. It all sounds good, until the A.I pulls the rug, tells them once they're sans body that it can explode them at will, then has them all do its bidding. The assault on Ceta-V was an overestimation of its capabilities. The implication is that Dogma has no home planet but rather it *is* a supermassive starship - now with the parts of other starships grafted onto it - constantly surrounded by a swarm of brain-controlled fighters, and capable of launching waves of soldiers tactically controlled by "Think Tanks" (logistic buses) from orbit.

>>12724089
The Republic of Chiron sounds a lot like the Brotherhood of Nod.

>>12724427
>>12724432
That, sir, is awesome. So now we need a reason for Project Dogma to be assimilating people, and how it happened in the first place.

So, for weapons. I like the idea of guided lasers/missiles. If lasers are not in the setting, guided bullets (ala Mass Effect).

Units-perhaps the burnt out husks of those too long in the 'think tanks' (awesome name) could be sewn together into a literal meat-shield. Perhaps a roiling mass of reforming corpses, droning binary or somesuch. The other option for the dead humans would be as food for those in the tanks. Not sure about either of these, seems to run against the roboticised idea.

Troops-lots of drones, slaved to mechas. These would form the traditional platoon structure and form the mainstay of the army, backed by trios of larger mechas, artillery support (I'm thinking the think tanks could have long ranged options, such as anti tank or missile attack (using nerve gases and such)). cont.

>>12724532
Doctrine would be bioweaponry to cull/deny areas of the battlefield, destroy biological terrain etc, sort of like S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s anomalies (A 'deadzone'). Any areas not covered in such a way would be blocked by the husk-masses mentioned above. Thus the use of 'dead-zones' and 'husk-masses' to protect 'think tanks', which control the gunship insertion of mech teams (behind enemy lines) to funnel the enemy into the 'deadzones'
Sounds very cold, calculating and efficient. I don't think that soldiers would be used primarily for new 'recruits', seeing as it would be much easier to capture masses of civvies.
As previously stated, I was thinking that they would be an elite army, not having that many physical resources comparatively to the longer standing factions. The weapons would be long-ranged, in order to utilise the heavy armour of the mechs. Alot of area denial ordnance would be in effect, I think, from the mecha platoons, to supplement the 'deadzones' launched from the 'thinktanks'
Sorry if its not proper /tg/ quality, long time lurker, first time contributor.

>>12724495
I'm so happy to be collaborating with another like minded individual. It's usually just these ideas holed up in my grey matter, but you've really taken it further than I would have thought it would go.

>>12724478
By my understanding, FTL works with something called a "Godot" drive. The name came when we kept asking Galt how it worked, and he told us to keep waiting for it.
Now my understanding is that it's some sort of typical subspace thing, brings the ship to a bubble dimension of some sort, where it has no weight, and then accelerates it at many times the speed of light.
What I do know is that they have things called 'dampeners' that can force ships out of these bubbles once they get within a certain distance. Dampeners are pretty massive, and planets of strategic importance all seem to have them, but they're too large to fit on all but the very largest ships, which people rarely deploy because they cost bazillions of dollars. As far as I know about the combat, it involved a lot of rail guns and missiles, there were force fields involved. I'm not entirely clear on it.

>>12724499
That's... Actually a really solid comparison, that I hadn't considered. Wow. They've even got the charismatic psuedo-mystical leader going, with a name that starts with K no less: Kyton Von Richtofen.
Granted, he's not a 5000 year old alien... Or is he?

>>12724532
>>12724537
Could go one step more elite; Dogma could only really have access to a few hundred Humek's - if you'll pardon the pun - and as such only deploys a dozen or so to each area of the battlefield. These Humek's however are durable as fuck, about the size of a defiler from 40k and able to dish out a huge amount of punishment in the way of missiles, various biological agents and terrible tricky tech. Each group of a dozen or so Humek's is overseen by a "Think Tank" which is essentially a directly A.I controlled construct with dozens of human minds inside. Because all the senses - the 360 degree vision, the unfiltered visible light spectrum's, the incredible hearing range and even their ability to "smell" - can be overwhelming the Think Tanks organise the Humek's and help filter/focus their senses, as well as devising new tactics lightning fast. This is somewhat manipulative on behalf of Dogma - the AI doesn't want you to focus on killing Civvies for lols? You literally can't see them anymore. The streets look eerily deserted until the soldiers pop up.

Take out a Think Tank and you aren't completely disabling a Humek squad, just stunning them and driving them mad with the overwhelming assault to their senses. Eventually they'll right themselves, albeit with lower leadership, less co-ordination and overall less effectiveness.

>>12724495
>>12724532
>>12724537
>>12724558
Also, hate to triple post but it needs to be said, you gentlemen are why people say /tg/ gets shit done. Truly. I salute you, and eagerly await your writings!

>>12724588
>Kyton Von Richtofen
Confirmed for villain.

>>12724603
All that being said... I don't know how that would translate to a skirmish sized tabletop game. You field two units about six times the size of the other guys models with incredible invul saves? Doesn't sound like that much fun.

>>12724603
So, are the humeks A.I. or just programmed? I could see them having to kill anything they see as an imperative, take out the think tank, they go berserk?

Also, opinion on drones (bit like the tau ones, though for assault, lots of shotguns/gas throwers)

>>12724588
Naw. Might be a chain devil though.

>>12724631
Sounds like they're AI-augmented human minds.

>>12724563

Bubble? That's acceptable, though Alcubierre Drive(aka IRL warp drive) would require fuckshittons of power to work. Presumably the Godot functions differently or humanity has a lots more effective power source. Okay. Let's leave it at that.

Relay it thusly to Galt that recoil is a huge(like, HUUUUUGE) problem in space, so railguns would have huge problems firing... but then, just stick them out of the ship(like tethered gunpods or stuff) and add some recoil dampeners. And they'll have to be fuckhuge.

Magnetic fields are okay, I suppose.

>>12724614
Following up on this, what's their deal exactly? Why are they the bad guys, besides looking the part and being part of a weird unitarian religion? (the bastards!)

>>12724631
Humek's would be machine constructs powered by a voluntary human mind but with its senses channeled by an A.I via the filter of dozens of other human minds. These few Humek's who get access to the cool death machines are the ones who've proven themselves true traitors to humanity - indeed, traitors to all biology - happily reveling in slaughtering their enemies in the name of their benefactor Dogma, a fractured A.I confined to a starship. Maybe instead of massive alien-like walkers the Humek's could stand at 250 - 300cm tall and be kind've Doc Ock in execution... That is to say, lots of articulate weapon limbs to move them away from the bipedal look which almost every race has.

I'm not saying anything about drones because A) "A.I. Drones (which the other civilizations consider dangerous because of the Machine Threat, that often talks A.I.s into siding with it)" and B) Dogma itself was corrupted by the Machine Tide, which is why it uses human brains as opposed to programmed constructs.

>>12724588
That name sounds oddly familiar.
Meh. Google turns up nothing.
Sounds like he could totally be an ancient vampire count or baron. Which could in turn be interpreted as an alien or mutant. You've certainly got some possibilities here. I'd recommend having them propaganda-bomb worlds/colonies and inciting rebellions.

>>12724726
So they're like the Sentinels from the Matrix, but with human brains inside? Cool.

>>12724726
Tabletop play; I'm imagining you'd field 1 Humek for every other races 3/4 regulars... So in a pitched game you'd have 3/4 Humek's fighting a dozen to fifteen enemies. Also the Dogma player *must* replace one of their Humek's with a Think Tank. Both the Humek and the Think Tank could have a wide array of "Wargear" options to make them a little more interesting.

>>12724700
It shall be thusly relayed. I'm actually glad to hear that the guns should go on the outside, I had thought they would go in the middle of the ship, and it'd be all long and skinny, bullet shaped, y'know?
That's not much fun to look at. Bit too freudian for me, and what do you do when your freudian image looks like a damned cigar? That's like starting a race with a wrecked car.

>>12724703
I guess they aren't really the bad guys on purpose, they just ended up that way. They were the first human colony out of the Sol system, and they just found the worst planet they possibly could, covered in psychic fungus, and inhabited by big monsters that had this creepy obsession with the natural order, which apparently involved having your brain eaten by zee fungus.
Well, they killed them all, and planted grass, which apparently overpowered the hell out of the fungus, and reduced it all to this black ooze beneath the surface that they burn like oil. Problem is, the ooze is still psychic, and it reaches out to them.
Now they have a really strict, orwellian society with strong religious overtones. If you fuck up, ever, they send you out to "the black fields," where you either die, end up making contact with the ooze and becoming an "Angel Eater," which is one of those creepy psychic guys, or survive long enough to return from exile and get another chance at being useful to society.
And then, straight after this, they find out that that planet was Soldarin Imperial property, so now they're at war with people they've never met. It's good times.

>You know how much people hate the idea of being swallowed into something homogenous, and losing their identity? It's the same part of the brain that makes people racist, nationalist, etcetera

You must be talking about an Aneurysm.

>>12724759
Roving area denial clouds as well? I like that idea.
Could be a bit boring, only having like 4 models though.
Perhaps a leader, some cheaper classes and a support, + a think tank (4 mechs+tank)

No takers for the husk-mass idea stated in >>12724532

>>12724737
KYTON LIVES!

One question: Why is an Abrahamic cult named after a centaur from Greek mythology?

[Chiron is the son of Kronos and Philyra, adopted by Apollo. It is also the name of an object orbiting the sun between Saturn and Uranus.]

>>12724853
I actually know this one. The Republic of Chiron isn't named after the religion (which doesn't have a name yet, because it's hard to name a religion like that in a way that isn't either offensive or comical. Christlam was one suggestion.) but after the planet they landed on, and thus their capital.

Herr Galt explained that this was a joke, because the system closest to Earth is "Alpha Centauri," and it's in a star constellation with a centaur in it. The native life forms were also nicknamed Centaurs.
Basically, started as a pun, and then became a running gag.

>>12724803

Recoil alone would shake the ship apart, not to mention excess heat and needing to point the ship to fire. Whereas a system of several tethered railgunpods, powered by the ship's reactor, could move around it with their own thrusters and handle recoil and heat themselves. Not to mention the rail is telescopic and can vary its length according to needed muzzle velocity, and a big enough ship could manufacture them on the spot, given the raw materials.

And they can probably be used for maintaining centrifugal gravity amidships, but the ancient texts are unclear as to how rotating sections and inertia from acceleration interact.

And plus it could be more fun. Spaceships dragging their weapons behind them instead of mounting them inside or on the hull. Not that new(Honorverse podnaughts, anyone?), but new enough, seeing as everyone writes their space battles like WWII naval battles, which I abhor.

>>12724900
Going to toss it out there, these guys couldn't be more obviously Sid Meiers' Alpha Centauri: Bad End.
They made Planet their bitch, I guess that's a plus at least.

>>12724938
I feel as though I am being denied critical information to understanding you.

>>12724034

Shas'O Vior'la Shovah Kais Mont'yr sure looks funny today

>>12724990
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri

>>12724902
If rigid structures can't hold up to recoil I don't think soft flexible structure will do better. You might as well put the gunpod amidships wrapped in the flexible material instead of getting your railguns tangled or being cut loose by flak.

>>12724990
Looks like most people have given up OP, unfortunately. Im the dude with the think tank idea, I hope you like it, possibly even incorporate an aspect or two of it, but more importantly I had a good time.

Perhaps another date we can work on this further. You should endeavor to get some of the other guys working on it in the thread next time =] Hope I don't miss it.

Thanks for the thread, and good luck with your wargame good sir.

>>12725035
I'm like one minute into this article and I can already hear him laughing at me.
Damn you, Galt. X23 "Godwinson" Flamethrowers indeed.

>>12725077
Oh, yeah absolutely, I'll see about getting them on.
And no fear, sir, I shall save what you have written today. With fortune, we shall meet again! Thanks!

>>12724107
how about make them a little more GLORIOUS MASTER RACE, dirty unaugmented peasants. the slaves can be the master but have to be augmented up? not quite spess mahreen extra glands but much more jem haddar style.

>>12725195
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9160000/9160744.stm

also this, hivemind where its not a full on psychic link, but where everyone gets a say but the strong MASTER RACE ones feel the withdrawals from not being in communion with the weak. like not having enough ram to work with. you have to be in sync with the others (culturally or whatever) to function properly.

>>12725195
>>12725235
Oh snap. I just came back to take notes, what's this now?
Reading. Please, elaborate.

>>12725258
Not him, but it's an interesting notion. The symbiont gives them a connection that allows them to communicate, maybe overcome their (probably not impressive) intellectual limits through the addition of more minds. More interesting than mere communication, and it would explain why they're in charge, they increase in intellect, as well as in tactical capability.

>>12725258
much more special edition for really shitty, just plain turrible environments. but the plan went awry when normal humans could terraform the planets faster than thought, and the limited editions were thought unnecessary and "decommissioned" (read either euthanized due to being natural VLADAMIR MOTHERFUCKING PUTIN level hardasses, or sterilized due to "lol i liekz 2 raep! oh noes mah babbyz is a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and subhuman intellect!) went bonkers and took over. imagine if you will people gene engineered , without proper safeguards like is our fucking with dudes gene code going to make him either a violent psychotic delusional juggalo, adeformed cancer baby, or an idiot. or a deformed violent psychotic delusional juggalo nurgle cancer baby. the genetics bred out to just plain psycho klingon warrior culture types, big mean strong smart but in very limited areas. like being very strong fast and coordinated but having very limited planning without the group think. sometimes broseph, peer pressure is a bitch.