My One Niggle With Ns....

MotorskillsMotorskills Join Date: 2002-12-14 Member: 10819Members
in New Player Forum
It's a great game, and I'm sure updates will improve it even more so.

I've just got one, very minor, whinge.

It's just that - other than the Lerk - the aliens aren't very...well...alien.

I'm not knocking the artwork, that's more than fine, it's the basic designs that I have a problem with. Perhaps it is a limitation of Half-Life, and thus not the fault of the NS creators, I don't know

Basically I find that the skulks are too dog-like, the Gorge is too piglike, the Fade is too humanoid, and worst of all the Onos is simply a rhino with bad skin.

The hives, resource and offensive towers are look great, although I'd love to see the spiky towers actually shoot spikes rather than goo.


Off the top of my head I could imagine:
the gorge being a great big maggot,
the onos being a great big ball a la Indiana Jones, or perhaps the nasty beast from Tremors,
the skulk being an amoeba.

I appreciate some of the above would have an impact on sound, a key aspect of NS, but I hope you get my drift.
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Comments

  • kolokolkolokol Join Date: 2002-11-18 Member: 9166Members
    edited December 2002
    A little small??? You should go watch evolution:) ...just imagine the smily has 3 eys ok:P
    I think the reason is hl limitations. Maybe you could spend ages doing the coding for a realistic maggot in ut 2003 or something. On the other hand i know nothing about modelling so maybe it could be done in hl.
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  • tekwormtekworm Join Date: 2002-12-12 Member: 10685Members
    I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking.



    PHEW
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  • Black_HawkBlack_Hawk Join Date: 2002-12-17 Member: 10910Members, Reinforced - Shadow, WC 2013 - Silver
    An amoeba?! Do you know what that is? It is a SINGLE-CELL lifeform. Little small don't ya think?
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  • SmithboySmithboy Join Date: 2002-12-17 Member: 10964Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--tekworm+Dec 17 2002, 04:14 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (tekworm @ Dec 17 2002, 04:14 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking. But than again I think the aliens are awesome looking.



    PHEW<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Darn scary, aren't they?
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  • MedaWhor3-xMedaWhor3-x Join Date: 2002-12-04 Member: 10463Members
    then just dl some new models and stop crying
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  • LegionnairedLegionnaired Join Date: 2002-04-30 Member: 552Members, Constellation
    Actually, what the dev team was shooting for was to make the aliens look not like scary, H.R. Geiger aliens, mut more trying to make them look mamalian, and more natural, sort of like something like that could have really evolved on it's own.

    Personally, I think they accomplished this quite nicely.
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  • MotorskillsMotorskills Join Date: 2002-12-14 Member: 10819Members
    >Actually, what the dev team was shooting for was to make the aliens look not like scary, H.R. Geiger aliens, mut more trying to make them look mamalian, and more natural, sort of like something like that could have really evolved on it's own.

    Personally, I think they accomplished this quite nicely. <


    Indeed so, and that fits quite nicely with the title of the game too. Of course the title could be simply the selection of Kharaa over Humes - winner survives as a species. Whichever the objective I agree they accomplished it extremely well.

    I haven't been playing it long enough to note whether the alien upgrades actually modify the creature skins or not, but that would be a great thing too. Thicker skin for carapace, "aerodynamic" look for celerity etc etc


    As for the basic designs, as I said it's just my opinion, you are free to agree with it or not. <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> It certainly doesn't affect my enjoyment of the game in any way.

    Certainly the Skulks look a little strange hanging on the walls (HL limitation). Perhaps something with a more amorphous body might address that issue.

    As for the amoeba, smartarse <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo--> there is a reason why it is that small on Earth (molecular transmission if you must know). I'm sure the Kharaa could work around that - in the same way the Giger aliens got around the usual limitations on insectoid size......

    Happy killing all! <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
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  • ShadowFangShadowFang Join Date: 2002-05-01 Member: 565Members
    wow, just imagine this, Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to go into the marine's water supply, form a crystalized cyst, and cause the commander a really bad case of DIARREAH!!!..... this forum post will self-destruct in 5.2 seconds... <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
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  • coilcoil Amateur pirate. Professional monkey. All pance. Join Date: 2002-04-12 Member: 424Members, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
    Yeah, the aliens aren't supposed to look evil... think of it more as two equal sides, with mutually exclusive goals. The marines are just as "evil" in the eyes of the Kharaa as the Kharaa are to the marines.
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  • CyborgguineapigCyborgguineapig Join Date: 2002-11-01 Member: 3233Members
    <!--QuoteBegin--Legionnaired+Dec 18 2002, 11:55 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Legionnaired @ Dec 18 2002, 11:55 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Actually, what the dev team was shooting for was to make the aliens look not like scary, H.R. Geiger aliens, mut more trying to make them look mamalian, and more natural, sort of like something like that could have really evolved on it's own.

    Personally, I think they accomplished this quite nicely.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    just quoting you.

    yeah, If we did a poll probably only 10% of newbies actually read the story behind NS and its creation. NS is not a SCARY dark map blood and gore fest.
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  • SuperSammoSuperSammo Join Date: 2002-02-21 Member: 231Members
    >"Aerodynamics for Celerity"

    Heh, I can just imagine a slick red skulk with racing stripes.
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  • WarpZoneWarpZone Join Date: 2002-11-03 Member: 6264Members
    It wouldn't look too good with the HL graphics engine. Now if it were for UT or SS or something, you could have him looking like a shiny sports car. =P
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  • WarpZoneWarpZone Join Date: 2002-11-03 Member: 6264Members
    It's funny you said lerk. I always thought the lerk was the <i>least</i> original alien because it looks almost exactly like a tyradactyl (Or however you spell those <i>dinosuars that could fly.</i>)
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  • RedfordRedford Monorailcatfjord Join Date: 2002-04-28 Member: 528Members, NS1 Playtester
    Not all "aliens" as you put it, must look completly diffrent. The forms of the Kharra evolved because they were most effective at what they did. So we should turn the skulk into an amoba, why? Because it would look "more right" to you? A small, 4 legged organisim is very effective at moving fast, jumping far, and attacking viciously. See how a lion hunts the gazelle? Think of an amoeba trying to do the sorts of things a skulk does. It couldn't. Simply put, the skulk, and all the other aliens, for that matter, have evolved into the most effective form for their being.

    Not all aliens are going to be a goo-creature.
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  • MerkabaMerkaba Digital Harmony Join Date: 2002-01-24 Member: 22Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester
    I think that replacing the skulk as an amoeba is a great idea, but unfortunately, as far as I am aware, Half-life can only handle up to 64 players, whereas it would take something in the region of 10,000 players huddled together to even form one pixel on the screen. And with FSAA turned on, that pixel would probably just be blurred out anyway.

    <i>"Get 'em off, man!! They're all over me! Oh God!"</i>
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  • death1death1 Join Date: 2002-11-16 Member: 8920Members
    lol
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  • Alien_BobAlien_Bob Join Date: 2002-11-11 Member: 8185Members
    Well, clearly the commander needs to be able to spawn a Shrink-O-Tron device to reduce the marines down to single-celled size so they can combat the menace of the amoeba-skulks more effectively.

    For version 1.05, maybe?
    <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
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  • Hobo_BobHobo_Bob Join Date: 2002-12-20 Member: 11218Members
    <b>CLEARLY</b> that needs to happen, i do not see how anyone could've thought otherwise. i thought that it was just assumed that would be the case.
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  • KMGorKMGor Join Date: 2002-11-19 Member: 9299Members
    "(Or however you spell those dinosuars that could fly.) "

    pteradactyls and pteranodons and their close relatives are not dinosaurs, as a bit of trivia. They're simply winged reptiles that existed at the same time as dinosaurs.

    And I think the way the aliens look now is great.
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  • JumjalumJumjalum Join Date: 2002-12-18 Member: 11034Members
    edited December 2002
    Most of the aliens seem to be based on dinosaurs

    Lerk - Pterodactyl
    Gorge - Ankylosaurus
    Onos - Mammoth

    Dont know about Fades and Skulks though

    edit - I know only one of those is technically a dinosaur
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