Take it even further. Suits provide protection but are no means vital for human specialization. A human from the aquatics division have been genetically engineered with gills. Soldiers have bioplasma throwers embedded in their forearms.

>>45472841
Sounds interesting.

The easiest way to do it would be to have them be colour coded. Black for high gravity worlds, white for low, red for hot, blue for cold... something like that. In fact, I would probably have something like that regardless.

You can also go the animal route, but the animals would most likely be suited for the job in question. Lithe animals for mobility, big tough animals for strength and gravity, that kind of thing. You can even combine the two easily, so maybe there's a Yellow Bear suit for highly irradiated locations requiring strength, or a Red Shark for hot oceans.

There might be sub-subspecies for certain jobs, like workers and soldiers, but these can be largely the same between terrain types or "species".
Like you say, it ultimately comes down to how complex you want to make this society, and you can easily go from simple and easy to grasp to bizarrely complex to the point that most aliens can't wrap their heads around it.

It's a cool idea, though.

>>45472841
Sounds like an interesting concept, though how do the alien species mistake them for different subspecies if they just change outfits based on planet?

Furthermore, is it going to be a secret that they're humans?

>>45472841

BEES MY GOD

>>45472841

This is hot.

>>45472965
Well, presumably, the humans aren't trying to keep their actual nature a secret, they just can't face-to-face with aliens out of the suits. Solution? Video footage/holograms of unsuited humans. Aliens might just assume it's an artificial avatar all "subspecies" of human use for cultural reasons. Or they might be aware that that's what they look like under the suit, but mistake the nature of the suits as more biological than technological, or believe that humans still wear the suits around each other.

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Elder Humans are generally pleasant and helpful, but adhere to a Big Stick policy when encountering hostilities. Aliens don't bother fighting them either, as it is more beneficial to gain from their insights rather than fight a superior force.

Elder Humans will drop WMDs (chemicals, radioactives, custom-biologicals) to start fights and their armies consist mainly of vast numbers of drones compared to the few on-the-ground command units; occupation of WMD affected areas are a non-issue with specialized suits. Victories over Elder Humans are pyrrhic due to Elder Humans resorting to MAD doctrine, having their suits and drones self-destruct upon death in a combat zone, killing everything within the immediate proximity then being cleaned up by orbital glassing.

Elder Humans deaths on the battlefield not resulting in catastrophic multiple explosions has not been observed. Body parts and genetic samples have never been recovered.

In case of death in a peaceful setting, suits are droned and find their way back to Elder Human habitation.

In this paranoid way, the human form has been kept secret. As a side effect, Elder Humans are believed to have technology which makes them immortal; while in reality, they live to an average of 90 years (give or take 20 years, genetic manipulation is still a bitch... those fucking gills came with an increased chance of getting 3 different cancers, 2 metastatic by default).

-

Have a planet of unsuited humans. They don't know they are humans. Aliens don't know they are humans. The unsuited humans are the result of an automated ark-seeding program from the past that had dumped its cargo onto the nearest habitable planet and ditched itself into the sun because it scanned a possibility of hostile first contact.

The aliens think they are another young species that has just begun space exploration and is biologically poorly equipped for the job.

The Elder Humans know the truth and think it's hilarious. They keep quiet about it still.

>>45472841
I like your idea

I'm a drawfriend and a writefag with a lot of free time, would you like any help on this venture at all?

Since so few settings actually have an interesting human element, I find myself compelled to assist you.

Email address found down bellow
donnynewday@gmail.com

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>>45475378
To add to this, I am on my tablet right now and wish to contribute to the thread, but it's difficult typing lengthy world-build stuffs without a keyboard.

I'll bump with artwork, in the hopes such a potentially rousing discussion can emerge.

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>>45475486

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>>45475535

>>45472841
I definitely like the idea. Further denomination based on their caste within their home world sounds like a good idea as well. Things like extra arms attached to the suits of engineers... completely hulking hardsuits for soldiers and body guards... I could think of engineers and their construction drones with sort of a bug motif....

This is a cool idea. I like that the humans have advanced so far that they become alien to the players.

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>>45476192
I'm not saying you're wrong, but it's at least a half-decent start to a scifi setting.

Also
>not!Warframes
Really? Because edgy space ninjamurai seem pretty far off from the concept at hand.

>>45475673
I don't think there should be much deviation from a core aesthetic for each 'subrace', but I like where you're going with this.

I guess what I was picturing in my head was suits that are so advanced that they could fill all of those roles, with the one thing changing being silhouettes and cosmetic stuffs

>>45473809
>The Elder Humans know the truth and think it's hilarious. They keep quiet about it still.
That's really cool but I would hope there would be more reason behind this decision beyond a cosmic joke. Good idea though, really.

>>45473723
The avatar system works, with rumors that this is what they really are and some naysayers that believe it's some kind of ruse, you know to get people to be less afraid of them.

>>45472946
I like the animal idea, but unsure exactly what the OP had in mind.

At the very least, each suit could be an exaggeration of what type of organism thrives on that particular planet or within a given solar system.

Technology mimicking nature image related.

>>45477087
>Because edgy space ninjamurai seem pretty far off from the concept at hand.
Not necessarily, since a lot of the discussion is about themed/specialized suits for specific planets/environments, and Warframes are all about themed/specialized suits for specific situations/fighting styles. It's a stretch, but it's not that large of a stretch.

>>45477186
Bio organic warmachines bred only for one purpose, glorious combat

Technologically augmented civilization that has colonized the known galaxy and parents other life forms.

They're not the same thing, I'm sorry. You might encounter notwarframes created by these entities, but that doesn't mean they're synonymous.

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>>45477186
Right, I guess I was referring more to the concept of what warframes are beyond aesthetics. It doesn't sound like they are warmongering tryhards, but OP may prove me completely wrong.

>>45477319
>I'm not saying OP's idea is bad, just for him to come back when it's actually a fully fledged idea.
On this much I can agree. I offered to help, but have yet to receive word.

>>45477346
I was actually trying to steer the idea away from interstellar rusemasters, making it more of an ignorance and or common misconception among these newer races

I think the OP said that it isn't exactly a secret, but I don't know for sure if that was him.


To add to the topic at hand, I do so hope OP has something interesting in mind for these young races. Plant girls need love too.

>>45477547
Always and forever do plant races need love.

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>>45477579
I'd love to see some examples

resembling humans is entirely up to OP, but I do so encourage bio-diversity amongst lifeforms.

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>>45477734
My point is that you're screaming THE FETISHSTS ARE RUINING THIS THREAD whilst simultaneously painting me as just that when the fact of the matter is I have been trying to bump this discussion closer to the front page where maybe OP will hopefully wake the fuck up and realize we need more info to work with in order to progress the idea.

Images were also provided for the reason that I could not type in any great lengths and you attract more attention to the topic when there is something to look at beyond walls of text.


Now to re-rail the discussion (no thanks to people complaining about derailment)

Originally I thought the idea would be far more intriguing if we did infact move far away from Bipedal/Human silhouettes, and perhaps even have 'suits' that are much larger than their occupants.

As I said earlier, this was one of the things that came to mind after reading the OP, and that's why I wanted to stand behind the concept in the first place.

>>45477899
>Originally I thought the idea would be far more intriguing if we did infact move far away from Bipedal/Human silhouettes, and perhaps even have 'suits' that are much larger than their occupants.
I actually like that idea, any suggestions?

>>45477899
That could work, though I think humans in general would still want to be sure to have manipulators.

Having a four-legged suit for heavy gravity worlds could be fitting though, to help distribute weight more evenly. Aquatic suits could also lack legs entirely, going for a sort of merfolk style look.

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>>45477087
>That's really cool but I would hope there would be more reason behind this decision beyond a cosmic joke.

The younger humans are a less evolved version of the elder humans that came out of a colony ship in hibernation? The leaders of the Elder humans are tied up if they want to speed up their development, or leave them to develop on their own. Either way, they are highly protective of them, the other species know that fucking with this newer race means the elder humans will hunt down anyone the slightest bit responsible and make examples.

<I guess what I was picturing in my head was suits that are so advanced that they could fill all of those roles, with the one thing changing being silhouettes and cosmetic stuffs

Yeah, I'm less keen on the humans themselves being different, but the suits are different for humans depending on the job.

>>45477921
Maybe have aquatic suits be more akin to single-person submarines in the shape of a squid?

I think this idea only really works out well if the players don't realize that this race is humanity. Like, they think it's a no-humans setting.

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>>45477921
Yes, indeed. Having a larger suit affords a lot of advantages, just to name a few

Superiority (not necessarily/exclusively intimidation) over lower lifeforms

Mastering their desired domain by standing over many of the challenges that smaller organisms face

Having the ability to utilize far more complex lifesupport systems and allow them to traverse beyond their specialized habitat

Hell, you could even go off of the very large bug idea with many smaller worker 'drones' that detatch from it and yet cannot exist far beyond the suit

Of course I imagine there are a few subset of humans that want to be like gods amongst the younger races.

There's a great many possibilities here, and my mind is racing with them; and I don't wish to limit them by the constraint of keeping things ONLY "warframe" like.

>>45478036
I'm picturing a human suit that has smaller worker drones attached for scouting purposes, but all of the aliens assume they're actually the human's offspring.

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>>45477936
I'm glad you think so, and that's a good suggestion for practical use of quadrupeds

Having the ability to manipulate your environment comes in the way of extra appendages, swiss army style, or orbital detachments (drones/helpers).

The idea that a SUIT so far advanced and specialized for it's domain has limitless possibilities on how it interacts with it's environment. Assuming these Eldermen have been around for a really fucking long time, all options are on the table.

Also, I have no idea what OP desires for his concept, but you're not limited to JUST bio-organics when mimicking of lifeforms -- Pic slightly related

>>45478008
I imagine that it is a must, yes, but I have no idea if the OP intended for people to play as the aliens or these super advanced humans in cool as fuck suits.

WE MAY NEVER KNOW

>>45478273
>Also, I have no idea what OP desires for his concept, but you're not limited to JUST bio-organics when mimicking of lifeforms -- Pic slightly related
I prefer the biomechanical style suits though, they look neat
And can help add to the confusion of what exactly humans are

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>>45478199
Yeah, for sure -- I think the common theme here is that

THINGS ARE NOT ALWAYS AS THEY APPEAR

and

HUMANS ARE THE ALIENS NOW

It's a nice way to turn the tables and start the narrative of how other life forms would view us & our technology.

I mean think of early man being visited by ancient astronauts (which totally happened, I think)

I like where your head is at, keep it up.

>>45478273
I think the sort of Biological appearance is key, so that the human suits appear as an organism rather than a machine, hence the assumptions.

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>>45478309
I like that part too, which is why I want to create a sort of hybrid of symbiotic bio-tech and vastly customizable suits

It's kinda like... THIS, only if we were the ones being welcomed to notEARF

But again, not EVERY single one of these Elder human subsets have to rely heavily on bio-suits. I posit that if you really did have diverse factions, there may even be one that is hardcore organic engineering while another could be more sleek and hard-techy.

It's kinda why I liked the idea to begin with... you can take it to many interesting lengths, and all of them would work in one setting.

>>45478020
>about hundreds if thousands of years apart,

Why not millions?

Humans are the oldest, and most advanced in this setting, they could barely qualify as humans at that point.

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>>45478346
I think that would be a rule of thumb, but as I said before there is a lot of room here with how older beings are perceived by younger ones that simply cannot grasp the concept.

Mostly I think I like the idea of larger suits and lots of diversity in their design; this will completely baffle simpler lifeforms and beg the question of HOW these organism are even related to one another (when we all know there is a tiny human inside of each of them.)


Fuck it, I say we ditch the OP and just start a worldbuilding session without him. Who's with me?

>>45478618
I'm for it

>>45478618
Sounds good to me. What are the main things we need to sort out?

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>>45478739
>>45478824

Aight, so first up, we have our setting's theme, and it's basically this >>45478322

>humans are the oldest race in the galaxy
>they have locked themselves away within massive bio-organic super-suits
>the planetary/environment diversity has spawned subspecies of humans
>they exist as gods amongst the stars, inhabiting worlds that have long ago conquered
>but in those millions of years, new lifeforms have blossomed and began the long accent to spacefaring beings

PAUSE

We have no fucking idea who these emerging races are, nor how advanced they are.

Thinking caps on, lets keep the roster tight here -- maybe FIVE young 'alien' races, and perhaps an indefinite amount of elder 'human' races (mostly because these new races can't span the galaxy in the same way humans have, so they will encounter a narrow scope of Elders, but that's not to say they do not exist)

NOW

Who are our lucky five going to be?

I'm perfectly agreeable to at least one of them being plant based life.

Let's hear those suggestions.

>>45479362
I'm not sure if them being gods is a good fit. Powerful sure, as most sci-fi style ancient & precursor races are, but they should still be reasonable.

In addition to that, I think the subspecies thing is better as the aliens interpreting biosuits as such rather than a real massive biological difference in the genetics of the humans themselves. Since they spend so much time in the suits, they wouldn't really be adapting to their environment, so changes could be minimal, especially if they use gene tampering to get rid of any 'mutations'.

That said, if were also going for the idea of the players being the aliens and the humans being mysterious and unknown, I think its important to have at least one fairly standard humanoid race.

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>>45479362
Jungle planet, thriving wildlife and more noteably a group of plant organisims that have clamored their way to the dominant lifeform on this planet -- all except one such entity they have supplanted, and that is...

Sky Elders. Giant, massive, majestic, beautiful and varied; these mammoths glide through/atop the jungles with unmatched grace and splendor.

They have been seeking council with the plants for centuries, and though did not directly grant this race the gift of space-flight, they have been providing protection and guidance on the path to transcend their roots.

Our budding race refers to them as The Keepers of the Winds.

They're inquisitive, and obviously the smartest birds in the room. These Keepers enjoy the comforts of this lush tropical world, and take great pleasure in conversing with their sun-loving neighbors.


Thoughts?

>>45479584
I kind of prefer a more typical sci-fi approach where the Elder-style race doesn't meddle with the new kids on the block until they actually get interstellar.

That might just be my preference though.

>>45479584
>>45479614
I do like the idea most of the races know of humanity long before they met any other space fairing race, even if each humanity they knew were very different in appearance from any other race's humanity

>>45479456
the fairly standard humanoid race is the jettisoned humies? >>45473809
Or where do we stand on that concept?

Now, being Gods is a matter of perception just as much as them being perceived as biological creatures. It's a misunderstanding of what they are, and very basic concepts such as Gods, could explain their obvious dominance and advanced capabilities.

You're on the right track, but I hope that I've made that point as clear as can be by now.

>>45479456
>I'm not sure if them being gods is a good fit.
Agreed. The heart of it is that the humans are just plain boggling to the aliens- there are all these different 'races' that KIND of look similar, but they look different enough and are wildly different in how they interact with their environment that it leaves the aliens scratching their heads- or whatever counts for heads- wondering what these things are.

And of course the twist is that they're just looking at bog-standard exosuits that are customized for particular planets and environments, with an ordinary human strapped inside.

As for races, I could see an insectoid race being curious about the humans. They see these strange creatures with just as many if not more arms/legs as they, and "young" that are carried upon their backs (utility drones), as >>45478199 mentioned

>>45479687
>They see these strange creatures with just as many if not more arms/legs as they
And by this, I mean suits with extra multi-tool limbs or a chassis with extra legs for rough terrain mobility/high-grav environments, of course.

>>45479663
I don't think any colony of 'unaltered' humans should be a major player on the scene. Maybe as a small out-of-the-way thing, but it'd be odd to have humans as the elder race and one of the plucky underdogs.

I'm mostly just sayint that with humans themselves already being weirs and alien, having the aliens be more standard and relatable is key.

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>>45479687
Perfect, I like insectoids, and they might make good allies/potential enemies of the Plants

Now we all know that insects are a varied organism, but let's for a moment ponder...

What would they be like?

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>>45479767
Oh with that I do agree, we don't want to understate the importance of the Naked Lost ones. They could even be a proto race, like pre-spaceflight or even less developed.

Personally, I think it would be the perfect place to add the dialogue of ancient astronaut theory and just have them be a proto-civilization that doesn't know anything about their beginnings but try to explain the anomaly of these fantastic creatures visiting them from time to time.

Non playable/NPC race

Got it.


Okay so that's two races dreamed up... Plant, Bug, ???

How about Sea-Kin.

The Elders of this world can range from arthropods to whales, and provide plenty of alien/human adversarial relationships -- considering we have one race that is pals with them (plants) , and another that is completely skeptical and guarded around them (bugs).

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>>45479848

Sundrenched planet, gave rise to arid loving insectivals. They're an industrious people, always tinkering and building, trying to make the best use of any resources they come in contact with. This lust for industry and expansion has caused them to be a jealous people, ones that are quick to defend what is theirs; and as such they engage in heated turf wars with others that seek to rob them.

Their interaction with the elders is much contested, some fear them while others would want to kick them off their floating rock in space. This is the home of the gargantuan suits, mountains of mystery that block out the sun. Varied smaller suits roam the dry countryside; excavating? Wandering? What ever they're doing, they're in bug territory, and there's much conflict.

What's next?

>>45479983
Some sort of aquatic race that's the more typical 'blue person with fins and gills' would contrast nicely with the mermaid, crab, and squid suits them humans would be using.

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>>45480187
Silicon based life. These would basically be ultraslow, crystalline robo-crab-trees-mushrooms. Their discussions would take even longer than the plant based life, and if you caught two Silicon folk conversing in the dark they would look like two plasma light balls at a rave.

They could call themselves, as best the other races could decipher, "The Rooted". They aren't actually rooted like trees.

In battle or when in trouble they have a hydroelectic and liquid crystal musculature sytem that can almost go as fast as a regular bioelectric body, making them basically super tough, unbreakable, slow, but can kill you in one strike if they land it.

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>>45480255
so straight up fish-people? Ok. I can work with that.

Flesh them out in a second, but let's call that 3/5 races in the bag.

With the exception of a fairly normal humanoid race (my vote is something on a blue planet with plenty of bio diversity already) but I don't know how to spin them as anything OTHER than notHUMANS

>>45480392
Hmm...we could tone down the fishy-ness of the fish people and have them be more Zora-style, then have them fill in for a somewhat more normal race as amphibious humanoids

>>45472841
This is good. Do this.

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>>45480371
fucking fantastic, couldn't have hypothetical'd that better myself

OKAY

Basically Crystolods are the WTF that's clearly alien concept, and I really indeed wanted one.

Brilliant, mate, thanks for contributing. How does this work for your mind's eye?

that's 4/5 down, with one or maybe two more to go.

>>45480392
Have them be doing the opposite of what humans did in the early days: These blue not!humans are going from ground to tree life and are getting smarter. Tree deer or tree kangaroo type aliens maybe...

>>45480491
So we've got Plants, Bugs, Fish, and crystal-things

Maybe something a bit more mammalian for the last one?

>>45480491
This artist's work was actually what I was picturing so something like that is perfect. His silicon life is amazing. I also just wrote this post >>45480503

I'm also a drawfag btw so I can help with any drawings we do (If I get some free time...)

Unlike most of the others in tgus thread, I would advise you to not go overboard with it.
After all: the aliens are suppised to believe that each suit is a sub species.
The differences should not be on the Giraffe/Elephant level, but Gorilla/Chimpanze level.
Obvious differences in details.
One suit has stronger legs, the other one has a complex scanner array, another one utitizes a mix of inter digital webbing and propellers, the next one a tiny jet-pack.

It's all in the details, not in the most basic appeareance.

>>45480503
Hmm...some sort of humanoids derived from a deer-like creature could be neat. Sort of wiry and agile

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>>45480463
the aquatics are the normal race? I like that, and you're right when you said that the Sea Elders will be weird and varied enough, so why not have them be as breadundbutter as possible?

>>45480597
Yeah. We can afford to have them be pretty straightforward with the humans offering a lot of the weirdness and variety.

>>45473809
90 years is absurdly short for such an advanced race. Some parts of the world are nearing that already and we're still basically savages.

>>45480538
Agreed. It would be good to have a general aesthetic defined so that the human's suits could be reasonably identified as similar.

The biggest differences could be found in size and build, as the difference between say, an Ape and a Spidermonkey is fairly significant.

I think the general rule should be giving human suits 6 'limbs' of some variety, with a general outward texture of softer 'skin' with a different number of hardened plates.

In this example, you could have a human flight-capable suit world have two smaller manipulating limbs on the sides, while two larger limbs would have sail-like membranes underneath to serve as wings, with the legs functioning as standard.

Conversely, a suit designed for a heavy gravity world would lack the membranes, and the lower body would be shifted so that those two side limbs would form additional legs instead.

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>>45480518
>>45480560
deer people are actually totally doable
>>45480503
TREE DEER

fucking sold. I have no image that matches this concept, but I really want to make it work.

So the roundup is as follows...

Plant folks from the lush Jungle World
allies with
Largish Avian Elders, very wise and beautiful

Bug folks from a dry and mineral rich Desert World
at odds with
Towering bipedal giants that may or may not be harbingers of theft and destruction

Fishy people that hail from the hostile Oceanic World
struggling to survive against
Predatory Seamonsters that can kill you in all manner of ways

Silicon based organisms that are from... of fuck, where are they from?
What are their relations to the homesteading elders of this world?

Deers that live amonst the trees on a forested world
And I have no thought this far ahead yet for other Human constructs lol


But that's the general summation.

The devil IS in the details, but before we get too far ahead of ourselves... How do we like this lineup?

I think it's all fantastic as fuck

>>45480929
Silicone could be the high-gravity world inhabitants. Possibly low-oxygen as well but that said I do not know how silicone metabolisms would work at high or low oxygen concentrations.

>>45480929
I don't think we need to have human Elders on every single world. In fact, it might be more interesting for some of the races to not encounter them until after they had gotten to space.

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>>45480788
>>45480788
Well now I have an idea for this

As the (expectedly only) resident drawfag, I will get to work with how to tie all of these crazy super-creature-suits in with one another.

The thing I disagree on is the limitation that you can only have the
>Gorilla/Chimpanze level
You can design these beings to look like they share common "ancestry" and not confine them to being <15 feet tall

Now as for giant suits, I think they should be used sparingly, but the possibilities of what these suits can do is endless.

Now that being said, I have one example of something to help tie these all together, but it's not a direct one as I clearly haven't designed anything yet.

Here's a bug-humanoid. It bears resemblances to a human without it being one. We could approach this from the standpoint that these suits will bear some resemblance to their creators, but in the same way that robots and androids are made in our image today without them looking exactly human.

>>45481095
Yeah, sharing a similar helmet design would be rather key to making them all seem related.

>>45480642
The suits could be giving people cancer or human DNA has withered and people could have been left weak. It could also be that people don´t get enough exercise because they are in suits most of the time.

>>45481173
Or its a measured allotment of life before being put in stasis/recycled to maintain stable population growth within each sector.

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>>45480979
that works for me pretty well. As it stands, we have three examples of Elder interaction

>Helpful and protective allies
>Silent and imposing homesteaders
>Hostile and feared adversaries

That covers the Warm to Cool spectrum for diplomacy, but as I said earlier that can be other ancient Humans to interact with these races that aren't necessarily from their homeworld.

For instance, what about some suits that are purely space-dwelling? They could be the neutral and mixed bag of the setting, the ones that kind of tie all of the others together in some way or another. A base, that is ever-present amonst the stars.

Their could even be a generic subrace that can exist on any world, like a waterbear.

SO that more or less allows us to now move onto the next part of our worldbuild...

If you rather discuss the races first, then feel free to do so, but our setting will shape them just as much as they will shape our setting (which is why we got their rough concepts down to start with).

We have (most) of the playing pieces set, but now let's talk about the thing that ties them all together, the veritable gameboard for the pawns.

WHAT'S OUR SETTING LIKE??
WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE GALAXY?
WHERE ARE WE?

>>45481304
Well, it is a space-faring setting, so there should be plenty of planets out there.

I think the general idea should be of the 5 newcomer races being fairly close together, deciding to form up some sort of mutual alliance or peace possibly with a council as well.

Humans may or may not have a place within this, but with how varied they and their attitudes can be, it's possible that they view the various sub-species as different factions entirely.

From there, each race should maybe have a dozen or so planets in their corner of the system, with exploration into uncharted territories revealing both uncharted worlds and those inhabited by yet more human sub-species.

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>>45480974
Okay, so intense gravity, and maybe a really harsh day/night cycle?

One side boils the sands (perhaps where this lifeform's ancestry lies) and the other side is bitterly cold and dark.

The planet being high in gravity also lends itself to harsh terrain and the need for really tough organisms.

Good shit, all of this. Thanks all for contributing so far; I truly like where this thread is headed (and all thanks to an absentee OP).

/tg/, you rock

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>>45481383
That's a great start, but I would like to open up the discussion on the Human/Alien interaction topic


Should they be really mysterious background/set pieces that have their own agendas? Perhaps even infighting between some of the humans themselves? Differences of opinions between how they should interact with the younglings?

Or

Do these being act as a universal policing force? Do they enlist these races? Try to directly cultivate them? Groom them as friends? Perhaps even exploit and prey upon them?

I think the answer lies somewhere in the middle for myself, but I am deeply curious how you guys see this vital interaction unfolding.

>>45481654
I think it really should be faction based, with different sub-species having their own sorts of factions, with individuals occasionally crossing over.

For example, you can have one sub-species that's rather diplomatic, possibly helping to organize some sort of council between races to settle disputes, or operating as neutral merchants and serving as 3rd parties for deals.

Conversely, you can also have those who operate as pirates or marauders, or a faction who seeks to conquer the system and re-instate what they see as a fallen human empire.

>>45481095
I think, as long as there's a "default" suit or schmatic to play with, we could really get creative in terms of design. The suit is standard, and is equipped/modified with plating or exo-limbs as necessary. I don't know much about tying that to "giant" suits (how giant are we talking? Pacific Rim?), but a Squidsuit and Hawksuit would have the same basic shape, simply with different addons, or similar addons configured differently.

>>45481173
>the suits give them cancer

That's actually not a bad plot device, but I don't think it should be that cleancut. Their decision to dwell within the suits has left them soft and weak, but they have expanded their reach immeasurably across time and space -- there must be a great cost for their success, and it being their vulnerability is wholly realistic.

I can certainly work that in, one way or another.

>>45481654
I feel like humans should be individual, but amiable factions between themselves, but most treat the other upstart races as one would treat a passing deer: Either ignoring it, admiring it, or attempting to shoot it. Most simply observe and live in fairly unobtrusive locations, in "flying cities" or in "hives" if they're present on a world with another intelligent race. Those that inhabit uninhabited or otherwise dead worlds, and deep space are far more free with their architecture and habits but most remain neutral while others are territorial, protecting whatever resources they have with great fervor as any outside loss means a complete readjustment of their projected living and how many members they can have as an active, sustainable population.

>>45481654
I don't know about anyone else, but reading through the thread, I was always imagining the humans in a scientific or exploratory capacity. They're not there to conquer or eradicate, just learning and researching.

Whether or not that LEADS to conquest, is yet to be seen. Or something.

>>45481755
I think suits should be maybe 12 feet tall at the absolute upper end, and that's for heavy-duty labor or military grade stuff.

It is still supposed to be vaguely biological and humanoid.

I think the default suit should be a general human shape, with the mask being similar across all of them, with two legs and four arms, two of them coming from the sides of the torso.

Then, the variations are on the sleekness/bulkiness of the suit and the size/placement of the limbs. A hawk suit, for example, would have the upper pair of arms larger and flight capable, while the lower pair would be smaller to cut down on weight and manipulating fine objects.

The squid suits would probably be the most drastic, having very long gangly limbs attatched to a more rounded central pod-shaped capsule for the body itself.

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>>45481173
Naw, if this is a long stading glactic spanning civ they would have obscenely long lifespans. The only reason I can see them livin gb 90 years is because they choose to: dying at such a galactically long age not only makes their lives prone to adventure but it also gets rid of epoch spanning personalities and political leaders. Kind of an interesting theory, a race that is perhaps billions of years old chooses to only live for 90 earth years. I say you make it e3xactly 100 solar years to be symbolic but...

In regards to the suits I think they should be egg shaped mostly, large variance in size and armature/armament but I liked >>45480788
idea of having 6 "appendages standard". A identifying, custom faceplate could be their calling card, like a hyper-future-tribal dance mask or whatever pleases you. I could do sketches of these varations of these suits, I can also do sketches of the deer aliens and the crystla aliens if you guys want, pic related are examples of my alien work, most used in rpg settings already:

>>45481891
As I mentioned before it could also be used to help keep their populations stable while still allowing for new life to be brought in. Last think you want to do is run out of semi-habitable worlds to colonize.

>>45482039
Yeah, it also helps make sure they don't run out of materials to make biosuits with.

I could see some criminals deciding to break the restrictions and try to become immortal though. That might result in interesting misunderstandings when the humans are trying to hunt down one of their own and the other aliens can't understand why living so long is a crime.

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>>45481891
ACtually, completely scrap what I said about the egg shaped bodies thing, I really liked the idea about animal themed bodies.

>>45481654
>Should they be really mysterious background/set pieces that have their own agendas?

The humans as a way to set aside the differences of the fledgling races could be cool. they are perhaps trying to guide them to better paths but in a mysterious way, so their unified presence isn't known.

>Perhaps even infighting between some of the humans themselves?

That's always possible. This could account for some strange "godlike" happenings in the solar systems of the younger species, vyings for power between factions and stuff...

>Do these being act as a universal policing force? Perhaps they only police them in seemingly indirect ways, or through abductions and visions, secret meetings and perhaps most imposratntly, RELICS the new species can find of the humans' history

>Do they enlist these races? Factions could try and get the new species to join them through these abductions, PERHAPS!

The players would play as one of these species, who has been given one of these human suits! Kind of like that powersuit CYOA that used to be around here? I think that's kind of a cool idea myself but... A space opera mech rpg...

Try to directly cultivate them? Groom them as friends? Perhaps even exploit and prey upon them?

>>45481832
this desu.

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>>45481889
12 feet tall is kind of small in a galacxtic setting., Id say 9-12 feet is standard, human sized ones are the minis, and then like 18 feet tall tanks and like 25 foot tall titans or something

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>>45481741
I feel the same, in fact I was already planning on some diplomatic subplots

Mighty conquerors, pirates and downright degenerate human subfactions are definitely in.

>>45481755
One base suit that is modular? I think there WILL be instances of this, but it will not necessarily be the standard. Just as we don't have one universal anything in today's world, there are going to be improvements and innovators seeking to change things up.

A default INNER suit connected to the rest of the systems is certainly doable too, but I haven't put pen to paper for this just yet.

Any ideas are helpful, so thanks for the input.

>>45481889
thanks for the elaboration, and though I generally agree that these things will mostly be a manageable size, I just can't put such a harsh restriction on this concept.

I know some of you are skeptical about giant suits, but perhaps that's because I'm not doing the inner idea justice. Allow me to sketch some designs up, you'll see what I mean.

>>45481812
>most treat the other upstart races as one would treat a passing deer: Either ignoring it, admiring it, or attempting to shoot it.
Nail. Head.

Again, not for all of them, but a majority, sure. The Hive idea is wonderful, and I had a similar idea swirling around in my head.

Added to the list, thanks.

>>45481832
>I was always imagining the humans in a scientific or exploratory capacity.
Again, I think this absolutely on course with the concept, and I too was thinking this.

Also I like the idea of some tension as to exactly what this is leading up to.

>>45481891
Good ideas, and thanks for providing that image, it brought me great enjoyment! Now as for the life expectancy, I think that so far it sounds pretty good. 100 years? OK I'll jot that down.

>>45482039
Makes sense

>>45482131
>criminals saying FUCK the 100 year limit and wanting to become immortal
YES. YES. Moar of that, but let me catch up with everything we've got so far

>>45482890
>One base suit that is modular?

It's not that the suit itself is modular, but rather all of the suits share a similar base design. There's a clear default level which other variants are based upon.

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>>45482489
Well at least I have one ally in the Giant Suit department.

I am OK with having a generalized manageable size, but some 25 feet tall Titans are par for the course of interstellar ancient beings

So let me give you all an example...

On our dusty resource rich planet, there would be call for some excavating, hauling and maybe even construction/processing. So rather than get a group of fifty smaller beings, and a shitload of assisting equipment... But what if you didn't need anything more than ONE giant super suit? You are the mining equipment, the construction crew, the big rig trucker. A single, large, construct, equipped to handle all of these tasks... and in the manner of having the smaller beings to operate and navigate in delicate matters? You're equipped with a cluster of working drones, little satellite units that can get into all those nooks and cranies of both the terrain and your own gargantuan suit.


Now of course, it will be a large quad legged beast, but I can't find anything else on google images to illustrate my point -- looking forward to sketching this one out though.

>>45482304
Yeah, man, that's the stuff! Thanks for the in put, I appreciate your contribution, as well as everyone else's.


This is shaping up to be one mighty promising setting... I wonder what the heck we should call it?

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>>45482953
Chrysalis. I typed a huge ass post before this where I excitedly found out this idea before but a chrysalis is perfect symbolically, a cool super future tech chrysalis core could house the human acuupants to allow the suits to really haver any design they desired. I still say making this setting an rpg where the players are members of the fledgling species that are given these suits for a suepr fun mech multiplayer cyoa is a cool idea but thats just me.


I also think moon sized suits for the immortals would be cool

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>>45483167
ding ding ding

not bad, for a namefag

when I mentioned a modular inner suit, I was really thinking closer to something of a cocoon, or as you said a Chrysalis.

I even had a thought about how humans interact with one another through such a device, but I'll save the nitty gritty details for later.

>>45483155
I love worker drones idea, especially for one titan suit doing constructing an entire city by himself kind of thing.

I still think the animal theme is cool, it keeps the humans tied to their own ancient planet that these new races have no idea about.

>>45483167
I'm not really thinking of it as a core. How to describe it better.

Say instead, that the 'default' bio suit is just a piece of skintight bodywear with a helmet and an extra set of arms.

From there, you have that be the baseline by which all other suits were originally drawn from as concepts.

Think of it in a similar manner to a car. The first cars were smaller and pretty standard. Then they had ones that got new features, and trucks came about as a variant. As you go further along, it keeps branching out until there are hundreds of different models to fulfill different tasks, but they aren't necessarily designed to be converted from one to another. Despite that though, they all have common features that let people recognize them as a car.

>>45483242
The how could be simply that the suits have a "social" configuration in which they come together to create a comfortable space for close occupants for intimate interaction. General passing interaction would just be done through a HUD.

>>45483167
>>45483242
I'm not opposed to giant suits, though I would prefer that the most common variants still be human-sized.

>>45483271
Right, absolutely

I think you 'get it'

I hope everyone is digging this as much as I am; this as consumed my afternoon and I am going to spend the right of the night clearing off my desk so I can start doing doodles for the project.

We do definitely need a name for our setting, however. I sometimes name things out of order of creating them, and granted we have JUST NOW moved past "kernel" status I think it deserves a title.

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>>45483242
>>45483282
We can have both, no doubt, we should really start coming up with a history for these Elder Humans, why are they in the suits to begin with? Perhaps they need them to survive? Perhaps they angered some ancient god who keeps them there so they won't cause trouble again? Maybe they need them to hold back their own power, or the suits themselves wish their human controllers to be "kept back" in a way...

>>45483375
I thought we had already sort of settled on that? The suits are designed for different planetary environments as a survival tool. Aquatic world? Aquatic suit. High gravity world? High gravity suit.

I could see suits as being something difficult to make and tricky to remove as well. Maybe some sort of implants or something that prevents people from swapping between different suits and making the suit you're born with the one you'll usually stick with. Maybe make it so that at a certain point a human becomes dependent on their suit's life-support functions and going without it too long would cause severe trauma?

>>45483375
Well, there's the potential that the logistics of getting the immune system to actually combat truly foreign invaders, along with surviving in varying environments and such made simply avoiding all of it far more sane of an approach. Even if some humans managed to adapt to the viruses and bacteria of a non-native location, contact with others from outside their civilization would have them be essentially plague bringer.

Instead, the inhabited portion of the suits boast the same, stable environment across all models, allowing for humans to always have the chance to interact with each other all in the efforts of not losing what made them a single race to adaptation to foreign soil.

>>45483358

Call it: Old Men Country

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>>45483358
Thanks, this is a cool idea that I also think has alot of potential.

As for a name, how about something from the perspective of the new races, the races the players will play as...

maybe "Suits of the Elders" or something in that vein, "Chrysalis Tide" maybe I'm terrible with setting names...

>>45483346
yeah, i love the idea of humans limiting themselves for reasons unknown so staying in their "ancient" form is ideal. Maybe they tried other forms and the old form in the suit worked best? Survival of the fittest...

>>45483304
yeee

>>45483358
Maybe something like Bio-Conversion?

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>>45483435
>>45483497
So they aren't really "bonded" to these suits or in a chysalis or like a "meditation/cryosleep status" pod like i was imagining, but they can leave these suits if need be but thety interact with these younger races with the suits exclusively. Would they only really leave these suits to have sex/intimate interaction with each other or would human societies be suitless? I kind of like them basically being tethered to the suit because if they left them their processing power would be margins less and they would feel like cavemen, almost more primal than tehya re in tehir suits...I also dont mind them being abkle to kleave the suits if need be, tahts kind of cool, then again, having both would be optimal fort the variety of the galaxy, just that most humans use their suits most of teh time is a good standard...

>>45483653
Yeah. I think they'd generally be rather comfortable in their suits, and not be really able to leave them for an extended duration for whatever reasons.

I think it should be just a sense of loss. Wearing a suit in the long term is packed with so many bio-goodies (enhanced senses, better stamina, overall better health) that leaving one feels a bit similar to getting a bad cold or a terrible hangover in the short term, and agonizing pain in the long term. You could theoretically cut cold turkey with it, but there's very little reason to do so.

It lets them leave the suits in an emergency, but they likely wouldn't want to be outside for more menial things like diplomatic talks.

>>45483653
I feel like it would depend on the location and customs. Sure, there are probably some societies that go suitless when within their own homes. Probably those that inhabit worlds lacking their own ecosystem and possess enough gravity to keep them healthy, but other races would never see them outside of said suits except for the 'Personal avatars' some chose to display to be, what other races probably assume, less intimidating. I feel like any habitable alien environment leaving the suit would just be a death sentence due to immune deficiencies
.

>>45483653
I think it would be best if they left the suits on to deal with xeno's and then take off around humans. Your idea though that they chose to remain in them because of the benefits around humans is fantastic imo.

I think i might try and run something in this setting for my group. should be both fun and challenging.

>>45483358
"Metamorphosis"

All of the various races are leaving a comparatively safe chrysalis (their homeworlds) in order to brave the dangerous unknown of space. Likewise it implies a development into something new; finding and learning new things, cultural revolution/evolution, making allies and enemies, etc.

Likewise it plays against humanity to a degree. Despite being the most advanced and oldest of these races, we have yet to fully leave our chrysalis. Instead we seclude ourselves away within the safety of our suits and colonies, set to keep us comfortable exactly as we are without changing us. So despite all of our superiority and mystique compared to the other races, we're actually still trying to develop like they already are.

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>>45483907
I like it.

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>>45483766
Good luck, man, hope the thread inspired you

I still think the idea needs to be fleshed out, but what we've got here is pretty solid. I would like to try and draw up some designs at the very least, but if this project gains enough momentum I could try to roll it into something bigger.

>>45483552
>those names
I won't hold it against you, I am actually OK at naming things but for some reason I am having a mental block (must be all those cool ideas for suits floating around).

>>45483563
Wait wait... what about

>BIO
>MASS

I have a penchant for double entendres and hidden meanings

>>45483513
Like it, Friendo

>>45483907
Also goes even better if we do follow the habitation pod within the suits is called/has a chrysalis-like design.

>>45483953
I'm still gonna lurk and contribute and probably use whatever is the end product.

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>>45483907
Well shit, I should have refreshed first

I think it's a great name, and you sold me on it with the breakdown.

It's a bit of a 'chewy' word, but I think it's a great fit.

METAMORPH for shorthand then?? OK. Done.

>>45472841
Logical considerations
>Hard-skinned humans from a radiation-blasted world.
>Humans with different body temps, making living at certain temps difficult
>gravity considerations
>O2 levels
thats pretty much it.

>>45484092
I like Metamorph. It calls metamorphosis to mind without being explicit, and is rather short and easy to remember.

>>45483907
Damn that's good...

>>45483720
>>45483726
>>45483739
These are all great input, I actually like them most around the area of "can't leave for long or they feel sick/primal/numbed" feel

>>45483563
I like Bio-Conversion, how about we bend it towards this post's feel: >>45483907

>>45483953
I'm gonna try and do some sketches too, would you like suits ort the aliens more?

>>45484092
>>45484137
Metamorphosis sounds good but metamorph sounds chopped, maybe

Metaphorm

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>>45484137
sold

also when I make a thread in the future, I'll use that as the OP image

There has been a tremendous amount of discussion in this thread, and I have archived it for later consumption; thanks to everyone who threw their hat in the ring (despite OP ditching us).

Right now I have to get my workspace cleaned out and then I will try and scratch up some sketches. If the thread is still around, I'll check back. If not, I'll start a new thread up sometime tomorrow, OP = METAMORPH

See you guys around. Continue to talk amongst yourselves.

>>45484145
I think suits might be better to start with, just so we get a better idea of what we're dealing with in terms of general form.

The aliens don't have that same variety or inter-connectivity, so they can wait.

>>45484145
Well now I would love ANY artistic contributions that you have to offer, I already think you have a square head on your shoulders.

To answer your question, I think I have a clearer idea of how I want the Suits to shape up, but the alien lifeforms are a bit elusive to me at this moment (however their concepts are not at all too difficult to produce)

happy sketching, friend!

>>45484196
I don't dislike Metaphorm, especially because it's just a rearranging of the letters...

Frankly, I like Morph better, but that's cool how you did that.

>>45484344
has a good point

the Elders will be the core of the setting, everything else is spiraling outward from it.

"there was no greater joy among our species then when we first donned our suits, the things they let us do, see,feel, they were incredible. As time went on our suits got better and more fantastic and so we have all become much more joyous. You will never see greater joy in the universe than when one of us crippled by our broken DNA soars across a plain in their suit." bad at writing but thought I'd contribute something.

>>45484344
>>45484354
>>45484456

Ok, I'll get started on suits and the aliens, when do >>45484354
you think you'll post up that thread tomorrow so i can get sketches done by then?

>>45484418

I'll look up some synonyms for metmorphosis:

Well, conversion is one of them, and I still like Bio-Conversion, But shift is another one, so what about Meta-Shift or Exo-Shift?

>>45484456
This guy is on the right track.

>>45484681
Bio-shift might work as well.

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>>45484707
True...


So, the humans are the Elders, a weird menagerie of suited beings that may or may not be connected from the viewpoints of the youngling civilizations,

I think the bird people should be called the Sky Tilters or Sky Dancers, I won't suiggest Sky Walkers but something like that, perhaps Sky Waders, makling them giant herons or cranes

How big are the Insectoids, let's call them Hexes? Are they gnome sized? smnaller? are they actually insecxt sized? I love ther idea of them not only having in species bauplanm castes but having tamed their own planets larger wildlife as beasts of burden, the Elders are like giants to them.

The aquatic race should be playful like dolphins but powerful like horses, maybe call them Kelpies?

I have no idea what to call the Silicon lifeforms, the tree deer people could be called the Intrepid, for some reason that name popped out, idk. Maybe not, maybe the Leafen.

>>45484616
's bretty cool

don't give up on being a writefag, if that's what you want to be.

>>45484681
Oh I dunno, maybe by 3pm EST -- it's a nice middle of the road hour for the US. Sorry to you bongs, hope that ain't too late.

Don't expect terrible much from my work, I've been somewhat outta practice for a time lol. This idea has inspired me to pick the pen back up, however.

Oh and I actually really like the idea of "Exo-Morph" for the name of the suits. Shift? I dunno, gonna chew on that one for a bit.

>>45484980
I think the only avian sort of race was going to be some sub-species of human.

I kind of like the idea of an alien insect race being rather small. Usually when you see them they tend to be very large and hulking, so that could be a nice contrast.

Kelphies has a nice ring to it I think. They're going to be fairly close to the human baseline, if I recall.

Intrepid actually sounds really fitting for deer for some reason. Maybe switch out a couple letters just so it isn't an actual word.

Maybe something like Xaggerites for the Silicon ones?

>>45472841
>using suits in an hyper advanced interstellar civilization
> not just genemodding, ghost-in-the-machining, or remote piloting
do you even do future tech anon? why endager yourself with something like a thin layer between you and death when you dont have to?

>>45484980
sky surfers?

>>45485174
because humans constantly seek danger and thrills for fun?

>>45484980
reckon the insectoids could be like half of normal human size? that's pretty small but seems like a good level.

>>45485274
It might also help if we make the other races a bit shorter on average as well.

For example, the insect race could be around 3' average, while the others could be closer to 5', as compared to the Human's 6'

>>45485351
Depends on the gravity oif the planet, the bird people will probably be like 7-9 feet tall, the deer 5-6, the aquarians 5-7, the insects 3, and the silicon ones probably 4-5

>>45485351
Wouldn't the plants err on the larger side assuming they photosynthesize wouldn't more surface area be better?

wait, were the plants scrapped?

>>45485174
>>45485251
I feel like a good explaination is that they are doing everything they can to still be what they have come to define as -human-. Trying not to completely lose the spark that brought them to this state, but refusing to go passed it. Clinging to traditions of the past, and trying to keep themselves tethered to reality. How can one truly appreciate life if it isn't something that they are experiencing with their own two hands and such.

>>45485391
>Bird people

I don't think we had a bird race.

>>45485405
Right, it was a plant one. Yeah, they could probably stand to be larger, maybe a bit taller on average than humans.

>>45485405
>>45485451
Can they be gliding plants if we are nixing the birds?

>>45485443
dis is good
>>45485451
maybe wider as well for de sweet sweet sun

>>45485493
sounds cool and makes sense higher up, the better the juice.

Even if the threads basically dead now, I got an idea as to why humans wear their suits all the time.

>>45484616 already kinda said it but what if humans have actually devolved over time? Since they ditched natural selection and survival of the fittest, their DNA became incredibly crappy over the millenia and the suits are the only thing that allows them to outside almost clinically clean spaces. I am thinking about something similar to Quarians from Mass Effect here but the Elder Humans could barely even survive in our normal atmosphere now, additionally to looking extremely sick and corpse-like. The machines keep them alive for an incredibly long time but they still have the goal to save their species by repairing or enhancing their genetic code.

Which brings me to the unsuited humans on one of the known planets. They are neither a lost colony ship nor a seeding process but simply one of many worlds on which the Elder Humans test their experimental gene regression to make healthier humans. They watch over them because they see in them their future but let them develop on their own for now.

>>45485493
I don't think we ever had birds, except for some of the flight based humans.

>>45485509
Well, plants are only usually wide in the leaves. The trunks and stems tend to be thinner.

>>45485581
I like the idea of them looking just atrophed and androgenous like greys, elves, or anime characters. Not sickly just, all the same, doll-like and cookkie cutter andf sterile. Their suits are their only form of indivduality.

>>45485543
I'll gte started on gliding plant sketches then as well. This setting is awesome!

>>45485581
i think that was misinterpreted i meant it as the person had a birth defect/deformity or maybe some genetic condition not that everyone was damaged. Like the whole humans being frail thing seems too divorced from any of the other ideas.

>>45485660
it sure is but i think people are wanting to make humanity too different. Like when it comes to humans i think they should stay pretty normal but then again thats imo.

alien sees humans without suits "ew fucking humans, they all look the same"

>>45485676
Yes I know that it probably didn't coin on the whole species but I was thinking of a reason why they would wear their suits everywhere and as we are now, people with traits or disabilities that live normal lives now wouldn't have survived in the stone age. And I am thinking of really common things like shortsightedness or some allergies, not to speak of heritable gene defects like under-active thyroids. Over time they would just add up and humans would just try to patch it up as good as possible without being able to get rid of the defect entirely. Now over the centuries there would barely be an actually 100% healthy human being left and general health would continue to deteriorate until they finally see their race is doomed if they don't act.

It also gives the Elder Humans a goal besides dicking around with the primitive aliens.

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>>45485451
>I don't think we had a bird race.

uh, seriously?
>>45479584

The Wind-Kept are just Elders that had a mutual relationship going on with the plantfolks

Those suits take the form of huge flying creatures, not unlike Dinosaurs or Birds (which dinosaurs are)

Whether the communicate with them or not, they have a positive interaction with that race, and even helped them along their path to becoming space-faring

>>45485933
That's not a Race though, like I was saying. That was pitched as one of the human sub-species that was living on the same planet.

>>45485998
Oh well then you're right, not Bird People

it just sounded like all of a sudden we didn't have that whole post considered a part of the idea

I like avian monster suits being friends with flowerpeople

>>45486056
Yeah, I think there was just some miscommunication there.

I think having one of the alien races develop while having humans flying overhead is an interesting concept.

May I suggest that there could be a third group of lifeforms that help confuse the younger races? Something like uplifted animals that also wear survival suits?

These would be sub-servant "pets" of the humans, but be distinct enough from them that the younger races would have different relationships with them.

>>45485871
idk man I'm just not too fussed about it, seems like other settings where people just deteriorate over the time, plus i liked the original reasoning much better i think they are much more unique/creative.

>>45472946
I love this idea though! The color coded animal types. Maybe it can work like tables, or like triangulations of form, So like, Yellow bear soldiers or red shark miners or green dragonfly archers, they would almost work like classes or subclasses if we went the rpg route

>>45486737
why not just use the same premise and apply it differently. Like maybe the humans do have pets or they attach suits to animals and use them in situations they can't go into. like a weasel in a suit for small pipes or something. 2 big things like we have is pretty solid ye know wouldn't want to clutter and such.

>>45486844
what if they are meant to be companions or familiars even. They could also help with battle and be kinda like drones.

>>45486848
I dunno. I think we already had drones fulfilling that role.

>>45480642
120 seems alright but higher than 150 is really pushing it imo
Human lifespan isn't an upward arch, all we have done is allow more people to reach their hard-cap, not actually extend lifespans

>>45486909
i was just suggesting it as a response to the 3rd big faction and animal thing, just a suggestion.

>>45486974
if we are still going with humans themselves capping the age, 100 is pretty solid.

>>45487420
Just make em another form of drone, I think. You've got orb/saucer probes that are basically just extensions of an exoform suit, then maybe you have more organic looking beast drones for more specialized needs

>>45487589
i am fine with not changing like i said just suggestion because of the comments comrade

>>45485443
This is actually vital to a lot of scifi.
99% of humans are going to be jacked I to heaven/the matrix on earth
. The only out in space doing exploration shit are nearly religious fanatics about humanism and how wonderful down and dirty suffering life is.

I just wanted to chime in and thank you guys for the thread; the general idea has inspired me to write for the first time in years. I'll probably have to scrap half of it when we make more concrete info, but it's fun to work from just a seed idea.

Bump

>>45488893
good on you man! good luck and maybe if its relevant you can post here,

Anyone familiar with the RPG simplicity? i may just reskin that to fit this. Mostly because it is simple and group is used to 20 games, any thoughts?

>>45473809 here. The concept is that the EH are generally nice but paranoid (old scifi influence) because of theoretical xenophobia concerns. Alien races knowing the basic make up of the squishy human framework can take advantage of it as a weakness, as the suits are there to minimize those. The paranoia is partly tradition now. (They are the token paranoid alien race.)

As for the YH, the last lines of the post were lazy and meant to pad the character limit.

They could be kept as a nostalgic reminder to the EH of more innocent times, aside from being useful for genetic restoration projects and a curious social experiment in social/cultural evolution.

-

Wendigo Humans. A faction of EH that prey upon the lesser races for genetic and biological components to combat their deteriorating bodies in order to seek biological immortality. Their suits and ideology deviate immensely from those of the EH and are also seen as a completely different ancient race (the aliens think the word "human" means "old").

WH are usually found in suits that disregard human form, usually several times larger than than those of the EH and without a common form.

Where the EH display a careful paranoia, the WH are openly hostile to the point that any plans for future negotiations have been abandoned.

To the EH, the WH are seen as a disorganized set of pirates, poachers and terrorists. The other races think the EH are taking them too lightly

>>45491900
Some of this is cool but its pretty far out from what we've been discussing desu

>>45491900

if you want to play up the paranoia angle, you could have it be justified by an old conflict. Humans were not the first race to arise, they were the first race to survive. some older race was pumping out berserkers to eliminate possible competitors, humanity wiped out that race in a massive war that they only won because they struck first with a massive wave of C impactors.

so the reason humanity is so paranoid is that they know from first hand experience a weaker race can kill a stronger one with luck and ruthlessness. Now other species are arising and eldar humanity sees much of there younger selves in them, and they remember the Old War. So the elders are kind, but cautions and keep much of there strength hidden, and many of there worlds secret.

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>>45492094
>>45491900
These are cool ideas, to be realistic there will have to be different modes of living for the EH, some who do not think meddling with the new species is a good idea, others who want to progress the younglings scientifically and spiritually, others who view them as a threat like they once were to the beserker throwing Precursors.

There also has to be a reason there are only 5 races in this setting besides humans. Could this have been a result of the war the Humans won against the Precursors, perhaps using these suits. The war left the galaxy sterile and dead and these fledgling species are the descendants of the surviving planets...

Good sci-fi settings that deal with ancient aliens and shiz, there is always an older fish as they say. Having maybe 2-3 important Precursor species that were important in the Old War would be ideal. The Beserker pumpers would be the antagonists, perhaps from a neighboring galaxy like the Yuuzhan-Vong in Star Wars or the Qu in All Tomorrows (I'm attaching a pdf of the second, anyone who's interested in this project should leaf through it for inspiration, basically humanity gets fucked up by a galkaxy circling race of genetic engineers and turn them into animals, then the rest of teh book follows man as he evolves on diffrent planets for a billion years and how the new species of man interact. I'll reread it myself.)
Anyways, the Beserkers would be the main antagonists, perhaps from a neighboring galaxy or a parallel universe, they use weaponry of a cruel binding of antimatter sluggers and dark occult chaos magick.

The second Precursor race could be Something much older, so old they were also killed off completely in the Old War. MAybe these things are like gigantic jovian squid dragons, sky-seahorses almost that evolved on a jupiter like world.

(cont.)

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>>45493711
The 3rd race could have been something close to our concept of Greys, they were also lost in the war. They were humanity's good friend and the current, sterile, dolllike human form is a homage to them in a way...


Also, the Elder Humans have no idea if the Beserkers will return with more fleet, or when.


Also, how long is this in the future, we have not even discussed this. I'm really good with timetables and worldbuilfing timelines, and the EH sounds at least a million years in teh future to have the kind of hold they do on the galaxy, perhaps these 5 younglings are not the first humanity has tried to interact with, but perhaps all the rest "failed" in some way or another, humnaity always kept safe by their suits...

>>45493751
me reckons beserkers are gone for good, which cements eh as big dogs who dont fuck around. Probs long as in the future but failed races seem to nefarioius and such and if everything is sterile it makes the 5 races much more unique and more focused/compellling.

>>45477547
>they are warmongering tryhards
Hey, it's not the Warframes' fault that they're enslaved to warmongering autist 10 year olds

>>45472841
Make a "diplomatic" suit look like it's made of multiple suits? Something like a huge Necromorph? Something that inspires fear and awe, something that makes the alien go "this is neither technological nor natural". Something chimeric perhaps..

>>45493872
Well that's what I'm saying. The galaxy is sterile from this Old War, but how long has it been since then and when did humanity even fight in this Old War. I'd put the old war maybe between 500-1000 years froim now, so the early 3000s, and like I said I feel no problem with the Elder Humans having lived up to a million years from then in these suits, always making them better but never improving themselves. For the tech to be distinctly "humans in all-terrain, all emcompassing chrsysalis mech suits", the Old War would have to be when we are still using mech type technology, so aroynd 2500-3000 is a good ballpark for when humanity met the Precursors and the Old War happened.

But if it's up to a million years in the future, how long have the Elder Humans been tampering with the youngling races? Perhaps before they even considered themselves people? Did the EH uplift any of these species themselves genetically, or did they find them in pretty much th state they are in today. And, besides that, what the hell else have the Elder Humans been doing for up to a million years?!

>>45494081
i think the latter and after finding them went full in. for the time id say dicking around and exploring.

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What if..
>humanity actually died long ago
>their suits were designed (by accident or on purpose) to trap their spirits inside
>They continue on as though nothing happened
>Aliens can't understand their motives since suit-humanity lacks any form of biological imperative now yet still has wants and desires unlike a straight up ai

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>>45472841
This is very interesting to me but I don't have time to read or write up something today.
I will return tonight if this thread is still up.

>>45494774
I think one of the other guys in here was gonna put one up around 3pm EST today if this thread was down

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>>45495032

>>45494774
>>45495032
New Anon here, haven't read through everything yet but I'm liking it so far. Any ideas for a short story concept, something new might help me smash this writer's block.

>>45494504
I think it could be cool in a campaign is the suit-AIs don't know they're skeletons in a suit, and have long-since explained away the odd little things like not needing to eat, continue to "sleep" because it helps them refresh and just haven't found the right partner yet to have kids. And none of them ever know the time, even if presented with a clock and calender...

>>45495782
Diplomacy. Alien point of view. Blue-spider suit, drone multitasker. Subject: Trade and economic crime.

>>45481304
>On 16 February 2016, tardigrades were reported to have been successfully revived, and to have reproduced, after being frozen for over 30 years.
Extreme.

>>45496185
I played through something kind of like this in a game once.
The players were all mecha pilots in suits that used a full immersion mind link and were self maintaining and self repairing. As it turned out the mind link tech was pretty black box and no one really knew how it worked, it was an accidental discovery. When in use, the pilots were the mech, they could no longer feel their bodies and used hud timers to calculate when they needed to pop out to eject, empty their waste extractors, eat and shower and things went on normally for awhile. The PC's were waging guerrilla warefare well behind enemy lines the entire campaign and often had to really stretch those break timers.

At different times, three of the five of us took heavy damage to our cockpit area, but since we were still moving, it was obviously not as bad as it looked and we were just really lucky. The problem was that the damage and later the autorepair systems were preventing the cockpit from opening, but we brushed it off and joked about the cockpit filling with shit and desperately needing a shower.

After awhile, one of them realized that they hadn't eaten in at least 8 days and must be on the edge of death by now and ripped their cockpit open with their mechs arms only to have a rotting corpse fall out. The other two quickly realized that they were in the same boat and amid varying stages of mental breakdown, held a funeral for themselves before getting back in the war to keep their minds off it.

>>45496673
Maybe the Immortals, the heretics to the 100 year rule can't actually get rid of the genetic codexes that cull them at 100, so they use occultist black magick to become undead inside the suits. They aren't just terrorists they are jihadists that read the Necronomicon!

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>>45477956
That reminds of me pic related. Basically it was squid-shaped craft just big enough to hold the mc. He regularly used it when his work took him to a neighboring gas giant,

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>>45481304
As far as the last two relationships to humans goes, I kinda have some ideas.

For one, rather than being seen as distant, mystical or god-like, the humans are understood as a highly scientifically-advanced mortal race. This does not make them any less incomprehensible. In fact, many of the alien race's major scientific questions are related to the humans. Ask yourself "What could we learn about life and its origins from these mysterious beings? They refuse to tell us directly, but what can be inferred? How can we learn more?". The humans are distant and unrelatable, but also intriguing for many reasons. The humans would keep these aliens somewhat at arm's length, being very cautious.

The interactions with other race could result in them seeing the humans like we would see the greys. The humans may not be hostile, per se, but they are still absolutely terrifying.

>>45485443
>>45487897

Would there be a faction of humans that are more concerned with transhumanism and altering of the body/weird mind-uploading than the suited ones? How would they act?

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OKAY guise, I'm back.

Considering people are still posting in this thread, I will take the time to compile the information that we've (mostly) established as IN. Once the thread has keeled over, I will make a new OP image, and the title shall be....
drum roll please

>>>BIO-SHIFT: Metamorphosis

I liked both of those, but they didn't sound good enough by themselves - so I married them. If you guys have any major protest to this, speak now before I draw up the new OP image.

SO where are we?

We have a great start for a sci fi setting, names and concepts for most of the key players in it and an idea of where the jumping point will be for our adventure.

What do we need to do now?
Well, besides everything, we need to start consolidating and expanding upon our initial ideas. We also have to put a pretty face up for all our races and Elder suits, which will be a laborious process but I want try to allow everyone the chance to feel included in on this venture. How I will approach this first up is a rough concept piece for a race at a time, we'll make (REASONABLE) tweaks to it and then we will move on to the next one; but don't worry, I don't feel we're quite ready to begin that at this time - I plan to save that for the future thread.

Now, I caution all of you to take pause and read over most of the thread; leave no stone unturned and be sure that some of the concepts that we have proposed meet the general approval of all. It is a tall order to ask for everything to be perfect now, or for us to agree 100% on everything, but please keep in mind that we're all in this together, and that Bio-Shift deserves our better efforts.

That being said, it's open forum time... If you have any thoughts on what has already been posted, then by all means present your ideas at this time. As for new ideas, I'd caution that we save some of that for the new thread, but willingly stunting creativity goes against my nature.

Thanks for your cooperation

>>45498456
Well, I think the first thing to codify is the names and general information we have so far on the 5 alien races.

Then from there, maybe we can move onto coming up with some of the major human subspecies and factions. We don't need to define all of them, since mystery is part of their shtick, so there should be an assumption that the DM will add or include some of their own.

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>>45498456
I'll go ahead and kick this discussion off then...

When mulling over a decision for what to call this project, I came up with a few names for our concepts. Here are just a few of them.

Metamorphosis works so nicely for our theme that I think it should be used for our humans, but by our aliens.

>Metamorphs
the common accepted name for the collective beings that make up our Elder races. The general idea is that since we will instill a common visual cue between each of the different human subraces, it is befitting that they could be viewed as a an organism that originated from an ancestral race but have since evolved after traveling to other worlds.

>Meta-Suits
since they are endearingly referred to a Metamorphs, it makes sense that the constructs they inhabit reflect the title. Meta also makes sense for suits that have locally optimized specifications.

>Air-Morph, Sea-Morph, Land-Morph
a great way for the common group to refer to the type of Metamorphs, even abriviating A S or L for those that seek even shorter hand.

>The Wind-Kept, Keepers
perfect for our Plant race, as opposed to simply Air-Morphs

What do you think? It certainly simplifies things, and will allow us to refer to them as more than just Elder this and Elder that.

Feel free to make your own suggestions, but the idea here is to have a common tongue (for purposes of worldbuilding and playing)

btw Elders still fits well, we're just expanding upon that.

>>45498776
>so there should be an assumption that the DM will add or include some of their own.
that sends shivers down my spine, it's such a fine point you made

I don't want to get ahead of ourselves here on how we will encourage DMs to run their games, but that certainly is an attractive feature for our concept.

Well done you.

>>45498834
Yeah, obviously we shouldn't start writing up a GM's Guide right away, but we should play it a bit loose with some things being defined. We don't want to say 'no, there are only these 82 Biosuits and no more'.

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>>45498834
I also think letting the DMs come up with their own factions is n freakin awesome idea! Player involvement and creativity makes them that much more into it.

>>45498804
Dude! Each letter should be a designation of suit type, maybe we go with combinations of letters making different kinds of suits!

SO like AF2-C suit would be an Air Falcon Blue - Construction suit or something.

Blue would be the magic typoes or m,aybe technomagic types the suits use.

I'm gonna woprk on those suit sketches now guy, you shoulkd get a name for this thread so we can iddentify you

So the Plants aren't one of the 5 races? I thought the heron suits uplifted the plant beings?

>>45499188
there was a great mechmultiplayer live CYOA that was on /tg/ like 1 or two years ago, it was awesome, we could model the suit building for the elders off of those sheets i can bring them up if yall want

>>45499877
I'm not sure how detailed we'll need to be for the various suits. As a start, its probably best to establish their general looks, what type of environment they were adapted for, and what the most common culture/faction of people with that suit is.

>>45499877
The 5 races are

Plants, Insects, Merfolk, Silicon-things, and Deer.

There's more detail than that for each, but to just clarify what we have.

>>45499985
Ok, then faction work is really what we need here...we need to establish what made the factions seperate and come together, we'll probably ahve a bunch oif things, hypercorps that make planets, economic houses, planet wide cultures and lifetstyles. There will probably be virches (virtual worlds where living, sapient sims and real people meet in avatar) and all kinds of astral realms but everyone will still use a suit to at least a degree.


Are the players playing as suits or as the youngling races?

>>45500087
To add onto this, the Deer and the Merfolk were set upt to be the most typical and humannoid in appearance, while the Silicon ones weren't humanoid at all, with the other two falling more in-between.

I think some of the confusion about the plant-people is that the post talking about them had a picture of a bird-person to show for the Avian-elders who co-inhabited their home world.

>>45500135
The main idea was to have them be the younger races, leaving the true nature of the suits as more of a mystery

>>45499877
I don't believe I've ever namefag'd before...

My name is Donny, Donny Newday. I put my email up earlier, ( donnynewday@gmail.com ) but none responded. I encourage anyone to mail me regarding the project, but most of all any drawfags that wish to share in closer collaboration.

That abbreviation system is sharp, I am glad it fits!

I saw the suggestions of color coding and thought that was pretty NATO, but this takes the cake.

>>45499188
Then I believe it's unanimous, so consider it done, pal


I am reading the posts over and trying to consolidate our ideas now, but would you all like to move on to some sketching or perhaps more idea spinning?

>>45500143
I'm gonna do designs now: I'm gonna do a page of suits a page of plants and then deer and then silicon. OPishnewOPguy are you doing suit sketches still?

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>>45500230
Cool! My email is above, If you want I can make a gdrive for this project so we can all share files and emial it to you.

>>45500297
Ah geez I'll just email you

This new stuff seems to be stagnating and diverging too far from the og imo.

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ok so i came up with some super rudimentary sketches for two "clans" of Elder Human suits, nothjing special just some variance ideas. I'll probably do the plants or the deer next but let me know what you like and don't like about these designs, are we even going for a general look or feel for these suits or what? Are we still having the players be under the impression the Elder Humans aren't related, and if so, the suits really then should even look mecvhnaical or mlike animals or even sometimes like anything weve eve seen before, If the EH are mysterious, they should hardly ever look the same, excpet for aesthetics within empires, houses, factions cultures ad polities... So really everywhere...

The Green cricket is suited to lowlamnd forests and plains, and the sand sirens live as a closeknit family structure in the desert planets near Belarus

>>45501057
I think we were planning on them having at least a few similarities between them, so that the other races assume they might share a common ancestor. Having 6 limbs (or points where limbs could have been) and some similaf facial features could work for that.

I like the designs of those though. The mask on the sand one is really nice, and it could work as a basis for a common sort of faceplate that all the suits share.

>>45501057
Yea we definitely decided to have them share common traits and stuff so the eh are recognizable as one group with lots of different groups.

>>45501057
Lookin good my dude

>>45501283
Ok, I like the idea of a unifying faceplate design, this thing could be small, I also think the unifying chrysalis is cool but its up to you guys.

What should the faceplate look like, a styulized human? Something really simpler so it almost wouldn't even look human to the players? are we maslkinmg they aree human from the players? that would be neat i think

>>45501057
OH SHIT MAN, you're a good artist. Those concepts are sharp, I had something different in mind but I do dig those.

I am watching a movie right now but as soon as I am done I'll get some sketches up here.

>>45501337
For unified traits we could have the faceplates/mask/helmets which could project a humanesque avatar and a point from which additional arms can be connected and some more arms, like ye got to remember these have to be able to do incredible things.

>>45501057
I like it, though I did envision the chrysalis being a bit larger so that it's closer to a cockpit that could be moved in/shared when combined so that two could comfortably dock for intimacy, following the idea that they are attempting to be as human as they can given their limitations.

>>45501476
yea this, chrysalis should be big enough for 2 or be able to expand maybe.

>>45501337
I think it can be a sort of blank faceless thing. The one and the sand clan could serve as a template. Just a curved white plate with a few ocular dots on each side, and some stripes for variance. The size can be different for each subspecies, but that and the 6 limb thing should be enough for the other races to believe they are related

I personally prefer the idea of the suits being suits rather than having pods, though that might just be my preference. I do think keeping the number of limbs is key though.

>>45501640
i would prefer suits but can dig pods also.

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>>45501675
I'm imagining that the smaller Metas are in fact suits, while the larger ones would have a pod (with perhaps even a suit wearer inside)

Nesting egg humans GO!

As for the unifying design, I think you should take a look at this...

The six limbs is perfect, because it allows us to almost always have a set of humanoid arms, so the occupant can manipulate their environment with a 1:1 gestural system

As for how the rest of the Meta-Suit looks, I'm trying to imagine a human wearing a kaiju suit... there can be major overhauls of locomotion systems, but the shape of it all would harken back to their creator's

By the way, Koko, I mailed you

>>45501881
sounds good to me! yea the way the arm is like that is good. Maybe with six limbs have a middle pair and the one lower and more forward slightly and one above the middle pair and abit backwards. I didn't really think of how they pilot them, maybe they just interface with the suit , or they wear some sort of motion capture suit that replicates their actions from inside the chrysalis to outside and the additional limbs are controlled through some kind of link.

>>45501955
For smaller suits you can have one pair literally envelop their arms and legs and go 1 for 1motion that way. For extra limbs or larger suits, you would need some sort of connection to the nervous system that allows them to manipulate the limbs as extra functions.

>>45502157
yea that's what I'm talking bout home slice.

>>45475535
Heh, vulva.

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>>45501168
I also enjoy the 6 limb unifying idea
>>45501302
Thanks!
>>45501476
>>45501594

I like the 2 occupant expandability. I like mini suits as actually being more or less skin tight instead of the chrysalis, but kaiju suits over chrysalis too

>>45501640
I'll do designs for faceplates now then

>>45501955
I think it will be modular where the limbs aree placed in regards to what kind of suit it is.

>>45502157
yeeeee

>>45502410
I just meant in a general way with the arms but ye dawg you know whats good

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Maybe I'm in the minority, but I figured that the elder technology would largely stay as such- technology. I love the "adapting concepts and designs from nature" deal, but I'm less enthused about the organic chrysalis concept. Not that a common cockpit design for each of the larger meta-forms is a bad idea, I'm just thinking that in terms of design that they should lean more towards looking metallic and technological with natural inspiration, rather than outright bio-mechanical.

It's just an opinion, though. And to be quite honest, I'm really liking the concepts that Koco's posted already in >>45501057. Got some serious MMZ/Reploid vibes from them, which I'm loving.

>>45502828
Muh Nigga.I dig those Reploid designs. Always quite stylish.

That said, I think we were going with Biological designs so the aliens would assume the humans in suits were naturally evolved, rather than some giant robot.

That said, there is room for a blending for styles in some ways.

So, I'm getting a bit confused here. I like some of the concepts but could someone take me down from the top on this?

>>45502828
>>45502880
i think his problem is with the chrysalis which i don't think would be a problem as the aliens should never see the inside of a suit.

>>45502967
I think my issue is more a question of design direction. Are these suits supposed to be mechanical, yet designed after terran creatures, like Zoids? Or are they meant to be bio-engineered "machines" grown for the elders' use, like a Gunship from half-life?

>>45503198
I believe the first one my friend and sorry i misinterpreted what you said. Yea the chrysalis came out about because of the humans being inside thing and not wanting to be outside. The suits are supposed to be tech just modeled after terran creatures.

>>45503198
I think the key thing is that if you saw one in real life, you would think 'that is an alien creature' rather than 'that is a futuristic robot'

>>45501337
Way I've seen it is that the faceplate are mostly blank, beyond sensor equipment. That way they don't give anything away (to the other species or to the players).

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>>45502929
The ELders are the oldest race in the galaxy, they are a mystery to the 5 new fledgling races of the galaxy, the plantlike Wind-Kept, the Insectoid Hex, the silicon-cystaline Rooted, the aquatic [______] and the arboreal, deerlike Intrepid. Some of them are scientifically and spiritually uplifted by the Elders, other planets are kept in the dark of their watchful presence and only used for scientific abductions and experiments by the Elders. They aren't even seen as the same grouping of beings by most of the youngling species. Most are seen as mosnters, gods, acts of nature and great psychedelic visions by the blossoming peoples of these new planets. The players will play as one of the members of the new races trying to find out the truth of the Elders, who they are wnd why they are here in Bio-SHIFT: Metamorphosis

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>>45504013
Well, that clears it up.
Thank ya kindly anon.
Have a paradox in return.

>>45504013
Do we really have to keep the uplift stuff and the abduction and experiments, it really deviates from the original and makes the EH seem villainous and shit. why don't they just watch the races progress and maybe chip in here and there or give them the tech and let races do it themselves.

>>45504177
Because the Elders aren't a singular entity. Some of them behave fairly typically for a sci-fi race, while others act more like mysterious precursors. Some help, and some are just in it for their own gain.

There's no one single unified force of them, just factions, which adds to the confusion of other races.

>>45504226
Fair enough, but what about the uplift thing. The way you phrased the whole thing made it seem like the races view on Eh was that they were just mad suss cunts aye

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>>45504177
Be cause of >>45504226 and becayuse they need to interact witrh the yuounglings for there to nbe a story for the players to follow, just simple storytelling

>>45504406
I'm not suggesting they don't interact I'm just suggesting the races feel differently or the description so that its not fuckin paranoia and suspicion. Like some positive shit about how the humans gifted great technologies or helped the races out of altruism. instead of just focusing on the more negative focus some more on the good and bring it into balance.

>>45504558
I suggested both sides, the altruistic uplifting and the weird nefarious abducting factions. What we really need to do is solidify these factions, how many do you think we should have? 10? 20? 30?

>>45504690
maybe keep it a simple 7, a neutral/indifferent faction which makes up the majority of the elders, and 6 progressively smaller factions for altruism and exploitation, with the most passionate factions for each side consisting just a handful of individuals.

We have 2 major categories. The good/neutral EH and their not-so-nice WH counterparts.

2-1 split between positive factions and negative.

Start with 9 factions. Diverse enough. Then if there needs to be more, add more.

>>45504958
I think 12 factions would be good. A bunch of neutral/economic ones, maybe 6 or so, 3-4 altruistuic scientific uplifters and spiritual artists, buddhist types, and 2-3 terrorist/chaotic/necromancer types

>>45505033
this sounds good to me but most of the sciences should be centered beneficial things like exploring, medicine, biology and less of the more warry sciences ye know so like maybe one faction devoted to exploring an area and increasing the quality of life for that area, then rinse and repeat. Not to discount the war sciences though like a good juxtaposition to the above would be a faction centered on gaining alien weapons and improving them and shit.

>>45505093
I agree, a super long living human civ like the Elders should be mostly utilizing themselves towards altruistuic means but there will always be terrorist/necronomicon worshipping type assholes, y'know.

>>45505137
yea i'm much more open to this idea now i see i was being overzealous and not realizing people meant different factions, although i would definitely like the factions to be distinguishable by the ay lmaos as well.so they know whos good and whos bad and such.

>>45487483
Except the natural aging process actually stops before you reach a hundred years old. The only "hard cap" that exists is that the cells:

1. Cannot copy themselves more than X amount of times due to deterioration of information

>>45505033
I think 12 is a good number to shoot for, but we don't need to have an exact quota. We can fill things in and see what we get to.


To start off with, their was that avian-style subspecies living on the Plant home world, mostly taking an observing role and not really interacting until they got interstellar.

They might work well as some sort of cultural and scientific researchers faction. Sort of like the Federation in Star Trek. Lots of observing with a hands off approach, and possibly heading up a coalition between alien races, or serving as a neutral 3rd party. Probably one of the human groups that the aliens would have the most peaceful contact with.

>>45505210
The plan was to have it so there were various types of suits made, which were adapted to different types of planets or for different purposes, and factions mainly hail from single world originally, and extending outwards from there.

So at a glance, you could recognize the ships or suits of a particular faction, though pirates, outliers, and deception still mean its not a garuntee.

Skimmed most of the thread so not sure what ideas may have already been said but:

Elder humans could call themselves something like the Sapients as a corruption or mistranslation of Homo sapiens.

The purpose for keeping a baseline species of humans is for genetic stock and they might routinely abduct human beings or take a special interest in their activities or view them as a study of their own lost cultures and histories. This is a snapshot of the elder race's heritage from millennia ago and revealing what they now could be would wipe out this beautiful testament to their history very quickly.

If something must always be in common let it be the method of communication. Since all humans theoretically still need to communicate with each other. Unless they have some kind of relativistic neural web or something that makes them appear like a silent hive mind to observers.

Is there a galactic senate or federation or are all the new species individual factions still? What roll do elders play in the political dynamic? Are they dictators, equals, or isolatuonists set apart on their own?

Is this set in the past or the future? Are WE the "lost colony" and are just rediscovering the stars for ourselves not knowing the majesty of our heritage?

What does an exosuit run on? Nuclear power or some as yet undiscovered tech? Does it require outside replenishment? What external NEEDS for comfort and survival do elders still possess?

For exosuit power sources:

Leaning toward biobatteries, common for medium suits. Solar-kinetic fibers common for slip-ons and small suits. Interchangeable/micable pending user preference and needs.

Micro-nukes on the much larger suits.

Specialized power converters pending environment. Heat conversion for hot words or undersea vents. Static converters for windy dry places. Maybe the odd turbine here and there on aqua/air/land suits.

Could have the suits power source be specific to what it does. Like if its on a planet that is just water it could use some kind of advanced hyrdo-electric energy thing or like a really sunny planet could have a suit that all its outside facing parts double as solar panels. All suits should have some kind of back up battry though.

>>45472841
>>45478322

>'Humans are aliens :DD'
>"Well who are the players supposed roleplay as then"
>'Aliens are humans :DDDD'

I think this thread nicely demonstrates how badly divorced /tg/ is from actual roleplaying games and how easily hooked they get on novelty.

I am positive OP and the majority of this thread's posters are HFYfags, too.

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>>45505223
Yeah, you felt up that idea nicely, the Keepers of the Winds have protected and aided the Wind-Kept for centuries, silently guiding them along their way to ascent towards the stars. They take up a purely scientific role here, but now that the Kept are space-farring, they have stepped in and offered a more direct partnership. What started as slightly parental co-habitation has lead to full on allied Metamorphs for the youngling race.

I image that the land dwelling giants of our mineral world are taking a total vow of silence and even a defensive posture against the Bugfolk. These Elders are interested in massing material wealth and are not afraid to defend themselves when it's called for -- enter the jealous skeptic insectoids. Turf wars are constantly breaking out on the surface of this planet, but not exactly on a united front. Some fear them to the point of outright running away whilst others muster the townsfolk and prepare to expel these gargantuans from their homeworld.

The aquatic type Metamorph are of another ilk entirely... Imagine them as free agents, roaming the high seas and claiming all of the bounty (selfishly) for themselves, no matter the cost. Perhaps they feast on the inhabitants of this world for reasons beyond gluttony, but it's not entirely clear to the lowly Seafolk of this world. Speaking of seafolk, I think an earlier suggestion for them to be a playful dolphin like race is perfectly acceptable, but we will try to maintain some level of normancy with them as they are our NORMIES race. That isn't to say we won't be throwing them an interesting curveball as far as their cultural development, but I feel pretty safe in this decision thus far.

The Deer reverse land/tree people... Hmm, I haven't put a great deal of thought into them, but I am imagining that these could be our bashful and skittish race, seeking peace above other means and trying to keep to themselves...

>>45506093
>I am positive OP and the majority of this thread's posters are HFYfags, too.
Then you clearly haven't read the thread

Good day, sir.

>>45506145

>Namefag
>"Good day, sir."

>>>/plebbit/

Have we solved the issue of why the Elder Humans don't give the big reveal to the "meta" humans?

You'd think that "evil or chaotic" elder humans wouldn't care.

Here's what I think would resolve this. Because of the entropic nature of the elder humans they've agreed to a mutual pact for secrecy.

As without the "meta" and seeder humans, the Elders would sooner or later be unable to continue life because of how degraded their DNA has become.

If they were to reveal their secret and I've the other humans their technology the humans would become as decadent and reliant as the Elder humans, ruining the chance for a future in the human species.

>>45506172
>>>>/thedoor/

>>45506119
This all sounds pretty good my man. I am picturing the mermaid folk attitudes and personality being like andalites but less arrogant and more of the optimistic happiness

>>45506174
I like it, necessary but not evil or just cruel, just something that has to be done.

>>45506119
This is all good, any idea for what we should do with the silicon race and how the Elders relations are with them? Same with the deer, maybe the deer are hard to capture/observe and take the brunt of the abductions.

>>45506119
I could see the giants on the mineral world being a relatively small mining colony in a remote location on the planet, forming legends of giants among the insectoids.

After a couple of raids from the hostile natives, they'd probably just wall themselves off as best they could and be rather isolated and defensive.

>>45506254
I don't think we need to make all the races have Elders interacting with them from the start. It could be just as well to have the silicon race and the deer not see any outside of the typical alien abduction rumors until they hit space and branched out.

>>45506119
The deer folk could be cautious of the humans as being cautious is their nature. Like they're not skeptical or paranoid they just don't fully understand the humans and kinda just stay out of their way if they can.
>>45506254
Abductions could work but the humans try and minimize the damage so they take solitary deer things or ones who are about to die

>>45506286
maybe we keep the silicons as the ones who have not been contacted because humans don't realize what they were till bamn space flight somehow.

>>45506286
So then, the Wind-Kept are the most uplifted, really the only uplifted

the Aquarians are being "interacted with" but at what level we are not sure

the Hex or Insectoids are like cavemen to the Elders and their attacks are comical and futile to the Elders

the Silicon beings aren't being interacted with yet I supposing or maybe the Elders can't make head or tails of them...

And the deer again, would be ghard to find and captuyre, very skittisha nd elusive

EH should have the whole gamut when it comes to tech. Limit FTL comms to ships or any other facility to hold the tech. Anyone with a receiver and credentials can listen in, like old time radio. For distances within 1-2 light minutes, lasers are preferred.

Although EH have the ability to talk to each other in secret and far apart without vocalization, they recognize the obvious confusion and suspicion caused by the behavior. Many EH go out of their way to have face-to-facade conversations with others including other humans. Mostly out of politeness but some EH say the act is cathartic change of pace from bombarding each other with instant comms.

EH don't normally use their own voice and instead prefer customized synthetic voices for additional individuality.

>>45506350
Yeah. The Hex would have attacked the Elders with Bronze era tech or earlier, they would have fought off the hostile bugs, put up some barriers to hide their mining operation, and probably just live in an underground complex for a while, until they decide to take another look outside and find the insects have actually progressed to modern tech or even insterstellar rather quickly.

>>45506369
this is really cool and i reckon definitely should be added/cemented.

>>45506350
Hmm...maybe the Aquarian's world could have been claimed as a colony by multiple factions, explaining the variety of sub-species suits that would be present there? They'd all set up their colonies on volcanic vents near the sea floor, while the Aquarians themselves would be more coastal, eventually adapting to be amphibious.

The reason they seem so bestial is because the scattered colonies are in all-out war with one another, and so they're very quick to attack any perceived threats.

>>45506293
On the money
>>45506286
>don't need all races to have Elder interaction
You're right, and that will further demonstrate the mass confusion as to why some Metamophs are the way they are while others seemingly ignore entire species

That being said, I have a suggestion for our Silicon Rock people, but for now I haven't the time to elaborate. More on this in the future, and potentially a new thread.
>>45506254
That works for me, and also ditto for the last reply; I've got ideas but not entirely ready to post them.
>>45506230
>>45506174
that's a good suggestion, and with some (minor) tweaking it will work out really well for our splintered factions and their agendas

a mutual code of silence is perfectly reasonable for a race that has survived for EONS; divulging their true nature could spell the end for the Metamorphs.
>>45506013
Simply put, yes. The suits will be powered in various creative ways, not all of them will be the same, but they all share a common theme... BIOMASS fueled machinery. For example, the S-Morphs are recycling materials with every living creature they consume -- it's not the most efficient means, but it is simple to acquire; hence the voracious appetites
>>45505881
>>45505391

Oh whoops, I meant to also cc you for the last reply.

>>45506430
I do like the idea of the suits being mostly organic, just having hyper-efficient metabolisms. Maybe having efficient chlorophyll (or something similar) to give them a degree of solar power as well. On the upper end of size, you could also have things that use bio-electricity to a degree to help fuel them as well.

>>45506388
>>45506426
These are both great developments! I especially like the idea of the Aquarian's world being a hub for multiple factions. You guys?

>>45506430
>divulging their true nature could spell the end for the Metamorphs.
which is perhaps why rogue Metas have started spreading rumors to the 'lings in order to sow the destruction of the old ways.

also since it is such a small faction that's doing this, it wouldn't be considered more than a conspiracy theory to these fresh lifeforms.

>>45506481
I think most people don't want the bio-tech but tech that looks bio
>>45506544
Sounds tight mech it happen

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>>45506544
Done and done, I want there to be plenty of fish in the sea.

God DAMN there have been some 10/10 suggestions posted tonight; really makes me feel bad that I can't get my drawing programs up and running to start sketching!!

>>45506556
it should be less than a conspiracy it should be a tale you hear from a drunken stranger and never hear it again in your life. Theres no way with the humans set up as they are that it would even get to that point desu senpai.

>>45506544
>date] [Auto] 5 new posts
assuming it's a BIG oceanic world, yeah, that seems appropriate. Lots of resources, a lot of places to hide. Good reason for them not to know just how many other factions are already there when landing or otherwise divide territory for their own ends.

>>45506576
hey, at least your are contributing which is all that matters.

>>45506576
Any of you guys have any idea as to what you want the faceplates to look like?

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>>45486844

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>>45506641
Like I said, earlier; I really like the idea of a blank, unreadable slate. If we are trying to keep the true identity of the Elders secret (even from players), than any sort of facial design would more than likely give away the surprise.

>>45506648
I kek'd and that is something that had occurred to me

>>45506641
Yes, I just haven't drawn them yet :^)

But in all seriousness, I like the SORTA HUMAN BUT NOT ON THE NOSE HUMAN type face plate -- think of how diverse masks are on our planet alone, and picture them with millions of years to improve upon.

>>45506616
thanks, senpai, I know WE got this

>>45506585
>>45506556
Fund it; it's IN.

>>45506641
I still like the sand one here >>45501057

Sort of a flat canvas, with the dots on the side being occular sensors of some kind, and the stripes being a design that might vary from clan to clan or even be unique to the individual.

>>45506641
>>45506648
>>45506692
What if they had like vageuly human shapes behind a blank power ranger esque mask, like an outline of a nose and eyes and stuff like that. also keeps you able to use
>>45506731
this still.

>>45506692
>any sort of facial design would more than likely give away the surprise.
Thanks more or less my opinion as well

We want to have semblance to humanoid lifeforms without it giving too much away

Now how do we accomplish this? Well I do seriously have a few floater concepts in my mind, but I will have to put them through there paces, for everyone's approval.

The blank slate faces are not the standard nore mandatory, but there could be wavering designs across the grid

and as someone said earlier, these Elders kinda run the gambit when it comes to what asthetics they use -- we'll just have to nail down SOMETHING that links em all together.

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>>45506692
Pretty much agreed with this, though I also like the idea of different factions/specializations having slight differences or decals/paintjobs.

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What about something like this? will post more pics for ideas/inspiration

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>>45506773

>>45488893 Here. Dunno if it'll stick, but I've written all of the Elders face-plates to have a set of three eyes arrayed like so.

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Still human, blank face plate, could have some image projected onto it as an avatar.

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>>45506773
>my grammar is worsening as the booze increase e

oh my, I think I should put down the tablet.

SO tomorrow is the day guys, I think we might could use a fresh thread.

In summation we have

BIO-SHIFT: Metamorphosis
>title

Air/Sea/Land Morphs, Color coded for further deviation in environment types
>suit classifications

Plants, Bugs, Porpoises, Silicon Crystals and Deers
>Youngling races

That's a solid FIRST thread down. Let's see where the next one takes us.

Good night (for now) guise. Keep dreaming; sweet sweet Meta-dreams

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Here, I too the "more or less blank with ocular dots" and came up with this format: Blank and organic, like porcelain or ceramic, but ALWAYS with an arrangement of 2 pairs/4 ocular inlets.

>>45506641
Silver/gold/black/white/other plate. Normally made of metamaterials for protection. Two or more geometrically placed cameras on the top, usually surrounding a pattern or symbol of significance. A set of "gills" below, above or around the cameras, these are scanners and measurement instruments. The faceplate protects primary sensors and vitals.

Plates vary by suit. Additionally, faceplates don't need to be on the face.

Non-EH theorize these are specialized mutations of gills made to fend off parasites and predators. Some think they are the faces, being partially correct.

>>45506773
I think something to keep in mind is that while not all of them are humanoid, some of them will be, meaning the general style should be something that can fit a wide array of bodytypes without looking out of place, or has some key identifying marks aside from just being a blank surface.

>>45506850 and >>45506731 point out some good suggestions of having a specific number of eyes arranged in a certain pattern.

>>45506930
stuff like this and variations seems good but maybe with more tech added on to places. With the helmets the sensors could be placed in thins that look like ears/noses/shit like that so they have outward biological features that are actually just tech.

>>45488893
>>45506850
Dude, that's awesome -- I'm glad that you feel inspired to pursue creative talents

I can't speak for everyone, but I was entirely grateful for our no-show OP and his initial WHAT IF. It got gears turning within me that I haven't exercised in months.

Keep on keeping on, and best of luck on your writing.