RAVEN.myst wrote:spankahontis wrote:
I'd love to see the Xenon able to create avatars of themselves, mimic the Human Form like the replicators in Stargate.
Be a cool new twist if the Xenon managed to form their own race of bi-pedal machines.
I very much hope not: despite the creepiness factor of the "uncanny valley" (whose effects cannot be easily and adequately reproduced in a game, where our suspension of disbelief counteracts it, in any case), anthropomorphising antagonists pretty much inevitably demystifies them, makes them more familiar, and causes us to (even if subconsciously) project our emotional and motivational biases/assumptions onto them. In short - more human-like Xenon would make them less "scary".
Maybe not go as far as look like us?
Maybe they simply have grown so intelligent that they have studied biologicals to the form that they can communicate like the CPU Ships in Terran Conflict with us, they could be "floating orbs", I don't know about demystifying an antagonist, but the Cylons in Battle Star Galactica and the Chigs in Space Above and Beyond were pretty creepy to me.
ezra-r wrote:
I'm all for that really, was just throwing ideas. A special race such as the Xenon could be exploited in the story,lore, gameplay, etc.
Extreme example. See how ED exploits thargoids? Not implying that xenon has anything to do with it. But it hooks players interest to no end, see what we will find next, etc. In a single player game mechanics must be different, but staging things to make a certain unaccesible race interesting is a must, or you end up with a game that goes nowhere.
I suspect from the chatter amongst ED players is the Thargoids are probably going to have their own section of space, their own territory and from that are probably going to be unveiled.
I agree with the mystery behind the faceless enemy, but how far can one run with that before it gets boring?
The Xenon have always been faceless, for good reason that they are machines.
But the Kha'ak are not, if they can build advanced ships, if they have Queens then they are clearly an intelligent species, eventually they are going to grow tired of constant non-stop conflict, war eventually brings weariness and they will break from tradition and seek dialogue with their enemy, I can't see the Kha'ak fighting forever.
The Xenon? Unpredictable, relentless replicating virus that would fit with their mystic perfectly?
Heck there could be entirely different branches of the Xenon family tree that have broken away from other branches of the Xenon and become territorial, maybe on purpose or someone was smart enough to hack the Xenon into splitting away?
Be an interesting plot twist if was not just 1 Xenon Faction, but a bunch of them?