Slitherine

quote:



ORIGINAL: feelotraveller

The other option which I alluded to in terms of bringing their troop strength down (really the Psilons should have close to the worst troops in the game) would be to reduce their intelligence.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Jon Micheelsen

What I did with my Psilons was to make them a humanoid hive with a 100% research bonus - it's the same tech bonus as Quameno in total - but with a completely different political attitude. Think a race of beings, to whom science, just for the pure sake of it, is all that matters on an almost spiritual level. Not a technocracy, where it's the solution, but where it's simply the pursuit of knowledge that drives and unifies every living soul. They DO research, so I also gave them a small morale bonus. I made them extremely passive, but very highly war weariness resistant - they won't start a fight, but anything that interrupts the science must be dealt with. This and some bias modding makes for a race that don't really get along well with anyone - not that they themselves piss anyone off, but they are a little too strange - the race of blissful super nerds - for anyone to joyfully welcome them into their arms.

Why - well, because I didn't want them to be just another Quameno, or Zenox for that matter, but something unique. Both Quameno and Zenox pretty quickly gain clear cut friends and foes, my Psilon build, actually only get along really well with the Gizurean - as long as they don't go into mutual defense pacts, with the feisty little buggers and are forced to fight. Humanoids can be befriended, but not very easy - hive mind is really freaking strange to humanoids. Also, as a why, it represents how I always played them myself in moo2. I hated how the AI made them outgoing - as really they more than any other race could just sit in a corner and get so powerful that nothing ever could stop them - so why go out. Indeed this race will be openly admired but silently feared and hated. Late game, no one should even consider engaging them aggressively, though having some assimilated into your own empire is a very valuable asset.

I've been experimenting with lowering their research skill a bit and giving them a very strong leader - a prime being - I imagine them reproducing only through cloning, so the original refiner of the Psilon genome - with spiritual trait, inspiring presence and energetic, and all three tech skill bonuses as well as happiness - that grows over time, but affects all the race. It's an interesting modification and it can be a great victory condition to keep it alive - if playing against them, this can blunt them immensely!

As a home planet in the style of their original moo2 race picture that had a barren world in the background, I've given them desert world as home world.

I think, when adding new races, the key is to make them different and not just an another of what already is.


Here's a little bonus picture, for more races