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Skrell

mrimatool

By mrimatool
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SgtSammac Research Director

SgtSammac

Posted
Posted
The only problem I could see is like... hitting yourself regularly to exploit it. So how else could it be implemented smoothly...?


Sorry for the hard to read stream of consciousness. I really can't word today. Hopefully it's clear enough not to be ignored/misunderstood.

 

A relatively simple if check that makes sure its not self-inflicted damage? :P

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Ryfer Surgeon

Ryfer

Posted
Posted

I don't know if they already do, but would it make sense for Skrell to have some resistance to burn damage as well, with their gross mucus coatings and whatnot whenever it's active? I'd imagine burning through that and into their frog-person bodies would be a bit more difficult than with others.

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Skull132 Faithless

Skull132

Posted
Posted
Second, it retcons the whole 'emotionless-seeming Skrell thing', if they're able to express emotions like that. Suddenly the constraints of Basic not having the tones of their language are gone, and they can pass on general moods to whoever. Easy peasy to express themselves now, in a basic way. While that in itself isn't a bad thing, one of their most defining characteristics - how they appear to other races - is gone. Their feel of alienation, gone. Do people mind this? Is this what we want?

 

I caaan actually see that. What if we scrub the whole Asari shit, and just have it Skrell specific? At that point, the basic hold is retained: the Skrell will come across as emotionless husks, because only they themselves can see the colourful seizure inducing colours.

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Erik Tiber Head of Personnel

Erik Tiber

Posted
Posted
Okay. So I had a chat with the lore folk about anything, really. And we got onto organ code, and then I had an idea.


The issue with the Skrell-link is that. It's meta as shit. Even with the restrictions proposed, it's horribly powerful and has the capacity to ruin things. Plus, it's not that. Interesting. So, we were tossing the idea ball, and here is what I was thinking. Instead of transmitting an outright, literal message, you transmit feelings. Associated with colours, in our case. The way it would work is this:

  • There are lists of words associated with colours in the code. So, var/redwords, var/greenwords, etcetera.
  • Let's say you type, "I am feeling fine today, everyone is being friendly and welcoming!"
  • A text parser in code goes over your message, reduces it down to the order of colours that your message activated, and sends only those colours to everyone who can listen in. Only the original writer sees the actual message that was sent, everyone else just gets the chain of colours that the code recognized (in our case, green-green-gold).

 

Now, why is this better? First off: you remove the threat of people using it to metagame/powergame. Even if the message transmitted reflects danger and threat, you can't really pick out who, where, or any other details. You just know that something is amiss. It would put your Skrell on heightened alert, without necessarily screwing over the antagonist or whoever is hurting the other Skrell. I also think that it is a lot more neat than just another form of direct speech. From a roleplay perspective, it would be interesting (as a Skrell player, saying that).


Butt wait! There is more!


We also want to tie it to an organ, of some form. This would enable three more possibilities:

  • Skrell who don't have it (from the spawn menu) could be subject to discrimination -- roleplay possibility
  • You can yank it out, and deprive a Skrell of its effects -- possibility for antagonists, chiefly
  • You can transplant it into other species, after dealing with cross-species rejection (possibly with chemicals) -- possibility for the Biologist

You could probably do that with an MMI-style adapter mechanism.


Alternatively, the biologist could try to modify the organ with their own equipment so that it becomes compatible with another species. This could function on a similar principle to the difference between normal insulated gloves, tajaran insulated gloves, and unathi insulated gloves. Upon initial extraction, the organ is marked as Skrell compatible, and only Skrell can use it. Then the biologist can mod it to switch which species it's compatible to.

We are currently reviewing three possibilities on the nature of the organ:

  • Just. An organ. Blargh, it's gooey and shit. Hardest to explain transplantation with, due to DNA mismatch, but can be made to be underdeveloped/undeveloped due to genetic defect (for segregation, reference point one of previous list).
  • A cybernetic enhancement. Easiest to explain transplantation with, and can be used to segregate poor Skrell from the not-so-poor Skrell (reference point one of previous list).
This is way easier to explain. It can also be used to express that the Skrell are an advanced alien society. However, see below for why I think making it a bio-engineered symbiote would make even more sense and help even more with distinguishing the Skrell and expressing their background and history in-game.

A symbiotic organism. The most interesting, probably. Moderately difficult to explain transplantation with.

If the symbiote is the result of Skrell biotech, then I think this could be the best explanation. I've looked up some stuff onbiological radios and general consensus seems to be that they'd be pretty shitty and imprecise. This fits absolutely perfectly with the idea that the Skrell's transmissions are limited to simple emotions. Furthermore, by making it a biologically engineered symbiote, you're expressing that the Skrell are a technologically advanced species, especially in the field of biotech. Furthermore, you still get to express a rich/poor divide here.


This fits perfectly with the idea of them being amphibians. Amphibians are more vulnerable to environmental toxins due to their more absorbent skin. The Skrell also reproduce in large groups. In combination with the limited diets of the Skrell and the likely problems with protein deficiency due to malnutrition, they would have a huge impetus to develop more advanced biotech. We could also give them a more metal-poor world to further explain this.


Or, if you want the Skrell to have these radio-things in their ancient history, you could make them be the result of some ancient Skrell precursor civilization which ended up destroying itself (this can be explained by some apocalyptic event, probably related to the Skrell vulnerability to environmental toxins). This would have an interesting impact upon the Skrell homeworld (IE making it more metal poor, depletion of most easily accessible fossil fuels), not to mention the social implications of having these bio-radios around throughout their history. Much of their history could simply write itself.

 

I don't know if they already do, but would it make sense for Skrell to have some resistance to burn damage as well, with their gross mucus coatings and whatnot whenever it's active? I'd imagine burning through that and into their frog-person bodies would be a bit more difficult than with others.

 

I'd imagine that fire would be more dangerous to the Skrell. They're amphibians and drying out is dangerous for them. Also, their defenses against fungal and bacterial infections is lower due to their absorbent skin, and since the main source of fatalities due to burns is, by far, infection, it's probably not going to do them any favors there.

 

Second, it retcons the whole 'emotionless-seeming Skrell thing', if they're able to express emotions like that. Suddenly the constraints of Basic not having the tones of their language are gone, and they can pass on general moods to whoever. Easy peasy to express themselves now, in a basic way. While that in itself isn't a bad thing, one of their most defining characteristics - how they appear to other races - is gone. Their feel of alienation, gone. Do people mind this? Is this what we want?

 

I caaan actually see that. What if we scrub the whole Asari shit, and just have it Skrell specific? At that point, the basic hold is retained: the Skrell will come across as emotionless husks, because only they themselves can see the colourful seizure inducing colours.

I'd go for this. It's easier to explain, and it's better for the aesthetic. You can always justify the 'emotionless' thing by simply having Skrell express themselves differently, too. Maybe they have extremely emotive voices, but much of this is beyond human hearing range. Maybe they use their tentacles to express themselves, and their faces are far less articulated than human faces.

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Erik Tiber Head of Personnel

Erik Tiber

Posted
Posted
... can we have whatever organ this is be usable in the deconstructive analyzer? Have it give biotech 5/6 or something like that?


That would be evil, and awesome.

 

..But organs don't have a tech origin.

Presumably these would be bio-engineered. At least, that's the one that would most easily explain how they get naturally occurring radio waves.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted (edited)

Okay. I like this entire thing, Skrell might actually become interesting enough and force me to make a whitelist.

Second, it retcons the whole 'emotionless-seeming Skrell thing', if they're able to express emotions like that. Suddenly the constraints of Basic not having the tones of their language are gone, and they can pass on general moods to whoever. Easy peasy to express themselves now, in a basic way. While that in itself isn't a bad thing, one of their most defining characteristics - how they appear to other races - is gone. Their feel of alienation, gone. Do people mind this? Is this what we want?

Yes. Skrell, like most species, have emotion, they just don't express it through action and words, instead, they express it through this. So, Vulkan Skrell become a cultural thing, as many are not accustomed to expressing emotion through typical organic ways, therefore seem cold and detached only to non-skrell. This would allow people to actually play emotional characters if they like, by making them more "human" on account of growing up surrounded by them.


I like it, gives new depth to Skrell personality as a whole.

Edited by Guest
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Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

As a person who generally doesn't care about being robust, my personal opinion on it is that it doesn't matter. If people play spacific races because they have mechanical advantages, then they are missing the point of RP. I want Skrell to be interesting RP-wise, not be material for easier murderboning.

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Crescentise Plasma Researcher

Crescentise

Posted
Posted
Since also skrell have no... mechanical wise any pros? Why not make them drug resistant? I dunno, just something! I dont want them to be skrell=human but with a jello fish looks and their tentacles on their heads.

Look here! Mechanics are being implemented. First comes the colour telepathy discussed in this thread, then hyperzine fear-fluid, then bioluminescence. Look forward to it, 'cause it's going to be sweet!~

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