peleng: reloaded; antag boogaloo

[Scheveningen]

https://forums.aurorastation.org/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=5697 For reference. Not typing it out again aside from making a couple distinctions in changes:

The plural reference to the race is now 'the Peleng'. It is the grammatically correct format and how you refer to their race in their language.

Antagonistic-specific external-threat species. Only available to certain antagonist types that display the character customization window. The Peleng cannot be wizards.

Lorewise they would be extremely hostile to many of the local races. You are not permitted to do a peacegimmick as a Peleng, you're a member of a hostile protectionist and opportunistic alien race that punks on other sentients for good fun and a good living. I understand the importance of allowing player freedom to develop whatever characters they like, especially considering how "antagonist characters" are very difficult to establish throughout the course of several consistent rounds where we have rules disallowing this sort of thing. However, because this is an antagonist-only race, and I want to make them more distinct from the Vox, I must establish that the Peleng are extremely xenophobic and intolerant of other cultural systems or other persons that do not coincide or draw parallels with their own beliefs. The average Peleng may be more amicable to a pirate human (but not to the degree of an illustrious Lyakushka, and honorary Lyakushkas would not only be unheard of but downright insulting to imply would ever happen), but they are otherwise very intolerant to the idea of forming alliances with others that do not share a distinct caste system and un-egalitarian beliefs.

There are some exceptions:

The dionaea. The dionaea are the only lifeform that the Peleng would hold more respect for over the others. The premise of a gestalt consciousness is a cultural point of interest to the common Peleng, the psychology of it is nothing short of fascinating to them. They would certainly endeavor to acquire such specimens to return to their home system to research and potentially integrate into their culture. The Peleng methods of doing this are naturally very invasive.

The skrell. The Skrell are only slightly liked due to their lack of mammalian characteristics. In a bygone age, prehistoric Peleng had to contend with tribal mammals on their home planet for the longest time until they wiped out the sub-sentients by staging an internal war in the mammalian Shukheo tribes and then declaring war during the confusion.

While the idea of the Peleng being extremely enthusiastic entrepeneurs that don't forget their partners, the xenophobia still remains the same. This was covered a bit already. But note that they are opportunistic capitalists this time around, and not cooperative capitalists. They will cheat and scam to acquire even the smallest of personal advantage.

Regarding overall military strength, lore-wise. The Peleng do not put so much focus on a military industry as they do on espionage and spy operations. Their fleets, while extremely numerous in numbers, are largely composed of many swarm-type vessels typically dispatched by large carrier vessels supported by smaller cruisers and the occasional artillery frigate. The large proponent of the Peleng fighting power is through large offensive emphasis on starfighter capability. Because of this, the Peleng cannot afford to risk fleet power against defensive screens of hostile starships unless they know how to win a fight in the most dishonorable and brutally efficient way possible without taking significant casualties. Being well-informed and well-armed with their wits is the greatest strength above a large fighter-based fleet, as even the Peleng are not that plagued by their own hubris to not recognize that their tactics fail in drawn-out combat. The Peleng prefer subterfuge over outright combat and unfair fights if the former proves untenable.

The Peleng have additional melee buffs by virtue of having four arms. They will immediately acquire aggressive grabs, making them very dangerous in close quarters. They deal twice as much brute damage by virtue of synchronizing one set of arms to dole out punches. Their attack delay is also cut by 15% for all melee weapons and fist-fighting attacks, owing to their great natural agility.

The Peleng are generally more acrobatic and have a generally higher dodge rate of melee attacks and non-hitscan projectiles. as long as they're facing the direction of the attack head-on.

The Peleng are almost as fast as Tajarans. Owing once again to their great natural agility, the Peleng are generally able to kite super effectively.

The spit of the Peleng would be buffed in terms of a conceptual presentation. Getting hit by a glandular spit from a Peleng will cause your controls to be reversed, temporary clumsiness and 15 units of space drugs to immediate start processing in your system. If a Peleng hits another Peleng with a caustic spit, they will instead process synaptizine in their system instead.

Speaking of space drugs, the Peleng process space drugs as if it were synaptizine. Smoke w33d, kill humans.

The Peleng still retain almost everything else stated in the original thread. Go read that if you want other details.

This is mostly it. If you have questions, ask them. I'll ignore questions and feedback from commenters who didn't even attempt to read this thread or the other one.

[Butterrobber202]

Hey cool idea, but with the mole people being added(?) I don’t think this is the right time to throw another race at the Dev team.

[Scheveningen]

I don't see a PR open for mole people. I was suggested by another dev, even, to reopen this.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

Too OP and combat focused. This would be great as a hostile event species attacking the station but I cannot see such a robust species having a daily impact upon rounds. This just plows right over the niches generated by our races.

[Butterrobber202]

Okie dokie, I actually took a minute to read the suggestion and holy shit. Instant aggressive grabs, double melee damage, greater attack speed?

No fucking thanks

[Scheveningen]

Okie dokie, I actually took a minute to read the suggestion and holy shit. Instant aggressive grabs, double melee damage, greater attack speed?

No fucking thanks

 

Vox break windows, cameras and light fixtures instantly with their bare hands, basically sharing a lot of attributes with xenomorph carbon mobs. Vox have claws that do almost triple melee damage and are also sharp, meaning they can deal internal damage with just their fists. Vox can leap and immediately acquire a basic grab onto someone close to them and it stuns the person they hit, regardless of whether or not they're wielding a riot shield. Said grab can also be immediately upgraded to an aggressive grab and it's even worse because the person they leap-aggressive grabbed is already on the floor, meaning they only have a 5% chance of breaking out with a resist. You have a 50% chance of breaking out of an aggressive grab while standing. The vox can also use a stealth suit and leap-grab combo someone out of invisibility and kill them in seconds with zero chance for counterplay.

OP antag-exclusive species are not exactly new nor do we need to balance all encounters around 1v1. It is suicide to 1v1 any of the Vox, wizards, changelings, cultists, vampires, mercenaries, et cetera. No reason to diverge away from that formula and it would be really confusing to make newer antag races not square up to non-antagonist opponents.

[Butterrobber202]

Snip

 

Ok we have one OP Antags race, why would we add another one? And even then Vox are limited to a single game mode and events.

[Scheveningen]

So would these? What's wrong with that?

[Scheveningen]

Bump.

[ben10083]

yeah this seems like an interesting alternate antag race, but NOT as one you can pick as a char itself, -1 unless it is a species for mercs and other baddies like that.