Different Alien Technologies

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utilae
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Different Alien Technologies

#1 Post by utilae »

Note: This is not a discussion about having seperate tech trees for different races, but a general discussion about alien technology.

In various scifi there have been different representations of alien technology, and the differences of these technologies, eg in Babylon 5, the organic ships of the Vorlons, the crystal technology of the Minbari or the manufactured (artificial) technology of the humans. In Stargate, they have the crystal technology of the Ancients/Gou'ld, the Nanite technology (artificial/manufactured) of the replicators and of course human tech again. Energy tech appears to be 'magic' used by ascended beings in these programs.


I've been wondering, what are the different technology types. And how would they work. For example, artificial (human like tech or machines) and organic (vorlons) tech is easy to figure how it works. But energy and crystal, thats a bit more original, though I think stargate does a good job of it.

Right now I can think of four technology types, that are probably the only types used in Scifi:

Artificial - Made of manufactured materials (artificial). All materials are combined into a device that can perform tasks. Eg human tech, repllicators from stargate, machines come under this heading.

Organic - Made of living organisms (organic). They work together to perform tasks. Vorlons from Babylon 5. Humans even use this technology to an extent.

Crystal - Made of crystals. Arrangements of different crystal types and shapes create a device that can perform tasks. Minbari from Babylon 5 and Ancients from stargate.

Energy - Made of energy. Through some means (eg enlightenment) energy is able to be drawn from the universe or is attracted, to gather at the caller. The caller is then able to manipulate and use the energy, eg a possible ship would consist of only an energy field that can allow travel and protect passengers within.

Anyone else got ideas? This is not so much for FreeOrion, but for my own interest and understanding, something to talk about. It could of course influence FreeOrion, depending on where we go.

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#2 Post by marhawkman »

I'm pretty sure this got brought up in one of the other threads...

But anyways, In Titan A.E. they had aliens that took the energy approach without it seeming "magical". It seemed to use a sort of standing wave principle.

Hmm... I remember some book I read where the aliens literally grew servants and ships to fit their needs. (organic)

Hmm... I have this weird itch in the back of my head that tells me I'm forgetting something, but I'm not sure what. I keep thinking it's category 5 though.
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#3 Post by Muside »

Perhaps you were thinking of Independence Day. Aliens using great alien animals as "hosts" or "battle suits" and constructing their ships in a similar way...
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#4 Post by marhawkman »

Muside wrote:Perhaps you were thinking of Independence Day. Aliens using great alien animals as "hosts" or "battle suits" and constructing their ships in a similar way...
that seems more like a weird combination of category 1 and 2.

I think it was one of the ship design threads.
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#5 Post by utilae »

marhawkman wrote: Hmm... I remember some book I read where the aliens literally grew servants and ships to fit their needs. (organic)
This is how I imagine organic tech working. An alien race either manipulates their own race members or some other species (ie animals) to fit the desired role, eg genetically alter a Dog to fit the role of a small fighter ship. Obviously a drastic change, but it is effectively creating a craeture that does not exist, a spaceship, that is an animal, that can do all the things a spaceship can do, but is an animal, so is alive and intelligent.

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#6 Post by Magus »

In Escape Velocity: Nova, the Polaris use organic ships, where most of the rest of the galaxy uses mechanical. However, the Vell-os use ships crafted by the raw psionic power of the pilot or crew. It's fairly close to what you speak of as an energy ship

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#7 Post by solidcordon »

blah
Last edited by solidcordon on Fri Dec 15, 2006 2:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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#8 Post by utilae »

solidcordon wrote: Energy is pure magic, ie it has no basis in scientific understanding unless it's done using devices too small to see, hidden away in some pocket universe or ... well.. magic.
This is my dilema on the energy topic. Is it really energy technology if the 'being' unleashing the energy technology is organic (eg human psychic) or mechanical (eg machine 'psychic')? Because in the case of a human psychic, the human brain is the 'device' that unleashes the energy technology, therefore this is an organic technology, perhaps?

A human uses psychic energy to lift an object, while a machine uses gravity to lift an object. Really, it's still not energy tech, it's organic or machine.

In scifi, technology is organic because it is made from organic materials, and technology is artificial or 'metal' if it is made out of artificial or metal materials. Energy technology would then have to have everything related be made out of energy. While this is ok, surely a race with energy technology is more powerful then any other kind of technology.

I guess the laws of physics that make energy so superior, should have some more laws added that limit energy, allowing matter to gain some even ground.

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#9 Post by marhawkman »

Actually, I don't think adding a lot of complicated rules is necessary. Energy ships require something to hold them together, some sort of cohesive force. Otherwise they'd simply dissipate, or maybe explode.
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#10 Post by Skaro »

The biomechanical tech from the Alien movies has always fascinated me, the aliens share some design characteristics with the ship they were originally found in.

But this is mostly because the Aliens, the ship and the pilot were all designed by Giger (check out his artwork to see what he's about).


So the original alien the first movie is more like a machine then a animal when you think about it.
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#11 Post by AthlonFx »

My knowledge is limited so feel free to correct me.
My thoughts are, when it comes to technology such as biological or control crystal technology and devices so advance that they seem almost magical. The thing we need to remember it that it is assumed or at least I have been led to believe that it is assumed that every race is learning the same stuff (i.e. 1+1=2) No matter how smart or dumb how large or small or rather there carbon base, Silicon base, or crystalline base. Technology is technology a gun for example is a device that fire a projectile be it the projectile is propelled by a magnetic field, (rail gun) or through the use of gun powder (conventional means) or by use of some dynamic over kill gravitational force field (almost magical).
Therefore, with that in mind and trying to keep this short might I suggest several ideas?

1 All technology created no matter what they are be accessible to all the races in the game

2 Same as 1 with the addition feature of control technologic over run. To insure certain racer develop certain technology while other races do not…

3 Every race has their own unique form of technology with fluff to go with it. There technology might be so advance it après magical or it might be a living creature but all technology should have slimmer strength and weakness to maintain some form of balance. (I.e. The strongest sword is contradicted by the strongest shield.) The greatest Ori’a weapon is just waiting to be dissembled by Samantha Carter

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#12 Post by marhawkman »

I'm currently leaning in the direction of making it so that all techs are available to all races, but that you'll (typically) get better results if you pick something to focus on.
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#13 Post by solidcordon »

blah
Last edited by solidcordon on Fri Dec 15, 2006 2:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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#14 Post by marhawkman »

solidcordon wrote:For the sake of an argument...

Why would an energy based life form be more powerful than a physical life form?

while realism isn't usually a valid argument I'm going to use it anyway... Humans have observed hiveminds, mechanoids and many other forms of life on our own planet and so far, aside from ghost stories and mental illness, there aren't any pure energy life forms apparent.
Assume that ghosts and the things described as mental illness Are in fact beings of pure energy then they're not powerful at all. Less powerful than ants.
Energy based life would have limits like all other sentients, possibly more restrictive than other sentients. If your definition of energy based life is "they're transcendant beings" or "they are above us evolutionarily speaking" then they shouldn't be playable races and they're just there to throw spanners in the works.
I have to say I like this approach.( see comment about cohesive forces) I prefer the approach of "their structure is different in an incomprehensible way". Kinda like the blue energy aliens in Titan AE. There are distinct advantages, but the disadvantages are almost as potent. This being said though, I also favor making heavy duty Psi stuff more a bio-tech item as it would require modifying the cellular structure (or the equivalent therof) of whatever you wanted to give the abilities to. BTW I think that if we do add space monsters we should have several types. Simply having them all as space creatures would be dull. Especially if we do make it so you can research a tech that allows you to "board" bio-ships.
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#15 Post by utilae »

I think that would be good, if players chose to be an energy race, thinking that energy is all powerful, then they realise that there are some disadvantages to energy races. Energy races may be able to move through solid objects, remain unseen and move at the speed of energy, but they have disadvantages. I can't think of any, but it would be fun to think some up.
eg
1) An energy being cannot ineract with other energy beings, otherwise they fuse into mindless energy.

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