[AP Mod Idea] Kha'ak Reborn (Kha'ak start)

[Vilmu]

How are they still here?
A Hive Queen in a distant unexplored sector evolved and became the new hive mind, calling any Kha'ak within range.

That is, if you want some sort of lore plot for 'why/how?'.


How would it all work?

Player would start in a corner of the map, in unknown (player owned) sector. With couple unknown sectors more in between that sector and the currently known sectors.

The Hive Queen has become a station (PHQ style / functions). Your only way to produce stuff (ships, weapons, maybe kha'ak defense towers of some sort and forward outposts).

You would start with that station, couple fighters and mining capable ships. Amount of the ships and their equipment could scale with difficulty level (with different difficulty starting options). Only way to get resources (the "money" for kha'ak) would be to mine the roids in the starting sector and the nearby ones. The starting area(s) would be rich (in a balanced way) with Nividium, ore, silicon and other stuff required to produce ships from your station. But as those sectors run dry, you will need to expand!

What player would be able to build, would be based on the amount of sectors he controls. So a sector claiming script would be required (obviously). As you conquer and claim sector's, stuff at your PHQ (the hive queen, the station) would 'unlock' and you could build them. To claim sector, it would have to be empty of enemy structures, and you then build a Kha'ak Forward Outpost in it. Kha'ak jump-drives could only lock onto those outpost's.

You could still capture (or infect) ships, however, they would have 0% chance to contain any weaponry (maybe shields). No ships would drop any weaponry either when destroyed, to avoid player from capturing M7M and then getting missiles from drops (kha'ak for ever!). If possible via scripting, ships would drop materials for you instead.

Player wouldn't be able to trade with any other race's stations. No way to gain or spend credits. Kha'ak uses Kha'ak ships!

Infect ships?
Spore Missiles. Could work exactly like marines and boarding pods, but instead you're shooting 'missiles' loaded with spores. Your spores would infest ships like marines do, and the enemy ships would fight the infestation like they would fight marines. But instead of hacking phase as last phase, there would be just fighting phases. Once all the enemy has died to the spores, the ship is yours (without any weaponry). There wouldn't be a way to 'train' spores. Maybe unlock and produce better spore missiles that are more effective.

Captured (non Kha'ak) ships could be recycled at your (starting) station for materials. Or you could use them as a decoy targets for the enemy to shoot at, i guess.

Conquering the X-Universe!
When a race got no stations and sectors left, they would not re-spawn, they would be gone! (if that is possible through scripting).
When a human race loses everything for the first time, the terrans offer shelter and a station is spawned for that race in terran sectors. The "alien" races does not have that luxury and will be gone forever when that happens.

At first, no other race is aware of your presence. But as you claim sectors, they will start launching attacks to your border sectors. If they destroy your outpost in there, they will reclaim that sector from you.

Once you've conquered all but the humans, you'll have terrans, along with the other human races, hiding in the earth sectors. Only way to get there is that nice choke point, that (hopefully) offers some nice 'last stand' battles for you to fight.

Difficulty
The difficulty levels could be determined by creating different starts with different starting equipment and how many factions start neutral to you. What? Neutral to Kha'ak? Well they thought you were gone, maybe it's just a civilian who found one empty 'shell'? Or is it..?

Fine tuning / cleaning.
All the above is just a skeleton for it all, so to speak.
Obviously balancing is needed here and there. New weaponry for the Kha'ak (24/7 Kyons could get annoying fast). Removal of all the other default starting options. More features etc. etc.


Ps. English is not my first language so, sorry for (any) typos and not so fluent sentences.

Pps. Feel free to use any of my ideas in any way, without feeling the need to give any credit for me. I just want to play it!

Now if only i had the skill set to make it reality, Egosoft?

[nap_rz]

pretty meh idea to be honest, we should be glad that skilled people are doing things like Xtended and Xtimeliness.

I suggest you should check Xtimeliness and wait for that.

[Vilmu]

X-tended is for TC and afaik does very little for Kha'ak (or Xenon for that matter) and how well playable they are.

Timelines got very little info about the races/starts so can't really say anything. As long as they give Kha'ak game starts, with working economy for them, i might hold interest on that mod. Maybe. If they slow down with the EVE-like features.

So for now, there is nothing for me to be glad about (other than for Egosoft for the game itself )

Thanks for your well thought out criticism, feedback and ideas, though.

[nap_rz]

you don't get it, sorry if I may look like dismissing your idea, but it is a rather too simplistic idea and you can actually do that with vanilla game, just not as a khaak.

some mods are also actually already allowing you to play in a pretty similar scenario, such as xenon emisary mode that is included in MBRR script.

XRM have a xenon gamestart that more or less the same with that MBRR feature.

just not as khaak, or maybe there exist a mod that do that already, I dunno; but you can also do that with some scripts as IR and an asortment of other scripts that may help you to get similar experiences with what you proposed.

just maybe not as a khaak, but then again you could just cheat yourself into a khaak, the point is that the idea already done.

now look at what mod like Xtimelines trying to do, for example it claimed to have killed GoD, job spawner, and trying to have a realistic economy; things like that are more worthy to be tried than simple idea of rampaging upon the universe that has been done already.

[Vilmu]

XRM xenon start is just that, you start with one of their ships. To get more ships you have to capture them...

MBRR is for TC not AP, while offering similar thing, it's not the same thing. MBRR just makes the AI do stuff, and allows the player be part of the AI army, sort of.



My suggestion was that you (the player) ARE the Kha'ak and its army, with their own economy and way of building stuff (more sectors = more stuff you can build from the station etc). There would not be AI Kha'ak, just the player playing as that race.


Your alternatives are "be part of" (at best), my suggestion is "you are".