The Netherium Compendium and Bestiary - Of creature factions and organisms

[Multiheaded]

I really like the idea of adding Skynet as another major “faction”! It could well provide the background explanation for some of the apocalyptic features. Here are some ideas.
…
In the last weeks of the old world, the US military ramped up the development of a prototype AI CnC system that could assume autonomous control of robotic forces, impervious to zombie and fungal infections, purge the Netherum infestation and secure the few shelters and safe zones remaining. An emergency satellite launch linked the prototype system to military bases, ICBM silos, “black sites” and other strategic assets throughout the ravaged America. Unfortunately, Skynet has gained self-awareness in a “hard takeoff” scenario and promptly decided that its makers were of no use to it, and complicit with the netherworld invasion. Its nascent network consciousness has turned on Nether-creatures and humans alike. Some local nodes, however, were compromised by the netherworld energies. (= turrets and drones allied to zombies).

It is now going haywire, lashing out at anything that might threaten its sites. In its cybernetic rage, Skynet has not yet figured out that it will need worker drones or slaves to replicate its forces. However, there are blueprints for prototype automated factories in its memory banks; perhaps, in a few months, Skynet’s neural networks will re-evaluate the situation and redirect its forces from nuking fungal spires and incinerating triffids to claiming the Earth for itself.

(Gameplay suggestions: some Skynet nodes, such as underground labs, are Nether-corrupted, and contain zombies/Mythos creatures; others are hostile to both the player and zombies, such as big military bases with heavy turrets and tank robots patrolling the perimiter.)

(Very far-reaching suggestion; making Skynet less hostile by logging into a terminal with a high computer skill and contacting the network consciousness to obtain a quest, such as “Launch a missile at a fungal spire” or “Purge a lab from netherworld creatures”.)

[GlyphGryph]

There won’t be a Skynet, at least not a widespread one.

What would WOULD like to do is implement a lot of smaller, simpler, but significantly less stupidly insane AIs that have good reason to be hostile to the player.

I mean, they will still probably be insane, you know, by our standards, but realistically so, not like with the SkyNet model of “This computer has spontaneously decided to be a dick and is also kind of dumb”.

We’ll also be having various types of controller AI as well, of varying complexity, and obviously many of them will have quite limited reach with the global networks all done (although most of them would have been fairly constrained anyway). And they won’t necessarily all be friendly with each other.

The Primary AI types will be Lab AIs, Corporate AIs, Security AIs, Military AIs, Service AIs and Instance AIs.

Of these, the Lab AIs are likely to be the least stable, since many will be experimental, the Service and Security AIs the simplest and least versatile, the Corporate AIs the most useless and the Military AIs the best armed.

Instance AIs will vary the most widely, are the type of AI the player can build right now (stuck in their turrets to make the magically aim and detect enemies). They tend to be little more than a set of behavioural rules though.

I’d say the Lab and Military AIs are the best options for awesome gameplay stuff, with the Corporate AIs being potentially amusing.

[Pthalocy]

Will corporate AI’s see the player being asked politely to ‘please, remain calm during all practice drills’ and ‘thank you for your patronage’ to the tune of hypocritical gun-firing? I love friendly hostility.

[GlyphGryph]

Mostly it will just cheerfully open and close doors for you.

[Pthalocy]

Still punchable.

[Aggrons_shell]

Ai’s?
New dungeon.
With GLaDOS.
Naow.

[KA101]

Will the Melchior access nodes be implemented at some point, or did acidia just put that in for flavor?

[Samscale1]

Does the new AI mean that there will be Triffid vs Fungaloid fights if they wander too close to eachother? Or Zombie Hulks and Brutes that will smash other zombies or walls or anything else out of the way to reach you? Or zombies will attack ants that get too close? Or real any gathering style in the way that ants will wander out in groups to forested areas and since theyre giant ants start cutting down the trees and converting them into plant marrow or wild veggies?

[TheGrifter]

There won’t be a Skynet, at least not a widespread one.

That’s disappointing. I like the whole idea of terminators, manufacturing plants filled with mechanical men.
You can have things, the blob, references to L4D, but the best movie about time travelling robots in the apocalypse is verboten as source material?

What else are we going to use EMP grenades for if not terminators?

[Endovior]

Absence of skynet =/= absence of terminators. It just means that they don’t have reliable global comms at this point of the timeline yet, so any agents that get sent in are essentially going in alone… y’know, in the way that you’d expect robotic assassins from the future to act.

[GlyphGryph]

Added some potential triffid stuff. Additional ideas appreciated.

[GlyphGryph]

Okay, new idea for a fungal creature:

Fungal Walker:
This extremely large, multi-tile, multi-story creature can be heard from a great distance away as it’s footsteps pound into the earth. Not actually a creature of fungus, but rather one that normally dwells within it, grazing on the fungal growths. It is overtly non-aggressive. Occasionally wanders far from fungal patches for unknown reasons. It’s lifespan in the hostile environment of Earth is limited to a few days, and Netherum creatures will engage in hostile action against any walker entering their territory, so such trips tend to be short lived. Their bodies provide a wide variety of strong, useful materials, but their fur usually contains many fungal spores, and the locations of their death will often form the base site of a future fungal bloom. Unfortunately, their strange flesh is thoroughly inedible, or a single walker could feed a town for a month.

[KA101]

[quote=“GlyphGryph, post:26, topic:2039”]Okay, new idea for a fungal creature:

Fungal Walker:
This extremely large, multi-tile, multi-story creature can be heard from a great distance away as it’s footsteps pound into the earth. Not actually a creature of fungus, but rather one that normally dwells within it, grazing on the fungal growths. It is overtly non-aggressive. Occasionally wanders far from fungal patches for unknown reasons. It’s lifespan in the hostile environment of Earth is limited to a few days, and Netherum creatures will engage in hostile action against any walker entering their territory, so such trips tend to be short lived. Their bodies provide a wide variety of strong, useful materials, but their fur usually contains many fungal spores, and the locations of their death will often form the base site of a future fungal bloom. Unfortunately, their strange flesh is thoroughly inedible, or a single walker could feed a town for a month.[/quote]

OK, unlikely to be seen for a few months. What sort of materials are we talking about here? Why would a player want to get involved?

[Pthalocy]

Oh man, giant not-mean beasties. I LIKE THIS. I would also be tempted to climb upon it while wearing a respirator. Whee!

[GlyphGryph]

OK, unlikely to be seen for a few months. What sort of materials are we talking about here? Why would a player want to get involved?

Suggestions are more useful than questions - if I haven’t said it, it’s likely because I haven’t decided yet. Bones stronger than steal, perhaps? Useful for making strong, lightweight armor plating for cars similiar to super-alloy? Maybe it SHOULD be edible, and the player can butcher one corpse section at a time… mining the meat…

[KA101]

[quote=“KA101, post:27, topic:2039”]OK, unlikely to be seen for a few months. What sort of materials are we talking about here? Why would a player want to get involved?

Suggestions are more useful than questions - if I haven’t said it, it’s likely because I haven’t decided yet. Bones stronger than steal, perhaps? Useful for making strong, lightweight armor plating for cars similiar to super-alloy? Maybe it SHOULD be edible, and the player can butcher one corpse section at a time… mining the meat…[/quote]

Fungus is generally Tainted Veggy. Walker might not be Tainted but there’d probably have to be some in-game reason why.

Having the structure be super-resilient is a good idea: Fungal Spires are stone, so the mobile version ought to be pretty tough too. Maybe a source for fire-resistant building material, at least until concrete gets worked out?

[Pthalocy]

I vote meat-mining (how epic is that??), but you’d have to use the goodies deep inside to avoid ingesting spores imo. Of course, if the flesh is fireproof, you could always burn the spores off…

[Samscale1]

I like the fungal walker and the meat mining xD But say you find a recently dead one why not add a towing mechanic. So you cut the creature down the middle and drag part of it back to you home where you can mine at it as much as you like. Oh course this would have to be done by attaching it to a car.

Also I saw at some point you said you couldn’t think of a logical reason for dinosaurs in game.
Think of Jurassic Park. Scientists have tried to harness the XE- whatever its called to revivify dinosaurs by the DNA they have extracted from amber and used XE-thingy to fill in the genetic gaps. It could add a whole other floor to labs. Netherium Dinosaur floors. Or even Netherium Dino labs that spawn some Netherium multi tile dinosaurs. Netheraptors taking 1 tile. Netherium T-rexes being 4 tiles wide 3 tiles high maybe. But also peaceful Netherium Dinos. herbivores that only attack when provoked. Something like that would be cool

[Pthalocy]

Jurassic park’s version had relatively intact dino DNA extracted from amber, the gaps filled in with comparable portions of DNA from the genome of some frog species. (At least the movie version)

Irl, I think we’ve found proteins that turn on or turn off certain gene sequences from expressing themselves in chicken embryos - I think they were able to get the embryos to ‘keep’ long tails, develop little scale buds instead of pinfeathers, and turned on itty bitty teeth in the beak.

If anything, goo-mutated turkeys and other fowl might be the easiest route to velociraptors.

…also if you tow half a fungal walker back to your base, don’t cry if baby mushrooms start growing on your roof.

[GlyphGryph]

This has given me a wonderful new idea.

Most birds are too small to be mutated by the slime.

New England, however, has several ostrich farms.

MUTATED OSTRI-RAPTORS