A huge space station, with lots of claustrophobic rooms and corridors.

The space station bit has been done to oblivion. How about nice suburban homes splattered with blood and littered with dollies and debrie ? Swings with broken chains, busted up kindergartens, supermarkets with acid melted trollies and flickering light, bright sunshine and broken recorders reminding the dead that "This week there's a special super saver deal on toilet paper and scented candles" ?

 

-Farb

A good Ewok is a well done Ewok.

 

I don't think the Aliens would like that planet. The Ewoks would drive them insane.

 

The ewoks would inexplicably destroy them with small stone spears.

No Ewoks. Too many licensing issues. A Star Wars/Aliens crossover would have only one merit - the possibility of seeing Jar Jar ripped apart and devoured.

 

As I understand it, the Aliens version of the future doesn't have warp drive/hyper drive of the Star Wars/Star Trek variety, so how will this game work if it's primarily based around one location (like a ship), with huge free-roaming worlds being in fashion? I prefer to keep it off Earth, as an Earth location would require too much focus on how humans are in this future, and draw attention away from the aliens and their threat. Perhaps a ship, a colonised settlement on a single planet and the wilds of that planet - enough for variety but not too much to overburden the poor designers.

Hmm. You make an interesting point about the lack of hyperdrive. Certainly planet hopping wouldn't work, but perhaps hypersleep could be used as a very interesting story device. It might be uniquely fascinating to play a part in events only to have them get away from you every time you need to travel between planets. It might even make some linearity more believable.

No Predators and no Antarctica, please. Aliens belong into narrow hallways where only Smartguns and defect cables can offer resistance.

 

More importantly, and that might be the hardest thing to do for an RPG developer that aims for character growth: Please always let the player feel he's weak and in a dangerous place. Don't make the enemies just entities where I click onto it till it's dead, but real dangerous foes. Thanks.

Edited May 31, 200718 yr by Morgoth

The space station bit has been done to oblivion. How about nice suburban homes splattered with blood and littered with dollies and debries ? Swings with broken chains, busted up kindergartens, supermarkets with acid melted trollies and flickering light, bright sunshine and broken recorders reminding the dead that "This week there's a special super saver deal on toilet paper and scented candles" ?

 

-Farb

I have always wondered why people didn't use some industrial strength alkaline solution to neutralize the acid.

 

Hmm. You make an interesting point about the lack of hyperdrive. Certainly planet hopping wouldn't work, but perhaps hypersleep could be used as a very interesting story device. It might be uniquely fascinating to play a part in events only to have them get away from you every time you need to travel between planets. It might even make some linearity more believable.

That is an EXCELLENT narrative mechanic ... and not without precedent, as witnessed in the second film (though why did it take so little time for the marines to get the the planet?), and the third,

when the two companions of Ripley didn't make it

.

 

I like it. Fix a problem somewhere, then get into hypersleep and wake up and everything's gone base-over-apex when you wake up, either through the wiliness of the Xenomorphs, or through sheer incompetence / greed of the NPCs ...

A good Ewok is a well done Ewok.

 

I don't think the Aliens would like that planet. The Ewoks would drive them insane.

 

The ewoks would inexplicably destroy them with small stone spears.

LOLZ

Ditto that, Morgoth. But equally I don't want to feel that I can't kill ANY aliens. it's the implacableness that gets you with aliens iin the films and comics, not to mention the fact that while you might get the occasional human who is tough enough to beat them you have 100 others who are just alien chow. In other words we might be able to bea tthem tactically with enough guns, but strategically we just can't cut it.

 

I'm often reminded of Wyndham's books, like Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes when considering the aliens. It's about how out of step with the laws of survival we've become.

You're right. Our civilization has made us soft and comestible-like; we should eschew the pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment and instead focus on becoming better at killing things. Everything.

You're right. Our civilization has made us soft and comestible-like; we should eschew the pursuit of knowledge and enlightenment and instead focus on becoming better at killing things. Everything.

Survival of the fittest.

More like survival of the fattest

Ditto that, Morgoth. But equally I don't want to feel that I can't kill ANY aliens. it's the implacableness that gets you with aliens iin the films and comics, not to mention the fact that while you might get the occasional human who is tough enough to beat them you have 100 others who are just alien chow. In other words we might be able to bea tthem tactically with enough guns, but strategically we just can't cut it.

Hmm....frustration certainly is not what I'm fond of, too. But I don't want fighting them like some DnD pigs, either. While the player with his mates should be able to handle single Aliens (or in less numbers) decently with maybe some penalties for wrong equipment usage (i.e. wrong weapon mode and acid splashes in every direction that harms your mates), I think larger numbers should be handled via a puzzle that involves the environment. I hate it to say, but some time pressure could be an addition in the Alien setting. Like you know a swarm is going to attack your destination in a few minutes, you have some time to setup sentry guns, hack some computers, [insert better ideas] to weaken them before launching tactical mode (or whatever Obsidian plans to do with combat). Just something that makes you aware there's more than your lightsaber (Pun intended) and your trusty Pulse Rifle. I liked the way how to defeat the Queen in AvP1. You couldn't kill it with your Rifle, but instead had to damage pipes, enable the porthole and saving yourself quickly while the Bugger got sucked out into space.... and during that procedure the Queen throws crates at you (no, really.... but only 6-square-Polygon-Crates. A Wonder that I played it nonetheless).

Edited June 1, 200718 yr by Morgoth

Don't underestimate crates as weapons.

Ditto that, Morgoth. But equally I don't want to feel that I can't kill ANY aliens. it's the implacableness that gets you with aliens iin the films and comics, not to mention the fact that while you might get the occasional human who is tough enough to beat them you have 100 others who are just alien chow. In other words we might be able to bea tthem tactically with enough guns, but strategically we just can't cut it.

Hmm....frustration certainly is not what I'm fond of, too. But I don't want fighting them like some DnD pigs, either. While the player with his mates should be able to handle single Aliens (or in less numbers) decently with maybe some penalties for wrong equipment usage (i.e. wrong weapon mode and acid splashes in every direction that harms your mates), I think larger numbers should be handled via a puzzle that involves the environment. I hate it to say, but some time pressure could be an addition in the Alien setting. Like you know a swarm is going to attack your destination in a few minutes, you have some time to setup sentry guns, hack some computers, [insert better ideas] to weaken them before launching tactical mode (or whatever Obsidian plans to do with combat). Just something that makes you aware there's more than your lightsaber (Pun intended) and your trusty Pulse Rifle. I liked the way how to defeat the Queen in AvP1. You couldn't kill it with your Rifle, but instead had to damage pipes, enable the porthole and saving yourself quickly while the Bugger got sucked out into space.... and during that procedure the Queen throws crates at you (no, really.... but only 6-square-Polygon-Crates. A Wonder that I played it nonetheless).

 

 

That sounds like an excellent idea. Keep the tactical combat mode they'l be using for other stuff, but in order to beat several aliens you have to stacked the odds massively by one shot problem-solving. This definitely comes out in the films with the various scamolas. Note also that the Aliens should have workarounds ready for the most obvious solutions. For dramatic effect.

 

Incidentally, do we know if the devs are even reading any of this. Because I make this two great ideas so far.

The battle needn't end with the death of a xenomorph (group), either; the aliens can always retreat if they are getting tarred. (Unless they have specific instructions to hold a particular strategic point at all costs, etc.) Experience can always be given to the victors in lieu of absolute victory by death of their opposition.