Just to establish, since my fabricating friend has convinced even himself that I have a position I've never had, I don't mind using new ideas in the game. I object to the idea of creating alien factions. Sorry, I know that one is your baby, and you've come up with a lot of great ideas, but I think it's going to edge dangerously close to silly. I've always liked Walsh's idea about the transparent tubes because I see a lot of potential and I think it's a lot easy to control it during design. Generally speaking, I think they should stick close to the basic premise of the first two films because I think the extended universe is already silly. Tale, in his own inimitable fashion, has already noted some examples.

What about transparent factions? AHA!

A faction of invisible aliens?

 

I'm scared already.

There should be long, slender tubes intersecting and criss-crossing a cavern like a cat's cradle. They should be flimsy - impossible for a full-grown Alien to traverse - intended for some younger, smaller (though no less hostile) stage of their development (does such a stage exist?). The PC should have to tread very carefully - no barrelling down corridors here, because one wrong step and you'll fall to your death. The PC should have a weak light source with him/her, but be able to hear the young Aliens moving all the time through other tubes. I see it as a stealth portion of the game - guns and flamethrowers would attract attention and certain death.

Does the PC traverse through these transparent vent-like tubes, or try to stealthily pass between them ...

 

A faction of invisible aliens?

 

I'm scared already.

See? And it's NEW!

There should be long, slender tubes intersecting and criss-crossing a cavern like a cat's cradle. They should be flimsy - impossible for a full-grown Alien to traverse - intended for some younger, smaller (though no less hostile) stage of their development (does such a stage exist?). The PC should have to tread very carefully - no barrelling down corridors here, because one wrong step and you'll fall to your death. The PC should have a weak light source with him/her, but be able to hear the young Aliens moving all the time through other tubes. I see it as a stealth portion of the game - guns and flamethrowers would attract attention and certain death.

 

Not 100% what I was thinking. But that would make an excellent level nonetheless. Perhaps earlier in the campaign in a younger hive. I especially like the idea of varying how tough the tubes are.

 

EDIT: On the subject of tubes and transparency, someone was telling me the other day that polar bear hair is translucent, and only appears white through light refraction. Well, that alien goop which appears black could in thin layers be almost opaque. It's only when it is layered it looks dark, like the blue of a glacier.

Yes, polar bears have black skin and their hair is translucent ... it scatters light equally in all directions, hence it appears white. Polar bears are also undetectable with heat sensors, as they give off no infrared, either. (A "black body" radiates electromagnetically according to its temperature ... that's why we can see the sun, for example, because it has a surface temperature of about 6000 degrees Kelvin, which corresponds to yellow-orange in the visible spectrum. The Earth, with a mean temperature of about 15 degrees celsius, emits radiation in the infrared spectrum. Like people, who have a core temp of 37

In that case it would seem we have not only explained the translucency of the alien tubes, but also the infrared invisibility of the aliens.

There should be long, slender tubes intersecting and criss-crossing a cavern like a cat's cradle. They should be flimsy - impossible for a full-grown Alien to traverse - intended for some younger, smaller (though no less hostile) stage of their development (does such a stage exist?). The PC should have to tread very carefully - no barrelling down corridors here, because one wrong step and you'll fall to your death. The PC should have a weak light source with him/her, but be able to hear the young Aliens moving all the time through other tubes. I see it as a stealth portion of the game - guns and flamethrowers would attract attention and certain death.

They grow from chestbuster size to full adulthood in two days, see Alien.

There should be long, slender tubes intersecting and criss-crossing a cavern like a cat's cradle. They should be flimsy - impossible for a full-grown Alien to traverse - intended for some younger, smaller (though no less hostile) stage of their development (does such a stage exist?). The PC should have to tread very carefully - no barrelling down corridors here, because one wrong step and you'll fall to your death. The PC should have a weak light source with him/her, but be able to hear the young Aliens moving all the time through other tubes. I see it as a stealth portion of the game - guns and flamethrowers would attract attention and certain death.

They grow from chestbuster size to full adulthood in two days, see Alien.

They grow from chestburster to adulthood in a matter of hours, see every Alien movie.

That information is certainly not in every movie.

 

The only time we see a chestbuster and are able to follow it's course is in Alien. If memory serves that was a day or two.

It wasn't a day or two in Alien, it was just a few hours. They go from it chestbursting to assembling the prods and motion trackers straight to finding it. Which takes course over a few hours. We can follow the course in AvP and Alien3 as well. In fact, I think Alien3 had it come out full grown. We might be able to get an idea of the time between in Resurrection because it's only after the Betty arrives and delivers its cargo that they can even create additional Aliens.

Edited June 23, 200718 yr by Tale