Kobuntura

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Bigjoe5
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Kobuntura

#1 Post by Bigjoe5 »

I'm not sure if this race makes any sense at all, but here it is:

Kobuntura (KO-boon-TOO-rah)

Introduction: Sentient magnetic dust formations with a fascination for building and construction.

Homeworld: Kanath, the homeworld of the Kobuntura, is a medium Barren planet very near to its star, and subject to fierce solar winds.

Physiology: Each Kobuntura is composed of trillions of particles of magnetic dust, held together by the complex magnetic web which they generate.

In their primordial form, the Kobuntura were merely pairs of magnetically opposed particles, created and blown about by solar winds, which would propagate by aligning the particles of dust to which they would come into contact, forming new pairs of this type. Eventually, through random encounters, numerous pairs began to bind together in more and more complex patterns until they began to resemble life, gaining the ability to think, move and communicate through conscious manipulation of their magnetic fields.

In its current form, a Kobuntura individual has a dense core of vibrating magnetic particles, and a less dense cloud of particles orbiting it in complex patterns, which it can manipulate with the magnetic field generated by its core. Its primary method of locomotion involves interaction with the planet’s magnetic field. Movement is more awkward on planets with atmospheres, partially due to the stronger magnetic field of the planet, and partially due to the extraneous particles present. As such, they prefer to reside on planets which resemble Kanath.

Whenever a Kobuntura moves, there is a small chance that the movement will magnetize and agitate the surrounding dust particles to a sufficient extent to trigger a chain reaction which causes a fully matured Kobuntura to form in a matter of seconds. This Kobuntura is nearly identical to the parent in every respect - occasionally, random variations in the formation process will have a noticeable effect on the individual, either helpful or harmful, which increases the diversity of the species and allows adaptation and evolution.

Kobuntura can directly detect and manipulate objects on the outer reaches of their particle clouds, but can indirectly detect, manipulate and communicate with objects and individuals much further away using there magnetic fields. Theoretically, it would be possible for them to develop a form of direct communication with their particle clouds in contact, but as the Kobuntura have a very open culture, such methods of communication have never gained widespread use.

Kobuntura are essentially immortal; they live until something severely disrupts their magnetic field. On very rare occasions, this can happen spontaneously, but it is more often the result of some sort of natural disaster, or the deliberate influence of another Kobuntura. Their magnetic fields and particle clouds make both ranged and melee attacks effective, as well as various forms of defense and counterattacks. Thus, many forms of martial arts have been developed based on these precepts.

History: The Kobuntura, since the mid-stages of their evolution, were culturally fascinated with material possessions. As they had no physical needs, trinkets and knick-knacks, including tools and instruments for recreational use, long-range observation, and transportation were the primary objects of construction and interest. Trading was usually very simple and open, with no thought of cheating or subterfuge, as all Kobuntura were essentially equal in ability and knowledge. Nobody was considered superior or inferior, with the exception of the occasional noticeable physical variation.

Eventually, a sort of guild system emerged, where each guild specialized in creating a certain type of object, or performing a specialized role such as research, observation, or martial arts. One such guild, the Grand Architects of Large and Mighty Structures, which specialized in building large structures such as monuments and shelters (which were no more than amusements, like everything else) was able to develop powerful new tools and methods of construction. Seeing that this could potentially give them power over the others, they strove to keep their techniques a secret amongst themselves. The members of the Grand Architects developed a form of direct communication which could only be accomplished when in contact with another Kobuntura’s particle cloud, which allowed them to communicate their ideas and plans to one another secretly. Eventually, they were able to use their methods to gain total political superiority over the other Kobuntura, and became the Mighty Overlords of Kanath. As a symbol of their superiority, all Mighty Overlords lived in special guild halls, whereas all other Kobuntura were forbidden to inhabit shelters.

It was shortly after the Mighty Overlords had taken power that a large comet struck one of the nearby planets in their system, shattering it into bits. The event was witnessed by several of the Kobuntura, as both the planet and the comet were objects of extreme interest to the Honoured Observers of the Near and Distant Cosmos. Word of the event spread quickly, and numerous studies were enacted to determine whether or not the event posed a threat to their own planet. Scientists predicted that within a short period of time, debris from the planet would crash into Kanath, causing intense destruction and possibly compromising the structural integrity of Kanath itself.

Catastrophe struck the planet. Millions upon millions were killed by the impact of the planet shards with Kanath, and countless structures and monuments were destroyed. Yet, despite all of this destruction, the damage was not nearly as severe as predicted, and the Kobuntura culture and society remained more or less intact. Very shortly, astronomers were able to see for themselves why the destruction had not been more severe.

Throughout that part of the solar system, a large fleet of ships of unknown origin busied themselves collecting the debris and reforming the planet which was destroyed so violently. The Kobuntura were awestruck by the unparalleled prowess these mysterious beings must have in the arts of construction, and yearned to speak to them and learn their secrets. But the Kobuntura, primitive in comparison to the mighty Builders, had no way to communicate with them.

The desire to reach out into space to find these mysterious Builders spread across Kanath like an infectious disease, but the Mighty Overlords feared that finding these new building techniques and making them common knowledge would undermine their power. They forbid all development of space-related technology, and attempted to assassinate Kanath’s leading space program scientists by hiring members of the Dark Enclave of the Hidden Cloud, which specialized in Hidden Cloud martial arts. However, they too were anxious to reach out into space, and they turned on their would-be sponsors, killing every last one of the Mighty Overlords of Kanath and establishing a military dictatorship in their place.

Now the Dark Enclave’s new regime seeks to reach out into space, find the Builders, and extract their secrets from them by any means necessary.

Culture: Despite the presence of the military dictatorship, there are no secrets amongst Kobuntura, and even the ability to communicate directly and secretly was lost when the Mighty Overlords were overthrown. The Dark Enclave maintains power through it’s Hidden Cloud style, knowledge of which is restricted to a select few due primarily to the extreme difficulty in mastering Hidden Cloud style.

Furthermore, the numbers of the Dark Enclave never change, as they are able to defend against nearly any potential disruption in their magnetic field, and are always careful to walk in such a way as to never cause a chain reaction which will result in full-fledged progeny (they can however, cause a chain reaction which causes numerous dopplegangers of themselves to be temporarily formed and controlled in battle, after which they will return to the dust of Kanath).

The guild system still remains, as it has since ancient times, though now, instead of being independent, each guild is under the control of the Dark Enclave. In the short recreational time allotted to them, Kobuntura prefer to engage in social activities with members of other guilds to share ideas and experiences.

Recreation and trade are limited, as the sole intent of the Dark Enclave, and indeed all of Kobuntura society, is to find the Builders and unlock the greatest secrets of construction. This goal is the impetus driving their entire civilization.

Gameplay Effects:

EP Barren
Huge bonus to industry and mining
Huge penalty to trade and espionage offense
Bonus to espionage defense (due to government)
Bonus to researching construction-related techs

The Kobuntura do not object to having other races in their empire. They like having a strong, well developed empire with many ships and colonies, and are likely to have low allegiance to a weak, under-developed empire focused on espionage or research.

Easiest Victory Condition: Sole Survivor
Warning: Antarans in dimensional portal are closer than they appear.

mZhura
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Re: Kobuntura

#2 Post by mZhura »

Bigjoe5 wrote:Eventually, through random encounters, numerous pairs began to bind together in more and more complex patterns until they began to resemble life, gaining the ability to think, move and communicate through conscious manipulation of their magnetic fields.
i don't see any evolution motive here. IMO ability to think are product of eons of struggle for survival, not just some "random encounters"
Bigjoe5 wrote:Kobuntura are essentially immortal
that is also bad for evolution

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Bigjoe5
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Re: Kobuntura

#3 Post by Bigjoe5 »

True enough. I'll have to give that some thought.
Warning: Antarans in dimensional portal are closer than they appear.

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Krikkitone
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Re: Kobuntura

#4 Post by Krikkitone »

Bigjoe5 wrote:True enough. I'll have to give that some thought.
"Essentially" is your key word.

Disasters kill them off, Kobuntura that reproduced themselves rapidly....
Presumably their reproduction leads to a decrease in the dust density... making it harder for them to move...
as such they would slow down, unable to move, unless they killed other Kobuntura in the process

That would probably be the evolution motive... Kobuntura that either
1. reproduced faster
2. survived disasters better
3. could reproduce when other lesser 'Kobuntura' were present, by killing them as a part of moving

I'd say #3 could be a primary driving force, allowing even slow reproducers to increase their numbers
Slow reproducers that tended to kill other 'Kobuntura' like species... and were probably better at #2, so the other species slowly became extinct

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Bigjoe5
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Re: Kobuntura

#5 Post by Bigjoe5 »

Warning: Antarans in dimensional portal are closer than they appear.

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Ouaz
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Re: Kobuntura

#6 Post by Ouaz »

SVN7641 (4.4)
The Kobuntura have a guild system since ancient times, but one of the guilds, the Dark Enclave specialized in martial arts
Bad Ground Troops: -50%
Dust beings that make kung-fu... weird. :p

Dust beings who are bad at fighting sounds logical.

I think that "specialized in martial arts" could be safely removed, isn't it?
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Dilvish
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Re: Kobuntura

#7 Post by Dilvish »

Just because some might specialize in martial arts doesn't mean they'd be effective against alien non-dust-being invaders shooting lasers or somesuch. In this particular case the troop malus was added much after the fact as a balance attempt and could easily change as part of some other balance effort. The reference to martial arts might be a useless superfluous detail, but removing superfluous details just to streamline descriptions, or even slightly incongruous details to maintain rigid conformance to ongoing stat balancing, doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

I suggest we honor the creativity of the people coming up with these descriptions by letting odd details stand unless there is a significantly more compelling reason to change them than simply that the detail seems a bit odd.
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MatGB
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Re: Kobuntura

#8 Post by MatGB »

Remove the line, and instead give them Terrible ground troops ;-)

Aas it happens, I think giving them bad troops is balancing the wrong way, native species with bad ground troops are a brilliant thing for an expansionary player, but if they had really good ground troops it wouldn't be as bad when conquered as attacking an empire you want good ground troop forces anyway.

They're still one of the top three grabs of all natives 90% of the time I play, even with the newish planetary defences, bad ground troops simply means I only need one troop ship.
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