FreeOrion

Gyisache (Yee-Saish) (by Utilae)
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They have always been the prey, having survived through the many dangers on their homeworld, creatures that are perhaps the deadliest in the galaxy. They are the Gyisache, creatures that face these dangers everyday, to them there is no safe place. The Gyisache have always been at the bottom of the food chain and they strive to be at the top, but not just of their world, of the entire universe, they seek to remove all that threaten them, until every place is safe.

What a Gyisache does, who a Gyisache follows is usually dependent on the majority, but often just one Gyisache running away can cause all Gyisache to run as well (very sheep like). So they have a dispersed government, where everyone is out for themselves and whoever is followed is the leader.

Home Planet - Miziu
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The planet Miziu is sligtly smaller then Earth but with a thicher atmosphere of Nitrogen, Amonina and Carbon Dioxide. Most parts of Miziu are moist but it lacks lacks large oceans, only 5% of its surface is covered in water. The main topographical features are enormous high rocky mesas cut by mile deep canyons the bottoms of which contain the only standing water. The porus and highly soluable nature of the highland rocks prevent any surface water from acumulting their and water seapage creates numerous caves. The thicker atmopshere at the bottoms of these canyons inhibits plant growth as too much of the light from Miziu's white sun is scattered. Thus most plant growth is on the higher rocky plains. The lowlands prove vital as breeding grounds for many of the planets semi-aquatic organisms who migrate between the highlands and lowlands anualy. Most of the planets carvinores migrate in this fashion and fatten themselves while in the highlands feeding on Herbivorus species that live in the highlands year round. The Gyisache are just such a herbivorus species.

Description
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The average individual stands 2.5 metters tall when fully errect, almost all of which is leg. The core body is 1.5 metters long and (american) football shaped tapering almost to points in the front and rear of the organism where 2 small orafices are located. They are Bipedal each leg has to 2 forward knees and one backward knee inbetween, when they crouch the leg folds into an efficient 'W' making the animal only a half meter tall. The bird like foot is conected by a ball and socket ankle and has 4 identical toes, each a foot long, spreading out in an 'X' shape. The tips of the toes have sticky pads for gripping rocky or slippery surfaces. Most of their bodies are covered with a short currly white hair which covers their bright red flesh. All together the Gyisache have wonderfull balance, speed and jumping abilitys which aid them in the daily struggle to escape being eaten.

Their oblong bodies lack anything resembaling a head, instead they have 3 identical eye stalks that are located at the forward tip of the body. They are each 120 degrees apart with one pointing strait down and the other two upward/outward. Each apendage is 1 metter long with a hinge joint connecting it to the body and a ball and socket joint half way down its length. All three arms can be tucked close to the body when their is a need to get into tight spaces or when running. The end of each arm contains a large yellow eye surrounded by 6 short muscular tounge like flaps that serve both as fingers and secondary eye lids (a smaller primary lid keeps the fingers from getting contaminants on the eye).

A small mouth is located at the base of the arms. Inside 3 flat obtuse trinagular teeth meet to crush the nut like fruits and seed pods that are the animals primary food. The teeth also rotate round each other to grind with their sides when powered by the muscles of the base of the arm. A small tounges sit between each tooth. The rest of the digestive track is fairly normal and runs through the belly area of the body terminating at the rear. Most of the rest of the body is filled by the unique lungs of the creature. They are a one way system air flows in the front and is expelled to the rear, The lung tissue is like stacked corugated cardboard oriented perpindicular to the air flow. The whole thing is rivin with layerd blood vessels that connect to the Heart ath the center of the lungs. The Gyisache breath in Nitrogen and expell Amonia and Carbon Dioxide, Their circulatory system contains Lithium Ions bound to small Protiens which facilitate the transport of hydrogen. The central nervous system is located directly infront of the heart.

Behaviour
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The Gyisache are hermafrodits yet do not mate, instead they reproduce in a system similar to plant polination. Each individual contains glands at the back of the body that grow polips filled with tens of thousands of tiny pollen like granuals. These burst and are blow outward by exhaled air. Each granual contains half the genetic information needed to produce a member new individual. Unlike Humans the Gyisache have only 1 copy of each gene so only half the Genes are present in each granual. The granuals can survive several months untill breathed in by another member of the species. Once imbedded in the lung tissue it releases chemical signals that atract one of the many mobial roaming "egg" cells that live in the lungs. The egg merges with the granual and begins growing into a tiny maggot like worm that feeds off the blood supply of the lungs. After reaching a sertain size it enters a dormant state. At any one time their will on average be hundreds of these embionic creatures living inside the lung tissue of the average Gyisache. When an individual has a sufficient energy supply to reproduce it will release chemicals that activate all of its empryos to migrate to the Gestation chamber behind the heart. The embrionic larve begin attacking and eating each other in a 'free for all' until only 1 remains and is free to draw energy from the parent. After a quick growth period of 2 months the newborn is delivered live at 1/5 the mass of a fully growth individual. It is completly independent from this moment on. They forage during the day in herds then retire to caves for the night.

The Gyisache are always warry of predators and are easily alarmed. Their natural response is to run away from everything. This results in a Zenophobic response to other races. Their military forces will try to avoid conflicts, they ofted abandon contested systems. They are smart enough to not be bullied into doing things that will be detramental to them, such as giving away valuable tecnology. Their goverment system is Dispersed as each individual is completly independent and forms no bonds with other individuals. They do have a herding tendency though and this keeps them tegether when faced with danger. Their tecnology trends towards speedy ships (to run away) and excellent sensors (to see danger coming) and of corse armor. Passive defenses and consealment are their strengths, they prefer to build and grow and research their way to becoming too large for those threatening them. They attack only when their advantage is overwhelming and even then they take as long as necessary to prevent losses. They are almost entirely emotionless creatures so positive morale effects have very little effect. When not alarmed they can think clearly but when a group of Gyisache is threatened their productivity declines and they become even more defensive.

Gameplay Effects
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Positives
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Production/Research-have a bonus, because they like to keep 'in doors' to take there mind off the scary creatures outside, thereby getting work done.

Ground troops are cheaper because if 1 joins then 2 follow.

Speed/Armour/Shield/Sensor techs are cheaper to research.

Dispersed government-They have no capital.

Negatives
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Ground combat/Space combat-for every ship/troop that retreats, two more automatically retreat.

Ground combat/Space combat-for every ship/troop that is lost, two more automatically retreat.

Ground combat/Space combat-for every ship/troop that is lost in combat, there is a penalty to morale.

Ground combat/Space combat-if more than 50% of ships/troops are lost or retreat, then 1 ship/troop retreats every combat phase or X seconds.
Growth rate-they breed fast.

Morale-For every race they are at war with, there morale is penalised. In such situations there are too many threats to be weary of.

Production-When at war, there production is penalised.

Sugjestion:

Its been stated that "Cowardly" should be a race pick that this race will posess. I belive the combat retreat features would be what this pick effects. It would effect only combat but insted of being based on automatic retreat it should be more flexible here is what I propose.

Each time that something is killed their is a calculation that is "weighing" each force and "weighing" how many have alredy been killed on each side to determine how "bad" was the loss. These losses would then lower incresse or decrese their moral and when moral drops too low their is a liklyhood of panic or retreat. This is similar to a system used in X-Com Enemy Unknown/UFO defence. This same calculation is used for all races but the critical difference is that these guys suffer more moral loss when something bad happens and each retreat acts as a moral redusing event thus making them easy to scare away.

Yes, there is a similar thing in war hammer, good idea.

Suggestion on biochemistry, instead of Nitrogen to ammonia, make it NO2 to Nitrogen... their multiple lakes would be full of nitric acid and their sky orange, but hey, we need more Toxic HW races.

Oh, and if they only had 1 copy of each gene, then they couldn't reproduce like you say... a better method is all those propagules contain the exact same genetic code, and when one encounters an egg cell, 1 copy of each gene is discarded.

Probably have pretty low unrest too.

Trade penalty, not wanting to 'risk' dealing with others

This could be an unwanted realism-based criticism, but I find it hard to understand a spacefaring race is still predated upon in its own homeworld. After all, we humans *were* preys to large carnivores until we discovered tools, and the transition from prey to predator thanks to technologies occurred in a very short timespan compared to the history of human evolutions.

One can imagine the predator species in the homeworld are extra tough and cannot be easily eliminated by even advanced technology (for example, the predators have tungsten hide and diamond teeth), but as long as they are not intelligent, the spacefaring civilization could presumably choose to nuke their home planet to smithereens and resettle/move on.

As to gameplay effects, automatic retreat may be too much of a disadvantage for this race. Basically, a fleet of this race would lose to a fleet of any other race in 1/3 strength. Maybe morale penalty is enough?

Would you say they look like ostriches?

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Photo-dump.

Musings

Doesn't look like it, based on the description...

Hey guys.

Geoff, that's what it would look like in stick figure form.

Kind of like a big ostriche isn't it.

Good work with the football shape, It doesn't leave the user guessing whether this race is destined to be kicked in the pants.

But, Utilae, where's the nose? Didn't you give them a nose? What happens if they sneeze? They'll have nothing to pick on. What are they going to do in their free time? Don't tell me you forgot.

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Photo-dump.

Musings

as for the realism... I'd imagine most of the carnivores have been eliminated, but the migration idea suggests that the carnivores "native habitat" may not be something the Gyisache can easily reach. By this point the actual toll of carnivores is probably low, but the evolutionary effect on their psychology is probably fixed. (some carnivores may come up from a previously unknown tunnel and attack a small town, but only a few of those are probably left)

This means the carnivores have probably only Slowly been starved out by the Gyisache in the Industrial period (once the Gyisache had both the tools to kill (guns) and means for chasing the carnivores into their hiding spots (planes, tunnelling devices, etc.)

PS the simpler way to describe their 'mating' is that they are haploid and the two cells ferilize each other and immediately redivide back to haploid form.

Needless to say, I suspect you'll iron out the big issues yourselves on an as needed basis. I've actually already fleshed out some sketches and concepts on these ostrich-sheep; I kind of need them to make ships. IMHO the road map is backwards...

P.S. : It occurs to me that I have an "odd" sense of humor. My last post was just a joke. Just thought you should know.

edit:
Hey Geoff, is that you in the picture? You look like a stick figure; perhaps you should eat more.

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Photo-dump.

Musings

Lol that might be him in the picture.

I don't know how many of you have been following the graphics side of this race thus far, but I am now trying to flesh out the nature of Gyisache starships (and other things) and while I was annotating my drawings it turned into a full blown dissertation of the reasons behind their designs. This is merely a post of what I have in front of me (so I don't forget).

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Annotated notes on most desirable traits that can be reasonably implemented for a single Gyisache ship. Must...
... be able to appear numerous
... be fragile looking
... give the impression they are stealthy, elusive, or otherwise slippery to the enemy
... attempt to exemplify Gyisache herd mentality
... have a semblance of speediness

Keywords
clumsy, floral, playful, elusive, stealthy, numerous, stealthy, ornamental, speedy, flimsy, fragile, herd.

My conclusions and implications

The basic Gyisache ship is based off of grapes. That's right, grapes. A single Gyisache ship is a modular pod-shaped shuttle (a grape like shape), and Larger Gyisache ships are basically grape "clusters" which makes them all grape ships, (read grape, not great) and here's what I wrote:

Gyisache ships are composed of pod shaped modules that have specific functions. Individual pods incorporate themselves to make larger ships (there is an underlying sociological reason for this) by being permanently fused together from disparate crews/ships. Such ships are not easily disbanded, but are often the results of intense modification.
The modular system allows for the implementation of specialized modules that may differ in appearance or size. The resulting image is that of a grape cluster, where the mish-mash of designs makes it difficult to tell whether they are coming or going.
The compulsive cowardice of the Gyisache prevents them from forming a coherent force, but successful captains can sometimes shackle together groups of unwilling cannon fodder for their own purposes. The bravest (insane) Gyisache would be the captains of these cluster-ships, lying deep within the interior of the loosely defined super structure.

Obviously it's all off the top of my head and needs developing, but as I see it, this satisfies all the keywords. The underlying ideas are that they are cowards with an overarching herd mentality, and it's been taken to it's logical extreme by reflecting it in their ships.

Arghgrhgrhgrh I can;t think anymor3. That's the gist of it, but I'm sure it will all come to me in a dream once I get some rest. Point out holes in my story and stuff and tack on what you like, just keep in mind I have to draw these things....

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Photo-dump.

Musings

Sounds interesting. Since a while I've had a similar idea in the back of my head for a technological rather incapable race. They would build larger hulls, by simply binding together previous smaller hulls.

I don't have anything to add but I'm glad you picked up some of my keywords. I'm looking forward to how this turns out.

Mostly it sounds good however a couple points strike me as odd:


As herd animals wouldn't clustering come naturally to them, multiple ships willingly form up as individual captains try to hide in the middle of the cluster or just join in for safety in numbers?


Odd definition of brave, hiding in the middle. Maybe it would be better to say the most cunning, domiment or something like that end up in the middle by being able to scheme or bully their way to the most coveted safest spot.

Neither of those reqire any changes to the design, but they struck me as odd so I thought I'd post.

Sweet Dreams