FreeOrion

Would you also like to share with us, why you like these aliens? It isn`t of course compulsory to do this, but it might give the story writers more material and ideas to use in the creation of alien species. And maybe together with other posts in this thread show us, if there are some qualities that many sci-fi fans like.

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What is your favourite alien species and WHY?
Preliminary thoughts about diplomacy
Some unfinished ideas for specials

I think the preferred quality so far is "shadows"

Well it seems to me anyways.

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Photo-dump.

Musings

I think the races from the old Star Fleet Battles game by Amarillo Design Bureau are really relevant because of the way each race specialized in different starship weapon technologies and tactics for them. I can see FO races designed with advantages in developing specific starship weapon technologies to make things more interesting.

For those not familiar, here is a short summary:

Federation: Big Phasers and Photon Torpedos
Klingons: Disruptors with unique firing arcs and, secondarily, fast drones
Romulans: Massive Type "R" Plasma torpedos and cloaking
Kzinti: Mass drone waves, and, secondarily, disruptors
Gorn: Tractor beam anchors and multiple (weaker than Romulan) plasma torps, phasers
Hydrans: Fusion beams, Hellbore cannon, and tons o' fighters
Lyrans: Expanding Sphere Generators and, secondarily, disruptors
ISC: Mother ships with "battle riders", soak up damage like crazy until overwhelmed

There's tons of info out there on the effects of all these weapons.

sure, sorry i just discovered this and i am getting familiar. the minbari were a powerful and spiritual race that had compassion and pragmatism. i liked their honor. the talosians also had compassion but i loved their ability to control other experiences through telepathy, mind control rocks. the new cylons it turned out weren't just robots bot ended up taking two paths, showing they had gained what they ultimately destroyed man for choice and free will, one of my favorites was the model(lucy lawless) who had herself killed so she could experience the in between time befoer rebirth, finally i just love the water and and as a child loved things like 20000 leagues so an aquatic race to me is great, i play moo2 daily and always play a modified trilarian. i can't wait to i figure out how to get the free orion download to work so i might be able to play. as far as a new race ive always liked the idea of a plant base species, that only grows what it needs and doesnt need anything but radiant solar energy for power, like the delvians on farscape.

the Nox from stargate sg1.
they are so incredibly powerful, yet peaceful and live in harmony with nature. they simply do not need to fight, they just avoid your combat altogether, leaving you light years away.

the Predator, from "what the #()@% are you ?"
the ultimate hunter, so powerful, it expends planets worth of resources just for sport. A most noble adversary, who recognize strength and victory wherever it may be. ahem, "raaaaawwwwwrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr".

the monopods, the piers anthony's orn, ox, and omnivore trilogy. its a bit off center, so basically, they are sentient telepathic mobile fungus. there are several, each one with a different geometric symbol or marking. they bounce around on one leg, a very young, playful species, they have low tech and ability, yet being sentient and telepathic, I find them to be one of the most imaginative I have ever encountered.

vonnegut's aliens that can see along time in slaughter house 5.

the transformers, because the idea of a true cybernetic organism that can span the stars is pretty cool. were they created by another race ? did an organic race evolve themselves into them ? were chemical conditions right that a true metallic organism could take hold ?

Heh, the Spemin from Starflight were always fun - a race of squishy, cowardly, obsequious blobs who somehow (in the sequel) hijack some other race's technology and become Lords of the Universe.

My absolute favorite are definitely Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers - sentient machines who - for whatever reason - are programmed to wipe out all life in the universe. No one's ever really come close to expressing the utter ruthlessness of a hostile machine intelligence the way Saberhagen does.

As far as humanoid races, my heart goes out to the Takisians from the Wild Cards universe. They're pretty much human... flamboyant, psychic humans with pretty good biotech. Not much of a stellar empire, but they really manage to wreck things on Earth with the Takis-A Xenovirus.

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"I was boarded by Reavers and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."

Pierson's puppeteers from Larry Niven's Ringworld (and other works in the Known Space universe). Just the way they thought totally differently from humans but in a way humans can understand ("The majority is always sane!" "Herd animal" thought the human). Every solution they came up with was consistent with a worldview, up to and including moving their whole solar system because they didn't want to risk traveling in spaceships.

I'm a big fan of the buggers as well, their really the best example of a well-fleshed out "space-hive" anywhere I've looked. Their systems are pragmatic and focused on achieving the expansion of their queens because drones exist only as an extension of their sensory perception, things like entertainment centers really don't exist, and yet with their architecture and ships they show a depth of character that's fascinating.

As a distant second favorite I like the humans from various groups in SG-1, most of their facilities are deep underground and their ships in general are frigate/light-carriers. Honestly if a bug species were incorporated I would only ever play them anyway.

You know what, I like the super deformed gundams, they are my favorite space faring race, they were both aesthetically pleasing and had the capacity for enormous destruction and creation. sort of an idea to break on when you think about synthetic life forms and transformers.

Oho, lot of Shadow and Vorlon fans. I was little disappointed when it was reveal that they are as clueless about their purpose as other races. There is also talk about living ships, remember Leviathans from Farscape? Like that concept, especial idea of treating Moya and Talon as characters.

But my #1 alien race are Asgards in SG. They are so cool (IMHO) that producers had to nerf them so humans can get more attention.

From Babylon 5, the Minbari. Proud, caste-separated, high-tech and yet oh so very religious. They exemplified the best and worst of any species, depending upon the individual and the situation he found himself in. And their philosophy of life: "We believe that the Universe itself is conscious in a way we can never truly understand. It is engaged in a search for meaning, so it breaks itself apart, investing its own consciousness in every form of life. We are the Universe, trying to explain itself." How can you not love that?

Alan Dean Foster's Thranx (Humanx Commonwealth books): A peaceful, philosophic race of bug-eyed monsters, who can function as an extremely logical and mathematically precise battle-computer under the influence of certain chemicals. The perfect counterpart to form a large galactic government with a bunch of smelly, squishy primates. (Seriously, if you haven't read "Nor Crystal Tears", do yourself a favor and do so. Probably the best first-contact novel ever.)

That's probably my top two, although the Ulru-Ujurrians (also from the Humanx Commonwealth) are up there too. But then space-time bending teddy-bears of doom are probably a bit beyond the pale for most people.

Daleks from Doctor Who are my apsolute favorites! Mainly because they are amusing at times. I LOL'd when they said "Exterminate!" for the first time.

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Ilija Anastasijević - iksi99

My favorite Star Trek character is a Vulcan (Spock). That makes them interesting to me is their supreme intelligence, desire for perfection, long lives, control of emotions, strength, diplomacy, peacefulness, positivity ("Live long and prosper"),etc.

In my opinion, they haven't changed throughout the history of Star Trek, unlike the Borg who Voyager kind of ruined.

The Vulcans do have some negative aspects, such as control of positive of emotions, arrogance, dry personality, etc, however all in all they are my favorite kind of alien in Trek.