Ithkul

[viciouscycle]

Someone on IGMOO posted a base race-relations table that had everyone on it except the Ithkul of course.

If the Ithkul are parasitic in some way, how does this work with the Meklar and Silicoid who have no organic matter?

[kalbear]

Who said they have to be organic parasites? Why not, say, mindsuckers or something akin to that?

[Arnelos]

The strat guide says that the Ithkul have -150 relations with every other race, even of their own species. Basically, it means they probably just declare war on sight with anyone.

[Demosthenes1234]

Re: Ithkul speculation

Originally posted by viciouscycle
It was also mentioned somewhere (though I can't remember where) that the Ithkul bioharvesting relied not upon agriculture but other species. So now I'm wondering if the Ithkul begin the game with some sort of "native host" on their homeworld on which they feed.

The Ithkul also sound a bit like the Goauld from Stargate SG1, they are parasites and everyone hates them as well. I hope you can rename races in moo3 in the custom setup as you could in moo2...mwaahaahaa...that way we can have the Psilons as the Azgard and the ithkul as the Goauld...hmm would be interesting.

[Arnelos]

The Ithkul sound most like the aliens from Aliens or perhaps the Zerg from Starcraft to me... bio-engineered killers that feed upon other species as hosts. It wouldn't surprise me if they're yet another Xenomorph/Zerg alien, though that would admittedly be quite cool for a TBS game to implement.

Then again, Rantz and company might have something a bit different and novel up their sleeves, which would really be quite cool.

I hope we find out soon

[kalbear]

Demosthenes and Arnelos: One of you is really close to being right. One of you is really far off. You guys can fight over which is which.

[Arnelos]

kalbear,

Well, actually, I said two things, but I'll assume you mean what I said to be the first of the two I proposed

I'm going to hope that Rantz and company did the latter of the two I suggested, though... something truly novel.

We'll find out when we find out. Not a big deal.

[Alex-C]

My bet is on Demosthenes' theory, i've suspected it for some time but, of course, us mere mortals aren't to know exactly until the release

RELEASE IT PLEASE!!!!

[RolandtheMad]

SPOILERS*************
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Harvesters are a.. BEAN!



The horror..



..the horror..

[Arnelos]

[gunnergoz]

OMIGosh...aren't those infant Nommo being (gulp) prepared...for...(faints dead away.)

[Demosthenes1234]

Originally posted by RolandtheMad
SPOILERS*************

LMFAOROFL!!!! NOW THOSE PICTURES ARE DAMN FUNNY!

aND TO add to my previous post, the Sillicoids would be that race of crystals the SG1 team came across in series 1 (it was like the fourth episode..well in Australia it was). The race of blue crystals that the goauld blasted, and one of them replicates themself into a copy of O'neill. ANyhoo. Wot u guys reckon. Of course the Sillicoids would be less...ignorant then the crystals from sg1 were....meh. Does anyone know if Rantz likes Stargate SG1. Lol, I bet u they were all like watching a stargate episode and Rantz is like...hey lets make moo3 with influences of Stargate SG1....meh. Not that Im complaining.

[Arnelos]

Um.... the Silicoids are one of the races from the ORIGINAL Master of Orion

The only races of the 16 races in MoO3 that were in the original Master of Orion:

Humans
Klackons
Silicoids
Psilon
Sakkra
Meklars

I remember when I always loved playing the Humans because their advantage was diplomacy AND TRADE. Now both of those chief advantages of the MoO Humans are being nerfed in MoO3 I'll have to design a custom Humans (and hope they don't make a Humans like the original MoO Humans too hard to customize...).

I remember when the Sakkra were one of the more peaceful races with a fairly high probability of having pacifistic and ecologist leaders... I used to refer to them as the "Eco-Freak Dinosaurs". Boy, have they changed...

The Klackons were always the kings of production and more often than not the toughest race in the game (both MoO and MoO2). Since the attempts to nerf the Klackons' incredible advantages in MoO2 proved unsuccesful (because Collective government was overpowered), MoO3's designers seem to have done the job.... too well. I just hope the strategy guide was wrong about the Klackons being completely nerfed.

Silicoids have always been one of my favoriate races to play. They could always colonize everything and would spread like wildfire while other races were still trying to research terraforming technologies or better fuels The Silicoids' only problem was that their research stunk. In MoO2, the Silicoids were made even more powerful in industry and their science problem was removed, but nerfed for most human players because of the complete inability to negotiate with other players, shutting out a whole part of the game. The MoO3 Silicoids look pretty nerfed, but I'll give 'em a try for old time's sake (or design a custom Silicoid race that has a better shot at glory).

The Psilons haven't changed all that much. They were always the kings of research and always will be. The major changes in MoO3 are to give the Psilons a representative government, make their bioharvesting and mining poor, and give them SUPERIOR diplomacy... a spot reserved in all previous MoO series games for the Humans. Given what I've seen online, they sound as powerful as they always did, with the addition of probably a rather powerful diplomacy trait.

Meklars have always had a manufacturing/robotic advantage for being cybernetic and since MoO2 have had a repair advantage for being cybernetic. The big difference now is that the "Meklars" of MoO3 are now completely robotic, whereas the "Cynoids" of MoO3 seem more like the original Meklars. If the strategy guide is any indication (which ranks the Cynoids as the most powerful), the Cynoids live up to the original Meklars' esteemed reputation for being a potential galactic powerhouse.

All other races are inventions of either MoO2 or MoO3.

The original races weren't really based on anything from a specific TV show (especially ones that may not have even been around back then). They were based off of different types of life or potential types of life (though I'm sure there were pop culture influences on that).

Humans = Humans
Klackons = Ants/Insects
Bulrathi = Bears
Sakkra = Reptiles/Dinosaurs
Mrrshan = Cats
Alkari = Birds
Psilons = Humanoids, but with larger brains
Meklars = Cybernetic Lizards
Silicoids = Silicon Crystals
Darloks = Shapeshifters

MoO2 added...

Gnolams = Gnomes/Dwarves (inspiration from MoM)
Elerians = Elves (inspiration from MoM, possibly from Star Control's Syreen - also blue-skinned babes)
Trilarians = Fish

MoO3 deleted...

Gnolams (Rantz doesn't like Gnomes and Dwarves)
Elerians (Rantz doesn't like Blue-Skinned Elf Babes)
Mrrshan (Rantz doesn't like Cat Aliens)
Bulrathi (Rantz doesn't like Bear Aliens)
Alkari (Rantz doesn't like Bird Aliens)
Darloks (Rantz doesn't like shapeshifters)

MoO3 added...

Cynoid (actually more like the original the Meklars)
Meklars (but now completely robotic)
Evon
Raas
Grendarl
Nommo
Imsaeis
Eoladi
Tachidi
Ithkul

So there ya go. As for the Silicoids (the original topic), always been one of my favorite races. I was really annoyed that they couldn't negotiate with anyone in MoO2 and typically played a custom race that was more like the MoO Silicoids by taking a deficit in research in return for the ability to actually talk to people. I'll probably end up modifying the MoO3 Silicoids as well.

[viciouscycle]

I saw the leak on UGO today. It is gone now but it pretty much confirms the speculation on this thread. According to the UGO review, the Ithkul are a parasitic race that were genetically designed by the NO to wreak havoc on the old Antarans. Somehow the Ithkul DNA got mixed with Human DNA and the Harvesters became independent and broke free from the NOs.

Originally I had guessed the Ithkul were made from the Antarans to kill the NOs but it looks like it's the other way around. Go fig.

edit: sp