Ithkul

[mindlar]

There are some people that know what the harvesters are due to a preview done by IGN a few months back. The review was changed within a few hours of being released and the topic was squashed on all the MOO3 boards.

A few people were banned on IGMOO and a few people were banned here as well. There are requests on both boards (punishable by bans) not to say what harvesters are. Speculation on IGMOO is bannable right now because they don't want to have to remove only the people that actually do know and share.

[kalbear]

Some other information we've heard from various sources, like the guide:

Ithkul are a parasitic race. That goes well with the bioharvesting pop points. How big they are, what form they take, I have no idea - but I do know they are some form of parasite. Personally, I suspect they're a viral-based colony life form.

I also suspect that they start out as one of the 'dead' races for use in their pop.

I believe that the pop point bioharvesting is not the only way they can grow, though it's one of their primary ways. Based on the AARs that have the Ithkul players alone and without any other contact to another race, yet have them high in the tech tree and have multiple planets, this seems reasonable to me. An alternate explanation is that this is due entirely to migration and there was no net pop growth, but this seems unlikely.

Finally, Ithkul are the only race that has a negative penalty towards other members of it's race/species. That's downright odd. Can harvesters harvest each other then? Self-parasitism is known in the real world but is a highly uncommon activity.

[wildman45]

[darcy]

Self-parasitism is known in the real world

Can you give an example, please?

[kalbear]

Mostly bacterial colonies and fungi that end up feeding on (at first) the dead husks of themselves, and (later) on live ones. It might be cannibalism at that point instead of self-parasitism, and is used almost exclusively when the colony is dying or starving, but it's out there.

I believe the case is true for some flatworm variants, but it's been so long since I've studied multicellular biology that I couldn't tell ya, authoritatively.

[darcy]

I see. I imagine it's quite difficult for multicellular organisms to live solely on self-parasiting.

Regarding Ithkul, wouldn't the threat of taking over another Ithkul's host justify the diplomatic penalty? I figure there would be high competition if the number of hosts is limited.

[kalbear]

darcy, that's an obvious jump and thus an excellent idea. I hadn't thought of it that way, but it makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Harvesters, assuming they're parasitic, are going to be far more in competition with each other than they are with anyone else out there. More than planets, or tech, or senate seats - they're competing for their very food.

That's a pretty compelling storytelling reason. They hate all the other races because of need to harvest, but they hate each other for the simple fact that in the end, they'll starve. Good call.

[warden]

I just finished playing a MP game of MOO2. For fun, I created a MOO2 version of the Harvesters. This was mostly for fun but it turned out to be quite a strong custom race and I won the game (huge/advanced scenario).

Here's my MOO2 take on the Harvesters:

Harvesters
----------
-6 Repulsive
+6 Spying +20
+4 Ground Combat +20
+6 Mind Control
-4 Feudal
+4 Warlord

The key to playing them is to get assault shuttles ASAP and then start harvesting the other races! I harvested the Gnolams fast, paused for breath and then did the same to the Mrrshans. The other human player was playing a research race but I owned half the galaxy by the time he was ready to fight - no contest.

Andrew

[Cymrean]

Just out of curiosity: which race picture did you choose to reflect the harvesters ?

[LastFromVega]

it looks like a sort of stock Elerian here... I liked those ones. Always customized them but I did enjoy the white angel bringing forth news on research.

I am not really strategizing around spies, nevertheless I always sent a few abroad just for the sake of having the sexy beast dressed in black leather report in my office (c'm'on I was a single student at the time ) .

note: you won't get it if you missed MoO2

[warden]

Originally posted by Cymrean
Just out of curiosity: which race picture did you choose to reflect the harvesters ?

The Darloks. Close enough.

Andrew

[MitchDev]

F*** Rantz...

I'm surprised none of it (harvester stuff) ever turned up in the "whatever the title path".strategic newsgroup yet.

[warden]

Originally posted by LastFromVega
it looks like a sort of stock Elerian here...

Apart from the other differences, the Elerians are definitely not repulsive

Andrew

[Grumbold]

I'm glad its remained mysterious and we don't all know exactly what the Harvesters are and what hte 5 X's are already. Alien Legacy was a good game because you didn't know what the story was going to throw at you next. That made up for a lot of the repetitive nature of the gameplay because you really felt like you were battling for survival against unknown forces.

[Cymrean]

One of the screenshots from the polish translation spilled some beans about the harvesters. I'm talking about the word used in the race selection screen. All that i can say is that it is not "harvester" translated into polish.