Relationships Between Species in Unreal
Posted: 11 Feb 2016, 01:51
I have a few questions on the different species in Unreal. How they behave around each other, nuance, etc. I'm wracking my brains trying to remember details that I should probably just research on my own, but more as a jumping off point I wanted to ask these questions with the hope that some of those with analytical acumen might know a thing or two inherently that might be helpful and possibly obscure.
My key question is: how do (or might) certain creatures in Unreal of similar-to-human intelligence treat or relate to one another under certain circumstances?
For Skaarj as a collective, we have the adult Skaarj, Pupae, Warlords, at least one Queen, Brutes, Krall, Slith, and Nali serving different roles and holding a variety of statuses, including "slave" in the case of the Krall and Nali, though in different capacities. We have some odd situations where certain structures and locations are defended by many Krall, and usually a few Skaarj and other creatures within that group. We have on certain occasions witnessed Slith lurking at the bottom of Mercenary slime pools, for what purpose is unclear to me. There is a certain Skaarj variant, the Berserker, which will eagerly throw down with nearly any other living thing, including other Skaarj Berserkers. In just naming a few, some abstract definitions of the Skaarj's hierarchy and psychology arise while other observations suggest either inconsistent design, or possibly an implicit complexity within the story that mod and fiction content could potentially make more explicit, but is otherwise undefined in the original game.
Mercenaries are, aside from their origins and technology, still pretty straightforward. Even in terms of my core question we know that they generally tend not to like Skaarj. While the Slith in the slime pools thing has been mentioned, I'm curious about the relationship between Mercenaries and Nali. I can't remember anything in game demonstrating interactions between a mercenary and a Nali directly. Mercenaries will kill Nali under fairly universal circumstances due to AI, but from another perspective, they're not seen together too frequently, and when they're close, I don't think it's ever been made clear how they interact. We have the Terraniux situated right next to a (Skaarj infested) Harobed, and a Mercenary raiding party scouring a downed Prometheus in a valley just below another Nali village. While some peril seems to exist for the Nali in these locations (Skaarj Warriors and Predators), we get very little if any indication that the Mercenaries seek out and harm Nali out of sheer violent impulse. I can't remember any specific translator messages, but the Mercenary outlook in the original two games is almost implied as an "If you don't touch me, I won't touch you" perspective on their geographical neighbors. Certain campaigns like ONP even complete the idea that if a Mercenary doesn't see you as a threat, and especially sees you as an ally, then they have no impulse to fight. It's external to the original game's context, but it carries my point out in demonstration fairly well.
These come to mind, but I've not gone into great detail and still have several questions surrounding these general groups, as well as the potential for other factions that may be invented outside of the game's core portrayals to behave or organize differently in terms of social, technological, and military. The latter is a broader invitation for discussion, but for now the in-game portrayals are the most immediately interesting for me.
My key question is: how do (or might) certain creatures in Unreal of similar-to-human intelligence treat or relate to one another under certain circumstances?
For Skaarj as a collective, we have the adult Skaarj, Pupae, Warlords, at least one Queen, Brutes, Krall, Slith, and Nali serving different roles and holding a variety of statuses, including "slave" in the case of the Krall and Nali, though in different capacities. We have some odd situations where certain structures and locations are defended by many Krall, and usually a few Skaarj and other creatures within that group. We have on certain occasions witnessed Slith lurking at the bottom of Mercenary slime pools, for what purpose is unclear to me. There is a certain Skaarj variant, the Berserker, which will eagerly throw down with nearly any other living thing, including other Skaarj Berserkers. In just naming a few, some abstract definitions of the Skaarj's hierarchy and psychology arise while other observations suggest either inconsistent design, or possibly an implicit complexity within the story that mod and fiction content could potentially make more explicit, but is otherwise undefined in the original game.
Mercenaries are, aside from their origins and technology, still pretty straightforward. Even in terms of my core question we know that they generally tend not to like Skaarj. While the Slith in the slime pools thing has been mentioned, I'm curious about the relationship between Mercenaries and Nali. I can't remember anything in game demonstrating interactions between a mercenary and a Nali directly. Mercenaries will kill Nali under fairly universal circumstances due to AI, but from another perspective, they're not seen together too frequently, and when they're close, I don't think it's ever been made clear how they interact. We have the Terraniux situated right next to a (Skaarj infested) Harobed, and a Mercenary raiding party scouring a downed Prometheus in a valley just below another Nali village. While some peril seems to exist for the Nali in these locations (Skaarj Warriors and Predators), we get very little if any indication that the Mercenaries seek out and harm Nali out of sheer violent impulse. I can't remember any specific translator messages, but the Mercenary outlook in the original two games is almost implied as an "If you don't touch me, I won't touch you" perspective on their geographical neighbors. Certain campaigns like ONP even complete the idea that if a Mercenary doesn't see you as a threat, and especially sees you as an ally, then they have no impulse to fight. It's external to the original game's context, but it carries my point out in demonstration fairly well.
These come to mind, but I've not gone into great detail and still have several questions surrounding these general groups, as well as the potential for other factions that may be invented outside of the game's core portrayals to behave or organize differently in terms of social, technological, and military. The latter is a broader invitation for discussion, but for now the in-game portrayals are the most immediately interesting for me.