The fourth faction.

[tredavidson77]

What do you guys think they could be. I think they would be a mix of the scramblers and Rorschach from Blindsight and species 8472 from Star Trek.

[psychoak]

It's either MLP, or bronies.

[tredavidson77]

Okay seriously something Eldritch would be a appropriate and something along the lines of a combination of those two creatures could fit the bill.

[General T.Montana Tropic Thunder]

Originally posted by tredavidson77:

What do you guys think they could be. I think they would be a mix of the scramblers and Rorschach from Blindsight and species 8472 from Star Trek.

I hope it's all clones from Space Quest`s Roger Wilco.

[Quagimus Decimus]

It will likely be the borg.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

It's those space ponies, I tells ya. You know they're always watching you with their beady eyes. Patient bastards, the lot of them. They've been waiting all this time for an opportunity and by God, they're going to take it soon.

The end is neigh!

[tredavidson77]

While some of these response are good and funny I want serious answers especially if this fourth race is whatever is chasing the Vasari.

[Commisar Jon Fuklaw]

Originally posted by tredavidson77:

Be serious

I was being serious. Just you wait.

[Lobsterboy]

I always assumed that they would be like the Thermians.

[Sidewinder Fang]

Originally posted by tredavidson77:

While some of these response are good and funny I want serious answers especially if this fourth race is whatever is chasing the Vasari.

I've got some theories, assuming it's whatever's chasing the vasari.

1. Eldritch Entities
Think something like event horizon or some of the inter-dimensional creatures from Stellaris, unfortunately I don;t think it will be because eldritch stuff has diminishing returns the more you examine it, though I won't rule it out entirely.

2. Grey Goo
Good old nanite swarm, breaks down and remakes whatever it touches, definitely fits the bill for something that could topple an empire and the vasari are even mentioned as having nanite tech so it;s not impossible some of it went rogue, could also make for some interesting gameplay.

3. Rogue AI
Killer robots, a great sifi standby, again could make for an interesting gameplay departure with terminator in space, perhaps it was something a slave species cooked up to try and see off the Vasari and it was a bit too effective.

4. Bug Hivemind
Might not be bugs but lets face it, all the coolest hiveminds are insectoid, arachnids, tyrannids, zerg ect. And it would allow for a distinctive ship design if they leaned into the more biological or biomechanical aspects.

4. Assimilators/Parasites
Kind of a catchall for something that turns a factions strength against itself, usually via some sort of mind control, be it cybernetic or biological, thinking of things like the borg from star trek or the flood from halo,, it sounds cool on paper but I suspect it would end up being a lot of recycled units from other factions unless they had a strong identity of their own.

[tredavidson77]

Originally posted by Sidewinder Fang:

Originally posted by tredavidson77:

While some of these response are good and funny I want serious answers especially if this fourth race is whatever is chasing the Vasari.

I've got some theories, assuming it's whatever's chasing the vasari.

1. Eldritch Entities
Think something like event horizon or some of the inter-dimensional creatures from Stellaris, unfortunately I don;t think it will be because eldritch stuff has diminishing returns the more you examine it, though I won't rule it out entirely.

2. Grey Goo
Good old nanite swarm, breaks down and remakes whatever it touches, definitely fits the bill for something that could topple an empire and the vasari are even mentioned as having nanite tech so it;s not impossible some of it went rogue, could also make for some interesting gameplay.

3. Rogue AI
Killer robots, a great sifi standby, again could make for an interesting gameplay departure with terminator in space, perhaps it was something a slave species cooked up to try and see off the Vasari and it was a bit too effective.

4. Bug Hivemind
Might not be bugs but lets face it, all the coolest hiveminds are insectoid, arachnids, tyrannids, zerg ect. And it would allow for a distinctive ship design if they leaned into the more biological or biomechanical aspects.

4. Assimilators/Parasites
Kind of a catchall for something that turns a factions strength against itself, usually via some sort of mind control, be it cybernetic or biological, thinking of things like the borg from star trek or the flood from halo,, it sounds cool on paper but I suspect it would end up being a lot of recycled units from other factions unless they had a strong identity of their own.

The first one definitely seems the most likely because didn't the intro for the original game say the threat was due to the old Vasari Empire experimenting with psionics or something, and with entire planets going quiet with ships sent to check almost never returning that just seems pretty eldritch.

[Sonic Boomer]

it's Space Ponnies

[Hare-of-Caerbannog]

If anyone has the manual for the first game there more detail on what happen, but basically Vasari we're conducting a experiment that involved some form of Phase travel that goes wrong or right?. The area of the experiment goes dark and so does every thing around it in a ever expanding sphere or wave of silence/void. They then send a massive chuck of their Navy at it and only one badly damage ship comes back with the crew driven mad. So maybe either Eldritch, Flood or Species 8472 like beings.

[Red Coralian]

Originally posted by spirit76:

If anyone has the manual for the first game there more detail on what happen, but basically Vasari we're conducting a experiment that involved some form of Phase travel that goes wrong or right?. The area of the experiment goes dark and so does every thing around it in a ever expanding sphere or wave of silence/void. They then send a massive chuck of their Navy at it and only one badly damage ship comes back with the crew driven mad. So maybe either Eldritch, Flood or Species 8472 like beings.

yeah I was thinking flood or eldritch too

[Dalebee]

Its obviously Horatio.

[Imperator RAD-X]

I've made specific observations into it and I'm in the belief that they are likely creatures of phase space with a powerful ability to manipulate the minds of organisms.

The unity suffers from a specific corruption which has only gotten stronger the more this force of unknowns get closer, and are capable of driving opposing forces to lose willpower to a loss of psyche, relating to that of entire Dark Fleets of the Vasari.

It is unclear of how the TEC plays into this, but the Advent and Vasari are affected in different ways, which the purifiers of the Advent are fully aware of.

It is likely that the Harbingers may use anti-matter as a resource to empower their own forces or strip their enemies of the one thing that binds ships together with powerful buffs or debuffs. To draw in more anomalous elements of phase tech that all factions have reverse engineered up to this point.

This is merely speculation, of course.

How they will play, I am unsure - but the evidence already suggests they will not play like the other respective factions given this force has driven a galactic spanning Empire into a complete route. A "slow to wake but unstoppable juggernaut" faction either by pure abominable criteria, or beholding of such overwhelming numbers or absurdly strange powers that will only grow in strength with careful growth and consideration.

Evidence in the game follows through with the following:

- Phase rift teleportation & manipulation.
- Nanite technologies
- Psychic powers / mind altering hallucinogenical or cognitional effects to potential cognicide ability.
- Never stopping onslaught, constantly on the move.
- Planet stripping / resource stripping abilities (Great Darkness)
- Phase Gate descriptions from the older games (aboriginal technology).
- Resurrection / "unlife" abilities.
- Phase tearing.

* Anti-phasic self-replicating nano machines of gestalt consciousness.
* A spawned terror of the deep unleashed from the phase dimension (unbidden like / corrupted organisms) due to the Vasari Accident.

Having them just appear and get game-ended immediately will make little sense, so the faction may not be looking to colonise, but essentially grow to a critical mass and just bamboozle the game universe if uninterrupted. Seemingly they are attracted to anything with solid matter, so who knows.

I perceive the faction must rapidly grow and solidify or succumb to a quick death, unlike the other factions. In other words for the Harbingers: "A good offence is a good defence."