Monster Concept: Skeleton Crew

[Hook Master]

Since the game's launch into early access, everybody has had the idea for a "mimic".
A monster who could look and act human, along with a strange attraction to the idea of recording voices.

I think a mimic would be pretty boring and unoriginal, but I like the idea of a creature that could be mistaken for a human from a distance, resulting in the idea of "zombies"

The Skeleton Crew would be an incredibly early spawning monster which would appear not even a few hours into the day. Between 1-4 depending on planet tier.

These creatures would be ex-employees, those left behind as sacrifices to the moons. These "skeleton crews" would have similar models with obvious wear and tear. Think Identical silhouettes but clearly different models. They'd share animations with the player characters and even some tools, like flashlights and shovels. (Whether their cause of reanimation is supernatural or parasitic is up in the air)

Skeleton crews would wander through the map, finding scrap and carrying it around in confusion as an echo of their past lives. If they see or hear a player, they would shamble (or sprint) towards them, appearing to be a real player. This facade would fade as they close in, and they would attack, recognizing the player as a competing employee. Their attack should do less damage than a shovel, requiring a good bit of time to truly kill (think slime damage) unless they have an actual shovel, in which case the damage is overruled by shovel rules.

When killed, they should drop any items or scrap they were carrying and ragdoll like a player, with their corpse also being a pickup like player corpses.

This monster would fill the "mimic" niche many people crave without any audio shenanigans and with reasonable in-universe explanation. I highly doubt only one crew is running around at any given time, and the idea of service to the company persisting beyond death is a good mix of comical and bleak, matching the game's tone. In terms of raw gameplay, scrap manipulation could be a nice way to spice up room to room gameplay similar to how the loot-bugs function now, but with a significantly more hostile nature. Dropped items/tools can be a great way to help a crew lacking in funds acquire some tools they may be locked out of after a particularly grueling run.

Obviously, all a concept and not perfect, would love to hear anything that could be improved about the idea

[akindofcat]

This concept goes hard, we need to see this

[zopoulos18]

Awesome idea. Fits the game really well and adds some extra spice too

[Dragontoast]

This would be an interesting it also makes me think of the Doctor Who- Silence in the Library episode, which was great as a mini-horror concept.

[Yung Twin Towers]

this is actual a solid response to the mimic idea that what feels like every person has had since this game became popular. i think it'd be cool for them to be carrying around broken company equipment, like a rusty shovel (and it'd weigh more than a normal shovel for balancing reasons maybe).