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Best guy (well, next to pokeball-thing) to trigger the chryssalids, too.
Personally I think they were proababy once hazardous enviroment workers. BUT all it would take is for them to be a success in the field once and leaders are likely to send them as well.
If an Andro unit happened be around and made a difference in a combat role during let's say an independent resistence attack. I feel it is not too much a leap of faith to think they would slap a gun in their hand when needed. --Heck. We do not know about the species too. They may have all insisted on joining the fight when things started to go a little sideways because of XCOM.
SPOILERS.
Let us not forget that the aliens seem to have been existing here on Earth in an environment where air is not at a premium: Like THE OCEAN FLOOR. The Andros being initially used as underwater laborers/units make some sense. Especially when the looks of their suit is considered.
I think because it is "all hands on deck" for the Aliens due to XCOM, for one reason or another, Andros were folded in. Perhaps they are just no longer super useful and the Leadership was just like Eh why not???
I guess the shorthand of my theory is kinda like Ripley using the Work Loader suit like a combat suit out of necessity/desperation. -Kinda Sorta. ;p
I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE
Yes, to both. The Elder's search is fairly obviously a long-term transtellar venture and humans show every indication they have the answer, and we already know there's planets IRL with environments that are basically as caustic as acid. They can't afford for this to all fall apart.
There's a few reaching assumptions here that I'm not sure about.
- I may be applying too much logic to this and the Elders are described as having an understanding of genetic engineering beyond our own, but you're assuming genetically engineering a creature to require a totally different and incompatible environment was within their power. Imagine the obstacles to genetically engineering a cow to live on the ocean floor - this is hundreds of times more complex than that. It's a fundamental shift of their entire metabolism.
- If you look carefully at the suit, it doesn't appear related to either the alien tech, or Advent's. The Aliens have their own designs, and from the Advent's appearence, they adopt and improve another culture's. What we could be seeing is another client's race's base tech, post Elder improvement.
- It's either within their power or every single creature besides the Andromedon lives on oxygen and/or nitrogen, comfortably within Terran gravitational and pressure norms. I find it a significantly less absurd concept that a gang of people melting humans down for DNA glue to genetically engineer superpsychic James Cameron Avatarbods, already demonstrating their ability to manipulate genetics at a Harry Potter level would be capable of altering that genetic material to adapt to environments than that they happened to evolve on an identical planet as ours, and subjugated other alien species on other planets also identical to ours across the galaxy, except this one bunch of dudes from Planet Acidworld.
- The sealant studs, flexible joints and pukemetal don't look so dissimilar from mutons that I can really see this as anything more than wishful thinking, honestly.
The Andromedon is just a big goofy metal acid trip that has no reasonable background. The fact that there's no in game explanation for them anywhere as an easter egg just makes me think it was something someone thought would be a cool design and didn't put any other thought into it.
Elder1: - Advent has failed, our facilities are being destroyed left and right. Avatar project is compromised. We have tried deploying our multi-species military but it also failed to stop the XCOM.
Elder2: - Desperate times call for desperate measures! We have no choice but to start deploying the CONSTRUCTION WORKERS!!!
As I said, I might be applying too much logic to this. However, assuming that either the Aliens have absolute total control over genetics or they don't is clearly a false dichotomy as the former would mean all their experiments are redundant, and the latter is directly contradicted by the fluff.
I'm not saying you're wrong, merely that genetically engineering a creature so that it's base metabolic structure functions on completely different chemicals is like saying you're going to recarve a stone statue into wood - It's crafting an entirely different form of life at it's base level. I've no doubt they've had some level of genetic modification but there's a big difference between adding muscle mass/whatever and creating an entirely new metabolism to run it all. I don't think there's any sensible reason to assume that because you can do one thing, you must also be able to do the other.
Not to mention that the likes of the Mutons (and the earlier Floaters) are already wearing masks, while Gatekeepers and the Elders themselves can barely support their own physical weight at 1G, so the assumption that everything else can function perfectly in Earth's environment and it's only the Andromedons that don't isn't even backed up by the other creatures in the list.
This is always going to be down to opinion, but all the flowing shapes, metallic colours and lack of moving parts on alien kit is not there (but is on their alien-issued plasma gun), and all the angular, dark structures prominent on Advent stuff is not there either.
Granted, this might be down to the fact that it's a clear nod to Bioshock (even the Autopsy is codenamed 'Levine') which clearly doesn't have the same aesthetic as either Advent or the Aliens, but regardless, I'm not sure you can say with any real justification that it's related. A few minutes ago you were saying that they're totally out of place with no thought put into it. Which is it?
this is what I would guess as well. The Andromedon seems more like a miner or an Alien contruction worker than a frontline soldier. I'd like to know more about the origins of the Aliens myself.
It isn't a dichotomy, it's a matter of wildly improbable vs. established liklihood. Theyve established a magical knowledge of genetics, so it's established likelihood of genetic manipulation vs. wildly improbable chance of chancing across multiple earthlike atmospheric conditions on which several sentient species have evolved independently. Considering they're already crafting entirely different forms of life at a base level, the choice between the two, for me, is patently obvious.
The elders are physically degenerating to the point it goes back to core game story re: genetic manipulation, and gatekeepers don't have any kind of pressurized environment suit, it opens up to the outer atmosphere iirc. They just float around and crash into ♥♥♥♥. The masks don't mean much. It isn't like you can drop onto Venus with a mask and be okay with the extant atmosphere. There's a lot of other issues going on besides gas exchange. If they were Space Marines or Orks we'd have a conversation, but if we're working in real world physics and biology, a respirator only gets you so far.
I am saying there was no real thought put into it beyond it looking like a cool enemy alien. To be blunt, it looks more like a Muton from EU/EW to me than it does a Big Daddy. Take an EU muton, slap a big green shield over the front and it's got a nearly identical body type. For all I know it could be a repurposed asset.
What it does not have any thought put into is its relation to any of the other aliens, or even why it would go autostompy when it dies when you could just have it go autostompy on its own. Why bother with a pilot at all? To aim a gun? I doubt Advent has a monopoly on robotic aim.
I think you've misunderstood the point I was making - if you look across the different aliens in the game, there's clearly different aspects of them that aren't suited for life on Earth. Some don't breathe the atmosphere. Some can't handle the gravity and have to compensate. Only a few actually show being able to function perfectly in earth's environment, and the majority of them are human-alien hybrids (it's really only the Chrysalid and the Viper that aren't in that subset).The Andromedon is only unique in that the environment is actively hostile to them.
If I understood you correctly, you're arguing that since all the aliens aside from the Andromedon can handle Earth, the likelihood is that they've all been modified rather than them being naturally capable of handling it, and the idea the Andromedon just hasn't is implausible.
That would be a fair argument, but since it's clear that many of them aren't totally at home in Earth's environment despite their genetic modifications, there's clearly a limit to what the Elders can do, be that knowledge or will. That doesn't mean they're incapable of amazing feats, just that it's not an all-or-nothing situation that you appear to be advocating.
That's the part I'm struggling to see. It may well be just an excuse to have a cool alien. Where I'm not sure is the idea of having something big and bulky automatically makes it basically a muton with a bit added. Aside from their bulk and their rough role, I can't see any similarity at all.
I'm sure we'll discover that the Commander, Bradford and Shen are all Psylons in one of the expacs though.
I don't think it looks like a muton just because it's big and bulky, I think it looks like an EU muton because I've looked at the pics side by side and several of them could literally be interposed over one another.
Real quick, for example, EU Muton:
http://xcom.wikia.com/wiki/File:2107993-xcom_look_ahead_muton.jpg
Andromedon shot from PC rag (second one is better example):
http://www.pcgamer.com/xcom-2s-andromedon-is-huge-powerful-and-oddly-familiar/
The body structure, stance and armor curvature are all similar enough you could almost 2d transpose them. They look a lot more similar to me than the Andromedon to a Big Daddy.
Ah, I see - I subscribe to the mass effect-style 'universe prefers humanoids' approach, but I get your point. I could argue that stuff like the Mutons were clearly intended to function in much heavier gravity then our own and hence being well-suited and well-adapted are not necessarily the same thing, but fair enough.
Oh I get that in terms of bulk and general size, sure, but make a humanoid bulky and large and I'm not really sure you could realistically say that they're similar to any other bulky large humanoid. I mean, stick a plate over the face of a Mass Effect Yahg or Fallout T-1b Power Armoured US Marine and we've got another Andromedon.
In terms of function and approach, beyond being a tough shocktrooper, I'd argue the Andromedon is one of the more original opponents out there. Indeed, That's what I thought you were originally saying, just that it had no reason to be there.