What are aliens?

[m.schinlaub]

What exactly counts as alien in Rimworld? Is it anything with one gene different from baseliner? For example, if I set the alien races precept to a negative affinity, and then add the strong stomach gene (which seems pretty basic), would they now be an alien and hated by everyone? Where exactly is the line between alien and not?

[Païtiti]

Publicado originalmente por m.schinlaub:

Where exactly is the line between alien and not?

I ask myself the same question everyday...

[Khan Boyzitbig of Mercia]

If your Ideology has no preferred xenotype then it doesn't matter, otherwise anything that isn't that xenotype or types is not approved of.

There is no actual aliens without mods though.

[psychotron666]

Aliens aren't a thing in rimworld unless you have mods. The xenotypes and whatnot are all considered humans.

There is no alien race precepts in the base game. So ask the modder.

[Killer Tamashi]

Publicado originalmente por psychotron666:

Aliens aren't a thing in rimworld unless you have mods. The xenotypes and whatnot are all considered humans.

There is no alien race precepts in the base game. So ask the modder.

technically speaking they are still human if you follow the..little lore this game has. Somewhere out there on the rim, someone has modified human DNA or it has been done naturally, to look like a lucario. Or whatever else race mod you have installed

[Choosechee]

Are you using Humanoid Alien Races? There's no alien races precept in vanilla. There's only preferred xenotypes, which are separate from precepts. Presumably, the precept is only for any alien races from mods you have added.

[m.schinlaub]

Yeah, I have HAR. I honestly forgot it was there. The idea was to have something like warhammer. Humans good, aliens bad. But changing genes around in the editor seemed to make them count as alien. It's not important, I can never stick with a game long enough for it to mater.

[Garatgh Deloi]

Publicado originalmente por Killer Tamashi:

technically speaking they are still human if you follow the..little lore this game has. Somewhere out there on the rim, someone has modified human DNA or it has been done naturally, to look like a lucario. Or whatever else race mod you have installed

While i agree that the lore says a xeno-human is still human, i'd argue that "technically" a human with modified DNA isn't necessarily human anymore (where to draw the line is highly debatable, but there is one eventually).

That is not to say that they would be "aliens" though, more like a new species closely related to humanity.

[Steelfleece]

If I remember right, when you combine HAR, Ideology and Biotech, Xenohumans are still technically humans. Different xenotypes, but same species.

[Astasia]

Publicado originalmente por Garatgh Deloi:

While i agree that the lore says a xeno-human is still human, i'd argue that "technically" a human with modified DNA isn't necessarily human anymore (where to draw the line is highly debatable, but there is one.

I'm not sure the line is actually debatable, if two creatures can still breed together and create fertile offspring, then they are the same species. Domestic dogs come in a vast array of shapes, sizes, colors, and nearly fatal facial mutations, they are all the same species though and can breed together to create mutts.

All the xenohumans in Biotech can make babies with baseline humans. I think in reality some of these genes would probably push DNA far enough apart to create a new species, but in the RimWorld universe they are compatible with baseliners so they are still technically human.

There are also no "aliens" in the RimWorld universe (yet). Everything originated on Earth either directly or indirectly. So even if they weren't still "human" being considered a new variant species of human wouldn't make them any more alien, it's basically just a semantic difference.

[m.schinlaub]

This is turning into a more interesting conversation than I thought. As far as the game goes, I think I can just disable HAR, I don't think I have anything that needs it anyway. For the hypothetical real world scenario, I suppose it can come down to lots of factors. Would anything coming from a human base still be considered human? Like starting with a live human and manipulating their genes to basically just be better, without really changing their form (Spartans from Halo). Astartes are still considered human in the books I've read so far, but they have lots of physical changes (not counting the Warp stuff here). I guess it would really just come down to personal opinion.

[Bathory]

Publicado originalmente por Garatgh Deloi:

I'd argue that "technically" a human with modified DNA isn't necessarily human anymore (where to draw the line is highly debatable, but there is one eventually).

Every human being in the real world has an artificially modified genome. Retroviruses modify the host cell's genetics by inserting their own genes. A surprising portion of our genome is comprised of alien genes.

It's only a religious or racist distinction.

[Steelfleece]

Publicado originalmente por m.schinlaub:

This is turning into a more interesting conversation than I thought. As far as the game goes, I think I can just disable HAR, I don't think I have anything that needs it anyway. For the hypothetical real world scenario, I suppose it can come down to lots of factors. Would anything coming from a human base still be considered human? Like starting with a live human and manipulating their genes to basically just be better, without really changing their form (Spartans from Halo). Astartes are still considered human in the books I've read so far, but they have lots of physical changes (not counting the Warp stuff here). I guess it would really just come down to personal opinion.

If you don't need HAR I'd disable it. It's one more source of potential bugs which is worthwhile if it's actually for other mods you're using at the time, but if it isn't...Well, snip snip.

Adeptus Astartes are technically human. At least, human enough for the Imperium. They may get off the hook easy because their modifications were engineered by the Emperor originally. Even mutated humans are considered separate from xenos. Although they both get put to the flamer.