Silicoid: Mineral Consumption

[s_omara]

The Silicoid race is the only known inorganic lifeform in the galaxy. They are not born, but rather emerge fully grown from a deep and mysterious mineral concentrate called the Sacred Basin. They are uniquely strange in a galaxy full of diverse life forms, minerals come together in a form which has been touched with the spark of life. Even their home world of Cryslon is a dry and cold planet, devoid of warmth, shelter, and beauty that other races treasure and seek.
The Silicoid are driven by a single force: the need to consume the minerals of planets. They have no emotions, no appreciation for other life forms, and no sense of time to keep perspective in their nearly immortal forms. All they feel is an overwhelming drive for consumption and self-preservation.

It is hard for other races to grasp the nature of their compulsion, and even after hundreds of years of careful study, the facts are limited. The consumption of minerals seems to help them regain and replenish minerals they have lost due to damage or erosion. However, Silicoids still consume even if not visibly damaged or aged, so the drive is not motivated by need.

Silicoid can suffer from a disease similar to Pica in humans where they will lose control of their recognition sensors and consume anything they can reach – trees, metal, fiber, or even the flesh of other animals. This seems to indicate that their consumption does have some standard of “taste” or value, since a Silicoid with this disease is cast away from the rest as defective.

Silicoid were forced to take to the stars so that they can sate their irrepressible hunger. A colony of Silicoid can feed off the minerals of a new planet for many decades or even centuries, devouring their fill comfortably. Inevitably once they will have damaged the planet with invasive mining techniques and stripped the crust of all “consumable” minerals, they will then turn their eyes to the skies once more to find their next meal.

When the Silicoid perish, whether through erosion, massive damage, or other mysterious means, their bodies are brought back to the Sacred Basin on Cryslon. The Silicoid will go to great lengths to retrieve the bodies and parts of their fallen, even at great risk to their missions and personal wellbeing. The act is not one stemming from kindness, which the Silicoid are incapable of, but rather practical resource management. The dead are brought back to the Sacred Basin and their precious minerals are repurposed when they are recycled to create a new Silicoid.

The hunger of the Silicoid may be one of the oldest mysteries remaining in the universe. Even as their bodies are analyzed, alien researchers are left puzzled as to how the Silicoid even have the spark of consciousness, let alone what their inner workings could be. Yet the Silicoid forge forward, their guttural creaks and cracks echoing a menacing threat to all those who stand between them and their precious minerals.

[FourteenFour]

so why does a silicoid care about biome if they only want minerals? should not all planets be equal regardless of actual biome when it comes to pop slots?

[Durak]

Origineel geplaatst door FourteenFour:

so why does a silicoid care about biome if they only want minerals? should not all planets be equal regardless of actual biome when it comes to pop slots?

You eat with your eyes (first).

"Nomnom-oh-what-a-nice-view-Nomnom"-Silicoid is more happy and productive than "Nomnom-sitting-in-the-dark-and-eat-a-rock-Nomnom"-Silicoid"

[Dark Fire]

Origineel geplaatst door Durak:

Origineel geplaatst door FourteenFour:

so why does a silicoid care about biome if they only want minerals? should not all planets be equal regardless of actual biome when it comes to pop slots?

You eat with your eyes (first).

"Nomnom-oh-what-a-nice-view-Nomnom"-Silicoid is more happy and productive than "Nomnom-sitting-in-the-dark-and-eat-a-rock-Nomnom"-Silicoid"

Happy rocks...sounds like someone's been chewing the Blorg again...

[Torchfire]

Questions:

- How do Silicoids obtain the energy necesary to function (movement, thought, communication...)? Is that the reason of their consumption (other than as extra body material), or do they have an extra source (since many minerals tend to be chemically energy poor compared to organic matter)?

- I take it that the remains of one Silicoid can be grown into multiple individuals? Since otherwise, their population would be doomed to stagnation.

- How do Silicoids get rid of waste matter? Surely, they can't simply break down and use up all mass they consume, particularly the Pica sufferers?

- The Silicoid homeworld is described as barren, but I'm pretty sure that in-game, it starts out as terran. Shouldn't lithvores normally start out on a barren world? It would certainly make sense...

[Birdie_Sparrow]

Origineel geplaatst door Torchfire:

Questions:

- How do Silicoids obtain the energy necesary to function (movement, thought, communication...)? Is that the reason of their consumption (other than as extra body material), or do they have an extra source (since many minerals tend to be chemically energy poor compared to organic matter)?

- I take it that the remains of one Silicoid can be grown into multiple individuals? Since otherwise, their population would be doomed to stagnation.

- How do Silicoids get rid of waste matter? Surely, they can't simply break down and use up all mass they consume, particularly the Pica sufferers?

- The Silicoid homeworld is described as barren, but I'm pretty sure that in-game, it starts out as terran. Shouldn't lithvores normally start out on a barren world? It would certainly make sense...

- There is a very brief hint in the short story on some of this. Suffice to say in lore the Silicoids are extremely different from any other race.

The next two we have in the lore but are not ready to divulge these answers at this time.

- I will put in that last re: barren to the devs.

[merccobb]

Silicoids actually start on Volcanic worlds, don't they? Since their uber is Inferno. Or did that get patched out?

[Constable]

Origineel geplaatst door s_omara:

Even their home world of Cryslon is a dry and cold planet, devoid of warmth, shelter, and beauty that other races treasure and seek.

This highlights one of the underlying issues with why this game is so poor in quality.

The Early Access (EA) releases have been going on for a while and with them changes. In this specific case, changes to the Silicoid.


The Silicoid are Lava Breathers according to the game now and as such live on a Lava world that can transform into the UBER Biome of Inferno.

Thus now their homeworld is not a a dry cold planet, devoid of warmth, but in fact the opposite.



You folks in the dev team are not keeping up on what is going on with your game and as such important gameplay mechanics are slipping through the cracks (the example above is Lore/Gameplay Immersion breaker). Along with the above example, immersion breaks down for the game and in this case, specifically shows how the dev team is not a cohesive unit. THere are only two possibilities here, one this draft of Race background had to go through checks in order to be on this page which means multiple people either read it and thought great or they did not read it. Either way shows a lack of commitment from the devs to make a quality product.

The second possibility is that no one checked this which means there is a lack of commitment from the devs to insure the quality and integrity of their product. Both possibilites are bad ones.