Two new custom alien factions

[Yitzi]

As things stand, the aliens have a Planet-friendly faction seeking to prevent Transcendence, and a Planet-hostile faction seeking to attain it.  But it occurred to me...couldn't you get the other way too?  These are two alien factions.
I'm just including the basic idea and the mechanics.  The text stuff and art is a project someone else can take on if they want, it's not really my specialty.  So, here they are:
1. Planetary Shepherds.  The basic concept here is inspired by the following quote:
"The fungus has been Planet's dominant lifeform since about the time of the Lower Paleozoic on Earth. But when, once every hundred million years or so, the neural net at last achieves the critical mass necessary to become sentient, the final metamorphosis kills off most of the other life on the planet. It is possible that we humans can help to break this tragic cycle."
Well, these aliens want to do the same thing: Break the cycle and help Planet achieve sentience, not to enslave it like the Usurpers, but to develop its own identity.

Now for mechanics:
-They're aliens, of course, with all that implies.
-Favored goals are Discover and Explore; they tend not to resort to aggression.
-Favored ideology is Green, anti-ideology is Free Market.  They try to maximize PLANET score.
-They start with techs: Centauri Ecology, Biogenetics, and the bonus alien techs (Progenitor psych and field modulation).
-They get free recycling tanks, same as the original alien factions
-They get a free Centauri Preserve upon discovering Centauri Meditation
-They have +2 PLANET and -1 ECONOMY (because they're aiming at Transcendence, so don't have as much interest in material possessions).
-They get +2 nutrients and +1 energy from fungus.
-They get a 25% bonus to all psi combat

2. Planetary Destroyers.  Like the Caretakers, they were horrified at Tau Ceti and want to make sure that sort of thing never happens again.  Unlike the Caretakers, they don't feel quarantine is enough; they want to end the experiment (i.e. destroy all Native life).

Mechanics:
-They're aliens.
-Favored goals are Conquer and Explore; they sometimes resort to aggression.
-Favored ideology is Planned, anti-ideology is Green, they seek to maximize GROWTH.  (Yes, they'll be pop booming with the AI.)
-They start with techs: The bonus alien techs (Progenitor psych and field modulation), and Centauri Ecology.
-They do NOT get free recycling tanks, but do get a free perimeter defense in every base (no prerequisite necessary).
-Due to feeling constantly under threat, they get +1 support and +2 morale and +2 police, and on top of that every unit gets 3 morale upgrades on creation.  But they have -3 PLANET.
-Every unit gets both Fungicidal tanks (if eligible) and empath song (if eligible), once the necessary techs are researched.
-They can surpass hab complex limits by 2 (again, they're feeling threatened and willing to give up creature comforts.)
-They hurry at 80% normal cost.
-Due to the sheer terror they have at native life forms, native life forms do double police duty.

[Buster's Uncle]

Hmm.  The later sounds sorta like a Prog version of the terraforming factions that everybody and his brother was making 12 years ago - but these guys have a better motivation/hook.

[Yitzi]

The Destroyers aren't really just about terraforming, though.  Their bonus fungicidal ability helps there, of course, but they're also quite good at war (build a command center and bioenhancement center and run freshly produced units through a monolith, and you've got elites straight from the sort.  And of course they're as good defensively as the Hive.)  They can easily use Police for great drone control, and can get larger bases than everyone else, and of course cheaper hurrying is nice.  Their main disadvantage is that with the right balance mods, they'll have their work cut out for them avoiding worm rape without crippling their industry (on the flip side, they do have a whole slew of bonuses designed to help them kill worms.)

[Buster's Uncle]

Well my point was that some of those terraformer factions were specifically about killing off all that dangerous fungus, and there was even talk about a 'kill Planet' victory condition.

[Kilkakon]

Not bad ideas. I might say that they are almost a little too geared towards their favoured strategy--e.g. the green faction you described could easily mount a quick kill with +2 Planet and +25% PSI.

It is good to see some aliens being made though, humans get all the attention normally...

[Yitzi]

Not bad ideas. I might say that they are almost a little too geared towards their favoured strategy--e.g. the green faction you described could easily mount a quick kill with +2 Planet and +25% PSI.

Not really; remember, if you've got one alien faction there then there's at least one more, and aliens start with access to 3-res units.  And if someone manages to get trance, then that makes quick kill far harder.  Their quick kill would essentially play similarly to Cha Dawn, but with the added disadvantage of being unable to make nice with the aliens (the most difficult opponents for such a strategy by far) until they're ready.  When looking at quick kill, I think it's fair to say that the Shepherds are to Cha Dawn as the Usurpers are to Miriam.

Also, remember, they don't start with Centauri Empathy, so the only way for them to get worms at the beginning is to recruit them, and that has its limits (as you get more worms, the recruitment chance goes down.)

The Shepherds could do a green conquest, at least in SP (in MP you could end up with an alliance formed to stop them, particularly if you house rule that aliens can't take part in cooperative victory), but I think the more promising style for them would be to take advantage of their fungus production to allow bases to thrive nearly anywhere (once they get gene splicing and centauri empathy, fungus is worth 5 FOP, and it just keeps on increasing) while using worms for a strong defense.

They're definitely a powerful faction; all aliens are, and are supposed to be.  But I don't think they're any worse than the other aliens.

The Destroyers are actually fairly versatile, as long as you're willing to accept that you're not going to use native life.  They're fairly warlike, of course, but they're even better at defense than offense, so a builder strategy would work well for them too.
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[Buster's Uncle]

Somebody's going to have to do up some faction graphics for these.  Could you talk about any ideas at all you might have in that direction?  Green or Pink leaders?  How might the bases be different? Anything at all about logos?  -Stuff like that.

[Yitzi]

About graphics, I have absolutely no clue.  Whoever does the graphics could decide that.

[Buster's Uncle]

Okay, but if a volunteer appears, that morally obligates you not to be too picky...

[Kilkakon]

I would say a +45% mind worm attack is formidable though. Still, sounds like you have done some thinking about it.

[ete]

I'm happy to have a go at the text files for this, if someone wants to do/steal graphics? I like the idea of both.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm game.

[ete]

Made the basic text files, including most flavor text.

Still need to basenames and diplomacy text.

Still looking for graphics here. I'll be happy so long as both are progentors and somehow different from the existing two. Maybe make the Shepards have a native background and Destroyers have a hard metallic background?

[Buster's Uncle]

Post some images?

And if Jarl wants to volunteer in my place, that's okay by me...

[JarlWolf]

I'll have to see on that one BUncle. I don't mind helping out, and I've got experience with a few progenitor factions already, so I may be able to do this one... but I'll need to think about possible structures. Still got to finish up my Wanderers of Chiron and post more for Varshavianka.

Though I am thinking for the Shepards, they should have sort of more naturalistic looking structures: Or ones that look more like native life temples, some fungus mixed in with a Progenitor style settlement perhaps?