[DEVBLOG#315] Exohives, Exoinsects and worms!

Hey everyone and welcome to a brand new devblog. It's a beautiful and sunny day today so I won't be spending too much time at work, but there has been some cute and unique developments that I'd like to talk to you about.

I've been plinking away at Vanilla Gravships Expanded - Chapter 2. Since it's a chapter focused on combat, we couldn't have combat without our own, unique space insectoids. You know, the kind that can survive in cold vacuum. The dangerous kind.

I have originally said that our plan for exo-insectoids is that they should be inspired by H.R. Giger's work. While many expected that we will just replicate the visuals of the Aliens from the Alien franchise, I wanted to go back into the roots of what makes H.R. Giger's work so disturbing.

His work is not just scary monsters. I have read an article that dives deep into his creations and what makes them so disturbing, and it is the bizarre sexuality of his designs. The shapes, the poses, the texture, everything creates this visual that someone referred to as 'personification of sexual assault' and it sort of stuck to me. In fact, the original designs of the Alien creature are borderline pornographic to the point where I'd rather not upload them here to my Patreon.

Of course it's hard to replicate the same feeling in RimWorld. I doubt users would find walking eggplants and schlongs impressive - after all, we all have Alpha Animals for that.

Instead, I think writhing, shiny, polished worms can get a similar point across, especially if their heads were replaced with a 'danger hole'.

I'd like to present to you the Exohives and the Exoinsectoids.

Exohive: A hive of giant insects of an exo-geneline. If activated, it will spawn additional insects and hives over time, as well as valuable insect jelly. It may occasionally move and fight when threatened.

Now exohives are really unique. These hives, when threatened, activate their inner worms and begin to defend themselves. This allows them to reposition to safety as well, and makes for a very interesting new space infestation event, where these exohives simply land on your gravship and move around before setting down in some defensible location.

Exoworm: A large, genetically-engineered worm-like insectoid, adapted to survive in the vacuum of space. Once the worker caste of an artificial ecosystem designed to fight mechanoid invasions, it is now often encountered without its deadlier insectoid cousins. Still, its size and rapidly regenerating body makes it a durable and dangerous foe in combat. A eusocial creature, it cannot reproduce individually.

Exoworms are the primary enemy you will be facing. They are weak, weaker than megascarabs in fact, but they rapidly regenerate, and any wounds you deal to them are bound to be completely healed by the time your next shot lands, so you need to make sure you're really on top of it when it comes to fighting them.

Exopede: A large bioengineered insectoid roughly the size of a deer. The exopede is heavily armored and adapted to survive the frigid vacuum of space, and functions as a middle-caste hive worker, performing most tasks and defending the hive with its powerful appendages. While heavily protected and dangerous in combat, its movement is relatively slow on open ground.

Exopedes are spelopede-sized megapedes, more or less. They are slow and heavily armored. While they don't have the same regeneration capabilities as exoworms, exopedes will gladly tank all your shots.

Exoleech: Not actually a leech, an exoleech is a bioengineered insectoid roughly the size of a bear, adapted to survive the frigid vacuum of space. It possesses an incredibly sharp mouth capable of dealing substantial damage in combat. While heavily protected by thick chitinous armor and deadly at close quarters, It is quite slow in open terrain.

Exoleech is the Exohive's version of a megaspider. They are the warriors of the caste, sporting decent armor and packing a punch with this huge mouth of theirs. They easily penetrate armor with their bites, and have higher armor than the standard megaspider. If you see one in the confines of your gravship, you need to make sure it doesn't reach melee range.

Exoworm knot: A massive, writhing knot of bioengineered exoworms, tangled together in a singular, terrifying entity. Its formidable size and complex, interwoven bodies grant it extreme durability, but damage causes individual exoworms to violently rupture from the mass and continue the fight. Its bite carries a risk of implanting parasitic exoworm larvae, which gestate slowly within the host.

Exoworm knot is the biggest creature in the exohive arsenal. It's a huge knot of many exoworms. When it takes damage, it will eject exoworms from itself - and it can eject up to 8 exoworms before it dies!

What's worse: on bite, it has a chance to spread parasitic infection onto your colonists. If infection reaches 100%, an exoworm will crawl out of the body of your colonist. It won't kill them, but the process will be painful, and who knows what this newly born exoworm will do!

If several exoworms exist together in close proximity, they may converge and form an exoworm knot, which means fighting these collosal monstrosities will be particularly difficult, as they will just keep reforming back into knots.

I think these new insectoids will feel unique enough to make space journeys feel dangerous. They can only be encountered in space, but of course, if you have Vanilla Factions Expanded - Insectoids 2, they will be a new geneline you can have for yourself!

It comes with a unique subcreep substructure type too, which you can use to make insectoid gravships!

Let me know what you think, and I will head off to read a book in the garden! Catch you soon!

The roadmap will arrive in a few days once we nail down our plans!