Creature Contest: The Demented

[dazoline II]

A race of creatures that normally inhabits the interior of stars quietly feeding off the abundance of Hydrogen there. This race has no known life limit and is effectively immortal at least on normal time lines. They exist in a pure energy state and seem to be able to travel between the stars at very slow movement rates. Normally their interaction with the rest of the universe (the player races) is minimal execept when a star goes nova while the creatures still occupy that sun. This seems to distort their rather (assumed) peaceful nature and turn them into demented creatures.

These are the Demented, pure energy beings that wander the galaxy in search of a sufficient hydrogen source to allow them to feed after they have been ejected by the force of a nova's explosion. They tend to attach themselves to ships and bases using hydrogen fuel near super novae and sometime very rarely travelling in the void between the stars. After attaching themselves to a ships Hydrogen fuel or cargo they drain the gas at 10x the burn rate. Cargo is effectively reduced by 1/10 per day.

The only known way of ridding a ship of these creatures is to pilot it close enough to a larger source of hydrogen than the current ship has. Once close enough the creatures will migrate to the source, which could be a new ship or base. Usually this source is a star but in the void of space can be another ship with a larger fuel source. After draining a ship of its hydrogen the creatures will tend to wander off into space as they seem attracted by the low level existance of hydrogen in space.

Its rumored that some creatures feed on Caslon and Hydrogen.

[Shuul]

It will take too much of micromanagement to counter this creature.

[Angry Alien]

I am not sure about the micromanagement, but I like the idea. As I can see it one might use these creatures as a weapon. Maybe it could be possible to actually collect them with a carrier and then bring this carrier close to an enemies ships etc to drain fuel/ressources - softening him up for the main attack this way.

Sounds like fun to me.

[Igard]

I agree about the micromanagment, but I'm intrigued by this idea. I'm sure something else could be done to rid the creatures. Perhaps a certain star type that would be to their suitability? Red creatures can be 'dropped off' at red stars, white ones are atracted to white stars etc.[:)]

[tjhkkr]

This is cool too.

[dazoline II]

Making them susceptible to some type of weapon, maybe the death ray would help out a bit with "defeating" them.

My original idea was to make it a bit of a gamble to create research and vacation bases near nova's as these things could make a real graveyard of abandoned ships/bases over time.

Since their energy creatures they could add +5 to research while they are eatinghydrogen at a research facility due to their radiant presence.


Weponizing them is a cool side effect where you could build a ship as a giant gas tank, pick a few up and drop them off at your favourate enemies outpost.



Thanks for the comments.