RE: [SG/DS] Help designing aliens

G'day,

>What are important things to address?

Command and control
Morale
Armour
Direct fire
Melee 

and not necessarily in that order ;)
 
>What should I avoid?

Being the absolute best (or worst) at all of the above.
 
>Any short-cuts?

Use the humans as a basis and then make modifications from there always
remembering for every up add a down. This can be an iterative process as
somethings that at face value are an up can turn around and play out to
be a
substantial down!

Given the general outline you provided I think Brendan's suggestions are
pretty close to what I would've put forward too. You'll find that even
such
a simple list of changes will modify how you play. Being forced to get
so
close to fire effectively means you're probably more likely to end up
charging into HTH where you have a potential advantage anyway... which
can
match the "rhinos have bad eyesight so attack/appear cranky" perception
etc.

Cheers

Beth