RE: [SGII] Alien seed

G'day,

> Then the player is able to upgrade some of his force's
> quality and leadership counters according to the dictates
> of the battle.

Defiitely sounds worth pursuing as an alien idea! Having seen some
invert colonies in action I have less of a problem with a hive mind than
Laserlight does ;)

> For example, it could be that the player has a certain number of blue,
> orange and red counters of varying leadership. At the start of a turn,
> he can then substitute some squad's yellow counters for the vet and
elite
> types depending on where he thinks the extra quality is most urgently
needed.
> This represents the hive mind 'personally' tuning in to that area of
the battle
> and directing those particular squads with all the force of its vast
alien will.

I like this idea of just having x chits on the board and shuffling them
about as need be, I think that would produce a very interesting force to
work with and against.

> Another way it could work is by using Node units which act as outposts
> and conduits for the Consciousness. Node units can upgrade the quality
> of a certain number of slave squads within a certain range. E.G. a
Red/1
> Quality/Leadership node could transfer its counter to create one Red
/1
> squad within 12". Or two Red/2 squads or three Red/3 squads. While an
> Orange/2 Node could create one Orange/2 squad within 10" or two
Orange/3 squads.

While also a good idea I think this one would be harder to get to work
"fairly" in practice as its not a linear progression in usefulness as
you move through the leadership values per colour... A Red/1 is not
worth 3xRed/3 as just being red is incredibly important in the first
place and so being 1 rather than 3 isn't that much better.

> Another method might be to give the player Savas'ku style power
points.
> He then distributes these among his squads to raise their base level
quality
> and leadership and perhaps even armour and movement every turn.

While also a cool idea I think this would be more an FMAS level thing as
it would probably bog down an SG game and require a fair amount of book
keeping (I have been trying to think up good ways of avoiding this
particular problem myself, so if you come up with any I'd been keen to
here it!)

> One other thing I'd like to try is to allow the Consciousness
> to override the effects of suppression. Suppressions can be
> cleared if the Hive mind uses its super will to overcome its
> slave's natural instincts. In game terms this means killing a
> member of the squad to remove the suppression. The idea being that the
> imposition of the Hive mind overloads the circuits/neurons of
> one member of the squad who drops down dead but it jolts the
> rest back into action. Seems a suitably callous and alien way
> to go about things.

Not my kinda thing, but yes it would be interesting. Mind you part of
the appeal of your 1st idea to me was having to think about whether you
wanted that Orange-1 over there so you could get some decent long range
fire going or over here so this squad stood a damn good chance of
removing suppression.

Looks good!

Have fun

Beth