A Technological Zerg?

[Kingneo]

Ok I have had a few questions of the Zerg and over the course of several years after playing the game I have made modifications (sort of) that I thought would have made them stronger. So If you can answer any of my questions or if you like my idea and have any comments please respond.

Now the Zerg were able to infect, take host, mutate, and make stronger any create they came into contact with and assimulated, but they could only do this to biological organisms. So my question is how powerful would the Zerg be if they could infect electronic and other highly advance technology?

Taking control and gaining the knowledge of the machines themselves as well as their creators, using the weapons and mutating and incorporating them into other Zerg units, in addition of course to all the hyper powerful capabilities they have access to already.

One moment you could have a dozen wraiths cloaked fighting the Zerg swarms when suddenly you lose contact with them, and days, weeks, months later you see strange winged creatures made by the Zerg that can suddenly fire high concentrated heat and can cloaked! That would be a scary seen to watch huh?

Now once they were able to create such things and infect other forms of technology they could easily, or at least more easily, create better forms of protection, fire power, abilites and anything else. Imagine the Zerg modifying themselves to harness the power of a nulcear facility (the real thing not the building in the game) and using the power to feed themselves or for whatever purpose. Actually imagine the Scourge being modified so that they become living nulcear bombs? Much more deadly than before and death to all threats to the Swarm.

Now another thing I have been thinking what do you think the Zerg could do if the Xel'Naga had incorporated nanotechnology into the Zerg, or the Zerg gained this ability to use such technology later? I see stronger, faster, tougher, Zerg with faster mutations, much grander abilities and possible destruction to all threats of the Zerg, or least great threat to the Zerg.

So what do you think?

[GrassDragon]

I've moved this to the SC forum, I think you'll get a better response there.

[Kingneo]

I've moved this to the SC forum, I think you'll get a better response there.

Thanks I appricate that. I just found out my mistake when I went through the forums again. (Got kind of worried for a sec). Anyway thanks again.:)

Oh by the way how did you move my post? Just curious.

[B1x]

That would Be AWSOME! Just Imagine A Huge Ass Zerg comming at you charging a Yamato about to blow you and your Comrades to HELL!
But that would be unbalanced for the zerg! they would be too strong then. but lets leave game statistics to blizzard.

[Ragnarox]

Cybernetics...

Ok a few problems with this, as B1x addressed. This would massively swing the game in favor of the Zerg. There must be more restrictions on this concept (such as reduced hit points or no special abilities, I don't want the Zerg dropping a nuke on my head). Also, the fact that the Zerg are completely biological is what makes them cool, integrating them with machinary takes away their inate unique qualities.

[Basan]

I think that this maybe even would be more fit in the SC 2 Theories area (http://www.warboards.org/forumdisplay.php?f=20) but wth rocks your boats. :)

Anyway, commenting on the present topic, I think that a cybernetical zerg would ruin their ID'ing trait. :P Copying genes and assimilating'em into the Swarm is powerful enough, imo.

[LordOfNukes]

He was able to move your thread because he's a moderator.

Imagine an Zerg sending genetic information via radiowaves, mutating everything in the radius of the source into a Zerg creature. That would not be pleasant.

Nor would it make for a balanced game, >_<

[King_Critter]

Turning the scourge into a living nuke sounds awsome! To bad I didn't think of it first... :cry:

[Giantfish]

Aren't infested command centers something like that?

[Darklord]

"Captain, we're picking up unusual lifeform readings..."
"Unusual? In what way, Data?"
"Well, Sir, they seem to mutate with an incredible speed. And..."
"What, Data?"
"...it's coming from the warp cores, Sir."
** WARNING: Computer system integrity compromised. Anomalous operations detected
"Computer, what is going on?"
** Foreign influence detected in memory banks, navigations subsy... *gargle, sputter, growl*
"Data, can you find out what is going on? ...Data?"
"Sir, alien spores have rooted themselves in my poosssiittrroonniicc bbbbbbrrrrraaaaaaaiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn. ... For Overmind!"
"Data! Number One, take Data down to... Live for the Swarm!"
"Captain! ...Riker to Sick Bay!"
"Dr. Crusher here."
"Doctor, it's the cap... I am Zerg!"
"Riker? What is going... Prepared to die!"

[Three months later]

"Admiral Janeway, our scanners have picked up a ship that reads as the Enterprise. But... You had better see this for yourself."
"Oh my God, what happened to them? It is covered in..."
"Yes, Admiral. For Overmind!"

*BOOM!*

[Kingneo]

Cybernetics...

Ok a few problems with this, as B1x addressed. This would massively swing the game in favor of the Zerg. There must be more restrictions on this concept (such as reduced hit points or no special abilities, I don't want the Zerg dropping a nuke on my head). Also, the fact that the Zerg are completely biological is what makes them cool, integrating them with machinary takes away their inate unique qualities.

Well this was more of a what if than should they thing. But I guess if you wanted to actually have this and find a way to balance this all you would have to do is this.

A) Make it so that they would have to infect a functioning machine, but the machine would have to badly damaged (just like the Queen and the Command Centers).

B) Now going with A, you could also make a metamorphious phase so that say an infected Wraith would be turn into a Zerg Wraith. This would all take time and it would give an oppontent at least some time to regroup to deal another blow to the Zerg before it is created say taking a spore colony or destroy it (The Zerg Wraith).

C) Now going with all this you could make it so that a specialized unit is needed to do such a thing such as say a further evolved Queen, which would take minerals. Then you could say that infecting a wraith or a battleship also binds the evolved queen to the machine so in order to infect further units you would have to create another queen, evolve it, then find and damage the machine to the point where it is going to explode, bind it with the evolved queen, have it change into a Zerg. After all that though you would be open for business.

But donig all this would take time (finding the enemy you want and creating and evolving the queen), specific planning (creating units to capture the enemy, making units to defend the machine after it is infected and changing, then making a path way to bring it make to the colony), and resources (maknig the queen, evolving the queen, creatng the units to defend, creating the units to capture). With all this I doubt anyone would try this is mass production unless they were really, and I do mean really, good at doing just that.

Now with all that I would make something like an assimilation chamber, which a zerg could create using a drone, and basically what his structure would do is collect all the machines and consume them. By consuming them they could create a DNA structure to create the machine that you wanted. The catch though is that you must collect and consume a certain amount to create such a thing. And the more complex the machine the more of them that will be needed to be consumed by the chamber. So you might need 5 to create a Zerg Wraith and 10 for a Zerg Battlecruiser.

Then you could have it that the Zerg don't have access to the special abilites of the infected and utated machines unless the machines they infected already had them. So unless the wraith the evolved Zerg infected had clocking already, the Zerg Wraith would not have it either.So I think that took care of the balance issue.

By the way I don't know if having the Zerg being able to infect machines as well would take away the flavor of the game. I mean capture, infect, mutate, and evolve in kind of straight forward, and that is what they are about. Now if it made you feel better the units they infected would become biological in nature, so nukes would still hurt like they did before, and they would be able to heal just like other zerg.

Good balance? Bad balance?

Your Friend
Kingneo

[mongoose41]

You mean like Infested Stargate that builds Infested Carriers that shoot scrouges?

[Ragnarox]

Kingneo: I appreciate your imput, although I do believe that you yourself mentioned that the entire concept based upon your information renders the idea impractical to all but the highly experienced. Although the way you explained it pictures the concept not effecting the realm on a power to power ratio, it does effect the game in that the Zerg now have dozens more units they can possibly create. Combine this with the impractical use and the only thing this results in is raising the complexity of the game, something which many gamers would not appreciate.

I also have some questions about your concepts. This 'Assimilation Chamber' would it automatically collect assimilated enemy units or would you have to send them there yourself?

If and when the 'Assimilation Chamber' has acquired enough resources and machines to begin reproducing the infested units, where will each unit be created? If they are created at the chamber itself, wouldn't that add yet another highly productive facility to the Zerg's already incredibly fast Hives?

[Kingneo]

Kingneo: I appreciate your imput, although I do believe that you yourself mentioned that the entire concept based upon your information renders the idea impractical to all but the highly experienced. Although the way you explained it pictures the concept not effecting the realm on a power to power ratio, it does effect the game in that the Zerg now have dozens more units they can possibly create. Combine this with the impractical use and the only thing this results in is raising the complexity of the game, something which many gamers would not appreciate.

Ok first of all sorry for not posting this sooner, kind of forgot sorry. Any yeah you are right Ragnarox most players would not want to add more complexity to the game, but really who plays the Zerg and does not expect to have to be inventive to win missions, which is complex? But again you are right many people would not want to add more complexity to it, but hey you really don't have to use it, you just have the option of using it.

And again with the right stuff I think a character would definately like to use it even if they can only use it for fun, hey it is a game after all. I mean who is going to pass up trying to take a battleship with a yamato cannon and use it against someone?:D But ehh. To each his own.

I also have some questions about your concepts. This 'Assimilation Chamber' would it automatically collect assimilated enemy units or would you have to send them there yourself?

Ok for the assimilation chamber the newly infected enemy units would have to be sent yourself, just like you have to pick the unit you want to consume to replenish your energy. This would allow someone to freely use a enemy unit or use it to further the swarm.

If and when the 'Assimilation Chamber' has acquired enough resources and machines to begin reproducing the infested units, where will each unit be created? If they are created at the chamber itself, wouldn't that add yet another highly productive facility to the Zerg's already incredibly fast Hives?

It would be created at the hive. The assimilation chamber would have devoured and reconfigured a grand form of DNA to be used to as a gene pool to create enemy units, but like all Zerg units the enemy units would be created at the hive. This would reduce the speed of creating the units, since the creation of the enemy unit would be the same as creating a normal version. This would at least make a person think twice when creating such a being.

Oh also if a person thought that since the Zerg got a whole lot better after gaining such a thing you could always have the Protoss and Terrans gain more as well?

Anyway hope to talk to you later.

Your Friend
Kingneo

[MidnightGladius]

Interesting concept, I would say, but as you've all already pointed out, it would be highly impractical and cause a huge balance upset, unless balanced by something equally bizarre.

[Spartan-II]

The Zerg were created for purity of essence. Integrating machinery is the exact antithesis of that, and thus would not be acceptable by the Overmind.

(This wordy explanation brought to you by Spartan-II, he makes you dead!)

[B.A.Baracus]

The Zerg were created for purity of essence. Integrating machinery is the exact antithesis of that, and thus would not be acceptable by the Overmind.

(This wordy explanation brought to you by Spartan-II, he makes you dead!)

But the Ovymind is dead Spartan ;)

[Ktan]

True, but the Will of the Overmind is probably enduring and machines are not made up of DNA so this cannot be integrated.
Perhaps infesting Pilots etc as an alternative to Spawn Broodling.

[SarahK]

hmmm Xenoborg...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/xolademoness/xenoborg2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/xolademoness/xenoborg.jpg


"An X1A4 xenoborg-- a xenomorph with a backpack reactor powering its cybernetic systems -- A laser is mounted where the xenoborg's right eye should be; the skull glows under its translucent cowling because a cable runs through it to power the laser. The exoskeleton is imbued with titanium alloys to strengthen it. Its prosthetic arms are strong enough to handle the recoil of a right forearm-mounted M134 and its left forearm-mounted MK19 40 mm grenade launcher; the acid-resistant ammo boxes are mounted on its upper arms."

silly idea tho ultimately, would just make zerg too overpowered. but you have to then invent an excuse as to why kerrigan wouldn't due it - she's obviously had enough terran technology captured by now, countless science facilities..

[Ktan]

Mooohoooo?
Where the hell did that come from?

[SarahK]

hmmm Xenoborg...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/xolademoness/xenoborg2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/xolademoness/xenoborg.jpg

"An X1A4 xenoborg-- a xenomorph with a backpack reactor powering its cybernetic systems -- A laser is mounted where the xenoborg's right eye should be; the skull glows under its translucent cowling because a cable runs through it to power the laser. The exoskeleton is imbued with titanium alloys to strengthen it. Its prosthetic arms are strong enough to handle the recoil of a right forearm-mounted M134 and its left forearm-mounted MK19 40 mm grenade launcher; the acid-resistant ammo boxes are mounted on its upper arms."

silly idea tho ultimately, would just make zerg too overpowered. but you have to then invent an excuse as to why kerrigan wouldn't due it - she's obviously had enough terran technology captured by now, countless science facilities..But the Ovymind is dead Spartan ;)Yeah, and kerrigan is clever and will do anything she can to increase combat effectiveness, just like the former overmind but with even less constraints ;)

I mean come on, the defiler eats other zerg for energy - they will do ANYTHING for more power

Mooohoooo?
Where the hell did that come from?from the Aliens versus Predator games and films y'know the PRETTY ALIENS (like the zerg) :)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/AVP_Xenomorph.jpg

[Ktan]

Still, I'd rather have a pet Zergling than a Facehugger. We all know waht the latter can do to you...
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=108

[SarahK]

yeah and if you're tough enough to survive a non-standard infestation (aka the Islamic Backpack zerg type) it's actually beneficial for you ^_^

[Ktan]

yeah and if you're tough enough to survive a non-standard infestation (aka the Islamic Backpack zerg type) it's actually beneficial for you ^_^
...lmao...
A good point though, would the Zerg just use such tech as a kamikaze style weapon instead? That's why they use the Terrans that way, since only potent psychics *cough* KERRIGAN *cough* are any use to them against the Protoss.
Let's be honest, the Terrans are mostly just in the way, as far as the Zerg are concerned.