UltraCorps News

December 10, 2006: Racial Perks

To some, a significant flaw in UltraCorps has been that all races are exactly the same other than their starting fleets. This is no longer true. We have implemented two racial "perks." The Arachnon and Nozama races both needed buffing; they were among the least popular in Last.

The Arachnon perk deals with the very first issue I ever had with UltraCorps. I played Arachnon in my first game. The racial flavor text had described how the Arachnons delighted in destruction and consumption of their foes . . . and I was quite disappointed to find that was just flavor, with no rules implementation. If I was going to play the Bugs, I wanted to EAT!

The special Arachnon racial ability is now: Whenever the Arachnon destroy population and win the battle, they get an homeworld population bonus of 25% of the destroyed population. (Each time this happens, the Arachnon player will get a notification from his Broodmaster.) We'll see how this works to let the bugs build up their homeworld population at the expense of the planets they pillage.

The Nozama get two perks. First, the Nozama Fighter license will now be free on every Nozama-owned world. This will make it much easier for the Nozama to support and reinforce their Battlesuit Horde! Free licenses will disappear if the world is taken by a different race.

Second, the Nozama also now get a unique unit: the powerful Nozama Queen, which increases the combat ability of Nozama Fighters. Nozama homeworlds start with the license, though they do not start with a Queen. No other race can buy this license, and it vanishes if the world is captured by a non-Nozama.

We'll play with these for a while, and tweak them for balance if necessary, before we consider other racial perks.
-- Steve Jackson

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	December 10, 2006: Racial Perks To some, a significant flaw in *UltraCorps* has been that all races are exactly the same other than their starting fleets. This is no longer true. We have implemented two racial "perks." The Arachnon and Nozama races both needed buffing; they were among the least popular in Last. The Arachnon perk deals with the very first issue I ever had with *UltraCorps. I played Arachnon in my first game. The racial flavor text had described how the Arachnons delighted in destruction and consumption of their foes . . . and I was quite disappointed to find that was just flavor, with no rules implementation. If I was going to play the Bugs, I wanted to EAT! The special Arachnon racial ability is now: Whenever the Arachnon destroy population and win the battle*, they get an homeworld population bonus of 25% of the destroyed population. (Each time this happens, the Arachnon player will get a notification from his Broodmaster.) We'll see how this works to let the bugs build up their homeworld population at the expense of the planets they pillage. The Nozama get two perks. First, the Nozama Fighter license will now be free on every Nozama-owned world. This will make it much easier for the Nozama to support and reinforce their Battlesuit Horde! Free licenses will disappear if the world is taken by a different race. Second, the Nozama also now get a unique unit: the powerful Nozama Queen, which increases the combat ability of Nozama Fighters. Nozama homeworlds start with the license, though they do not start with a Queen. No other race can buy this license, and it vanishes if the world is captured by a non-Nozama. We'll play with these for a while, and tweak them for balance if necessary, before we consider other racial perks. -- Steve Jackson Top • Latest News • All News