UTOPIA - The Creation of a Nation

Foreword

This is one of my favourite Amiga games. Back then, they were kind of still experimenting with the RTS genre, which made the games interesting if nothing else. Utopia is not as fast paced as the typical modern RTS. It's more focused on the Sim City-like colony management, research, trading, spying and hanging around with the aliens in the command center. The enemy base is off-screen and once your units are been sent there they were out of your control (some kind of algorithm determines damage/victory). Enemies stream in from the edges of the screen so it's important to place turrets and tanks strategically around your base.

I like this focus on base building over troop management. I'd like to be able to play each game differently... find diplomatic solutions to conflicts, go for scientific progress, experiment with various goverment styles, or my favourite: turtling! Turtling like there's no tomorrow! That could be one way to win the game, a sort of pseudo-pacifistic diplomatic solution. I can't really think of a lot of open ended RTS games. Alpha Centauri perhaps?

Aside from the obvious improvement one could make to the game, such as graphics and GUI/flow. I'd like to see:

There were actually two Utopia games, Utopia, the creation of a nation (Along with an expansion called The New Worlds) and Utopia 2, K240, which was a bit different from the first game as you play on in an asteroid field. Anyways, here are some Utopia screenshots:

Utopia Amiga Screenshot

Game title screen with nice music!

Utopia Amiga Screenshot

A late game colony.

Utopia Amiga Screenshot

Finding stuff out about the Foralbos...

Utopia Amiga Screenshot

The command center has a lot of fun aliens to talk to. You don't play as humans, but rather an amalgam of species, pitted against a group of presumably evil aliens, if we are to believe the propaganda.

Utopia Amiga Screenshot

Actually, the aliens are more like buttons which show colony stats, but I like this style of fleshing out the setting of the game.

Utopia Amiga Screenshot

The Soomanii are wrecking my colony.

Utopia Amiga Screenshot

Look at all of my adorable little tanks!

More reference: Utopia command center aliens and Utopia intro slides, Utopia Instruction Booklet art.

Dumping the reference material

The texts and graphics seen on this page were extracted from the Utopia scenario disks. The text paragraphs are not in the same order as in the game, and some redundant text has been omitted here. There might also be some stuff which is development leftovers and is never seen in the game. I extracted the graphics with a tool that I wrote for the occasion (back in 2007 I believe). The graphics are 5 Bit Planes (32 color), but some have a 1 bit opacity mask. It took a while to figure out how the stuff was stored... I thought it was IFF RLE ("PackBits") but it turned out that there was no compression on the Scenario disks. I found some headers and which my program could read and use to extract the variable height stuff (terrain and vehicles).

The Game Disk however appears to be packed somehow, and I've had no success with it. It contains the graphics for the Intro slides, Tech slides, Reward slides, Title image, Command Center image, Buildings and Units. I did manage to extract some things from an uncompressed .USS file (WinUAE save state).

Below: Terrain from both scenario disks. Also see Big graphics dump for all of the alien spy images and vehicles which otherwise appears separate later in this doc.

Below: Buildings and units from the .USS file, the terrain is redundant.

My makeover

2006 art. The bulbous War ship, Fusion Cruiser, Combat Eagle fighter and some tanks are somewhat close to the ones in the game, but most of my designs are a little off. I tried to cover civilian, construction, fire dept. and security vehicles and went overboard. I think as my vocabulary grows I'm able to do designs which are closer to the originals. It's easier to quickly find a similar phrase, so to speak. With a smaller vocabulary, it's easy to resort to the usual words and... a "screw likeness I just want to draw something cool" mentality.

Aliens

Index - Original

Story extract: You performed more than admirably, and as a consequence we are offering you the role of Colony Leader in the proposed colonisation of the Omicron-Kappa planets orbiting the Rhebus sun. Now this is going to be a difficult task, which involves the colonisation of ten planets. Unfortunately, Rhebus is on the edge of the Open Systems, and as such, the chances of the Vacullo Federation having outbases there are pretty good.

  1. ELDORIANS
  2. VROARSCANS
  3. SOOMANII
  4. KAL-KRIKEN
  5. CATALYTES
  6. SQUIZ-QUIJY
  7. PASCALENES
  8. TILIKANTHUA
  9. VANACANCIA
  10. LUCRATIANS

Index - The New Worlds

Story missing?

  1. FORALBOS
  2. PARILLATIANS
  3. CHEVANNO
  4. OLDWORLDERS
  5. SAL-KADEEM
  6. SARTURIANS
  7. RAKO-GORDA
  8. KEY-GUARDIANS
  9. DARJAKR'UL
  10. TEMARKIANS

Eldorians

Utopia graphics

They call themselves the Eldorians and resemble giant insects around seven feet tall. They have a dark and leathery skin, and large bulbous eyes. They walk upright, and have two pairs of hands and arms.

They have wings, and are able to fly. They use their flying ability as the main means of travelling, and there seems to be little evidence of any other means of transport.

They are fairly primitive, only being at tech level 1, and are probably quite a few years, even decades, from advancing very much.

We have more information concerning the society. It is a patriarchal society, although the young are expected to make their own way from the time they reach six years of age.

One strange custom is their ritual of disposing of the dead. When an Eldorian dies, their body is prepared for several days, then cooked, and then the family will eat the body.

This is, they believe, a way of absorbing the knowledge and experience of the dead Eldorian.

The Eldorian weaponry at the moment is very primitive, and relies on their ability to fly. Most of their weapons are airborne, and are explosives dropped from a height.

Be warned - whilst they sound fairly inneffective, they do seem to have developed some highly sophisticated explosives.

We can confirm that a ground attack vehicle is being developed, and prototypes have been produced. From the information we have, we are assuming that these vehicles will be very basic, and not up to sustained combat.

The city seems to resemble a large hive set into the rock.

We have detected flying shapes moving between the buildings. Could these be the aliens themselves perhaps?

We have discovered special enclosures within their city where they seem to be manufacturing explosives on a grand scale. They appear to be refining a liquid secreted from glands about their necks.

We have scored direct hits upon several of their explosives manufacturing plants. Enormous destruction was caused by their exploding.

My makeover

Eldorian concept art

Flipped one of the planes around to give it more of a dragonfly look, these guys being bugs and all.

Index of aliens


Vroarscans

Utopia graphics

The Vroarscans are humanoid creatures, with a large amount of brown body hair. They are not incredibly well developed technically, probably being somewhere around 18th century Earth standards.

For food they eat whatever they can capture and kill, cooking it with little imagination. They are also a very superstitious race, and have a strange ritualistic religion.

We have learned more about the social structure of the Vroarscans, and we suspect that this information could prove relevant. The Vroarscans are an incredibly agressive race, and most disputes, whether over money, property, honour or anything, seem to be settled by the arguing parties beating the hell out of each other until only one remains standing.

This is then accepted as the legally binding settlement of the dispute. Very strange, but it does tell us something about their mentality and attitudes.

We have learned some information about the weaponry favoured by the Vroarscans. As said before, they are very agressive, and given to hand to hand fighting on a regular basis.

Further examination has shown that this fighting follows strict ritualistic rules, and would be largely ineffective in genuine combat. They have a selection of ground craft. These are very old petrol driven vehicles, with guns and possibly feeble missile launchers mounted on them.

They also seem to have mastered gliding as a means of travelling by air, and given the atmosphere and gravity of this planet, this could also be utilised in a war situation.

Their city is a ramshackle affair, the houses made mostly from the unprocessed materials available on hand, for example caves, or buildings carved out of the rock.

The city sprawls over much of the countryside, seemingly built with no overall design.

Most buildings are separated by wide roadways and open areas. This low building density could limit the destruction capability of our attacks.

We have identified Priests amongst the Vroarscan people, who seem to have a great deal of say in political issues. They are taking a personal hand in the development of technology.

Index of aliens


Soomanii

Utopia graphics

The alien community is located in the side of huge ice cliffs, some four hundred metres high. They live in great caves hollowed out of the cliff face.

We have not yet had a good glimpse of the aliens, but we have certainly heard them; deafening shrieks emanating from within the caves, which echo between the cliff faces for many minutes.

Deep within the caves we have at last had a good look at the aliens. They resemble a beetle in all aspects except size, for these monsters are some two metres long.

We have also found a well guarded chamber in one of the caves. We believe it may hold some form of queen, but an all-out assault would be required to breach the alien defence. The noise from this part of the cave is unbelievable.

Occasionally they leave the caves in small groups of about five. They unfurl great wings and fly off from the city fast and low, unfortunately this makes them impossible to track.

We have captured one of the aliens, which proved responsive to our communication methods. The creatures are Soomaniis, they have a strange language consisting of clicks and shrieks.

Whatever is within the guarded chamber is still unknown. The captured Soomanii chose death rather then tell us more, however, our geological tests show the chamber is some eighty metres across.

Our tests have also shown many more similar chambers, and on internal examination these have proved similarly defended.

Recently we have noticed a new type of Soomanii, even bigger than the others and heavier armoured. They do no work in the caves and we think they may be a form of war beetle, for use on us.

These combat biased Soomanii are slower than the others we have seen, and some seem unable to fly. However, they are very tough and are appearing in ever increasing numbers.

We have forced our way into one of the large chambers. As expected, we encountered huge bloated queen. Unprotected, it proved no trouble to us and was easily destroyed.

Great numbers of the Soomaniis have been slaughtered by our forces. At night the cliffs are haunted by their anguished shrieks, as they mourn their loss.

My makeover

Soomani concept art

These tanky beetles could fire lasers out of their eyes. Not sure why I gave mine a gun, then. Maybe it's a net gun, or it serves some exotic purpose.

Index of aliens


Kal-Kriken

Utopia graphics

The city consists of enormous sticky webs strung between neighbouring rocks. At this distance, we estimate that each strand in the web is as thick as a human arm.

We can see great spiders moving over the web, but have no idea as yet whether they are the alien race or its beasts of burden.

There seem to be caves set into the black rock at the ends of the webs.

We have encountered a race of gigantic spiders, that appear to be able to grow to the size of a small vehicle. Most of them are bigger than a human and are covered in thick fur. They are intelligent and call themselves the Kal-Kriken.

Their six limbs are capable of manipulating equipment with precision, and they possess many tools, storing them in harnesses strapped to their bodies.

Their vision seems superior to that of normal arachnids, and they possess a limited but effective mode of vocal communication. They are very gregarious creatures, often holding impromptu meetings out on the webs.

We have identified several types of spider in the city. The largest are the workers who tend the webs and hack caves from the rock using picks and mallets.

The others appear to labour under the supervision of the workers for an entire day, and then have the following day to themselves. Much of it is spent eating and holding meetings.

Deep within the largest cave, we have discovered a queen spider protected by guards and surrounded by her eggs. She is fully as large as one of our warship craft!

Their weaponry is limited to conventional firearms mounted upon primitive vehicles. Mostly, they use a ground vehicle powered by the wind in its gigantic sails, rather like an ancient sailing vessel. Its hull is armoured with a shiny substance.

We have evidence that they are developing limited-range aircraft, which they can launch from the top of the highest rocks.

They may also possess a kind of liquid sprayer, capable of spraying corosive acids over our own vehicles.

To our horror, they have left our spy stuck in the webs, for their young to feed upon.

One of our spaceships was mysteriously blasted from the air.

We suspect that some kind of missile was launched by the Kal-Kriken, yet we have seen no evidence of electronics in their society.

Index of aliens


Catalytes

Utopia graphics

The Catalytes, as they call themselves, are a tall, slow moving and very quiet race. They seem to communicate by telepathy, and have a strange fascination with triangular shapes and motifs.

They have a very regimented routine, with regular cycles that are followed religiously. Their skin is white, very smooth and featureless, and they have very large eyes.

In the centre of the city is a giant marble obelisk, which appears to be the focus of their worships and routines.

We have found it difficult to discover further information. Very little appears to be written down, and what is written is difficult to decipher. We are guessing that they have an inbuilt means of storing and deciphering more than just words in their documents, making our efforts largely futile.

We continue to be amazed by the relevance of the triangle to their society, which borders on the religiously irrational. We would not be surprised, therefore, if the symbolism occured in their military activities too.

As in much of their culture, they have employed the triangle in their military development. As far as we can tell, they have developed both ground and air crafts, both modelled on the triangle.

Neither appear to have any weaponry mounted externally, but this is perhaps because our information is limited.

It is possible that they use sonic or light based weaponry.

They appear to be constructing another large obelisk in their city. We have no idea why.

An underground pipeline is being laid between it and the original obelisk.

We have discovered that the obelisk serves some power gathering function, and is heavily guarded.

My makeover

catalytes

I divided this one up into a rice grain creature and robot slave so the text description matches the appearance.

Index of aliens


Squiz-Quijy

Utopia graphics

Their city consists of regular formations of geometric shapes, cubes, pyramids, spheres, cones, etc. These patterns stretch for as far as the eye can see.

In many places there are stacks of these shapes, one upon another.

Up close, the shapes are between one and six metres high, and perfectly smooth with no visible joins.

From the air the patterns join to form other patterns on a larger scale, perhaps one kilometre across.

There is ample space to drive a tank between every shape. In fact, the gaps between shapes remains exactly the same, no matter where we go in the city.

Some of the blocks do have markings on their surface, forming some kind of writing. It is remarkably similar in syntax to our own. From it we have discovered the aliens call themselves the Squiz-Quijy.

The writings also mention how crowded their city is and how gregarious the people are, but we have seen no evidence of anyone. Are they long dead?

We have no idea what the aliens look like, but extra resources are being marshalled to find this information.

We have discovered the aliens in their city! The mystery is resolved. Every one of the geometric shapes is an alien, and they are not the buildings as we previously thought. We have seen the shapes move around and group to form new patterns.

They communicate either by direct physical contact, or by a weird whistling in the ultrasound range. We have no idea of their internal structure or how they move without altering their precise shape.

Those shapes who possess surface writings appear to be the archivists of the Squiz-Quijy. They are responsible for recording their history upon their own bodies.

The aliens possess no physical weaponry. One or two of our vehicles have been crushed when a sphere rolled over them, so perhaps this is their means of attack.

Further investigation shows that some of them can mutate themselves into a cloud of energy that can move freely along the ground or through the air. In this form it is likely that they could utterly destroy our vehicles.

Certain shapes gather into a pile with a small gap in one side. We find it suspicious that these gaps all point towards our colony.

We have reports of large numbers of the aliens rolling towards our colony at an ever increasing speed.

Before being vaporised, one of our units reported being the target of a beam of energy fired from the holes in the alien piles. This particle beam is superior to anything we possess.

Index of aliens


Pascalenes

Utopia graphics

The Pascalenes are a very strange race. They appear, to all intents and purposes, to be exactly like the fairies of ancient European mythology.

They have an amazing ability to alter size, from around thirty centimetres tall to over three metres tall. They live in tree houses, and can fly, though they seem to dislike moving around on the planet's surface.

Furthermore, they are extremely silent when they move, and several times our spies have almost been detected by an alien flying quietly past their hiding place.

The city seems composed of enormous tree houses, towering above the planet's surface.

Infiltrating the city is going to be extremely difficult.

Above the city is a huge canopy which practically covers the entire city. We are unable to establish whether this is any more than a weather shield or camouflage.

Whatever purpose the canopy serves, the Pascalenes pay it a great deal of attention, and it is always a hive of activity.

We have been unable to view the events upon the canopy, but suspect it may be the site of their weaponry.

We have some ideas about the canopy. We witnessed a saucer like craft leave the city and descent to harvest grass. It then flew above the canopy and dropped the grass onto it. It is possible that they use the canopy to rear cattle or other beasts for food.

We suspect though, that it might be some kind of giant herbivorous bird.

At night we can hear the sound of flapping wings coming from the canopy. We will put every effort into discovering what beast lives up there.

Their 'harvester' saucers have hidden weapons. We were foolish enough to leave one of our vehicles in sight, and it rushed across and proceeded to destroy it using powerful flamethrowers.

We have also seen giant balloon ships tethered to their tree houses, and witnessed the aliens loading great metal tanks aboard. We suspect they could operate a similar flamethrower from the balloon.

One of our best spies is convinced he has overheard two Pascalenes discussing details of a long-distance missile.

My makeover

Pascalenes concept art

The Pascalenes are not actually a race, but a tree which has assimilated a number of species which it can grow as fruits. The blue humanoid creatures were originally a single sexually dimorphic species assimilated by the tree and twisted into the sterile worker giants and nimble scout fairies. While intelligent, they are now fully focused on protecting and serving the tree, placed under a giant cupola. A dragon also resides within.

The fairies are armed with a poison needle gun, whilst the large brutes are armed with their raw strength and war-balloon construction skills.

There's also another intelligent life form on the planet, the black monoliths, but they are too slow to pose any threat. Their movement appears to have formed the canals long ago, but now they are in a state of rest.

I like the Montgolfier/Blanch/Lunardi vibe which I get from this species, so I played that up in my interpretation. Could've matched the colors a bit better but I got excited about balloon patterns and chinese dragons.

Index of aliens


Tilikanthua

Utopia graphics

Their city is a tortuous tangle of towers, spires and splindly pathways suspended between them at great heights.

There are no visible supports for these pathways, nor any sense of direction or order. The city is best described as chaotic.

The spires themselves appear to lean at unnatural angles. The entire sight is very disconcerting and puzzling.

There are no roads as such, just a warren of alleyways and blind corners. It is frightening.

We have ascended onto some of the hanging pathways. They twist around many spires before entering a tower or spire, with no door, just a mammoth archway.

On almost every surface are carved mysterious runes, which we have been unable to decipher as yet. It is definately a detailed language, but its form has a sinister look to it.

Our first encounter with the Tilikanthua was horrific. The thing we met along an alley was from our worst nightmares. It was a shapeless blob of pulsating flesh with bulbous, veined eyes. We were lucky it did not see us.

Every creature is different, little more than a mass of flesh that stretches into tentacles whenever the creature needs one. Many have multiple eyes, whilst others have eyes on stalks. The number of mouths varies between none and four.

They shamble along at such a slow pace it is difficult to think of them as a threat, but their tentacles are surprisingly swift.

We have found few movable objects in the city. They have no need for furniture and the only tools they possess are metal spikes used for carving the walls.

Their population is growing, as though we have awakened them from a deep stasis. It is terrifying to think of how many more of them might be emerging from the deep catacombs beneath the city.

We have also seen a type of large jellyfish that can drift with the air currents through the sky.

There is no evidence of vehicles or weaponry. They possess no technology at all.

We have observed them hunting indiginous creatures. They have no need for weapons, they simply envelop and absorb their prey.

We have now seen Tilikanthua as large as one of our tanks.

It is demoralising to watch them swarm over our vehicles and crush them as we would an insect.

They also possess the ability to snatch our aircraft from the sky, with a fast and well-aimed tentacle.

We have identified a weakness. When we damage parts of their city, they swarm about eager to repair the damage, thus aborting their attacks upon us.

My makeover

Tilikanthua

*cough* Shoggoths *cough*

Index of aliens


Vanacancia

Utopia graphics

The city is very dark and oppressive, its towering buildings blocking out the light even in the middle of the day.

The aliens scurry between buildings as if afraid. Loitering on the streets appears to be taboo. This could be due to the numerous guards who roam the city shooting offenders on sight. Their system of justice is swift and harsh.

They call themselves the Vanacancia. They are humanoid in appearance but corpse-like and horrifically mutated, within their all-covering black cowls. We have witnessed some of them holding conversations without speech, and suspect that they possess telepathic abilities.

Every one of their buildings carries a unique number and no other means of identification. This could hamper our attempts to locate key installations.

We are unable to identify the male and female of the species, and suspect that they are hermaphrodites. It is also both strange and sinister that we have seen no children anywhere in the city.

Our spies have witnessed what seems to be the chief pastime of the Vanacancians. In a large chamber at the top of the tallest building stand row upon row of consoles that the aliens sit in and plug themselves into.

Cables and piping snake around the chamber, supplying life support functions to the aliens who sit at the consoles for days at a time. Monitor screens relay what is happening, but we can make no sense of the rapidly changing images.

The aliens seem addicted to these consoles and feel the need to visit them every week. They go away refreshed and revitalised, and double their output at work the next day. If they used the consoles prior to an attack on us, I fear they would be unstoppable.

They possess powerful energy weapons capable of vaporising personnel and small vehicles. These weapons are mounted on all of their attack craft.

We witnessed a demonstration of the strength of the armour that they build into their vehicles. It is far superior to anything we possess. Many of our men are working hard to infiltrate their weapons laboratories and steal the secret.

They also possess an enormous combat robot that walks on two legs. It stands ten metres high and is virtually unstoppable, able to trample on vehicles without slowing.

The aliens have a very carefully constructed missile defense system. It is impervious to all attempts to jam it, and is destroying most of our air fleet.

My makeover

Vanacancia

These undead Orwellian lads who apparently have at their disposal a large combat mech, which I have never seen as I haven't survived that long.

Index of aliens


Lucratians

Utopia graphics

The city we have discovered is very hi-tech. Tall skyscrapers weave across the sky, and numerous vehicles hover between them.

Much of the city appears to be under construction. Enormous robots are working at a great pace. The architecture is stylish, but also somehow strangely familiar.

The situation is extremely serious. The life forms discovered are Lucratians! Our most feared inter-galactic enemy is already colonising this planet. There is no doubt our lives are in great danger.

We must be prepared for an attack as soon as possible, the Lucratians are a sadistic race of natural warriors. Their reptile bodies are strong and agile, their minds are cunning and wise.

They have invented new forms of neural torture, more painful than imaginable, and without actual bodily damage there is no death to end the suffering of the hopeless victim.

Lucratians are incapable of feeling pain, they do not know the meaning of fear, and their insatiable lust for glory drives them to wanton destruction of all others.

We can only hope that their colony is yet to reach full strength, and we can find some way to defeat them. There is no chance to live in peace whilst they are here.

The Lucratians have a large offensive capability, both ground and air forces combining to good effect. Much of their military strategy is thought out and controlled by massive, sophisticated computers.

Their city is well defended by powerful anti-aircraft lasers and airbourne mines. Our ground forces will face super-tech tank divisions, extensive infantry support and more.

Also towering combat robots are being prepared for battle. Extensive missile depots are evident, and a superior strike aircraft has been developed.

The Lucratian warriors are jubilant, our attack has been crushed. Amidst hideous scenes of depravation they drink the blood of our people and mock the tormented agony of their captives.

We have with great courage succeeded in weakening the Lucratian defence. If your inspired leadership continues we may yet have a chance to rid the planet of these despicable savages.

Index of aliens


Foralbos

Utopia graphics

Hidden within the world's hot sands we have found a vast community of large Caterpillars. Apparently endless tunnels go deep into the land. These creatures could prove to be a threat to our colony.

There are great numbers of these Caterpillars and they seem extremely hungry for the limited desert plant life. This means they are always on the move looking for food. Not good news, on average these creatures are ten metres long.

We have carried out some tests on captured Caterpillars. A concerning find is their partiality to the taste of raw meat, so much so it works them into a crazed frenzy.

We have discovered the creatures are intelligent. They are called Foralbos, and are not happy that we have been experimenting on them.

On the other hand they seem excited about the prospect of sampling more meat. It would appear quite likely that we are on their menu and should be prepared to defend ourselves.

The Foralbos have sharp mandibles which are capable of cutting through almost anything. Our vehicular armour will probably prove vulnerable at close range so let's hope they don't get that close.

On the back of some of the creatures we have noticed strange glands. As yet we have no idea of the purpose of these glands, though we have noticed they appear to be expanding.

Some of the Foralbos have began to metamorphose. From glands on their backs they have grown wings and it would seem that an aerial assault is now possible.

Two distinct breeds are capable of flight and will be tough to defeat. Their numbers are still increasing.

The larger breed is a terrible giant butterfly. It can manufacture a strange pupa like globe, which exhibits explosive properties.

The Foralbos attack in devastating numbers, and at the moment we cannot kill as many as we need to. Their huge mandibles continue to crush our troops.

We are succeeding in slaughtering these horrible creatures. Hopefully we can totally eradicate their existence from this planet. However, their hunger for our flesh still drives them against us.

My makeover

Foralbos concept

These wormy things could have all sorts of fun morphs. They probably make little meat balls out of people and spin them into silk packages, like some predator wasps do.

Index of aliens


Parillatians

Utopia graphics

The city was easy to detect since the primitive buildings are overshadowed by a dense smog caused by pollution from their industry.

In the absence of detailed information we can only surmise that their technology is very primitive indeed, perhaps equivalent to the Victorian era on Earth.

It is extremely easy for our spies to move about the enemy city, shrouded by the smog which reaches even to ground level.

We have not managed to study the aliens yet since they tend to avoid travelling on the grimy streets. Perhaps they have a network of tunnels.

From the occasional glimpse, we suspect them to be humanoid.

They call themselves the Parillatians and are feline in appearance, yet walk on their hind legs like humans. They appear to possess keen senses and have developed a highly sophisticated spoken language. They are clearly highly intelligent.

Their education system is heavily biased towards the technical sciences. and even though we have yet to decipher their written language, it is obvious that they have a good grasp of modern mathematics. They are likely to learn very fast.

Despite their current, inadequate, level of technology, their factories and research laboratories are well equipped, with no shortage of staff.

Their society is run on a reward scheme. Each Parillate possesses one or more jewelled necklaces, and the number and type of jewels indicates how many reward points that person has earned. It would seem that the same scheme dictates how many votes each person receives in the regular policy debates.

Crime or misbehaviour does not exist in their society, and each member works hard for the good of everyone else. I believe we misjudged them when we labelled them as primitives. There is much we could learn from them!

Their weaponry is no match for our own. Their combat vehicles consist of laughable steam-driven cars with front-mounted machine guns. Their airforce seems to consist entirely of a cumbersome airship capable of carrying only 5 people.

However, they do have mass-production capability and it is possible that they cam make up for their pitiful weaponry by sheer numbers.

We have just this minute received an unconfirmed report that they are developing some form of powered aircraft. We will keep you informed.

We can not determine why they have suddenly become aggressive towards us.

It is rather concerning to witness the speed at which they are preparing for war.

My makeover

Parillatians concept art

Steampunk cat people. I put eyes on the blimp warship, like on those old ramming boats. Maybe to noisy. Speaking of noisy, my old Parillatian creature had too much dress garbage going on, and the head was a needless deviation from the source concept.

Index of aliens


Chevanno

Utopia graphics

The city we have discovered is strangely reminiscent of a large medieval castle. Within the castle an alien breed of four-armed creatures wear armour and carry impressive looking swords.

The more we investigate the aliens the more we find similarities to our own dark ages. It appears their society has a king, who has total control over his people.

Occasionally ritual hangings take place in the main square of the castle. The justice here is hard and merciless. The citizens fear their leader but have respect for his power.

The aliens, which we now know are called the Chevanno, have regular combat training in camps around the castle. They are fierce but honourable fighters.

We have made an interesting discovery - the armour these knight-like aliens wear is in fact their natural skin. Metallic in appearance, this natural protection means they are always ready for battle.

The Chevanno mine for ore within the walls of their city. They are very capable blacksmiths and smelt the ore with great precision. This makes the manufactured swords exceptional weapons.

Also within the castle is a small school of elemental scientists, who seem proficient at various spells. In witnessed exercises they have sent lightning bolts long distances with outstanding accuracy.

The Chevanno are preparing for battle. They now seem to be producing air-balloons.

These balloons will give them a good aerial view of our colony, and could be used to drop bombs. The scientists are certainly capable of such pyrotechnics.

We have now discovered a hidden enclosure within the city. Large six-legged, and naturally armoured creatures, are kept here. It would seem that they are being trained to pull chariots.

Our forces have been decimated by the strength of the Chevanno defence. Their castle is exceptionally well built and seems almost impenetrable. We must breach the walls if we are to do any real damage to their people.

We have succeeded in killing their king. Although he will soon be replaced it will take them some time to recover from this blow.

Index of aliens


OldWorlders

Utopia graphics

The city looks extremely similar to that of Earth only a hundred years ago. A further investigation should prove very interesting.

It is clear from the Earth-like buildings that we have stumbled upon another attempt to colonise this planet. Our computers have no knowledge of any such attempt, and we should contact the colonists to see how they arrived here.

As yet there has been no movement in the city. The streets are in good repair and their is no evidence of a disaster or other reason for abandoning the colony. We assume they are sheltering underground from the current electrical storms.

The colonists are leaving their shelters to return to their homes. Sure enough, they are human, and wearing uniforms of the Terran Empire, which existed about 100 years before our existing Terrain Government.

Their colony is well-established, with efficient industry and a similar political structure to our own. Since they speak our language, we can monitor their TV broadcasts and spy upon the meetings of their leaders.

One strange thing we have spotted is that each person has a small metal disc attached to his head just above one ear. Our scanners identify it as a receiving device. We will try to establish the purpose of this disc.

We have discovered that their skull-discs conceal an implant patched into their brains. A transmitter inside the colony Command Centre regularly broadcasts signals to the entire population. We suspect mind control!

After infiltrating the transmission station, we can confirm that the colony leaders are brain-washing their people to accept their laws.

Furthermore, we have rescued one of their people and removed the implant.

Regrettably, the man went insane and our medics have been unable to help him. I strongly suggest we do something to put an end to this domination.

Their assault vehicles are extremely similar to our own, which may confuse our defence systems. Their tanks are slightly inferior to our own, but their aircraft are equivalent in combat strength to our Cruisers.

They have recently developed a long-range missile capable of striking at the heart of our colony.

We have stolen plans of a new tank they are designing. It has greater armour than our own and possesses greater fire-power.

Our spy has been fitted with one of the mind control implants. It is certain that he will tell them everything about us.

Index of aliens


Sal-Kadeem

Utopia graphics

The alien city sits high atop a huge rock spire. A beautiful glass structure, it is expertly built, a sign that whatever lies within it is technically adept.

The denizens of the city are small humanoids, dwarf-like in appearance. They are known as the Sal-Kadeems, and considering their obvious knowledge, they already know of our presence.

Futuristic craft fly swiftly around the city, the swirling fog causes them no problems so they must possess some form of radar. As yet they seem content with our presence, as if we pose no threat to them.

We have managed to capture one of the Sal-Kadeem. He seemed unconcerned about his capture and warned us that we must leave their planet soon or they will remove us.

We attempted to interrogate the dwarf further but he proved unresponsive to our methods. In fact we were unable to worry him at all, he was calm, and cheerfully confident at all times.

He gave us no information of any use. He did, however, tell us that he knew that he was going to get caught. He had won a competition for the job, which would guarantee him an honourable death!

The Sal-Kadeem possess quite an impressive display of aerial weaponry. Compact jet craft, and swift bombers will be tough to repel.

They also use launchers which are capable of firing a hard metal disk at missile like speeds. The range of these is impressive, the destructive capability is most concerning.

They have begun extensive testing of their jet craft, which appear to be kamikaze craft loaded with explosives.

The fighters are capable of supersonic speeds and carry a large payload of bombs. It seems certain that they will soon threaten our colony.

The Sal-Kadeem are ready for war. Their disk launchers are fully manned, and their pilots wait in aircraft hangers ready for the signal to attack.

The once impressive city of the Sal-Kadeem in now no more, its ruins lie deep in the fog filled ravines. We have succeeded in terminating every last dwarf, and can now run our colony unhindered.

My makeover

sal kadeem concept art

These guys are plain scary. I didn't want to make them as human as the original image suggests. (This concept predates the Adipose in case you were thinking about those)

Index of aliens


Sarturians

Utopia graphics

They live inside enormous hardwood trees, with a diameter of up to an incredible 30m even though they only grow to 100m high.

They appear to have hollowed out the insides and constructed homes, factories and other facilities within. It is a mystery how the trees continue to live and grow.

Huge areas of forest have been cleared for growing crops and rearing a strange six-legged herd beast.

The aliens are called the Sarturians and remind us of a mythical creature from Earth. Their upper body is that of a human, except that they have horns atop their head. Their lower body is that of a goat, with hoofed feet and a tail.

They wear practical jungle clothing and possess reasonably advanced projectile-firing weapons. Each Sartur wears a silver torc around his neck.

We have identified one or two Sartur who possess gold torcs. They are probably leaders.

The gold torc wearers are not leaders but some kind of priest. They live within a rare species of gold-barked tree with long willowy branches. It is obvious that the Sarturians worship the trees they live within.

Every lunar cycle they hold a druid-like ceremony in a special clearing surrounded by the gold-barked trees.

We have noticed that their scientists are so inspired by this ceremony that they often make a new discovery the day after!

Their military hardware consists of rapid-fire projectile weapons mounted upon hover cars and trucks.

They have no means of powered flight, but have constructed large gliders which they launch from powered catapults set up in cleverly concealed airstrips.

It is clear that the gold-torced priests are supervising the mobilisation and combat tactics of their vehicles. It is imperative that we attempt to capture or assassinate these priests.

Their troops are disciplined and fearless. We have found their tactics to be inferior to ours, but they compensate for this by sheer determination.

They seem loathed to damage the trees about our colony. We should seize this advantage and construct more of our buildings within the trees, using them as a shield.

Index of aliens


Rako Gorda

Utopia graphics

The aliens are a race of insects. They have grown to extraordinary sizes, and live in a large mud shelter which they have constructed in the sand.

The insects, which we have named the Rako Gorda stay in the cool shelter throughout the hot of the day, venturing out for food in the morning and evening.

The colony would appear to be a mixture of many insect forms living together. The largest of the Rako Gorda resemble large scorpions. They have a spiked tail which is almost certainly highly toxic to us.

The aliens appear to have some primitive form of language, consisting of clicks and knocking sounds. They can communicate like this over vast distances.

Using these long range transmissions the entire group can move as if it was one. Each individual creature moves in an identical fashion to all the others.

We have now discovered that the lesser Rako Gorda are in fact completely under the control of the scorpions. Unaided, the smaller creatures move randomly, with no purpose.

We have also seen some especially large scorpions. They stretch some four metres in length and would not be a welcome adversary. At present they do not seem to be concerned about our presence.

All the Rako Gorda are very tough insects. They have strong armour across their backs which would provide them with good protection against any attack.

We have made a very worrying discovery. It would appear that the Rako Gorda are upset by the mechanical sounds emanating from our city. They are preparing for battle.

Large numbers of the insects are now ready to attack us. They are tough and fearless, and in large numbers could prove a serious danger to our colony.

The Rako Gorda are proving to be a deadly adversary and our attacks against them are not going well. Fighting on instinct, they feel no fear or pain.

We are succeeding in killing large numbers of the insects, and if we continue to rout their forces we may be rid of them. Unfortunately they exist in huge numbers and they are continuously multiplying.

My makeover

Rako gorda concept art

I've added an antenna to these mind controlled bugs. The large scorpion (mother brain?) looks like it might have several large brain domes. Unsure about giving them guns. Biological/evolved weapons can be a bit silly when pitted against sci-fi tanks, I often feel, but this is a lighthearted/pulpy kind of setting so maybe not.

Index of aliens


Key-Guardians

Utopia graphics

The city consists of a single building several square km in area. It is surrounded by wicked-looking defence turrets and patrolling sentry robots.

Evading the sentry robots so as to enter the city proved very difficult. The inside is incredible. It is not so much a city as an enormous factory, packed with assembly lines, enormous machinery and stores of parts.

The factory is assembling robots of all shapes and sizes at incredible speed. The completed robots are hoisted into racks mounted below the ceiling. There are literally millions of them!

There is no sign of any biological lifeform yet.

We have accessed a computer terminal within the factory. We now know the history of this world. The robots around us are the only inhabitants of this planet. They are referred to as the Key-Guardians.

The factory is fully automated and programmed to repopulate the planet with robots. Each robot has a purpose and each is programmed to protect the planet against invaders. Self-preservation is their primary goal.

We can move freely about the factory since the robots seem oblivious to our presence. This seems to contradict their self-preservation order!

Apparently the entire planet was constructed millennia ago by an exotic race from a far-off galaxy. It served as an enormous spaceship, travelling through space to bring their people to our own galaxy.

The alien race died off mysteriously leaving their robots to continue their programming. We have learned that each robot is programmed with memories of their creator race, since the factory computer believes that they will one day return.

The factory computer is learning at a phenomenal rate. It is likely that it will soon be designing robots that our own technology will be unable to defeat.

There are several types of combat robot. Each is heavily armoured and operates an energy shield that absorbs most of the damage. The range of weaponry is great.

Most robots carry rocket launchers, high-calibre machine guns and lethal looking energy weapons. We have witnessed these pulse-rifles boring a hole through nearly 1m of solid steel!

They are also equipped with accurate sensors and a powerful tactical computer. Their powerplant is nuclear.

Their attacks are slicing through our own units without mercy. We must develop better tactics if we are to defeat them.

We have located several weak points in their design, and can now begin to fight back effectively.

It is likely, however, that the factory computer will realise this and remove such design flaws from newer robots.

We have severely damaged the factory computer. Robot production has temporarily halted. We must continue our offensive.

My makeover

Key guardians concept art

They ended up quite cute in this older piece. They come in a variety of forms so I should do some more.

Index of aliens


Darjakr'ul

Utopia graphics

We have discovered a dark and foreboding city. Its gothic architecture is a sinister combination of twisted spires and grand archways. The stench of death and decay is nauseous.

A perpetual blackness shrouds the city in a macabre gloom. The only relent from the shadows are the demonic runes, scribed in blood on many of the buildings.

The creatures within this cursed fortress are as unholy as the place they inhabit. Like creatures of our worst nightmares, they tread silently on the marble floors, scheming dreams of death.

These demons have discovered the value of science. High technology equipment adorns their blackened homes, and in the darkest dungeons the emissions of electrical activity have been detected.

The creatures of evil have a name, the Darjakr'ul. Their society is well organised and even lawful in its own contemptible way. Like some dark aristocracy they live with death.

We must pray that we can defeat these creatures, for their is no way we can live in harmony. They will be the most deadly of enemies, but we must send them to their final death.

The Darjakr'ul have a powerful army of modern weaponry. Hideous mimics of our own forces, they are ready to do battle in the name of Lucifer.

The demons are assembling their assault force. They prepare for war with confidence and their forces of destruction are readied like scythes of death.

Within the city the Darjakr'ul are yearning to defeat us. They speak of our sacrifice, and the eternal damnation which will follow as our souls are captured for torture.

The forces of the Darjakr'ul are relentless, and our people are in a greater danger than ever known. We must fight for our freedom from this terrible evil.

We have found a slight vulnerability in the aliens city defence. Maybe if we can continue the assault we can destroy them.

We have won! Your leadership has led us to a great victory in this war of good and evil. The evil dreams of the Darjakr'ul are no more and the ruins of their cursed city are deserted.

Index of aliens


Temarkians

Utopia graphics

The buildings are enormous stepped pyramids rising out of the ash.

Horrific statues stand around the base of the pyramids.

There are entrances halfway up the pyramids, and since each is about 4m high, we suspect that the inhabitants are giants.

Passing through one of the huge portals, our spies have penetrated one of the pyramids. Inside is a labyrinth of passageways. Strange and sinister carvings adorn the walls. Some of them are clearly maps and we shall make every attempt to decipher them.

Sounds of construction echo up from the depths.

We have discovered the living quarters of the aliens. They are indeed giants, of several species, some human-like, others with two-heads or four arms. They are called the Temarkians.

They are all about 4m high and have large eyes to enable them to see in the gloom, which is poorly lit by the dull glow of slots in the passage ceiling.

They are slow and cumbersome, yet perform their duties with incredible stamina and patience. They never seem to sleep and eat very infrequently.

In the deepest spot below the largest pyramid is a gargantuan chamber. Many guards are assembled outside. It appears to be the chamber of their leader.

Slipping past the guards, we find it lit by an eerie red, flickering light, which comes from a circular shaft in the centre of the floor. The Kings advisers and courtiers are gathered around his throne.

The shaft descends to a pit of lava, bubbling and boiling deep below. Suspended above it is an elaborate machine which appears to be harnessing the thermal power of the lava.

Their military is restricted to simple vehicles equipped with bubble tyres that can cross the awkward terrain. Most of these are open-top with the giants sitting within, firing rifles.

One of the pyramids is an enormous barracks. If we could target this it would seriously hamper their military capability.

We have witnessed giants equipped with jetpacks flying between pyramids. They appear to use them for scouting, and they have a range long enough to reach our colony.

Our man has been taken deep into the barracks pyramid. We can hear his pitiful cries echoing in the passageways, but there is little we can do.

We have successfully destroyed the barracks pyramid of the Temarkians!

We scored a direct hit on their central pyramid, the one containing the Kings chamber. It exploded with surprising force, damaging many neighbouring pyramids.

Index of aliens


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