[DEVBLOG#251] Archons are coming, and you won't like it!

Hello everyone and welcome to a new development blog.

Before we get back to Tribals faction expanded, I'd like to outline what's coming in one of our more enigmatic mods.

Vanilla Races Expanded - Archons is on the horizon, and work on it is almost finished. We have decided to push this Dungeons and Dragons inspired mod a little further, adding a lot of cool connections to Archotechs - after all, Archons are the first xenotype not created directly by humans.

Vanilla Races Expanded - Archon introduces a brand new, mysterious xenotype of dimension-travelling warriors. Inspired by the very similar race in Dungeons and Dragons universe, Archons inhabit the space between dimensions. Not much is known about them, as they are the first xenotype not actually created directly by humans. It is believed that Archons are a xenotype created by some Archotech from all the humans that remained on the transcendent worlds.

They excel in combat, and they despise everyone that isn’t part of their xenotype. They look different than humans, wear archotech gear and use powerful psycasts that are exclusive to them. They are incredibly psychically-sensitive and have new abilities that enhance their psychic prowess.

This mod will introduce new archite genes, considering how archite-focused the xenotype is.

These four new archite genes provide Archons with never-before-seen abilities. Transcendent gene will give archons access to a brand new psycaster path described below, but it will also make Transcendent colonists immortal in some meaning of this word. While they can still die, instead of leaving a corpse, they 'skip out' to another dimension. They get fully healed and may return after some time has passed.

Natural Psylink gene will make all archons capable psycasters, and paired with Extremely Psy-Sensitive, they will be essentially psycasting powerhouses - with a lot of extra psychic sensitivity and meditation psyfocus gain, you will always be able to count on them when it comes to psycasting.

Leapjump legs will allow them to close the distance to the enemy with a powerful leap that deals damage to anyone around the landing point.

Extremely aggressive is a gene that will nicely balance them out. Not going to lie - it's quite bullshit. Not only they will always social fight if someone slights or insults them, they will also use their melee weapons when social fighting. Heads will roll.

Four new combat-related genes are also added. Archons are very slow at ranged attacks and take a while to aim, but they excel in melee combat thanks to Fast Melee hitter.

Three new meditation genes affect how long meditation takes. Archons utilise the Extreme meditation, granting them a further 50% meditation psyfocus gain on top of their Extremely Psy-sensitive archite gene.

Three new psychic heat-related genes are also present. Archons sport the High Entropy Capacity gene, giving them 25% increase to the max amount of psychic entropy, allowing them to cast more psycasts before overheating.

Maniac gene makes all Archons psychopaths.

Leatherskin is a new body graphic gene that gives Archons increased armor, both sharp and blunt, making them more resilient.

Some new pregnancy genes and childhood genes are also present. Archons take twice as long to give birth, but their children are capable of various jobs much earlier than other xenotypes.

Some new cosmetic genes make archons stand out next to other xenotypes.

Archoblades are our new, very powerful bladelink weapon accessible only to those with Transcendent genes. They utilise a new damage type called Sear, which ignored any armor on the enemy, and is guaranteed to leave scars, even if treated in time. These weapons are just as devastating against mechanoids as they are against humans.

Furthermore, with Vanilla Psycasts Expanded, each archoblade also acts as a sort of Psyring, enabling a random psycast to be cast if the user also has a psylink.

This means that enemy archons may use virtually any psycast in a raid against you.

Archoplate is a new armor adorned by the Archons. It provides great boosts to Psychic sensitivity, but it also generates a very, very strong barrier in a small radius, meaning that you need to get into melee range to fight archons, and as you've seen with the other genes, they excel in melee combat.

A new psycaster path with only four new psycasts is available to those with Transcendent genes. Shortskip will allow archons to teleport past your defenses. Psychic throw is an ability that sends out blunt projectiles that deal little damage, but depending on the Psychic sensitivity of the caster, there may be many, many projectiles fired at many different targets in each burst. Every 50% Psychic sensitivity sends out an additional projectile.

Psychic warp is a great ability that temporarily strips out the armor of the targets. Similar to Psychic throw, there may be numerous projectiles fired in each burst.

When a psychically warped target is hit by Psychic throw, a small detonation will occur, damaging everyone in radius and ending the psychically warped effect.

Psychic lance is a huge, slow travelling projectile that may be fired over walls. Anyone caught in the explosion radius of it will be chaos skipped around, with some sharp damage dealt to them. Great for breaking up large blobs of enemies.

One more thing isn't covered by the infographics above, and that is the Archon raid, which can only occur during a very rare Psychic storm. All I can say is this: When Psychic storm happens, best hunker down.

Let me know what you think!