Aliens

View of a "Fodder" alien ship

Aliens are hostile unmanned ships run by a Microcontroller. They rarely spawn around stars and planets. Aliens spawn more commonly around black holes and neutron stars. Aliens can also be spawned in via an obelisk. They currently come in 2 variants, Fodder and Fighter aliens.

Fodder Alien

Appearance

The Fodder Alien consists of black iron boxes with iron wedges on the top and bottom sides, as well as a set of wedge "wings". Fodders have 2 Lasers and a BurstLaser. The inside of a Fodder alien contains 1 AlienCore, a LifeSensor, along other various electronics that control the alien, a thruster, and multiple PowerCells

Behavior

Fodder ships spawn in a group of up to 1-5. A Fodder will fly towards the location it last detected the player with it's LifeSensor. It will then stop and repeat this pattern of movement untill the player is out of range or dead. The Fodder's 2 Lasers turn on automatically when it spawns and they stay on as long as the alien has the power to supply them. The BurstLaser activates as soon as the alien has detected a player. The Fodder's Aim is guided by a Gyro and LifeSensor

The code inside of a Fodder Alien's Microcontroller can be found here.

Fighter Alien

View of a "Fighter" alien ship

Appearance

Fighters are slightly bigger than Fodder aliens, consisting of 2 iron boxes. The box on the front is purely decorative, and has 2 "pincers" made out of iron wedges. The box in the middle has a thin coating of Titanium on it, but is otherwise made out of iron. On its backside there are 3 thrusters, the mid thruster being the biggest while the two to it's sides being smaller. Fighters have 2 BurstLasers and 2 PlasmaCannons. The inside of a Fighter alien contains 2 AlienCores, a LifeSensor and various other parts like a Microcontroller that controls the alien, 3 thrusters, a singular PowerCell, an EnergyShield and most notably, 3 Bins containing random amounts of loot alongside a Helium Container.

Behavior

Fighters have similar behavior to Fodders, except they are far rarer as there are only one or two in a given obelisk summon. They fly towards a nearby player, stop, and fire both Burstlasers and Lasers at a nearby player. Usually due to their low power count (only one powercell) they often end up running out of energy before they can do any damage.

Possible Loot (WIP)

• ExoticMatter
• Helium
• Iron
• DarkMatter
• PowerCell
• Neutronium
• Aluminum
• IonRocket
• Diamond
• Uranium
• Tinnitus
• Copper
• SolarPanel

Tips

• Use an EnergyShield, the aliens cannot hurt you as they only use energy-based weapons (As long as the alien in question is outside of the energyshield)
• Explosives and WirelessButtons are good against aliens, as they are relatively cheap and can explode multiple (bunched up) aliens at once.
• If you have a randomly generated resource that can explode when it comes in contact with iron, use that against aliens to destroy their hull and inner components.
• Aliens have limited power and no way of regaining power. You can stop aliens from flying by waiting until they run out of energy.
• Aliens despawn upon the player(s) in the server leaving and rejoining.

Gallery

• 

  Fodder aliens, with some of the wiring exposed.

• 

  A player ship getting attacked by a fodder alien.

• 

  Back side of a fodder alien.

• 

  A perfectly intact Fodder type alien with all of the hull removed. It still works!

• 

  Another angle of a fodder with no hull. Anchor is only there to keep the alien in place.

• 

  Rear view of a Fighter

• 

  Top-down view of a Fighter alien

• 

  A Fighter Alien with the EnergyShield on. (if its on, its not for long)

• 

  The last thing you see before a Fighter Alien shoots at you once, then flops right down