Starcraft 2 Armory - Unofficial Starcraft 2 Fansite

Quote by Uberlisk

This an amazing new race. IMO, it greatly surpasses Tears o' the moon's UED and BFBFB's Cyanauts in tems of new, fresh lore and radical difference from the Zerg, Protoss or Terrans, which is exactly what the fourth race must be.

I really wouldn't say that, Uberlisk. true, these guys are inherently going off a completely new idea for a mechanic, but they've had more posts to polish their ideas with. Also, it seems that most of this idea wouldn't exist without Transformers :P

Everybody has their inspiration.

Quote by Sinistha6

@clubby. How about each monolith having to be constructed individually on the ground as a building and then with maybe 100m 100g more, turned into flying monoliths?

That doesn't sound quite right, unless you're lifting off an already existing building like the sacred sanctum.

One question, do these guys require corrupted ground/psi in order to build buildings? If so, what produces it?

Let me clear up where we drew inspiration from before you conclude that it was transformers. The idea came much before revenge of the fallen but looking at how cool the transformers looked in their original form from the old, old days, we figured, the vox would look cool if they looked polished and smooth rather than craggy. The initial idea came from silicon based life form that i read about but seeing that we don't know much about how silicon life would look like, we figured a power source that manipulated rocks and metal to form buildings and units would be more logical.
the vox idea (elemental beings manipulating the ground) came from an alien species called the sylandro from starcontrol 2, a race of gasbag beings that lived in a gas giant that could not produce anything but were sold space ships that others built so they could travel the stars. although the slyandro and vox have almost nothing in common in every sense, this is where (with a little imagination) the idea spawned from. Also wisps from warcraft being energy sources manipulating plant life to form ancients was where the idea became refined. that's just the physical aspect of the vox. there are about 5 other sources (besides transformers) that we used to make the vox. transformers was the last piece of the puzzle and it was only to shape what the vox machinery would look like. hope that clears it up for everyone.
they do have "corrupted ground/psi" mechanic. the exarch exudes an aura and only within this aura can a thrall (voxoid) be used to spawn a building. the thrall is sacrificed because the thrall is going to use its spark to form the heart of the building and also the focal point for which the exarch can upload info/knowledge into its databank that would allow for the production of other buildings and structures.
also, vox ground troops when they die, leave husks that can be reanimated by the elemancer or siphoned for minerals by the exarch. the husks are on a timer (between 10-30 seconds, not sure yet), before they disintegrate. so it would be wise in early battles to have an exarch accompany a squad of warriors to battle so any husks can be recycled for minerals/gas. this would only be effective if the vox won the battle, cuz the enemy will definitely destroy remaining husks and the exarch has to be within melee range to siphon the minerals left behind. unless u can seriously micro this leeching ability, exarches should remain clear from the battlefield until it is won.

I have two simple question.

1)Lore wise, what happens to a vox when the machine/building or whatever it is in gets destroyed, what becomes of that vox?

2)Do the vox have feelings and emotions, or are they just kinda like mindless gas bags? lol

I can answer the first question easily, the vox dies. The vox who becomes the machine or building basically acts as that machine/building's heart. The backlash from all that physical trauma suffered will overload the vox and kill it. in the case of machines, its armor is slowly blown apart and the vox will be revealed and any blast that scores a direct hit will kill instantaneously.
the lore is still being developed and we have a few ideas floating around concerning their motives. they're very intelligent, honorable (never kill civilians), merciless against military or fighting forces, slightly paranoid (from centuries of warfare with alien races), slow to gain their trust (and i mean real slow), very curious to learn, but concepts of family, love, comradeship, faith and the like are completely alien. as is to be expected from beings composed of pure energy and elements. vox have no qualms about sacrificing one of their own for the greater good of the species. if you take one hostage, they will not negotiate its release.

Images of what the vox unit would approximately look like. And i do mean approximately. as always imagine them to be made of granite and obsidian with metal here and there. the exarch is missing because i couldn't find any pic that does this unit justice.

Quote by defxon2

Let me clear up where we drew inspiration from before you conclude that it was transformers. The idea came much before revenge of the fallen but looking at how cool the transformers looked in their original form from the old, old days, we figured, the vox would look cool if they looked polished and smooth rather than craggy. The initial idea came from silicon based life form that i read about but seeing that we don't know much about how silicon life would look like, we figured a power source that manipulated rocks and metal to form buildings and units would be more logical.

Gotcha, but just so you know I'm not just talking about Revenge of the Fallen, "sparks" have been part of the transformer's story for a long time. SO it appeared to me that it also came from transformers, instead of from the night elves.

No, no, they exarch isn't a pylon in the sense that it provides supply. that's the job of the hydrovat, an actual building. the exarch only provides the "psi" radius for thralls to be turned into buildings. so you can move the exarch around and the wherever it stands, the thrall can be used to make a building.

Let me paste the mechanics of the vox and how they build for you:
1. Exarches are the central units. More like hives + queens together sans crack (they don't fight). Exarches are summoned from the hydrospheres. One per hydrosphere. They are needed to construct buildings and troops. When it comes to buildings, a thrall must build a building within the exarch's radius, so the exarch can transmit the knowledge required by the thrall to build (they're very secretive about their weapons and schematics, not trusting the defenseless thralls to guard them). when it comes to producing units, the exarch simply walks over to a specific structure, say a barracks and then spawns a sentinel by cracking its back open, and splitting the vox creature inside into two. the said vox then is watched over as it drains elements from both the ground and the barracks while the exarch transmits its weapons training and tactics to the newly formed sentinel.

2. exarch are the only unit builders but the building that unlocks said unit must be available. exarches work in tandem with thralls to produce buildings. exarches like i said are summoned from hydrospheres. their build cue will be on the exarch itself, though it needs to be in close proximity of the intended building to produce the unit. otherwise, the unit will appear grayed out on the icon bar.

3. you need two supply to build one exarch. they can't attack. the only thing they can do in battle is to infuse units with HP, temporarily bind ground or air units and recycle dead husks. otherwise, they're easily killable.

Quote by Clubby

EDIT: new pictures: Should the decimator really be tracked? And I thought the titan was going to be 4 legged like Devastator. And the stormbringer seems a little too asymmetrical to be a air superiority unit.

EDIT ala EDIT: Wait, THAT's a dreadnought? Looks more like a gargoyle than a star ship.

That's why I used the word approximate. No, the decimator hovers actually, it's not tracked at all.
Titan is going to be like devastator but someone complained about the car parts sticking out here and there. Stormbringers look more or less like that without all the fancy mayan carvings. it's sphere shaped and due to the nature of vox technology, they can hover and move around quite fine. like i said, this race will not look like any other that's currently in play right now. Same goes for the dreadnought which will resemble a cross between a spaceship and an archangel (subject to change).

The reason all the units look so different is because the vox have studied and assimilated many designs from aliens they've beaten in combat, using the most sophisticated designs and incorporating them into their first line army. They're a race that copies what they think would be most suited for combat rather than create new designs from scratch.

Quote by defxon2

Quote by Clubby

EDIT: new pictures: Should the decimator really be tracked? And I thought the titan was going to be 4 legged like Devastator. And the stormbringer seems a little too asymmetrical to be a air superiority unit.

EDIT ala EDIT: Wait, THAT's a dreadnought? Looks more like a gargoyle than a star ship.

That's why I used the word approximate. No, the decimator hovers actually, it's not tracked at all.
Titan is going to be like devastator but someone complained about the car parts sticking out here and there. Stormbringers look more or less like that without all the fancy mayan carvings. it's sphere shaped and due to the nature of vox technology, they can hover and move around quite fine. like i said, this race will not look like any other that's currently in play right now. Same goes for the dreadnought which will resemble a cross between a spaceship and an archangel (subject to change).

Of all the units out there, I'd expect dreadnoughts to being the closest to an equivalent out there because of definition. If it's not a ship design, it's not a dreadnought. Remember that if the VOX were real, they won't sent down a manual for all the units that they have, any name we have is what "we" name them, like the Titan. And on that note Titan I guess is okay, because titans were humanoid in the myths. And on stormbringers; alright, but they should probably have normal move speeds.

Quote by Sinistha6

The reason all the units look so different is because the vox have studied and assimilated many designs from aliens they've beaten in combat, using the most sophisticated designs and incorporating them into their first line army. They're a race that copies what they think would be most suited for combat rather than create new designs from scratch.

This seems to contradict what Defxon just said, if they learn from others, why are they different?
But anyways, I mean that they look different from their names, not different from each other.
For the dreadnought, look into the Homeworld 2 computer game for references, like either the dreadnought (not kidding) or the ship called "sajuuk." I think both of these would fit well into what you are looking at.

i personally think the dreadnought and talon pics should be swapped. the current talon pic looks like what a dreadnought ought to be and the flying bird-like gargoyle archangel would more appropriately fit the "talon".

I think you should just forget the gargoyle. He really doesn't have any real place. What about my ideas for dreadnought design? Based on what you say is the main idea, having a big gun for it's main attack, these designs are perfect for you to base your idea on, since they have a stationary main cannon as their main attack.

Quote by Clubby

I think you should just forget the gargoyle. He really doesn't have any real place. What about my ideas for dreadnought design? Based on what you say is the main idea, having a big gun for it's main attack, these designs are perfect for you to base your idea on, since they have a stationary main cannon as their main attack.

Yeah, i think i'm gonna scrap the gargoyle. for some reason, it reminds me of the phoenix. i like your idea of the dreadnought being one big gun since the vox are indeed a pragmatic race. u think the titan needs a name change?

Not really, in fact your new model fits the name more than the devastator model.