[Mod] Improved Arachnoid Aliens

[Velorian]

This mod expands the options for the Arachnid species added by the DLC to include more than 1 color.

This first version is not necessarily final, if you have any suggestions for changes or different colors let me know. I wanted differences between males and females and I've decided to make males more colorful and the females darker shades.

If anyone wants to use these files in their own mods, feel free you don't need to wait for my permission, though credit would be nice.

Requirements:
You need to own the Arachnoid DLC, if you don't the game won't complain but the species won't show up.

Compatibility:
Should be compatible with anything, and any future patch versions.

Download:
Manual link below or at Steam

Screenshots: (males on left, females on right)

 

[Velorian]

Alright I released first version, let me know if you have any suggestions. It's especially easy to add different colors if anyone wants something specific.

 

[Oathtaker]

We really need more mods that add sexual dimorphism in aliens. This seems like a good contribution.

 

[Velorian]

We really need more mods that add sexual dimorphism in aliens. This seems like a good contribution.

Thanks, and I definitely agree. It's no more than a handful species that have it yet.

 

[AMANONLY]

This is great, definitely adds something that is very much needed. Do you plan on doing this sort of thing for some of the other portraits?

 

[Velorian]

This is great, definitely adds something that is very much needed. Do you plan on doing this sort of thing for some of the other portraits?

I might, but my abilities are mostly limited to recolours at this point. I might introduce gender difference and perhaps size difference for some of the other races as well, later. Depends on whether I successfully figure out how...

 

[Inawordyes]

I was really hoping that someone would be able to do this eventually, since none of the bonus portraits aside from the platypus have extra colors. Maybe to make the dimorphism more evident, you can make one gender's fangs and spikes less pronounced? I can't decide whether it would be the male or the female since there are different spider species that have both be the bolder, more ferocious looking gender.

Another thing to introduce more variety would just be copying the current changes and making the body color more brownish to represent that type of spider, which quickly doubles the current number of portraits. As it is now it's pretty amazing though!

 

[Ubhal]

You should make the males much smaller than the females.

 

[Velorian]

@Inawordyes, @Ubhal
That's nice ideas, I think I can change sizes on bodyparts and still make them fit, and shrink the male.

If I can manage that I should also be able to make a difference between warriors and the rest, maybe making their males a tad larger with larger fangs.

I figure the ladies should have the shorter fangs, these fangs are long enough that it might not be purely functional and as much a way for the males to show off.

 

[Jormarn]

I second that, sexual dimorphism for the spiders would be really cool

 

[Inawordyes]

@Inawordyes, @Ubhal
That's nice ideas, I think I can change sizes on bodyparts and still make them fit, and shrink the male.

If I can manage that I should also be able to make a difference between warriors and the rest, maybe making their males a tad larger with larger fangs.

I figure the ladies should have the shorter fangs, these fangs are long enough that it might not be purely functional and as much a way for the males to show off.

As long as you're not changing out of the areas where the game animates, it should theoretically be fine.

Another possibility I just thought of is making an "albino"-like recolor, with redder eyes and color skin (you can do a dark-gray for the females to keep up the dimorphism too!). Most of the portraits have white color options already, so it would fit.

 

[Velorian]

How do I update the Steam status to be compatible with 1.1?

Frankly I'd like it to just stay auto-updated as no patches will break the mod, worst case scenario is that they improve on the Arachnids themselves and my mod overwrites it.

 

[Tapar]

I am not 100% positive, but I think if you change the version number in the .mod file to be 1.*.* instead of 1.0.2 then it will stay compatible.

 

[Velorian]

Thanks I'll try that.

 

[hyme]

How do I update the Steam status to be compatible with 1.1?

Frankly I'd like it to just stay auto-updated as no patches will break the mod, worst case scenario is that they improve on the Arachnids themselves and my mod overwrites it.

I did what the post above did but for 1.0.* and it worked.