Issues and inconsistencies with NMS Spacefaring People [Discussion]
I read a recent post, about how much someone hates Gek, and the comments focussed on what people had for and against their most and least favorite races/species of the NMS spacefaring people. I though I'd share (at some length, it seems) my thoughts about, and the issues that I have with all three...
I like Korvax best, but they are regularly contradictions between organic-like beings and the purely logical, digital, synthetic beings as they are usually presented.
Gek, I agree, are aggressive, manipulative, deceitful and usually mean-spirited. As was mentioned, it took an act of re-writing their entire genetic make-up against their will to turn them from being the most brutal, enslaving, conquerors.
Vy'Keen are also somewhat contradictory, but not as bad. They talk a big game about death and warfare, but also seem to be reasonably honorable above all the rest.
I don't think I would change any of those things... they are interesting distinguishing characteristics that define the three species and their cultures.
However:
There's some disturbing physiological divergence among different Vykeen's features, and among different Gek's features that don't seem to make sense.
Some Vykeen have eyes mounted on the sides of their head - from what I've read, a feature common to prey creatures, that prioritizes awareness of all possible dangers. Others have both eyes on the front of their heads (in the same location as other Vy'keen's nostrils, I think) which give predators the ability to focus and target prey. I guess this makes sense if they evolved separately as a predator and a prey class/subspecies, but the idea of eyes/nostrils being in interchangable locations on an otherwise similar skull is very odd.
Gek also have a wide variety of features. What stood out most to me was that some have two eyes and some have four. In itself, not...