Heard before that Xenos can melt metals with acid saliva and lick it up/eat it, which I am all for since their growth rate makes no sense without some form of sustenance. It also explains their hard armoured steletons as well as how they can survive on an empty spaceship or barren planet.
Does everyone agree this is a cool explanation/reason?
I'm cool with no explanation and them just growing/surviving the way they do because that's what they do to be perfectly honest.
I believe that's from the Jonesy story.
I don't care for it much myself. Covenant has already shown automatic growth in similar creatures.
I've always had a soft spot for some weird strain (modified?) of Alien that sheds spores which "eat" metals and plastics, growing into eggs.
At least I got spore pods in Covvie.
I always liked the idea that Aliens possess multiple ways to feed and sustain themselves. To me they are living batteries - their acid blood is battery fluid and they need to be recharged. One way to do this is to hibernate next to a source that emits heat, radiation, static etc. For growth they obviously need nothing to grow, as the movies suggest. And if they are related to the Neomorphs, then it's confirmed - they just grow... It could be that that there is some hibernation osmosis involved here as well where they absorb or reconstruct matter for their bodies to feed on, or maybe it's just a way to grow chitinous armor. It could also be that when they hibernate the dorsal tubes both absorb matter and nutrients as well as spreading cystic spores that turn into hive growth. That could explain why the Runner arguable ate its victims and never seemed to start constructing its own hive - it had no dorsal tubes. Also, they're silicon-based lifeforms, so the idea that they can feed on non-organic materials to grow and sustain themselves isn't that outlandish, right?
Since someone can explain it on YouTube, I also prefer the mystery.
I owned the ADVENTURE GAME ALIENS book back in 1991, and remember reading about how the creature's would feed on metals and dirt.
Thought the info was a load of sh*t at the time. Not so sure now.
I'm content not knowing every detail about their lives.
I definetly remember Alex White talking something along these lines in one of the interviews he did in aftermath of Cold Forge release
Quote from: Local Trouble on Oct 04, 2012, 09:09:19 PM
Given how acidic their blood is, I think they can eat and metabolize virtually anything. Remember, they didn't appear to eat the dead hosts in Aliens.
Quote from: Local Trouble on Oct 04, 2012, 09:23:56 PM
If they do eat, I think it's a lot like how Jeff Goldblum's Brundlefly does it. Not sure how Prometheus enters into it. The cobra thing had acidic blood too and could theoretically eat dirt to gain mass.
I've been saying this sort of thing since the 90s. Probably because...
Quote from: Elmazalman on Sep 25, 2021, 11:45:18 AM
I owned the ADVENTURE GAME ALIENS book back in 1991, and remember reading about how the creature's would feed on metals and dirt.
https://www.avpgalaxy.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/Aliens-RPG-Core-Rulebook.pdf
Page 97.
Yeh, but the Alien in Alien 3 was clearly munching on one of them prisoners. But i do think it's cool concept for it to eat and survive.
Quote from: Local Trouble on Sep 25, 2021, 06:08:40 PM
Quote from: Elmazalman on Sep 25, 2021, 11:45:18 AM
I owned the ADVENTURE GAME ALIENS book back in 1991, and remember reading about how the creature's would feed on metals and dirt.
https://www.avpgalaxy.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/Aliens-RPG-Core-Rulebook.pdf
Page 97.
It's page
87, not 97.
Thanks for the download link! I haven't seen the inside of this book in three decades. I remember the pretty colour spread (with Drake & the Alien).
Quote from: Inverse Effect on Sep 26, 2021, 12:36:40 AM
Yeh, but the Alien in Alien 3 was clearly munching on one of them prisoners. But i do think it's cool concept for it to eat and survive.
This is pretty clearly the intent but all we really see is mauling/mutilation.
It was definitely toying with them during the candle scene. And it was gnawing away on Dillon. It reached in and took a dead body near the end, so that was probably for nourishment.
Why it left Golic alone the first time was probably just for plot reasons, but maybe it had enough to eat on hand and couldn't be bothered to come down and chase after him. If he had stayed a few seconds longer, he probably would've been killed though.
I imagine it needs alot of sustenance to maintain that much power, plus secretions used for cocooning, hive building, etc.
I was only referring to the "eating", which was (visually) just mauling.
Other parts like the candles definitely give it a predatory/sadistic vibe but that's less about it's digestive process.
Thank goodness AVPR showed us the real deal.
Poor buggers must have a small esophagus.
Quote from: Huggs on Sep 26, 2021, 05:48:43 AM
Thank goodness AVPR showed us the real deal.
Poor buggers must have a small esophagus.
Good ol AVP:R saves the day, again!
Quote from: Elmazalman on Sep 26, 2021, 04:16:42 AM
Quote from: Local Trouble on Sep 25, 2021, 06:08:40 PM
https://www.avpgalaxy.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/Aliens-RPG-Core-Rulebook.pdf
Page 97.
It's page 87, not 97.
It's page 97 of the PDF.
Quote from: Inverse Effect on Sep 26, 2021, 12:36:40 AM
Yeh, but the Alien in Alien 3 was clearly munching on one of them prisoners. But i do think it's cool concept for it to eat and survive.
Just because it
can eat people doesn't mean it
has to in order to grow and survive. Maybe the aliens just like how we taste when our corpses are still warm.
From my very WIP AvP tabletop ruleset, under Behavioral Adaptations:
Intimidation Imperative
This Alien shows an uncanny, if crude understanding of the psychology of its prey. It will go out of its way to take down targets in spectacularly bloody displays of speed and aggression in full view their comrades, or brutalize the carcasses of isolated kills to further sap morale upon their discovery.
Just my thoughts on it really.
Makes sense to me.
I can see them mauling things as a tactic.
I'm still f**king about with how it should actually effect enemies, but between that and a few "biomorphs" like Digitigrade Ambulation it's pretty easy to make a not-Dragon, with similar things to emulate Big Chaps etc.
Quote from: Local Trouble on Sep 26, 2021, 06:24:37 PM
Quote from: Elmazalman on Sep 26, 2021, 04:16:42 AM
Quote from: Local Trouble on Sep 25, 2021, 06:08:40 PM
https://www.avpgalaxy.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/Aliens-RPG-Core-Rulebook.pdf
Page 97.
It's page 87, not 97.
It's page 97 of the PDF.
Page 87 describes the Alien's diet. Page 97 is about Colonial Marines' armour and camera gear.
Here's page 87:
Spoiler
(https://i.postimg.cc/wMkxdsVq/Screen-Shot-2021-09-27-at-9-34-26-am.jpg)
Page 97 of the PDF is page 90 of the book which describes Alien metabolism. That's what LT is saying.
Okay, thanks. I'll read the page.
I don't know why this is such a hot debate in the fanbase. Alien's original script had the chestburster raiding the pantry for food, Alien 3 had the Runner eating people, and in Resurrection Ripley 8 confirmed that the drones would come to "Where the meat is." The original AVP games had you regain health from headbiting and AVP 2010 had moments where drones would eat people. As far as I'm concerned, that's good enough.
Quote from: AllHailTheMagicConch on Oct 01, 2021, 08:35:37 PM
Resurrection Ripley 8 confirmed that the drones would come to "Where the meat is."
It's pretty obvious she was being colourful and meant hosts.
Can they have cannibal habits?
(https://s9.gifyu.com/images/hannibal1.06-friend-for-dinner2-1433433240.gif)
What would be the point? Even the old RPG that goes into the dirt eating says they don't need anything other than electricity after initial growth. And the argument they don't eat at all makes it double pointless.
I was thinking in a character study actually, in wich an individual of the Linguafoeda acheronsis species suffers from a pathology called Xenomorphphagy, after the creature witnessed its beloved brother being murdered and cannibalized by a group of wariors from an enemy hive, one of whom forced the poor dude to eat from its brother body.
So just Hannibal Rising (the worst one) but with Aliens?
Quote from: [cancerblack] on Oct 04, 2021, 06:47:27 AM
So just Hannibal Rising (the worst one) but with Aliens?
I did it thinking on you. So yes.