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Rymdhamster
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Re: How many xenos on LV-426?

Fri 13 Sep 2019, 10:32

From a story telling, or adventure writing, perspective it's of course good if there are multiple options. That way you can have a different mysteriy about how the xeno's popped up in every new adventure or campaign.

Much better for replay purposes.
 
Riggswolfe
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Re: How many xenos on LV-426?

Fri 13 Sep 2019, 15:05

On the other hand I think it makes more sense for a drone to begin to molt into a queen when no queen is present. They already go through several life stages. Having one in absence of the reproducing queen molt again into a premature queen and then take over the swarm while implanting many embryos and growing the hive quickly just works.
I think that could work too. Perhaps one of the three options happens depending on circumstances? Either a queen is present and you have an Aliens style situation. Or one isn't and either egg morphing happens or a drone molts into a queen based on circumstances? Who knows what those circumstances are. Perhaps it needs a specific amount of food available which is why the one on the Nostromo didn't go that route. Or maybe it's based more on environment. 

I'm actually quite curious if the core book will touch on this or not in the fluff for the Xenos. I really need to look up my copy of the old Leading Edge game to see if it touched on this. 
 
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Konungr
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Re: How many xenos on LV-426?

Fri 13 Sep 2019, 20:07

The nostromo took place over less than 24 hours. Avp r was like a week-ish. I figure the one on the nostromo didnt have the time to start becoming a queen yet and dallas was just sticking to a wall ready to go when it got its early queen abilities.
 
Riggswolfe
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Re: How many xenos on LV-426?

Fri 13 Sep 2019, 23:33

The nostromo took place over less than 24 hours. Avp r was like a week-ish. I figure the one on the nostromo didnt have the time to start becoming a queen yet and dallas was just sticking to a wall ready to go when it got its early queen abilities.
It's a deleted scene so I don't think it matters in the long rub but Brett definitely looked like he was mostly egg with a semi-human face sticking out of the top of it. 
 
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Poulet Noir
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Re: How many xenos on LV-426?

Tue 08 Oct 2019, 19:50

I've been thinking about this a lot recently and have some ideas that attempt to square the circle of the xeno life-cycle as shown in the various movies
1/ A 'free' host will initially gestate a Queen embryo. By 'free' I mean like Kane, who wasn't trussed up in Alien Hive Goo (Hive Goo supresses the development of Queen embryos). Hence the xeno loose on the Nostromo was an immature Queen, which might explain its trussing up of crew members in the director's cut / deleted scenes.
2/ The facehugger implants multiple embryos (or virus-like materials that co-opt the host's DNA that can form multiple embryos). As the first embryo grows, it supresses the development of others, but once it bursts out, others may develop in the dying and dead tissues, hence multiple xenos from a single host, upping the potential number of xenos in Hadley's Hope.
3/ The xeno 'eggs' are more than eggs. They are alive, not just inert shells... this seems oddly wasteful unless the 'eggs' can reseal themselves after producing a facehugger, and can subsequently grow yet more facehuggers.

Can anyone remember anything from the Alien movies that would contradict any of these ideas?
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Gebohq
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Re: How many xenos on LV-426?

Tue 08 Oct 2019, 21:46

Maybe we can at least consider a bare minimum?

Hive battle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IySXgTv3eU4
From what I can tell, I got this count:
Live aliens: 2
  • 1 seems to takes Dietrich away
  • 1 seems to take Wierzbowski
Dead aliens 5:
  • Chestburster
  • One killed retreating into the vehicle that sprayed acid downing one of the marines
  • Another tries to get in the vehicle but is shotgunned in the head
  • Another dies under the tires
  • Another kills the dropship pilot as it moves to rescue them
A 6th might be seen killed when escaping the initial hive battle as well, but it's hard to tell

Turret scene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS2PtmM9mwU
Dead aliens: 3
They actually rarely show the aliens here, though it's said there are "lots" and that they can't tell how many there are.

Standoff scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVmu6uHEDHI
Live aliens: 2
  • Hudson seems to be dragged away by one
  • Burke is eaten by one
Dead(?) aliens: 9?
  • We don't see any definitely explode but a number seem to be at least knocked out which I counted to the best of my ability
It should be noted that the motion tracker seems to conservatively show what seems to be ~25-30+ separate blips

Gorman death scene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHjRQJZsUGg
Dead aliens: 5

Ripley confronting the queen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS-x1AzjqLQ
Live aliens: 3 (queen plus 2 guards)

I think even if you consider the "live aliens" the same 2 each time, and you discount the queen and chestburster, there is at bare minimum 25 aliens that had been prowling, and I think a safe conservative number would be closer to 40-45, and we can likely even tack on another 5-13+ if we assume "lots" from the turret scene is a subitizing effort on Hick's part and could have accurately said "a few", "several" or even "a dozen".

Clearly, given the colonist count, we're lead to believe the number is almost certainly higher, but it should also be noted that the xenomorphs are rather tough creatures, so my gut tells me there were probably about 100 aliens. It should also be noted that, for actual production purposes, I think there were no more than 6 actors as aliens at any given scene, so even if we take "reality" into effect, we know there's at least that many. ;)
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Riggswolfe
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Re: How many xenos on LV-426?

Tue 08 Oct 2019, 22:50


3/ The xeno 'eggs' are more than eggs. They are alive, not just inert shells... this seems oddly wasteful unless the 'eggs' can reseal themselves after producing a facehugger, and can subsequently grow yet more facehuggers.

Can anyone remember anything from the Alien movies that would contradict any of these ideas?
The xeno eggs are, in fact, alive. It's the egg that detects the presence of a suitable host and opens. It, much like the facehugger, serves a single purpose. To continue the hive.

If memory serves the egg detects a host through one of 3 ways:

1) Gases being expelled by the host breathing.
2) Movement of a large enough mass to be a host
3) Sounds. I think I read somewhere an egg can even detect a heartbeat.

If any of the three are detected, the egg opens. I'll try to dig through my books and find more confirmation on this if I remember.
 
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Poulet Noir
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Re: How many xenos on LV-426?

Thu 10 Oct 2019, 13:21

Maybe we can at least consider a bare minimum?
[...]
Clearly, given the colonist count, we're lead to believe the number is almost certainly higher, but it should also be noted that the xenomorphs are rather tough creatures, so my gut tells me there were probably about 100 aliens. It should also be noted that, for actual production purposes, I think there were no more than 6 actors as aliens at any given scene, so even if we take "reality" into effect, we know there's at least that many. ;)
That sounds sensible, and may do away with the need for more than one xeno per host. I'd add though that some would have been killed before the Sulaco arrived: acid burns in the corridors where the colonists killed one or more of "Ripley's bad guys". But even so, the total number of xenos would probably remain below the magic 150 mark.

@Riggswolfe, yes I agree the eggs are living entities. My though process was why do they need to be? I guess Kane was suckered into looking into the egg by it opening and that may be reason enough!
"Come back Black Chicken, leave us an egg or something!"
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Riggswolfe
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Re: How many xenos on LV-426?

Thu 10 Oct 2019, 15:28


@Riggswolfe, yes I agree the eggs are living entities. My though process was why do they need to be? I guess Kane was suckered into looking into the egg by it opening and that may be reason enough!
I think it's as simple as "so the egg knows when to open to release the face hugger." 

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