Why not play the campaign as a member of the third powerful Cthonian faction?
Or, more broadly, why not play the campaign as a non-human/scion entity?
Could be interesting, at least as an idea to vet.
That would wreck the storyline because they're supposed to get wiped out before the real fighting starts...
* experimentation? [with biometal? with another, foreign substance? with native fauna?]
* colonization? pets/slaves? [--> then they rebelled?]
* to be a superweapon? [in conjunction with biometal?] [but they failed/escaped/were set free because they were too powerful?
* a fusion of biometal and human and Cthonian? (has this been done before?)
* a fusion of biometal and human and something else -- native plant/animal?
* a fusion of biometal and human and some non-living entity: stone? metal?
Feel free to add on/subtract reasons and such. Also, feel free to submit reason D. And Reason IV.
Discuss. What do you think?
OH MY. These suggestions fit in rather well with a little proposal I was cooking up for something of a bend.
Im excited now.
The blend goes something like this: it
could be presented as a three "act" or "part" story.
PART I:
EXTINCTION OF THE THIRD FACTION AND HIDING OF THE DRIVE.This would be the first part, it would be concerned with the extinction of the Third Cthonian faction in a fight with other cthonians over their superior technology.
This part is rather vague to me...
and so I kind of want to nod to Mr. X's history of the third faction for this part... but it might be centered around the hadeas trying to get their hands on a significant piece of third faction technology: the Alcubierre drive. The third faction hides it successfully or something, and then are killed off (but not before activating their gravity well to bring the cthonian moon down, more on that later).
One might play as a third faction cthonian (in the "past").
PART II:
CERBERI HUNTING AND DISCOVERY OF THE DRIVEPart 2, we jump ahead to the future (possibly after Perfidious, just so that that story might remain in tact) and we join the scions (player=the ambassador from full circle, on EDF oversight duties) as they are hunting the last of the Cerberi.
Our scions follow the retreating cerberi through Hadean
space portals, fighting and exterminating them, until finally the cerberi discover a rather more-ancient, burried protal, activate it, and retreat through. The scions follow, and once they reach the other side, discover a wold filled with cthonian relics. Here they exterminate the very last remenants of the cerberi, but at the end, discover the Alcubierre drive hidden by the third faction in the distant past. At this point, all seems calm and concluded, and the scion forces return to mire with their prize.
NOTE: There is potential, before the cerberi start to retreat through hadean portals, that they have spread to SOL worlds, eg, Mars, the Moon, Europa, Titan, etc, and so,
we could, for a few missions, go cerberi hunting on the worlds from BZ1 as scions! This possibility excites me the most.
PART III:
CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARK III AND MODIFIED "FULL CIRCLE"The third faction's Alcubierre drive is the centerpiece for the construction of the ARK III...
Resume plot of Full Circle to conclusion with the following suggested modifications:
The ARK is brought out of warp by the gravity well activated by the third faction on the cthonian homeworld.
Cthonians
DO NOT reverse engineer biometal, instead they use fallen peices of the ARK as their source, just as the scions do.
There are some other suggested modifications to full circle that I wanted to include but I cant remember what they are at this time... they were really good too... if yall could er... re suggest them, id like to have them in here....
IMO: -this plot reconciles the "portals/no portals" discussion, because portals are included, but are not the main recurring theme of the story.
-this plot reconciles the "cerberi/no cerberi" discussion, because there are cerberi, but they are exterminated.

-we would (eventually) get to play as each of the three proposed races of cthonians, in addition to the scions. (the third faction by default, and either the hadeans or olympians when you are prompted to join each of these factions in the eventualities of FULL CIRCLE)
-we would get to re-visit mars, titan, europa and even the moon as we go cerberi hunting. and so, this plot could solve one's desire to return to those worlds.
The one bit this plot does
not include, and the one discussion this does
not resolve is the time portals. But you already know that I am anti-time portals. So their exclusion in this draft is very explicable. HOWEVER, I BELIEVE that if the cerberi are causing trouble and inciting damaging shenanigans as they are retreating through these hadean
space portals, that the same plot-sense effect is achieved (as if they were traveling through time), and that is: lets follow these guys through this portal and stop them from causing trouble. Same thing as the time cop, but without the time portal. Know what I'm sayin?
ANYWAYS this is really just an amalgam of suggestions and things we all want to see...
Its primary drawback is its potential sheer size and length. This would be no short mod... Although if we have something like 5 missions per part, (something i think is highly possible) the potential size of this story could be rather nominal.