Cephalopeian Kingdom  
Description
Biological Description
Cephalopeian biology is somewhat vague, they are a race that posesses both mammilian and cephalopod genes. That is to say they seem to be a race of warm-blooded 'squid'-like humanoids. They have a recessive trait of psychic domination that seems to have been activated by unknown technology. Apparantly they do not need to breath and are quite at home within a vaccuum. Their lifespan is 2months 'un-bonded', those 'bonded' with their 'mounts' live a span equal to the mount, which is to say about 50 Earth years.
Society Description
They have a completely feudal society where war and battle hold dominance over all else. There are just no words in their language for 'art' or 'music'. Conversely there are over 100 different words for 'War' and over 50 for 'Slave'. They are controlled by a King, the position is hereditary but replacement by force has been known to happen. Their law system is quite simplistic, he who is strongest is right, the weak are wrong and fit only to be owned. Slavery is a right and not a crime. Indeed the only crimes in thier society are weakness and failure, which they deem one and the same.
General History Description
The Cephalopeia were a race of almost animal-intelligence, a hunter-gathering society, until they encountered a Monolith of alien origin. It altered their DNA, activating a psychic gene that reshaped their lives. With this newfound Mental Domination they enslaved the local spacefaring race of squid-like creatures called the 'Y'Rinth'. They bonded to this race through empathic means, becoming essentially a symbiotic creature similar to the CueCappa. Their lifespan increased as did their power. They now ride these once peaceful beasts to conquer the stars.
Emperor Title and Name
King Octus

Race - Main - Pop
 
Escort
 
Frigate
 
Destroyer
 
Light Cruiser
 
Cruiser
 
Battlecruiser
 
Battleship
 
Dreadnought
 
Space Station
 
Battle Station
 
Starbase
 
Small Transport
 
Medium Transport
 
Large Transport
 
Light Carrier
 
Carrier
 
Heavy Carrier
 
Small Fighter
 
Medium Fighter
 
Large Fighter
 
Colony Ship
 
Satellite
 
Mine
 
Small Troop
 
Medium Troop
 
Large Troop
 
Small Weapon Platform
 
Medium Weapon Platform
 
Large Weapon Platform
 
Fleet
 
Satellite Group
 
Mine Group
 
Fighter Group
 
Drone
 
Shield

Big Explosion

Extra Files
cephalopeia 2k.emp
cephalopeia 3k.emp
cephalopeia 5k.emp
read-me-ai.txt
squidname.txt

Notes:

This is my brother Damián's first race style. It has received some good critics, but he is not very satisfied with the general look. He recently changed the race portrait with this nice photo-composition he found somewhere on the web, and says he wants to revamp the whole shipset, but I didn't see him work in that. The new AI made by Deathstalker make completes the shipset to make them a threatening opponent as an AI race. I love how he managed to write the interesting and detailed biological, society and history descriptions to improve what Damián had written, but keeping not only the basic idea but most details from the original ones.
And finally I (Andrés) copied the data from Deathstalker's .EMP files into the AI_General file and re-masked all pictures that is something that was disturbing me since I first noticed the problem. Now dark areas will not look transparent when a "ship" is displayed above a background picture. So now, I think we can consider this is the final version and the Cepaloeian Kingdom becomes a must have race for any Space Empires IV player!

This Race Style has been made by Damián Lescano. I've posted it in my site with the author consent. If you have a site, and you want to host it, you should contact the author first.

Version:

Last updated/revised/compiled: 12/20/2001

Installation:

If you have the full version, unzip all files into a folder named "cephalopeia" in your "...\Space Empires IV\Pictures\Races\" folder.
Also move or copy "cephalopeia 2k.emp; cephalopeia 3k.emp; cephalopeia 5k.emp; " to your "...\Space Empires IV\Empires\" folder.
(Note that I didn't save any directory structure in the .zip file. In my experience that is harder to do and seems to generate more confusion than help. I named the .zip file "cephalopeia.zip" since most popular zip-manager-programs use the name of the .zip file as default extract path.)
If you're using the demo, the problem is that the demo has the option to install new race styles disabled. The only way to try any new race styles before having the full version of the game is by renaming all the files to overwrite one of the existing ones.
May the Force be with you.
Compiled byAndrés Lescano
Visit my site Kuat Drive Yards.