Hi Matthew,
First of all I am really excited about Dark Potential and can see it being a huge
success, the animal faction interests me the most and I have a few ideas for it.

First of all I have a few ideas about their motivation to fight as this came up a couple of times in your most recent video, there is the traditional fighting for food and defending terratory etc. However if these animals were subjigated by the other races (salvagers aside) it could be a genetic imprint for them to want to fight other races as over the generations they have come to assossiate them with physical harm. This would also tie together the faction as one as its no longer a case of individual terratories, if this were the case surely they would fight each other over food/land.

Secondly, the kind of heirachy within the faction could be important, there is the obvious primes/alphas which obviously sit at the top of the food chain. Then there are the soldiers/workers who make up the bulk of the faction, however if there was a lower class than worker which benifited others that could be cool. For instance in sealife there are fish that clean the underbellies of sharks, if these kinds of animals existed then it might bring the more "realistic" look you are going for. Think of them like welps aiding trolls in hordes (though I might be slipping into mechanics there.)

In terms of the species and ideas for them, I imagine the animals dominated by species that are native to Earth but have changed (maybe due to the increase in oxygen.) So maybe primates (Gorillas) that have increased in size and therefore strength, these make up the blunt hitting power of the army. Then maybe elephants that are no longer being hunted and have repopulated into groups of thousands, then you have the guys who can take hits but arent great at dishing them out. And then we move onto the cheap and cheerful options for the "army" smaller animals, kaemen or smaller monkeys of some descriptions these are the ones who are in a lower "class" to the bigger more powerful brutes and therefore are more abundant in number but because of there downtroden lifestyle are less able in a fight.

Hope this helped in any way, I might do some concept art (dont worry drawing is a hobby of mine so i wont be expecting pay or anything like that) and maybe a more detailed look at some of the more strange species in the faction.

Happy Wargaming Matt

P.S. I thought of a potential name "The Pack" as it kind of puts the mentally of the faction, and its a well used phrase making it easier to cnnect with for a gamer, oh and as its used in modern day it makes their presense more realistic.

I like your idea, but I don't have anything to add as of yet, but I wanted to congratulate on coming up with an idea that in my opinion is great!

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Every stone turns to dust

Thanks man, hope Mattew feels the same as it would be cool just to get mentioned, im kinda saving some of the stuff I have in my brain for mechanics as I have some really cool ideas for that, but thanks anyway dude

i really like it too, i hade a simuler idea but yours is a lot more develpoped. if anything i think that each group of workers should have a leader (like a officer in warmachine) that buffs them up or is stronger in some way.
...

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Khani is more OT family then Shas! There I said it! -IGfanatic

Khani I have to admit, you're awesome -wulfrun

In the grim darkness of the near future there is only.... Khani? -the airman

I agree that every group should have a leader, and yes warmachine officers would have been what I compared it to. But thanks for the praise dude always appreciated.

I like your idea of the animal hierarchy, and just wanted to add that animals from the deer family would be an interesting option for a fast attack type of unit, while bears, and larger primates would be good tanky units.

We should really explore the idea of the alien fauna. For example there may be a larger breed of animal that looks similar to bears and may have many ursine features. This "Dire Bear", for lack of a better term, may be a a 'squad' leader among a group of bears, or may even be influential enough to be something of an "HQ" choice which allows for fielding more ursine units than the usual 'Animal' army, think Tiers from Warmachine/Hordes or character HQ choices in 40k.

For a NAME... I like the idea of a name along the lines of "THE WILDBORNE", for a well encompassing name that allows for more generalization.

Interesting idea, I like it, what if you could also use something like this "dire bear" as a squad leader for a squad of bears, and the squad leader might be something like the alpha dog of that unit, with a HQ choice dominating the squad leaders? Just spit balling, I don't know how well this would fit into a smaller skirmish type game.

Loving all the ideas comming in here, "The Wildborn" is an amazingly awsome name much better than "The Pack".
Also in regards to the Alien fauna I think it would be great to have them as squad leaders as it shows how they have ntergrated themselves with nature on Earth (which of course would have happened after a number of years.) So a really awsome idea there.
The deer being a kinda fast attack unit is a cool starting point, but, i think they are just too fragile to be a believable attacking unit. I was thinking more along the lines of wolves/dogs being the faster units. Because I think they are a more viable unit that would be able to attack as well as move quickly.
So thanks to all of you that contributed its given me some ideas for some profiling on the weirder animals which should be comming along soon (watch this space hehe)

So yer thanks a bunch

I really like the name "The Wildborn", but I was thinking of this name , "The Untamed". I just think it has a nice ring to it.

"The Untamed" is not bad as well but I feel like it refers to the wilderness without focusing on the animals themselves enough.

As for deer I feel as though the "Animal" faction that Matt was looking for would mostly include predators thought I'm sure there may be some interesting creatures from other planets that may have even had enough influence/intelligence to 'herd' a flock of herbivores for later consumption, who would be able to use them as fodder in a game setting.

Rams would make for an interesting charging animal...

I think I mentioned the squad leader idea in my post actually Zen so ya I think its a good idea

I like wildborn and untamed, but it doesn't sound fierce, I think the name should be more... (long pause to think... seriously) deadlier, I guesss, something to show that they are wild, but they are fierce, slightly intelligent, the name of faction is a big deal, and I just don't feel those ideas hit home.

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Every stone turns to dust

I agree we are not trying to start a petting zoo here
Deer and sheep are about as tame and easy to kill as you can get.

As for the name
They could be named for the area that you are in
For example
The dead valley wilderness.
Or
The toronto area dead zone wilderness

As examples

As diferent areas of animals move migrate you could say
The great dead valley wilderness migration
Whole ecosystems move. Herds migrate all of the predators
Who rely on them follow them

As an added thing I like to imagine the stationary plants as part
Of your playable units place them around the table as terrain
If anyone uses them as cover they take dammage
If not get swallowed entirley

You could even go so far as to control the wind rain day night
It would make it interesting because
If you have floating terrain "see the terrain idea's thread"
You could use them as vehicles for some of your "climbers"
Blowing them towards where you want them
While some of your animals stay hidden waiting to strike

I imagine a very diferent way to fight with the animals
Not so much useing leaders to control them
Although you do decide what they do as individuals or
Packs.

The packs and herds of the diferent species could have leaders
But having a dog in charge of a cat is a silly idea
To cartoonish for the hopefuly realistic gameplay.

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If you want a more dangerous name, it could be something like "wild blood" that wounds kinda cool

Natures Wrath

Cheesy name, but it's along the lines of what I think it should be, because the animals being part of nature basically get revenge on the humans. I know thats not the story of the namilas but it's kind of what's going on.

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Every stone turns to dust