If we want to go biological maybe we should make it slug like, fish like, or crustacean like. The bug thing just seems so overdone, robots are close but it's hard to get tired of robots and androids in science fiction. Battle Los Angelous uses a amphibious or aquatic spiecies called the blaa that come to our world to colonize it and obtain our resources. The alien from the alien movies is intriguing because it incorporates several terrifying aspects from bugs and other creepy crawlies as well as their host organism. The problem with starfish aliens is that the more exotic we get the less and less they need to rely on technology that we understand. For example a slug alien would have much need for a starship if they just hitched rides with whoever is unfortunate enough to visit their planet. An insectoid alien may have organic spines that it shoots from its own body instead of needing a gun. The more alien a creature, the less it needs to conform to our standards and motivations. If it doesn't have hands why would it need tools? An alien that dopplegangs like the one in "the thing" would make a terrifying adversary...it could be anything, mimic anything, until you got up close and then its too late. Why do I need a complex society that builds massive spaceships that traverse the universe when I can get on yours and have you take me where I need to go. This creates a potential problem for the space combat game because the the starfish aliens don't need their own ships, they simply take over yours and hitch a ride and a snack on the way to your homeworld. In my comic book series the heroes will eventually encounter a very dangerous sentient race that is highly intelligent but doesnt need to build their own space fleet they borrow yours.

Well that is the problem with truely alien races, the more exotic they are the farther you will have to depart from Human technology and motivations. An aquatic dolphin like race probably wouldn't be overly concerned with space travel unless another race took them to the stars. Spider walker - sorry im' not diggin it, its creepy and cool but is completely the oposite direction of an aquatic race. An aquatic race would probably rely on some kind of secreted or grown material to make their "industrial" tools and machines as fire would not work unless they were semi-aquatic or amphibious and got out of the sea from time to time. Star Trek had an aquatic race in the enterprise series but it was evident that another race from the same homeworld was responsible for their travel to the stars.

• The core rulebook should be setting neutral, with "plug-in" settings.
  • The rules should cover char-gen, movement, travel/survival, and combat, but with races, equipment, and the technical "Handwavium" found in setting books.
• The core-rules need a good overhaul, with ship combat/construction rules built from scratch.
  • The rules could play like Basic AD, with Advanced AD added in a more streamlined fashion.
  • No "basic" and "advanced" rules: One system, made simple!
  • Greater freedom and flexibility should be granted for ship design.
  • Combat and movement should be scaled between Man, Vehicle/Fighter, and Spaceship.
• The "introductory" space-opera setting could still capture the spirit of the classic Alpha Dawn setting, but with all the serial numbers filed off.
• Additional settings may include:
  • A retro-styled sci-fi, like the old Buck Rodgers serials
  • '80s-styled cyberpunk.
  • A post-apocalyptic fiction akin to Fallout.
  • Steam-punk.
  • An anime-styled "real robot" war-fiction.
• These added settings could compliment the overall core rules, as they each have something to offer, that can be used in other genres.
  

 If you are considering an acronym name I would keep it at 4 or 5 characters anything more than that sounds too contrived.

I don't know that a tool using aquatic races is that impossible to do, just difficult. Their technology could be imported from another race. The problem with really alien aliens is that it is difficult for us to move beyond our own experience as human beings to imagine what their life and technology would be based on. The movie Battle Los Angeles is about an inviading aquatic race, the Blaa. As air breathing land dwelling creatures it is difficult to visualize what a industrial technology would be for an aquatic race but truthfully if we consider it we can actually see the possibility as difficult as it is. Our own seas are full of fire, geothermal and vocanic eruptions, maybe these creatures learned to harness fire like this which would allow for the development of metal based technology and tools. In order for an alien race to work in a video game they have to have theability to manipulate technology through limbs, hands, tentacles, flippers or whatever. If they cant use tech then on their own then you are in for a tough hall and some potentially unhappy players trying to visualize what they are experiencing. The Sathar have hand like appendages to manipute things around them. If the Sathar were straight worms with no appendages then the players would have a serious problem viewing them as anything more than a monster in a dungeon crawl. they have to be enough like us that we identify with them yet different enough that we see them as alien. Take the alien from the alien franchise for example. If in its grown state it was still like the chestburster the movie goer would have trouble with seeing it as anything more than an animal. But give it arms and legs and human like ambulation and all the sudden you have a terror that can manipulate the environment like we can and for much more sinister reasons.
 
I don't mean to rain on the spider walker idea but I really don't get excited by that. The ev suit seems more of a hinderence then an aide. You disable the suit and all you have is pretty fishbowl. While this is good for the clever player this horrible for the GM trying to bring on his newest blood chilling terror to life. When I describe the Sathar I dont just say its this slimey pink bellied worm with flippers carrying a laser rifle. I describe it like the scene from alien where the alien is slithering around the pipes inside the Nostromo shuttle. Subtle, slithering, glistening from a viscus wet slime, undulating as it hydrostatically pumps fluid into its segments as it slowly winds and turns into view. A sickly pink partially translucent under side with strange brown hued backside. Anyway, the point is that an alien that can control our environment as well as we can is far more identifyable and terrifying than one that can't