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They could be ambibious, and yes there would be issue, and it would be far harder for them to advance, but it wouldnt be impossible, which is all you need for it to be possible.

If they were amphibious, it's possible, but still unlikely.
If they're aquatic, not a chance. No one's going to discover fire underwater, and fire is the basis of all civilisation.

You don't need fire, just intence heat, such as you find in underwater volcano spouts ect.

Even that puts a lot of limitations on it. Unlike fire, volcanic vents can't be moved around, or set up anywhere you wish. They also may not necessarily run on a fixed schedule, making it difficult to know when they'd be useable.

Let's presume for a moment that they do somehow harness these things for a reliable source of heat. How then do they move to electricity?
Nuclear power?
Aircraft?
Spacecraft?

Exactly. Like I said, we could sci-fi an explanation, but I'd like to see it. The issue of digits is easier to get around - webbed extremities.

Mikey wrote:Exactly. Like I said, we could sci-fi an explanation, but I'd like to see it. The issue of digits is easier to get around - webbed extremities.

Or tentacles.

What about a symbiotic relationship with a type of coral? You know, the whole "living" starship thing?

"living" starship

Noooooo!
No biowanktech!

I suppose we could always say a different alien race (Vulcans, perhaps?) came across their planet, realised this aquatic race were sapient, and introduced them to waterproof tech and manufacturing methods.

Got bored with one race for "Fire on the Suns", where we were simulating a Stargate verse. I designed a race that lived on a ~2.5 G homeworld. That gives you basically +1 to ground combat and endurance (attack and health). I then added more strength, claws, external armor, and internal toughness.

Here is the combat stats for a standard human with 1-pt rifles:

2,0,0,1 (2 pts of attack from regular weapons, no expendable defenses (shields), no special weapons, and only 1 health point)

Here are the stats for my truck drivers:
10,5,0,6 (10 pts of attack from claws and natural strength, has 5 hit points worth of exoskeleton, no special weapons, and 5 hit points from its internal toughness added to the 1 hit point of the critter itself; Not listed is where it carries 2 units of cargo)

Even more fun, the truck drivers above are cheaper because I don't have to buy weapons for them (cargo trucks are relatively free).

I also gave them higher intelligence (IQ 140 = average), and the ability to rapidly adapt (so I could research genetic technologies, to allow them to live in new environments and learn quickly). I got lucky in the first couple of turns of the game, and managed to set up a research series that would eventually allow my critters to live on any planet in the galaxy at base cost (no extra costs for weird local environments). I also researched genetic military tactics, meaning my troops knew the basics of combat right from being born. IIRC, I think I also managed to grab chameleon capability, making them harder to spot.

Unfortunately, they had almost no space combat capability, meaning in a regular FOTS game they would have been slaughtered.

It'd be fun to see these guys on DS9 once or twice. They would probably get incorporated/uplifted into the Federation if found, and a bar fight between them and Klingons would be interesting. Some possible quotes:

Random Klingon: "A Klingon does not just use weapons, a Klingon is a weapon."
(Critter then uses the Klingon as a club to beat up other Klingons in the bar)

Other Random Klingon: "A bar fight is much more fun when one is winning."
Critter: "Sometimes you have fun, sometimes the fun has you."

Plus their favorite sports game - Dodgeball. Played with a solid steel sphere 8 inches wide. As each opponent is knocked unconscious, they are removed from the field. Due to complaints about the referees at the end, the audience descends on the field and has a massive brawl (cue references to being a spectator sport)

AR-558 would have gone a lot differently with a few of these guys present. "Okay, your main opponent is a creature that likes to cloak and get into close range. How do they taste?"

Figure Tyranids with a sense of humor.


The other idea I had was a modified version of the critters from War against the Chtorr.

I'm in, should be fun.

I've made my own species for my universe thread so it'll be cool to make another with a group this time