Disease
Alert
Invasion
Type
Power of Infection
Spreads to Other Planets
When another alien’s destiny color manifests and you have a base with three or more ships in their system, you may use this power to establish a foreign base in the same system using two or more of those ships. If wild destiny manifests, this power targets the targeted system instead.
Legacy: During warpfall, the invader may establish a home base with their free ships instead of reviving a ship.
No matter how much power one obtains, no one likes getting sick. When the plague hits, only the Disease remains to appreciate the result.
Any: Destiny
Optional
Wild Flare
At the start of warpfall, you may discharge this flare to force each other alien to display one pod in their cache. Any aliens who reveal the same color of pod must destroy 3 of their ships.
Any: Warpfall
Super Flare
During warpfall, you may discharge this flare to jump one of your free ships to any of your bases.
Any: Warpfall
Modifications
- The original Disease has the power of “Contagion”. Changed to the power to of “infection” to feel a little more “diseasey.” The original power even uses the term “infect” in its description. Went with “infection” over “infect”, because the use clause activates after establishing the bases.
- Slightly nerfed Disease’s power. Requires sending two ships to the new base to prevent one base from turning into three with four ships.
- Disease’s legacy allows the invader to regain a home base with existing ships instead of reviving a ship, making it easier to regain a lost power or avoid elimination. Original Cosmic has no legacies.
Tips
- When invading, Disease will almost always want to commit 3+ ships, since it provides 2 dominion in one. Committing three ships instead of four helps it to conserve its resources.
- Every foreign base Disease has is a potential second base if it can stack them high with enough germs. Keep your planets clean!
- Be very careful about inviting Disease as a sponsor. If it sends 4 ships, it’ll get two bases for helping you get one. Even as a backward, inviting Disease will let it put those ships on a foreign base after a win, setting it up for another foreign base.
- Disease can potentially turn one foreign base into five, which is what makes it so especially dangerous. However, to do this, an alien’s destiny color would need to be pulled 5 times, which would require a reset of the destiny matrix. One destiny charge will likely be consumed in obtaining the base, so realistically Disease should only be getting 2 extra bases in a system at most from its power. Certainly noteworthy, but not worth never inviting it under any circumstances.
- Since Disease’s power destroys its own ships, maintaining ship advantage is its biggest weakness, which can make it difficult to stay activated if enemies start gunning for them. Disease may spread quickly, but it still takes time.
Development Notes
- Disease is considered one of the most powerful dominion-type aliens in Cosmic, with its simple ability to turn foreign bases into more foreign bases over time. I very much appreciate how the theme of the power plays into how others treat it. No one wants to invite it, it spreads throughout a system, it’s weak until it infects and becomes crazy powerful. It makes it feel like a real disease.
- My biggest concern with this power is that the strength of its ability effectively gives it the problem of original Locust, where it essentially can only establish bases as the invader and never gets allies. It might be balanced by the speed of Disease’s power. Disease only gets three charges per system, plus the unknown variable of wild destiny. One of those charges was likely used before Disease established the base, which would leave it 2-4 others at most before the reset. It means that even if Disease could freely move its ships between bases, it will likely only get 1-2 dominion from one base before the match ends. That’s before taking into account its ships getting spread too thin from its power. It might reduce the threat of Disease enough for it to get invited a little more often.
- This power could easily be modified to allow it to gain a base in its own system when its own destiny is drawn, but since the power is so infamously strong, it doesn’t need the buff. It works thematically as well, as Disease naturally shouldn’t be able to infect itself.
- I added the ship destruction aspect to mimic the idea of a bacteria splitting in two. The asymmetry bothers me more than the need to balance the power. Aside from that, having Disease need to work to maintain its ship count adds more intrigue to the concept.
- Disease’s power makes me consider if there should be an optional mechanic that allows leaders to restrict the capacity of sponsors they invite, allowing aliens to invite Disease as a sponsor without worrying about giving it a bonus base for nothing. Then again, Disease can always add more ships to its bases later, so this is probably meaningless.
- Assassin is strong against Disease, as Disease spreads the ships on its bases thin when using its power. I kept the power optional specifically to avoid getting screwed over by Assassin.
- Disease’s super flare lets it gain a new base after 2 invasions, assuming it has a foreign base already. It still has to wait for a specific destiny to gain a base, so I think this is super enough without being unfair. It puts a soft countdown on the match and makes Disease toxic as a sponsor.
- This is another alien that is debatably the “smallest” alien, but no one said Disease had to be a microscopic organism. It’s gotta fly those ships somehow.
- Disease is one of the core aliens responsible for not allowing aliens to rebound ships freely to foreign bases unless the host has been eliminated. It creates incentive for Disease to eliminate other aliens, which is thematically appropriate.