Human

Alert

Combat

Support

Type

Power of Humanity

Mostly Harmless

As an actor, during combat, use this power to add 1 might to your fleet for each of your bases.

If you are zapped, add 10 might to your fleet for each of your bases. Persistent.

Legacy: If a leader’s power is zapped or deactivated, add 20 might to its fleet during combat.

One of the more recent species to find a seat in the Federation, most have found themselves unimpressed by the newcomer. While they don’t excel in any one area, there’s something about them that warrants attention. Some untapped potential that’s difficult to quantify with numbers.

Actor: Combat

Mandatory

Wild Flare

As a leader, after contact, you may discharge this flare to change your attack pod’s might to 42. Burnout.

Leader: Contact

Super Flare

When using your power, you may discharge this flare to add one additional might to your fleet for each of your bases.

Actor: Combat

Modifications

Original Human adds +4 to every encounter. I wanted to modify this to make it less brainless of a combat power. Since the combat bonus is effectively unzappable, I added a bit of dynamism by making it based on Human’s base count. It keeps the power weak but consistent.
Modified the power to be persistent, to reflect its weak but determined nature.
Original Human is infamously known for its ability to auto-win when zapped. I nerfed this slightly so that it’s still possible to win against a zapped Human, if highly unlikely.
Original Human’s super flare is a one-use Cosmic Zap, which would be the only aspect in the game that lets someone self-zap. Modified it to avoid making a burnout super flare, as making it reusable would basically just make it Virus 2.0 with no real weakness.
Human’s legacy makes every alien potentially more powerful when zapped or deactivated, increasing the utility of Cosmic Zaps and losing home bases. Aliens may wish to deactivate their own powers in order to gain new power, assuming they aren’t getting much utility from their power in the current match. There’s a risk/reward component since it increases your odds of being eliminated. If everyone gets deactivated, the bonus becomes mostly a wash, aside from guaranteeing fleets will be above 0 might. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Human’s combat power isn’t as flashy or powerful as some heavy-hitters like Warpish and Virus, but it has one of the most consistent combat powers which apply to every encounter. Human can almost always pass the Human test unless it gets absolutely steamrolled.
Human’s power applies as leader or supporter, making it a naturally attractive ally. Its combat bonus cannot be overcome with a zap.
Human is most dangerous with 4 foreign bases. Not only does it have its guaranteed +4 combat bonus, but an ally can zap Human to virtually guarantee an auto-win.
Human wants to protect as many of its home bases as possible to preserve its combat potential and support. Each time it gains a foreign base, it gains +1 might. Since Human’s power is persistent, its minimum might bonus is 1 and maximum is 9 (7 in a 4-alien bout).

Development Notes

The original Human’s +4 combat bonus is where the “Human test” comes from. Combat powers are considered to pass the Human test if they create at least 4 might on average. Weaker than this is considered too weak to be considered a combat power. My version of Human also passes the Human test originally with a point to spare, passing it normally in 4-alien bouts. Depending on Human’s performance, this number can go up or down by a small amount, ranging from 1-9.
As a pure combat power, Human’s power seems at first glance like a less potent version of original Neighbor. Aside from my version of Neighbor being modified, Human’s power has the advantages of being actor-only instead of leader-only, as well as being unzappable. It is the only alien in the game that becomes more powerful when zapped, making it only worth zapping when you are allied with it or trying to stop another alien from winning.
Human is one of the primary reasons that I removed the ability for aliens to zap themselves. The main reason for it is for mandatory aliens to refrain from activating their power in some situations (since optional powers can just choose to not activate). This means that only some of the aliens will even want this option, and many of those have no reason to self-zap, like Vulture or Will. It also causes potential thematic issues for aliens like Barbarian and Cudgel. If the power is mandatory because to do otherwise goes against their nature, how do they override their nature to be able to zap themselves? Though this decision does remove a potential option for some aliens, there aren’t enough to warrant the thematic and mechanical issues with it. If Warrior/Warpish has an issue fighting Anti-Matter or Loser, it makes more sense for them to zap Anti-Matter/Loser than themselves. Reincarnator misses out on being able to zap itself to keep its sub-power, but how exactly is Reincarnator zapping itself postmortem anyhow?