Observer

Alert

Support

Type

Power to Oversee

Protects Allies During Encounters

As a leader, after contact, use this power to make your sponsors’ ships impervious this encounter.

As a sponsor, after contact, use this power to make your leader’s ships impervious this encounter.

Your ships have 0 might.

Legacy: Sponsor ships are impervious.

Once acting as the watchful guardians of the Cosmos, the Observers strove to keep the peace and promote galactic peace. After finding their warnings constantly rebuffed, it became clear to them that preventing the destruction of everything would require more than passive observance.

Leader: Contact
Sponsor: Contact

Mandatory

Wild Flare

As a leader, after arrival, you may discharge this flare to offer each of your sponsors a pod draft.

Leader: Arrival

Super Flare

When using your power as a leader, you may discharge this flare to offer each of your sponsors the option to revive a ship and commit it, exceeding gate capacity.

Leader: Contact

Modifications

The original Observer’s power is the power to “protect”, which seems too active of a verb for this alien. I changed it to oversee, to reflect the idea of an alien that supervises the fight from a distance.
Original Observer only protects allies’ ships as a leader and protects only its own ships as a sponsor. My version does not protect its own ships, instead reducing the need to send as many in most circumstances by giving its ships zero might.
I modified the power to give Observer’s ships a might of zero, as a trade-off to the protection it offers its allies.
Observer’s legacy makes all sponsor ships impervious, allowing everyone to commit 4 ships at all times as sponsors without fear of losing them, even against vaporization or capture. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Observer grants the power to protect its allies regardless of how many ships it engages. Since its ships add 0 might, Observer can generally get away with sending one ship, though it may wish to send more as a backward for the larger bounty.
Observer protects its leader as a sponsor and sponsors as leader, providing incentive for it to receive both invites and sponsors despite its lower combat potential. Aliens looking to maintain a ship advantage will find Observer to be a highly attractive partner. Observer can use this to its advantage by getting more invitations and sponsors.
Commissioning Observer means you cannot obtain compensation from a loss.
Observer protects all ships when making someone impervious, allowing it to offer protection from powers that capture or vaporize ships such as Void and Fungus. Invite Observer to reduce their threat level. Alternatively, Void and Fungus types can entice Observer to their side, in order to maintain their threat level.
Similar to a reverse-Parasite, Observer will be granting bases or boons to everyone that sponsors them. Observer will want to take advantage of its value as both leader and sponsor to gain a dominion advantage.
Observer has a passive disadvantage when it comes to gaining a solo win. However, as with Parasite, it is still perfectly capable of doing so. The four-point differential caused by Observer’s weak ships can easily be closed by a strong encounter pod.

Development Notes

Observer’s main two rivals in terms of design are Zombie and Wormhole. The former copies Observer’s ability to protect ships, while the latter copies Observer’s ability to attract allies by saving their ships. It’s interesting how subtle differences make them completely different. Observer exclusively saves friendly ships, Zombie exclusively saves its own ships, and Wormhole saves both. Though Wormhole is most versatile, it is restricted by gate limits and cannot prevent ship destruction. Observer prevents ship destruction, as well as capture and vaporization, but it cannot rescue ships that are already in the warp. Zombie can rescue its own ships, but it is less attractive as a leader and sponsor compared to the other two, as its power is exclusively self-serving. If the three participate in the same match, they are able to coexist and assist one another, while also taking on completely different roles in the match. Of the three, Observer is the only one that can protect bases, since it makes ships impervious instead of merely reviving them. When dealing with similar powers, this is exactly my goal.
To prevent powers like Void and Fungus from getting nerfed by Observer, I made it so Observer doesn’t protect its fellow sponsors or itself. This means that Fungus still captures at least Observer’s ships on victory, Void still eradicates at least Observer’s ships, Remote can still get a remote from Observer, etc.
Observer is often criticized for its power being “too friendly”, thereby making it dependent on other aliens to gain power. In the interest of exploring as many design spaces as possible, I am interested in such a concept and actually decided to lean harder into the support aspect, removing all self-serving elements of the power. By nerfing Observer’s combat potential, I inherently made it more dependent on gaining allies, while also granting it leverage to gain both invites and sponsors.
As with the original power, Observer joining your side means that all of your ships are safe, not just your engaged ones. This means Observer is immune to Grudge’s power, and anyone siding against Grudge with Observer will be safe from it as well. Other ship-smashing effects like Cudgel, Void, and Vacuum also get neutered by Observer, but there are still powers like Assassin that can get around it due to its timing.
Observer is a very attractive ally for Amoeba, though Amoeba is still somewhat limited by its bases.
Thematically, I interpret Observer to be the classic archetype of the alien that watches from afar but doesn’t interfere, like the Watchers. Due to the omnipresence of Cosmic Encounter affecting most life in the universe, they had to violate their non-intervention policy to participate. Their ships’ zero might is reflective of them only watching the battle, while the protection they provide allows their allies to become observers instead. The biggest disconnect with the power is that Observer still primes its own driver, thus contributing the majority of its own might. Acting as a leader at all is fairly unthematic to the power, but incorporating something like original Usurper removes the refined simplicity of the green alert power. I justified this in the lore with the idea that these Observers are getting their hands dirty just by participating in the match at all.
Considered the idea to have Observer grant allies double might in exchange, but I like the idea of Observer being one of the few pure support aliens. In any case, I find the idea of increasing ally might to work better with my changes to Symbiote.
The biggest issue I see with my Observer is its dynamic as a backward. Since it provides no might, it has little incentive to send four ships for boons. Especially since it provides the defender less incentive to win by removing the consequences, and Observer doesn’t even protect its own ships in the event of loss. I think it might ultimately be acceptable, since it removes the incentive for defenders to throw encounters with N pods. They may still play a weak pod to get rid of it, but they may unintentionally win against an opponent attempting compensation. Observer is still enticing to invaders, so it might be able to leverage its power to invite more serious defenders.