Sloth

Alert

Support

Resource

Type

Power of Sleep

Sleeps and Makes Others Sleepy

After destiny, when you are not the defender, use this power to “take a snooze.” This invasion, commit to your fleet with zero ships. Snoozing aliens cannot use the voice channel, discharge support pods, or use powers.

As an actor, if you are snoozing after arrival or approach, you may “wake up” and commit more ships to your fleet, not exceeding gate capacity. If you do, use this power to “yawn”, targeting one enemy. That alien snoozes until the end of upkeep.

Legacy: Sponsors remain private until after approach, and sponsors do not enter the voice channel until after approach.

After millennia of inactivity, the mighty Sloths declared their intent to dominate the Cosmos. They haven’t made their move yet, but many are concerned they are setting a bad example for future conquerors.

Not Defender: Destiny

Actor: Arrival or Approach

Mandatory

Wild Flare

As a sponsor, after contact, you may discharge this flare to commit more ships to your fleet, not exceeding gate capacity.

Sponsor: Contact

Super Flare

After contact, if you are snoozing, you may discharge this flare to wake up.

Actor: Contact

Modifications

Originally a yellow alert alien. Changed due to added complexity and meta nature of the power. Requires familiarity with the timing rule for everyone to understand it.
Originally the power of Laziness. Changed to better fit the action taken by the alien. Or in this case, the inaction.
Original power is optional. My version is mandatory to fit the theme of sleep.
Original Sloth’s power allows it to commit ships after approach, committing its mark instead of 0 ships, which can be exchanged for 0-4 ships. Modified to make the power more meaningful and better fit my design philosophy.
Original Super Sloth can extend its power to its allies. My Super Sloth expands on my version of the power.
Sloth’s legacy makes all sponsors “oversleep”. Sponsors remain private until after approach, and sponsors do not show up in the voice channel until then either. It makes both leaders blind to the number of sponsors they do or do not have on their side, and they have to be more trusting of their own popularity. Aliens with combat powers that aren’t as reliant on sponsors can generally perform better, though they may get caught with their pants down if many aliens team up against them without their knowledge. Aliens that are better at incentivizing sponsors may also perform better here, though they can also be blindsided by everyone betraying them at the last moment. Original Cosmic has no legacies.

Tips

Sloth can remove any dangerous powers that threaten to decide the encounter. It is up to Sloth to decide which enemy is the best target to put to sleep. It works on both mandatory and optional powers, so Sloth has to weigh its options carefully.
Deciding when to wake up can be important depending on the matchup. Waking up earlier can be important for preventing a specific arrival-time power like Trader, while waking up later can be useful for surprising a strong combat power like Volt.
Sloth has the ability to be incredibly non-committal as a sponsor, especially if it sponsors a fleet that gets dogpiled by everyone else.
While Sloth does always get to commit its ships last, it has to decide who to sponsor at the same time as everyone else.
Getting Sloth on your side is the only way to guarantee it won’t zap your power. This can be incredibly important when you have a combat power and are matched against another combat power.
Whether acting as an invader or sponsor, Sloth does not have to commit any ships at any point. If it does not, it will not yawn and negate a power.
Sloth is required to yawn and negate the opponent’s power if committing any ships. This can potentially backfire if the opponent wants to turn off their power, such as Anti-Matter holding a 40 pod.
Even if no enemy has a power that can activate during an encounter, Sloth can put an alien to sleep to stop them from using artifacts, flares, and distress pods.
Since Sloth cannot enter the voice channel immediately, neither leader will know who Sloth sponsors until Sloth commits its ships. This means if Sloth never wakes up, the leader won’t even be aware Sloth sponsored them.

Development Notes

Sloth is considered one of the top three weakest aliens in FFG Cosmic, alongside Locust and Grumpus. With a timing activating after approach, the only consistent information it gains before committing is info about sponsors, and the 4 might it can provide to the fleet is not generally meaningful enough to make a difference. The primary issue with changing the timing to after contact is that it invokes the Oracle effect for Sloth as both invader and sponsor, making it too mindless of a power. Sloth can sit out when it won’t win and join in when it will, meaning it will rarely lose ships unless acting as the defender. The power doesn’t help protect bases, and it doesn’t particularly incentivize other aliens to invite Sloth, so it is mostly seen as an inferior Zombie, which itself is considered an inferior Symbiote/Roach. To make a workable Sloth, I needed to Sloth to have a unique advantage as both invader and sponsor.
When deciding how to design this power, my selling point was the image of the power animation, that being a giant panda-like alien creature yawning and/or falling asleep. All power usage has to be public so it can be zapped, so it is important that Sloth using its power does not give away which fleet it is joining. I think it makes the most sense for both aspects of Sloth’s’ power to be zappable. Only the first half needs to be zapped in order to stop both, but waiting until after it arrives to zap it is also reasonable.
Sloth is one of the few aliens who can choose to activate their power during two separate phases. I wanted to give this option due to the inherent advantages of both. Activating during arrival allows Sloth to disable more alien powers, while activating later allows it to surprise the opponent with its appearance after they have committed to an encounter pod.
I considered whether the first half of the power is perhaps too much complexity or even unnecessary with the introduction of the second half, but I think it still fits well. I couldn’t accept a Sloth alien that doesn’t go to sleep itself, and the “hidden sponsor” mechanic still creates potential for mind games, where an opponent might prime a pod in anticipation of Sloth negating their power, only for Sloth to never show up.
For my version of Sloth, I combined the weaker power of delayed committing with one of the weakest powers in CEO, Martian. Martian is an alien that shuts down the enemy leader on arrival, acting as an inherent Cosmic Zap. However, since it lacks a power of its own, it is weakening its opponents some of the time without gaining any advantage for itself like Plant does. It essentially forces opponents to fight “fair” against it, which doesn’t make for the strongest power. With Sloth, I expanded upon the clause to make an alien “sleepy”, preventing them from using any powers, support pods, or the voice channel. Simply the ability to use its power as a sponsor and target enemy sponsors is already a major improvement, since it can help another alien leverage its own power and target a wider range of powers like Cavalry and Scholar. There are still many aliens like Bandit and Assassin that Sloth cannot touch, but that helps distinguish Sloth further from Plant and makes it more of an encounter-specific power.
I also considered the power to “snooze” for its similarity to Amoeba’s power to “ooze”, since both powers exist in a similar design space. I also like the active verb to define the inaction of taking a nap, and how the power can be imagined as Sloth hitting the snooze button on its alarm clock when it’s time to launch an invasion. It does eventually wake up, but it oversleeps and shows up late.
Amoeba is much more of a combat power than Sloth due to its inherent ability to surpass gate capacity. Both are capable of committing 0 ships into an encounter, though Amoeba cannot hide its presence as an actor.
The timing rule is also important to consider for this power. If Sloth is the invader and goes up against Loser, it can put it to sleep before it uses its power when waking up after approach since it goes first. However, it cannot do so when showing up after approach as a sponsor, since leaders act before sponsors. In such a case, it would need to show up after arrival and put Loser to sleep in advance.
Even though Sloth’s power is comparable to a zap, it doesn’t actually zap the power. If the power has already been activated, it will persist until upkeep. For instance, if Sloth puts Plant to sleep after it grafted a power from Warrior, Warrior will not get it back like they would if Plant were zapped. Plant simply loses access to it until the end of the invasion.
While Sloth gets a surprise factor as a sponsor, there is no surprise as a leader, since it cannot use its power as a defender and cannot hide its participation as invader. It makes Sloth generally more powerful and attractive as a sponsor.
I considered blocking access to the text channel as well while sleeping, but I can justify use of it as “sleep-talking”. Blocking out the voice channel works better for theme and keeps it a complete secret who Sloth has sponsored until after contact.
I find it amusing that Sloth’s design makes other aliens more vigilant, since they have to be ready for it to show up late mess up their plans.