More powerful "aliens" (random idea)

[someone_unknown]

Were aliens supposed to lose their relevance with time?

I just had an idea that they could be improving with time sorta like humans with tech trees. Tech lines, I guess. Basically, every hive (or maybe, continent/large group of hexes for simplicity) will have internally 2-3 improvements per tier that unlocked with time. Maybe that time should not start ticking until at least 1 player (half # of players alive?) entered any given era.

If that is problematic on larger maps with many hives unlock time could be larger.

[ErissN6]

Maybe aliens could be improved by research: it could be a (double-hedged) strategy to indirectly harm other factions..

[jdmillard]

Were aliens supposed to lose their relevance with time?

The short answer is yes. The devs have hinted at an alien faction being introduced during the mid-game that is somehow related to the ruins that you find. This would bring some added challenge to the mid game as the native life threat diminishes. There was no guarantee of this feature and we know that they are currently working on other things, so I don't expect this to be changed soon, but I've also been wrong before.