Homeworld's Bug Problem

There are three things I love the most in this world, insects, science fiction and early 3D graphics (or low poly if you prefer the term, in any case I will avoid using the word "retro" as I was well into conscious when the first true 3D games and movies were becoming a hit), the game I'll be writing about today has 2 out of those 3 ingredients so vital for my favourite dessert recipe.

To say Homeworld took the gaming world by surprise would be the understatement of the 90s, the game not only did just that but it absolutely took the gaming world over entirely to the point even most recent space strategy games are still being compared to this 1999 hit title. What Relic did was close to witchcraft for all I know seeing how they had to do with the rather crude and dare I say "primitive" tech of the 90s and if that wasn't enough for me to fall in love with the company then their eventual mad zoologist game with an arthropod centred expansion certainly helped.

Ok, with all the earned praise out and done... what's with the title of this post?

Homeworld's end credits might have hinted at the 3rd missing ingredient to the dessert I never got back then.

Did you see it?

THIS?

This critter will from now on be referred to here as CFO (Curious Foreign Organism) for reasons I will explain a bit later.

Now for people who have never played any Homeworld game, the galaxy in which it takes place is devoid of alien life. Non-sapient life might and should be abundant but nothing outside the different human factions and tribes has shows any intelligence or even tool use in the entire known universe.

Well there is something else we can call alien but the beast must be left alone for the time being...

So here we are, at the "bug problem"! What the bloody hell is CFO?

The obvious assumption would be that this is scrapped art for an idea or concept that was also eventually scrapped. Yet I was more than motivated to try and do a bit of poking online!

Sadly I found almost nothing about what CFO was supposed to be or what role it might have played in the game's story and lore... Using the internet archive I managed to get to Relic's old Homeworld site and indeed find the original art piece on display with the file name: t_cfo, right so this critter is truly not only faceless but also nameless... Great!

Apparently the CFO part of the name comes from the fact this piece of concept art is shown during the credits next to the company's CFO Curtis Terry. Still this tells us nothing about the creature itself, so unless the artist Aaron Kambeitz decides to let us in on the secret we just reached the end our little investigation.

However I created this blog for just such occasions!

Lets dissect CFO!

Now aside from that screenshot from the credits video and the tiny thumbnail from the original site (the full scale version was sadly not archived) we have nothing else to work with. No worries, human imagination evolved for a good reason.

The first thing we need to focus on is the presence of raptorial legs similar to those found in Mantodea, Mantispidae and Phymatinae among insects.

Although not an exact copy the overall morphology of the legs seems to be similar to the typical mantid configuration.

Based on the presence of raptorial appendages we can safely assume CFO is a predator, most likely ambush oriented. I'm almost tempted to rule out the possibility of its species being highly intelligent or even technologically adept but I'm also aware this might just be a warrior or soldier caste of an otherwise highly advanced spacefaring eusocial insectile society.

The second portion of CFO's body that caught my attention is the head. At first glance the design screams ALIEN quite loudly, however the more I look at it the more natural and fitting to the whole creature's morphology it feels. Aside from giving CFO a sleek, elegant and deadly look it also gives out a lot of insectile vibes, so to say. The head seems to consist of a large dorsal (I assume more heavily armoured) crest and a less pronounced (and possibly softer) ventral portion which appears to have a pair of appendages pointing back from just behind the neck area. Again all this points to an ambush predator with a well protected "face" and long reaching raptorial legs. A detail that I specifically find impressive is how the antennae are placed, very often they are placed too high on the head, in a sense almost serving as eyebrows instead of representing an arthropods' version of a nose. In CFO's case the antennae appear as almost part of the mouthparts which is not only beautiful to look at but also feels more natural. Combined with a mouth which almost seems concealed I'm starting to personally feel like our little critter is closer to entognathans than actual insects but then again that's just my admiration for more primal looking arthropods messing with my better judgement.

The creature's neck appears well protected but also long and flexible, again ideal for a predator.

There are spikes going down the neck and part of the abdomen. For a split second I thought they might indicate the presence of some endoskeletal features but then again they seem to be entirely a part of the exoskeleton with one even being chipped off at the tip suggesting an active and aggressive animal which isn't unusual even for ambush predators especially when dealing with larger prey.

The entire creature's morphology is surprisingly very true to the general hexapod body plan! A body divided into 3 main sections (head, thorax, abdomen) and of course 6 legs total. If we consider the game's setting and lack of any major alien species... could CFO actually be a terrestrial insect descendant? Depends on how much of what we see in Homeworld can actually be traced back to our planet at all, but if the creature is really just a continuation of good old insect adaptation and evolution then that would explain the uncanny resemblance to our insects. In fact the body is absolutely in line with the general orthopteroid morphology found in some of the most ancient and successful insect groups!

The walking legs don't seem to have any special adaptations for jumping or swimming so again I'm leaning towards the ambush predator hypothesis, however there is something at the base of the last pair of legs, something that might be hairs or... maybe even something similar to pectines?

There is no evidence for wings which suggests CFO is either truly an apterygote or has lost them through evolution making it apterous instead.

Although I covered the head earlier I intentionally left out the fact that this creature lacks eyes entirely. For an ambush predator this is highly unusual as insects which rely on raptorial legs to catch prey need good eyesight and especially adequate depth perception, though that doesn't seem to be the case with CFO...

I mentioned how the creature's morphology is very typical of orthopteroids and honestly it reminds me a lot of the orthopteran family Stenopelmatidae.

Jerusalem Cricket (Ammopelmatus)

The general body build and feel seems to be closer to these insects than mantises or any other insect group possessing well-defined raptorial legs.

The lack of eyes also points to a predator that relies on scent, touch and/or vibrations rather than visual input and the long antennae and close-to-the-ground stance also suggest something more akin to a ground bound animal, perhaps even a digger.

So we have a rather heavy-built but blind ambush predator with strong raptorial legs that relies on scent, touch or vibrations to detect prey. There's also traits that suggest an adaptation for subterranean life which might also hint at CFO being part of an eusocial hierarchy.

Still all of this is just speculations based on concept art without any actual connection to the final product and lore, whether we're seeing a relic from an earlier version of Homeworld's universe where non-humanoid species existed or just a really elaborate inside joke of a sketch... I frankly don't know.

Until the next post, I wish you all happy holidays and as always... stay bugged!