And they're written infinitely better. Which is sad, seeing as how they're fluff for a tabletop game that can barely decide what kind of backstory it wants.

I'll simply point out that Warhammer 40,000 has expanded considerably*, and is arguably just as comprehensive in scope as the SW background.

*As it's gone from a TT wargame to a massive multi-media franchise encompassing (probably) hundreds of novels/short stories/graphic novels/audiodramas, eight video games, a CGI film, and the epynomous TT game (which has itself expanded to cover several specialist variations).

Yep, my older brother is a walking encyclopedia of W40K, when he saw the work done by manshooter he said the ships reminded him a LOT of the Tyranids.

Oh, I'm not disputing any of that, I'm simply grumbling about the massive amount of retcons the recent fluff iterations have spawned. Though we can probably blame that on a few key individuals.

To answer a few questions, while I have read the entire Yuuzhan Vong saga (as tiring as it may have been at times), I envisioned the Xin as something far more alien and drew no inspiration from the books... same goes for Tyrannids, although I only heard of them, but don't know much about them. Of course, when you boil things down, all massive intergalactic evil invaders look alike.

There are differences, of course.

For example, the Xin are not from another galaxy - they are from the same galaxy as the vanilla factions. Sins take place in a relatively small cluster of stars, and while the Vasari may have had an empire spanning hundreds if not thousands of systems, that's still small fry compared to the size of an entire galaxy.

When it comes to Xin ships, all of them are alive, but not all are sentient. For example, smaller drones are capable of flying and shooting just like wasps are able to fly and sting, but they can't think for themselves. Larger ships, such as the Warmaster or the Chimera, are fully sentient. 

Also, while the Xin ships are alive and some of them could actually fly and operate entirely on their own, most of them are controlled by the Xin inside. Drone ships, while analogue in size to frigates, are unmanned. Larger ships have Xin crews.

Xin ships are not built in space. They are gestated within water-filled caves within the mantles of planets the Xin colonize (even volcanic ones). When mature, they are transported directly into space via Apertures of different sizes, which are short-range wormhole generators (you can even see water spewing from the portal for a few moments before the ship appears). The larger ships are in fact filled with water, as the Xin are aqueous creatures.

Xin motivations are unknown. All that is known about them is that they annihilate entire worlds, have no mercy, are not very interested in diplomacy and basically the only way to stop them is to kill them. They are capable of using guile, but that is rarely required, since they usually can just overwhelm.

In fact, if there is one genocidal alien species I drew some inspiration from when creating the Xin it's the Ur-Quan Kohr-Ah of Star Control II.

Except the Xin are not interested in telling their victims why they want to kill them.

It's somewhat refreshing to see a Sci-Fi race written that's simply interested in slaughtering everything not like them. Too much of the recent Sci-Fi I've read/seen/played gives the Alien Intelligences weird ulterior motives and plans for Galactic Equinoxes and other BS like that to try and humanize them or make them look smarter or more cunning. 

As for inspirations/shout outs/similarities, the Xin, to me at least, seem to channel a bit of the nids, a bit of the Kohr-Ah, and a bit of the Liir from SoTS (more in terms of design than motivation, of course). These are all good things to be compared to. 

As always, loving your work Mansh00ter, and I look forward to the day we get to stomp all over the Vanilla races with your creations. It'll be nice to play a simple Space Bastard again.

Woah, three years. This will be released, right?

Mice pics, would be nice if there was a beta download though, would really like to see those models, they are the only life form like models I have seen so far for this game.

!!!  

Again, stunning m8.

Still damn stunning work, I want to play this so bad.  I also want you to redo the Arilou, Taalo, both UrQuan races, solve hunger and world peace.

... I am hungry.

Working on it, will be done when its done!

Those pesky paying jobs just keep comin' and comin'... Hopefully I'll have something nice for you guys soon.

And looking at that Titan in the background, can't wait to see if that baby can hold its own against this...

I foresee epic battles.

Hahaha that poor Kol is trying to run away from that massive monstrosity of a ship.

That is truly epic and sick at the same time.....

Giant Spehss Caterpillar of DOOOOM

I think a brief show of force from the Xin vs any of the 3 original species should suffice for keeping us at bay for a little while, just saying

Oh, that's coming. But in the meatime, enjoy these:

Charybdis Titan, the second Titan for the Xin and the one who will doing all the "crush the insignificant insects with powerful gravitational tides". That's a black hole in the center, and we know that black holes are just too cool, especially when you get to blow things up with them!

Your particle effect in the center is very impressive...

How many particles do you average per sec? And how many textures do you have in it total?

The center particle effect is around 90-ish per sec. The model uses three 2048x2048 textures (the standard color, data, normals set)

Run Kol Run!

Thanks, just wondering... for the cool effect.

lol Singularity weapon me likes

The prospect of using a singularity as a weapon is ingenious.  Well done!