I agree that there could be more imaginative designs, but i think the smartphone design makes it instantly recognisable, so you wouldn't have to delve too far into the species history (some people might don't want to use every single interaction option available to them and just finish the game quick....strange i know but these people exist) to get a grip on what's happened to them.

If you get some weird octagonal floating cube talking to you when you first encounter them, you might think it's a translation device. Granted, you might still think this when a smartphone starts talking to you but i think this design is better suited for what is intended.

Just my 2 cents

You're right! There's something to be said about making something recognizable to us human players, as opposed to something totally alien. And also true that the little PDA conveys that meaning a lot more than maybe a floating robot sidekick like in Portal 2. It's a give and take, and the designers did a good job at making familiarity a top priority.

It's kinda like the whole humanoid vs completely-alien issue. Do you include humanoids, even though intelligent life evolving on a completely different planet would probably not be bipedal with square teeth and hands with fingers? Maybe on a couple races to bring that same familiarity - we KNOW what those teeth are used for, and why that race has thumbs... it's just very, very unlikely. We DO associate square teeth with omnivores, sharp teeth with predators and grinding teeth with herbivores - so is it worth it to give friendly, non-aggressive aliens grinding teeth instead of sharp? OR do we just go completely outside the box and give them spiral-shaped teeth that us humans have no clue what they could be for! I guess it's a balance.

This is one of the primary aspect of our character designs and the problem with making humanoid aliens. If there is a feature that people associate with a given trait, if everything is a bi-pedal humanoid and you lose uniqueness, you lose the ability to bring those elements out in personality.

Sure you could make a bi-pedal humanoid and give it feathers and a beak, or fur and paws, but then the alien starts to become very generic and ho-hum. Star Control aliens are supposed to anything but generic and boring. 

Yes! Exactly! I talked with Brad years ago about humanoid aliens - my vote was against having them in the game - because I want to be surprised, awed and be able to marvel at the things I discover about each alien race. I want to be tricked, blown away, exhausted and ecstatic when I learn their personality! If everything is like, all laid out for you, plain to see because it's familiar and obvious, then there's no mystery! It brings to mind the Orz fishy swimming guys walking around in giant, stomping mech suits! What??? You have no clue what to expect! And then they turn out to be friendly (as long as you don't ask about you-know-who too much...) and talk like 4 year olds?! Ingenious!

So Kudos to you guys, pushing the envelope and thinking outside the human-shaped-box! Besides - per my point earlier in this thread - that's what makes the droopy eyeball alien such a winner! It's completely foreign and weird, yet LOOKS the way it IS!

Is the vault completely empty for anyone else? I used to be able to see the files just fine, but I've checked yesterday and today and there's nothing to see.

This is why they were so memorable.  They were almost 100% from scratch!  They can't help their fleeting resemblance to fish, but even that was mystified by everything else!

I don't care so much that they are humanoid or bipedal, but if you make them from scratch, then that's what counts (and it will be obvious in a good way if you do!).

It's empty for me too. I had seen everything before, then went to go download them a couple of days later and it was empty.

We are looking into the Vault issue. 

The founder's vault issue has been resolved.