Silica update 0.8.14 just landed online with loads of gameplay balancing changes.

Update 0.8.14

Today, we're rolling out update 0.8.14, where Dram has concentrated on several gameplay balancing changes. These changes cover for example unit health and costs, projectile damage, or build times. You can find the detailed changelog below for a comprehensive overview.

Another important addition is a feature that hides distant objects (from 3 km and beyond), designed to boost performance on larger maps, especially in the late game.

Let us know your thoughts on these changes via our social media and Discord. As always,

Balancing the battlefield!

We are releasing another minor update, which is mainly focused on game balancing and Harvester pathfinding issues. 

Update 0.8.11

We are releasing another minor update, which is mainly focused on game balancing and Harvester pathfinding issues. As always, you can read the full changelog below for all the details, and share your feedback on social media and our Discord.

But that’s not all. Silica will be also included in Steam’s Czech & Slovak Week 2023. It starts today and lasts until November 20th. So if you or your friends still don’t have Silica in your Library, 

What a great opportunity to join the fight for Baltarus. See you there!

Harvesters have just gotten better!

We’re releasing new update today focusing on improving the game’s performance and adding other quality of life changes.

Update 0.8.6

While you’ve been enjoying the Air Units - one of the biggest additions to the battle for Baltarus so far - Dram has been busy focusing on improving the game’s performance and adding other quality of life changes.

As a result, we’re releasing our first performance update today, with more improvements to follow soon. Read the full change log below for all the details, and let us know what you think on social media and our Discord.

That’s all for now. See you on Baltarus.

First performance upgrade is here!

Learn more about the units that are dominating the skies of Baltarus!

Find out more

We hope you've been enjoying the Air Units update that dropped last week, and that you've taken to the skies of Baltarus to explore all the thrilling possibilities these units bring to Strategy mode. Dram is currently working on performance optimizations which should be coming your way soon!

Today we'd like to quickly go through all the newly added air units, even though they've been available in Arena for a while, for the players who might've picked up Silica now, or just waited for this major update to happen!

Serving as both a production platform and launch pad, the Air Factory constructs aerial units. The access elevator allows quick access from ground level for pilots.

Agile and versatile, the Gunship is perfect for speedy reconnaissance missions as well as for quickly eliminating distant, light-armored threats.

Equipped with Balterium munitions as well as rockets, the potent Fighter is designed to deal with heavier targets as well as for air-to-air combat.

The armored Dropship is primarily designed for rapid deployment of troops near the frontline, boasting a Balterium turret to repel smaller defenses.

Massive and particularly heavily armored, the giant Bomber is anything but nimble, designed for heavy aerial bombardment against base defenses and slow armored targets alike.

Considerably larger than the Greater Spawning Cyst, this towering mass of alien flesh produces the giant Goliath.

Dwarfing even a Goliath, this monumental pillar of biotic mass produces the largest of the air units, including the deadly Colossus.

Fast and maneuverable, this critter enjoys ambushing prey from above. Despite its powerful mandibles, it is its stinger that its targets fear most.

Just like its earthly namesake, this creature is a formidable hunter, attacking from afar with spikes it projects from its menacing mouth, then moving in with its stinger.

Boasting powerful jaws and fins for flight, the Firebug is capable of internally heating itself to incredible temperatures, utilizing this in its extensible tongue, which is capable of melting through even heavy armor.

Aptly named, a Defiler's body is home to thousands of volatile insects capable of penetrating even heavy armor due to their extremely corrosive innards.

A floating fortress, the Colossus is as grotesque as it is deadly. Its top shell is near impenetrable, while its eye projects a catastrophic energy pulse.

And that's it! Keep testing them out in Strategy, provide us with valuable feedback while Dram is working on performance optimizations and until then, 

PS: The screenshot accompanying this article was made by one of the "Best Screenshot Ever" contest winners. Credit goes to Luis Badano. Thank you!

Air Units Overview

The skies of Baltarus are about to change!

Update 0.8.0

The time has finally come for the air units to make their debut in Strategy mode! You've had enough time to test them out in Arena and provide us with enough valuable feedback for Dram to be able to tweak their parameters. This major update is the first and the biggest one for this year! There's a lot of additions besides the air units themselves such as the relevant structures to produce the air units (Air Factory, Grand Spawning Cyst, Colossal Spawning Cyst) and much more.

You can also check the official trailer for the air units here:

As the whole gameplay and dynamic is about to change on the scorching deserts and skies of Baltarus, here are some parting words from Dram himself: 

This latest build introduces a number of important improvements and changes to hopefully make play more fun and interesting. The air units are of course the largest addition, enhancing Strategy mode with a new layer of depth. Apart from this there is also the introduction of a unit cap system. This will help with not only performance, but also balance and it is possible to choose between 4 settings: Low/Medium/High/Infinite. Changes in terms of health, armor and damage have also occurred to hopefully make things a bit more balanced.

I also consider it crucial to be completely transparent and directly state that the AI is still on the weaker end and will be a big focus going forward. Apart from that, the primary focus for the next few weeks will be on performance, which the game still suffers from in late game (although helped a lot with the addition of the unit cap system).

So on that note, I hope you enjoy the latest update and please feel free to send feedback my way via Discord or Steam. The game is still in Early Access after all and therefore heavily influenced by your feedback! So thank you to everyone for providing feedback in all its forms.

Take care everyone, especially in these trying times, stay safe.

Air Units Finally Take Off In Strategy

See the recap of how the air units got introduced in preview mode!

Find out more!

We're four months down the road of Early Access, and since the last time we had a Silica Synopsis, there's been a few significant changes, mainly with the introduction of the air units as preview mode in Arena!

, and we asked for your feedback for a chance to win some codes for Silica to share with your friends. 

released the alien air units as a preview mode in Arena

And now, we're getting close to the first major update of the game, where these air units will be introduced in Strategy and we can't wait to see how they will impact the gameplay!

Last but not least, we released a video, talking about the process of creating the trailers for Silica. You check out the video below:

Stay tuned for the air units update and until then, we'll see you in the skies of Baltarus!

Silica Synopsis: Four Months Later

3 new air units for the aliens are available in preview mode

Update 0.7.31

Today's update sees the addition of 3 alien air units to the game in a preview form, namely in the Arena game mode for now. The next update will see the addition of 2 more, as well as the integration of all air units into the Strategy game mode.

Feedback is very much appreciated, so thank you to all of you who provided such with the last update! It is invaluable and helps shape the game, namely in the form of balancing.

Without further delay, please enjoy the air units and leave a comment about what you think!

Alien Air Units Land In Arena

The much anticipated air units are available in preview form

Update 0.7.28

Another update is here, this time focused on turret balancing and, most importantly, the addition of air units in a 

form - via the Arena game mode (on maps other than Combat Dome).

Feel free to give them a spin, and please give us your feedback! 

We hope this update will get you excited to the air units that should be coming to Strategy sometime next month!

Until then, feel free to test them in Arena, let us know your thoughts and we'll see you on Baltarus.

Air Units About To Take Off In Arena

Learn more about improvements related to performance, construction, communication, ping system, and more.

Here's a list of improvements that Dram managed to squeeze in Silica!

It's been over two months since Silica was released on Early Access and since that time, Dram has managed to implement some big improvements related to performance, construction, communication and more.

You can check this video to see for yourself: 

We also had an update recently that introduced a major gameplay change - the introduction of Outposts and turrets for both human factions! You can 

Dram is on a much needed vacation right now, and slowly preparing the scene for the first major update of the game which will include air units! 

He also did an interview discussing several difficulties he had to overcome while creating Silica. It's a more in-depth dive into game development and if you want to learn a few things you can check the video below: 

We also managed to dissect the interview and turn it into a 3-part blog series on our website: 

We hope that you'll enjoy your summer, and keep your eyes peeled for more info on the air units update.

Silica Synopsis: Two Months Later

Another update is here with some major gameplay additions!

Update 0.7.25

We're here with a brand new update which includes some major gameplay changes. First and foremost, the addition of the Outpost, which may be built far from base and serves as a hub for remote operations (allows construction of buildings around it and also serves for respawn and infantry loadout, albeit only up to the Marksman). Additionally, a 

 have been added for defense for the human teams, this allows a parallel to the Alien defenses. The Turret, being available at Mark I, allows for decent defense against the light vehicles, though a tank makes short order of it. The Heavy Turret is more expensive, available at Mark III, and fires projectiles powerful enough to damage tanks, though is also not as accurate. 

We hope you'll enjoy the changes and stay tuned for the next update that should be coming out in a couple of weeks.

Wishing everyone a lovely summer and we'll see you on Baltarus!

Outposts have arrived on Baltarus!

The last part analyzing some of the challenges Dram faced when combining two genres.

This week we're back with the final part of the challenges faced in combining RTS and FPS. 

One of the main challenges, in particular, was at the beginning of the game (and it is still a challenge). When you start a game in Strategy mode, especially in the large maps, which can be 6x6 km in size, and the two teams start on opposite ends, then there's a lot of ground to cover. When running around as a soldier, it can be frustrating getting across that large of a distance. Sure, you can get in a vehicle, explore, and get into combat. But when you die, you spawn back at HQ. 

At that point, you'd have to make your way back, and if there's no vehicle around, you'd have to go on foot or just wait. So Dram introduced teleportation as part of the lore as well. So the way teleportation works is that you can teleport to any point on the map as long as your units can see it. The further away you are from the source, the greater the uncertainty radius. So, if you decide to teleport one km away, there is a 100-meter uncertainty radius.

Dram decided to implement a day and night cycle because it just felt natural and also because he wanted to create a certain advantage for the aliens during the night. Humans have an advantage during the day, and aliens have an advantage during the night. Dram made it so that the day constitutes roughly 60-70% of the time, and the night takes up the rest. Basically, the night cycle is accelerated because players were complaining that it was taking too long. It's more interesting during the day, but the night makes it more interesting for the aliens because they can see further and they can hide better in the shadows.

Ultimately, it came down to two factors - gameplay and effect! The feeling when you see the sun rising in the distance and you also get a feeling of time passing.

A great example would be the satisfying feeling when there's a big battle happening, and it goes from day into night. You're still fighting, and you manage to push off the enemy. As the enemy retreats, and you see the sun starting to rise, you feel a sense of relief like "Okay, I survived the first day. Moving on". Another thing that the day & night cycle influences are certain gameplay strategies. Specifically with regard to the sun's location. If you attack with the sun to your back, it will be much harder for the opposing players to attack you because it's difficult to see against the sun. The sun is strong intentionally because it's a gameplay mechanic Dram thought would add more progression and immersion in Baltarus.

Dram wanted to differentiate it because he values realism, but he didn't want to go overboard because it would become a mod of Arma.

He wanted to reduce what was needed for logistics. If limited ammunition and fuel were added, players might find themselves in a situation where a vehicle might be going toward the enemy, and at some point, it runs out of fuel. So now you either have to send it back to base or bring some canisters to refill. The same goes for ammunition. And it can be 6km back in the worst case.

Opting for unlimited ammunition was a natural choice. Another main reason for this decision was the actual scale of the game. It's more fun to shoot at something and be shot at without the worry of running out of ammo. That's the feeling that Dram was going for, making it fun without going overboard with realism.

From an infantry perspective, communication would be the most important thing. Right now, there's a chat system and pinging, with plans to add VOIP in the future.

From the Commander's perspective, giving orders to units is very fluid, and it was a natural outcome of combining the two together.

There are several challenges when it comes to making an AI Commander. Dram didn't want to use behavior trees because you're limited to what's in the behavior tree. Instead, he decided to adopt a more priority-based system, which evaluates the battlefield and creates a list based on distance, importance, and other factors. Once these "situation reports" are compiled, they need to be evaluated, starting with the highest priority, and going downwards.

One of the biggest problems with this system, according to Dram, is that it starts working only when you have everything done. Otherwise, soldiers will get orders to attack the enemy, leaving no one to defend the base. But this was one problem with the solution that Dram chose. Another solution would be machine learning. However, Dram decided to avoid it because it's not an easy thing to do, and it would require a large amount of data that would hinder performance. So there was no need to do that, at least not for now, and so Dram went with this priority-based system which is relatively easy to evaluate.

And that's all from Dram's interview and presentation. If you haven't watched the full video, you can check it out below:  

We hope you enjoyed this breakdown of Dram's presentation, and that you may have learned something interesting from it.

Stay tuned for this week's update, which should be coming out soon, and we'll see you on Baltarus!

How to Combine RTS & FPS (Part 3)

The second part analyzing some of the challenges Dram faced when creating Silica and how he managed to overcome them. 

This week we're back with the second part analyzing some of the challenges Dram faced when creating Silica and how he managed to overcome them. 

There are definitely situations where you can experience how the realistic ballistics work during the battles on the scorching deserts of Baltarus! You can see an example when tanks are firing against each other, especially in range. For standard shells, they will bounce off the top of the armor. This can influence gameplay quite heavily because you need to find the right angle to hit the tank and the right spot, for example under the turret of the tank, or "the neck" where if you manage to hit that, it will deal a lot of damage. It's all about tactics at the end of the day. 

As soon as a bullet ricochets, there is a simulation on whether the projectile is deformed, based on the angle and force. There is also a possibility that a projectile can spin out of control after it ricochets, and it could still land on something causing impact damage but not exploding, as it's been deformed. 

Letting the aliens have the ability to swarm, proved why going with physics-driven was a good idea. Doing this, with anything but physics, just makes it much more complicated. The way the aliens work, they have a sphere collider so you can imagine them as a ball moving on the terrain and reacting with the terrain so when it bumps into something, especially on the ground, it gets the normal of that, and it knows which direction is "up". So if there's a point beneath and a point across that creates this wall, then it knows that input going into it, is forward into the wall, so logically, the vertical surface is more important than the horizontal, therefore it starts to angle up and it goes up the wall.

And the important thing is that even though the crabs can climb over each other, they can't climb onto each other by themselves. That's why Dram has put limitations to the movement so if they're on top of each other, they can climb on top of each other but they can't climb up onto each other. Therefore, when there's a lot of them, they just naturally push each other on top which creates this "pile of bugs" which looks really cool!

For this topic, Dram decided to go against the standard tactic of having everything server-side. The reason for this is because it's a lot of data. When there's a huge amount of units, that causes a problem in synchronization. Instead, Dram decided to implement client-hosted servers. So anyone can host a game and have their friends join their server. If it required a really strong connection, then it would limit who can actually start a server. Or it would limit how many units they can have in the server.

Dram always had a goal to go with around 100 - 200 max in the game. He ended up not putting a unit cap and it resulted in everyone spawning about 500 to 600. So Dram has been working on optimizing that in terms of performance but he also wants to optimize it in terms of bandwidth because right now, when there are 600 units, it's a lot of data that has to be sent per unit.

Another more personal reason, was to support really high ping rates. Dram's brother lives in Australia, and whenever they played, there would be a 300ms ping, making it extremely difficult to play together. So in the end, Dram wanted to be able to support this sort of high ping. The approach is old school, and the old school thing which you have to do is sanity checks. These sanity checks are able to combat players who might be hacking and autoban them. 

From an RTS perspective, one would expect that whatever is outside of the vision range in the fog of war, would be concealed. That causes problems with FPS though as it relies on line of sight. At the same time, Dram couldn't use line of sight for RTS so he decided to implement the best of both worlds.

He added a feature called concealment. So there's the vision range of the fog of war and anything within that is revealed. Units, however, can be concealed if they're near large rocks, cliffs etc. It also depends on the unit as it would be hard to conceal a hover tank compared to an infantry soldier. 

There are multiple ways to detect a unit. Audio is always a way to go - if a quad starts shooting, then if most certainly be more audible. So in essence, the audible range can reveal a unit.

And that's it for this week's part. You can still check out the video interview with Dram to learn how to combine RTS & FPS:

The last part should be coming out soon so stay tuned and we'll see you on Baltarus!

How to Combine RTS & FPS (Part 2)

Dram goes into a deep dive behind the development of Silica

Have you wondered what makes Silica so unique and what it took to combine the RTS and FPS elements in one game? This is what Dram got to present as a special guest during the Game Access Conference in Brno this summer. 

We managed to break down his presentation into 3 smaller blog posts to give some insight for those interested in game design. We'll also dive into what challenges Dram faced when creating Silica and how he managed to overcome them. So let's get right into it!

The main reason why Dram wanted to have an authentic scale in Silica was because he wanted to put across the scale of the world of Baltarus. The scale of the vehicles and building being so large gives an interesting feel. It's a feel that Dram himself recalls seeing in Dune 2 where the vehicles were very large compared to the troops, and he wanted to portray that in Silica.

There were several challenges when it came to large buildings, one in particular was building placement. Because the terrain is not flat but more "alive", it was difficult to write a system to snap the building on the terrain without having a part floating. To solve this, Dram defined point on the building which had to be beneath ground and points which had to be above ground. Another issue was recalculating the navigation graph around the building when it was placed or when it was destroyed, because vehicles need to avoid the buildings and troops need to be able to walk on the buildings.

This is the fabrication technique - the visuals that players see when a building is being constructed. It was chosen mainly because it was the most technically feasible for the massive team size. It was simple to set up because Dram had these square shaped pre-fabs. That way he could cover the building and therefore do it so they progressively appear, cover the whole area where the building should appear and once the building is complete, they disappear. One of the main inspirations behind this, were 3D printing techniques!

, he did a post-mortem on that, where he stated that it is a bad idea to do everything physics driven! Evidently we went back on that, but the reason at the time was mainly because processors were slow and because it adds a ton of issues. However, thanks to the experience with Take On Mars, it was much more easy to go with everything physics driven in Silica. Another reason why physics was the way to go, is because the tires of very large vehicles, for example the Harvester, would be very difficult to simulate without physics and subsequently, their movement would look very incorrect given the fact that they need to roll over obstacles.

Because Silica blends two genres, Dram couldn't take the route of having simplified colliders, for example pipes where you can see through them because they're hollow but the collider would cover the whole thing. Because the FPS element exists there, and these pipes are large, you could theoretically shoot through them because it's what a player would expect from an FPS. Having the bullets would bounce off the side, it would look very strange and in Dram's words "you wouldn't fulfill the expectations of the players of the world from an FPS perspective". Plus, Dram thinks it's more interesting to have these accurate colliders and things bouncing where they're meant to! Given the fact that there are realistic ballistics where bullets can ricochet, there's penetration, it's important to have realistic colliders.

One of the challenges with regards to colliders, is that the more complex the colliders are, the bigger the problem is to update the navmesh. It takes much more time compared to a simple box as a collider. The challenge is to make complex colliders but not too complex because then you run into performance issues. In the case of Silica, the more complex the collider, if the crabs were walking on them, it would take up more performance because there are much more physics calculations required on the actual collisions on the collider.

We'll let you digest this first part of Dram's presentation but if you want to hear the whole interview in depth, you can check out the video!

The next part should be coming out soon so stay tuned and we'll see you on Baltarus!

How to Combine RTS & FPS

Discover the possibilities of this revamped service

Incubator

Today we'd like to share a bit more about the Bohemia Incubator program since Silica is the first game that graduated from this renewed activity powered by Bohemia Interactive. The old format was based on internal ideas for games, which in the end, made it into full in-house games such as Ylands, an adventure, multiplayer, sandbox game, and Arma 3 Apex: Old Man, a scenario mode for the Arma 3 Apex expansion. Here's more about the new and updated Bohemia Incubator:  

Bohemia Incubator is the platform where good ideas become fantastic games. It's the place where indie game developers can pitch their playable prototypes and receive enough support to help them develop their games further and receive the help necessary for full release. 

Silica is the prime example of what can be achieved through this platform. It was pretty much developed by Martin "Dram" Melicharek, and when asked whether he would recommend Bohemia Incubator, he had this to say: "Yes, very much so. Not needing to worry about whether I will have the personal finances to finish the project and the extensive QA support needed, combined with Bohemia Interactive taking care of everything required around publishing makes it a wonderful harmonic blend that enables me to focus on developing the game."

Unlike other incubator programs on the market, Bohemia Incubator can also provide physical space for developers. The offices dedicated to Incubator are right next to Bohemia's River Office, so the developers get a unique opportunity to meet with Czech game dev veterans and benefit from the hands-on approach. Similar to other accelerators, Bohemia is ready to provide funds, mentorship, networking opportunities, QA testing, technical support, and, most importantly, publishing and marketing support. 

As was the case with Silica, Bohemia Incubator offers support to original projects with a unique vision and potential. It's an excellent service meant to help passionate developers realize their dream. For all game developers and fans of Bohemia games, Incubator doesn't directly impact the development of in-house games from Bohemia Interactive. 

We've already received a great number of applications, and we're now in the process of a careful selection of future Bohemia Incubator gems. If you have a prototype that you'd like to submit, now's your chance!

Thank you for supporting Silica. See you on Baltarus!

Inside the Bohemia Incubator Program

Update 0.7.16

Another week, and another minor update has arrived. This time, the focus lies on improvements to Harvester pathfinding and movement, as well as unit direct control to RTS where the Commander can select a single unit and 

switch into it, while not leaving the role. 

We hope you'll enjoy these fixes and improvements and stay tuned for next week's update. 

Another week, another update!

One month down the line, still plenty of things to look forward to

What happened during the last month

It's been over a month since the release of Silica in Early Access. To commemorate this milestone and to pay tribute to our community, 

 highlighting all of the things that should be coming your way during Early Access. 

You can also check the video below to hear it from Dram himself:

Since we last published a Silica Synopsis, there have been a few minor updates, tackling performance issues, quality of life fixes (adding labels to buildings), and other issues that were raised by our community (e.g., adding light machineguns on Harvesters). 

We are planning to continue pushing out weekly minor updates focusing on several things until the first major update, which will include flying units for both humans and aliens, in a few months' time. 

We also participated at the Game Access Conference in Brno

, where lots of visitors had the chance to play Silica and experience firsthand the battles in the scorching deserts of Baltarus. 

So far, it's been 5 weeks, and 5 minor updates have been deployed to Baltarus. You can expect more to come in the future, so keep your eyes peeled. 

Silica Synopsis: One Month Later

The new update brings further performance optimization and fixes

Update 0.7.14

We hope you enjoyed the first month spent with Silica. To celebrate, make sure to check our 

Besides that, we just released a new patch focusing on performance optimization and fixes. You can expect another update next week. We will further focus on optimization, performance improvements, fixes, and tweaks. Make sure to follow us on social media to never miss any news. Here's the changelog for update 0.7.14:

A New Weekly Update Landed on Baltarus

Check out what's in store for the coming year

It's been one month since Silica was released on Early Access on Steam, and we couldn't be more thankful for your support and your feedback. There's still one year of Early Access to go, and our one-man army Dram has laid out the roadmap for what you can expect to see in the coming months. 

And that's it guys. This is what's in store for the remainder of the Early Access. We'll do our best to push out weekly minor updates to address some performance issues and quality-of-life changes. 

Keep the feedback coming, and we'll be happy to answer your questions on our socials. 

You can also check out this video that covers all of the plans for Early Access:

The road ahead during Early Access

Update 0.7.12

We have another small update with a few performance fixes this time around. The changes aren't as much in this update and it's mainly due to Dram participating in Game Access in Brno this weekend, where he will be presenting Silica. 

There will be another update next week, where you can expect to see more fixes and QoL changes. Stay tuned for more info but for now, here's the changelog for update 0.7.12:

A minor update has just been deployed to Baltarus

Performance fixes and changes to both human factions and aliens

Update 0.7.11

We published a new minor update focusing on some performance issues and changes regarding the human factions as well as the aliens. 

We will keep trying to push out weekly updates

 focusing on performance optimizations and other bug fixes that we are aware of, or issues that will be raised by our community. For now, here's a detailed list of changes with update 0.7.11:

Another update is here!

Harvesters getting fixes and other QoL and performance changes!

Update 0.7.10

A new hotfix update focusing on the Harvester issues, and other quality of life and performance fixes, has just dropped! Thank you to all the members of the community for their continued support and feedback. More updates should be coming in the near future but for now, here's a list of all fixes and changes:

So keep your eyes peeled for the next update which should be coming out soon. 

New hotfix update just dropped!

Become part of the hive 

Aliens are crustacean/cephalopod-like creatures native to the planet, living in balance with the land. They are primarily hunters, consuming smaller native creatures as food as well as a resource. They reuse this biomass to produce structures and more units. Alien units are not built but are ‘spawned’. This is dependent on alien structures that are built. Alien structures are biotic in nature and can thus be ‘killed’.

Scouring the surface and engaging anything that moves, these creatures are the Queen's basic soldiers. Not to be underestimated, these critters run on walls, ceilings and may even burrow underground to hide. Preferring ambush tactics, these creatures are rarely seen alone, mostly moving in swarms. Their weakest point is the mouth.

With additional horns on its carapace providing extra protection, this large creature is both stronger and hardier than its predecessor. It does take more time and resources to spawn, however.

Serving as the colony harvester, this small creature combs the surface for anything biotic, lugging the partially digested resource to the nearest cache. Small and weak, this diminutive critter is barely capable of posing a threat, preferring to avoid combat whenever possible.

Physically reminiscent of the harmless earthly earwig, this beast's behavior is anything but. Its formidable appendage ejects spikes at high velocity, capable of piercing through lighter armor. Should a target get too close for comfort, its pincer is more than capable of slicing it in two.

A perfect blend of speed and strength, the Hunter deals considerable damage with its fanged tentacles and powerful mandibles. The thick chitin towards the front provides ample protection. However, the soft sac at the rear makes it vulnerable from behind.

With its massive scythes, the Behemoth is a formidable predator, releasing vicious insects on its targets from its prominent posterior. These murder hornets home in on their target like sharks to flesh, making escape difficult. The symbiotic hive is the Behemoth's weak point, however, leaving it exposed if it retreats.

The Scorpion is the aliens' equivalent of a tank. Using its tail as a weapon, the molten silica-like projectile instantly melts through armor, reaching temperatures in the thousands of degrees. Were that not enough, its pincers easily split a heavily armored soldier in two. Yet the sacs on its tail are also its Achilles' heel, being the least armored points.

This giant creature pulverizes its enemies with massive appendages, dealing catastrophic damage. Despite having no ranged attack, this fearsome beast boasts an almost impenetrable shell, which it gleefully employs in conjunction with its massive size, performing a forward roll over the enemy.

A sight to behold, this unit is the mind of the colony, controlling her children through an unknown mechanism. She seldom engages in combat, her spawn doing the grunt work instead, as well as tending to her needs. Large, heavy, and slow, an alien Queen is very exposed when moving through open ground, preferring secluded areas where she creates a nest.

Keep in mind, that the Queen is not available right now, but the unit will be added at a later point in time. 

And these and the creepy crawlies that you can expect to encounter in Silica. Become part of the hive or slay any alien that dares to approach your base. 

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