Kha'ak Seeder archetype

The Seeder is the mod’s most-different archetype. Not flagship-centric like Admiral / Pirate. Not immobile like Coordinator / Engineer. Instead, the Seeder’s identity is the network they grow — hives, outposts, spawning locations. The flagship is a delivery vehicle, not the archetype’s core.

The Seeder is Kha’ak’s build-out counterpart to the Hive Lord’s strategic command. Together they self-propagate Kha’ak presence: Seeder drops new hive → Hive Lord defends it → both together drive the threat forward.

Coverage

1 template — Khaak faction only
Dynamic quota: max_seeders = 1 + floor(hive_count / 10). A galaxy with only Kha’ak home hives → 1 Seeder. A galaxy where Kha’ak have spread to 30+ hives → 3+ Seeders. Self-scaling.
Slow-burn: 10 hives × 2h Big Summon cooldown = dozens of hours real-time before the 2nd Seeder ever spawns
Not disband on hive loss — Seeder is loosely coupled to network. Loss of one hive doesn’t kill Seeder; Seeder death doesn’t kill hives

Playstyle — the gardener

Seeder is a Brood-Mother / Gardener of Hives. Not a warrior, not a defender. They:

Fly around the galaxy looking for mineral-rich sectors (ore, silicon, ice, nividium)
Drop outposts (small structures, defensive purpose)
Drop hives (large structures, spawning purpose)
Summon Kha’ak fighters from own network — the more hives + outposts the network has, the more units each summon produces
Teleport to safety when threatened — no combat, ever

Unlike other archetypes, Seeder is hostile to everyone (vanilla Kha’ak relations). Even other Kha’ak factions if any exist. Pure isolationist expansion.

Fleet composition — small, light, escape-oriented

The Seeder flagship stays M Kha’ak throughout all ranks — no flagship swap. Small escort screen grows:

★	Flagship	Escort
★	M Kha’ak flagship	0
★★	M Kha’ak flagship	2× S
★★★	M Kha’ak flagship	2× M + 4× S
★★★★	M Kha’ak flagship	4× M + 8× S

Not enough fleet to hold ground against major forces. Speed + teleport make up for it. Fleet is there to survive travel to unclaimed sectors + defend during 10-min hive drop windows.

Decision cascade — tier-priority

The Seeder cascade is tier-aware — different star ranks have different priority chains. Rule 0 always applies regardless of tier.

flowchart TD
  Start[for each seeder hero] --> R0{threat > 200<br/>AND has hive?}
  R0 -- yes --> T0["TELEPORT<br/>to random hive sector<br/>-100 RP fixed cost"]
  R0 -- no --> Tier{tier?}

  Tier -- 1 star --> Q1A{RP >= 100?}
  Q1A -- yes --> A1A[small summon<br/>random ore/Si/Ni sector<br/>1h cooldown]
  Q1A -- no --> D1[default: guard hive OR<br/>patrol spawn sector]

  Tier -- 2 stars --> Q2A{RP >= 150 AND<br/>outpost CD ok?}
  Q2A -- yes --> A2A[spawn outpost<br/>1h CD, 150 RP]
  Q2A -- no --> Q2B{RP >= 100 AND<br/>summon CD ok?}
  Q2B -- yes --> A2B[small summon]
  Q2B -- no --> D2[default]

  Tier -- 3 stars --> Q3A{RP >= 200 AND<br/>hive CD ok?}
  Q3A -- yes --> A3A[spawn hive<br/>2h CD, 200 RP]
  Q3A -- no --> Q3B{RP >= 150 AND<br/>outpost CD ok?}
  Q3B -- yes --> A3B[spawn outpost]
  Q3B -- no --> Q3C{RP >= 100 AND<br/>summon CD ok?}
  Q3C -- yes --> A3C[small summon]
  Q3C -- no --> D3[default]

  Tier -- 4 stars --> Q4A{RP >= 200 AND<br/>hive CD ok?}
  Q4A -- yes --> A4A[spawn hive]
  Q4A -- no --> Q4B{RP >= 150 AND<br/>outpost CD ok?}
  Q4B -- yes --> A4B[spawn outpost]
  Q4B -- no --> Q4C{RP >= 150 AND<br/>big-summon CD ok?}
  Q4C -- yes --> A4C[BIG SUMMON<br/>2h CD apex]
  Q4C -- no --> Q4D{RP >= 100 AND<br/>summon CD ok?}
  Q4D -- yes --> A4D[small summon]
  Q4D -- no --> D4[default]

Key principle: on each ★, Seeder first builds infrastructure (improving formula buff for future summons), then spends RP on spam. This automatically creates a network-growth pattern at higher tiers.

Threat calculation (Rule 0)

Threat = sum of hostile ship strengths in current sector:

XL → 100
L → 50
M → 10
S → 5

If total ≥ 200 AND the Seeder has at least 1 hive, teleport fires (rule 0). Cost: -100 RP fixed.

At ★1-2 (no hives yet) teleport is impossible → Seeder is genuinely fragile. Design intent: lower-tier Seeders are the fragile catalyst that risks itself to build the initial network. Once the network exists, Seeders are effectively invulnerable via teleport.

The 4 abilities in detail

Small summon (★1+)

Cost: drain ALL free RP at ship weight (L=400 / M=40 / S=20)
Cooldown: 1 hour
Effect: spawn Kha’ak fighters at random own-network hive location. Fighters roam and attack.
Scaling: more RP + higher-quality units. A ★1 with 100 RP gets ~5 S. A ★4 with 400 RP gets ~10 M + a few L.

Spawn Outpost (★2+)

Cost: 150 RP fixed
Cooldown: 1 hour
Effect: create a Kha’ak outpost structure in a picked ore/silicon/nividium-rich sector
Persistence: outposts add to outpost_count — improves the summon formula for future spawns

Spawn Hive (★3+)

Cost: 200 RP fixed
Cooldown: 2 hours
Effect: create a Kha’ak hive structure (large — ships spawn from it via faction logic)
Persistence: hives add to hive_count — biggest formula multiplier + enables Seeder quota expansion
Requirement: target sector must have mineral-rich resources; scanner filters non-viable sectors

Big Summon (★4 only — apex ability)

Cost: drain ALL free RP at 1/4 the ship weight of Small Summon (L=150 / M=20 / S=5)
Cooldown: 2 hours
Effect: spawn a massive wave across ALL own-network hives simultaneously
Only available at ★★★★ — this is the “endgame Kha’ak surge” moment
Result @ 400 RP: dozens of Kha’ak fighters materialize across the galaxy in one HMW cycle

Spawn formula — network multiplier

units_per_summon = (outpost_count × 10) + (hive_count × 30) + free_RP

This is the vanilla Kha’ak spam mechanic extended by the Seeder network. Each outpost adds +10 to the summon multiplier; each hive +30. A ★★★★ Seeder with 3 hives + 5 outposts + 400 RP triggering Big Summon produces ~130 fighters in one wave.

Dynamic quota — self-propagating

max_seeders = 1 + floor(hive_count / 10)

Periodic check every 30 min. When Kha’ak grow to 10+ hives, a 2nd Seeder can spawn. At 20 hives → 3 Seeders. Each Seeder can build the network further.

Slow-burn: 10 hives × 2h Big Summon CD = many game-hours before the 2nd Seeder spawns. Player has time to react.

Loose coupling — network vs Seeder

KIA of Seeder → hives live on (feral). Hives keep spawning Kha’ak per vanilla faction logic even without a Seeder. Just no new hives are being built.

Destruction of a hive → Seeder unaffected. They lose the formula bonus, but continue operations from other hives.

Persistent Kha’ak threat across Seeder generations. A player who clears out one Seeder + 5 hives still faces the remaining hives + eventual next Seeder.

Default fallback (when no RP / cooldowns)

If ≥1 living hive exists → guard hive (AssignCommander assignment.defence on the nearest hive)
If no hives (★1-2 Seeders in early game) → patrol spawn sector where the Seeder originally appeared

Behaviour example — ★★★ Seeder builds a new hive

Brood-Mother (★★★, 1060 XP, 59 kills, 750,000 cr).

HMW tick: current sector (Sanctuary of Darkness) is safe. threat < 200 → teleport doesn’t fire.
Tier=★3 branch: RP = 111/200. Below 200 → hive-spawn doesn’t fire.
Falls to Q3B: RP < 150 → outpost-spawn doesn’t fire.
Falls to Q3C: RP ≥ 100 AND summon CD is ready → small summon fires. Spawns ~10 S fighters at random own-network hive (there are 6 galaxy-wide).
Next tick: RP tick brings total to 115. Nothing possible. Default → guard hive on the nearest hive (Sanctuary of Darkness).
Continue for 5 more ticks until RP reaches 200. Now hive-spawn fires. Picks an unclaimed mineral-rich sector 2 hops away. Flies there.
Deploys hive over ~15 min (uninterrupted — sector chosen because low threat).
New hive added to network. Kha’ak population capacity increases. Big Summon formula bumps up.

The Seeder Network state is exposed on the hero detail page — this is the swarm-expansion machinery in action:

Recovery cycle

Same d100 death roll on flagship destruction. Kha’ak flagships aren’t invulnerable — a decent Argon patrol can kill an unescorted ★★ Seeder.

Wounded/unscathed — normal cooldown, RP tick resumes, Seeder rebuilds fleet from RP
KIA — lineage archived, 120-min vacancy, then next clone spawns with inherited perks. Kha’ak network persists throughout.

Order Board types the Seeder claims

Of the nine Kha’ak types on the shared Order Board, five are the Seeder’s — and it takes them in a fixed priority order:

Priority	Type
1	`$big_resonance`	psychic ceremony, galaxy-wide, the expensive tier
2	`$expansion`	claim a neutral sector
3	`$system_resonance`	per-sector ceremony
4	`$small_resonance`	the cheap resonance tier
5	`$hive_development`	build up hive infrastructure — last, opportunistic

The Seeder claims nothing at all until it has banked a savings floor of Recovery Points, even when a cheap task is sitting open and affordable. Without that floor it would spend every tick on small resonances and never accumulate enough for a big one, so the expensive tiers would exist on paper and never fire.

The remaining four — $swarm_summon, $gate_defense, $call_for_help, $fleet_defense — belong to the Hive Lord.

Relationship to Hive Lord

Seeder = builder (creator role) — creates hives + outposts, spawns new units at those locations
Hive Lord = commander (strategist role) — collects existing Kha’ak, coordinates strikes

Together they self-propagate:

Seeder finds undefended border sector adjacent to Kha’ak space
Seeder drops new hive
Nearby Hive Lord picks up new hive in territorial defence rotation
If attacked → Hive Lord commits force to defend or counter-strike
If aggressor gives up → Seeder finds another target

Clearing one Kha’ak sector doesn’t stop Kha’ak. The Seeder will eventually find another vulnerable position. Over enough time, unattended Kha’ak spread. The universe is expanding without a script telling it to.

Design intent

Seeder is the “network-first” archetype. No other archetype tracks +30 network multiplier or dynamic quota. The Seeder’s identity is deliberately different.
Player-buildable Kha’ak repellers (design open) — a way for the player to build permanent defensive stations that Seeders won’t target. Would give a way to lock down “cleaned” territory.
Seeder / Hive Lord coordination (future) — currently they don’t share state. Planned coordination via shared warfront ledger.
Xenon-like variant (future) — a Xenon-flavour Seeder for Xenon Mil Units. Similar network-first mechanic; different aesthetic.

Kha’ak Hive Lord archetype — the strategic-commander counterpart
Military Coordinator — the human-faction analog (though Coordinator is defensive, not expansive)
Recovery Points — the RP economy that gates every Seeder action
Death cycle — the d100 roll for Seeder destruction
Perks system — Khaak Seed / Prepared / Volunteer / Legendary Veteran and other Kha’ak-appropriate perks