Quote from: jhkim on March 03, 2021, 07:03:03 PMI don't think there's any way that a tiger could operate an elevator, while the aliens do. Operating an elevator is pretty simple to a human, but I'm not sure that even a chimpanzee would figure it out on their own. Also, the aliens coordinate their attacks extremely well, and are not thrown into confusion by modern weapons. We don't see enough to be completely sure, but it seems to me that they are able to plan and express plans to each other.

I had a cat that knew what a doorknob was and its function, and reeeeeallllly wanted to open that door. But lacked the means to turn it. But shelf doors they could open and one cat would teach another how even. I've also seen a cat that knew what a light switch does and was able to use it. So a chimp or an alien figuring out that button = up/down wouldnt surprise me overly.

In the comics as noted theyve ranged everthing from utterly mindless to able to reason and plan and in one case even semi-communicate.

Though I do not recall that in the original two movies or the later two movies? Something from the Covenant set?

Everyone has their wn ideas on what these things should be and eventually we WILL have someone complaining that killing these things is bad and wrong and all they need is a (face)hug(er). 

Really. It does not matter what you do. Dealing with the insane you can not win, you can not break even, and you can not get out of the game.

I've known one cat that could open a door with a circular, conventional doorknob and heard of another that could do it.  She leaped up, manipulated the knob with her paws, twisting it in the correct direction, while swinging her body into the door to get it to open.   As far as I know, she never learned how to use the key.  Though now that I think about it, she might have been an alien.

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on March 04, 2021, 04:48:28 PM
I've known one cat that could open a door with a circular, conventional doorknob and heard of another that could do it.  She leaped up, manipulated the knob with her paws, twisting it in the correct direction, while swinging her body into the door to get it to open.   As far as I know, she never learned how to use the key.  Though now that I think about it, she might have been an alien.

I had a cat that did it just like that.

Shall we mention the shenanigans octopi get up to?

I think the schtick is that the xenomorph is of unknown intelligence. "How can they cut the power, man? They're just animals!" Are they? We don't know.

I don't think the goblins from Goblin Slayer are a good example. They were originally created on a 2chan thread and their backstory is that they were created by a sadistic DM (the setting is literally somebody's D&D campaign) to cause pain and suffering. They target women and girls for their sadism with extreme prejudice, and reproduce exclusively by raping women and girls.

I think a better example would be the Magog from Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. They eat humans and other intelligence species (including each other), lay eggs inside targets of any sex through their teeth (including each other), and were engineered by the personification of Love/Gravity to collapse the universe into a singularity (including each other). They are, however, capable of learning to respect the rights of other species and one of the main characters for the first two seasons was a Magog who'd converted to space Taoism.

Of course, YMMV. If you think Goblin Slayer is a modern classic, then I'm not going to try convincing you otherwise.

Meatball knows not only how to pull open a kitchen shelf, but to put herself in and somehow close it from the inside. Though after that she usually has trouble working out how to open it up again.

Meanwhile, Big Chungus forgets where her own foodbowl is sometimes.

So random 2d6 roll for intelligence of each cat and xenomorph?

Quote from: Wicked Woodpecker of West on March 07, 2021, 08:46:42 PM
So random 2d6 roll for intelligence of each cat and xenomorph?

With cats, you need to reroll it every time you need the score.  Most cats, their elevators go all the way to the top, but they don't stop on every floor. 

With xenomorphs, I can think of worse ways to simulate how alien their thought processes are.

QuoteWith xenomorphs, I can think of worse ways to simulate how alien their thought processes are.

4d4? :O

Quote from: Ratman_tf on March 04, 2021, 09:13:38 PM
Shall we mention the shenanigans octopi get up to?

I think the schtick is that the xenomorph is of unknown intelligence. "How can they cut the power, man? They're just animals!" Are they? We don't know.

It's absolutely not proven one way or another -- but dramatically, the point of that line is that Hicks looks stupid, and it is implied that they are more than just animals.

Quote from: Wicked Woodpecker of West on March 08, 2021, 08:40:33 AM

QuoteWith xenomorphs, I can think of worse ways to simulate how alien their thought processes are.

4d4? :O

Nah, the neglected and alien d12 feels a better fit... or maybe 1d12+1d4 to be even more weird?

Quote from: Steven Mitchell on March 07, 2021, 09:37:44 PM

Quote from: Wicked Woodpecker of West on March 07, 2021, 08:46:42 PM
So random 2d6 roll for intelligence of each cat and xenomorph?

With cats, you need to reroll it every time you need the score.  Most cats, their elevators go all the way to the top, but they don't stop on every floor. 

With xenomorphs, I can think of worse ways to simulate how alien their thought processes are.

I think it may possibly be that the aliens are really good at pathing and if they are bioweapons they may be actually coded with some build in knowledge of basic things. Or they may just be coded to be explorative. All they'd need is the basic problem solving skills of a squirrel and raccoon and they could cause all sorts of havoc given the time to figure any obstacle out.

But still. The bleeding hearts will eventually moan that these poor killing machines just need a hug and fighting them is bad and wrong. Just like they cycle through everything else.