This is a discussion/development area for the Ptaloid race (but since priority goes to S.A.D. iteslf, you won't find, say, one update every two days or so).  You'll find out in the manual and story-setting information that the humans and Ptaloids are complete allies around the time of S.A.D.

The Ptaloids are big on cloaking technology.  Of course, this means they have the Balkstone (which was their invention), but a few of their buildings and many of their units can cloak as well.

Ptaloid ships and buildings heal themselves over time.  In addition, all buildings can increase their HP for a price, and culmulitivly.  The strategy here is that you can upgrade buildings in strategic areas, but you lose money if you do it incorrectly when your opponent chooses to attack something else.

Most Ptaloid ships have relatively light armor and weak weapons.  There are about 3 that are able to stand by themselves against other ships, but most require "swarming" in an unofficial sense of the word.  The Ptaloids are the only race where one can add many of the same unit--and only the same unit--together in a group.  These units are joined together, combining weapons and armor.  This means that you're really fighting "one" unit rather than a bunch. All in all, the player can make his group of ships as powerful/expensive or as weak/cheap as he wants.  Balkstones and 2 other units are not capable of this.

Ptaloid buildings must be placed next to each other.  If a ptaloid building is left by itself, with the exception of defense and "Operation" Centers, it will not operate.  Power generators are also required to be next to a least one of these "chained" buildings.

Can buildings be upgraded forever? Or is there a level cap for upgrades (like in SC default settings, upgrades max level was 3)

I like the race so far. This one seems a bit close to the Zergs in some ways, but futuristic of course.

Actually, I borrowed ideas from both the zerg and the protoss, since Ptaloids are insect-like.  Cloaking was entirely a brand new idea, as well as requiring structures to be built as chained buildings.  I was thinking of having shields, but felt that was too protoss-like, and shields would also be too hard on the engine.

I'm debating about the buildings being upgraded forever, although there is of course a limit of 65535   But it's only the HP that gets upgraded on the buildings, so with money being involved, I don't see any imbalances

I don't exactly remember, but wasn't chaining building how the first Command and Conquer worked? Maybe my memory is bad, but I recall not being able to build stuff too far from my completed buildings in that game.

And yeah make sure if you make upgrades unlimited, that it won't go unbalanced or reach extents where a building is nearly invincible, causing the game to end up in a draw

You're probably right about Command and Conquer.  I never played that game, so what I meant by was, I didn't intentionally borrow the idea from anyone.

About invicibility, I'll watch out for that.  But if one player spends constant money on upgrading a building to the point of invincibility, the other player will most likely win.  This is partially because Ptaloids don't have a form of "Universal Defense."

CREEPER

Role: Scout, Construction Worker
Cost: Free
Health Points: 30
Damage Per Second: None
Weapon Range: N/A
Speed: 15
Fuel Capacity: 180
Sephrane Gas Capacity: 60
Rate of Overheat: 6 per second

The Creeper is capable of constructing structures and scouting, just like any other races' beginning units.  However, the Creeper cannot attack anything and requires fuel.  On the other side of the coin, the Creeper can be upgraded to bepermanently cloaked.  The cloak requires absolutely no sephrane gas.  However, the Creeper cannot attack when cloaked, so the player must turn the cloak on and off appropriately.

Thorax Thrusters: This is a Deterorating Upgrade, not a permanent upgrade.  It allows a Creeper to hover, flying in a similar manner to a Scouter.  It also gives the Creeper twice its normal speed.  A Creeper can create structures while it is hovering.

PROTAR


Role: Ground-Based Assault
Cost: 12 Belthium Crystals Each (Can Be Swarmed)
Health Points: 15 per Protar
Damage Per Second: 1 for Ground Units
Weapon Range: Melee
Speed: 20
Fuel Capacity: N/A
Sephrane Gas Capacity: 20 for all Protar put together
Rate of Overheat: 1 HP per second per Protar

Because most units during the Tosonian War involved ships with ranged weapons, the Ptaloids have only two weapons pertaining to live Ptaloid soldiers.  The Protar is one of them.

The Protar organization was developed by Zhas for the good of the Ptaloid race.  They are the "FBI", "Section 31", "Dark Templar", etc. of the Ptaloid race, doing the underground work and "dirty work" of the Ptaloids.  They are, however, sworn to an oath to uphold the principles of justice and honor, and thus few individual beings in the galaxy are bothered by the existence of the Protar order.  In fact, many lives have been spared and many convicts proven innocent thanks to the Protar.

Because of the techniques used by the Protar to "stay hidden in the shadows," they entered the war effort as soldiers about 2 years before the Battle of Calsiah.  In addition, many Ptaloids offered themselves to be trained as Protar simply for the war, instead of becoming war pilots.

Protar can be equipped with special cloaks that allow them to camouflage themselves.  It is a permanent cloak that does not require sephrane gas.  However, Protar, like Creepers, cannot attack while using their cloak. 

With their entrance into the war, Protar were equipped with a special form of Sephrane Gas, which acts like a stim pack.  Protar can temporarily gain a speed of 40 when the appropriate upgrade, Stimmed Adrenaline, is used.  Considering that Protar have a melee attack rather than a ranged attack, Stimmed Adrenaline will automatically activate when a Protar or a group of Protar is in pursuit of another unit.  It will deactivate when the Protar has "caught up," after which the Protar will resume their normal speed.
 

PAUK

Role: Assault, Ranged Attack
Cost: 60 Belthium Crystals Each (Can Be Swarmed)
Health Points: 50 Per Pauk
Damage Per Second: 4 per second per pauk (1 per shot)
Weapon Range: Adjustable from 1 to 3
Speed: 15
Fuel Capacity: 1500 per Pauk
Sephrane Gas Capacity: N/A
Rate of Overheat: N/A

Eager to aid the Ptaloids against the misfortune that awaited them during the Tosonian War, the Russians invented this machine to aid in the attack of large bases.  To help in distinguishing it from Earth vessels, the Ptaloids suggested that it be designed as a "bug," as some children from Earth would  innocently call the Ptaloids.  Hence, the Pauk resembles a spider, and indeed is the Russian word for "spider."

Pauks are primarily assault units, meant for attacking bases.  They scatter 4 energy weapons per second around an area, and are thus best used for clumps of buildings.  The player can adjust the range of the weapons to cover a smaller or wider area.

Pauks can attack other units if need be, but their slow speed means pursuit is not much of an option.  In addition, Pauks cannot attack air units.

That sounds really neat Do you already have the sprites made or just ideas?

Just ideas, with some pictures.  Once the engine is done, the sprites and the code aren't going to be hard to do. (I've been working hard to make the engine flexible.) However, trying to come up with unique races--rather than different looking races with similar statistics--is taking me a while, which is why I'm not waiting to work on them.

GENERATOR

Cost: 50, plus 20 for every 10 additional HP
HP: 30

The Generator is used to power adjucent buildings.  The only Ptaloid buildings that don't require generators are defense buildings, "Operation Centers," and refineries.