Poll: Necromorphs vs Flood

[The Funslinger]

The necromorphs possess dead bodies, the flood possess both living and dead, I think.
It's not really coded into the games, but it's implied strongly. The only example I can think of off the top of my head is in Halo 2, when playing as the Arbiter and you realize flood have assaulted the heretic base and the lead elite says "we should have brought weapons to burn these bodies." I'm sure there are other examples, though it may be the recently deceased, and I'm sure living are better.

Plus the flood have Gravemind, which owns all, though if the living Gravemind was destroyed, I think the flood could survive to build a colony, and a new gravemind.

 

[The Long Road]

I'm definitely going to say the Flood here.

In general, they attack in larger numbers than the Necromorphs. They can also use weapons and vehicles, giving them a distinct advantage. Hell, the Flood have taken over entire ships, so they could just burn any world that the Necromorphs decide to show up on. Plus they have a central controlling entity that gets smarter with each new cell infected by the Flood.

In a one-on-one fight, I think the Necromorphs are stronger and would win. But the Flood grows at a geometric rate when exposed to an uninfected population. Given enough time, the Flood could grow so large that they could send an army the size of the entire Necromorph population without a significant loss on size or strength.

 

[squid5580]

I've got to give it to the flood in this case they're an extragalatic parasitic, species with a hive mind that gets smarter the more they consume. I haven't seen necromorphs display anywhere near the level of sophistacation the flood present.

To the guy wondering when the mods will show up as long as this is kept civil and no one starts flaming the mods will have no real reason to intevene.

That is the exact reason I chose necromorphs. Flood get smarter. Necromorphs just remain a killing machine. No intelligence, no chance of something like morals getting in the way. No chance of conversion. They just need to do something about the orange glowy spots.

 

[kikon9]

New thought: what if the Borg were in this fight? What then?

Well the Borg wouldn't fare much better than your average intelligent species against the Flood. Every individual Borg has a central nervous system so the Flood can infect and control them. Even if there's a greater hive mind with the Borg it's just remotely controlling the individual's brain, a Flood Infection Form could disconnect and override that.

As for a Borg "Borgifying" the Flood, well the Flood's intelligence is completely distributed so I don't know that they even could add any Flood to their collective. And even if they could and the Borg were able to get the Gravemind's "body" the remaining Flood would most likely still follow the unaffected Gravemind intelligence (because the Gravemind is the combined computational resources and memory of all Flood, not any specific creature itself).

Ah, but one of the great things about the Borg is that any individual that the Borg takes into themselves is completely absorbed into the hive mind. Meaning that as soon as the Borg take over one Flood form, they immediately gain access to the entire Flood consciousness, they know everything about it, all of its weaknesses, and how to destroy it. Plus the Borg can then just activate the Halos (seeing as they are cybernetic organisms, they would be immune to the Halo pulse).

EDIT: Also, in a space fight, the Flood are fucked. One Borg cube destroyed thirty-nine of the best ships that Starfleet could throw at it.

Thats only if the flood's goal is to destroy the cube, it would make more sense for the flood ships just to crash into the cube and start growing on the ship.

Also, your standard flood mutant doesn't have access to the Gravemind, the Borg would have to find and take over him in order to gain access to the flood collectively. Plus, I think that flood spores would have an easier time infecting a Borg drone than a Borg drone would a flood mutant. Given that all they have to do to infect something is run and jump.

 

[cthulhumythos]

After reviewing points throughout the thread, I believe I have reached a decision.

In the two way struggle between the Flood and the Necromorphs, I give points to the Flood. They are more durable, the spores will happily latch onto anything that moves and create more Flood. The fact that they are intelligent enough to control space ships and use weapons (and we've seen that even simple mining equipment is enough against Necromorphs.

In a three way struggle between Flood, Necromorphs, and Tyranids, I once again go with the Flood. The Tyranids may be able to EAT everything, but eating doesn't help you when you're swarmed by hundreds of millions of spores that will infect you and and your people, take your ships to your homeworld, and then infect them too.

To end the threat of the Necromorphs: Send a miner.
To end the threat of the Tyranids: MORE DAKKA.
To end the threat of the Flood: Destroy all life in the entirety of the Galaxy.

Which would you rather deal with?

Nids would just evolve past being infected with flood spores no? seeing as they evolve intelligently to deal with whatever problem they come across.

the flood evolve like this too.

so what i'm gathering is that this would just turn into an evolutionary arms race.

 

[Life_Is_A_Mess]

Flooooood!... Or maybe Tyranids...

 

[cthulhumythos]

I've got to give it to the flood in this case they're an extragalatic parasitic, species with a hive mind that gets smarter the more they consume. I haven't seen necromorphs display anywhere near the level of sophistacation the flood present.

To the guy wondering when the mods will show up as long as this is kept civil and no one starts flaming the mods will have no real reason to intevene.

That is the exact reason I chose necromorphs. Flood get smarter. Necromorphs just remain a killing machine. No intelligence, no chance of something like morals getting in the way. No chance of conversion. They just need to do something about the orange glowy spots.

flood don't have morals. they think that they are the next level of evolution, and must consume all life. they're killing machines as well. in fact, the flood only talk when they need to use someone as a pawn in their schemes.

 

[Chronologist]

I think, in an intergalactic Flood vs Tyranids vs Necromorph cage match... everyone else dies, then no one is left to keep score. But, if you assume that all other Warhammer/Halo/Dead Space civilizations and tech exist, then it's a tie between Flood and Necromorphs, only becuase theoretically in the Halo rings detonated, then the Tyranids are screwed, but the Flood can and have recovered from the Halo system, and the Necromorphs stem from a hunk of metal which would not be affected by the Halo system. At that point, it's just conjecture to see if the Flood can recover fast enough to destroy the marker, or the Necromorphs can find some new dead species' to infect and wipe out the Gravemind. My money's on the Flood, because theoretically the Gravemind could scrap pieces of itself in order to make the troops needed to destroy the marker (or even do it itself if they are close enough), but the Marker's pretty much up the creek without any dead tissue lying around.

 

[T8B95]

New thought: what if the Borg were in this fight? What then?

Well the Borg wouldn't fare much better than your average intelligent species against the Flood. Every individual Borg has a central nervous system so the Flood can infect and control them. Even if there's a greater hive mind with the Borg it's just remotely controlling the individual's brain, a Flood Infection Form could disconnect and override that.

As for a Borg "Borgifying" the Flood, well the Flood's intelligence is completely distributed so I don't know that they even could add any Flood to their collective. And even if they could and the Borg were able to get the Gravemind's "body" the remaining Flood would most likely still follow the unaffected Gravemind intelligence (because the Gravemind is the combined computational resources and memory of all Flood, not any specific creature itself).

Ah, but one of the great things about the Borg is that any individual that the Borg takes into themselves is completely absorbed into the hive mind. Meaning that as soon as the Borg take over one Flood form, they immediately gain access to the entire Flood consciousness, they know everything about it, all of its weaknesses, and how to destroy it. Plus the Borg can then just activate the Halos (seeing as they are cybernetic organisms, they would be immune to the Halo pulse).

EDIT: Also, in a space fight, the Flood are fucked. One Borg cube destroyed thirty-nine of the best ships that Starfleet could throw at it.

Thats only if the flood's goal is to destroy the cube, it would make more sense for the flood ships just to crash into the cube and start growing on the ship.

Also, your standard flood mutant doesn't have access to the Gravemind, the Borg would have to find and take over him in order to gain access to the flood collectively. Plus, I think that flood spores would have an easier time infecting a Borg drone than a Borg drone would a flood mutant. Given that all they have to do to infect something is run and jump.

Good point on the crashing into it thing, but the Borg have shown time and again that they are able to completely quarantine entire parts of their ships. Also, because a Borg ship has no critical systems (no bridge, engine room, etc) the Flood would be hard pressed to take over an entire Borg cube.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all Flood have input into the Gravemind? Isn't it the central intelligence system? If so, then assimilating one Flood mutant gives you access to the Gravemind.

 

[squid5580]

I've got to give it to the flood in this case they're an extragalatic parasitic, species with a hive mind that gets smarter the more they consume. I haven't seen necromorphs display anywhere near the level of sophistacation the flood present.

To the guy wondering when the mods will show up as long as this is kept civil and no one starts flaming the mods will have no real reason to intevene.

That is the exact reason I chose necromorphs. Flood get smarter. Necromorphs just remain a killing machine. No intelligence, no chance of something like morals getting in the way. No chance of conversion. They just need to do something about the orange glowy spots.

flood don't have morals. they think that they are the next level of evolution, and must consume all life. they're killing machines as well. in fact, the flood only talk when they need to use someone as a pawn in their schemes.

Thinking is a dangerous trait when it comes to an ultimate killing machine. Take Jason Vorhees for an example. Ultimate camp counciller killer. But you produce his mom's head and he hesitates. Thought is a weakness. Thinking leads to pride like your post just proved. Thoughts create emotions (which is a far better word than morals). Thought is not to be confused with survival instincts though.

 

[Rhymer]

Thinking is a dangerous trait when it comes to an ultimate killing machine. Take Jason Vorhees for an example. Ultimate camp counciller killer. But you produce his mom's head and he hesitates. Thought is a weakness. Thinking leads to pride like your post just proved. Thoughts create emotions (which is a far better word than morals). Thought is not to be confused with survival instincts though.

True in some ways, yes. In that situation emotional intelligence is kind of a weakness. But that is just one situation. How did you think we humans gained control over the rest of this world? It sure as hell ain't our physical strength... And yes, we have morals, but if say all the lions and tigres suddenly declared open war on us, we'd exterminate the bollocks out of them without a second thought. An individual might hesitate, but a species wont. If it's you or them, you will do everything to win, and having a superior intellect gives you an extreamly big advantage.

 

[cthulhumythos]

I've got to give it to the flood in this case they're an extragalatic parasitic, species with a hive mind that gets smarter the more they consume. I haven't seen necromorphs display anywhere near the level of sophistacation the flood present.

To the guy wondering when the mods will show up as long as this is kept civil and no one starts flaming the mods will have no real reason to intevene.

That is the exact reason I chose necromorphs. Flood get smarter. Necromorphs just remain a killing machine. No intelligence, no chance of something like morals getting in the way. No chance of conversion. They just need to do something about the orange glowy spots.

flood don't have morals. they think that they are the next level of evolution, and must consume all life. they're killing machines as well. in fact, the flood only talk when they need to use someone as a pawn in their schemes.

Thinking is a dangerous trait when it comes to an ultimate killing machine. Take Jason Vorhees for an example. Ultimate camp counciller killer. But you produce his mom's head and he hesitates. Thought is a weakness. Thinking leads to pride like your post just proved. Thoughts create emotions (which is a far better word than morals). Thought is not to be confused with survival instincts though.

flood don't hesitate though. you them the corpse of their mother and they'll turn you and the corpse into more flood. also thinking helps when you can fly spaceships and use guns.

also, necromorphs can be defeated by their lack of intelligence- say they are in ship and kill everyone. what now? wait until some unlucky fool docks and kill him. unless someone warns other ships and the other ships blow them up.

flood would infect everyone, and learn as much as possible about their prey. and then they would devise plans to get more ships, growing in intellect until they are the only species in the galaxy.

 

[Plazmatic]

It's been quite a debate between me and my friends, with fair arguments on both sides.

Even though I love Necros, my vote is for the the Flood. They're super intelligent, they can wield weapons and even pilot ships. Not to mention they almost wiped out the entire galaxy, and destroyed the most advanced alien race. Necromorphs wouldn't stand much of a chance

"One single Flood spore can destroy a species."
?Rtas 'Vadumee

Let's keep it clean!

The Flood and Nids both loose. Why? The answer is simple:

SNIP

Im sorry, but star trek doom 3 copies dont really hold up against, well any thing.

The Xen, Flood, Zerg, And Tyranids all beat your copy cat very easily hands down

 

[squid5580]

Thinking is a dangerous trait when it comes to an ultimate killing machine. Take Jason Vorhees for an example. Ultimate camp counciller killer. But you produce his mom's head and he hesitates. Thought is a weakness. Thinking leads to pride like your post just proved. Thoughts create emotions (which is a far better word than morals). Thought is not to be confused with survival instincts though.

True in some ways, yes. In that situation emotional intelligence is kind of a weakness. But that is just one situation. How did you think we humans gained control over the rest of this world? It sure as hell ain't our physical strength... And yes, we have morals, but if say all the lions and tigres suddenly declared open war on us, we'd exterminate the bollocks out of them without a second thought. An individual might hesitate, but a species wont. If it's you or them, you will do everything to win, and having a superior intellect gives you an extreamly big advantage.

You are mistaken. Intelligence is required if you want to take over the world. Flood and Necromorphs don't care about ruling it. They just want to destroy it. IF either one was intent on world domination intelligence is an asset. But when it comes to world destruction it is a weakness.

And that was just one example. There is plenty in movie history. Freddy almost always gets taken down by his pride. Bud the zombie helped the survivors. The list just goes on and on.

 

[Mr.logic]

The necromorphs focus on terror more than practicality. They need corpses to transform.

The Flood was unkillable unless you used a weapon so powerful that it destroyed the universe.
They can change you alive, dead, or dismembered.

 

[Lionsfan]

I'm gonna go with the Flood. There's just so many of them and Necro's need dead bodies whereas the Flood are able to take over every living thing

 

[zombiejoe]

I love my Necromorphs, but I think the flood would win.

They have greater numbers, and while they have less forms then the necros, they can use weapons, and the creatures that create more of them are greater then the ones the necros have

 

[TilMorrow]

The flood hands down would dominate the entire known universe and probably parallel ones and the unknown universe. In other words pretty much everything. They can infect anything and everything including ships, they can randomly mass into graveminds when enough dead are infected, when a corpse is infected for a long time not only do the flood utilise the body's original strengths but then goes ahead and ramps them up to the best of its ability e.g. elite flood stronger and have better shields, did I mention they can infect everything? Yea necromorphs would be infected as they are just infected humans/alien virus things, nids are aliens so infectable and I bet the marker and a queen nid could be infected by the flood. And remember the rings can only purge the galaxy of this disease by getting rid of all organic matter and making the universe burn.

What if the flood infected the 'nids? Some kind of super hive queen flood form?
Sure, we'd all be screwed, but the crossover would be interesting to see.

Super Hive GraveQueenMind Flood, the ultimate boss. Now imagine the boss necromorph from the first game getting infected by the flood and merging with a gravemind. Now that would be something epic.

 

[Denamic]

Flood may be intelligent, but necromorphs drive them insane.

 

[Paragon Fury]

The Flood.

Of all the alien organisms in games, the Flood is the most dangerous. More than even the Tyranids.

They can absorb anything that once once organic. Anything that has (or had) a nervous system can be immediately turned into a Combat form; anything else can be turned into a Pure Form after a bit of time.

They don't die unless you kill Infection form; and once they become Pure forms, that becomes almost impossible. Even if the Infection form is destroyed, unless the body is completely annihilated, it can be re-infected or reclaimed for materials.

While the basic forms are guided by nothing more than simple hunger drive to infect, the Flood overall are controlled by the Super-Intelligence, the Gravemind, who has the combined knowledge of thousands of races, and the desire and knowledge and will to use it, including the Precursors.

They can also operate and commander any technology the come across, even faster if they've assimilated a being familiar with its use.

And they're far more subversive than any of the other aliens. If necessary, the Gravemind (or a Proto-Gravemind) can direct individual Flood spores to infiltrate societies and races, and use them to covertly infect other members of that race, meaning they can take down entire systems before anyone would even realized that they had arrived.


There is a reason that the Forerunner solution to the Flood was "Kill everything in the universe".