Undead are the coolest race imo that doesn't go extreem in fantasy like demons, aliens, ecc
I kinda like thiefling, it is a cross between a human and a demon.
Anna from Planescape: Torment. Tail, pointy ears, sharpe teath and weird looking eyes. Less human than an elf, more than a demon. But maybe it is just because I like the attitude of them.
I'm not a developer or anything like that, and there is little chance that I ever will be either - The point of my post (and the restrictions therein) was more to see if people could give some good examples of non-standard fantasy races that they would like to see in a game.
The restrictions were thrown in as a way to try and keep things feasible in a sense that it might be something we would actually be able to see in a game. Whether the game is gear intensive or not, it is easier for the developers if they don't have to make the same item 8 different times (one for each race) - Something that would otherwise be very labor-intensive, and therefore unlikely to be implemented in a game.
Players are also more likely to be attracted to playing characters that are basically humanoid - Sure, I realize that a lot of people here would like the ability to play something completely out there, but the users of this site aren't exactly typical MMO players. They're more dedicated and more seasoned (or jaded if you prefer) that most of the market out there. There are a ton of factors to consider when designing the races, so you'll be facing -some- restrictions no matter what you do. I'm not even sure I could come up with 8 species. I can give a few examples of what I'd like to see though:
An insectoid race. Possibly with 4 legs, but still walking upright, and still more or less humanoid. Something along the lines of the Thri-Kreen from the Darksun setting for D&D.
An energy based race. Something along the lines of the Ethereals from World of Warcraft.
Element based/infused species. For example, an Earth-based species would have bits of rock sticking out, a water-based species would be translucent etc. Could open up to interesting "races" like Golems too, for instance.
Gargoyles, or a gargoyle-like species. Vaguely reptilian, but still basically humanoid in appearance.
To be honest though, I'm actually fine with the standard races, especially if they're put into a new context (like a norse-mythology based approach that was mentioned earlier in this thread). No, my main beef with character diversity in MMO's isn't the actual races, but more with the customization available for characters.
Why is it so hard to implement seperate age, height, density, body fat and muscle mass sliders for a race? I'd like to be able to make old characters. Or characters that are both muscular -and- fat. If I had those options available to me in games, I would care a lot less about whether a race was over-used or not.
Why is it so hard to implement seperate age, height, density, body fat and muscle mass sliders for a race? I'd like to be able to make old characters. Or characters that are both muscular -and- fat. If I had those options available to me in games, I would care a lot less about whether a race was over-used or not.
Character custimization usually suck in MMOs sadly, it is kinda different from races but few games do it good.
Actually one of the few things Aion did really well but I guess it is a must if you anly have 1 race or everyone will look the same.
It do use a little more bandwidth than if they use a few models like Lineage but I think it is more lazyn ess, particularly F2P games are often bad with this.
I agree, in a good game you should be able to recognize your friends just by seeing them in town, not by a text on top of their head.
Edit: Undead could be another customization opton BTW to add to your character.
*jumps and raises hand* Me teacher, I know something! Pick me! XD
Hokay, I present: The Half-Dragon
Since Dragons can take human form through shape-shifting, they are made in such a connection between Dragon (in human form) and a human (or maybe Elf).
Of corse the clothing would me fantasy not modern as in the example. ^^ (Copyright is mine! =P)
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
*jumps and raises hand* Me teacher, I know something! Pick me! XD
Hokay, I present: The Half-Dragon
Since Dragons can take human form through shape-shifting, they are made in such a connection between Dragon (in human form) and a human (or maybe Elf).
Of corse the clothing would me fantasy not modern as in the example. ^^ (Copyright is mine! =P)
While I don't mind the idea, blue just seems like the wrong color. Of course this is comming from a man who have 95% of his wardrobe black so I might not be the best on judging color.
And you really have to do something about the name. Something closer to the Draconians of Dragonlance is better (they were dragon eggs turned into humanoids by evil sorcerors).
Well good thinking out of the box. Another idea would be that dragons as young spend their time in semi human form, kinda like like a butterfly, before it becomes a full dragon. They could look the same but the background would be slightly different. Maybe all dragons are male or female and mate with humans BTW?
There is a lot you could do with this depending on the games dragon lore.
I wouldn't actually want to name a race this, but I don't have a better name offhand... so Autophage (Okay, technically homophage would work as well, but I can see all the inappropriate jokes now)
A race of beings (When I used to RP this sort of race, they were vaguely leopardish, but the appearance isn't as important as what they do) that can gain memories and experience by eating a certain internal organ of their own race. Sort of like how flatworms can learn to run a maze by eating a flatworm that has learned the maze already, just on a more advanced scale.
(I could explain how this theoretically would work with a more advanced lifeform, but I don't feel like trying to explain it right this moment)
Be fun for permadeath situations (Quick, to get your skills back, make your new character go eat your old character's corpse!), and for PvP (Bwaha, now I will be more awesome, because I will eat your still fresh corpse).
Also, makes for great insults like 'I wouldn't eat you even if you were slathered in honey'. I mean, think about that! The horror and degradation of knowing you're so collosally uncool that nobody thinks you're worth eating when you're dead.
I'm still wishing for a Star Ocean MMO. There were atleast half a dozen non-elf lookin races.
Really? All those highlanders/fellpool/featherfolk/expellians/earthlings look exactly the frigging same to me. Even Final Fantasy was more original than that series (why the heck can't you play as Bangaa or Moogles in FFXIV anyways).
If a winged race looks the same as a cat race and a three eyed tetragen race, then wow... I wonder if you can distinguish
people IRL o.O
If moogle was a playable race, I'd so be playing FFIV, even though I'm currently a hater of it.
There's an old sci-fi book that I read some years ago of a world in which a particular creature evolved when they were killed and eaten by a more powerful foe. As the creature would die it would body hop through the fluids being consumed and infect the nervous system and eventually take over the consciousness of its killer. I remember that the creature somehow infected the mind of a human woman who, I think, was stranded on the planet but was eventually rescued.
I've always thought that an mmo in which you "leveled up" either through... reincarnation, demon/angelic possession, or something like this sci-fi story would be interesting. You wouldn't be stuck with any particular race and your character could evolve from some skittering lizard or slimy ooze to any number of more advanced creatures.
There's an old sci-fi book that I read some years ago of a world in which a particular creature evolved when they were killed and eaten by a more powerful foe. As the creature would die it would body hop through the fluids being consumed and infect the nervous system and eventually take over the consciousness of its killer. I remember that the creature somehow infected the mind of a human woman who, I think, was stranded on the planet but was eventually rescued.
I've always thought that an mmo in which you "leveled up" either through... reincarnation, demon/angelic possession, or something like this sci-fi story would be interesting. You wouldn't be stuck with any particular race and your character could evolve from some skittering lizard or slimy ooze to any number of more advanced creatures.
That is somewhat similar to the NS idea.
You could have a game were you evolve a certain number of times instead of levels. Heh, you could take that pretty far, if you wanted to people could start as small animals and evolve to humans or beyond.
I could play something like that but the game would have rather different mechanics.
Oh goodness I forgot about the copyright thing by copying the authors of books. Okay scratch that . Oh god I guess that is why I love Mass Effect so much it lets me be a heroine of my scifi books. Like when you do Project Overlord it is almost like you are in a movie.
Oh goodness I forgot about the copyright thing by copying the authors of books. Okay scratch that . Oh god I guess that is why I love Mass Effect so much it lets me be a heroine of my scifi books. Like when you do Project Overlord it is almost like you are in a movie.
Well, Tolkien did invent orcs and hobbits, people steal them pretty much so you can get away with it. But I am not sure it is a great idea anyways, fantasy MMOs are stealing enough stuff anyways.
Best would be to actually license one of the IPs instead. The author gets some money for it, we get a lore that hopefully works and everyone is happy. Unless they do nasty things to the original lore of course (*cough* WAR *cough*).
the autophage sounds like schlock from the web comic schlockmercenary.com. Its a blob that can eat people, and can share memories with other blobs, as well as having a keen sense of taste by "sampling" things.
Originally posted by Daitengu If a winged race looks the same as a cat race and a three eyed tetragen race, then wow... I wonder if you can distinguish people IRL o.O
Fellpool (yeah, they have a tail, but so what):
Highlander:
Nedian:
Vulcan:
Race that has more than just a useless physical gimmick distinguishing them from humans:
I honestly care less about the races are and more about the fact that in the vast majority of MMOs, race (and gender/class/etc) simply don't matter for the most part. NPCs react to you the same, the same quests are available, it's really nothing more than an aesthetic choice.
Give me merpeople who can't leave the water, ogres who are reviled by most of the populace, fae who have an extreme weakness to cold iron weaponry, and stuff that actually matters.
Not sure if this has been mentioned or not but the advancement system for the Spiders and Wargs in Lotro PvP doesn't rely on 'armor' models requiring multiple animations for the appearance but rather choices of overall look as you rank.
I can imagine a spider race in another game with choices of skin textures containing webs, fur, boils, extra eyes, items caught in worn webbing, hatchling spiders riding along, etc. that really only exist as a surface texture. A spider race would likely have a quite foreign, essentially alien, culture with a bizarre moral compass in relation to 'human' thinking so it would be a task to organize the traditional quest structure/homeland.
Spiders and Wargs in Lotro are quite fun to play actually. If only the Lotro pvp was more fully realized. Still fun as a diversion.
Personally the idea of "being original for being original" annoys me endlessly.
If you have a great idea how to make your races, sure, go ahead.
If you just dont want to include dwarves and elves because you're "bored" or you want to be original for the sake of being original, its not original at all.
I for once am sick of people introducing "new" races which, upon closer examination, turn out to be just the good old dwarves, elves, orcs, whatever, with a different name.
Yeah its OK if you call your elves "Vulcan" and your darkelves "Romulan" if your game is SF not fantasy, but otherwise its stupid.
Personally, I like the stereotypical races. I really like human races with distinctions as well. I think designers avoid them like the plague, which drives me crazy. Just because you have a race that may be stronger doesn't mean it's innate. It could be environmental, cultural, or a gift through family lineage. The amount of PC in the games are to the point of ludicrous. Women being as strong as men. Young men being as charismatic on average as women. Stupid. How many young men have gotten out of a traffic ticket through charisma - a select few. Face the facts that people are different, genders have strengths and weaknesses and be honest. That's exactly where I would like to see MMO's try to go.
Say you have an MMO based on history. You play a character, say Western European of origin, but grew up on the great plateau of China. Your youth was spent with these people, in the cold, tracking food, and riding. That's where your bonuses lie in the skill tree. It's only a small step from there do you shift to the popular races of mmo's. You are dwarf born deep within the heartland of wood elf territory. You mean to tell me that dwarf is gonna know all about mining, rocks, and smithing? No. He's gonna know how to climb trees, music, and wine - not ale.
That is where mmo's should go. You don't need to be a werewolf or alien or tree. You just need skills based on environmental and cultural practices, but most importantly, those skills need to matter in the game.
I honestly care less about the races are and more about the fact that in the vast majority of MMOs, race (and gender/class/etc) simply don't matter for the most part. NPCs react to you the same, the same quests are available, it's really nothing more than an aesthetic choice.
Give me merpeople who can't leave the water, ogres who are reviled by most of the populace, fae who have an extreme weakness to cold iron weaponry, and stuff that actually matters.
You'd need a time machine and go back to the MMO Golden Age when things like that actually mattered. No company bothers with immersion anymore. EverQuest had all the things you mentioned and more. A true faction system and functioning world.
Personally the idea of "being original for being original" annoys me endlessly.
If you have a great idea how to make your races, sure, go ahead.
If you just dont want to include dwarves and elves because you're "bored" or you want to be original for the sake of being original, its not original at all.
I for once am sick of people introducing "new" races which, upon closer examination, turn out to be just the good old dwarves, elves, orcs, whatever, with a different name.
Yeah its OK if you call your elves "Vulcan" and your darkelves "Romulan" if your game is SF not fantasy, but otherwise its stupid.
Agreed.
I am sick of seeing half-giants, half-elves, half-demons, half-angels, half-this, half-that, half-human half-dragon all-blah.
"Original" is just another word for:
1) Alien
2) Half-Human
3) Human Variant
There are PLENTY of traditional, original fantasy races, which all can be done in a hundred different ways. Take Orc for example, these could be drawn a hundred different ways. Take Faeries, Goblins, Giants, or even the most common: Humans.
DAoC did an amazing job with humans. Highlanders, Saracens, Britons, Avalonians, Celts, Norsemen-- these were amazing.
Then there are races never done before as PC's but only ever NPC's, and are JUST NOW beginning to show up (Werewolves, Vampires) and it took them forever to do so.
Then look at Shadowbane-- Centuars, Minotaurs, Birdmen, Demons--- this game had unoriginal traditional races, but it is probably THE most original race lineup since Horizons (Before it became Istaria, before the lead dev was fired/quit).
IMO, Shadowbane and DAoC are the only games truly original with amazing races-- and perhaps Everquest 1 & 2 as well. Vanguard? No. Goblin and Fox were the only original races. The rest were all variants of human...which was just sad. Although great job on the cat-people, and the orc was unique (although I disliked them, it was original)
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
Here is the eventual race lineup for Emergence Online. There are four realms, each with 10 races (possibly an 11th).
Currently, only humans and skeletons are in the game right now, and there is a list of only 5 for 2 realms first, then 5 for the other two, and then adding more from there--- one small step at a time.
^ Concept Art for our Dark Elves + Spawned dinosaurs still rapidly evolving
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
What I think would be an interesting turn of events for character creation and race selelction is sub-race slider.
I'm sure it's likely not as easy as I imagine, but if we instuted, say, a slider bar, where one can pick a set of sub species from a race, that would vastly improve flexibility.
For example:
Humanoid: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Orcs, et cetera
As it stands your tipical Tolken races have blended together in the stew of sameness too long anyhow, let's just lump them together, mark their tenacity, and move on. Charisma bonus for wethering the unending storm of repetitive copy/pasta, and still being remotely likeable.
Beastial:
Cat-people, dog, goat, lizzard, et cetera
The origins of beast people are varied as the pornogrophy they are often associated with. From magical mishaps, to genetic modification, to actual copulation. This race could be alloud to choose between animal sub species and be gifted power or finesse based on that choise.
Undieing:
Skelletons, Vampires, Whites, Wraiths, Zombies, et cetera
Like Beastials, the undieing have a long and varied past of revival. Typicaly used as fodder for campaigns and wars, it is often mistaken that the undead/ing have an melevolant alignment inherently, This would be untrue, their alignment mirrors their creators, not themselves as creations. As such I myself would feel fantasticly blessed to have a zombie warrior be my tank. Death isn't the handycap it used to be, any player knows this all too well, but what is learned from the otherside can not be forgoten. The Undieing gain a bonus to wisdom and understanding, especialy to sources of modivation, as they themselves were motivated back to life.
Constructed:
Clockworks, Golems, Living Statues, Gear-dolls, et cetera.
The Constructed are to the mundane sources as the Undieing are to the magical. Often created by quizical individuals who know they shouldn't, rather than focus on why, they ask why not. Constructed creations are crafted with the most intricate designs, for functions that would bore the likes of sentient peoples. For their Over engineered traits, or reliance of their core fundemental principles these races would choose betwee Intelligence, or Constitution.
Shapeless:
Blobs, Gasses, Energy Beings, Hollograms, Replaica, et cetera
Unlike any of the other races, these beings have no identity, this defines them, drives them. The shapelss steal the form, but not racial traits of other races. When one inspects another, and finds that they are just a little bit off, just a little strange, this is likely because they are shapeless beneath that visage. The formeless racial traits are unknowable, as they rarly show their own form.
What I think would be an interesting turn of events for character creation and race selelction is sub-race slider.
I'm sure it's likely not as easy as I imagine, but if we instuted, say, a slider bar, where one can pick a set of sub species from a race, that would vastly improve flexibility.
I really like this idea, and originally had this with one realm (Tribal) which "evolved" however I decided to scrap that idea and consolidate races. (Poor Gnoll didn't make the cut...)
Fortunately, this is still in for SOME races, but not all. I wish to put it in for all, but that might be a bit too much. However..
Giants & Elements-- you get to pick the Element, drastically changing the character. A frost giant is very different from a fire giant, different from a rock giant, different from an air genie. A Fire Element, Ice Elemental, Water Elemental (if we have one), Earth Elemental, and Air Elemental are all choices, and all different, with different abilities as well.
The Animali (Shapeshifters) can shapeshift through Birds of different colors (white, brown, black), Foxes (red, white), different Apes (Orangutan, Gorilla, Chimpanzee), Bears (Grizzly, Polar), Cat (Tiger, Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, Panther), and Dog (Egyptian Jackyl, Wolf)
Vampires take different forms as well (Bat, Nosferatu Beast, Humanoid, Myst)
Dinosaurs are different giant types (we have a plethora, some playable, some NPC, including the Wyvern- winged dinosaur, as dragons are dinosaurs with wings, but wyvern are like dragons with their front two arms as wing-arms)
Gnomes can be variants (A dark elf type skin 'Moon Gnome', Traditional Skin, Pale "high elf" gnomes) Same for goblins (moon goblins, traditional goblins, etc)
Elves have the same choice (with the EXCEPTION being Dark Elves, who are quite different) Wood Elves, High Elves, Moon Elves, Desert Elf.
Of course, most races are NOT so versatile, although any winged creature has a variety of wing choices (especially the Fae)
It's just a nifty bonus we wanted to add to give more individuality among a plethora of races.
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
Comments
I kinda like thiefling, it is a cross between a human and a demon.
Anna from Planescape: Torment. Tail, pointy ears, sharpe teath and weird looking eyes. Less human than an elf, more than a demon. But maybe it is just because I like the attitude of them.
I'm not a developer or anything like that, and there is little chance that I ever will be either - The point of my post (and the restrictions therein) was more to see if people could give some good examples of non-standard fantasy races that they would like to see in a game.
The restrictions were thrown in as a way to try and keep things feasible in a sense that it might be something we would actually be able to see in a game. Whether the game is gear intensive or not, it is easier for the developers if they don't have to make the same item 8 different times (one for each race) - Something that would otherwise be very labor-intensive, and therefore unlikely to be implemented in a game.
Players are also more likely to be attracted to playing characters that are basically humanoid - Sure, I realize that a lot of people here would like the ability to play something completely out there, but the users of this site aren't exactly typical MMO players. They're more dedicated and more seasoned (or jaded if you prefer) that most of the market out there. There are a ton of factors to consider when designing the races, so you'll be facing -some- restrictions no matter what you do. I'm not even sure I could come up with 8 species. I can give a few examples of what I'd like to see though:
An insectoid race. Possibly with 4 legs, but still walking upright, and still more or less humanoid. Something along the lines of the Thri-Kreen from the Darksun setting for D&D.
An energy based race. Something along the lines of the Ethereals from World of Warcraft.
Element based/infused species. For example, an Earth-based species would have bits of rock sticking out, a water-based species would be translucent etc. Could open up to interesting "races" like Golems too, for instance.
Gargoyles, or a gargoyle-like species. Vaguely reptilian, but still basically humanoid in appearance.
To be honest though, I'm actually fine with the standard races, especially if they're put into a new context (like a norse-mythology based approach that was mentioned earlier in this thread). No, my main beef with character diversity in MMO's isn't the actual races, but more with the customization available for characters.
Why is it so hard to implement seperate age, height, density, body fat and muscle mass sliders for a race? I'd like to be able to make old characters. Or characters that are both muscular -and- fat. If I had those options available to me in games, I would care a lot less about whether a race was over-used or not.
http://machineborn.guildportal.com - Now recruiting players!
Character custimization usually suck in MMOs sadly, it is kinda different from races but few games do it good.
Actually one of the few things Aion did really well but I guess it is a must if you anly have 1 race or everyone will look the same.
It do use a little more bandwidth than if they use a few models like Lineage but I think it is more lazyn ess, particularly F2P games are often bad with this.
I agree, in a good game you should be able to recognize your friends just by seeing them in town, not by a text on top of their head.
Edit: Undead could be another customization opton BTW to add to your character.
*jumps and raises hand* Me teacher, I know something! Pick me! XD
Hokay, I present: The Half-Dragon
Since Dragons can take human form through shape-shifting, they are made in such a connection between Dragon (in human form) and a human (or maybe Elf).
Of corse the clothing would me fantasy not modern as in the example. ^^ (Copyright is mine! =P)
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
While I don't mind the idea, blue just seems like the wrong color. Of course this is comming from a man who have 95% of his wardrobe black so I might not be the best on judging color.
And you really have to do something about the name. Something closer to the Draconians of Dragonlance is better (they were dragon eggs turned into humanoids by evil sorcerors).
Well good thinking out of the box. Another idea would be that dragons as young spend their time in semi human form, kinda like like a butterfly, before it becomes a full dragon. They could look the same but the background would be slightly different. Maybe all dragons are male or female and mate with humans BTW?
There is a lot you could do with this depending on the games dragon lore.
I wouldn't actually want to name a race this, but I don't have a better name offhand... so Autophage (Okay, technically homophage would work as well, but I can see all the inappropriate jokes now)
A race of beings (When I used to RP this sort of race, they were vaguely leopardish, but the appearance isn't as important as what they do) that can gain memories and experience by eating a certain internal organ of their own race. Sort of like how flatworms can learn to run a maze by eating a flatworm that has learned the maze already, just on a more advanced scale.
(I could explain how this theoretically would work with a more advanced lifeform, but I don't feel like trying to explain it right this moment)
Be fun for permadeath situations (Quick, to get your skills back, make your new character go eat your old character's corpse!), and for PvP (Bwaha, now I will be more awesome, because I will eat your still fresh corpse).
Also, makes for great insults like 'I wouldn't eat you even if you were slathered in honey'. I mean, think about that! The horror and degradation of knowing you're so collosally uncool that nobody thinks you're worth eating when you're dead.
If a winged race looks the same as a cat race and a three eyed tetragen race, then wow... I wonder if you can distinguish
people IRL o.O
If moogle was a playable race, I'd so be playing FFIV, even though I'm currently a hater of it.
There's an old sci-fi book that I read some years ago of a world in which a particular creature evolved when they were killed and eaten by a more powerful foe. As the creature would die it would body hop through the fluids being consumed and infect the nervous system and eventually take over the consciousness of its killer. I remember that the creature somehow infected the mind of a human woman who, I think, was stranded on the planet but was eventually rescued.
I've always thought that an mmo in which you "leveled up" either through... reincarnation, demon/angelic possession, or something like this sci-fi story would be interesting. You wouldn't be stuck with any particular race and your character could evolve from some skittering lizard or slimy ooze to any number of more advanced creatures.
That is somewhat similar to the NS idea.
You could have a game were you evolve a certain number of times instead of levels. Heh, you could take that pretty far, if you wanted to people could start as small animals and evolve to humans or beyond.
I could play something like that but the game would have rather different mechanics.
Oh goodness I forgot about the copyright thing by copying the authors of books. Okay scratch that . Oh god I guess that is why I love Mass Effect so much it lets me be a heroine of my scifi books. Like when you do Project Overlord it is almost like you are in a movie.
Well, Tolkien did invent orcs and hobbits, people steal them pretty much so you can get away with it. But I am not sure it is a great idea anyways, fantasy MMOs are stealing enough stuff anyways.
Best would be to actually license one of the IPs instead. The author gets some money for it, we get a lore that hopefully works and everyone is happy. Unless they do nasty things to the original lore of course (*cough* WAR *cough*).
the autophage sounds like schlock from the web comic schlockmercenary.com. Its a blob that can eat people, and can share memories with other blobs, as well as having a keen sense of taste by "sampling" things.
Melbourne Developer Group Recruitment - http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/328931/Melbourne-Game-Development-Group-Recruitment.html
Fellpool (yeah, they have a tail, but so what):
Highlander:
Nedian:
Vulcan:
Race that has more than just a useless physical gimmick distinguishing them from humans:
Do you see what I'm getting at here?
I honestly care less about the races are and more about the fact that in the vast majority of MMOs, race (and gender/class/etc) simply don't matter for the most part. NPCs react to you the same, the same quests are available, it's really nothing more than an aesthetic choice.
Give me merpeople who can't leave the water, ogres who are reviled by most of the populace, fae who have an extreme weakness to cold iron weaponry, and stuff that actually matters.
Not sure if this has been mentioned or not but the advancement system for the Spiders and Wargs in Lotro PvP doesn't rely on 'armor' models requiring multiple animations for the appearance but rather choices of overall look as you rank.
I can imagine a spider race in another game with choices of skin textures containing webs, fur, boils, extra eyes, items caught in worn webbing, hatchling spiders riding along, etc. that really only exist as a surface texture. A spider race would likely have a quite foreign, essentially alien, culture with a bizarre moral compass in relation to 'human' thinking so it would be a task to organize the traditional quest structure/homeland.
Spiders and Wargs in Lotro are quite fun to play actually. If only the Lotro pvp was more fully realized. Still fun as a diversion.
I would like to see something exotic and fully balance race set .
Edgar F Greenwood
Personally the idea of "being original for being original" annoys me endlessly.
If you have a great idea how to make your races, sure, go ahead.
If you just dont want to include dwarves and elves because you're "bored" or you want to be original for the sake of being original, its not original at all.
I for once am sick of people introducing "new" races which, upon closer examination, turn out to be just the good old dwarves, elves, orcs, whatever, with a different name.
Yeah its OK if you call your elves "Vulcan" and your darkelves "Romulan" if your game is SF not fantasy, but otherwise its stupid.
Personally, I like the stereotypical races. I really like human races with distinctions as well. I think designers avoid them like the plague, which drives me crazy. Just because you have a race that may be stronger doesn't mean it's innate. It could be environmental, cultural, or a gift through family lineage. The amount of PC in the games are to the point of ludicrous. Women being as strong as men. Young men being as charismatic on average as women. Stupid. How many young men have gotten out of a traffic ticket through charisma - a select few. Face the facts that people are different, genders have strengths and weaknesses and be honest. That's exactly where I would like to see MMO's try to go.
Say you have an MMO based on history. You play a character, say Western European of origin, but grew up on the great plateau of China. Your youth was spent with these people, in the cold, tracking food, and riding. That's where your bonuses lie in the skill tree. It's only a small step from there do you shift to the popular races of mmo's. You are dwarf born deep within the heartland of wood elf territory. You mean to tell me that dwarf is gonna know all about mining, rocks, and smithing? No. He's gonna know how to climb trees, music, and wine - not ale.
That is where mmo's should go. You don't need to be a werewolf or alien or tree. You just need skills based on environmental and cultural practices, but most importantly, those skills need to matter in the game.
You'd need a time machine and go back to the MMO Golden Age when things like that actually mattered. No company bothers with immersion anymore. EverQuest had all the things you mentioned and more. A true faction system and functioning world.
Agreed.
I am sick of seeing half-giants, half-elves, half-demons, half-angels, half-this, half-that, half-human half-dragon all-blah.
"Original" is just another word for:
1) Alien
2) Half-Human
3) Human Variant
There are PLENTY of traditional, original fantasy races, which all can be done in a hundred different ways. Take Orc for example, these could be drawn a hundred different ways. Take Faeries, Goblins, Giants, or even the most common: Humans.
DAoC did an amazing job with humans. Highlanders, Saracens, Britons, Avalonians, Celts, Norsemen-- these were amazing.
Then there are races never done before as PC's but only ever NPC's, and are JUST NOW beginning to show up (Werewolves, Vampires) and it took them forever to do so.
Then look at Shadowbane-- Centuars, Minotaurs, Birdmen, Demons--- this game had unoriginal traditional races, but it is probably THE most original race lineup since Horizons (Before it became Istaria, before the lead dev was fired/quit).
IMO, Shadowbane and DAoC are the only games truly original with amazing races-- and perhaps Everquest 1 & 2 as well. Vanguard? No. Goblin and Fox were the only original races. The rest were all variants of human...which was just sad. Although great job on the cat-people, and the orc was unique (although I disliked them, it was original)
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
Here is the eventual race lineup for Emergence Online. There are four realms, each with 10 races (possibly an 11th).
Currently, only humans and skeletons are in the game right now, and there is a list of only 5 for 2 realms first, then 5 for the other two, and then adding more from there--- one small step at a time.
Realm of Man - a strong, human-like realm
Human, Halfling, Dwarf, Forged (Medieval Robot), Centaur, Froglok, Merfolk, Minotaur, Angel, Giant
Realm of Unrest - an undead realm
Skeleton, Imp, Maniac (Demented Murderous Human), Scarecrow, Zombie, Mindflayer, Gargoyle, Vampire, Demon, Giant Abomination
Ancient Realm - An ancient immortal forest realm
Elf, Fae, Alien (like the Na'vi but a choice in vibrant skin color), Gnome, Werewolf, Forest Golem, Satyr, Elemental, Animal Shapeshifter, Treant
Tribal Realm - A prehistoric realm
Goblin, Orc, Ratling, Neanderthal (Cave Man), Dark Elf, Lizardman, Naga, Giant Troll (LOTR style), Drake (Dragon Human), Giant Dinosaur
^^ Maniac
^ Forged
^ Centaur
^ animal shapeshifter
^ Concept Art for our Dark Elves + Spawned dinosaurs still rapidly evolving
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
What I think would be an interesting turn of events for character creation and race selelction is sub-race slider.
I'm sure it's likely not as easy as I imagine, but if we instuted, say, a slider bar, where one can pick a set of sub species from a race, that would vastly improve flexibility.
For example:
Humanoid: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Orcs, et cetera
As it stands your tipical Tolken races have blended together in the stew of sameness too long anyhow, let's just lump them together, mark their tenacity, and move on. Charisma bonus for wethering the unending storm of repetitive copy/pasta, and still being remotely likeable.
Beastial:
Cat-people, dog, goat, lizzard, et cetera
The origins of beast people are varied as the pornogrophy they are often associated with. From magical mishaps, to genetic modification, to actual copulation. This race could be alloud to choose between animal sub species and be gifted power or finesse based on that choise.
Undieing:
Skelletons, Vampires, Whites, Wraiths, Zombies, et cetera
Like Beastials, the undieing have a long and varied past of revival. Typicaly used as fodder for campaigns and wars, it is often mistaken that the undead/ing have an melevolant alignment inherently, This would be untrue, their alignment mirrors their creators, not themselves as creations. As such I myself would feel fantasticly blessed to have a zombie warrior be my tank. Death isn't the handycap it used to be, any player knows this all too well, but what is learned from the otherside can not be forgoten. The Undieing gain a bonus to wisdom and understanding, especialy to sources of modivation, as they themselves were motivated back to life.
Constructed:
Clockworks, Golems, Living Statues, Gear-dolls, et cetera.
The Constructed are to the mundane sources as the Undieing are to the magical. Often created by quizical individuals who know they shouldn't, rather than focus on why, they ask why not. Constructed creations are crafted with the most intricate designs, for functions that would bore the likes of sentient peoples. For their Over engineered traits, or reliance of their core fundemental principles these races would choose betwee Intelligence, or Constitution.
Shapeless:
Blobs, Gasses, Energy Beings, Hollograms, Replaica, et cetera
Unlike any of the other races, these beings have no identity, this defines them, drives them. The shapelss steal the form, but not racial traits of other races. When one inspects another, and finds that they are just a little bit off, just a little strange, this is likely because they are shapeless beneath that visage. The formeless racial traits are unknowable, as they rarly show their own form.
I really like this idea, and originally had this with one realm (Tribal) which "evolved" however I decided to scrap that idea and consolidate races. (Poor Gnoll didn't make the cut...)
Fortunately, this is still in for SOME races, but not all. I wish to put it in for all, but that might be a bit too much. However..
Giants & Elements-- you get to pick the Element, drastically changing the character. A frost giant is very different from a fire giant, different from a rock giant, different from an air genie. A Fire Element, Ice Elemental, Water Elemental (if we have one), Earth Elemental, and Air Elemental are all choices, and all different, with different abilities as well.
The Animali (Shapeshifters) can shapeshift through Birds of different colors (white, brown, black), Foxes (red, white), different Apes (Orangutan, Gorilla, Chimpanzee), Bears (Grizzly, Polar), Cat (Tiger, Lion, Leopard, Cheetah, Panther), and Dog (Egyptian Jackyl, Wolf)
Vampires take different forms as well (Bat, Nosferatu Beast, Humanoid, Myst)
Dinosaurs are different giant types (we have a plethora, some playable, some NPC, including the Wyvern- winged dinosaur, as dragons are dinosaurs with wings, but wyvern are like dragons with their front two arms as wing-arms)
Gnomes can be variants (A dark elf type skin 'Moon Gnome', Traditional Skin, Pale "high elf" gnomes) Same for goblins (moon goblins, traditional goblins, etc)
Elves have the same choice (with the EXCEPTION being Dark Elves, who are quite different) Wood Elves, High Elves, Moon Elves, Desert Elf.
Of course, most races are NOT so versatile, although any winged creature has a variety of wing choices (especially the Fae)
It's just a nifty bonus we wanted to add to give more individuality among a plethora of races.
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.