Make every races unique

Discussion in 'Mechanics' started by Lichen, Apr 8, 2016.

?

What do you think of that

  1. All races should be unique

    46 vote(s)
    88.5%
  2. All races should be equal

    6 vote(s)
    11.5%
  1. STCW262

    STCW262 Heliosphere

    Actually, it is more likely that they really do feel that, which would be as simple as deliberately making them comparatively weak so they would be on-par with a normal living being of their size.
    As for poison, some Glitch seem to have organic brains, so they are probabily affected by the poison.

    As for using species-based traits (I hesitate to call them races, unless it turns out that there can be hybrids between them), a better way to do so is to remove most current craftable species-based weapons and replacing them with unique ones, similarily to how Novakids get guns like the Western hippies they are(n't) rather than the way-too-mainstream melee weapons.
    As for who gets to make what, I already made a suggestion about it a long time ago.
     
  2. SivCorp

    SivCorp Parsec Taste Tester

    Um, you seem to have missed some lore points.... Glitch where made to EMULATE sentient beings. That means copy, in food and mannerisms too. It's likely the "unique" foods of the glitch are only for the ones that are now freed from their programming, and enhancing their cybernetics. Think Machines, building machines. So aside from the few unplugged, there would be no need for a difference.

    Humans and Apex are the same, minus the supposed evolutionary reversals. No need for uniqueness in racial traits.

    Avian have a good reason to be different, yet their lore seems to point to an outside influence on their advancement, one that may have unified their diets and customs as well. Now if their anatomy is truly birdlike (lighter weight, feathers, increased metabolism...) then perhaps... but they don't even have wings, just hands, like every other race. And they seem to have had an outside influence that "advanced" them. (according to old lore)

    Hylotl and Floran have the most to gain from a difference... for one probably doesn't even want to eat plantlife, while the only wants to eat plantlife exclusevly. One should be able to photosynthesize, the other should have gills. Unless of course they also had outside influence to advance them....

    And really, how would one balance races in a PvP environment then? If the sun is out, everyone is Floran? If water is involved, you better be a Hylotl?


    No, its best to leave the "uniqueness" as cosmetic, and have techs to the rest.
     
    Ainzoal and Never like this.
  3. Lichen

    Lichen Big Damn Hero

    Hasn't it been said that we are the only one that can see our own glow?

    TBH I've never been that good at summarising lore, But you get my point right?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 9, 2016
  4. Master Automan IV

    Master Automan IV Phantasmal Quasar

    To be honest I actually looked at all the lore from the starbounder wiki, and I still don't recognize some things.

    I still understand where you're coming from... But still there are some things that seem a bit much...
    The Florans would be Overpowered and gameplay wise making the other races useless.
    I'm pretty sure this was the reason why the devs made the choice that they made.

    I do agree with a some unique stuff for the races, but nothing gameplay changing with each race I choose.
    Very minor things. Mkay?
     
    Never likes this.
  5. Tyler Tenebrae

    Tyler Tenebrae Pangalactic Porcupine

    In a sense that humans (that aren't of the lazy blob couch potato kind) can quickly adapt to extreme conditions (that do not involve stabbing) and can just keep walking for hours and hours without stopping at all, if they need to.
     
  6. Kezeal

    Kezeal Ketchup Robot

    Hylotl have never been confirmed to be able to breathe underwater, as their underwater towns have air instead of water.
    Quote me where it was stated that Florans are stronger than everyone else(except the Apex before they were altered into what they are today).
    "Quickly adapt", as in "put clothes on and make fire"? That's called intelligence. Apex are said to be more intelligent.
    Walking for hours without stopping? Pretty sure Glitch can out-walk them, and maybe even Florans(if they have enough water).
    Not much is known about Novakids yet, they could outshine in both areas.
     
  7. Lichen

    Lichen Big Damn Hero

    The only weakness of floran is they need constant supplies of water else they would dried off to death
     
  8. Kezeal

    Kezeal Ketchup Robot

    Pesticide also makes them extremely dizzy and weak, if I recall correctly. Same effect as alcohol on humans.
     
  9. Lichen

    Lichen Big Damn Hero

    Also if i were not wrong, the floran used some kind of tree sap as a morphine/painkiller alternative, It is highly addictive and forces floran to go berzerk
     
    Never likes this.
  10. Kezeal

    Kezeal Ketchup Robot

    Didn't it cause them to become antisocial and turn into wood?
     
    Never likes this.
  11. Never

    Never Pangalactic Porcupine

    Siv already said most of what I wanted to say, but I do feel the need to elaborate on precisely why having the Floran be a "Predator" race is bad for PvP.

    In a game far off from this one, named "Guild Wars 2", there was a conundrum the developers faced when designing their new expansion pack. "What shall we do with the Necromancer class's new elite specialization?" they inquired, wondering for a short while, and playing other video games for inspiration. Until one of them stumbled upon Silent Hill... They saw Pyramid head and said: "I think this would be great inspiration for our new necromancer spec. It's a big, slow guy that everyone runs in fear from because he's just so darn powerful. We'll give the new elite spec a few movement abilities, sure, but it won't be anything like warrior or thief! That way, it'll still be balanced."

    Come the first few Betas, Reaper (The name of the new Necromancer Specialization) was underpowered. The community complained. The Devs buffed it. Rinse and repeat for a few Beta weekends. Soon Reaper was in a very good place. However, they didn't stop there. They wanted the class to inspire fear. So they buffed it even more.

    Now in live, Necromancer is an incredibly powerful class in PvP, one that people have to make up strategies to deal with or get away from. If a good Reaper spots you in PvP and you don't notice, you're dead.

    So, why is this a bad thing? Well, it definitely soured people's opinions of the Necromancer! The salt is legendary.


    So what I'm trying to say is, Florans aren't Pyramid Head and I don't want a repeat of the Reaper's development process to go on here. After all, if one race is more powerful than the others, what's even the point of playing what you want if you'll just get eaten?
     
    Ainzoal and SivCorp like this.
  12. SivCorp

    SivCorp Parsec Taste Tester

    The Hylotl are said to be amphibians... And amphibians, when young are raised underwater as tadpoles. Water plays an important role in their development. And their unique food requires water submersion too.

    Florans where said to be more dangerous. The old lore identified them that way... That's why it was so bad when a ship crash landed on their planet. Florans destroyed the crew and jeryrigged the ship to start spreading throughout the stars... Consuming worlds. Sounds like the stronger race to me.
     
    Ainzoal likes this.
  13. Squeegeeie

    Squeegeeie Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I think there can be predator traits that don't necessarily have to deal directly with or give a huge benefit to combat. I also think the fear others might feel toward floran would be more related to their tenancy to solve their problems with violence more so than the others rather than any one floran being unstoppably powerful.

    Some people suggested having better night vision for hunting in dark places, or having a small health regeneration from photosynthesis, I think those would be okay traits without becoming unbalanced.

    When I think of racial differences, I don't see them needing to make a huge impact. I think about an old SNES game I used to play, Rock and Roll Racing. Every character you could pick had certain bonuses, one had a bonus to speed and acceleration, another had acceleration and better turning, and at the beginning you could take advantage of that. Late in the game, however, after buying new cars, and upgrading them, the little bonuses were still there, but really didn't matter anymore.They were too small to notice over the cars getting increasingly better. I think if there were racial differences, they should work the same.
     
  14. STCW262

    STCW262 Heliosphere

    A more notable bit is that, anatomically speaking, they arguabily have the most functional hands when it comes to operating tools, as the others have some sort of obstacle in their skin, such as fur, feathers, overly-smooth hands, or (Assuming Hylotl have a similar biology to most amphibians, which is likely except for likely having different lungs because, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to be human-sized and shaped due to the Square-Cube law) slime; they would logically be easily the best at using and making tools and (Probabily more importantly) handling them.

    Actually, that apparently seems to have more to do with numbers than anything (After all, between a 5-20-ish crew and at least thousands of florans, the former would likely run out of ammo).
     
  15. Urthdigger

    Urthdigger Title Not Found

    I'd like to see racial differences, so long as it's minor. One big example would be "separate, but equal" bonuses, such as the food mentioned earlier. Each race having certain foods unique to them makes sense, and it's still balanced in a way. Sure, my avian can't eat currentcorn or automatos, but they can enjoy beakseeds and feathercrowns just fine.

    Another example would be making use of the villages across the worlds. Perhaps they would treat a member of their own species better (better prices at shops, better rewards from quests, etc). Not sure they'd get any bonus from dungeons of their own kind though. In any case, both this and the food bonus earlier introduce complications in exploration, in that depending on your species certain things may be more desirable to find, but in the end no race is better than another.

    Another difference may be to take advantage of the racial blueprints that we had (and which, sadly, I hear will be going away in 1.0). Glitch armor may be more sturdy than avian armor. Maybe avians make better spears than other races. Novakids are already the only ones that can craft guns. In the short term, this does have the potential to make some races "better" than others, but so long as each race has SOMETHING they do well, I think they'd all be viable for one main reason: Trading. Villages, merchant tenants, other players, it's not impossible to get gear from other races.

    Really, I'm approaching the changes I have in mind from the viewpoint of multiplayer. Found some apex apartments on a planet? Go tell your apex friend. Really want to try out a human hammer? Find one to make it for you. Perhaps you could pride yourself on making a restaurant that carries food for all the different races... or make on that's Glitch only.
     
    Cen Silver, Lichen, STCW262 and 3 others like this.
  16. Never

    Never Pangalactic Porcupine

    This is basically what I want out of Starbound if they decide to make the races more unique.
     
  17. cooltv27

    cooltv27 Heliosphere

    something I think would be cool but that would probably break the game in a small way is if different villages reacted differently to different races
    like a glitch walking into a hivemind controlled village would get attacked (as the hivemind glitch really dont like the free thinking ones) or a hylotl walking into a floran one

    this reason this might be an issue is because starbound is 2d, and because of that there isnt a way to walk around a village (which would be easy if it were 3d)
    though small differences might be able to create that feeling of "im really not welcome here, am I?" like guards noticeably following you from a distance, or more aggressive text to put away your weapons and less warning, or higher shop prices as Urthdigger suggested, or just people blatantly refusing to talk to you "go away" "leave me alone" "we dont want your kind here" and things like that
     
  18. Kezeal

    Kezeal Ketchup Robot

    According to the lorebooks, the hivemind Glitch will only attack when you enter their castles or homes(castle part already triggering an attack no matter who enters).
     
  19. WolfWave

    WolfWave Big Damn Hero

    I really, really, REALLY hope they add racial traits. it would make the game so much fun and actually add replayability to it.

    I'd say they could go similar to these
    Human - Strength or bonuses from farming and st
    Hylotl - No slowdown in water
    Apex - They're more like monkeys so maybe slightly increased damage or higher jump?
    Avian - Far less fall damage, slight float or higher jump
    Novakid - Either no cooldown for energy or fast regen + the glowy thing they have
    Glitch - %20 or so damage resistance to bullets
    Floran - More melee damage - faster energy regen in sunlight?
     
  20. Ainzoal

    Ainzoal Ketchup Robot

    None of those are balanced
     
    Master Automan IV likes this.

Share This Page