Race Well, What's Missing?

AHAHAHA YOU'RE AWFUL!!

 

Worth it.

 

Jeice demands a race from Space Australia!

/Australian accent

also

"Vegeta, can we visit the Bug Planet!"

/Nappa

 

Australian race... so... found dead in it's backyard killed by the local Fauna (or maybe Flora, considering this is australia).

 

I feel guilty for liking this post.

Also, the Australian race would have to be descended from an ancient prison ship.

Easier said than done, but I'm working on it.

 

What's missing ? That's really simple, a Bacon Race my friend

 

My opinions on each of the races covered so far:

• Humans: Unknown, though I assume that they will be based on contemporary Western cultures found in the United States and Europe.
• Apex: I'm definitely seeing inspiration from 1984, which seems based upon a mix of Soviet Russia and Fascist Germany.
• Avians: Personally, I feel that they draw more inspiration from ancient Egypt than ancient Central America.
• Hylotls: Definitely sensing elements of Feudal Japan, though I wouldn't lump them in with the Chinese.
• Florans: The Florans seem like they'd originate from Brazil's tropical rainforests, or from one of the island-dwelling civilizations from the Caribbean or Pacific Ocean, than from Africa's open savannahs.
• Glitch: Although they'd mostly fall within the Middle Ages, I may picture them with some elements of the Renaissance.
• Novakids: No doubt about it, they're from 19th century America all right. I wonder if we'll see a few Southern belles thrown into the race?

@DeadlyLuvdisc: I think that it's a mistake to lump in together so many cultures found in the same continent. I mean, would you want to merge American Western culture with Native American culture? How about Mongolian culture with Japanese culture? How about Greco/Roman with the Spanish Empire? (OK, so that last one was a change in timeline, but my point still stands.)

Here's a list of cultures and subcultures that I could think of:

• Native Americans
• Inuit
• Central Americans
• Caribbean (possibly covered by Florans due to sharing cannibalistic tendencies with some of these civilizations)
• 19th Century United States (covered by Novakids)
• African
• Polynesians (includes island-dwelling civilizations such as the Hawaiians, possibly covered by Florans)
• Ancient Egyptians (likely covered by the Avians)
• Sumerians
• Babylonians
• Hebrew (May be typified by legendary stories found in such ancient Jewish tales as Jonah and the Whale, Moses, and Noah's Ark to name a few)
• Greco/Roman
• Germanic/Huns (The invaders from the last days of the Roman Empire)
• Celtic/Scottish
• Norse/Scandinavian (Includes Vikings)
• Feudal China (During the Three Kingdoms period, as told in Romance of the Three Kingdoms)
• Ancient India
• Ancient Persians (Including the times when the Persians fought against the Spartans)
• Carthaginians
• Middle-Age Arabia (The golden age of Islam, when it was relatively new)
• Mongolian Empire (May also include elements of Middle-Age China, under the rule of Kublai Khan)
• Feudal Japan (Covered by the Hylotls)
• Medieval Europe (Covered by the Glitch)
• Renaissance-era Spanish/Portuguese/Dutch (Famous for events such as the discovery of the Americas or the Spanish Conquests. May include pirates.)
• 19th Century Victorian English
• Ottoman Empire
• 19th Century Mexican
• 20th Century Brazilian
• Nazi Germany (Partially covered by the Apex)
• Soviet Russia (Partially covered by the Apex)
• Prohibition-Era United States (Includes Jazz music and violence by the mafia. Dieselpunk-themed science fiction often draws aesthetic elements from this theme.)
• 1950s/1960s United States (Also known as the Baby Boom period. Googie architecture and design was pretty popular during that era.)
• Hippie Subculture (1970s United States, was a period marked by non-violent political activism, such as against war or pollution.)
• Goth/Emo Subculture (Includes heavy metal and dark themes. May include BDSM and so-called vampire culture.)
• Hip-hop/Gangsta Subculture (Characterized by black people living in the slums, that love rap and hip-hop music. No offense meant to anyone by the way.)
• Surf Subculture (Includes slang words such as "totally", "rad", and "gnarly". May include valley girls.)

Finally, I'm just going to throw this idea out, but perhaps we could include the idea of Greys? You know, those big-headed aliens typically seen in those old science-fiction thrillers, with the flying saucers, and the abduction, and the death rays, and well, you know what I mean, right?

 

How about a shadow people race? Has anyone suggested that yet?

 

I'd say this matches "shadow people".

 

Oh man, I'd love to have that as a race. ._.

 

Things we're missing eh?

Races we don't have (pretty much endless though);
Reptilian
Anthropod
Rabbit-like (ex: the bunny people from cave story, [mimigis?])
Ghoul/Ghostly/Creepy-esque (pretty broad and open, would be very customizable)
Wolf/Dog-like (probably would wanna avoid a werewolf type, don't wanna deal with transforming etc.)
Elemental-esque
Vermin-like

Really, you can take anything and turn it into a race. The important part is covering different parts of the spectrum than what already is a race and being creative.

Then comes probably the most important part, the back story and culture. I think we should focus more on theme, rather than area however.

Here's what I think we're missing most theme/culture-wise;
1. Dark/Gothic Theme
2. Arctic Theme
3. Desert/Egyptian Theme
4. Underground/Cavern Theme

Other ideas bouncing around in my head;
1. Sea-faring Theme (ex: fisherman, sailors, traveling merchants, and pirates)
2. Olympian Theme (basically the Roman/Greek thing already bouncing around this thread, kinda covers part of the same spectrum of medieval)

I'd love a sea-faring race, but the Hylotl's might already take that up. Unless they mostly focus on the ninja/samurai aspect.

I'm hoping that we can round out the races/cultures as the game gets updated! But we already have plenty of good choices.

 

To be clear, I don't mean Frankensteining multiple cultures together and mix-matching them. I just mean there should be a close enough analogue that can be used to reproduce most world cultures in the game. When I say they could be "lumped together", what I mean is that items of that particular style could masquerade as another culture.

It is basically like how Avians could double as Mayan OR Egyptian. Likewise, the Florans could easily substitute for Native Americans if you wanted to roleplay a cowboys versus indians sort of conflict. Hylotl can probably work as most of Asia, and same with the Glitch for Europe. I'm guessing Humans will reproduce most of the stuff from the twentieth century, regardless of nation or geography (because by then globalization was really starting to kick in). The Apex will create all of the futuristic stuff that we need in a Sci-Fi game.

Historical Mid-East is still missing completely. The architecture and items that could be crafted by a Mid-Eastern themed race could also substitute for Roman/Greco. I mean, it wouldn't be perfect, but it's like using molasses or maple sugar as a substitute when you don't have any honey. It's still pretty good and does the job, even if the flavor is off.

It beats having a bazillion different races that don't have any lore, or having to wait a few more years while the developers make pixel art for every single culture that has ever existed. Also, different tiers could represent slightly different parts of the culture, so while some Hylotl stuff is totally Japanese, other tiers might be a little more Mongolian or Korean. In the character creator the third clothing option for the Hylotl looks a lot like a Changshan or Qipao, which were traditinal Chinese garments during the Qing Dynasty.

BTW: My latest sprite work:

 

I guess I can show off some of my own sprite work, considering we're "rivals".

 

Considering every race appears to have some form of a "twist", and Greco-Roman culture is the best culture and the basis for Western society...

Make a race of brutish looking creatures that are very refined and are based on Greco-Roman cultures. Essentially, Greco-Roman Orcs.

 

The Hylotl could easily be Fish, Reptiles, OR Amphibians. The creature that inspired them, the Axolotl, is a type of Salamander that is commonly confused with a reptile, that only lives underwater like a fish. However, they probably have alien physiology that is actually different from Earth creatures, same with Avians, since they evolved on an entirely different planet.

This is what I suggested. I feel like it is the most obvious missing thing at the moment.

We already have the Apex. We don't need more races that are just a hybrid of Human with some type of Mammal.

Novakids are basically made of energy. Technically they are ionized gas that's held together in some kind of electromagnetic membrane, but whatever.

Why not ask for a Christmas Themed race? Then we can act out Tim Burton's the Nightmare Before Christmas. Seriously, though, I'd rather just get special Holloween themed items during holidays than have an entire race devoted to Goth culture. It sorta opens the door to having a prep/jock/cheerleader race-- How scary would THAT be? LOL Now I kinda want it.

I don't think any of the races should be themed based around biomes. Take the Glitch for example: Medieval style castles can fit into almost any sort of environment, from frozen shores to land-locked deserts. Every race should be like that. As for the Florans, trees can grow pretty much anywhere, and since their buildings can be built to look like any sort of tree you want (From Pines to Olives) they could fit in any environment.

I really don't think of the race I'm working on as a desert-race. The Mid-East is not all desert; it isn't even mostly desert.

 

Do understand that arthropods the size of humans would suffer immense issues due to oxygen deprivation outside their home planet. The reason land based arthropods on Earth are so small (relative to other species) is because they are limited in size due to their respiratory systems. They just wouldn't survive in the same habitat as the rest of the aforementioned races. While I agree an arthropod is missing, I don't think it is a good suggestion.

 

Very awesome work. Better than I could have done. I'll work on some columns, arches, and frescoes.

I'm thinking of Burrowing Spiders that are mostly philosophical scholars. How's that?

Maybe it would be more obvious how gross these guys look if I made some concept art.

Oh, I didn't realize that. I guess I'll just teleport into my spaceship that I made using a 3-D Printer using pixels and fire up the FTL drive and then land on one of the thousands of nearby planets that sustain life.[/sarcasm]

Seriously, this is fiction. There are penguin space pirates and cats riding mechas. Who cares if real life Athropods on Earth can't breath air for shit? There will probably be giant bug mobs anyway.

 

Again my problem with that is how a chelicerate respiratory system cannot support very large specimens even in an atmosphere of approximately 20% oxygen. Outside their home planet this species would have some difficulties surviving.

EDIT: They don't need to be based on anything you find on Earth, why not design a new alien species which is its own form of life? Thats one of the reasons the Novakids were selected.

 

This is at least a fair critique, but what would they be? Eldritch abominations? A creature made entirely of heaps of bacteria? These things have all been done. If you read enough Sci-Fi, it all ends up blurring together.

The Novakid pretty much cover the market on non-corporeal things made corporeal. I feel no need for there to be, say, a slime race or anything like that. They'd basically be the same thing (Blob-men or Energy-people). Likewise, a race of tiny creatures piloting a life-sized humanoid mecha isn't that much different than the Glitch (with an unnecessary biological factor).

But there are no creatures with more than four appendages that have skeletons on the outside of their bodies. Arthropods are very strange and unique already, to the point that close-up pictures of them make many people (including myself) feel like they might vomit. If you technobabble your way out of the obvious issues that are probably handwaved anyway (Like how birds have hollow bones, but Avians are just as durable as Humans) then little details like that won't matter anyway. It's fiction. Deal with it.

 

Its not so much an issue as other science fiction having done them, its an issue of Starbound having done them. If you're going to compare blob men and gas people then Arthropods have already done because we already have animal based races. Just because the Novakids have done non-corporeal made corporeal doesn't mean another race can't also be based on the same concept. So long as they aren't ionized gas people made from stardust they're different.

That your species has more than four appendages is not a pro, its a con. Any races added need to be humanoid in shape, if your species has multiple legs/arms it wont selected. If however you stick with an exoskeleton, using your own logic, the Glitch have already done all races with hard exteriors and the other races (excluding Novakids) are all life based. Arthropods would just be a merging of Glitch and any other race (excluding Novakids). The previous comparison you made with sludge people and ionized gas people is faulty. If you place that kind of limitation on race ideas then arthropods are not a good selection.

I don't place that kind of limitation, but I don't think arthropods would make a good race selection anyway. You'd be far more likely to have your species feature in the game if it was truly unique, it doesn't need to be unique from all other science fiction, just from starbound.