RELEASED Avali Race Mod, The second thread!

Here you go.

http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?resources/armor-stand-table.1006/

 

So I'm fairly new to the Avali mod (Though I played the Whom Gods Destroy mission in Spore) and was looking thru the wiki when I found the Concept section and the art for a Early transport and was struck by Inspiration to the brain and so have a question for Ryuujin

Is it alright if I make a ship based (abet loosely) on that concept art and have it (or a variant of) that uses Avali blocks and is dependent on your mod?

Also are there plans for a eventually being custom ship Items? mostly want to know cause I wanna take a crack at making some that fits the ship.

 

I just made a bigger ship made of Avali blocks I will post a pic later

 

Of course, I don't mind what people create that pertains to the mod ^^ - whether it's just inspired, or a full blow add-on.

 

I agree wholly on this. Sounds like it could be an actual lore entry.

 

Eh, no.

As has been said before, the Avali are an advanced species with excellent living conditions. The mortality rate is far far too low for any kind of sanctioned mass reproduction, they'd balloon their population unsustainably. Now, I don't doubt they have hormone techniques to force fertility, however, outside of legitimate fertility problems, I don't see them using such techniques...


...simply because sex is fun. So having lots of it, and letting nature take it's course is probably going to work out better for everybody

 

You didn't get the sarcasm though...?

Why do I make myself sound serious when I'm not... Ugh.

 

Here is my Avali ship that I made:

Yes it is based off of that one person's ship (cannot find link)

 

There's a smiley for that.

 

I probably should've used it. Uh... sorry about the mishap.

 

Another quick question. Do Avali lay eggs or have live births?

I'm reading in between the lines that there is definite snoo-snoo involved as a first step, but Avali are a bit different than humans.

 

They lay eggs

 

Leathery eggs. Read here: http://avali.wikia.com/wiki/Biology#Reproduction.2C_Sexuality_.26_Growth

 

Geez, check the wikia next time. I thought it might be the case.

 

Politically sensitive discussion follows! Moral guardians, the easily offended and thought police should switch off now
Disclaimer: This is purely a thought experiment, please try and refrain from going off on tangential rants, as tempting as it may be to bash the opposing position to your own.



So, recent events in the UK got me thinking a bit about a topic in Avali culture - Religion

As we've already established there is at least some uptake of their traditional animist religion, as well as some newer or outsider religions. They're not a planet of hats with a mono-cultural. However, I've been working on the assumption that better education and better understanding of sciences undermines the ability to hold paradoxical positions of faith (on the basis that you'll almost never find anyone with an understanding of quantum physics who still believes there is a creator or god, the two positions are mutually incompatible, and in general the more people understand their environment, the less likely they are to feel the need to ascribe aspects of it to a deity).

However, I'm wondering if the picture may be more complex than that.

In the United Kingdom recently the Prime Minister went on the record as declaring the UK is a "Christian state", causing quite an upset with academics and atheists as the state is meant to be secular. In response, more members of parliment came forward telling them that it is a christian state, and the atheists were "deluded". If we look in the untied states, one of the richest and most developed nations in the world, there are no atheists in congress at all, not one (How can congress represent it's people if it doesn't represent a cross section of it's society?). In Japan, which has some of the highest academic output in the world, a huge portion of the population according to census data adhere to shinto (A form of animism very similar to the Avali religion) while in Russia there's increasing resurgence and control from orthodox chrisnaity.

This leads me to ponder whether religious belief may be modified by quality of life, leading people to seek "escape" from the hum-drum or inducing navel gazing for answers outside of academia (Which as science marches on, becomes increasingly unfathomable for the layman), and what this might mean for the Avali?

tl;dr: Might we in fact see a resurgence of religious thought in advanced societies, as the need for critical thought for day to day survival becomes increasingly reduced?

 

I'm going to give you my current standpoint on religion, the denomination doesn't matter quite as much, it's not the lore or legend or ideals your religion preaches, it's the tight knit community it can create that's important.

The world is a much nicer place when you share common ground with all the people around you and have at least something you can agree with among peers, religion strongly encourages social gatherings, good will, often charity, betterment of oneself, and having a positive impact on your surroundings. THAT'S WHAT MATTERS!

Now excuse me if I for some reason went completely off topic because I'm quite drowsy and not sure what I just read, or even wrote. : |

 

Personally, I find it useful to minimize the amount of religion in any semi-serious RP, although certainly some of my characters (including sciency characters) do have belief in what I term the "Creator" (and leave it at that.) A number of others simply have philosophical views which define their ethics, for better or worse. In short, they do the right thing (or wrong as the case may be) because it is the right thing.

The larger topic, religion in various Terran countries, strikes me as fairly complex and riddled with mines, especially in some contentious circles, so I'll leave it alone.

I'm not quite sure how Avali would tend to view such matters, but a form of general animism would suffice fairly well to cover that base in my mind. I could also see them following their own philosophies because that is what they've always known, and it works well for them. The Avali Law of the Jungle would definitely be a part of that. I've no doubt they hold funerals for the departed and such, but there may be many reasons for such.

Ultimately, they are your race, and you can set the tone their larger culture takes on matters of religion and its relation to the world at large.

 

That is assuming you're on the "inside" of the said group, the problem is that it's polarising and creates exclusivity. Take for example in US politics, being Christian means you enjoy a unified, tight knit community. BUT, if you're not Christian, you can expect to have lower job prospects, discrimination, and you can forget a job in upper government if you're atheist, the christian majority won't vote for them on principle (There's never been an atheist US president, ever, and there are presently no congressmen either though there has in the past, most recently Pete Stark). In many other countries, such divisions frequently result in warfare (Such as between the sunni and shia in Iraq, each tight knit and caring communities in their own right, but viciously exclusive to each other)

This is the fundamental problem that many ideologies can create, religious and otherwise, is that the group that is in control, will usually exclude opponents from being able to have any say in affairs. I wonder if analogous issues can arise in Avali culture; certainly they have a number of outcast groups that refuse to recognise the oracle and have left to set up their own independent colonies.

True, but they were also created as a test bed to analyse a number of concepts - and it's a legitimate pondering, the role and progression of religious thought in a more advanced society.

 

This is at least in part understandable, as religion and ideology both center around worldviews, and we tend to congregate around and trust those who hold similar worldviews and perspectives. This doesn't mean it's always a good thing by any stretch. Sometimes we just prefer that which we are familiar with.

That said, the Judeo-Christian ethic isn't exclusive to those within the Christian community, especially the parts which are centered on the practical side, and the assumption that only those in your ideology have particular ethics is dangerous at the very least.

 

this thread goes really really slowly now that all the other stuff is directed to the nexis