Race Meet The Marli

Discussion in 'NPCs and Creatures' started by Ty525, Dec 16, 2013.

  1. Ty525

    Ty525 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    A note to start off:
    First and foremost i'm not a forum regular. But i spent tons of time doing this just as something to have fun with, and it ended up being something half presentable. Some people said to throw it up here where it would get some attention, so here I am. Let me know if there's something about the format or whatever that i'm doing wrong.

    This is still a big work in progress and i'd love tons of feedback so i can make it better. Also, despite having all these sprites i'm no modder. Don't expect one to come out soon, until i can either sit down and figure it out, or pawn it off on someone else.

    One last note, "Marli" is a total placeholder name. It's just a stupid play on words (Props if you can figure it out, by the way). So i'll take any suggestions on a new one into consideration.



    The Marli
    [​IMG]
    Intoduction:

    The result of an extremely hostile evolution, the Marli race is a very short lived species. Maturing fully between the ages of eight and ten, and dying well into their late twenties. This has led to fast paced, chaotic lives. In a desperate scramble to get as much out of their short time as possible, Marli often have a strong disregard for the laws and ethics of the other species. A Marli's philosophy is to do what you want, for the sake of you. This and the near biological need for high paced adventure has turned the Marli people into a bit of a galactic nuisance. The rest of the galaxy has a clearly universal label for the Marli lifestyle. Pirates.

    Though "pirate" is an extremely broad term to the Marli. One would be quick to educate you on the differences between a buccaneer, a pirate, and a swashbuckler. Though they may be so fine, only a Marli could entirely grasp what sets them apart. In reality, none really choose the path of piracy. But life is short, and when you don't quite grasp the concept of ownership laws, it's easy to find yourself barging into strangers houses, smashing all their pots, and storming off with a few of their walls.


    [WIP] Hystory:

    How such a race managed space travel is anyone's guess. Their home planet is vastly unsettled and ungoverned, as it's people have a very weak concept of law and order. In fact, the closest thing the Marli people have to leaders are a caste of pirate lords and their fleets.

    As theories go, the most common one is that a crashed ship may have gifted the Marli the technology. The species is nearly unmatched in their ability to reverse engineer even the most complex piece of machinery with just a bit of rusted scrap. One interstellar drive would almost certainly be enough to kickstart the Marli's journey to the stars.


    Biology:

    Marli are a species of semi-amphibious cephalopods adapted to humid or damp conditions such as swamps or rain forests. With skeletons of cartilage and dense muscle, Marli are very quick, but very fragile. They live an average lifespan of a short twenty five to thirty years. Maturing just as quickly. Marli are considered adults at ten and elderly at twenty. A Marli that survives well into his thirties is venerated as an elder.

    They stem from an extremely hostile home world. Almost entirely covered with poison swamps, tropical forests, and enormous carnivores. The Marli managed to survive their evolution by taking refuge in the poisonous marshes. Evolving in these conditions have led Marli biology to become extremely toxic. A bite, scratch, or blood contact can cause serious illness or even death.

    Being a short lived, fragile, and rambunctious species, the Marly have a real knack for dying. In fact, very few manage to reach the ripe old age of twenty eight. As a further method of survival, when it comes time for a Marli to replace their rapidly dwindling numbers, they will lay a clutch of thirty or so eggs. It'd be a rare thing to find a Marli with fewer than a dozen siblings. Around half of which will have inevitably gotten themselves killed, anyway.

    Society:

    Marli aren't the kind to settle down. Colonies are very few and far between, instead preferring a life of constant motion and exploration in their starships. What colonies they have are intergalactic hubs of crime and debauchery. Majorly lawless and taking their desire for excitement a bit too far for most races to handle. Good vacation spots for the galaxy's bandits, pirates, and general troublemakers, though. Nothing like a planet of cheep booze, easy women, and a gunfight on every corner.

    On their home planet, Marli society is ruled by a council of pirate lords. Though they rule "equally", when not in a constant state of backstabbing and treachery, each lord holds their own territories and their own fleet at their disposal. Every year the council comes together in neutral waters to decide the fate of their people. As the saying goes, "It isn't a real council meeting without at least a dozen casualties". The Lord of the Western Seas was once killed and replaced four times during one particularly heated discussion over planet regulated fabrics.

    Despite their courageous nature and natural wanderlust, Marli are extremely superstitious. Their history, recorded exclusively through word of mouth stories, is a myriad of monsters, wicked spirits, and furious gods. Marli ships are often decorated with trinkets and idols meant to ward off such things. Some Marli still believe in the practice of dark and mysterious voodoo magic. Those suspected of such practices are feared and exiled. Left for dead on solitary asteroids and far away planets.


    Technology:

    While far from technologically advanced, Marli are masters of reverse engineering. Building their ragged ships out of scrap and salvage. Due to their parasitic need for other races tech, Marli would rather set out and raid other settlements in pursuit of scientific discovery, rather than develop it themselves.


    [WIP] Relations:

    Attempts at diplomacy have, for the most part, fallen shot. As each Marli is his own man, and there is really no government to tie together any long term alliances. Communications with the Pirate Lords, however, have gone out several times by now. Though, as suggested by the increasing frequency of diplomats being returned strapped to lit barrels of gunpowder, they haven't gone well.

    Apex: Naturally, the Apex are dumbfounding to the Marli people. How anyone can spend their life being told what to do under strict, cruel law is incomprehensible. Their technology, however, is prime candidate for reverse engineering. The Apex are one of the leading contributors to Marli technological advancement.

    Avian: Piracy is a very common profession among the Marli. This has led to a surprisingly friendly relationship with the Avian who've been known to choose a similar life. Though the Marli's constant raiding of their sacred temples in a misguided search for treasure has led to some tension.

    Floran: The Floran don't appreciate how notably inedible Marli tend to be. Though few Floran chefs have found a way to remove the one small section of Marli that isn't extremely poisonous. Making them somewhat of a rare delicacy. Marli tend to enjoy the company of the Floran, however. They aren't nearly as "stuck up" as the other lawful races, and similarly free spirited.

    Glitch: The Marli don't seem to respect the glitch much as being "alive". They treat them with little empathy as they see them as just machines. However, many Marli do have a passion for mechanics. Leading them to quite enjoy glitch company. Morbid curiosity, however, has led to some pirate crews attempting to adapt dead glitch into their prized ships. The glitch have responded in turn, with hostility and caution toward the Marli. Considering them savages. But when something's developed a habit for dismantling your brothers and welding them to star engines, that's a reasonable view to take.

    Sprites:

    Customization
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    [​IMG]

    Making new hair styles and facial details every day. So expect this to get updated some time.

    Starter Junk
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    Not even sure racial starter pets are going to be a thing anymore. But i had fun making some anyway.

    [WIP] Racial Gear
    [​IMG]



    Art junk:
    Uh, so this is the part where i post my hard work covering a less... "spritey" image of the race. But my Tablet's been giving me so much shit lately i couldn't make any. So to fill the space, have a scanned picture of a notebook drawing i had been using to help myself come up with hair styles.
    [​IMG]

    Pretty embarassing, to be honest. When i get the damned thing fixed i swear i'll post something that isn't such godawful quality. But hey, if all you oh so talented digital artists out there want to contribute to this page being less dull and lifeless, by all means.
     
    Last edited: Dec 20, 2013
  2. Tovias

    Tovias Void-Bound Voyager

    Mighty nice, mate
    I really like those clothes at the beginning of the post, hopefully you keep it colorful and don't go full retard with black everywhere.
    God damn Apex armors.
     
    Bosht and Ty525 like this.
  3. Haiz

    Haiz Space Hobo

    Also really love the clothes at the start. Instead of having Racial armor sets from Impervium and stuff you could have stuff made from different types of fibres collected from particular plants/trees!
    The whole pirate theme is awesome.
     
    Ty525 likes this.
  4. ScrubNiggurath

    ScrubNiggurath Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Marauding squid pirates that take "yolo" way too seriously? surprised nobody's thought of this yet. ;o
     
    Elate, Bosht and Ty525 like this.
  5. snowboudmage

    snowboudmage Void-Bound Voyager

    hey man, nice to see them here. Can wait to see what happens with these guys
     
    Ty525 likes this.
  6. Ty525

    Ty525 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Thanks for all the input. I actually agree that it all needs to be very colorful. It goes well with the classic pirate theme. All the armor tiers, on the other hand, follow the same color patterns. Unfortunately like half of them are just different shades of gray. That's not to say there isn't a little of room for variance.

    And to Haiz, as for making their armor sets out of kinds of fibers and fabric. It's a neat idea, but it's a little too off the beaten path. Since most of the game is built around the way you make metal armor, throwing all that out the window for just one race would be a pain to program and to play. That and all the work that would have to go into adding new kinds of fibers, making certain trees drop certain materials, adjusting the frequency at which these trees are found, etc. Still though, it'd make more sense.

    Meanwhile: Here's a quick draft of what i think the tier 9 armor is going to look like. Playing with the Caribbean voodoo theme a little.
    [​IMG]
    The Dread Pirate Attire

    Like i said, everything is subject to change. Next on the agenda is clothes for the customization. Seems like i should do that first before i work on all that armor.
     
    MarcPlaysGames and Cruxifer like this.
  7. snowboudmage

    snowboudmage Void-Bound Voyager

    You are way to good at this sprite design thing
    Also, you still going for that predator-ish high tier stuff?
     
    Ty525 likes this.
  8. Ty525

    Ty525 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Thanks. Yeah that's what i'm planning. I was mulling over palette swapping that t9 set to green and using it as T5. That way i can replace it with something with more of a predator vibe. It's hard to resist when you're working with tentacle dreads. Not to mention i'll probably play with that aesthetic some more when i go through what i've done already and tweak them a bit.
     
  9. Haiz

    Haiz Space Hobo

    I agree that it is off the beaten path, but they already have fabrics included in the crafting system. I feel like it would be strange to leave that side of it where it is currently at (having very limited use) and that adding one or two more tiers of material typing to that process would extend the crafting system further without making the game feel so rigid in the sense of crafting gear. Could also open the door for crafting racial tapestries and the like. Sorry I guess this is an entirely separate suggestion now that I think about it. One that has likely already been mentioned..
     
  10. Ianflow

    Ianflow Big Damn Hero

    I think this would be damned interesting!
    I would need to mention, that I've mostly skimmed, wanted to see the idea, and noticed a 'pirate' flair.
    It's all good, but I have encountered a few Avian Airships, that are very 'pirate'-y.

    It would be nice to see a pirate race however!
     
    Ty525 likes this.
  11. ScrubNiggurath

    ScrubNiggurath Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    On the subject of their name... Calamari?
     
  12. Haiz

    Haiz Space Hobo

    I would really like to see people begin to stray from naming their Races based on Human... things.
     
    Ianflow likes this.
  13. snowboudmage

    snowboudmage Void-Bound Voyager

    Also, in case you didn't see my suggestion in the "other" thread, I'd go with a combo of the 2 words: Calamarli
     
  14. Ty525

    Ty525 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Yeah i'm realizing the wall of text is probably scaring people away. At least you skimmed. if it was me, i'd open the thread, loudly proclaim "NOPE" and close it again.

    Hopefully when i can actually do some artwork for the thread more people will give a damn.

    So onto the comment. Yeah i know about the Avian pirates. I tossed a nod to that in the relations part. By no goddamn means am i saying "But they're not ONLY pirates", because that would me ridiculous. But despite the obvious pirate theme to the whole thing, I wrote the species to be more of an all purpose nuisance/ antagonistic race. So i hope it's not "A race of pirates" but instead "A race of mostly pirates". Leaving room for them to coexist with the rest of the bandits and pirates you see running around in the game. Piracy is a profession any race can be a part of, but this one happens to dominate.

    Half pirate, half Orks from Warhammer 40k... Which also have pirates.

    What i'm saying is there's like a third of "not pirate" somewhere in there i'd hope can keep the entire race from being completely two dimensional.

    And by that long winded fucking essay about nothing, you can see why i'm worried i scare people away from my posts...

    I'm going to agree with Haiz here. Calamari is just an obvious joke, not something to name an entire species. An alien one with no concept of "calamari" at that. Hence why i shortened it down (And may or may not have combined it with a legendary reggae artist) to "Marli". Sounds more like a standalone thing. Still a placeholder until something better rolls along, though.

    And because i wouldn't want to post a short novella like this without giving you something to look at, here's some of the starting clothes i've been doing.
    [​IMG][​IMG]
    I'm not adding the ones in the OP because one's just a recolored version of what's in the game already, and the other was just drawn over the sprite, not actually sprited itself. The difference being how many mind numbing pieces there are to it.
     
    Haiz likes this.
  15. Slug

    Slug Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Son. Do you even crop?
     
  16. Searif

    Searif Void-Bound Voyager

    Nice race, the idea of a short lived race being full of people who live for themselves is interesting.
     
    Ty525 likes this.
  17. Slug

    Slug Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Like humans!
     
    Hatsya Souji and The Last Soloer like this.
  18. Reflux

    Reflux Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    This is by far the most interesting race imo and I would definitely play it if it was a playable race.

    I'd imagine them using some kind of accent of the jamaican descent or something :DD
     
    Ty525 likes this.
  19. Ty525

    Ty525 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Funny you should mention that...
    [​IMG]
    I take full responsibility for totally butchering this accent.


    EDIT: Forgot to mention. I updated the race relations bit to involve the glitch. No spriting today. Was too busy.
     
    Last edited: Dec 18, 2013
    Reflux likes this.
  20. Reflux

    Reflux Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I laughed at the floran part.

    Keep up the good work.
     

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