Races and Passives in Starbound (Feedback Welcome)

Races and Passives in Starbound (Feedback Welcome)

After getting throttled for apparently being a racist because I didn’t believe that the direction that starbound is taking with races is good for the game as a whole, I thought long and hard about what a good solution is to this situation.

Why is this important? Every race should play and feel like more than just a backdrop to mine and hold a sword. One of the biggest draws to playing any game with character customization is that you liked how they look, maybe you like their abilities, perhaps even you like the culture behind that character. Theres all kinds of reasons a person choose a character to portray them in a game.

But as the current situation stands, the only reason you really pick your character is the way they look, the types of weapons they craft, and ultimately none of it will matter in the end because endgame? Its all the same anyway.

Its real easy to say ‘Tiy wants to do it like this so there.’ but im sure that if Tiy had suggestions that perhaps even he didn’t think of that were good, maybe he might even be keen on them and possibly he and chucklefish might take things in a different direction. I daresay a better direction.

The biggest caveat that were faced with right now is that some racial abilities slated to be used with armor are better than others. So essentially the thing were hoping to avoid simply takes another form, race x in best races armor. So for all the race diversity, we have actually caused everyone to wear

‘the best races armor’

That’s all fine and good. We got vanity pieces so we can look however we want. But to get the best races armor, the fastest route to get said armor is

‘to be that race.’

Nothing has changed. You will have someone who chooses ‘the best race’ gets a few sets of that armor built then finds a way to spread it across his or her other characters. This isn’t a possibility, its inevitable. It will deem all other armor sets nothing more than expensive vanity pieces. And the other races abilities will almost find little to no use ever.

So? Whats the solution? Two types of traits.

Innate Racial Traits: Innate racial abilities will give a race a specific advantage, and maybe a slight disadvantage. Racial traits should be based on their evolutionary path, and are race exclusive.

Racial Tech: Techs designed by races that are designed to augment strengths and negate or minimize deficiencies that the race may possess. These techs may even render the innate deficiencies non issue. These techs can be found by other races and utilized unlike innate ones.

So, without further ado, I present my proposal:

Humans: Humans got the short end of the stick with racial abilities, carry more stuff. This sounds more like a solution for some leather and a crafting station. (Backpacks anyone?) I would say that a humans biggest advantage on earth is their ability to improvise solutions. Our ability to come up with a solution to a problem is why we are the dominant species on earth. So in the context of the game, maybe more health to structures built by human characters and slightly fewer resources are needed for crafting due to our ability to make the most of what we have. the drawback to this is that should we use the improvised creation ability, things that we create will be slightly less powerful (about the base damage of other races weapons). This has a number of uses, namely being able to build things quicker, at the expense of quality. When base construction starts becoming something more than a nice place to store things other than loot that is filling the ship to the brim, base defense will be somewhat easier for humans as they can get the most out of resources that otherwise would be weaker in the hands of another race.

Hyotls: The Hyotl are amphibious race with a history based on Asian culture. Their innate ability should be being able to stay underwater indefinitely. Their disadvantage would be being in arid environments with little to no moisture. This would manifest itself in ways such as having higher sensitivity to temperature in intense heat or dry climates. This would be offset by their armor providing a moist environment in which the hyotl natively thrive. Asian culture brought us firearms, so when they use firearms they could either use less energy and/or do more damage.

Florians: as a plant species, florians love sunlight but generally wouldn’t do well in a desert. Their armor would be similar to the hyotls in that it provides hydration to them in environments less than suitable for them to thrive. Their racial ability would be to root themselves into the ground and turn into a flower form to regenerate health and food. Doing this will leave them vulnerable during and after the metamorphosis for approximately 2 seconds. This ability can only be used while in the sun as well. As they are able to consume any food, they are resistant to poison and can transfer their poisonous cytoplasm to melee weapons, at the expense of their food bar.

Apex: The apex are a simian species, similar to humans but physiologically more akin to the apes of planet earth. Their abilities would be the ability to scale walls (climbing) and slightly higher jump due to heavier gravity on their homeworld. Due to their physique, they are slightly slower than other races, but make up for this in a 15% damage increase with melee weapons at the expense of ranged damage. Armor made by the apex features cybernetic implants that help to increase movement speed and among other things, keep them cool in hot climates (Natural resistances to cold)

Avian: Avians are a race of birds. They have quicker movement, and better perception than most races due to their heritage as aerial predators (Damage increase with ranged weapons.) building from otherwise useless materials allows the avians to create structures from nearly anything they find (nest building) so things most races would find undesirable to build structures from they excel at using in their own. Their Armor allows for limited flight at the expense of protection due to weight restrictions in its design.

Glitch: The glitch are a cybernetic collective consisting of sentient automatons. They are built for efficiency, and gain speed increases in harvesting and mining this also translates to better quality products with a possibility that crafted items will be of improved quality, their metal bodies are highly resistant to most types of attacks compared to other races, providing some natural defense in combat, they are however robotic in nature and do not do well with liquids, which if damaged and in them (be it submerged in liquid or being rained on) can cause them to temporarily short out periodically at times (causing a lack in productivity obviously) their armor provides extra protection in the form of air conditioning to ensure normal operation of their components and some resistance to liquid through sealing of key areas.

Racial techs would be things that help offset some of the disadvantages and possibly and in the hands of other races, could offer some of the abilities that races innately have. possibilities are endless in regards to those so ill stop there.

When the novakids have enough information on them to make some kind of judgement, I will look further into this. But for now. Feedback?

 

Still no

 

http://community.playstarbound.com/...rence-between-the-races-there-isnt-any.56673/
http://community.playstarbound.com/index.php?threads/racial-differences-why-not.50779/

Essentially a duplicate.

 

i would rather not have to choose a race depending whether or not its better. i want to make the choice based upon whether i like it or not.

and besides you can learn the other races racial armors in the game so it's doesn't matter.

 

I don't understand why people keep saying your choice in race doesn't matter. From a gameplay perspective, sure, but that's not the only perspective and people keep assuming it IS the only perspective. I for one like choosing based upon racial backstory, looks, and initial armor sets (it's not like it's going to be super easy to get other armor sets).

 

Humans still get the short end of the stick; however, I think this is a way better idea than racial trait being tied to armor alone. That just makes no sense.

 

I like the idea of racial bonuses, but i think each race should have different types of it. Something like combat / survival / techno classes. Seems fun to me.

 

If you dont want racial bonsues and youre afraid of making them teh ubers. the choice is simple. have multiplayer servers be able to disable all racial abilities. everyone has the same playing field. problem solved. for those of us looking for a more immersive experience this is but one example of how it could be done.

 

well the only way to make innate racial traits balanced with the way the developers seem to want to have it they would be to weak to matter. I personally am ok with this.

 

"I have to have an alt-character I don't like the look of to create the armor I want for the character I want to play as" is vastly preferable to "I have to create and play a character I don't like the look of if I want to have the ability I want."

 

Part of the beta process is discussing things like this. and laying out a well polished proposal that has clear objectives has full right to be here. you have the right to voice your opinion, as do i. and should enough people actually like what i and others have proposed, then i fail to see how this was a waste.

 

I also definitely agree with racial traits. It really seems like a much needed detail for a game like this. And surely it wouldn't be too hard to find some cool abilities that tie in with the lore and that are also balanced. Maybe you could even disable this feature for pvp by console or whatnot. Seriously, they're working on this incredibly complex game, it would be a surprise if that doesn't make it in there.

 

Never said it was a waste, just you should have posted your opinion one of the other threads related to the exact same topic. Most members tend to get a bit flamey when several threads are made about the same thing, especially when they're still on the first page.

This subject is being beat to death and the devs have not shown interest in adding racial passives, they want every character to be as equal as possible.

 

If not being able to breath underwater is a big enough deterrent to not choose your cool looking Glitch with interesting lore and compelling backstory, then perhaps you are not all that attached to your Glitch character as you thought you were.

Anyways, I want to play as a robot but not be saddled with a medieval backstory. Can we please be allowed to pick our character model irrespective from it's race and backstory?

 

the biggest reason i created this thread was because most of the others are a complaint with no real emphasis on a solution. it made more sense to me to come up with a solution and have it front and center where people could see it rather than have it buried 14 pages deep in another thread that looks like a complaint with no solution offered. thats my reasoning behind this.

 

personally with the fact that race means nothing, i dont really see why they dont have an option to just let you mix and match whatever you want. wanna be a human with green skin and a robot implant? go for it.

 

What's the point of lore if it isn't reflected in the game? Why say that florans are especially vulnerable to fire when they actually aren't?

 

So im assuming that you lose fire resistance in florian armor, since youre essentially a (insert race here) Florian now

 

I'm talking about the lore you get as to why you left your home planet, but as for the Floran and fire, that is a good point but I don't know how well balanced it would be. Avians for instance in lore CANNOT FLY or glide, which is why they have that ritual where they jump from their temples to appease their god. Hylotl do have underwater cities but it is never stated whether they can actually breathe under water or not, and if you've seen the pre-art for their cities they look more like Rapture from Bioshock than anything else. So really there would not be racials like gliding or breathing underwater if you look at lore, but the fire bit would give Florans a huge disadvantage. You see where I am going here?

I also LIKE that the racial shit is tied to armor because I would MUCH rather pick a race based upon history, racial mentality, and looks rather than which mechanic I want.