Some thoughts about races.

I wanted to talk about 2 different topics here, both open for debate if anyone cares enought.

First one is about why should racial differences being purely cosmetic in the endgame. II think the devs had a great idea by making it possible to play as different races, but I believe stopping there is a mistake to me, in my opinion it leaves little race based repleyability for the game, which could be a strong point for the game, having a different experience based on the race you pick, the more different this difference is the greater this sort of repleyability will be, then why make them all the same experience in the end?

It would be nice to have at least an option to have racial differences or not, same way we can choose what happens to our characters upon death atm. It could also be controlled in multiplayer so if someone wants to make a server with no racial differences, it activates in all characters or the opposite.


My other concern is about the descriptions the character gives upon inspection of items. It is nice but gives too much opinion sometimes, I believe opinion should be more subtle, expressing more what "your people would think" rather than what you think of something. This would help for those that like to rp, perhaps for others too, as every character from the same race will express same thoughts about the same things, making them fell plain imho, if their personal thoughts about something are hidden, it leaves more room to the imagination.

 

its stage 1 Beta(TM) nothing is set in mud, much less stone.

 

That is exactly why I'm talking about it now.

 

In response to the first topic, I feel that having the replayability stem from the lore of the race, as the devs seem to be doing now, instead of the actual abilities of the race, is a better choice. In trying to make the races different each other they'll inflame everyone, while having it different lore-wise makes it both different and not different at the same time -- a compromise for all sides.

 

I feel I should note that the opinions are the only thing really differentiating the races, at the moment. I feel they should be diverse in talent and able to approach a number of problems in their own ways. Each race is still able to be as closed or open minded as their race tends to be in various areas. If you live all your life with a restrictive set of guiding philosophies, imagine being introduced to those philosophies. I could see how you might want the editorial component to maybe align better with your own inbuilt perspective, and becoming more objective may be easier than changing the overall subjective experience to make it feel a better fit for every player out there, but that's really it, you won't be able to please everyone when it comes to flavor text, let alone a whole game. I think homogenizing the aforementioned text won't serve well to convey the feeling of being a member of that race.

For the most part, I agree, I think races need far more differentiation than they have now, and it should really pose the question to the players; Do you want to play to equalize yourself, filling in the blanks for uniform aptitude, or would you prefer accentuating your differences until you've perfected a narrower set of skills?

 

the problem with differentiating the races too much is then integrating them into PvP. players are very ingenious and something the developers never contemplated turns out to be overpowering once discovered. then you have to debuff that species(cue player rage), or buff the others. that can become a very vicious cycle trying to balance them.

 

Have you looked at Floran dialogue? Their observations should not be compared to any of the other races.

 

As the first note, I already see the difference in them, plus they are going to have racial armors that will do pretty much the racial things. I actually prefer it the way they are coining... Not too particular about racial abilities or anything like that attached to the race themself, as that could cause more frustration than needed for some. That and what some others have said on the topic. You might want to search this one up since it has been debated a lot. Especially in the suggestions forum.

On the second note, the text to me seems fine. If you base your imagination on labels like that, then there really isn't much to rp. Most of the query texts are centralized anyway. After all it does show more to the race than the lore. Or adds to it. I look at it not being what personally my character thinks, but a generalized notion. Creatively going about it in my own way. Plus if anything I could modify lots of the text if I wanted.... Glad this game is pretty simple to mod.

 

Racial armor grants bonuses, as I'm sure has been remarked several times already. If race perks were more pronounced, people would very quickly start trying to figure out which race is "best", pressuring players to play the strategically superior race rather than the one(s) they like

And the descriptions are the way they are because you're playing one character with a predetermined story. Your character isn't generic, there's actually a small written story arc written for him/her. Also, the amount of writing and editing that would be required to make a shift like you're wanting would be absolutely staggering.

 

I'll try to answer some of the stuff being said here I disagree with,maybe I'll be able to shed some light on you about my thinking or you on me about the flaws of my thinking.

- I don't see how racial armor makes the experience different since you can use any racial armor and get the same bonus. You can even purchase the schematic for the armor from a merchant and craft it yourself.

- PVP abuse is something I already thought about, that's why I mentioned that it could be implemented as an option the same way you implement what happens upon character death, only that a further option could be added for either enforced enabled or disabled on servers.

- Saying that it would add balancing issues feels to me like saying, let's not add more than a couple weapons cause every weapon would need to be balanced individually and people would choose the most effective weapon instead of the one they like the most. The idea is not to give an edge but a different experience.

- When I talked about character text, I am talking about 2 things, every character you or anyone will create belonging to the same race will describe things the same way, that's why I think some personal opinions expressed by the character should be avoided. For example, upon inspection of certain floran drawing, a hylotl will hope that fire making teachings will have a negative impact upon florans. The hylotl hate florans, but why my character has to share the hate? I have no problem with most of this text, only with some particular lines that reveal too much of the character opinion. Of course you can rp differently anyways, in fact I do, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't improve the experience.

 

We are still going to disagree no matter what; you will never convince me, since the underlining thing about racial traits is that there will always be an advantage put in. How can a racial trait be not an advantage to add depth to a race? What I mentioned the armors for is that sure you will start only able to craft your races' armor, but do you really know how long it would take to get another set of armor. I hardly find other racial armor sold, and when I do it is usually only 1-2 per merchant I find. Avians seem to be the most prominent... Not many others at the moment have a place to buy armor.

Even if they did, you will still have to seek out a short/long time to find each set. So it is most likely that the player will play with the set they can make foremost. So I don't understand the point about purchasing the schematic. That is the way it should be in my opinion. So that people can create their own style instead of being forced to be a style that the race has by default. That has been done in so many games; and quite a few are a turn off due to the extreme or subtlety they went to. Sure you get to play aesthetically this or that, but you have to live with the disadvantage that has no advantage. Quite a few MMOs are like that. This game is not an MMO.

Having it as an option is fine, but a poor excuse. At least where this is concerned. This is an addition to the game, but why add it if it needs to be an option. Things like changing mechanics I can understand having an option. the only way I see this being an option good is the simple fact of DM mode that is in the future.

As far as the texted goes, personalized or not that is the general feel of the race or character. Read into it, make of it what you will. That is still a depth to say a generalization. Although I agree maybe that more broader terms, but in some instances it is just not really al that much possible with out breaking the original meaning set out to read/hear from the notion. So in a way one can change the meaning to a little degree would be fine, but too much and you kind of get the opposite effect. That is all I am saying. I can only hope if the query tags were changed to be like this that they take care in what/how/should change, and not over do it.

Note: I am not the best at articulation; it is my weak suit, but at least I try...