Thoughts and perspective on racial bonuses.

So what would be the problem with being able to change your natural ability using a gene splicer?

 

What are you reading?
They never compared a fish breathing under water to Nazis.. they said that the idea of different races being specifically superior/deficient in certain skills was racist, they were discussing eugenics.

Like many have said, they are prolly reading a bit too much into it, and the fact they are species, not races.

 

I just wish humans had something other than additional inventory. Maybe the power to segregate races into classes based on their viewed superiority. That sounds more human to me.

 

Why should armors give my characters physical abilities that they should naturally have because of their species type.

 

I honestly don't think that the different species feel different at all, appearances, lore, and flavor text are nice but you might as well have ONLY humans of various temperament and just have powered armor of various kinds with animal themes that give you magic powers.

The gene splicer idea seems like it'd be the perfect solution to the issue, the feeling of the early game based on what planet the RNG dropped you off on might be different, but I'm honestly not too concerned with balance that I'd throw out species traits.

 

That's sidestepping the problem.
You don't start with the racial bonuses, and they aren't applied at all times. In fact, for half the game you don't have them because there's no progression to racial armors at all. You're forced to eventually go back to regular armor at least once per tier.
Not to mention on a server you can make a ton of racial armors and give them to all your friends and then everyone has the same benefits. It makes race selection absolutely meaningless unless you're playing for a purely aesthetic value. What's being argued here is that there should be permanent racial bonuses upon character creation, but not to the point where it actually drastically affects gameplay. We're talking 2-4% increases in abilities, not anything major. Then the people who want to play for aesthetics can still do so, but those who want a more immersed and believable experience can as well.

 

I honestly don't mind games, fantasy or sci fi stuff with 'racial' traits or bonuses up to a point. Just speaking in pure game context, they can become limiting though. You tend to end up with races that are better suited to certain classes/playstyles/skillsets and players get shoehorned into certain roles rather than being inspired in different directions.

Also, sorry that mention of eugenics and racial mysticism precludes a mention of Nazis as well. As the historical punctuation at the end of those movements, it's hard to ignore if you bring them up.

 

I would take that argument if you were making it for racial benefits in an MMO where traditional roles such as DPS, Tank, ect. are part of the game but for a game such as starbound small bonuses won't force you into certain roles.

 

Personally I'd be in favor of just giving small bonuses to each "race" that fits with the unique aspects for that species. Lots of games include things like this but I rarely see people pressured into picking a particular species just because they feel like they can get a slightly better perk by picking a different one.
Having to make your class specific armor just to be able to exhibit traits of your character seems a bit odd to me. Though to be fair I wouldn't really complain either way, I just think that inherent traits would work much better for immersion and gameplay.

Also, to those trying to bring in real world racism into this: Don't. There is absolutely no relation between the topics.

 

That's how I feel. I had a full set of Gold armor and was thinking I would get my Apex agility. Nope! My friend tried to see if his Hylotl would breath underwater with his full set. Nope...

 

I would love Racial differences, other than armor.

 

Yep, it's the D&D 4E syndrome (wood elves are archers, moon elves are wizards, dwarves are warriors etc... screw this!) ... Except that we are talking about a minor bonus here, nothing that would drastically change your gameplay.

 

With the very minor bonuses we're talking about, it shouldn't shoehorn anyone into playing a certain way. I'm going to go back to Dragon Age again since that seems to be the worst about shoehorning people into roles, even going so far as to excluding certain races from certain classes. While, yes, dwarves being naturally inclined to combat makes sense, completely eliminating them from the mage class really irked me. Especially since even if you chose a Rogue Dwarf, it would still pale in comparison to one going with the warrior tree. I had to remake my character at least 5 times just because I was trying to do things with my class that the game severely punished you for because it didn't fit with the Tolkien fantasy tropes.

 

I agree with the types of bonuses given in the game, as they are only bonuses. I disagree with penalties as I think most people would agree with.

 

Your comparison between racial bonuses in games and "racial" discrimination in reality is not valid because in Starbound there are actually distinct races with real, non superficial differences between them, while in reality there is one race of humanity with only superficial differences, such as skin colour, between them. In Starbound, there is nothing wrong with representing these actual differences in game via racial bonuses, because the races are indeed distinct. Your comparison would be apt if Starbound's "racial" choices consisted of black humans, white humans, and yellow humans and gave them different bonuses, but the actual choice is between humans, apex, glitch and so on; all seperate and distinct races. I commend you for being sensitive to such disgusting ideas as eugenics, but racial bonuses in Starbound are in a different category.

Edit: I am equating the word "race" with "species" but for all intents and purposes of this thread there is really no difference.

 

/thread.

 

If one race is a 500lb gorilla and another is a plant... I think that there would be some obvious differences between them.