Race Well, What's Missing?

Discussion in 'NPCs and Creatures' started by DeadlyLuvdisc, Apr 15, 2013.

  1. AnonTheMouse

    AnonTheMouse Industrial Terraformer

    I'm not sure if this has been mentioned, but what about an Oceanian culture? You know, brightly coloured clothes, tropical fruits, bamboo, surfing? I'm thinking things like Moai and Tiki heads, obviously, but also inferences from the environment of these cultures. It makes sense to advance them technologically, to help differentiate from the jungle-dwelling Florans. For example, heavy use of geothermal power, owing to living in volcanic regions. Maybe hovercraft in various forms (including hover-boards). Or, even just basing the architecture off of something more like the basalt ruins of Nan Madol rather than making traditional grass huts might help. I can see that this could be a little hard to pull of from a justification of why a race would limit themselves to tropical islands, but I can think of three possible reasons.
    1. Prey race that has evolved an innate agoraphobia.
    2. A species with specific biological needs, limiting where on a planet they find habitable.
    3. Cultural bias, whether it be religious or simply due to a strong sense of aesthetics.
     
  2. DeadlyLuvdisc

    DeadlyLuvdisc Oxygen Tank

    Hm... It would be really cool if the Hylotl made their Japanese-inspired settlements on artificial islands like that.

    If you have total control of that element, then it wouldn't take additional time or effort to manipulate the water compared to air. You kept saying earlier that shaping water this way or that way would take more time or be less efficient, but when I argue that wind would be less efficient you say there is no reason to believe that.

    If you can manipulate them completely, then it comes down to which element is more abundant, correct? Well guess what? Your claim that air is the most common element is completely wrong. First of all, most of the planet is actually molten solids, which would probably count as earth element. What a surprise, that the planet would be named after the most common element! Second of all, about 70.8% of the Earth's surface is water. Third of all, the mass of all the atmosphere of Earth is about 1/1'200'000th of the planet's mass, while the mass of all the water on Earth is about 1/4'400th of the total mass on Earth.

    Since the addition of moisture to air actually lowers it's density (because the water vapor actually displaces the molecular mass of dry air), you could displace almost all of Earth's atmosphere with water vapor, either ejecting it into space or absorbing the gases into the water. If all of the water on Earth was moved into a giant sphere in space, and then the same was done with air, the sphere of water would be much bigger by volume as well.

    It isn't hard to assume that a tribe of these water users would live underwater anyway, so all of your wind tricks would be utterly reversed (with water muffling sound instead, and wind being very uncommon).

    Anyway, FIRE actually beats ALL of these, since fire is a chemical reaction and isn't a material at all. Because of this, Fire Users could actually cause anything to spontaneously combust anything that can burn (like air?). Just like you said about how wind users are usually nerfed to be balanced with other elements in stories, Water and Fire are incredibly nerfed.

    Actually, a five-element system with Fire, Water, Earth, Metal, and Wood is actually somewhat balanced (because wind is shit and can't compete with any of these).

    Of course, you'll probably reply with something like "herp derp the most common element in the universe is Hydrogen and that counts as air so Wind actually controls 90% of all existence" and that is exactly what I'm talking about with the "going over 9000" thing. Not only does this not make sense any more than a water user controlling Hydrogen (because hydrogen is as much a part of air as it is a part of water), but it is also completely ridiculous and pointless.

    It's just a matter of preference, in a fantasy setting at that. There is no fact-of-the matter for how powerful it would be IRL, there is only how powerful it is in hypothetical scenarios. This is a stupid argument to have, and I'm done. If anyone else continues to argue with you about it, I'll report it for being off-topic. Now, I'll respectfully allow you to get in the last reply, but like I just said: If anyone else continues to argue with you about it, I'll report it for being off-topic.
     
  3. Sousuke Kuroda

    Sousuke Kuroda Spaceman Spiff

    I pointed out that freezing/boiling air, making mirrors out of it, etc would take more effort than simply moving air around.

    Incorrect, but go on.

    Never said it was the most common element. Quote me if I'm wrong.

    Out of curiosity, how often do you think water elementalists and wind elementalists are going to be fighting underwater? Or out at sea? The difference here is consistency. There is ALWAYS AIR AROUND YOU on this planet, so long as there is the atmosphere, there is air. A wind elementalist is never out of his element unless he is literally in the ground or underwater, and I'd argue a ninja would never actually be in either of those situations fighting anybody. But I'll concede, in a situation such as the middle of the ocean, or underwater, the water elementalist will have the advantage. Every other time, wind will win out.

    Thats great, its also time consuming. By the time you would have somehow managed to achieve what you suggest, a wind elementalist has already taken away the air in your lungs and you're dying. Not to mention, you're giving your elementalists a lot more power than I am. The wind elementalist is controlling the air in a reasonable distance around him, your water elementalist would need manipulation on a global scale. Yet even then, he'd still be dead a lot faster, regardless of how much power he has over water.

    Why are you bringing tribes into this? Also I doubt a tribe of water users would live underwater because it would require constant use of their powers to keep the water from killing them.

    A combustion reaction is essentially reacting oxygen with something else. You're right, it isn't a material, but its a chemical reaction. The elementalist can only manipulate fire, if there is none around, he hasn't got anything. He'd need to create a spark and then use that to begin a fire. A wind elementalist is constantly surrounded by air, it is everywhere. Fire would take time, more time than whipping up a gust of wind to put it out.

    Metal and Earth may as well be the same thing. Again, humans rely on oxygen, we cannot live without it. While you may achieve great, impressive feats with all of these, they are ultimately rendered useless as the wind elementalist kills everyone in a matter of minutes. In terms of an immediate resource, Earth and Wind are on par, in terms of which is more vital to our survival, oxygen beats soil. The wind elementalist has the benefit of controlling an element that consists of something that you need to take regular breaths of. If you are deprived of even a few of these breaths, you will begin to die, and be rendered incapable of fighting.

    The Wind elementalist would win out in several heartbeats.

    I'm being civil here, cut the shit and be civil too. I'm not reducing to the stance of insulting others and neither should you. This isn't going over nine thousand, no one ever actually says what a wind user is manipulating, for all we know it is just gaseous materials, in which case, the wind user wins out. I wasn't going to raise hydrogen but I may as well now. If manipulation was Universal the wind elementalist will have more at his disposal. But even then, he wouldn't need to resort to using the vast degree of gasses, he'd only the gases surrounding your head. Simply by moving them away from you continuously, with an ever increasing vacuum size as wind moves air away from that point, he could deprive you of oxygen. If you do any sudden movements, he can release control, and the gasses would rush back and knock you out, or disorient you. Either way, it is then a simple matter of the wind elementalist walking up, and stabbing you.

    It is the most efficient element to control, and most immediately abundant. In a realistic setting, for example, a room. You will find there will be much more air than there would be any of the other elements, and the best part is that the wind elementalist doesn't even need all of it to kill you.
     
  4. DeadlyLuvdisc

    DeadlyLuvdisc Oxygen Tank

    Above is a bunch of quotes, starting from the very beginning, asking you time and again to drop the argument peacefully.
    Did you? Well, it looks to me like you are still arguing about it. So no, I guess not.

    Let's not forget that this all started with me saying the following:
    This isn't even an opinion, it's a preference. If I had said I'd pick apples to eat instead of oranges if I was a ninja, it wouldn't be much different.

    Then you butted in, saying I was wrong after asking me why that was my preference. Then you went so far as to say that there is a fact of the matter in all these hypothetical scenarios. Nothing about that is civil at all. In fact, it's nothing short of picking a fight. If you reply in this thread again, I will report it.[/quote]
     
  5. Sousuke Kuroda

    Sousuke Kuroda Spaceman Spiff

    Please, report me. You have a right to your opinion, and I have a right to mine, and my opinion is that your opinion was wrong. It is not uncivil to say so unless I were to insult you on that grounds, or call your opinion "bullshit". Which you did, as seen below.

    Not once had I referred to your arguments as bullshit, nor did I imply you're an idiot with a "herp derp". I've treated you with the respect I expect to be shown in return. Instead you acted like a child. Grow up.
     
  6. SpaceSprawler

    SpaceSprawler Star Wrangler

    [​IMG]

    I'll just show myself the door.
     
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  7. Shadow Wolf TJC

    Shadow Wolf TJC Spaceman Spiff

    Er, I think that this thread has just gone off-topic with all this debating on wind vs water.:confused:
     
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  8. Jod

    Jod Orbital Explorer

    As soon as I made an observation on you people not having selfish spammers around you get one.

    Last 2 pages of this thread have been derailed and are utterly useless. Do moderators clean this kind of thing up or something? Currently the thread begs for a stake through the heart and a proper burial. We need on-topic suggestions and some art ASAP.
     
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  9. Hydronz

    Hydronz Aquatic Astronaut

    Has no one thought of an egyptian cobra race? or a Spanish race?
     
  10. Jod

    Jod Orbital Explorer

    Lots of snake races already. Spanish bulls/minotaurs? Maybe. But kinda dull in my opinion.

    I still can't shake the thought of viking spiders. Imma go search for them in suggestions.
     
  11. AnonTheMouse

    AnonTheMouse Industrial Terraformer

    I'm thinking that some sort of Roma (Gypsy) culture would be appropriate.
    Also, what about molluscs? I'd be worried about a cephalopod race looking like Cthulhu (though a truly alien culture, esp. in the Lovecraftian style, is absent), but a gastropod race could be interesting. Combined with the Gypsy idea above, you could have a nomadic race of snail people who carry large amounts of goods on their backs...or slug people with shell-like armour. Perhaps they would have long ago abandoned their home-world, living their lives entirely on ships. Throw in a bit of Pirate, Viking, and/or Mongol culture, and maybe they could be wandering mercenaries or privateers who raid others, salvage what they can, and trade their plunder? Just sort of free brainstorming, here.
     
  12. The Almighty 404

    The Almighty 404 Subatomic Cosmonaut

    You know, maybe a greek bull-like race would be better. They would be the guardians of the labyrinth, the Minos.
     
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  13. Seria-Myouna

    Seria-Myouna The Last Moderator IRC Operator

    Yeah, you guys are right, this thread has been derailed by nonsense.

    Keep to the topic and don't debate over pointless things.
     
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  14. Seria-Myouna

    Seria-Myouna The Last Moderator IRC Operator

    I JUST said to stop arguing about it. Stop.
     
  15. Dr Fushba

    Dr Fushba Cosmic Narwhal

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  16. Seria-Myouna

    Seria-Myouna The Last Moderator IRC Operator

    Links?
     
  17. CGadmirer

    CGadmirer Void-Bound Voyager

    Oh hey, this might be a little late now, but I wasn't sure if someone had already done dinosaurs or a post-apocalyptic survivor race
    So I did post-apocalyptic survivor dinosaurs (FLAME WAR WARNING IN SUBSEQUENT POSTS)
    With six eyes
    That love farming
    And SCIENCE
    And farming for SCIENCE
    I could make an even weirder one (like nauseating toothed horrors), but then the race might not be considered "playable". Also, I'm a terrible artist and I can't make sprites that are a lot more complicated than the humanoid template.
     
  18. yellowmonkeys

    yellowmonkeys Industrial Terraformer

    I don't see why we want alien cultures to be based on human cultures. Shouldn't they have unique cultures as they aren't from earth? Also, they should have multiple cultures just as we do.
     
  19. DeadlyLuvdisc

    DeadlyLuvdisc Oxygen Tank

    It isn't really possible to come up with a totally original idea. The best you can do is take bits and pieces of other ideas and combine them in a new way. Really, each race in Starbound appears to have one main culture that served as inspiration for them, but they changed it a bit to fit the Starbound flavor. They are unique, but they just-so-happen to have some similarities with a particular culture from earth.

    Anyway, maybe the races do have different sub cultures, but they just seem the same to outsiders. Maybe if Avians visited Earth, all the Humans would seem mostly the same to them. It could be something caused by space travel, too-- Like by the time a race has space travel, their culture has become more globalized. Plus it is easier to write lore that way.
     
    yellowmonkeys likes this.
  20. yellowmonkeys

    yellowmonkeys Industrial Terraformer

    Well put :)
     

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