General Discussion

Species suggestions, story ideas and contributions.
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eleazar
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#31 Post by eleazar »

SowerCleaver wrote:
eleazar wrote:I hope we also have time to design a few alternate rules, like "Metalovore" which would apply to robots and silicoids, races that need only metal for "food". Dwellers on Gas Giants (if included) would probably also need some special rules, otherwise i can't think of anything major which can't be accomplished through bonuses and maluses.
I understand you are referring to "qualitative" race picks (which will require new rules in gameplay mechanics) here rather than SMAC-style "quantitative" race picks (which will merely require numerical modifiers). I believe "qualitative" race picks are must-haves for stock races. In MoO2 terms, picks like "lithovore", "cybernetic", "telepathic" and "omniscient" allows a totally different strategy in scale compared to "research +1" or "pop growth +100%". If not all, I believe most of stock races should have one or more of defining qualitative character. This is why I couldn't tell the difference of Sakkra from Raas from Grendarl in MoO3.
So what are the qualitative differences of your archetypes?

SowerCleaver
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#32 Post by SowerCleaver »

I think that's up in the air, since as you mentioned the gameplay mechanics have not been nailed down and the archetypes can change.

However, to risk a guess as to some race archetypes:

1. Some qualitative picks can be easily linked to physiology. For example, "Metalovore" for robotoids and "Lithovore" for mineral life. (Whether we need to differentiate these is another question). Also, "cybernetic" by definition should belong to a robotic race. If we have symbiotes like Ithkul, "needs host" can be a pick for that race.

2. Depending on the final EP wheel design, any living condition outside the EP wheel could be a qualitative race pick. For example, gasbags can have "Gas giant preference" as a pick. It's purely semantics, but if "Gas giant" is not on the EP wheel, this would be a race pick. If there are more exotic races who can live on the surface of a star or asteroids belt, that would fall within this category too.

3. Then there are other physiological/natural abilities that do not necessarily link with race physiologies. There could be a telepath aquatic race just easily as a telepath humanoid race. Therefore, as to assigning the "telepathic" trait to a stock race, we can come up with a plausible explanation why they are telepathic.

4. Finally, there could social/governmental qualitative picks. "Hive mind" to insectoids seems to be a natural answer. It may also have an effect to disable certain type of government types for that race. Another race submitted in this forum had the "Cowardly" pick. Although that would be a negative one and should not be the only trait that race has, but it is also a qualitative trait.

Anyways, I emphasized the "qualitative" race picks over quantitative ones partly because such differences tend to allow more diverse race archetypes. Think about Alkari and Bulrathi in MoO2 - they were human with 20% ship combat or human with 20% ground combat, nothing else. Meanwhile, silicoids were in fact different, since they munch dirt rather than corn.

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Krikkitone
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Re: General Discussion

#33 Post by Krikkitone »

I think there are a few different terms here that you are trying to squeeze in

1. Graphic concepts (Humanoid, Insectoid)

2. Qualitative picks (Hivemind, Lithovore)

There is not necessarily an overlap... a 'Crystalline' race may actually get its energy from organic metabolism catalyzed by the minerals they are made from, so they may eat food just as well as humans, and a Human looking race could be hive minded because of the nature of their brain structure.

The idea of Qualitative picks that are not interchangable is reasonable (ie you couldn't be both Lithovore and Cybernetic in MOO2)

but they should have no relation to appearance.

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utilae
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Re: General Discussion

#34 Post by utilae »

Krikkitone wrote: but they should have no relation to appearance.
Seconded

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Tortanick
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Re: General Discussion

#35 Post by Tortanick »

Krikkitone wrote: but they should have no relation to appearance.
Thirded!

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eleazar
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Re: General Discussion

#36 Post by eleazar »

Going through the species again, i note that there are very few species that are designed for, or make sense for the more exotic environments: Barren, Radiated, Inferno, (and to a lesser degree) Toxic.

If you want to give your species a better chance of getting on (or staying on) the official roster, consider designing a species for one of these exotic EPs.

temetvince
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Re: General Discussion

#37 Post by temetvince »

I didn't know where else to post this, so I hope this is the correct spot. General discussion seemed vague enough.

I noticed under the species table here: http://www.freeorion.org/index.php/Species that we have "ents" as a species. The entry in the table has quotes which makes me wonder if the name is supposed to change at some point.

According to wikipedia, we should probably change the name.

"In other fantasy and role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons (D&D, see plant creatures), EverQuest, Thief 2: The Metal Age, Magic: The Gathering, Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Square Enix's Final Fantasy series, Warlords series and the Warcraft PC game series, Tolkien-like Ents are known as Treants, Treemen or Treefolk, for trademark reasons, much like Hobbits are only referred to as Halflings in such works."

I hope this helps.

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eleazar
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Re: General Discussion

#38 Post by eleazar »

Yeah, i agree. We shouldn't put something called "Ents" in the game.

What you linked to isn't the official role of species, but a partial list of species ideas that have been cooked up on the forums. Some of those ideas are less complete than others. The quotes did, i think, indicate a provisional name.

temetvince
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Re: General Discussion

#39 Post by temetvince »

eleazar wrote:Yeah, i agree. We shouldn't put something called "Ents" in the game.

What you linked to isn't the official role of species, but a partial list of species ideas that have been cooked up on the forums. Some of those ideas are less complete than others. The quotes did, i think, indicate a provisional name.
Ok. :) Just checking.

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