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Races/classes
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Member Posts: 22
So im curious as to what people on this site would like to see as far as races/classes for any new game, maybe give me an idea or two on something i havent yet thought of for the game i intend to start creating after i graduate college this coming may. I have many ideas on mechanics and the world, but would like to know what kind of races people would like to see put into a game. Keep in mind this game will be fantasy sword and spell type mmo, not space ships and gun fights. So please just give me some race/class ideas your thinking about and a little explanation as to why you'd like to see them put in a game.
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Kittehs. Inspired by an off topic thread in their forums about lolcats Dragon Empires actually put that race into their game before they stopped development.
Kittehs... you mean like a cat? like the Vah Shir from Everquest type race?
First i need to say i hate classes.
But it would be nice to see actual classes, and not ten different types of fighters! If i want to fight, i make a fighter. Sword, spear, archery, daggers or whatever.
If i make a smuggler for example, i want to smugger goods. Fighting would be a failure for me as a amuggler, because then i have done something very wrong.
Or a healer, think of doctors going to Africa or Afghanistan to save life. Or priest. A religious person trying to hang on to a belief abd tell others to do the same.
Of course you can have a religious fighter, but it is still a fighter.
Races is a more neutral issue for me. I dont care much, i mpstly play human because i cant identify with the other ones : )
Classes? go skill based. If you really want to have classes, however, don't be restrictive with them. Give a bonus for certain classes in certain skills/stats, or whatever, but don't say "this class can't use this weapon, or this type of magic, or this type of armor," because games that do that suck. I have a lot of other suggestions, about mounts and combat and stuff, and I know that many of my fellow gamers and friends agree with them, so if you're interested, I'd love to let you know about them. One thing I will say about combat is to make it good. Many mmos use a point and click combat system thats really boring. Thats something you almost never see in any other rpg, and for a good reason, it sucks. Game designers should take the combat style from a good console game like Legend of Zelda:OoT, Oblivion, or Mount and Blade, and turn it into an mmo. Sorry I got off topic, but this is something I'd love to see you do.
I'm rather bored of so many humanoid classes that differ so slighty. I have always felt that classes should have specific traits that make a tangible difference in certain cases. For example a huge orc / troll/ lesser giant / galka! etc. should have more HP and hit harder, but should also have less evasion and be easier to hit. Although kinda cute, it's just daft when the tank is a tiny little girl (unless a ninja type tank) and the assassin is a huge behemoth.
Races I'd like to see more of:
Lizardman / sauron
Minotaur / Tauren / Yeti / Wookie
Fairy / pixie / leprechaun
Viera like http://midori237.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/fran-2.jpg (sorry just couln't resist)
Cat-people / mithra (not just girls)
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As for classes I'd like potion making and bombs, smokes, traps etc. to become some form of scientist / illusionist class
I'd like a hybrid offensive druid / assassin / martial arts character that is good with poisons and learns animal like fighting moves to be a fast close range fighter, but without the stealth and only out of combat heals.
As far as classes go, its not actually going to have set classes. I intended on having a skill based game where players chose X amount of skills with X amount of skill points to be usable. Just added the class thing to this thread because i thought maybe someone would have a good idea for a class and it would spark a good idea for a certain type of skill for me to implement. Also about your other ideas, please feel free to let me know what they are. Im open to ideas and critism, id like for this game to suceed for a certain niche, the more "hardcore" i guess you would say. I dont intend on my game handing out "epic" gear, everything will be earned and will take some time to acquire. I dont want people to race to end game although im sure some will, i want them to enjoy the world i create and have fun in it with eachother.
Edit: Also some races would have certain restrictions as far as some skills go. If i have an Ogre in the game chances are he wont be stealthing around.
I like Classes that can be played in many different ways. For exemple in Dofus, if I played as an Enutrof, I could go with the Intelligence build which is mostly Debuffs, I could go Chance Build which is for dropping items and deal strong ranged damage, I could go with the Agility Build which would greatly increase my ability to move around without being Tackled and also deal decent damage. And I could also go with the Strength build, which was mainly focuses around powerfull melee attacks and debuff/self-buff.
All classes in Dofus followed a similar pattern as there are many different ways to play each characters.
Monk class, one of my favorite classes and don't see them much. and i mean bare fists and kick attacks not like GW monk, but a martial art fighter.
races don't matter much to me honestly, BUT each race should have its own fighting style. NEVER made sense to me that every class type plays teh same no matter what race. different cultures have their own styles and their classes should reflect that. they should be the same in what thier role is but thier own animations and spell names that reflect their culture/race.< this should go for all classes not just monks.
Well, this is less a point of specific races and more a pet peeve of mine when games use certain races. I think you should shake up the gender dimorphism a bit. Say you have Humans as a race... well we know how men and women differ for us. Then you have another race which may have a more extreme form of gender dimorphism. Still others may even be a hermaphradite race of plant-people. Do not give all teh females sexy human forms! That's always been rather annoying to me. There are other ways that dimorphism can appear... and not all races need to be sexually dimorphic at all.
Plant people could be elves/pixies/brownie creatures... customization options may be things like having them have pollen producing "hair" but antennae or "horn nubs"... or an outie belly button that are the stamen part of the plant. MEaning they all have "male" and "female" parts like flowers. So you'd essentially only have one sex for that type. Likely high in magics but physically very weak... plant based magics could be racially bosted or even be racial skills.
If you make lizard people and they're not some sort of protomammal... dont' give the females breasts! Let them be reptiles if they're reptiles, I'm sure you can come up with some other eye candy races, dragons do not need titties. Hell, they could use parthenogenetic reproduction in a pinch if you wanted, but then they'd be ZW not XY in their sexual reproductions, and you should avoid "half dragons" by them not being capable of breedign otu with non-reptiles.
Bird-people would also be cool, especially for the flamboyant males jokes. You could make the females drab coloured and the males have vibrant hair colour options like many species of bird. This would be interesting to make the females into female fighters... more bird of prey like, but make a sexual split in skill so females are warriors and males are casters. Amazon bird women and their flamboyant "pet" males. Females could be larger than the males, sort of Matriarchal like the Drow in D&D. They may be able to fly... or they may be more like feathered versions of the dragon people. Flightless like emu but leggy with three fingered hands like prehistoric raptors.
I'm not a big fan of classes, myself. I really prefer skills but with some underlaying starting templates for race or sex. Like you have the base template to start with, then you've got maybe a couple areas you can train up in, and can shuffle your points about as you see fit until you've maxed your toon and stop earning points.
So using the bird people as an example... the base starting point would be that females perhaps do not have any mana pool yet have high physical energy and decent HP, but the males have only a small amount of physical combat energy, lower HP, and high mana. The flower people would have no difference since they're all herm, humans may have slightly stronger males, and perhaps women would have better stamina or the like. That sort of thing.
Basically, I just don't think all the playable races need to be the same. Let humans be humans, and make the other races totally different. Not just humans with funny ears and different skin. I think the Tauren's only lacked the love because people always had the option to play something else unless they wanted a druid. Poor moos.
A octopus-like race and psionics as a CC class. I've always thought Illithids were cool.
I like games that represent reality more than games that add in far fetched things. For instance, have a variety of human races. There are after all, several races represented on Earth, with all having cultures that vary on a range from not much to drastically. Then add in some races based on legends and myths, but they must be sentient. For example, Vampires, Werewolves, demi-gods, half angels, half demons, elves, dwarves, and so on. Keep in mind that some of these races will have attributes that far exceed what a human may have, but you can balance it out by lowering other attributes. For example, a Vampire may be super quick and strong, but can only play during the night time hours. Werewolves would have increased senses, and every full moon could transform into a werewolve. Demi-gods could far more succeptable to certain types of damage than humans, such as certain elemental damage. Half angels and demons would be succeptible to damage from their opposite alignment, and would also not be able to tolerate being in areas that are predominately the other alignment. Elves and dwarves were actually hinted at in the Bible, so it's something to think about.
As for skills, keep it real. Mix up some non-combat skills and combat skills. Let alchemy be a skill that not only brews potions, but can create bombs and such, so it could be considered both a tradeskill and a combat skill. Add in every melee and ranged weapon that was available during the time frame you're looking to recreate. For instance, you rarely see a MMO implement whips, or miniature hand-crossbows. Make elemental weapons a rarity. Don't put stats on weapons. It's better to allow people to use the weapon that suits their personality, rather than making a player feel they must equip this weapon because it has those stats on it.
I would like to see a race of "mutant" type creatures, their class would literally be determined by the body parts of mobs that have been ripped off of mobs and grafted on to their bodies. I imagine them being "gearless" in the sense that they dont wear armor they graft the shell of a turtle or flesh of a crocodile to their living bodies. This would be true of attacks also, remove that poison duct and graft it to those lion teeth and stich em right into your mouth. These changes would of course, effect your apperance.
Plant people. Definitely.
But honestly the reason you see mostly humanoids in games is (a) that's what people play, and (b) doing anything but humanoids entails a huge amount of work/cost.
If you want manhours/money left over to work on putting forth an innovative or polished game, getting creative with your races becomes a somewhat unrealistic goal. The exception, of course, is when creative races are the way you choose to innovate (at which point you won't have time/money to do those other innovative ideas you had.)
(on an unrelated note, the "reimagined" Star Control races on this site are awesome!)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I like this race idea, theres a good chance Ill throw some lore behind this one and doodle up some concept art this coming semester in the art class im in. The CC class type thing though will be an option for all as it will be part of a certain "school" of magic users if you want to branch off into the debuffer/CC role as a player.
FEED ME SEYMORE!!
If your going on a skill based system for your game you'll definitely want a large selection of races to diversify your community. Race diversity is something i always love to see in games. Look to the current games to get your core races, like human, elf (good and bad), dwarf, orc, gnome, halfing. Also like : wolf, fox, cat, rat, frog, lizard, giant, cow/minitaur.
Also, look at something like Eternal earth, it has a lot of really neat ideas, things you dont see alot of like Birds, Deer, Bear, Boar. The above octopus (Mind Flayer like) is a neat idea too. Maybe other water living life, sharks, fish, Ray, croc/alligator (too close to lizard-men)
Problem with doing demi-god stuff is how do you limit their power, since the very fact the are demi-god makes them way above average.
Horror bases stuff like Vamp/werewolve is cool, but you need to make sure to limit it's power to be balanced, and you NEED to really bring out the pain of living with the curse. Everyone wants to be a one cause it looks neatl, but you want to make them some how feel the pain of being thirsty for blood, or really fear the coming of the moon.
Well you guys are giving me some good ideas, dont think ill be adding plant people, maybe some NPC plant people randomly that are good or bad hiding in some thick bushes that will pop out and attack if you dont pay attention to where your walking, keep the world interesting to travel through. The horror idea, could be interesting but then adding in things to make them fear the moon or thirst for blood could be tough for players to pay attention to. However these are all great ideas and i intend on talking it over with the rest of my friends that will be helping me make the game. Keep the ideas coming because right now we're in the brainstorming process and will stay in this stage until may when i graduate and we all have free time to meet with eachother and start mapping everything out in detail and getting it into the actual game engine.
I'm tired of seeing games full of tolkien-style races.(Orc, goblins, humans, elves, etc)
come up with some unique races, that's all I have to say.
well, it think that those "tolkein-style" races should still be there, but with some other races as well
Those races (human, orc, elf) will be in the game ofcourse, i think caalem was just saying add in some new unique races to give the gamers a new experience playing as something they've never been before maybe? if not please feel free to correct me caalem and toss out some unique ideas of your own, would love to hear them.