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Does GW2 have the most unique, best fleshed races of any MMO?

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  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    observer said:
    Despite not all of the races are playable,  SWTOR by far I would say would have to have the most fleshes out races. I mean there is so much information dating back for decades on all the different races, it's hard to compete with.

    Unique... well again, not everything is playable, but there are some crazy unique races in SWTOR too.
    Swtor missed a huge opportunity with playable unique characters.  Star Wars has a vast variety of different races, yet Bioware chose the lazy route, and made all their playable races humanoid.

    Implementing a different skin texture on the base human model doesn't make it unique.
    Yeah, I thought that was the biggest disappointment was with the SWTOR races. SWG did it WAY better imo. SWTOR just had the same model for each race.

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  • rojoArcueidrojoArcueid Member EpicPosts: 10,722
    edited November 2016
    But those races (except Sylvari) were already in GW1.
    But I do think Asura and Charr are kind of unique compared to elf species nr23878 and orc species nr 27674 in other MMO's.
    Sylvari are kind of wood elf-ish. Very nice art, but kind of meh race. Pretty sure they added them for the players who normally chose elf. Treehuggers, pfff :p
    While the Sylvari didn't physically show up in GW1, they were not entirely new in GW2.

    https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Ronan

    Ronan and Ventari lived in the GW1 timeline, and the Pale Tree was born from a seed they planted. You can read more on the wiki section for Ventari




  • waynejr2waynejr2 Member EpicPosts: 7,769
    observer said:
    Despite not all of the races are playable,  SWTOR by far I would say would have to have the most fleshes out races. I mean there is so much information dating back for decades on all the different races, it's hard to compete with.

    Unique... well again, not everything is playable, but there are some crazy unique races in SWTOR too.
    Swtor missed a huge opportunity with playable unique characters.  Star Wars has a vast variety of different races, yet Bioware chose the lazy route, and made all their playable races humanoid.

    Implementing a different skin texture on the base human model doesn't make it unique.

    I hated the excuse of speech for a reason not to implement Ithorian.  You are running through the game and many NPCs are beep blorp beep or whatever langauge I can't understand, yet my player can understand it.  So, right there you could have Ithorian. 

    Also, how cool would Kubaz be?  An IA Kubaz!!!  BTW, the Kubaz are the spy vs spy looking guys. https://www.google.com/search?q=koobaz&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjS2rm8587QAhUqwVQKHW_sCTgQ_AUICigD&biw=1680&bih=906#tbm=isch&q=kubaz

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  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    Sylvari do tend to look a bit...different.

    But different races I like for different things.

    Like Charr I love as Mesmer, Engineer, the melee classes. They look a bit weird in cloth armor though and have the problem of Tauren from WoW in just being weird in any clothing except the heavy armored stuff looks fine, but Charr mesmer is really cool and fun. And Engineer just fits purrfectly. I'd 100% play Charr all the time if they didn't look so weird in clothing. Nothing really looks that great on them, just weird. Its like people dressing up their cat lol. Looks dumb. But most of my characters are still Charr. Plus I love their city and starting area the most.

    Sylvari look AMAZING as a Necromancer. I don't really like playing them for a lot of classes, but the Elementalist/Thief and again Mesmer work. I however LOVE the sylvari+necro combo. Give the sylvari whitish "skin", a good matching hair color and it looks amazing for a lot of armors/outfits. They have the advantage that every armor pretty much just works for them because they are pretty much the human model. As a sylvari necro, its probably the most amazing class/race combo of any of them. They look too weird to me in heavy armor though. The last thing I picture is a plant creature wearing anything heavy.

    Human look good in every armor, and kinda work for every class really. But wow does the race itself look bad. The story is kinda actually pretty good if you picked the right ones in character creation. 

    Norn look good in some armor, but I don't really like their storyline. The race is cool, I like viking kinda stuff. But the story is meh and the most bland of any of the races. Which none of the races actually have a bad story, except Norn. Maybe its just not my type of story, but all it is, is a boring wild hunt. And I don't actually even like hunting in games or real life, so maybe that is why. But like Humans, they kinda work for most classes, too weird to me as Engineer though.

    Asura are epic too. Kinda small, so some people don't like that because you can't see the details of the armor. I personally like that, because it hides low textures and prevents armor clipping (which Charr have a major issue with in many clothing/armor) and actually makes the armor look BETTER to me, because its not overstretched and lazily made for bigger races, making the armor itself lose large amounts of quality. GW2 of course isn't the only MMO to lazily do armor like that for bigger races, WoW is just as bad for that. But back to asura, they have by far the best animations of any race. A fun story. And an amazing environment to start in (my second favorite). Asura actually work for all classes like humans. Can't think of any class that doesn't really fit them.

    That and Asura are easiest for jumping puzzles. Thats a plus. Though none of my characters are actually Asura for some reason. I have mostly Charrs and the Necromancer Sylvari. I think Asura give off this kinda Princeton douchey all mighty holier than thou attitude, so it kinda puts me off them because of that, so I never make one.

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  • DistopiaDistopia Member EpicPosts: 21,183
    edited November 2016
    filmoret said:

    I miss the days where you had best choice races for classes.  It added a lot of flavor to the game.  Now they make all the racial stats the same so doesnt matter what choice you have.
    ESO seems to have important racial bonuses when it comes to skills (they even have a racial skill line to choose from). So it's not all gone from the genre.

     This is just another example of why I'd pick SWG (pre-cu) as having the deepest racial system though. It wasn't just a matter of having some of the deepest racial lore in the genre, it also had some of the most distinctive racial choices in the genre. From racial based strengths and weaknesses, to racial skills, as well as imerssive things like languages (which you had to learn, in order to read their chat in global channels).

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  • waynejr2waynejr2 Member EpicPosts: 7,769
    Distopia said:

    imerssive things like languages (which you had to learn, in order to read their chat in global channels).

    I like what I am reading.   But we can't have these things.  :(
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  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    edited November 2016
    Even with games where race has "flavor" bonuses (like WoW), is pretty lite these days.

    What I miss more than that though if its okay to talk about something non-race related (which is what I made this thread about, oh well lol). Is weapons and spells that had its own attack type.

    Like Asheron's Call (I know there are other MMOs), you could get a fire sword that did fire damage. Some enemies were very weak against fire, other enemies were resistant or immune to it. Or lightning or even acid attacks. Some enemies were incredibly weak against acid, but some were strong. I think Olthoi (best monster enemy in any game ever, always been a #1 favorite of mine) used acid and were nearly immune to it. So different enemies used different attack types and you had to prepare proper armor to go up against them. On top of that, you could aim low, mid-section or high (head area) and different enemies were weak in certain areas.

    But like race bonuses, that was either nerfed to be negligible or just removed entirely from new MMOs. A lot of new MMOs removed TONS of advanced features older MMOs had...like they went back in time lol. MMOs are (for the most part) nowhere near as advanced or complicated as older MMOs are. Like instead of MMOs moving forward in progression (starting off as "teens"), they de-evolved into little babies.

    (post edit: Sure there ARE more complicated and advanced mechanics, and better graphics. But a lot of the advanced little features (like weapon types/elemental resistances/race bonuses etc) got heavily nerfed among many other things.

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  • DistopiaDistopia Member EpicPosts: 21,183
    waynejr2 said:
    Distopia said:

    imerssive things like languages (which you had to learn, in order to read their chat in global channels).

    I like what I am reading.   But we can't have these things.  :(
    SWG's RP was second to none for sure in this genre.

    For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson


  • ScorchienScorchien Member LegendaryPosts: 8,914
    Distopia said:
    waynejr2 said:
    Distopia said:

    imerssive things like languages (which you had to learn, in order to read their chat in global channels).

    I like what I am reading.   But we can't have these things.  :(
    SWG's RP was second to none for sure in this genre.
    SWG was pretty good , i thought UO RPers were much better particularly early on , was pretty impressive
  • TheScavengerTheScavenger Member EpicPosts: 3,321
    My favorite thing in SWG, which was done really well. I forgot exactly how it worked without looking it up. But I loved being an entertainer in one of the pub areas. People would dance and play music, which buffed people up to go out to do combat.

    That and it had by far the best pet class, with maybe the droid engineer in anarchy online being just as epic. Or did SWG also have a droid pet class? That might be what I'm thinking of if so. But the one in AO was good too. I don't remember now.

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  • DistopiaDistopia Member EpicPosts: 21,183
    Scorchien said:
    Distopia said:
    waynejr2 said:
    Distopia said:

    imerssive things like languages (which you had to learn, in order to read their chat in global channels).

    I like what I am reading.   But we can't have these things.  :(
    SWG's RP was second to none for sure in this genre.
    SWG was pretty good , i thought UO RPers were much better particularly early on , was pretty impressive
    I don't know about better, I could certainly see similar as the set-up as well as options were rather similar. For me though considering it was Star Wars, it just made it all the easier to sink into the experience for RP.

    For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson


  • ScorchienScorchien Member LegendaryPosts: 8,914
    Distopia said:
    Scorchien said:
    Distopia said:
    waynejr2 said:
    Distopia said:

    imerssive things like languages (which you had to learn, in order to read their chat in global channels).

    I like what I am reading.   But we can't have these things.  :(
    SWG's RP was second to none for sure in this genre.
    SWG was pretty good , i thought UO RPers were much better particularly early on , was pretty impressive
    I don't know about better, I could certainly see similar as the set-up as well as options were rather similar. For me though considering it was Star Wars, it just made it all the easier to sink into the experience for RP.
    Both were very good , i probably just enjoyed the UO setting and Themes better ..
  • DistopiaDistopia Member EpicPosts: 21,183
    edited November 2016
    My favorite thing in SWG, which was done really well. I forgot exactly how it worked without looking it up. But I loved being an entertainer in one of the pub areas. People would dance and play music, which buffed people up to go out to do combat.

    That and it had by far the best pet class, with maybe the droid engineer in anarchy online being just as epic. Or did SWG also have a droid pet class? That might be what I'm thinking of if so. But the one in AO was good too. I don't remember now.
    It had creature handler, but droids as well as creatures could be everyone's pets, CH's just had more options with them. (pull more at one time, use actual skills with them etc...) Later Droids also had crafting functionality, like finding good resource spawns etc... BH's also used a system that utilized droids to track and locate targets. 

    Dancers/musicians also healed mind wounds and fatigue. 

    For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson


  • MrMelGibsonMrMelGibson Member EpicPosts: 3,033
    I have to agree with the OP about the Charr.  They are probably my favorite race of any mmo i've played.  I absolutely love that they run on all 4s.  I have 8 charrs on my account.  Really wish we would see more races like this one in mmos.
  • DistopiaDistopia Member EpicPosts: 21,183
    Also can't forget Horizons. You could be pretty much anything in that game, even a dragon.

    For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson


  • MrMelGibsonMrMelGibson Member EpicPosts: 3,033
    edited November 2016
    filmoret said:
    Kyleran said:
    Torval said:
    Kyleran said:
    Naw, DAOC with 21 races is better, IMO.
    Were they well done? I think that matters as much as the number. Crowfall and Camelot Unchained look to have some really interesting lore and races. Hopefully they will be more than skins with a short summary.
    IMO yes. Being "a bit" old school, I enjoyed the fact every race had its own stats, and these affected your weapon type choices or spell casting abilities.

    Even among "human" types, one would favor swords (slashing) or hammers (crush) due to higher strength while another favored rapiers or daggers (piercing damage) due to higher dex.

    There was a very great difference in avatar size, some races such as Elves or Trolls were huge in size, with an advantage of being able to shoot over obstructions other shorter races could not.

    Conversely they could also take a head shot while the shorties were safely below the walls.

    Even on the battlefield racial differences mattered. Troll Skalds were huge targets on the battlefield, who did more melee damage than their dwarf counterparts which I favored for several reasons.

    These includedbhaving more mana for direct damage insta casts, harder to directly target and unless I was in speed mode players could not as easily identify my class.

    Finally, and I realize many people hate this, but every race was limited to specific classes, not only by intentional design, but sometimes the racial stats just didn't make a lot of sense to choose a race with lower intelligence to play a DD bolt caster.

    Still, since you could add stats to your gear via Spellcrafting it was possible to add any deficient ones so you did see people with unexpected combinations.
    I miss the days where you had best choice races for classes.  It added a lot of flavor to the game.  Now they make all the racial stats the same so doesnt matter what choice you have.
    I sincerely disagree with you.  I always hated feeling pigeon-holed into a race I didn't like/want to play because of min/maxing stats.  Races should just be cosmetic so you can play anything you want without consequence.  For example, in Tera the Elin (the pedo kids) have a small advantage with their hit boxes and reach.  So a lot of people play them.  I will never play an elin.


     I also hate playing humans in any mmo.  So, if they have an advantage with my class of choice.  I will be at a disadvantage because I still won't use them.  

    Truthfully, the little advantages races used to get can be utilized in different ways.  Make the player choose a certain god that gives racial like abilities.  I believe Neverwinter and BDO do this.  I can't recall if either give an advantage.  But the system is in place. This is just one example. 
  • filmoretfilmoret Member EpicPosts: 4,906
    filmoret said:
    Kyleran said:
    Torval said:
    Kyleran said:
    Naw, DAOC with 21 races is better, IMO.
    Were they well done? I think that matters as much as the number. Crowfall and Camelot Unchained look to have some really interesting lore and races. Hopefully they will be more than skins with a short summary.
    IMO yes. Being "a bit" old school, I enjoyed the fact every race had its own stats, and these affected your weapon type choices or spell casting abilities.

    Even among "human" types, one would favor swords (slashing) or hammers (crush) due to higher strength while another favored rapiers or daggers (piercing damage) due to higher dex.

    There was a very great difference in avatar size, some races such as Elves or Trolls were huge in size, with an advantage of being able to shoot over obstructions other shorter races could not.

    Conversely they could also take a head shot while the shorties were safely below the walls.

    Even on the battlefield racial differences mattered. Troll Skalds were huge targets on the battlefield, who did more melee damage than their dwarf counterparts which I favored for several reasons.

    These includedbhaving more mana for direct damage insta casts, harder to directly target and unless I was in speed mode players could not as easily identify my class.

    Finally, and I realize many people hate this, but every race was limited to specific classes, not only by intentional design, but sometimes the racial stats just didn't make a lot of sense to choose a race with lower intelligence to play a DD bolt caster.

    Still, since you could add stats to your gear via Spellcrafting it was possible to add any deficient ones so you did see people with unexpected combinations.
    I miss the days where you had best choice races for classes.  It added a lot of flavor to the game.  Now they make all the racial stats the same so doesnt matter what choice you have.
    I sincerely disagree with you.  I always hated feeling pigeon-holed into a race I didn't like/want to play because of min/maxing stats.  Races should just be cosmetic so you can play anything you want without consequence.  For example, in Tera the Elin (the pedo kids) have a small advantage with their hit boxes and reach.  So a lot of people play them.  I will never play an elin.


     I also hate playing humans in any mmo.  So, if they have an advantage with my class of choice.  I will be at a disadvantage because I still won't use them.  

    Truthfully, the little advantages races used to get can be utilized in different ways.  Make the player choose a certain god that gives racial like abilities.  I believe Neverwinter and BDO do this.  I can't recall if either give an advantage.  But the system is in place. This is just one example. 
    I get what you are saying with the pigenhole thing.  But really a gnome warrior or Elfin warrior for that matter.  Should they really be as good as the giant warriors?
    Are you onto something or just on something?
  • AeanderAeander Member LegendaryPosts: 7,820
    filmoret said:
    filmoret said:
    Kyleran said:
    Torval said:
    Kyleran said:
    Naw, DAOC with 21 races is better, IMO.
    Were they well done? I think that matters as much as the number. Crowfall and Camelot Unchained look to have some really interesting lore and races. Hopefully they will be more than skins with a short summary.
    IMO yes. Being "a bit" old school, I enjoyed the fact every race had its own stats, and these affected your weapon type choices or spell casting abilities.

    Even among "human" types, one would favor swords (slashing) or hammers (crush) due to higher strength while another favored rapiers or daggers (piercing damage) due to higher dex.

    There was a very great difference in avatar size, some races such as Elves or Trolls were huge in size, with an advantage of being able to shoot over obstructions other shorter races could not.

    Conversely they could also take a head shot while the shorties were safely below the walls.

    Even on the battlefield racial differences mattered. Troll Skalds were huge targets on the battlefield, who did more melee damage than their dwarf counterparts which I favored for several reasons.

    These includedbhaving more mana for direct damage insta casts, harder to directly target and unless I was in speed mode players could not as easily identify my class.

    Finally, and I realize many people hate this, but every race was limited to specific classes, not only by intentional design, but sometimes the racial stats just didn't make a lot of sense to choose a race with lower intelligence to play a DD bolt caster.

    Still, since you could add stats to your gear via Spellcrafting it was possible to add any deficient ones so you did see people with unexpected combinations.
    I miss the days where you had best choice races for classes.  It added a lot of flavor to the game.  Now they make all the racial stats the same so doesnt matter what choice you have.
    I sincerely disagree with you.  I always hated feeling pigeon-holed into a race I didn't like/want to play because of min/maxing stats.  Races should just be cosmetic so you can play anything you want without consequence.  For example, in Tera the Elin (the pedo kids) have a small advantage with their hit boxes and reach.  So a lot of people play them.  I will never play an elin.


     I also hate playing humans in any mmo.  So, if they have an advantage with my class of choice.  I will be at a disadvantage because I still won't use them.  

    Truthfully, the little advantages races used to get can be utilized in different ways.  Make the player choose a certain god that gives racial like abilities.  I believe Neverwinter and BDO do this.  I can't recall if either give an advantage.  But the system is in place. This is just one example. 
    I get what you are saying with the pigenhole thing.  But really a gnome warrior or Elfin warrior for that matter.  Should they really be as good as the giant warriors?
    Yes, if the setting can justify it somehow.

    Asuran warriors are competitive because of the technology of their suits, for example.
  • MrMelGibsonMrMelGibson Member EpicPosts: 3,033
    filmoret said:
    filmoret said:
    Kyleran said:
    Torval said:
    Kyleran said:
    Naw, DAOC with 21 races is better, IMO.
    Were they well done? I think that matters as much as the number. Crowfall and Camelot Unchained look to have some really interesting lore and races. Hopefully they will be more than skins with a short summary.
    IMO yes. Being "a bit" old school, I enjoyed the fact every race had its own stats, and these affected your weapon type choices or spell casting abilities.

    Even among "human" types, one would favor swords (slashing) or hammers (crush) due to higher strength while another favored rapiers or daggers (piercing damage) due to higher dex.

    There was a very great difference in avatar size, some races such as Elves or Trolls were huge in size, with an advantage of being able to shoot over obstructions other shorter races could not.

    Conversely they could also take a head shot while the shorties were safely below the walls.

    Even on the battlefield racial differences mattered. Troll Skalds were huge targets on the battlefield, who did more melee damage than their dwarf counterparts which I favored for several reasons.

    These includedbhaving more mana for direct damage insta casts, harder to directly target and unless I was in speed mode players could not as easily identify my class.

    Finally, and I realize many people hate this, but every race was limited to specific classes, not only by intentional design, but sometimes the racial stats just didn't make a lot of sense to choose a race with lower intelligence to play a DD bolt caster.

    Still, since you could add stats to your gear via Spellcrafting it was possible to add any deficient ones so you did see people with unexpected combinations.
    I miss the days where you had best choice races for classes.  It added a lot of flavor to the game.  Now they make all the racial stats the same so doesnt matter what choice you have.
    I sincerely disagree with you.  I always hated feeling pigeon-holed into a race I didn't like/want to play because of min/maxing stats.  Races should just be cosmetic so you can play anything you want without consequence.  For example, in Tera the Elin (the pedo kids) have a small advantage with their hit boxes and reach.  So a lot of people play them.  I will never play an elin.


     I also hate playing humans in any mmo.  So, if they have an advantage with my class of choice.  I will be at a disadvantage because I still won't use them.  

    Truthfully, the little advantages races used to get can be utilized in different ways.  Make the player choose a certain god that gives racial like abilities.  I believe Neverwinter and BDO do this.  I can't recall if either give an advantage.  But the system is in place. This is just one example. 
    I get what you are saying with the pigenhole thing.  But really a gnome warrior or Elfin warrior for that matter.  Should they really be as good as the giant warriors?
    That's a fair question.  I honestly don't have an answer to it.  I suppose if you could find a balanced way to give each race advantages/disadvantages it might work out.  I just think it would still lead to the same issue I said earlier.  Like a gnome will only be typically used by spell casters and an Orc will always be some type of melee class.


     A good example of what i'm talking about is in IceWind Dale.  Each race has certain perks and disadvantages.  Even some classes are locked out for certain classes.  This leads to interesting builds, but most people will just go the optimal route.
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