[crossfire] races

[Mark Wedel]

On 05/22/10 04:19 AM, Nicolas Weeger wrote:
>>    Maybe - certainly the quest giver may vary information based on how he
>> likes other races.
>
> And that could make it more interesting to play in parties, to share quest
> knowledge.

  It could certainly be interesting if alternate towns are added.  While trolls 
may not be liked in scorn, if humans visit the troll village, same thing happens 
and the troll player actually gets good prices, etc, there.


>>    True, but probably the two would be a bit too similar to have both (just
>> like northman + human, while there are some differences, are probably too
>> similar to really warrant them).
>
>
> As a rule, I would say that having similar races are ok. Not saying we should
> make 100 times the same, but 3 or 4, why not.

  As noted in other message, I like fewer races/classes, at least for now, 
because that is fewer things to balance.

  But also it is a choice for players.  Imagine if you are a new player and you 
get a list of 40 races to choose from - that is just too much - you are likely 
to just choose whatever is first.

  So I'd rather the number of choices be limited to some amount, and that the 
choices be different so that players can see why they would choose one thing or 
another.  If you have 2 races and the only difference is a stat point, one sort 
of has to ask what is the point there.


>>    Yes - it would be nice to have towns for the different races (a dwarven
>> town in the underworld, elf town in the forest, etc).  It adds a bit more
>> believability to the world.
>>
>>    The only hard part here is that this is now a lot more towns that need
>> some set of starting quests/maps.  I also think that there at least needs
>> to be an option for different races to start in the same town, even if it
>> is not their native town.  For example, if a friend and I decide to play
>> and make new characters, and he plays a dwarf and I play an elf, it would
>> still be nice for us to be in the same starting place so we can play
>> together.
>
> That can be fixed someway, maybe through parties, and NPCs - talk to the
> Reincarnation Employee, explain you want to be with your friend (whose was
> your lover in a previous incarnation), and he'll agree to let you both
> together.

  Yes - there are ways to fix this.  But until there are at least towns for the 
major races (I'd note that some, like half orc and trolls may share an 
uncivilized type village as their starting point), probably not a major concern.

>>    There are lots of things done in the past which we would not consider
>> good now (lots of old maps are not good maps).
>>
>>    My general thoughts/rules for player races:
>> - The race should be fairly different from other races (so race X isn't
>> just like race Y)
>
> As I said, I'm ok with 2 or 3 variants of the same race.
> But having only one, why not either.

  I noted my reasons above - too many choices and too much stuff to balance. 
I'd probably want to limit things to about a dozen choices (right now we are at 14).

  OTOH, a server admin could create new races as he sees fit - if they wanted to 
have lots of races with minimal differences, that is up to them.  But from a 
default setup, I'd rather limit the number of races.


>> - Race needs to be balanced.  A lot of this depends on other efforts to
>> balance things, but in many cases it is too easy to just take a look at
>> stat adjustments and resistances and say 'they balance out', ignoring fact
>> some stats/resistances are more important than others.
>
> Correct.
> Note also that items can play a role - you could have race-specific items,
> those need to balance too.
>
> All in all, pretty hard :)

  Yes - but when looking at the races, some things do stand out.  Lots of races 
have big Cha penalties, so when you add up the stat adjustments, they come out 
zero.  Of course, Cha is a fairly unimportant stat, so that is hardly balanced.


>
>
>
>> - The race should be on that already exists in crossfire but as a non
>> player race (or something close, like half orc is a combo of orc&  human).
>>   The first instance of the race showing up should not be race for players.
>
> Why?
> "Today, a really strange race set foot in Scorn for the first time in
> centuries. Royal guards are carefully keeping an eye on the weird creature,
> wishing it to not try to invad some place in the world."

  IMO, it makes the world more believable/interesting if you are playing a race 
found in the world and not exclusive to players.

  There is no technical reason it has to be so.  If one does enough backstory 
and/or quests, different matter, but that tends not to be the case.

  What tends to be the case is someone creating an archetype for it and nothing 
else, so you have a race that in some ways seems out of place because it does 
not exist in the crossfire world and there is not any really good explanation 
for it.