A different approach to races

Suggestions
1

I just had an idea strike me, and I think it’s worth sharing. Forgive me if it’s not the most organized thought, but I hope you wonderful community members and Devs can see where I’m going with this.

What if races in Oort Online aren’t done like so many other games? Instead of having a number of races with core influence from something (elves, cats, humans), Oortians would be the same at the core with many, many differences on the outside. Let me elaborate.

Character creation would be an avatar builder, with many options for each part. Instead of picking that you are a bird or dinosaur, you would start with a core and build on it. The focus would be simplicity, but allowing players to get their uniqueness. Each step would offer players “racial” abilities, based on what they choose.

Step 1: Cores
Players would start with choosing a core. There would be small, medium, and large, and each would offer some type of racial bonus. Small could give the ability to fit in tight spots, medium might offer faster movement, and large may give a larger health boost. I think that’s a good start.

Step 2: Body
Here is where players would pick a type of body. Again, to keep it simple we would keep sliders out for sizes and shape. Choices here would vary from a scaly body to feathery. There could be normal skins along with slimy and furry. Each of these types could be colored from a wide variety choices, but the type that is chosen would offer another small racial perk. Feathers could bring slow-fall, while scales could offer a defensive bonus.

Step 3: Head
The head would have a couple of parts to it, but also keep the same theme. Players could choose ears, which would range from pointy cat ears to antlers. Horns and head spikes would come from this area as well. Faces would be a part of the head options, giving players a chance to choose a beak or animal-like muzzle. Scary reptile mouths or even human faces would all be available here. If a player chose gills for their head, they could be offered under-water breathing. More color choices would be given, letting players add that extra flair. (I haven’t mentioned hair because I’m not sure how to fit it in. I suppose after all head options are chosen, hairstyles could be added on.)

Step 4: Limbs
This step is where hands, feet and tails come in. If so desired, the player could pick hooves for feet and large, scary claws for hands, with a fuzzy bunny tail. The idea would be to offer many options that let people make a unique Oortian. As long as the racials for each choice are minor, adding them together as a whole shouldn’t have a huge impact on creation. Large talons could give a crit bonus while webbed feet offer swim speed. A long tail could give an extra bit of speed.

To me, so many games have concentrated on offering static race types, with customization that stays in a certain realm of what’s okay on that race. Avian creatures would not get bunny ears, and maybe that’s something someone wants. This idea would keep options limited only to imagination. No sliders are necessary, except maybe for colors. The combinations would be amazing, and something that could be added to with time.

Tell me what you think!

9 Likes
2

This could just as well have been posted under.
https://forum.oortonline.com/t/modular-character-creation/412

I think this is a fantastic way to do the modular character creation, but i am personally against doing that so…

Ninja’d @Zouls :stuck_out_tongue:

3

same idea as this thread. i personally dont like it, but you can judge for yourself in comments.

https://forum.oortonline.com/t/modular-character-creation/412

1 Like
4

DAMNIT. 2 sec too late.

2 Likes
5

Oh thanks! I will go chat it up there :slight_smile:

6

I think the main argument against modular avatar builders is that they often lead to weird cross bred characters and Frankenstein like attributes. While you may get a huge amount of versatility in appearance, you lack consistency in interactions between players. This can especially be problematic in PVP situations, where clear race/class differences has a more pronounced affect.

1 Like
7

Oh and like if people are able to do it somebody will make something horrendously ugly.

8

-insert “YOUR MOM” joke here-

1 Like
9

well people should be able to make ugly characters if they want. but still, i dont think its going to benefit anybody to go around with a dinosaur body and bird wings, cause although you might find the idea of so much freedom awesome, it will not be in the end. it would honestly take away from immersion, if there are races you can accept that, but that any sort of mix can exist is just…

imagine a reptile body, a wolf head and bird wings… thats just… no XD

1 Like
10

DON’T JUDGE ME!!! :laughing:

http://www.gryphonpages.com/research/legend/gryphontail.jpg

2 Likes
11

Thats just a griffon, griffons are awesome, now imagine that it looked like this, except of 4 legs it had 2 monkey legs and 2 monkey arms and then a crocodile head xD

12

Google image search is an amazing thing!

13

But that’s the whole point! Why do they have to look a certain way? Why can’t a bird person have a long dino-tail? If the designs are done with a specific style, it would fit okay.

1 Like
14

i already answered that, also multiple times in the other post. havok also answered that.

15

This is kinda cool, but I think we’d see people just building creatures that have the buffs they like, not the appearance. Also there’d be some hella frankensteiny creations waltzing around oort if this were the case. I like modular design, but it all has to fit under a theme. Modular design without any bounds just leads to bad things.

16

Because species normally keep to the same form all the time? Or because it makes identifying other people much much harder, you would need to say “look at that abe, snake, eagle, ant hybrid” instead of “Oh that’s a Oorgrian”

17

It COULD work, and it has before. I personally favor a more customary approach for avatar creation for the sake of consistency. HOWEVER(!), the dev’s have talked about having cross bred animals like this, so perhaps the dev’s have something in mind that solves these concerns! I’d not give up hope on it just yet :wink:

18

So, the biggest arguments are that they would look “weird” in some peoples’ opinions and that people would build for buffs.

For the buff problem, I’d say that would take some balancing for sure. Stats would probably be a terrible option to add to any racial. Movement options are great, as long as there’s something in each tier and no stacking, maybe?

The looks argument is just an opinion thing. We are talking about an alien planet with alien races. A lizard here could look more like a frog. I think of the Avatar series (the cartoon, not the blue-alien movie, though… they have some interesting creatures for sure!). There are flying buffalo and polar bear dogs. Those looked rather neat to me.

Of course, putting an alligator head on a squirrel would look funny, because it’s photoshop. Designing an alien race around it could pull something off that actually looks like it can work.

1 Like
19

Not as much weird it would remove consistence. I could probably live with some strange looking race if i met i regularly but the consistence of the game would disappear if people could build their own race.

20

i could counter you by saying that your only argument is that ‘‘we should have it just because i think it would be cool’’