I’ve spent some (a lot) of time browsing through all of the content on this forum, trying to get a good idea about how this game is conceptualized and what path it may go down. Unfortunately for me, even with having conversations with other members of the community, nothing makes sense.
There’s absolutely no cohesive theme, apart from the artwork, and from a design standpoint that’s really what’s important at this stage of the game. But, when designing a game, which I have never done, the first step is getting the idea down. The first step towards anything is deciding what direction to go and putting your foot out there. I mean, I have read so much, and I see that the first sentence of a novel that has not yet been published, however the community suggestions throw wild curves in any baseline understanding of what is going on.
From what I have gathered, this is a game of unexplained science and not magic and mysticism. There’s stuff to suggest this in pretty much everything we have done, however, there are posts regarding magic and elemental affixes. I’m fine with that sort of light magic thing, like “fire elemental” weapons, or whatever, but what exactly is “corruption”? I don’t really have any issue with this sort of play on elemental strengths and weaknesses, because so many other games that are almost exclusively sci-fi have them incorporated in a way that isn’t intrusively magical. I.E. Borderlands. However, I don’t fully understand how there are potions, elixirs or “buffs” in general.
Anything apart from healing, increased stamina, or a general damage resistance is reaching. How can I eat a pie – which is made of base materials – and somehow become floaty? Or prevent damage / wear on my tools or weapons? I have thought about these things a bit and can’t really justify the way that berries / flour / staple ingredients unlock this added potential. Then I thought about the Oortian. Maybe they have some modifications in their bodies that allow for certain protein or sugar combinations activate specific metabolic responses. But the way that the glucomine and dextrose internal reactions occur normally during cellular respiration there wouldn’t be any isomers that would allow for that. Adosine Triphosphate pretty much only allows for increased energy / stamina / or oxygen delivery. But how exactly could something that is eaten create these effects? Scientifically it’s impossible. Or, giving the benefit of the doubt, it’s REALLY improbable. Maybe there’s a solution in the form of a more serious exploration in gene therapy or even the basic ingredients used for cooking.
If you account for marine life, which would be an awesome addition to the game, the lobster offers an interesting regenerative quality through the pentose phosphate pathway. This will, essentially provide a boost into regeneration of skeletal muscle groups when activated, and for the most part, it comes from marine life and plant matter. So, maybe, within the lore of Oortians, there is extensive gene therapy and an ability that we have yet to understand that allows for adaptation of metabolic pathways through ingestion. Essentially they become what they eat.
Baring any sort of drugs, pharmacology, the Oortian would have to have a looser genetic structure that would allow for drastic and temporary changes to the body at a cellular level, creating an essentially new organism based off of the available food source. That poses so many more interesting questions, but we won’t get into that just yet. Instead, now, we will talk about how essentially every race in this game is a variation of some type of furry.
Cat girls, pup boys, and bird hybrids, oh my! They’re abound! I guess it makes sense, tied into the previously stated logic that I presented before, that there could be permanent mutations based off of their diet and metabolic rates. If all the organisms labeled as Oortians are essentially a batch of mutagenic and genetically malleable clay, then the blank would just be a bland bipedal that would undergo changes throughout its life cycle. I suppose that I can concede the concept of “skill points” in this regard, as they may have some way of altering their makeup willingly, or with some kind of aid, but let’s stick to their aesthetics for the time being.
If, let’s say, a blank (the term I will use to describe a Oortling) comes to landfall in an area that has a great deal of water fowl as a primary food source, maybe they would take on a more avian appearance. But what then of their biological restrictions that come with the integration of a beak, or any other internal organs that may spring up in the course of their development. Most birds cannot chew, and because of the lack of mastication, they have to swallow stones to crush their food and aid in digestion. Another thing is that birds are mainly warm-blooded, but their hollow bones provide very little aid in a homeostatic temperature regulation. Even flightless birds still share the traits of their airborne counterparts.
So where does the mutation stop? Where is there a limit to how far an Oortian’s genetic code can modify itself to adapt? Why is it that they all look like they are in fursuits of some kind, and there aren’t many that could have arisen from other methods similar to human development? In the original illustration of character races, there are what appears to be elemental creatures (see number 6). There are also creatures that have insect like properties and even some plant-like characteristics, but further down the rabbit hole there are amalgamations of several different properties, creating a bird / plant / bug thing (13). Am I to believe that these aren’t races at all but just some displayed effects of their diet? Do these effects have some advantageous abilities associated with the new structures created? Can the shark-man (1) filter oxygen from water? Because if it can, does it have two separate respiratory systems like from the Shape of Water?
To be honest, I can’t put my finger on any one answer to the questions that come up when I’m thinking about these things. Every time I think I have a grasp on how simple facts, looked at as givens in the scientific community, interact with this universe I lose track of any actual feasible possibility that this not birthed from straight fantasy. Everything seems to be discordant and partial. Fragments of momentary ideas that are somehow forced together. But one thing is certain, if I didn’t have the artistic group of developers giving me some continuity, I would have given up entirely on this pursuit, and I would relegate this game to that of a child’s imagination rather than a work of serious thought.
Now, since most of my posts go without comment, for whatever reason, I open this discussion to you all. Maybe you, my fellow Oortians, can help my beleaguered mind rest a bit in the intervals between content.
