Game News Bioware needs your help!

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: BioWare; Dragon Age

While we are still in the "We love Bioware!" mode, here is a puzzle for you. <a href=http://www.bioware.com/>Bioware</a> <a href=http://forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=457275&forum=84&sp=30>needs your help</a> to come up with another race, something as unique and original as the first three: Humans, Elves, Dwarves. So, put on your thinking caps, and start posting ideas. Be creative and remember, humans, elves, and dwarves are already taken.
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<blockquote>1) You've been given the task to design a new "fourth race" to exist in this world in conjunction with the humans, elves and dwarves, something that people will actually want to play. Ignoring all the rumors about the race being draconic or reptilian or anything like that (unless you really want to go down that route), what would kind of idea would you put forward (in brief)?
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2) Conversely, what kind of race do you totally not want to see? And you can say elves and dwarves if you really want to, but it won't be helpful.</blockquote>
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The winner will get a romantic dinner with Dave Gaider!

 

[DarkSign]

Hmmm. So what are our choices:

1. a hybrid or "dark" race of the existing ones (including exiled/evil versions)
2. race based off an animal
3. a supernatural race (good = fairies, angelic bad=demons, vampypres, werewolves)
4. alien race (by alien I mean not quite fitting the setting)
5. a culture with different level of technology

*EDIT*
6. geographically-based race: ice, desert, underwater or underground)

Decisions decisions.

 

[Drakron]

Well without knowing the geography of the land I cannot make one, I did had two races of cat people but they were in a savana and jungle area and quite honestly that is as far as I go in relation to playable races ... I dont like "angelic/demonic" type of races they end up being stupid on some level.

 

[Rulion]

I wrote this:

"I haven't thought of a name for the race yet, but it should imply an air of piety and an affiliation with the cold and solitude. I get the sense it should start with an "A", but I can't get farther than that

This race is found mainly in the north, in snow-peaked mountaintops and frigid flatlands. They're generally not very friendly and tend to seclude themselves from the affairs of the world - perhaps incurring a penalty to Charisma. This race should have some type of cold resistance. As a people, they're extremely pious and have a strong belief in their gods of wind, frost, etc. Their particular strength is a strong belief in religion. This should manifest itself as some type of bonus to the spells one would normally identify with a cleric.

Physically, they don't fit the image one might expect from people that live in the Northern highlands. They're not thick-skinned, husky people with long flowing beards and bearskin cloaks. (Well, the cloaks are debatable) The average member of this race is extremely pale, usually with coal-black hair and blue eyes, or maybe even silvery hair. They're long-limbed, but almost human in appearance, again with a particular affinity with the divine, and maybe a boost in Intelligence or Dexterity."

In hindsight, it sucks, but it's the best I can think of.

 

[LlamaGod]

Just some ideas that relate to this i've had when it comes to races:

I've always wanted INTELLIGENT dwarves, not hardy/stocky ones. I figure dwarves are always inventing shit and they live in caves all day and are suppost to be great designers, why are they never intelligence based?

I figure a mage would be far more useful and common in dwarven caves, to be there as Administrators for mining and such. Also to make and operate machinery, gain knowledge of any new beasts or races they might find, make powerful wards to protect areas and such.

They could also know things about cave structure and what kinds of ore they are finding.

I also figure if they live in caves all day they probably spend more time reading than they do fighting and crap.

I know they get a 'hardy' sort of attitude from working as miners, but I think it would be cooler for them to be an Intelligence race that uses weird machinery to mine caves.




ANOTHER thing that has always bugged me is that Elves are almost always both Agility/Intelligence based. I never understood why.

It's unfair that Elves are excellent thieves and also excellent mages while other races can only really succeed at one type of work, such as Ogres are only really good at being warrior types.

Elves I think should be only Agility, after-all, they live in the FUCKING WOODS. Where are they learning their shit?

They are thin and quick, but not physically strong and have poor schools. They are more in tune with nature magic (such as DRUIDS, not WIZARDS) from living in the forest, but there's not exactly colleges in the forest.

The way I would do things is:

Ogre - Strength focused
Dwarves - Intelligence focused
Elves - Agility or Dexterity focused



When it comes to Humans, one thing I thought would be very cool for a game is basically make the Human race a 'Custom' option. The logic here is that the other races are how they are naturally, from their environment and lives in them, but humans must become what they are.

Humans can decide their path in live and persue it and become like one of the 'natural' races, but never actually be AS good as they can be.

So a rough idea of how this would work would be say:

Ogres - +10 Strength, -5 Dexterity
Elves - +10 Dexterity, -5 Strength
Dwarves - +10 Intelligence, -5 Charisma (since they are kinda isolationist)

Then Humans can pick two stats to get +5 to, but also have to take -5 to a polorizing stat of one of the two he picked (can either make that random or let the player decide).

So the idea there is the human picked how he wanted to build himself as a person and while he isnt as powerful in the areas as the 'naturally' made races, he has more varied, but also still lacks in an area because of un-use.






For a totally brand new race, i'd want something either elemental or a strange new and unique variation on something that already exsists in the lores of games. Also something just totally strange would be cool too, humanoid races are a bit boring.


A race I wouldnt like to see at all would be a DARK verison of something, especially Dark Elves.

 

[kingcomrade]

I've got it.
Okay, everyone likes elves, right? But elves are so pansy and fruity, prancing about through trees and using gay weapons like bows. So what if we took the elves and made them evil! And instead of living happy bunny rabbit rainbow forests, they live underground like dwarves! Because it's dark underground.

Let me see.
First we've got to do something really obvious with their physical appearance. Let's see. Well, black people are always stealing things and being criminals (one stole my bike, even!!!11), so let's make them black cuz elves are white. With glowing red eyes (cuz they can see in the dark, and red is evil, remember communism?). Elves are blonde so these guys should have white hair, because it's like extreme blonde and contrasts.
Okay, culture. They have to be different from elves. So they're really mean, and do slavery and stuff. And instead of using bows they use crossbows. And their elf boobs are 2x as big cuz evil people have to appeal to our baser instincts.
Now we need a name. I have absolutely no idea what to call them. How about "congoid elves"?
We need a famous figurehead to epitomize their awesomeness. I think fighting with two scimitars is totally awesome and a useful ability and would be a good indicator of how awesome this awesome race of congoid elves is. So what about a character who is totally awesome and uses two scimitars at once? And can be in the player's party because he's not evil like his people? What's his name? I don't know, but it's got to be really foreign and silly looking. Polish always looks silly to me and they use lots of Z's, so make up a name with lots of z's in it.

I've got another idea. How many will they take?

 

[LlamaGod]

Also if bows use dexterity and not strength in the game, i'm going to yell.

 

[Sovy Kurosei]

1. Bipedal wolfpeople. Yeah. I'd play those.

2. Humans. :D And elves and dwarves.

 

[Rulion]

My winter people will so own your other people. I'm going to win, bitches. That dinner is mine. I'll get a free copy of Dragon Age, maybe a t-shirt, and a loveable character made in my image. Said character will be a member of my kick-ass race. He'll also have like all 100's in everything, and he'll kill everything with mind bullets.

 

[Visbhume]

Well... I would pilfer from Jack Vance, more precisely from the Planet Of Adventure series, which is set on a world called Tschai.

In that world, four mutually hostile alien races dominate. Humans (except for a few barabaric or decadent cultures) are subservient. Not only that, each alien race has molded its human slaves through surgery and selective breeding to mimic the physiology of their masters, to a point. Each one of those "adapated" human cultures has developed mythologies that explain and justify its subservience to the aliens, and regards normal humans as barbaric. So we have the tall and gaunt dirdirman, the underground-dwelling, sexually neutered pnumekin, chasch-men, and so on.

However, from time to time, one of this adapted humans falls out of grace (like the dirdirman Ankhe at afram Anacho in the books), and must flee to parts of the world not controlled by his fromer masters. Contact with "normal" humans tests severely his deeply established worldview.

I don't know if this would fit into a fantasy setting, however.

 

[Crnobog]

A race of intelligent unicellular protists that look like giant blobs of cytoplasm with huge-ass organelles floating inside. They would live in humid non-hostile environments, absorbing nutrients directly from air and ground.
For the purposes of the game I guess they could assemble a human-like (or any other) shape

I actually got that idea from Ascendancy - damn best alien races designs I ever saw in a computer game (apart from Star Control maybe)

What I don't want to see - any race that is human only shorter/taller/more good/more evil/Star Trek syndrome

Insect-like aliens have been done to death, but I've yet to see it in a rpg (well, there's Darksun though)

 

[Micmu]

...something as unique and original as the first three: Humans, Elves, Dwarves.

Hmm... Maybe Orcs? Give them strength bonus and intelligence/charisma penalty.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Insect-like aliens have been done to death, but I've yet to see it in a rpg (well, there's Darksun though)

Wizardry's T'Rang

 

[Crnobog]

How about "congoid elves"?

Damn, I think we have a winner :D

 

[kingcomrade]

Races that I don't want to see:

Chaos Space Marines-
This race would make no sense in a fantasy game, because they wear power armor and have tanks and stuff. And boltguns and flamers.

Cyberdemons-
I don't think these would fit into a fantasy genre either. They didn't invent rocket launchers or cybernetics until way after fantasy times, relly

Shivans-
Shivans are space invaders and I would be mad if they put them in the game because I don't even think the Terran Vasudan Alliance even know what they look like. They fly spaceships, they wouldn't fit.

Chocobos-
Besides having an obnoxious name these things are stupid. You can't ride ostriches, duh. I think Bioware should forget about putting Chocobos in their game.

Animal-human crosses-
Seriously. How creative can you be if your races besides the typical ones like orcs or humans or trolls turn out to be pig-men (quillboars) or bear-men (furbolg) or bull-men (tauren) or yet another flavor of elf (night elves). Way to reinvent the wheel guys, there are ancient civilizations that've already thought that crap up.

Klingons-
I already played as Klingons in that one game, if they put Klingons in they're just repeating stuff and that's not innovashun.

Intelligent Deathclaws-
I don't ever want to see this race in any game.

 

[kingcomrade]

How about "congoid elves"?

Damn, I think we have a winner :D

They could be well known for putting gold plates on their horse's hooves as a form of social stature.

 

[Jinxed]

I was thinking of a mix between halfing and orc. It would result in a small creature, with greenish skin, extremely agile for it's height, very resistant to all types of poison. Unfurtunetly, their personality would be very similiar to that of the Kinder from Dragonlance.

 

[Rulion]

I was thinking of a mix between halfing and orc. It would result in a small creature, with greenish skin, extremely agile for it's height, very resistant to all types of poison. Unfurtunetly, their personality would be very similiar to that of the Kinder from Dragonlance.

I think the halfling would rupture during the mating process.

 

[DarkSign]

I was thinking of a mix between halfing and orc. It would result in a small creature, with greenish skin, extremely agile for it's height, very resistant to all types of poison. Unfurtunetly, their personality would be very similiar to that of the Kinder from Dragonlance.

Sounds like a goblin.

 

[merry andrew]

Hmm... Maybe Orcs? Give them strength bonus and intelligence/charisma penalty.

Orkz.

 

[kingcomrade]

Just looking around:
http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Kyrgyzstan
That's a good one

 

[Jinxed]

Goblins don't have intelligence and look different. These guys would look very much like a halfing except for the green skin.

 

[kingcomrade]

Hmm... Maybe Orcs? Give them strength bonus and intelligence/charisma penalty.

Orkz.

`Ere We Go, Ere We Go! We'z be Green, We'z be Mean, We'z be Mad! Come 'ere for a krumpin'
Waaaaaaagghhh!!
Tha Red Wunz Go Fasta!!

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

I actually got that idea from Ascendancy - damn best alien races designs I ever saw in a computer game (apart from Star Control maybe)

Definitely agree with you there. I really liked Ascendancy, but wish it could have been more. The AI for that game isn't particularly the brightest. Still, I loved the gameplay layout and all. And the music is wonderful. While I do not have the game currently installed on my computer, I do have the soundtrack in my playlist.

As for my entry for a new race, I would love to see gnomes. Basically they're the intelligent dwarves that Llama spoke of earlier. While it's true that dwarves build great things, all their stuff is pretty much architectural work or smithing. Gnomes however get into everything you could possibly think of, especially when it comes to mechanics and alchemy. Perfect for crafting you own potions and various other equipment.

 

[merry andrew]

Hmm... Maybe Orcs? Give them strength bonus and intelligence/charisma penalty.

Orkz.

`Ere We Go, Ere We Go! We'z be Green, We'z be Mean, We'z be Mad! Come 'ere for a krumpin'
Waaaaaaagghhh!!
Tha Red Wunz Go Fasta!!

Exactly.