Race families - collection & ideas

Matrix Games Forums

Forums Register Login Photo Gallery Member List Search Calendars FAQ

My Profile Inbox Address Book My Subscription My Forums Log Out

Race families - collection & ideas

View related threads: (in this forum | in all forums)

Logged in as: Guest

Users viewing this topic: none

Printable Version

All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Distant Worlds 1 Series >> Design and Modding >> Race families - collection & ideas

Page: [1]

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

Race families - collection & ideas - 8/19/2014 12:21:41 PM

DinoSaurus

Posts: 24
Joined: 8/19/2014
Status: offline

Dear all!

I just have read many posts and sometimes I thougt of correlating awsome stuff as base for the different mods.

One of it is the race familie affiliation.

Based on dw-extended there are 8 of 30 race families:

0. Humanoid
1. Ursidian
2. Insectoid
3. Reptilian
4. Amphibian
5. Rodent
6. Machine
7. Avian

Here some ideas, based on my brainstorming of other races & Ascandancy (ASC) races:

8. Amorphous - like Mebes at ASC or any kind of jelly races...
9. Anorganic - like Shevar at ASC or other non-organic creatures (but I have added some others, too)
10. Dendroid - like Arbryls at ASC, but possibly some of the Universa Addon races
11. Pseudohumanoid - well, some creatures with legs but not realy humanoid... (Oculonen at ASC, but maybe some others more...^^ maybe some living ones, too?!

)
12. Proboscid - elephant-like and others, based on the order Proboscidea - if there are Rodent and Ursidian, I thought Mammalian is inconsequent... (sess Snovedomas at ASC)
13. Nebuloid - fluid Reces (ASC: Nimbuloids, Oculonen, but maybe some more...)
14. Mechanoid - I thought of "negative machine races" who are more destructive ans Shakturi-like...
15. Mineraloid - well, agree with the Universa Addon, good idea
16. Goblinesk - some of the race-figures remind me more in orks etc. than humans or whatever...
17. Drakonid - I like Dragons... *g*
18. Sauroid - I know, you put this into reptilian... but look at my avatar and my name... NOOOOOOOOOOOO

19. Cybernetics - half-machine + half organic races (must not be human, could also be insectoid or reptilian, eg.)

o.k., maybe this was enough for discussion...

< Message edited by DinoSaurus -- 8/19/2014 1:22:33 PM >

Post #: 1

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/19/2014 12:55:12 PM

Blackstork

Posts: 802
Joined: 7/7/2014
Status: offline

17. Drakonid also reptilians, we have Calephs who are actually dragons

Beyond mod have Protosomatic family which consists of worms, leeches and snails.

10. Dendroid - Plant family exist in Distant Races project which is wip

And i do really desire to see that 50 race limit lifted

< Message edited by Blackstork -- 8/19/2014 1:55:26 PM >

_____________________________

Alien Immersion (WIP) : http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3651979
Beyond Extended Universe (WIP): http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3657646

(in reply to DinoSaurus)

Post #: 2

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/19/2014 1:02:22 PM

DinoSaurus

Posts: 24
Joined: 8/19/2014
Status: offline

Protostomic - you are right, I have recognized, but forgotten... its a good group...

I thought the Calephs would be some kind of pterosaurs, so I understand to put them into reptilians...

... but when putting dinosaurs into reptilians, you also have to integrate avians to be correctly...

(in reply to Blackstork)

Post #: 3

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/19/2014 2:26:27 PM

spiralaxis

Posts: 43
Joined: 6/11/2014
Status: offline

I've been debating "Eldritch" for weirder aliens -- energy beings, slime molds, etc

(in reply to DinoSaurus)

Post #: 4

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/19/2014 2:32:40 PM

Blackstork

Posts: 802
Joined: 7/7/2014
Status: offline

Slime molds are either amorphous or protosomic, and energy ones are same as anorganic.
BTW there was idea of Azurean family which more correctly IMO should be called Geodic, which unites living beings made of stone/crystals

< Message edited by Blackstork -- 8/19/2014 3:33:31 PM >

_____________________________

Alien Immersion (WIP) : http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3651979
Beyond Extended Universe (WIP): http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3657646

(in reply to spiralaxis)

Post #: 5

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/19/2014 3:05:22 PM

Japhet

Posts: 110
Joined: 8/15/2014
Status: offline

Arachnoids. I know such races are filed unter insectiod because of similarities, but I'm a little pedantic.

(in reply to Blackstork)

Post #: 6

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/19/2014 3:24:55 PM

Jethro420

Posts: 41
Joined: 7/14/2014
Status: offline

Silicon-based life forms, maybe?

Just a thought...

(in reply to Japhet)

Post #: 7

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/19/2014 3:58:33 PM

Blackstork

Posts: 802
Joined: 7/7/2014
Status: offline

Silicon based are same as Geodics - stone glass or crystal composition. Silicon is a glass. :)

_____________________________

Alien Immersion (WIP) : http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3651979
Beyond Extended Universe (WIP): http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3657646

(in reply to Jethro420)

Post #: 8

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/19/2014 4:07:45 PM

DinoSaurus

Posts: 24
Joined: 8/19/2014
Status: offline

Well, I would prefer Geodic, Crystalloid or Mineraloid...

Maybe it is a mineral-based race of silver, gold or whatever... must not be silicate-minerals...^^

(in reply to Blackstork)

Post #: 9

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/19/2014 4:08:44 PM

DinoSaurus

Posts: 24
Joined: 8/19/2014
Status: offline

You are reigth... but it is nearly the same with sauroid and reptilian and avoid and drakonid... I think, it is a little bit what you like or prefer...

(in reply to Japhet)

Post #: 10

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/19/2014 4:46:49 PM

Blackstork

Posts: 802
Joined: 7/7/2014
Status: offline

The main thing is not name, is the gameplay difference and immersion load of the race (visuals, sounds, art) :)
If both elements are same then its same, no matter what name will be :) Humans are Primate too, etc... so yeah, it comes to the name preference, and the name does not matter :)

_____________________________

Alien Immersion (WIP) : http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3651979
Beyond Extended Universe (WIP): http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3657646

(in reply to DinoSaurus)

Post #: 11

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/19/2014 5:05:26 PM

Shark7

Posts: 7937
Joined: 7/24/2007
From: The Big Nowhere
Status: offline

Honestly, Zenox should probably be feline while the Ketarov would be canine. Sure they are all mammalian, but there is a big difference between them.

And on to the technicalities, since most of the races in game are bidpedal mammals, then couldn't that qualify them all as 'humanoid'?

One has to decide how broad a brush we are going to use in classifying the different species.

I am all for more species families in game because it makes the races more dynamic, allowing for different interactions based on race family.

_____________________________

Distant Worlds Fan

'When in doubt...attack!'

(in reply to Blackstork)

Post #: 12

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/19/2014 5:43:08 PM

Blackstork

Posts: 802
Joined: 7/7/2014
Status: offline

Actually canine and feline differencies are great ones. Btw all this screams for sub-family mechanics.
and complexity of raceBiases.txt, FamiliesBiases.txt, Family01Biases.txt etc

_____________________________

Alien Immersion (WIP) : http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3651979
Beyond Extended Universe (WIP): http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3657646

(in reply to Shark7)

Post #: 13

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/20/2014 6:54:42 AM

DinoSaurus

Posts: 24
Joined: 8/19/2014
Status: offline

You also could extend the arthropods (here all insectoids) to have more differences and possibilities:

arachnoids
insectoids
(maybe both Shakuri-likers)

crustoids (from crustaceans, and excluded from amphibian races) - I think e.g. of futurama/Zoidberg
(maybe neutral to Shakturi)

No idea to more non-Shakturi arthropods, maybe triloboids (trilobites looking more funny than dangerous)

Further: machine races:

I think it would a benefit to differ machines:

in dw machines

= shakturi haters, but I think there also should be neutral

or destructive/dark

machines

something like this (I found in the net):

maybe for future mods...

By the way: I only recognized the ship-families limitted - I think that does not mean to ad a few more races... maybe several races build ships designed by Joop or Calvin Klein?!

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by DinoSaurus -- 8/20/2014 9:16:49 AM >

(in reply to Blackstork)

Post #: 14

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/20/2014 5:25:02 PM

gerishnakov

Posts: 53
Joined: 6/5/2014
From: Brighton, UK
Status: offline

In my own custom mod I added 'Aquatic'. The Wekkarus and Lemeresh (the latter from DWE) are currently the only two races set as this. For the biases I think I went for a slightly more extreme level than those of the Amphibious family.

I added 'Arachnid' just for the Dhayuts, to try and break up the Insectoid monolith somewhat! Almost every family dislikes Arachnids, as spiders traditionally feed on everything they are big enough to eat, that is except Machine races.

With regard to the game's use of 'Ursidian' as a family, though this does actually mean 'bear-like', I think DW uses it more simply to refer to 'animalistic' races not small enough to be considered Rodents. As such I changed the Zenox to Ursidian. I guess you could break this up further, into actual Ursine, Canine, Feline, etc... races if you wanted, but I'm only playing with the 40 races of DWE and the catch-all use of Ursidian works well for me. I remember in the Ikkaru Galactopedia descrition it says they are a 'primate' race, which of course the humans are as well, so I think I changed just that word to 'simian', which in the context of the game I took to mean 'monkey-like'.

Perhaps it would be great if in further patches to the game some more complexity was added to raceFamilies.txt, allowing for further definition of the differences between familes? Other, that is, than just how much the like/dislike each other, and how the Shakturi feel toward them.

I toyed a while back with the idea of dividing the Reptilians into 'Saurian' (I think I would have put the Naxxilians and the Mortalens in that group... but I'm not sure now) and something approximating as 'lizard-like', but I couldn't find an appropriately technical word for that latter category. The Reptilians are the largest grouping in the vanilla game it makes a lot of sense to try and divide them up somewhat.

(in reply to DinoSaurus)

Post #: 15

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 8/21/2014 6:55:10 AM

DinoSaurus

Posts: 24
Joined: 8/19/2014
Status: offline

Well, I agree with you.

Best would be to have a "double-split" for race-families:

Order: humanoids

Subfamilies: ... we will find something...^^

Order: arthropoids

Subfamilies: arachnoids, insectoids,...

Order: reptiloids

Subfamilies: sauroids, avoids, reptiloids,...

Order: mammaloids

Subfamilies: rodents, carnian (Ursidian etc.), proboscids, etc.

Order: Aquatics

Subfamilies: Fiscoids, Amphibian, etc.

Order: Plantoids

Subfamilies: Dendroids, etc.

Order: Machines

Subfamilies: Cyborgs, Mechanoids (white), Terminators (black = Shakturi-like), etc.

Order: Non-Organics

Subfamilies: Mineraloids, Nebuloids, Siliconids, etc.

...and so on...

Pro: good diversity and complex diplomatic background (definitions) etc.
Contra: Maybe toooooo muuuuch...

(in reply to gerishnakov)

Post #: 16

RE: Race families - collection & ideas - 1/16/2015 9:54:11 PM

Jounk33

Posts: 17
Joined: 8/22/2011
Status: offline

This are the true biologigal classifications
1. Life ?
2. Domain
3. Kingdom (Animals, Plants, Fungi, Bacterium)
4. Division (Body, bone, no bone, kind of scelett )
5. Class (Reptilian(Avian), Fish, Amphibia, mammalia....for Chordata)
6. Order
7. Family
8. Species
? 9. Subspecies
? 10 Race

For Humans
1. Yes
2. Eucarya
3. Metazoa
4. Chordata
5. Mammalia
6. Primates
7. Hominidae
8. Hominini
9/10. Homo/sapiens

The Sluken:
1. Yes
2. Eucarya
3. Metazoa
4. Arthropoda/Hexapoda
5. Insecta
6. Hymenoptera
7. Formicidae
8. Slukenae (fiction)
9. Sluken (fiction)

The Mechanoid
1. No
2 - 8. ?????
10. Mecha Guardians

a RNA based Lifeform, or an Virus Symbiont:
1. NO/Yes
2. Virales
3. RNA Virales
4. negative single-stranded RNA
5. -
6. Mononegavirales
7. Rhabdoviridae
8. Lyssavirus
9/10. Mokolavirus

For a biologically plausibility, you need just point 1,3,4,5 and 9, or 10

(in reply to DinoSaurus)

Post #: 17