Forums » Pantheon Races

Non-humanoid Races

    • 187 posts
    August 28, 2016 5:46 PM PDT

    If I'm to understand the lore correctly, these races are being supplanted from their own worlds/realms/universes to Terminus. What limitation exists such that a race which doesn't follow the bipedal, cephalization, skin and bones dogma doesn't get warped to Terminus?

    Allow me to answer my own question with two obvious reason:

    1) Human psychology allows for deeper emotional connection to be made with objects that resemble ourselves. It's in our genetic history to be naturally drawn to things with heads with eyes and a mouth and a body with arms and legs. Therefore, a player will feel more connected with their character and other characters if they are humanoid.
    2) The in-game convenience of cross-race equipment sharing. 

    However, these reasons are not anchored within the games lore! These are just the human design constraints of developing a game. I wonder if we can get around this somehow within the context of the game's universe. I'd love a developer's insight here.

    Wouldn't we all love to play an amorphous gas cloud shaman or a spherical jelly dire lord? I guess the answer is probably not, haha.


    This post was edited by Syntro at August 28, 2016 5:48 PM PDT
    • VR Staff
    • 246 posts
    August 29, 2016 8:14 PM PDT

    Great question, Syntro! You've already kind of answered it, however.

    It is an extremely difficult task to create the gear for an MMO. The number of items is, well, you know how many items it is if you've played one. So while the lore in our game (and a good number of games if they wanted to) allows for the inclusion of races vastly different to our own bodily form, our production constraints do not. A race that can only wear it's own gear -- but of course needs to have access to the same gear as everyone else -- is a bridge too far developmentally. Alas.

    But it is still a very good question and I'm glad you asked it.

    • 187 posts
    August 29, 2016 8:20 PM PDT

    Thanks for the answer and insignt Istuulamae - I figured as much. Keep up the amazing work! I can't wait to see what you guys come up with.

    • VR Staff
    • 246 posts
    August 29, 2016 8:24 PM PDT

    Thanks so much!

    • 200 posts
    August 30, 2016 3:49 AM PDT

    You could also get huge balance issues when you have a different kind of a player category. In the World of Warcraft alpha the Forsaken were not classified as humanoid, they were undead. A small group of paladins and priests could easy erease the complete main city of the Forsaken because those classes had very powerful anti undead abilities. Priests could shackle the undead and paladins hat a exorzism spell, which causes much damage to undead and demonic targets. Later Blizzard made the Forsaken humanoid.

     

    Greetings

    • 187 posts
    September 1, 2016 10:10 PM PDT

    Just a follow up thought here:
    I need not look any farther than the Gnomes to answer all of my questions! They are shapeless creatures which eventually found a way to represent themselves as humanoid while on Terminus. There couldn't be a more perfect example already rooted in lore. *facepalm*