So, as Frogboy stated, these recent race threads have been filled with misconception. In order to me to understand the issues, I was forced to use an analogy. I found that it helped, and seeing how this confusion is still on going, I believe it may help others as well. My analogy was to view Demigods in terms of the division of Europe following the Reformation. This was when Europe was divided between Catholicism and Protestantism. (Also, please forgive my liberties with timelines, ethnicities, and cultures; I was trying to build a quick analogy.)
Europe was divided by Philosophy, in this case religion, either Protestant or Catholic. It was further divided into Factions, in this case countries, e.g., Spain, France, Germany, etc. Each Faction was then divided into different cultures and ethnicities, e.g., Saxon, Celt, Frank, etc. Some of these cultures and ethnicities were found in multiple countries, e.g., Franks and Romans, others were found only in a single country e.g., Portuguese.
Elemental can be divided in a similar way. First it is divided by Philosophy, either Empire or Kingdom. It is further divided into Factions, e.g., Pariden, Altar, Tarth, etc. Each Faction it then composed of a primary race, e.g., Magnars, Urxen, Men, etc.
Now, what I believe Frogboy is asking is, should each Faction have only one race (as displayed in the chart), or should players be choose different races for each Faction. More specifically, should The Kingdom of Pariden be composed only of Amarians or of Amarians and other player designed races.
I believe part of the confusion lies on discriminating the races of Men differently from the races of the Fallen. I believe that a good solution would be to ignore Men entirely, and focus on the subrace. So Men is removed and replaced by Men-Amarian, Men-Ironeers, Men-Krax, etc. (Going a step further and using Amarains, Ironeers, and Krax might be even more clear.)
One of the problems arises from this is how to treat captured cities. Currently if you capture a 10 million population, these people magically transform to your own race. This is a common game mechanic, but while easy, it lacks plausibility.
On the other extreme we have Master of Orion 3. In MOO3 each planet was composed of a certain number of citizens. You began the game with racial purity, with each planet composed only of members of your own race. However, as you expanded colonizing any planets that contained people of different races introduced those people into your population. These new races could then migrate to other worlds creating an Empire that spanned planets, cultures, and races.
On the good side this meant that a planet could be settled and populated by the race in your empire that was beast suited to living on it, and members of that race would automatically migrate there. Also, when building units, the racial makeup of the world was considered when creating the units on the world. If you had a world comprised of roughly 50% Orcs and 50% Elves, when units were constructed on the world, roughly 50% would be Orc units and 50% would be Elven units.
On the downside, one of the races were parasitic mutants. They would automatically transform members of other races into members of their own race. An analogy of this would be zombies; they eat people to create more zombies. If you didn’t want to have this happen you either had to be careful never to capture any planets containing these races, or you had to “purify” any of your worlds that had members of this race (say hello to Mr. Atomic Cleansing Power).
So, now, given all this, what do I think? (I know everyone cares, really I do.)
I think that there should simple differences at each level of Philosophy, Faction, Race, and special ability. These differences should provide unique technologies, production bonuses, military bonuses, and special abilities. Each level should have a couple of options to choose from.
Some rough examples:
The Philosophy level (Empire versus Kingdom).
- The Empire should have access to the Berserker Trait (+25% damage, -25% defense). Units can be given the Berserker Trait when they are designed (i.e, optional).
- The Kingdom should have access to the Peaceful Trait (+10% Food Production).
- All cities gain a Food Production bonus.
The Faction Level
- The Gilden would have access to the Merchant Trait (+10% Income).
- All cities gain an Income bonus.
- The Kraxis would have access to the Blood Pit (unique building).
- The Blood Pit reduces population growth in a city by 25%, but provides +1 Experience per turn to all units within the city.
The Racial Level
The Racial level would be broken up into Generic Racial Bonuses and Specific Racial Bonuses.
- All Krax would gain enhanced spoon (+15% Spoon Usage).
- The Ironeers would have access to enhanced forks (+10% Spoon Usage).
- All races would have access to hard working (+10% production).
- All men would have access to Charismatic (+10% Diplomacy).
- The Ironeers would have access to Golems (unique unit).
So some completed example sides would be:
Kingdom of Gilden: Hard Working Ironeers
- Philosophy: Peaceful +10% Food Production
- Kingdom: Merchant +10% Income
- Race: Hard Working +10% Production
- Racial Special Unit: Golems
Kingdom of Kraxis: Charismatic Krax
- Philosophy: Berserker Trait (+25% damage, -25% defense to units with the trait)
- Kingdom: Blood Pit (Unique Building)
- Race: Charismatic +10% Diplomacy
- Racial Special Unit: Sandwich Makers
Okay, given all this, what happens when the Empire of Kraxis captures of city from the Kingdom of Gilden containing the Ironeers. First, I’d treat Races just like Resources. If you have any member of Race X in your kingdom/empire, you’ll be able to build units with that race anywhere in your empire. This gets rid of a lot of bookkeeping, and keeps things more fun. So once you capture an Ironeer city and you can build golems anywhere. If you lose all of the Ironeers in your population, you likewise lose the ability to build golems.
Racial Traits that are side specific would not transfer. So if someone creates a side of Ironeers with +1, when anyone captures one of their cities, the units produced in those cities do not gain +1 attack. Instead they would gain whatever bonus their side has in its place. In essence the Ironeers would be turned into ‘generic Ironeers’ instead of Hardworking, Fierce, or Long Ranged Ironneers, and then converted into whatever is the capturing sides unique ability. So if a Fierce Krax captures a Hardworking Ironeer, the city essentially becomes filled with Fierce Ironeers. Likewise, the city would lose all bonuses associated with Philosophy or Faction.
So, how detailed should the visual race maker be? I vote for having Faction specific buildings, armors, and units. Then within each Faction have some variability for race that are purely cosmetic, things like skin color, hair styles, height, etc. As previously noted, most races are bipedal and have roughly the same body style. This means that there should only be trivial work done converting the Armor for the Gilders who are Ironeers than those who are Wraiths.
This brings us back to a point that I skipped earlier. Who should have access to what? Here’s an example (of what I think would be good).
A player wants to create a side filled with peaceful trading Elves.
- The player first picks a Philosophy, from either Kingdom or Empire.
- He chooses Kingdom and a Kingdom-Specific bonus.
- Next the player chooses a kingdom from Pariden, Altar, Capitar, Gilden, or Tarth.
- Hearing good things about the Trading ways of Gilder, he chooses the Kingdom of Gilder and a Gilder-Specific bonus.
- He is then presented a series of races that belong to the Kingdom of Gilden.
- The dominant race for Gilden is the Ironeers, which is also the best match bonus wise.
- However it also include, Rebels, Magnars, and Amarians.
- Unsatisfied with the human choices, he chooses Magnars.
- While their racial bonuses are not directly compatible with the bonuses of Gilden, they do conform to his desired race.
- This would result in most players choosing to play the Gildens with the Ironeers, but still allow for oddball strategies or personal preference.
- After choosing his Race, he then chooses a Magnar-Specific Racial bonus and designs the visual appearance of his Magnars.
- He changes their skin color to a bright white, gives them even pointier ears, and green hair.
I believe this would satisfy the min/maxers. To help out players with less interest in diversity, each choice could have a recommended default. Likewise the visual appear for the race could either have a couple of presets or a randomize feature.
The end result of all of this:
- Players would be able to make choices that do make significant differences.
- Plots and backstories would still be accurate as they represent the majority of each particular side.
- Players would be able to play as the Real Gilder Ironeers or as the crazy minor Gilder Magnars.
- Players would be able to quickly start a game with a decent side selection.
- Players would be able to spend hours coming up with the perfect combination of features for a side.
