Races - Behind the Scenes (Aka Malaclypse Can Typing!)
Posted by Malaclypse on July 08 2014 10:17:51
Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes with races or what options are available (or potentially available) to the builders and players? Here is a quick look at where we are and what is to come.
Extended News
Currently there is a wealth of options available that factor race into the equation. This includes obvious things like basic stats (as displayed in score) along with specific racials (like dragon breath etc). In addition to these most players will be at least somewhat familiar with racial modifications which are obscured yet are still very real (damage modifier / casting modifiers and the like).
Race is also factored into certain item benefits already - for instance there are items which provide additional damage against certain races or protection from certain races. There are over 80 races for which all this information is tracked. All these races are also broadly categorised into 7 racial groupings (eg faerie/scaled/demonic) which can have the same damage/protection benefits added to items.
A fairly common request relating to races in general has been for race specific gear. While this is obviously thematic and makes a lot of sense, it also has the potential to create quite a few headaches. At the moment a sprite can wear the same piece of armour that a dragon can. Quirky ... yes ... but easy to implement. The coding team has always been reluctant to implement this sort of change as it would create a huge burden on the building team if they were forced to duplicate all sorts of items across all the different level ranges for something which (while cool) would largely be cosmetic/thematic. However ... I've just started work on something of a compromise (based on an idea I stole from Pulse).
The general idea will remain as it has always been. Most items will magically adapt to fit the anatomy of the wearer. This will be the default behaviour for all existing items however builders will be given the option to flag items as having certain racial characteristics. All races will be assigned racial characteristics (eg bipedal / quadrupedal / winged etc) . I.e. while there will be no new equipment slots for different races it will be possible that (for instance) a piece of equipment usually worn on body (eg chestplate) could additionally be flagged as requiring the wearer to be bipedal. An in game scenario could be a quest to kill Sir Fancy-Pants and his magical stallion Twinkletoes. You loot the pairs matching chestplate (requires bipedal) and barding (requires quadrupedal) armour and give the barding to the group's centaur while the group's elf takes the chestplate.
My preference for these racially restricted item types would be for them to be used at higher tiers (hero+) to avoid saddling (quadruped!) newer players with something else to worry about while providing more diverse gear options to experienced players and getting out from some of the cookie cutter builds we currently have.
See you in game :)
Mal