PlaneShift
Announcements => PlaneShift News and Rules => Topic started by: Talad on November 01, 2011, 11:14:26 pm
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Fellow roleplayers! The time has come to finally publish some more background information on the races (http://www.planeshift.it/races.html)! Has been a pretty long work and we hope you will like it. As mentioned some time ago we decided to reduce the number of playable races to allow us to focus on fewer (still 9!) but with higher quality. Here are the major changes you will find in the races page:
- Every race has now more information on social organization, religion, nutrition, famous characters and more! The races do not have the same level of deepness yet, some are still to be improved, but all have a pretty solid base of history and traits.
- We completely removed the xacha race, which has now been merged with the lemurs. The reason being their history and traits were very similar, both focused on science and intellectual activities. This race is completely removed from the history, and if you still find any reference somewhere please read "lemur" instead of "xacha". Game wise all chars will be moved server side automatically from xacha to lemur race. No exceptions.
- The Diaboli have been removed as a playable race, they are part of the history of Yliakum, up to 580AY and may come back as a future expansion. Read their history page to know more. For now the game still allows the creation of Diaboli, but it will be prevented soon. We suggest all chars to migrate to Ynnwn instead, but this will not be forced. The details of this migration will be communicated soon.
- The Stonebreaker and Hammerwielder races are now two clans of a single race, called Stonehammers. Their profile is not changed much. In game we will do the change server side automatically. No exceptions.
- We rewrote the main setting pages and history pages to be consistent with the race changes.
This update provides a lot of material to roleplayers to base their stories on, and allows us to create the future books, legends, songs in line with a solid background.
We left by purpose about 100-150 years open on each race, so that we could incorporate your ideas and stories into it. Please submit your stories in the forums, and vote for the ones you prefer. What we need are high level events first, and then a story behind (don't ask us to read 20 pages upfront! :) ).
If you search well, you can find in the race pages a hint on the next update!
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I think I just had a nerdgasm. This is so exiting! :D I've been waiting for stuff like this for a long time, and the fact that players can contribute to it makes it better! \\o// I must say, I was a little worried about the Dioboli going away, but the way it was written makes sense. I can't wait to see more!
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Regarding Kran a few thoughts:
It may present also colored
"also" should appear between "may" and "present."
I cannot find an explanation though grammar pages around the net are littered with this usage. It is because the also modifies the "present" and does not modify the "colored" which would be the case as quoted.
They simply went to asleep
went to sleep or fell asleep. The 'to' is the beginning of the infinitive form of sleep. Asleep is an adverb modifying the verb fell.
329 AY there have been cases
should be "there were." "There have been" is a verb form that indicates recent past.
It also happens in current days, and scientiest
"It still happens *to this day* and also 'scientists' is misspelled. The phrase enclosed in asterisks is optional but "in current days" should be removed regardless as it is an awkward way to express the same meaning.
There are more such notes I could make of a grammatical nature but this is already getting overlong.
I wonder why Gugrontid the kran was not a notable name it the foundational story of Gugrontid the town being changed? surely the dropping of the pillar on this poor kran's head is worthy of a mention in the time-line. It seems to me that Talad's intervention is a more significant factor in the species world view than just the fortress being built. Did the story change?
If there is a more appropriate way for me to make these suggestions do not hesitate to let me know and hide this comment. I see that a lot of work has gone into this update. I do not wish this to be considered anything but constructive.
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Wow so much information, I'm actually liking the stonehammers more than I thought.
Bloodstone Brethren and The Way of the Hammer ;D
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I still find "Stonehammer" a pretty stupid choice ... but I must admit that I can't think of a better one which is not simply "dwarf".
The "extinction" of the Diaboli requires important changes to the Ynnwn too ... they need to have developed from a hybrid to a "wholesome" race now to be reliably fertile. The magic environment will have supportet this change probably.
The migration of races will probably result in a loss of personal body traits again, if you don't care about that enough. So expect a certain risk of disappointment again.
BTW: On the currently known map of the Dome – where would the Great Forest be located?
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I was against the idea of eliminating the diaboli race, which I now find was not eliminated, but "moved out" for the time being at least. I would like to see them return again once many other things are ironed out IG.
As far as how the Ynnwn race continues to develop .... does it need to. It started out with the diaboli and nothler race, perhaps the nothler has a dominant trait that continues to pass down through the generations.
I believe all in all, this will help to improve the game.
* Obviously I play a Ynnwn, sorry .... forget how the spelling of the nothler race is*
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I see that there is screenshots for each of the races, maybe instead of them standing there they should show off what the race is best known for, like a picture of a Stonehammer at the anvil hammering away, and anouther one of a small group of them in the tavern. This then can be done with the other races but screenshots of them doing things they are known for.
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I still find "Stonehammer" a pretty stupid choice ... but I must admit that I can't think of a better one which is not simply "dwarf".
The "extinction" of the Diaboli requires important changes to the Ynnwn too ... they need to have developed from a hybrid to a "wholesome" race now to be reliably fertile. The magic environment will have supportet this change probably.
The migration of races will probably result in a loss of personal body traits again, if you don't care about that enough. So expect a certain risk of disappointment again.
BTW: On the currently known map of the Dome – where would the Great Forest be located?
It's not an extinction and it was never done that ynnwn (i hate writing it!) couldn't reproduce themselves.
the great forest is between hydlaa and amdeneir on the left of hydlaa watching from the center.
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How far can we go with the race stories?
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Ok, the kran page has been fixed as suggested, also I've added the fact they have no gender.
For the stories, start with bullets only, and if approved you can make a story out of it.
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The new pages are great! Just like to add that the progress with development since last spring has been impressive and appreciated.
- Nova
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@ weltall:
1) There is a reason why I quoted "extinction". 8)
2) Of course it was not excluded that Ynnwn could have children among each other. But the fact that they were created between Diaboli and elves was emphasized in the settings. I may be biased from the chances of fertility of hybrids on Earth, they are rather low. But as already mentioned, the magical environment in Yliakum will have raised them.
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;D
Great job, Had some issues with the part in the religon section about the Stonebreakers being laanx followers as my mother was a priestess of Talad and am a devote follower. Then i thought hmm, more background info for my character, simple, my mother was a Hammerwielder.
Appreciate all the work you all are doing. keep up the good work.
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How are Ghinnori and Ylon Dynar pronounced?
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A huge disappointment! I have known far more Xacha than Lemurs...
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PLEASE get a native English speaker to write this stuff, and quests as well. I don't even wanna read through any of the information because it's all a bunch of mistake-ridden garbage.
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You're welcome to provide the fixes.
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Perhaps, in the future, putting this stuff on a wiki page prior to publication in an ineditable form would be a useful idea. I understand that the quests are more problematic as they constitute spoilers but it does seem that many of the bugs I have reported are due to typographic or language errors. I appreciate that English is not the first language of many members of the development team but these type of errors are the stuff of video game legends. Example: All your base are belong to us (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us)
It discourages native English speakers.
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Perhaps in the present, English speaking players could help edit the new pages by posting needed grammatical changes to this or another thread.
Bilbous' grammatical alert postings seem to have been given immediate attention by the dev team.
The heavy lifting has been done, with the publishing of the setting's updates. One trusted GM could be tasked to follow the thread and make appropriate grammatical updates.
Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
- Nova
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It took me more than an hour to make that first post with the edits as I wanted to try to show the reasons for them. In the end I was not totally successful sometimes saying "just because." By the time I had finished my session had expired and I had to log back in because the session length drop down no longer appears beside the quick login field and would be covered by the banner masthead if it did. Now it is my own fault as I delete all cookies every time I close my browser but the one hour default is insufficient.
I have to say that I only read the kran page myself as it is the race of my predominant character but even at that I really only skimmed it.
I suppose if I feel sufficiently motivated I could copy/paste the new pages to the corresponding pswiki pages (http://planeshift.ezpcusa.com/pswiki/index.php?title=Category:Races) as those seem to be currently out of date and then they could be edited there. Still I wouldn't want to do that without express permission from the copyright holder. Certainly I could not subsequently move the corrections back to the settings page.
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diffs are easier to handle else it's difficult to see what changed and if it changed the meaning of the phrase
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I assumed the history page of the wiki software kept track of all that and that it would be more collaborative, i.e. it wouldn't have to be all up to one person.
I suppose a diff file would make it easier to update the page so long as all the formatting remained the same.
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I can imagine the new PlaneShift expansions:
- PlaneShift 1: The Rise of the Gods
- PlaneShift 2: The Dwarven Wars
- PlaneShift 2 episode 2: Mists of [insert Diaboli world here]
- PlaneShift 3: The Xacha Uprising
But if we ever get on Steam, we'll have to stop at PlaneShift 2 to make friends with the Valve guys.
And don't forget the superhit, Planeshift: Domerim. (do you get it? like Skyrim! bahaha.., not funny)
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I can imagine the new PlaneShift expansions:
- PlaneShift 1: The Rise of the Gods
- PlaneShift 2: The Dwarven Wars
- PlaneShift 2 episode 2: Mists of [insert Diaboli world here]
- PlaneShift 3: The Xacha Uprising
But if we ever get on Steam, we'll have to stop at PlaneShift 2 to make friends with the Valve guys.
And don't forget the superhit, Planeshift: Domerim. (do you get it? like Skyrim! bahaha.., not funny)
The dwarven wars are already an event in the dwarven guilds and apart of their history.
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I agree with the idea of the Wiki.
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The dwarven wars are already an event in the dwarven guilds and apart of their history.
Do you really mean "apart of" (rather "apart (aside) from" / except of), or " a part of"? ... How much a space can confuse.
Wasn't this typo even in the Top 10 of mistakes even native speakers do?
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This is more personal than game-wide but my existing diaboli char will need additional backstory to explain her existence. Feel free to ignore if this is getting in the way of wider discussion. I have two possibilities in mind and a fog of lost family history to help out. One is that she will shrug and point out that diaboli rarely do as they are told and her ancestors must have just remained when the rest left for the DR. The other is that there is a very rare chance of atavism where Ywnwn can give birth to nolthrir or diaboli children, creating an small "new diaboli" race. Naturally my char wouldn't know her personal origin, it was generations ago that all this happened.
Opinions on the plausibility within a PS setting?
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well or you could have decided to go away on your own from the death realm. the first you've listed could work too. The second not.
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The dwarven wars are already an event in the dwarven guilds and apart of their history.
Do you really mean "apart of" (rather "apart (aside) from" / except of), or " a part of"? ... How much a space can confuse.
Wasn't this typo even in the Top 10 of mistakes even native speakers do?
It depends what kind of english speakers you are. In america our english is different then english in england.
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The dwarven wars are already an event in the dwarven guilds and apart of their history.
Do you really mean "apart of" (rather "apart (aside) from" / except of), or " a part of"? ... How much a space can confuse.
Wasn't this typo even in the Top 10 of mistakes even native speakers do?
It depends what kind of english speakers you are. In america our english is different then english in england.
Even though it is, Ligh is still correct. A part of is what you were going for though.
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in the new version of history is the enki fur died in to the clan patterns or is it genetic and inborn since birth? or is there inborn pattern which can be died to mach other clan inborn patterns?
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I'd suggest adding the lifespan info available in-game to the blurbs. That's an important detail.
Also - I don't think this is a good thread for it, but perhaps there should be one in General Discussion where people could list the details re: the races that they'd like fleshed out, and make suggestions on how it should be done? I could think of a couple of things I'd suggest establishing in settings to add some RP flavor.
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FYI I'm reading through all the pages and editing them, they should be much better (though I cant promise mistake free) once I'm done and then Talad said he would update the website. Only to races left too do.
I'd suggest adding the lifespan info available in-game to the blurbs.
This is already available in-game, check out the sanatorium in Hydlaa.
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This is already available in-game, check out the sanatorium in Hydlaa.
I'm aware, but that's always been a silly way to make the information available. Not everyone trots to the library first thing upon making a character, after all - and the in-game books really should be reserved for info not every character would know, rather than things as basic as "if character of X race is a young adult what age range are they". Putting it on the website is more straightforward.
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Good point; such elementary information about a race should already be available while creating a character.
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This is more personal than game-wide but my existing diaboli char will need additional backstory to explain her existence. Feel free to ignore if this is getting in the way of wider discussion. I have two possibilities in mind and a fog of lost family history to help out. One is that she will shrug and point out that diaboli rarely do as they are told and her ancestors must have just remained when the rest left for the DR. The other is that there is a very rare chance of atavism where Ywnwn can give birth to nolthrir or diaboli children, creating an small "new diaboli" race. Naturally my char wouldn't know her personal origin, it was generations ago that all this happened.
Opinions on the plausibility within a PS setting?
well or you could have decided to go away on your own from the death realm. the first you've listed could work too. The second not.
I had considered the possibility of returnees from the DR, my issue with that is that the Dakkruist texts in the DR citadel library state that after a lifetime in the DR one cannot return, age will catch up with you. So unless diaboli are capable of breeding in the DR the DR diaboli can never return to the world of the living without a settings change. That makes the atavism possibility an easier way to reintroduce diaboli at some point in the future. It could be a rare enough event though that it cannot produce a stable population of diaboli at the present time - hence no new diaboli chars. At some point in the future (when needed) a magical deus ex machina could change that.
But since none of this belongs in this thread I'll shut up now.
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even in the dr they cannot resist forever there are limits also there. the time is not stopped it's just slowed down.
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Technical issue:
The "Races" page looks fine in Opera. But all descendant pages are unable to load the background image. This happens in Opera only. I don't know what causes this issue. There are not many differences, they all use the same stylesheet, and Dragonfly doesn't report style errors either. I suspect the "Fancybox" script to remove the body background via a wrong escalation of the DOM, but that's just guessing.
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Technical issue:
The "Races" page looks fine in Opera. But all descendant pages are unable to load the background image. This happens in Opera only. I don't know what causes this issue.
Relative paths have caused me a problem with Opera on the Cooperative Plot Creation Project (http://trollkeep.com/PS/). Hard links were used instead of relative ones. There may be a better fix than that; though it worked.
- Nova
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Technical issue:
The "Races" page looks fine in Opera. But all descendant pages are unable to load the background image. This happens in Opera only. I don't know what causes this issue. There are not many differences, they all use the same stylesheet, and Dragonfly doesn't report style errors either. I suspect the "Fancybox" script to remove the body background via a wrong escalation of the DOM, but that's just guessing.
Huh, yeah. I had trouble getting them to load in readable fashion at all with Opera; switched to Firefox and it's MUCH better. And it actually looks like the age info I was looking for is there, for some of the races; everybody's got a lifespan listed, at least. Some also have age of majority/expectations for majority included, but others don't.
Which brings me to a gentle criticism, from someone who writes enough to know how hard it is to be consistent when putting together this kind of stuff! Some of the race pages are REALLY fleshed out and full of interesting detail, and others are bare bones. Also, the info given is not all that orderly for some of the races. I would suggest having a set outline that has to be followed for every race, to make it easy for staff to fill in the blanks and not miss anything. So something like:
* Social Structure and Organization
- Overall social structure
- Unique social practices
- Typical social attitudes
- Typical family structure
- Gender relations and attitudes
- Childrearing practices
- Educational system
- Age of majority/rites of majority
... etc., for each subcategory in each race.
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All races have exactly the same structure and info. If you still see the old page (example kran) then just refresh the page in your browser. Let me know if that fixed it.
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All races (except Diaboli) have been reviewed and edited. Be sure to refresh the pages if you want to see the latest version.
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Diaboli has been reviewed as well. Enjoy Yliakum's lore!! >o)
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First off, I think its awesome that the setting and history info has been updated. Ignoring the grammatical errors which are easy to fix, these few things stuck out:
"Diaboli live much shorter lives, only around 50 years."
-- Loriok Grunnval - was killed at 87 years of age
-- Sitrania Froulos lived to at least 115 years of age
-- These two historical characters lived significantly longer than their race's lifespan. Is there any reason for this? Without a reason, it sounds like an inconsistency.
"# 580 AY - No more Diaboli were found in Yliakum."
"The majority of the Diaboli disappeared in the Death Realm about 200 years ago, and very few are present today in Yliakum."
-- I am wondering if the current year has been revealed? Sorry if its written elsewhere. Prior to these additions, the current date was not revealed if memory serves correctly, so I don't know how this time line correlates to present day? It would be nice to know if my character was around for any of these events.
-- Prior to these changes, what was the date? In version 0.5 and prior, were we in the same year as we are now?
-- Also, saying that "No more Diaboli" were found sounds a little strong.. it would be more believable to say that "nearly all" of them left.
-- If "all of them" literally stormed off and left for the death realm AND 200 years or so passed by, then yes, they would be unable to return due to Dakkru's curse.
If someone could shed some clarity on this it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Rig
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Sorry for the double post, but I don't seem to have the option to modify the above.
"Height: With a height between 1.65m and 1.85m the Diaboli were one of the tallest races in Yliakum."
-- I think this is a little misleading. They are about the same size and Ylians according to these pages and are smaller than Kran and Ynnwn
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Rant:
There is no information in facts like "sector G" for the normal player who doesn't have developer assets documenting sectors.
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How does Nolthrir society even function if most of them will start and then abandon projects on a whim? And join and leave relationships and organizations on a whim? (Not to mention the whole "commonplace abandonment of partner and child" thing...) What constitutes 'social rank' for them, and how is it achieved?
Also: while the "Ylian aren't considered full adults until they get married, and BTW they don't usually divorce either" thing is realistic to many human societies, from a player's perspective that is near on unplayable. Can't speak for anyone else but I'd rather not have every new Ylian character I play be either underage, a widow/widower, or considered a (wo)manchild by all the rest of their race to account for their unpartnered status.
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Good point, Dau. My main char, Gag Harmond, must feel then like a "male virgin", being not yet married ... (playing him for more than 5 years already). — Uh, what did I just say?! :o
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Uh, what did I just say?! :o
Venorel cackles gleefully
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That idea for ylians sounds good to me. A sort of requirement, and some feeling horribly shamed by not being married; could certainly make for some good roleplay.
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Personal preferences, I guess, but to me 100 rounds of "I am a shame to my family and society for being unmarried at age 20" sounds dead boring. There are some valid character concepts to be gotten out of it, but not enough to sustain an entire RPable race. No racial settings should force all players of that race into the same types of personal storylines.
At best it should be a cultural expectation in one particular area so players can play with it if they want to, rather than making it a universal thing.
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I think we should have two ylian brothers fall in love with the same nolthir and let the soap opera begin :devil:
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Personal preferences, I guess, but to me 100 rounds of "I am a shame to my family and society for being unmarried at age 20" sounds dead boring. There are some valid character concepts to be gotten out of it, but not enough to sustain an entire RPable race. No racial settings should force all players of that race into the same types of personal storylines.
At best it should be a cultural expectation in one particular area so players can play with it if they want to, rather than making it a universal thing.
I did say some after all. But yes, I believe that most may feel ashamed by such. Not every single ylian, but something that is culturally theirs. An entire race, whom has been on a single world for years; believing this sounds relevant to me. However, there could have been splits in this way of thinking. Just my two cents.
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I did say some after all. But yes, I believe that most may feel ashamed by such. Not every single ylian, but something that is culturally theirs. An entire race, whom has been on a single world for years; believing this sounds relevant to me. However, there could have been splits in this way of thinking. Just my two cents.
Here is the problem: keeping this as settings makes most PC Ylian aberrant from the norm. As someone who tries to keep her characters settings-compliant, I know I personally will be hesitant to play a Ylian if I have such a problematic settings issue to grapple with, because it preloads every Ylian character over the age of sixteen with obligatory drama. Repetitive drama, no less! After fifty rounds of "I am a social failure and a shame to my family! :'(" and another fifty rounds of "I'm a bad boy/girl who spits in the face of your marital conventions! 8)", it's gonna get so boring.
It's just bad worldbuilding from an RP standpoint, sorry.
To be constructive, if the devs want to keep a marriage-equals-status thing going with the Ylian, IMO a better spin would be to have Ylian customarily not marry until they've established themselves in their jobs or otherwise built up a reputation in the community. (Making marriage a sign of status, rather than a requirement for it.) This meshes more neatly with how most people are going to play (i.e. leveling up a bit, getting to know some people, then maybe deciding to pursue an IC romance).
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Just role play an abandoned (or abandoning) spouse living on an inaccessible level or something. People learn to live with their various shames and pretend to be upright all the time. Hypocrisy is the human condition. Ylians are only human aren't they?
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Just role play an abandoned (or abandoning) spouse living on an inaccessible level or something. People learn to live with their various shames and pretend to be upright all the time. Hypocrisy is the human condition. Ylians are only human aren't they?
The problem isn't that there are no ways to get around the marriage requirement. The problem is it's a bad settings concept.
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I'm sorry but I can't agree. You must be very young to think that, of course I am quite old, born in the fifties, but this is pretty much exactly what the western world looked like to my parents generation. Even today society gives more leeway to those who are married -- more promotions, more raises, more likely to get off with a warning for minor legal infractions. Just because it has been expressed simply doesn't mean there cannot be a whole range of nuances in the practice.
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I'm sorry but I can't agree. You must be very young to think that, of course I am quite old, born in the fifties, but this is pretty much exactly what the western world looked like to my parents generation. Even today society gives more leeway to those who are married -- more promotions, more raises, more likely to get off with a warning for minor legal infractions. Just because it has been expressed simply doesn't mean there cannot be a whole range of nuances in the practice.
Dude. My objection isn't "This is bad because it's not something a society would do", it's "This is bad because it creates roleplay problems". I'm not sure how to explain it more succinctly.
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Is it just me, or is the page of the enkidukai empty?
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Rant:
There is no information in facts like "sector G" for the normal player who doesn't have developer assets documenting sectors.
Nobody cares?
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Is it just me, or is the page of the enkidukai empty?
Indeed. it appears to be an empty (0kb) file.
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they have been erased as of my plan! :devil:
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unfortunately talad fixed it so my plan was ruined :P
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unfortunately talad fixed it so my plan was ruined :P
A tragic mishap.
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unfortunately talad fixed it so my plan was ruined :P
A tragic mishap.
Haters gonna hate.
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I do not know if I am the first one to post this, but the History page still talks about Hammerwielder and Stonebreaker...I guess that should be changed then!
Greetings,
Symasta
Ps: just noticed the two still exist as clans...so I am not sure if it really
needs a change ;)
PPS: Stonehammer are not mentioned there, so I guess it needs a little rework
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As a kinda new user (been playing about 3 weeks), I kill Guile with magic (which always levels Crystal Way. But the PP I get from killing Guile don't allow me to level Crystal. I only get 108PP and it takes me about 20 minutes to kill her
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You are not really meant to kill her unless your character has advanced skills. Standing on a tent to kill her repeatedly, to me, is an out of character action. You can do it, sure, but realistically she could get her minions to tear down the tent to get at you or leave the area, not come back or just run out of range.
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That can possibly be fixed by giving Guile and gang some bows, and high ranged skill.
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That can possibly be fixed by giving Guile and gang some bows, and high ranged skill.
Or the ability to climb up after you.
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The removal of Xacha reminds me of this old topic I made a long time ago:
http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=24637.msg272876
aaah memories..
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The removal of Xacha reminds me of this old topic I made a long time ago:
http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=24637.msg272876
aaah memories..
haha, we should bring the Xacha back and give them mullets.
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Kran (http://www.planeshift.it/kran.html) - Physical Traits
This organism is the only one, amongst the known races, to be based on silicon instead of carbon.
If you limit your view to the playable races, this is obviously true. But what if you expand it to NPC races?
Selected Beasts of Yliakum Vol. 1: A-K.
Derghir - a silicone-based organism with some intelligence and native speech. About 1m high, jagged, and coloured brown or grey. Native to the Dome and walls above. Eats sand and crystals. Tribal, and troops of them have been known to attack kran for food.
Should the Kran Race page be updated and specified in this regard?
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The Kran History contains events related to wars with Derghir too.
115 AY - First contact was made with the Derghirs, another race based on minerals. Kran use them as food. Two races became enemies.
This passage slightly conflicts with the "only known race" in the first chapter as well.
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Or at least based in the levels of Ylia can be a correction, since the Derghir -for the /most/ part- are on the Azure Sun.
Either way it needs correction.