Animals in PS

[neko kyouran]

I'm quite fond of the little clackers myself.  My favorite model in the game.  Perhaps you just aren't a bug person.

[Garile]

hmm like the clackers a lot myself.

Can't we just say 'a lot of terran animals are hanging around', and just RP whatever we want? I hate this obsession with wanting to strip away every shred of artistic freedom as humanly possible

It's not about artistic freedom. It's about there being no clear guidelines. First it was there were no links to RL lifeforms exept perhaps rats and clackers being big mutated forms of what we knowbut now there are referances ingame that there are goats and such.

This makes the setting rather confusing in my opinion becuase it means some people roleplay them not existing what seems to be to far seeing the book, but others who are now bringing in creatures like cats who aren't refered to in books and are from RL. It's hard to RP a world if there are a lot of people roleplaying it differently from eachother.

Obviously this is the case with several things like religion where we also know nothing about eventhough it should influence our day to day life imensely, but hope that now there are referances in books and such the devs reponsible for setting have thought about this and could perhaps clarify more clearly where the line is.

[Nikodemus]

Clackers are indeed good, they have something in them.

[bilbous]

Ah yes Clackers, or those of us Canadians of a certain age will recall, Fuddle Duddle Balls!

[Garile]

* Garile pokes the two posters above and giggles

We aren't turning it into the "we love clackers" thread

[Suno_Regin]

Having animals from the real world is no problem, since humans do live in Yliakum. But, if you're gonna have all these animals from our world, you'll have to make Yliakum's own animals, plus all the animals brought from all of the other racial homelands to balance it out.

[emeraldfool]

'Artistic freedom' is about not following rules. Or, at least, bending the rules in a way that surprises or shocks people. If everyone does the same thing - e.g. you're forced to have 'Yikass', and 'Manteras' and 'Pikachus' as pets, and nothing else, because nothing else exists in Yliakum - then you're limiting the characters. Maybe they want to RP that they have a raven or tiger as a familiar (maybe it's their friend, maybe it's so they can RP situations where the raven can scout ahead and tell them things telepathically), but there's no Planeshift version of it yet, so they are thusly not allowed to express themselves artistically.

The thing I think is really going on, is people want to make a strict set of rules just so they can have an excuse to flame newbies for 'not following them'. Yer all n00b-haters...

I don't have a problem with having original animals added, but I think we should be able to do what we like as far as personal pets go.

Next thing you know, there'll be rules about being crazy ('cause crazy people were stoned to death), or maybe being evil ('cause evil people were put in jail or hung) ... facist n00b-haters, the lotta ya... 

[bilbous]

Does that mean I can have a pet dwarf? They are small and fuzzy and cuddly after all.

[Watcher]

newbies for 'not following them'. Tongue Yer all n00b-haters

Just to make a mountain out of a mole hill here but to quote wikipedia:

"The term newb itself is usually used to refer to a person who is new to the field in question, whereas noob is used as an insult. "


So if you can rationalise hating things in general then hating "noobs" should be perfectly acceptable.


Oh and Bilbous you can have this dwarf, I found him outside:

[John80sk]

I have also small suggestion. Animals shouldn't look like some ugly creations from some cheap horror. I suppose the monsters which are created for now are supposed to look bad, so that you have no doubt that you are doing the right thing, killing it... but that is not the right direction. Do we have any animals like these IR ? Not really.
For example hippopotamus, it is big and sometimes can be really dangerous (seriously, it isn't so peacefull as you could think) sound like example of PS monster. What is the difference? Hippopotamus isn't really ugly, each animal IR has some beauty, while in PS they don't. Wolves, tigers, do we have in PS any animals agile in smiliar way?
What about livestock animals? These also has some certain shape and line.

Agreed, and to go a bit further into this, IMO anatomy should really be taken into account when creating monsters.  Anybody else thought of how hard it must be for trefusangs and ulberanaughts to eat, or how they manage to digest their food?

[Seytra]

'Artistic freedom' is about not following rules. Or, at least, bending the rules in a way that surprises or shocks people.

Ah, I think we're getting to the core now. I think that this isn't actually about animals and why it is / is not realistic to have them in PS. I think it is about people wanting to do whatever they like, regardless of what the settings says or implies, or what is stated to be OK or not. IOW, it's a veiled version of the "It's Fantasy!!!!!" non-argument.

If everyone does the same thing - e.g. you're forced to have 'Yikass', and 'Manteras' and 'Pikachus' as pets, and nothing else, because nothing else exists in Yliakum - then you're limiting the characters.

Yup, you are. And rightfully so. Just like you don't RP spaceships, or guns in PS. It's called "settings", and a pretty common thing in RP. So unless you're leaving PS and making your own RP world, you'll have to stay within PS's one. Artistic freedom also doesn't mean that you can do whatever you like. People will still have to get what you're saying.
You may bend the rules to, for example, have a pet that isn't implemented but planned, or to have an animal as pet that isn't implemented as pet (like a clacker). But you can't RP things that don't exist in the settings, or that cannot be reasonably assumed to exist. It's why few poems consist of jumbled characters.

Maybe they want to RP that they have a raven or tiger as a familiar (maybe it's their friend, maybe it's so they can RP situations where the raven can scout ahead and tell them things telepathically), but there's no Planeshift version of it yet, so they are thusly not allowed to express themselves artistically.

If it's planned to be in PS, then OK. If not, then no. How do you RP something that you don't know anything about? Replacing it with RL things isn't OK, because it'll obviously conflict with the PS version later on. You're invalidating your "art" in doing so, and that of all others who play along with you, too.

I don't have a problem with having original animals added, but I think we should be able to do what we like as far as personal pets go.

Because personal pets realistically come into existance by the owner's sheer will, and therefore don't need to be bound by any stupid things like genetics, or just general realism?
You are prefectly fine to do /tell RP with yourself, RPing chasing your pet Ulbernaut through your space station while shooting Kran at incoming mecha-ravens, as long as you don't tell anyone.

Speaking of ulbernauts... the number of "characters" who allegedly own a pet Ulbernaut is astonishing, especially given that an Ulbernaut is neither stupid nor peaceful, nor small or easily intimidated. IRL, pet tigers aren't working terribly well, and these are small compared to Ulbernauts. I therefore think that there is some problem with some people's RP, and with this argument of yours, since obviously one can't even RP everything as pet that is in PS.

Next thing you know, there'll be rules about being crazy ('cause crazy people were stoned to death), or maybe being evil ('cause evil people were put in jail or hung) ...

Yes, there are. There are rules of common sense. Just how well do you think a plain murder is going to go in plain daylight, right in front of two armed and alert city guards? Not too terribly well, one'd think, yet people "RPing evil" tend to conveniently forget the consequences of their so-called "RP". Just like with those RPing annoying characters, who conveniently forget that when annoyed, people get, well, annoyed. And react accordingly. Even in a world of magic, people don't have endless tolerance. Troublemakers are still punished or otherwise gotten rid of. And if you're not willing to RP along with the not so nice consequences of your "evil RP", then I think that you're not actually RPing, but merely OOC-ly annoying.

[Garile]

Ah, I think we're getting to the core now. I think that this isn't actually about animals and why it is / is not realistic to have them in PS. I think it is about people wanting to do whatever they like, regardless of what the settings says or implies, or what is stated to be OK or not. IOW, it's a veiled version of the "It's Fantasy!!!!!" non-argument.

I agree the problem is that the setting here is so unclear people tend to RP what they like. This means some very conflicting RPs and also people trying to force their version upon others. Making up having cats and ravens and whatnot that probably don't exist in Yliakum. In RP terms that is as wrong as Roleplaying Laanx as your pet seeing it's impossible. Although Laanx is atleast still from the setting and actually exists in Yliakum.

[Marqsaynt]

I agree the problem is that the setting here is so unclear people tend to RP what they like. This means some very conflicting RPs and also people trying to force their version upon others. Making up having cats and ravens and whatnot that probably don't exist in Yliakum. In RP terms that is as wrong as Roleplaying Laanx as your pet seeing it's impossible. Although Laanx is atleast still from the setting and actually exists in Yliakum.

If you look at the skill description for “Empathy” under the “Various Skills” tab you’ll see:

“Empathy is used to communicate with your familiar.
A familiar is usually a little pet; it can be a bird, a snake, a cat or any
other small creature (even monsters).”

It seems that at least under the current settings owning a cat, or something similar, is a valid RP.

[Nikodemus]

If you look at the skill description for “Empathy” under the “Various Skills” tab you’ll see:

“Empathy is used to communicate with your familiar.
A familiar is usually a little pet; it can be a bird, a snake, a cat or any
other small creature (even monsters).”

It seems that at least under the current settings owning a cat, or something similar, is a valid RP.

No, its example of how some devs have no icea about the setting. BTW, is it so hidden that even devs don't know it well? ;P
But in fact how you should get it is not that there are cats, but that you know how big is cat from real world and this way you know how big animals you can control in PS. It is explanation to player, not character.

[Seytra]

If you look at the skill description for “Empathy” under the “Various Skills” tab you’ll see:

“Empathy is used to communicate with your familiar.
A familiar is usually a little pet; it can be a bird, a snake, a cat or any
other small creature (even monsters).”

It seems that at least under the current settings owning a cat, or something similar, is a valid RP.

No, its example of how some devs have no icea about the setting.

Yes, this is the most likely explanation. Especially seeing that there are other inconsitencies in the ingame content, and in the char creation, too, and that these will certainly see some clean-up in the future.

BTW, is it so hidden that even devs don't know it well? ;P
But in fact how you should get it is not that there are cats, but that you know how big is cat from real world and this way you know how big animals you can control in PS. It is explanation to player, not character.

However, I must agree that it is worded in a way that is, at best, highly misleading. In fact, it IMO is perfectly understandable that someone reading this will interprete it to mean that there are cats in Yliakum. While "bird" and "snake" only mean a certain type of animal, some form of which can reasonably be assumed to exist in Yliakum, "cat" refers to one specific animal. It very likely was a misunderstanding, but how will a player know that, without other references? Good that Marqsaynt spotted it so it can be addressed.