Classification of Creatures

[Daevaorn]

I'd like to ask the settings department about a classification of the creatures of Yliakum.

The question arose when working on the categorization of creatures in the PSWiki in a discussion between Caarrie and me. The reason for the debate was how humanoid species like the Dergihr or Gobbles should be treated. "Semi-intelligent" species as the books say does not really fit them in my opinion since their role actually requires a lot more than that already.

Up to now the Wiki was using the following classification which are to be improved: Wild Animals (among them Dergihr and Gobbles), Domesticated Animals, and Malicious Characters (Cutthroaths ...) (see http://pswiki.xordan.com/index.php/Creatures)

But there are also other issues: How do the villains like Mercenaries and Thugs fit in? Are Maulbernauts a subspecies of Ulbernauts? ...

Maybe a member of the settings department also wants to have a look into the actual wiki pages, and add their two cents on the talk pages.

[Jeraphon]

Hmm. How do I answer this without creating a whole lot more questions?

first, the easy questions: yes, maulbernauts are a subspecies of ulbernauts. Mercenaries and Thugs should be considered sentient beings of indeterminate race (because their faces are partially obscured.)

Semi-intelligent is a little tougher to quantify, but let me try. Creatures defined as "semi-intelligent" means they are capable of organizing societally, in some cases using tools and communicating in simple language, but are still mostly driven by instinct. (for example, a gobble might be able to talk to you, but will still attempt to eat you if it gets hungry. Not because it's evil, necessarily, but because that's its nature.) They are somewhere between animal and sentient. Semi-intelligent creatures don't go to the death realm: they only meet the true death. (Why they respawn in the same places is an OOC matter so don't bother to bring it up.) How should they be treated? There are a few tracts in the Octarchal Decree that can help you decide how they should be treated, legally.

Does that help?

[Caarrie]

Jeraphon if we are to classify all creatures would you consider:
Wild animals
Domesticated animals
Malicious Creatures

catagories that are correct according to settings??

These catagories seem very board and dont seem to describe the creatures in anyway other then where they might be found or how they act at the time they are found currently, this does not take into account where they might have been found when they were first found in Yliakum or traits they had before now.

[Jeraphon]

According to settings? I'm not even sure if they're correct according to science. How would one tell if a creature is malicious? And if it's not does that make it domesticated? What's the intent of the classification? Is it strictly OOC? You could separate them as animal/semi-intelligent/sentient, or as invulnerable/killable but not aggressive/aggressive, herbivore/carnivore/omnivore/silicavore, or even as modelled/only mentioned in game. It all depends on what you're going for. Selected Beasts of Yliakum decided to clump them all together and go in alphabetical order.

[ThomPhoenix]

Indeed, since the Wiki is OOC you can classify them in any way you like. Semi-intelligent would be a good category, since the Derghir and the Gobbels really aren't "Wild Animals".

Must say I'm looking forward to silicavore creatures now

[Caarrie]

yes the wiki might be ooc but i would like to see the info in it according to settings as much as possible since right now not that much info is in one place on the game and the players guide in a few ways is outdated. so as a Setting dev is there a way you would want to see this info catagorized or just left in one main creature catagory?

[ThomPhoenix]

You could throw them together in a page and instead of using real categories, just give them tags/labels.

Example:
Bandit: Humanoid, Race Unknown, Malicious.
Clacker: Wild Animal.
Kikiri: Wild Animal, Domesticable.
Derghir: Silica Creature, Semi-Intelligent.

Etc.

[Caarrie]

the idea is to make separate pages for each creature so that we dont have one very long page that for people with slow connections will have to wait a while for it to load

[neko kyouran]

go with edible/non edible.

so list everything under edible since it would be in one way shape or form, and have the grendols in the non edible table.. 

EDit: caarrie,  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke

[Caarrie]

go with edible/non edible.

so list everything under edible since it would be in one way shape or form, and have the grendols in the non edible table.. 

I dont think so, that is not something settings would use ingame so we will not use that on the wiki. The purpose of the wiki is to help players get to know the game as much as possible so part of this is making sure what we have up there is going along with settings and how the engine has things done.

[Jeraphon]

Must say I'm looking forward to silicavore creatures now

They already exist: krans and derghirs are silicavores, as are (I believe) lavvars.

As to how I'd want them classified, I really don't know. Are there really enough creatures in game that subgrouping them is necessary?
I'll leave it up to your own judgement. It would be tough to do: some creatures are their own grouping. Grendols, for example, are the only undead. They were once sentient beings and now are unintelligent. Where do you classify that? I have no idea.

[Caarrie]

Thank you Jeraphon for taking time to answer this, it seems that we will go with one main catagory for all creatures and when when there are some catagories to put them in we can edit the wiki at that time.

[ThomPhoenix]

Must say I'm looking forward to silicavore creatures now

They already exist: krans and derghirs are silicavores, as are (I believe) lavvars.

I was hoping for a creature that eats Kran. Do Lavvars eat Kran?

[Kaerli]

As far as the whole "semi-intelligent creatures" thing goes, I'd say that they are socially organized creatures that lack high-level concepts such as individual morality (they won't not eat someone just because he or she is little and weak).  A real-life example would be Canis lupus (aka the wolf).  My question is: why hasn't anyone tried to domesticate them yet?  Or have all past attempts failed?

[bilbous]

I would put them in the sub-human category or perhaps proto-human. They are not yet fit to be people but are more than animals. Humans would be any species fit to be citizens of Yliakum i.e the player races and humanoid npc's of indistinct race.