Out of boredom...

[Domhnall4h]

I'm going to post a bit off the cutting room floor from my own game. This is a race of winged elves basically. Originally, the plan was to have some areas accessible via flying, but now I don't feel like implementing it. It's extremely hard to balance in the combat mechanics when the players can simply fly up in the air and pelt the enemies with spells and arrows; using magic to recover lost stamina.

They've been relegated to back-story, with the possibility of a small part being added in just because I have them. This race isn't well developed, most of the rough ideas are sketched out, but I didn't bother with the detail after finding out that only my Dragon could consistently slaughter a party of them.

As an aside, don't go fighting a dragon and think that the bastard will be as easy as in Bard's Tale or DW. Mine can TPK a prepared party, no matter the level, in a couple rounds. She eats level 100 Crusaders for breakfast, with a side of Archmage for washing down the sharp metal bits.

In fact, any time you see any critter that normally would just be high level fodder, or at best a boss for a mid level party, just pray that I was nice and made it so the encounter could be talked through (I have). I hate weakling Dragons that can be one hitted, undead who are child's play, and orcs that are little more than fodder for Douglas Haig.

For a note, the Regen/Stam Regen is way too powerful. Everything runs off Stamina, so with such a high recharge rate, they were able to pull off some Dr Strange-esque feats. Health regen wasn't that bad, but it made healing useful only for restoring the odd lost limb or 2.

So the Stamina Regen was nixed entirely, it's now a very rare enchantment. No playable race lists either regen out of the box, though both should make it for custom races later. Flight and a couple of neat things planned for it also are kept, specifically for the Dragon, another NPR, and a few other things. Keep bows and spells with LOS ranges handy.

I'd add a poll, but I couldn't care less seeing as how this race isn't playable, and may not even find it's way into the finished product even as a side quest.

Aethini
Statistics
STR – 2 END + 2 WIS + 2 INT – 2 APP + 2 PER - 2
Special: Flight, Regen 3, Stamina Regen 8, Night Vision, Vision 4, +2 bonus using Aeromancy powers

Description
The Aethini are a race of winged fae, similar in appearance to the land bound Eethini and underground-dwelling Dethini. Despite their superficial similarities, the Aethini are not actually related to their grounded cousins.

As expected, they have the ability to fly. Their top speed is around 200 miles per hour in the air. On land, they move as a normal humanoid. They are more enduring and wise than most humanoids, but are physically weaker and less intelligent. Their graceful bodies and elegant wings give them an almost angelic appearance.

Hair color ranges from various shades of red and blond to a rare light brown. Eyes are green, with the rare silver or light blue. They tend to be somewhat short, ranging from 4'6” to 5'8” in height.

They also have a form of photosynthesis. The region in which the Aethini typically live is barren, high mountain tops. As such, they usually subsist on whatever small amounts of fruit and grain that they can harvest from the lower slopes. In addition, they gain energy from the sun itself. This results in both a rather rapid regeneration of stamina, as well as a mild health regeneration effect.

The wings have another, less helpful effect. They can only use specially made clothing and armor, designed to not restrict their wings' movement.

Culture
The Aethini have a generally little known culture. Their chosen geographic locations are difficult, at best, for most other races to even reach. They tend to live in natural caves, or under natural outcroppings. If they find a suitable location, they may build stone structures.

There is only one city of the Aethini, the location of which they keep a secret. Due to their nature, it is likely that no one but others able to fly could reach it anyway. Most of the race live there, with small villages scattered throughout other lands.

Most villages have 20-40 Aethini living there. Typically, it's populated by those who grew tired of the city life and desired a more simplistic lifestyle. The total population of the race is unknown, but doubtful that it exceeds over half a million at best.

The Aethini rarely reproduce, finding land and food a scarce resource at best. They tend to act in harmony with nature, not working metal or stone no more than needed. As the areas they are in have little wood, they do not practice woodcraft of any sort. Generally, they trade gems or ore for needed supplies and weapons. They are vegetarians to a fault, though that is more because they would need to be cannibals to eat meat most of the time than any other reason.

There are very few gender-defined roles in the Aethini society. As they exist in such small numbers, every member of the community is needed to do their utmost to keep everything in order.

In war, they employ hit and run tactics, relying upon their wings and dropped stones for the most part. They do employ bows when they are able to get them. With their excellent vision, both at night and during the day, they are extremely deadly when armed.

While very few practice the formalized school of wizardry, a number practice the sorcerous arts. As they are very much in tune with the air, they almost always have some skill in Aeromancy.

Generally they are quiet and reserved when dealing with others. Their isolated lives leave them unable to deal with the myriad of cultures and peoples that a wandering Aethini may encounter. However, their appearance almost makes up for their lack of social graces.

Religion
Aethini worship the Sun, as the source of their life. As they literally derive nourishment from it, this is understandable. In addition, they worship the two moons as the Lovers of the Sun.

Only males can be priests of the Sun. Only females can be priestesses of the two moons. This is about the extent of gender differentiation in the Aethini culture.

In addition, there is their born protector, a position passed from Father to Son within the Aethini Church. This protector is armed with a enchanted sword, and armored in specially crafted armor, that protects him while allowing for flight. While he tends to remain in their capitol, he will travel from village to village around once a year.

Government
The Aethini government is tri-cameral. All the houses come together to deal with issues affecting the society as a whole. Each house deals with it's own area of responsibility otherwise.

There is the Church, which selects a number of priests and priestesses to represent it's affairs as well as the spiritual needs of the people. This body never numbers more than 50, and has the High Priest of the Sun and the two High Priestesses of each Moon as tie breakers. Their funding comes from tithes levies by the church. They deal exlusively with religious matters.

There is the Defenders, the acting military council. They are selected by the Populace and the Church. The Holy Protector acts as tie breaker. There are 12 warriors selected for this council, and they all must have had prior military experience. They discuss matters of security, policing the population, and military training and doctrine. They get funding from the Populace's coffers.

Finally, there is the Populace, the representatives of the common population. They are elected by the population, 50 for the City itself, and 1 for each village that chooses to send one. They deal with any matter not covered by the other two houses, such as infrastructure and trade. They levy taxes to fund their activities, and request aid from the military council if they need assistance in enforcing these laws and taxes.

Essentially, only matters of war and international politics are discussed between the 3 houses.

[Growler]

Dom, I *reckon* we should be eventually thankful? that you have way too much time at yer disposal.

That's some serious & pretty dang good detail--esp'bout a race yer leaving (mostly?) on the cuttin'room floor.

So ya got an ETA on completed game?

[Domhnall4h]

No ETA. I spent more time last night playing around with a horror game I came up with while talking to a friend one night. I also tweaked a platformer I came up with out of nowhere, and added some stuff to the pair of strategy games I have. Both use the same combat mechanics, just one adds economic and diplomatic things to do, among other things. The other is just a straight up war game.

And I suck at graphics.

Technically, this isn't on the cutting room floor, as I just have no current use for it. Maybe if I make it to a 3rd or 4th game. It's also a bit more fleshed out than most of the cut races, which I have no idea why I even added. Playable races was pared down to 12, mostly staying away from the typical fantasy tropes.

[dragonbait]

Wow. Super cool!

[Domhnall4h]

I just realized I'm running the risk of making a damn furry game. Of the 12 races selected for use, 5 are furries.

The main issue is my lack of traditional fantasy races as playable. Closest I come is the cat and dog-folk races, and a lizard race (both of which commonly appear in modern fantasy settings). Technically the winged Aethini I posted as well, as they are basically elves with wings.

This is what happens when you forget what you are doing. I had a list of about 14 traditional races statted out, but cut them out in the latest revision simply because I wanted to try for a more unique world. I don't even have a traditionally named "human", though i do have two races which fit different aspects of humans well.

Another problem came when designing some races, and they ended up being unworkable into a coherent adventuring party. One viewed all others as mere slaves, and had a combat ethic of die or win, no quarter given (whether asked or not). Kinda hard to establish a reason for such a race to be teaming up with "inferiors" and operating in cohesion with them.

Granted, most races can follow that same line of reasoning as well. Except for about 4. But I wanted to pull in as much chance for customization as possible. Hence, a current 13 races, with a probably 15 once I establish the new ones.

At any rate, here's another cutting room floor one, and one that really can't be salvaged as anything but an enemy. The culture is too ingrained towards aggression. But I like the race, so it will likely be used; if only as a side quest or such. In fact, I'm thinking of altering an existing early game quest to include them. They'd fit perfectly.

It's actually a traditional fantasy race. Something that's unusual right now, but will likely change as I move along. The reference of 'humans' refer to a specific human-like race, one built on Grecio-roman lore. The other 'human' race is built on a Norse-Celt hybrid. The Norse rock.

Tauri
Statistics
SRT + 4 END + 2 WIS + 2 PER – 4 AGI – 2 SPD - 2
Special: +15% Grappling skill
Description
The Tauri are a race of bipedal, bull like creatures. Their legs end in hooves instead of feet, and their head is that of a bull, complete with large, heavy, and sharp horns. They range from 7'9” to 9'2” in height, and are almost all brown with brown eyes. They are colorblind. They posses tremendous strength and endurance, and are incredibly cunning. However, they are arrogant, and zenophobic to a degree. They do have a great passion for learning, and hold some of the greatest libraries in the world. They also have a great passion for puzzles.

Culture
Tauri culture is not one of compassion and tolerance. Even humans view them as cruel and capracious. Pretty much any crime is punished by torture and death, and the punishment is made a spectacle for the Tauri population. Warriors are expected to show no mercy, and if wounded are abandoned on the field as inferior. It is treason for a warrior to return from the field of battle after being wounded. It is treason for a Tauri to surrender, flee from battle, or accept the surrender of an enemy combatant.

All Tauri are expected to fight, and from birth learn to do so quite well. They are trained in grappling, using their great strength to their advantage.

Despite this, the Tauri have a strict code of honor that they will not break, no matter what. A Tauri's word is inviolate. They will not lie, nor play word games. It is this code of honor which has kept them from over running many of the weaker races.

To the Tauri, all other races are only here to be their slaves. They are cruel even by the immoral standards of slavery even. They hold their slaves to the same standards as themselves as well. A slave who lies, or breaks his word, is a soon to be dead slave.

Religion
The Tauri believe in themselves. They believe that they are the creators of the world, it's rulers and masters, and that the others are mere pawns and slaves. Their religion has no room for discussion, more powerful gods, or equality among the various peoples. It also has no explanation as to why the Tauri exist only in small, maze like city-states, while the other races hold much of the world's wealth, and land.

Government
The Tauri have no real governing body. Each community raids it's neighbors for what it needs, everyone fights, and whoever is in charge earns their position through combat. Power structure is built upon respect.

[Growler]

..fantasy tropes.

did the Dom just type 'tropes'?

no friggin' way.

reality.. or something almost but not quite akin to it.

suggest clinging on to All yer furries.
they'll come in handy when nook'ler winter rolls'round. 8)

[Domhnall4h]

Yeah, you can kill them and eat them. And the furs work just as well as the non-speaking kind's fur.

[Growler]

Not to seem seamily immodest, but they *do* taste d-lish!

[Domhnall4h]

Though Growlers taste rancid. No amount of BBQ sauce can mask that taste. Kitii are tasty though. Hard to catch on a good day, but make a mean quiche.

As an aside, I finally redid the combat mechanics as I'd been meaning to. It's quite a bit more intense and different than the old BT/Wiz style. Now there is the chance of decapitations, dismemberment, and disembowelment. Weapon reach is an issue even in melee, and the weapon types all are balanced through their advantages and disadvantages rather than flat damage numbers. Now a character wielding a Staff is fundamentally different than one armed with a Long Sword.

To the player though, the options are still boiled down to 4 (directly assaulting the enemy).

Spells can now be countered and redirected, and in fact can end up being batted back and forth like a tennis ball. An exploding one.

I still haven't bothered with the diplomacy yet. I'm still looking for two more Playable Races, before shoveling the rest of my race list to the NPR section. Then comes populating the Animal and Monster sections, and detailing the undead sub-types (which can be applied over any race, monster, or animal). This should give a more varied population to deal with, and a more realistic one.

Anything living can be undead. Races are treated the same as the playable ones, and encounters are generally generated using PC classes and skills. Monsters are the weird things like Growlers and politicians who have no business in the natural order of things. Animals are normal, low intelligent creatures.

All of them can be generated with the undead subtypes of skeleton or zombie. Both of which will be considerably stronger than in typical fantasy games, which treat them as low level fodder.

[Growler]

Dom, I'll admit I'm intrigued by the lev of detail yer putting in yer combatty mech. That would (or should) make it more like what I've oft imagined..esp while keeping the interface/options reasonably limited.

And what's a lil decap, dismem, or disembowelmovement 'monst friends?

But, seriously, this yammer 'bout ping-pongin' spells--what up wid that?

Guess it could add a certain...oh I dunno what.

[Domhnall4h]

Most of it will be handled automatically. It's still an old school dungeon crawler in design. Just specific mechanics give it a more realistic and intense combat. No more "Warrior A swings 12 times, killing it!".

I'm not planning on tactical combat (ala Gold Box, Ultima 6) yet. I'll lay down the graphical ground work, both for the tactical and for the engine to adapt to a isometric (Dusk of the Gods, The Summoning) viewpoint later on without needing an entire engine written.

I'll especially need the isometric view later on, because a friend of mine and me have a horror title design that needs it.

[Domhnall4h]

I really need to stop working on other designs. I've been working on my platformer. Broken necks and staff fighting FTW!

I've worked out the final effects of diplomacy. However, the mechanics to get there are sorely lacking. I almost wish I hadn't decided on including it. It's a headache. low-intelligence animals, such as those who voted for our current fascist in office, cats, dogs, and furries, are now generated with a "wild" level. This gives me something to roll against when seeing if a PC can tame them or convince them to leave.

Obviously, that won't work for intelligent beings. So I'm trying to figure out something less complex than what I had before (several randomly generated stats with varying options).

Part of the issue stems from cutting a Ultima-esque virtues/vices system. The original plan was to have the diplomacy affected by the PC's stats in that system, plus the randomly generated NPC stats. I cut it because it needs so much work that I'll spend as much time developing that as I will the rest of the game mechanics.

Currently, I have two options for NPC interaction beyond hacking them to bits. Basically the same options of the new BT, mean, or nice. Except there are no buxom barmaids to attempt to seduce.

Regardless, managing to talk your way out of a situation will net you the same experience points as hacking your way through it, but you'll lose out on the skill advancement for the combat and magic skills, and loot. The mean option, which basically forces the NPCs to surrender, gives you gold, but no loot otherwise.

I also relisted and organized the base item type lists, added in some artifacts, and slew the huns. Even added a few new ones in.

List of things to do:
Behead that annoying person who keeps asking for money.
Find out who that annoying person is.
Behead them anyway.

Stamina system: Item STM costs, spell/power STM costs, balancing

Diplomacy: Base NPC mechanics rewrite, balancing

Content: Items: More artifacts and materials, enchantments and effects.
Content: Items: Stamina costs, balancing
Content: Races: Balance playable races, organize non-playables.
Content: Artwork: Learn to draw
Content: Spells: Rework, organize list, Stamina costs, secondaries.
Content: Quests: More quests, rats.
Content: Setting: Move setting specifics to own file.
Content: Random: Annoy people reading this expecting me to be serious

Combat: Ensure dragon can kill everything. In 1 round.
Combat: Stamina balancing
Combat: I just felt like adding a 3rd point here.

UI: Make it understandable
UI: Make it work right

Code: Remember to use goto, in order to leak off anyone who steals the source. Ideally, goto won't be used for anything but a subprogram that is never called.

Behead the guy who fondled that Chinese chick the other day.

[Growler]

that was SO annoying.

seriously, you need to learn to draw.
like, arty-stuff.

sounds like yer game'll be ready to play in a day or duo.
cool.

[Domhnall4h]

I added in most weapon statistics. I may add a few base types in, but that area is mostly complete. I do need to adjust the materials of each base type though.

Most of the work done this weekend has been in the game content. Scripting has been written, the map key cleaned up, and the quests listed out. There are now 50 maps, 17 main quests, 25 side quests, 3 small dogs, and a lamb. I intend to BBQ the lamb.

One quest I'm having trouble with, and that's because it's a literal murder mystery. I lost my original notes, so I'm having to rewrite it from scratch.

There are 21 classes, 12 elite or specialized classes, and the rest basic classes. I may cut the elite classes for now, as they don't add much.

The scrolls are partially written. They're basically a way to add backstory and a few clues as to what is going on. The first 12 are needed for a quest, the last 12 are not. I'm not overly poetic, so there lies the issue with them; I want the first 12 to be a mini epic poem in the style of the old Norse sagas. The last 12 are stand-alone, and more current on events in-game. Somewhat. Veterans may recognize a few tihngs here and there.

*edit* I cut out and hacked up the class structure. Now there are 12 classes, though a couple are really redundant. Technically all of them are, since it's primarily a skill based system; the classes only act as caps on what you can achieve in a given skill, as well as what skills you start with.

[Domhnall4h]

Characters: I've added in Dwarves, traditional drunken midget dwarves who live in mines and require alcohol to make it through the working day. Like people from Arkansas, save without as much inbreeding. I'm using a more traditional name for them, though. Taken from the Old Norse. I have a writing system developed for them, so I needed someone to use it.

Characters: Made a new race, and yet another older race revised. I am now up to 15 races playable, and will add NO MORE! But now the Furry content is down to 1/3rd of the playable races. None particularly xenophobic enough to qualify as unworkable in a party dynamic.

Magic: Thinking on using a partially designed-then-cut system from my older RPG. More on that at 11. Right now, with minimal work done to the final version, I basically have three main ideas. I shall seek... donuts... for enlightenment.

Content: I have no less than 3 unique writing systems, and 1 based on the Elder Futhark. The Furthark themselves are part of a set magic system, that WILL find it's way in. I may redesign it though. It no longer fits so well into the current system, because I've been revising and simplifying things throughout this year, making what I'd prefer to be the final revision of the mechanics. Once I'm done, I intend for further updates to be just for the sake of adding tactical combat in (something that won't require a lot, actually).