I'll just put you on the top of the waiting list, with any luck you'll be in the game in the middle of the first world.
While preparing the (rest of the) final update for Madness 1, an unexpected tangent resulted in this:
(As always, you can disregard the crude attempts at humor)This is what the race selection will be like for new players. I'm kinda wondering how the whole size difference thing might work out, so I'll keep the two Mii'Ari subraces selectable as well.
I'm also going to use the "canon" Mii'Ari. That is to say, instead of mostly humanoid upright cat-people, they will be a protosymbiotic uplifted felinoid race with Bizarre Alien Biology. There's quite a lot of backstory on them, but I'll try to come up with a brief version.
The Mii'Ari, if you disregard various details, are basically an advanced species of genetically uplifted animals, that is animals who have been given an upright humanoid form and intelligence through some form of genetic engineering. The exact method by which they were uplfited remains something of a mystery, in that nobody can figure out whether it was a part of a survival strategy by another ancient species, an accident that occured due to that strategy, or just a massive genome manipulation experiment by the Doleans. The latter one is, understandably, rather popular with the people, and it's not helped by the fact that Doleans remain secretive on the matter, though it's clear they possess
some kind of relevant information. The existence of the H'Raghaurg, a somewhat similarly uplifted
canine species, also lends some credence to the theory, as the Doleans were the first to make contact with either of these races.
In any case, the uplifting agent, a symbiotic nanobiomechanical bacteria, had transformed the various felinoid life of the Mii'Ari homeworld into one of the most quirky intelligent races the Doleans claim to have met across the galaxy.
While it can't be said for certain what was the symbiotic agent's original purpose, in the end its integration with the Mii'Ari body became astounding. The nanobacteria had taken on almost all the body fuctions normally carried out by the body's own cellular systems. Comparisons to other, non-affected life on the planet, reveal that the internal organ structure of the Mii'Ari underwent dramatic alterations - in fact, beyond the basic nervous, respiration and circulation systems, nearly everything has been replaced in full. (uh, there's a lot of info I could dump here, but I suppose I'll just stop at saying "it's hella different", before I start talking about anatomical compatibility and reproduction cycles
)
The practical upshot of the stuff behind the spoiler is that Mii'Ari are not only more agile and stronger for their size than humans are, they are also surprisingly hard to kill. The nanosymbionts provide them with a slight regeneration boost, conserve oxygen for later use, process any and all kinds of ingested material on a molecular level, and can actually prevent a separated, but otherwise intact head/brain from dying for up to several hours.
So far, here's what I'm thinking in regards to race selection for this game:
Human: All-round average. Start with all attributes at 5, allocate 6 positive and 2 negative points.
Dolean: Smart and crafty, but weak. STR, AGI, DEX, TOU, END = 4. CHA = 5. PER, INT, WIS = 8. Allocate 2 positive and 2 negative points. Start with Psi affinity.
Ayari: Average for a Mii'Ari. STR, DEX, TOU, END, CHA, INT, WIS = 5. AGI, PER = 7. Allocate 2 positive and 2 negative points.
Immari: Strong and slow, for a Mii'Ari. DEX = 4. AGI, END, CHA, INT, WIS = 5. STR, END = 6. TOU, PER = 7. Allocate 2 positive and 2 negative points. Start with bonuses and penalties appropriate to size.
Ellari: Quick and weak, for a Mii'Ari. STR = 4. END, TOU, CHA, INT, WIS = 5. DEX = 6. AGI, PER = 7. Allocate 2 positive and 2 negative points. Start with bonuses and penalties appropriate to size.
In addition to this, all Mii'Ari have the aforementioned increased regeneration, low-light vision and bone claws that retract into the wrist. And the ability to survive being beheaded or suffocated for a prolonged time, giving someone else a chance to help them.
So, the game balance problem in this is that the Mii'Ari characters are obviously stronger. (Actually, that's a problem in-universe as well, where acceptance of the Mii'Ari at large into any human community is concerned). Even if I up the human point bonus to 6, representing "better trained" humans, there's still too much disparity because of the extra abilities. So the question I want to ask, I suppose, is: would you still play as a human if there was no cost inherent in switching to a Mii'Ari or Dolean? If not, what would it take to fix this? Giving the humans extra equipment or skills? In general, I aim to create something of an RPG system that can be "ported" to premises other than Multiworld Madness. Your help would be appreciated.
Author
Topic: Multiworld Madness II. (Discussion&Signups thread) (Read 41364 times)