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[umiman]

Humans are the most balanced is such a lame concept.

I think my favorite trope for humanity in the eyes of aliens would be Humans are Warriors. At least we'd be the fun race!

[sambojin]

Other than people saying that race choice will be purely cosmetic (and I can see why they'd do it that way, I just don't know why they would do it that way), everything else has looked good.

I may have said this before, but I think I agree with the decision to make them purely cosmetic. Why worry about having "+10 of this", or "You can have this stupid ability" when you can just look cool and not have it effect anything. It would be more trouble then its worth then to try and balance it all.

And the whole "Human is the most Balanced race" that would come out of it is actually completely racist (Speciesist?) imo.

I can see your point. Having various player races the same does allow for far better balance. It stops there being an unforseen "best" race, and stops humans seeming boring and generic. It also puts the focus on resources, equipment, playstyle (gear related) and avatar creation for your "uniqueness" in the game, rather than some stat modifiers or in-built abilities. I still do have a fascination with variations in game species and races, I think it makes game-worlds more "realistic" and easier to identify with alien species, but that's just me.

Actually, as a point, I've always wondered why humans are usually the generic race. Or the quick learners or diplomats. It's better than generic, but still kind of strange. There's all kinds of horrible things that we're great at.

[umiman]

Sambojin, I think you'd like this: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/2709630/

All the terrible things humans are good at.

[Neonivek]

Having races being purely cosmetic for balance as a bad thing falls under my category of: Overbalancing

Overbalancing is when, for the sake of game balance, you make something bland and uninteresting when introducing a bit of unbalance would have resulted in the game being more fun instead.

But it really depends on if you consider it to be bad or good.

Humans are the most balanced is such a lame concept.

It is usually a side effect from the fact that usually we are the point of view. Thus everything filters by how it differs from us. Creating us as the "average". If there ARE advantages of humans over other races they tend to be that we are diplomatic, somewhat scientific, and creative.

[freeformschooler]

Having races being purely cosmetic for balance as a bad thing falls under my category of: Overbalancing

This is one thing I really agree on, but especially here. I can totally understand the desire to balance things out perfectly in a tight-knit fighter or MOBA, but in a side-scroller with allegedly fast-paced, skill-based combat and an overarching theme of randomness? It seems sort of pointless.

No matter what game you play, there's always going to be kids screaming "OP!" and "IMBA!" But... if there are really as many items and tactics as the developers say there will be, couldn't you always just invent new strategies for taking down your foes rather than sitting there moping about how your race sucks?

[Devling]

What always bothers me is science fiction races tend to be based on a single, general, overarching culture.
The Avians are Aztecs/Mayans/a combination, and I'm sure the other races will follow suit.

But a weird thing I noticed is that Humans tend represent Imperialist Europe.
Amazing trading abilities, along with good diplomatic abilities, intrepid colonists who colonize far away places.
Hell, our view of space, and what it could be like, is much like Europe viewed the rest of the world as.
Too study, and travel to far away places, bringing order and civilization.

Sorry, rambling, but I think that adding race bonuses in the way of special abilities would make a whole lot of sense.
Incomparables, abilities that can't be shoved into a simply mathematical formula, or atleast not easily.
Like, the Avians can slow their descent, while humans can get an adrenaline boost, temporally increasing physical and mental abilities in a pinch.

[Darkmere]

one thing I find interesting is almost every non-human sentient species in games, movies etc. are humanoid.

the only exception I know of are the elcor in Mass Effect

That's a recent trend, probably influenced by Star Trek and budget concerns (at least for live-action media). Older games like Star Control or Ascendancy had plenty of starfish aliens. I assume it's because generally, humans find it easier to form short-term emotional connections with things that are us-like, like avians, klingons, or narn instead of daaleks, spathi, or a Pierson's Puppeteer. I'm not saying it's a good or particularly interesting trend, but there it is.

[Biag]

This is a singleplayer game, right? Why do the races need to be balanced? Play X race for an easier game, X race for a harder game. Like the character creation in Mount & Blade- a female street urchin has a much more difficult start than a male nobleman.

But even if they did something like that, I feel like race isn't going to be such an important choice that it significantly alters my opinion of the game.

[forsaken1111]

This is a singleplayer game, right? Why do the races need to be balanced? Play X race for an easier game, X race for a harder game. Like the character creation in Mount & Blade- a female street urchin has a much more difficult start than a male nobleman.

But even if they did something like that, I feel like race isn't going to be such an important choice that it significantly alters my opinion of the game.

Game will have single and multiplayer components as I understand it.

[Devling]

This is a singleplayer game, right? Why do the races need to be balanced? Play X race for an easier game, X race for a harder game. Like the character creation in Mount & Blade- a female street urchin has a much more difficult start than a male nobleman.

But even if they did something like that, I feel like race isn't going to be such an important choice that it significantly alters my opinion of the game.

Game will have single and multiplayer components as I understand it.

Yeah, as far as I know it will be like Terraria multiplayer, where you basically invite a friend/s to play in your universe.

[Strange guy]

This is a singleplayer game, right? Why do the races need to be balanced? Play X race for an easier game, X race for a harder game. Like the character creation in Mount & Blade- a female street urchin has a much more difficult start than a male nobleman.

Because race is more than a difficulty setting. If you like the theme, looks and ability of a race, but they offer a much easier/harder game than you want that would be annoying. Thus balance the races and leave difficultly settings to the difficultly settings.

I do have to agree I hope humans aren't the basic balanced all-rounder race. It's an understandable but annoying and overused thing.

[Graknorke]

But race isn't a difficulty setting. They can be balanced while being different you know. Because I'm not a game designer, I'll try and give an example in a survival situation rather than describe game design.
There's two guys stuck on a remote island somewhere with some overhangs and such for shelter, but it's otherwise just rocky wastes. They're both dropped off somewhere with some things each. One has waterproof clothes, a month's supply of food and a year's of water. The other has thick winter clothes, a month's supply of water and a year supply of food.
Both are likely to die from exposure (Cold from one, cold from damp for the other), and even then only live a month at most.
They have a pretty evenly hard time, while being in very different situations.

If it's particular downfalls aren't something you want to deal with, decide whether you prefer easier gameplay or pretty characters.

[Devling]

This is a singleplayer game, right? Why do the races need to be balanced? Play X race for an easier game, X race for a harder game. Like the character creation in Mount & Blade- a female street urchin has a much more difficult start than a male nobleman.

But even if they did something like that, I feel like race isn't going to be such an important choice that it significantly alters my opinion of the game.

"If X is better, why play Y?"
Unless it's a deliberate design decision, everybody is just going to play X and point out how X is OP and Y is UP.
Mount and Blade is a different game, completely in style, theme, and gameplay.
It plays, and feels, nothing like Starbound.

Why does Blizzard balance WoW classes/races? If you want a harder game just pick a sucky class, with a wimpy race!

See this doesn't work, because people are going to be playing multiplayer.
People will be fighting, and once you enter competition and other people, all bets are off.

[BigD145]

Why does Blizzard balance WoW classes/races?

Bad example. Try again. People are still saying PvP is unbalanced, amongst other things that have been in since open beta.

[Frumple]

Race as difficulty? *coughroguelikescough* Some of which (ToMENet, ferex) are multiplayer or have a competitive aspect (Nethack, crawl tournies). There are folks that intentionally gimp themselves (by picking "weaker" options) so they can laugh at the scrubs when they beat said scrubs into the ground, or play the weaker race simply because they find it more attractive, for whatever reason. They might not end up able to compete on the highest level of play as those races, but neither can better than 90% of the playerbase regardless of what they pick so I wouldn't really call that something to particularly care about

Which is to say it's a valid (valid enough, anyway) design decision, even for multiplayer. Remains to be seen if starbound'll go that route, though.