--- Skip this paragraph if you're not interested in an Internet stranger's unsolicited opinion
I won't speak to popularity any more than that, since it doesn't really interest me. What does interest me is that just about every playable species is essentially humanoid (bipedal, head, two arms, two legs, and the occasional tail) whereas nonplayable species have body plans that include centauroid, serpentine, two non-bipedalinsectoids, cnidarian, molluscoid, and whatever these are, plus all the others that didn't stand out in my mind strongly enough to remember their names and wiki pages. I realize that it has more to do with general trends in sci-fi than Starmourn itself, per se, but I feel like a MUD is exactly the kind of place where they should be playable. You don't have to worry about animations, skeleton rigging, low poly count, or bad texturing dragging the gameplay down — they leap off the proverbial page pretty well on their own, I think.
It comes down to balance, in our games, our attacks can be limb-centric or bodypart-centric. Can you sweep the legs out from under a slug? Can you break the arms of something that doesn't have arms? No. Should some combat mechanics not apply based on your race? So while we don't have graphical issues to worry about, the depth of our combat limits that sort of things in other ways.
I recognize that there are very good, sound reasons for why Starmourn's playable species selection is what it is, and I certainly didn't mean to imply any kind of deficiency in the game for going in this direction. If anything, I'd say we're fairly spoiled for choice! Between the Beta Contest thread itself and the Character Concepts thread on the Roleplaying board, there are clearly people who have been immediately grabbed by one species or another (the Jin are a good example I think) or who, like me, find so many of them compelling that we're juggling two or three.
I didn't mean to derail the thread with that comment, so I'll not say any more on the subject rather than make more of a fool of myself.
I recognize that there are very good, sound reasons for why Starmourn's playable species selection is what it is, and I certainly didn't mean to imply any kind of deficiency in the game for going in this direction. If anything, I'd say we're fairly spoiled for choice! Between the Beta Contest thread itself and the Character Concepts thread on the Roleplaying board, there are clearly people who have been immediately grabbed by one species or another (the Jin are a good example I think) or who, like me, find so many of them compelling that we're juggling two or three.
I didn't mean to derail the thread with that comment, so I'll not say any more on the subject rather than make more of a fool of myself.
As an aside: If Starmourn were more "hard sci-fi" than "adventurous space opera", I'd probably be worried about the genetic health of a species whose founding population has been stated to be 375. Instead, I just expect to hear a passing comment in some Scatterhome dive about how vigorously humans are fighting that whole "endangered species" label.
375 is more than enough to maintain genetic diversity. Technically the bottleneck required for successful repopulation (without everyone being inbred accidents) is somewhere in double digits, even very low double digits if you assume careful planning and some kind of marriage overseer monitoring who has kids with whom.
Now the question is, how much time it'd take for the human population to reach stable levels but Starmourn is a pretty high tech setting. It's not out of question that some kind of cloning technology or even genetic manipulation was involved.
The ironic part for me is that earlier in the day I'd gotten really excited for something, then disappointed when it didn't happen. Normally I'm good at remaining cynical but yesterday I let that slip twice.
I just wanna say to all you lucky bastards who got into the beta and are bothering with perusing the forums with us simpletons.. Show those bugs and glitches who's boss! I hate you right now, but you have a job to do! Curb stomp that coding, break those boundaries, shut down those nudey bars! And.. as those british YouTubers say, smash that awesome button, but literally just smash it to pieces so all these problems can be fixed by the time we peasants rip open that christmas present labeled 'starmourn' while sucking down some eggnog(alcoholic, or what's the point?)!!! Also, I hate you, but the angel on my shoulder says be nice. Have fun, guys!
Commenting so that Tecton isn't the last poster, so seeing this thread bumped will be less of a cock tease for people still hoping to get a beta invite.
Actually, with the workload I've been having lately, I'm kind of grateful to the Empyreals that I was not chosen as a Trib... tester. I should sort everything out by December, but between being a dad, working full time and participating in the National Novel Writing Month... I'm not sure being a winged, feline space Dervish would get the space it deserves
I get an email from Starmourn that starts with "Congratulations! You've been..." and I start celebrating. I plan out how I'll go about my day tomorrow so I can start binge playing. I do a little dance. Then I'm curious to see how they've written the invitation.
"Congratulations! You've been promoted to Level 2." From posting in the forums.
It was a forum email. Not an invitation. I have made myself sad.
Comments
I didn't mean to derail the thread with that comment, so I'll not say any more on the subject rather than make more of a fool of myself.
stares at his inbox as a single tear streams down his cheek
sniffle
Show those bugs and glitches who's boss!
I hate you right now, but you have a job to do! Curb stomp that coding, break those boundaries, shut down those nudey bars!
And.. as those british YouTubers say, smash that awesome button, but literally just smash it to pieces so all these problems can be fixed by the time we peasants rip open that christmas present labeled 'starmourn' while sucking down some eggnog(alcoholic, or what's the point?)!!!
Also, I hate you, but the angel on my shoulder says be nice. Have fun, guys!
"Congratulations! You've been promoted to Level 2." From posting in the forums.
It was a forum email. Not an invitation. I have made myself sad.