Announcing a need to release waste sounds like a very Khajiit trait to me
âKhajiit needs litter. You should see to this, yes?â
More relevantly, my alien:
Name: Makalaket
Gender: Male
Uniform: lightweight armor
Body Type: human
Skin Color: grey
Special Feature 1: pointy ears
Special Feature 2: web hands
Origin: You hail from the planet of Mishariov where it is perfectly acceptable to sample othersâ food without asking permission and share your opinion about the taste.
Attributes:
Vitality: 8
Resolve: 8
Allure: 3
Spontaneity: 3
Brilliance: 3
Health: 15
Maximum Health: 16
Special Ability: Perfect Memory
Archetype: Tank
Just wondering, are the attribute distributions set in stone or will there be options to customize them a bit? Like if I wanted to trade a couple vitality points for a bit of brilliance?
Well, I did not want the non-humanoid characters being âtougherâ than the humanoid ones. Like, I didnât want to automatically give lizard aliens Combat Tails, and I didnât want to automatically give insect aliens Flight. That would either: 1) give them an extra Ability, which is unfair, or 2) lock them into using that as their Ability, which some folks wouldnât want.
@Malvastor, I had considered doing a âset your own attributesâ approach in character creation, but coding is not my strong suit, and I couldnât get it to work, so I went with Archetypes which are a LOT easier for me to handle. I thought the 5 Archetypes would provide decent spreads for most people. I might add a 6th one, Generalist, with a 5 in each Attribute, for folks who want a decent shot at passing almost any check.
My wife actually said that if she had a 50% chance at passing a high risk/high reward check, she would roll the dice almost every time, and sheâs very risk adverse normally, so she is my inspiration for this one.
General Thought: Iâm not sure I like the NPCs having powers that can duplicate the MCâs. For example, at first I thought it was cool that you could âcreateâ your own version of Telka by making a humanoid Empathy/Communicator, but now Iâm thinking the duplication waters down the MCâs usefulness and/or makes things too complicated.
Of the 10 offered Abilities, 4 are already possessed by the NPCs.
Trazer, Flight
Telka, Empathy
Jaxer, Taunt
Preston, Telekinesis
Only Perfect Memory, Luck, Hard Skin, Combat Tail, Limited Healing, and Illusions are unique. I wonder if I should limit MC powers to those six, instead? Or perhaps add 4 new ones that donât duplicate the NPCs? Any thoughts on that?
Iâm conflicted. On one hand, I pretty much agree with everything you said. Being able to fully duplicate aNPC character feels weird, and the overlap is kinda redundant if you can just get your crew to do it instead of you.
On the other hand⌠empathy was the one I chose because I love the idea and the extra depth it gives to character interactions :[
But yeah, I think removing them and adding new ones is probably the best bet here if you can always just get your ally to do it.
That said, if youâre going to get separated from your crew and wonât always have access to the crewâs abilities, then disregard everything I just said. Iâm fine with a bit of redundancy in group situations if it lets me use that ability when the crew isnât around.
Iâm really enjoying the demo so farâpretty hype about designing a non-human MC with this much customization over appearance! Thatâs awesome!
Quick typoâin the very first choice, all the options end in periods except the first one ends in a comma.
And wrt to those options, it feels a little odd that the choices for conventionally attractive and not conventionally attractive are exactly the same. Especially given that most of the cast we meet are gonna be non-humans who probably donât share the same standards of attractiveness, it makes the option feel very arbitrary, or like a fake choice. I know in the old thread, the discussion of categories leaned a little more towards âbasically human,â âhumanoid thing,â âa creature with limbs that sure can function in the same space as a person probably,â and defining it more like that rather than by âattractivenessâ I think would work a little better. And looking at the options thereâstuff like the elongated neck or third eye, that feels like stuff that would make the MC look a little more alien and could be categorized separately from the stuff like pointy ears or stripes
Otherwise, Iâm really enjoying this! I like putting my alien together and Iâm looking forward to getting to know the cast better!
Thereâs a poll at the bottom re: new powers I might add!
List of Crewâs Powers
Telekinesis - small items only (Preston)
Empathy - feel emotions only (Telka)
Taunt - tends to lose more health by drawing attacks from others (Jaxer)
Flight - only works in environments with gravity (Trazer)
So assuming I leave these as is, Iâve decided to chop these four powers from MCâs list to avoid duplication. I figure the crew will be together most of the time, and although sometimes you might just be paired off, I still conclude that it seems dumb for a crew of five to feature two members with the exact same ability.
So that leaves these six Abilities, each with a pretty big limitation (this is a good thing)
Good Luck - not very reliable, tends to come and go, cannot be counted on
Perfect Memory - useless in combat, others may not trust your information even if you are certain
Hard Skin - only helps when you are attacked, does not help against mystical or mental attacks
Illusions - cannot harm anyone or make sound, useless against robots or those with strong senses
Limited Healing - damages you in the process, can only heal a limited amount of damage
Combat Tail - only good against opponents at close range, cannot be performed in tight spaces
10 powers was probably too many anyway, but Iâd like to add 2 to the list to bump it back to 8. Here are the ones Iâm considering: Vote for the two you would like to see added!
-
Toxins - can inadvertently result in death of victim, no way to reduce damage, useless against robots (great for taking down very evil characters)
-
Plant Control - requires you be in close proximity to plant life (kicks ass on many planets)
-
Phasing - you can only phase for a short time, cannot affect others, you are still visible (great for quick escape)
-
Energy Absorption - you can absorb different forms of energy and redirect it toward others. Must release energy to avoid overloading. (great against robots, weapons, etc)
So which ones do you vote for?
- Toxins
- Plant Control
- Phasing
- Energy Absorption
0 voters
It probably says a lot about me that my first thought upon reading Iâm not what you would call conventionally attractive was: The more unconventional, the better!
Too bad that we cannot be a wobbly, five-headed tentacle monster, but I certainly get it. At any rate, I chose to resemble a lizard and I was happy that you could even be stylish with gold, pink or violet skin color. Choosing my ability was really hard because I actually wanted to play a Krogan, so hard skin or limited healing seemed like the most fitting choices. Empathy, however, seemed the most appealing for this genius space lizard playthrough.
Build:
Summary
Name: Shiagur
Gender: Female
Uniform: lightweight armor
Body Type: lizard
Skin Color: violet
Special Feature 1:
Special Feature 2:
Origin: You hail from the planet of Tuchanka where it is perfectly acceptable to announce whenever you feel the need to eliminate waste material.
Attributes:
Vitality: 3
Resolve: 3
Allure: 3
Spontaneity: 8
Brilliance: 8
Health: 6
Maximum Health: 6
Special Ability: Empathy
Archetype: Genius
Out of curiosity: Does the ânot romantically/sexually attractedâ choice lock me out of any kind of romance?
Edit: To clarify: Iâm merely asking because either the lack of romantic or sexual attraction â which, personally, I understand as stating that my character identifies as ace and/or aro â are not really indicative of a general disinterest in romantic or sexual relationships. So if thatâs the choice that locks the romance content off altogether, it would be clearer if it just said exactly that: The character isnât interested in romance.
Also: I might want to romance that dolphin science officer just for the ridiculousness.
If we canât have flight could we have a limited hovering?
Youâre breaking my heart right now.
Maybe one of the better coders on this thread could help out, sorry that Iâm not able to do it either.
Iâd still like to try a 7 brilliance, 7 allure, 3 spontaneity, 4 resolve and 4 vitality build. But itâs no biggie since my coding modding skill is certainly sufficient to modify one of the archetypes for my personal use once this has a Steam release version and I have actual, local files to mod.
Well Iâd want to retain at least some sort of psionic/telepathic/telekinetic ability for my space (dark)elf.
HmmmâŚI suppose you could give the option for the mc to be a true telepath, able to read actual minds and occasionally influence them too.
Also will we get any true, baseline (modern in our sense of the word) human companions, I thought you had two of them planned originally as well as a robot? Though I suppose if we do visit âourâ Earth or something very much like it we might pick up our own Crichton there.
Okay, so, this is all very preliminary and Iâm sure Iâm going to make changes but my beloved MC Samir needs to be a beautiful alien man.
Rough Design
Finished the demo! Itâs unfortunate that Empathy is being removed, but Iâm jazzed about getting one of the new powers. On the topic of customization options: I feel like simply picking a body type is a bit of a letdown for the âvaguely humanoidâ types. A few suggestions for special features (generally more towards the âvaguely humanoidâ end):
- bulbous, protruding eyes
- pharyngeal jaws
- smooth, flat nasal ridge
- second, vestigal set of limbs.
MC below, weird-looking giraffe neck triclops with a few Aasimov references thrown in:
Summary
Return to the Game Restart Settings
Basic Alien Information:
Name: R-Daneel
Gender: Male
Uniform: practical uniform
Body Type: human
Skin Color: blue
Special Feature 1: third eye
Special Feature 2: long neck
Origin: You hail from the planet of Terminus where it is perfectly acceptable to remove all clothing when making an important decision with allies.
Attributes:
Vitality: 3
Resolve: 4
Allure: 8
Spontaneity: 5
Brilliance: 5
Health: 6
Maximum Health: 7
Special Ability: Empathy
Archetype: Communicator
@Mewsly Heâs lovely, and so is your art.
Woah this is so cool!!! Iâm hooked already, especially because the more I can customise my character the more I love a game, and I can be an ALIEN?? Sign me up!!
My alien!
Basic Alien Information:
Name: Yrane
Gender: Nonbinary
Uniform: jumpsuit
Body Type: human
Skin Color: silver
Special Feature 1: third eye
Special Feature 2: spots
Origin: You hail from the planet of Tarrqi Xe where it is perfectly acceptable to sample othersâ food without asking permission and share your opinion about the taste.
Attributes:
Vitality: 3
Resolve: 4
Allure: 8
Spontaneity: 5
Brilliance: 5
Health: 7
Maximum Health: 7
Special Ability: Perfect Memory
Archetype: Communicator
Iâm gonna make art of them too probably, honestly. (Will post here if I do!)
@Mewsly Wow!! Not only your art is pretty, your character is both gorgeous and interesting!!
Basic Alien Information:
Name: Samuel-9
Gender: Male
Uniform: flowing robes(I donât really understand what flowing robes mean, after all ancient Chinese men wear robes along with the women).
Body Type: human
Skin Color: green
Special Feature 1: third eye
Special Feature 2: stripes
Origin: You hail from the planet of Alpha 1 where it is perfectly acceptable to sample othersâ food without asking permission and share your opinion about the taste.
Attributes:
Vitality: 8
Resolve: 8
Allure: 3
Spontaneity: 3
Brilliance: 3
Health: 16
Maximum Health: 16
Special Ability: Combat Tail
Archetype: Tank
Can you make some art about him?( Along with him wearing his robes, it would be pretty cool).
Here is my character. I couldnât resist.
Kif Kroker
Name: Kif Kroker
Uniform: jumpsuit
Body Type: Human (not attractive)
Skin Color: Green
Special Feature 1: Pointy ears
Special Feature 2: web hands
Origin: Amphibious-9, where it is perfectly acceptable to sample other peopleâs food without asking.
Archetype: Genius
Power: Perfect memory
I admit that Iâm pretty excited to see the level of interest in this! I am having fun writing early in the morning before work, and knowing that folks would like to see more of this really motivates me! Really looking forward to posting an update on Sunday!
Looking at the poll, with 46 voters chiming in, Energy Absorption is at 63%, Phasing is 52%, and Plant Control is 52%. Since those are so incredibly close, I decided to add all three to the list. And since Iâd prefer to have an even number of Abilities (itâs a thing!), Iâll also include Toxins to bump the Ability list up to an even 10.
New Complete List: (alphabetical order)
Combat Tail
Energy Absorption
Good Luck
Illusions
Limited Healing
Perfect Memory
Phasing
Plant Control/Communication
Thick Skin
Toxins
That seems like a nice, balanced list with some combat, support, utility, etc., with no Ability objectively underpowered or overpowered. I am locking that in now so I can move forward with certainty.
Thereâs always the chance of the MC obtaining some weapons/gear along the way as well!
Really interesting game so far! I am looking forward to this comedic take on space opera. Anyways, here is my alien!
Basic Alien Information:
Name: Alterith-21
Gender: Male
Uniform: practical uniform
Body Type: human
Skin Color: gold
Special Feature 1: pointy ears
Special Feature 2: spots
Origin: You hail from the planet of Delta-Sigma-378 where it is perfectly acceptable to sample othersâ food without asking permission and share your opinion about the taste.
Attributes:
Vitality: 3
Resolve: 4
Allure: 8
Spontaneity: 5
Brilliance: 5
Health: 7
Maximum Health: 7
Special Ability: Perfect Memory
Archetype: Communicator
Basic Alien Information:
Name: Rosie
Gender: Female
Uniform: skimpy outfit
Body Type: human
Skin Color: pink
Special Feature 1: antennae
Special Feature 2: spots
Origin: You hail from the planet of Qoter-15 where it is perfectly acceptable to remove all clothing when making an important decision with allies.
Attributes:
Vitality: 3
Resolve: 4
Allure: 8
Spontaneity: 5
Brilliance: 5
Health: 7
Maximum Health: 7
Special Ability: Empathy
Archetype: Communicator
I was going to pick skimpy outfit and the remove all clothing option anyway, but I did think that it fits the title. Iâll be majorly disappointed if the option doesnât come up later.
Iâm disappointed too that Empathy is going away, so Iâm going with Plant Control, but I like healing and illusions too.
If youâre going to have a character creator instead of working it in the story, I think the customization options are too limiting right now.
Regarding the story, I think thereâs too much going on right at the start. Too many character introductions close together, and there are lots of things to keep track of that itâs hard to remember what I read a few paragraphs ago. I think it would be better if you give a simple description at first, then the details later when everything else has been established.
I like the tone of the story though! I hope to see more!
AwwwâŚno telepathy/telekinesis/psionics for the mc anymore. Guess itâll have to be good luck for the mc now, though that seems more like an individual and less like a species âabilityâ.
Also:
and with your crew 32 light years from home.
32 light years doesnât seem very much in FTL sci-fi terms, particularly when the science officer casually references a system 2400 light years away just before.
Star Trek Voyager had to cover 70000 light years to home somehow, is you want a medium distance between that maybe 32000 light years would be more appropriate?