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KaVir · 02-04-2003, 07:06 AM

The problem then is deciding what is "average". By the very definition of the word, the average intelligence cannot be above average - unless you were defining the stats from the viewpoint of another race or species.

But is it really beneficial to list (for example) the stats of an ogre as "average" across the board, and then give all the other races huge strength penalties and intelligence bonuses? Or would it be easier to let people to judge the strengths and weaknesses of the different fantasy races by comparing them against humans? I would say the latter.

But then it comes on to the issue of game balance. You've now created a situation in which each race is particularly good at a certain activity, and thus the obvious choice for certain styles of play. A halfling will make a better thief than a human, an elf a better mage, a dwarf a better warrior - so why would anyone play a human?

Whenever you develop a mud, you always need to decide where you want to draw the line between realism and playability. If realism was your only concern, you wouldn't worry about the races balancing out - you might well have one race which is far superior to the others. But muds are also games, and if you have a supreme race, almost everyone will want to play it.

Thus you need to some incensive - some advantage - for every race within the mud. But if humans are supposed to be "average" at everything (the measuring stick against which other races are judged), what can you give them that's special?

Well, let's examine the big picture. Supposing we have the elves who are geared towards magic, the halflings who are geared towards thievery and the dwarves who are geared towards combat. That means that humans are likely to be the second best at all of those - in other words, they are more adaptable to a wider range of roles than the other races. A human might not be as good at adapting as an animal, but when compared against the other humanoid races they are obviously the best "all round", the "jack of all trades" so to speak.

Once you've decided what needs to be done to maintain a balance between the races, it's easy to explain an in-game reason for it. The most obvious one is that the dwarves like to live underground, the elves like to live in the forest, and the halflings generally prefer to live boring lives in their shires. As humans have the shortest lifespans, they also breed a lot faster. Combined with the fact that they have no "preferred" place to live like the other races, the chances are they'll learn to adapt much quicker to other environments. Not only do elves not *want* to live in the desert, but it's also going to take around 10 times as long for each generation to appear, making it that much more difficult and time consuming for them to adapt.

Of course that doesn't mean that humans have to be boring. There's no reason each race can't have their own unique form of magic or styles of weapons (humans included). Equally, there's no reason why you can't have different races of human, each of which has learned to adapt to a certain type of environment.

02-04-2003, 07:06 AM	#3
KaVir Legend Join Date: Apr 2002 Name: Richard Home MUD: God Wars II Posts: 2,052	The problem then is deciding what is "average". By the very definition of the word, the average intelligence cannot be above average - unless you were defining the stats from the viewpoint of another race or species. But is it really beneficial to list (for example) the stats of an ogre as "average" across the board, and then give all the other races huge strength penalties and intelligence bonuses? Or would it be easier to let people to judge the strengths and weaknesses of the different fantasy races by comparing them against humans? I would say the latter. But then it comes on to the issue of game balance. You've now created a situation in which each race is particularly good at a certain activity, and thus the obvious choice for certain styles of play. A halfling will make a better thief than a human, an elf a better mage, a dwarf a better warrior - so why would anyone play a human? Whenever you develop a mud, you always need to decide where you want to draw the line between realism and playability. If realism was your only concern, you wouldn't worry about the races balancing out - you might well have one race which is far superior to the others. But muds are also games, and if you have a supreme race, almost everyone will want to play it. Thus you need to some incensive - some advantage - for every race within the mud. But if humans are supposed to be "average" at everything (the measuring stick against which other races are judged), what can you give them that's special? Well, let's examine the big picture. Supposing we have the elves who are geared towards magic, the halflings who are geared towards thievery and the dwarves who are geared towards combat. That means that humans are likely to be the second best at all of those - in other words, they are more adaptable to a wider range of roles than the other races. A human might not be as good at adapting as an animal, but when compared against the other humanoid races they are obviously the best "all round", the "jack of all trades" so to speak. Once you've decided what needs to be done to maintain a balance between the races, it's easy to explain an in-game reason for it. The most obvious one is that the dwarves like to live underground, the elves like to live in the forest, and the halflings generally prefer to live boring lives in their shires. As humans have the shortest lifespans, they also breed a lot faster. Combined with the fact that they have no "preferred" place to live like the other races, the chances are they'll learn to adapt much quicker to other environments. Not only do elves not want to live in the desert, but it's also going to take around 10 times as long for each generation to appear, making it that much more difficult and time consuming for them to adapt. Of course that doesn't mean that humans have to be boring. There's no reason each race can't have their own unique form of magic or styles of weapons (humans included). Equally, there's no reason why you can't have different races of human, each of which has learned to adapt to a certain type of environment.