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View Full Version : Suggestion: Make animal forms available like new races.



ShieldBreaker
07-12-2017, 06:14 AM
The idea is that on top of the existing animal form system, there be a quest system like the dwarf, fairy, orc will get. You complete the quest and you create a new character that is in fact created with no underlying race buts starts with an animal form determined by which quest is completed. Maybe the quest is only available if you have a free character slot, or maybe it opens up a character creation choose like it would for the advanced races. If the animal form was expanded into the character creation system, it be great to be able to choose different textures, so you could basically choose your fur color. Of course this could be done in two steps: One, a quick your a rabbit, wake up in animal town. Two, when looking to add and improving content down the road expand animals to be customize-able and create-able.

Character with no underlying race.
Or maybe I should say some sort of general animal race is the base race. The base race would indicate to the game that you are a pure animal and would disable any effects a un-your-animal-form potion would have. Having this base race should open up extra possibilities to learn more exclusive advanced animal abilities as well as removing wait times for getting into animal town. Maybe if this existed the next step would be to let characters created with one of the other races, give up their race to becomes permanently their animal form, opening up that exclusive animal content to them.

The starting area for all animal characters would be Animal town, given that veteran players would be the ones creating animal characters they can manage having a starting level character in Sun Vale, Serbule is right next door.

One Big Drawback of some drawbacks.
You would need to find dialog like "I am not some wizard's familiar, I'm cursed." Because most likely the quest that created you was your rescued from some evil wizard or set free from some magic animal testing lab. So the giving dialog would need to be branched to notice if you are in fact flagged as a pure animal and be altered. Which means more work :( However, you could postpone that work in the short term, by warning on accepting the quest that dialogs haven't been updated to reflect the new class of pure animals. And maybe at some future point when you are ready to tackle the task of fixing dialog you could ask for players to actively report RP breaking dialog lines and choices.

Another drawback is that the idea in general would require more development work, I know. But it is an idea that addresses maybe part of animal form being too easy to switch back and forth all the time. And to some extent it seems that in one move you added 1/2 a dozen new races and create a demand for new character slots. Also, I don't know how other players feel, but I think some would like the choice to renounce they underlying humanoid form for various reasons.

Thanks for reading.


Going to ramble for a bit.
This idea came to me as I was running around as a rabbit. Now the character that is a rabbit, is not the nicest of fellows, a flawed character if you will (not Shieldbreaker character btw, he has his own completely different set of character flaws). But he has been a rabbit for as long as is possible, and that might be too long for him. I find him running around frolicking, jumping, gathering eggs, singing, being silly and happy. That isn't him, but it kind of makes me happy to be frolicking, jumping, gathering eggs, singing, being silly and happy. To protect his ego, I want to get out of rabbit form as quick as possible, but I'd like to be able to log on and be frolicking, jumping, gathering eggs, singing, being silly and happy also. So the idea of have a complete rabbit character came to me and one with a completely rabbit backstory would be the best.

Khaylara
07-12-2017, 05:26 PM
Iirc potions (pig, deer, bunny) are only a testing/alpha item, maybe it's already in the works to have animals as "playable races" from the get go. I don't have a clue about future plans but it would be a great idea-be a cow or a bunny from the character creation screen and play only as a cow or a bunny:)

Tagamogi
07-13-2017, 08:39 AM
But he has been a rabbit for as long as is possible, and that might be too long for him. I find him running around frolicking, jumping, gathering eggs, singing, being silly and happy.

Oh, you too? I don't know what it is about eggs but I find them utterly irresistible in rabbit form. :D I haven't quite figured out the singing part of being a bunny, although I do find myself casting more spells than needed just so I can make that fun "squeee" sound. Don't worry about your alt - being silly is just a natural side effect of the potion. And who cares about dignity if you can hop?

I really like the idea of creating an animal character from the start, just for the extra rp opportunity. I'm not fond of the idea of exclusive abilities for permanent animals though, unless it's something very small like the current racial bonuses.

ShieldBreaker
07-13-2017, 08:59 AM
Not only do I find the egg more tempting to pick up, I want them to be colourful and want the ability to dye them. It is pretty crazy, I resisted the urge to actually submit it as a suggestion, it having so little practical use or replay value. The songs my bunny sings are "at the hop" and the smurf song, just hums them to himself mostly not like a bard thing. Does actually do some dancing, but not out of control urge, usually Penoc tells him to. Couple more days and I hopefully be ready to drop bunny form.

Tagamogi
07-13-2017, 10:59 AM
I think there could be lots of replay value in coloring eggs! After you dye the eggs, you can hide them for other bunnies to find, then they can re-dye them and leave them for you to find... Endless fun! ;) And if we can't dye eggs, how about the ability to color our own fur? We could go for a look similar to these EQ bunnies here: http://zam.zamimg.com/images/3/9/39f51878f44ad4bfb004976b41acf764.png .

I think I spent about 50% of my time as a bunny dancing so far. It's not out of control, it's just ... a bunny thing. Yeah. And totally not out of control.