Seeker Discussion Thread

[Arcaii]

Owls, I think, count as birds of prey. Which sucks, because I'd love an owl MMO. Maybe, like, a really tiny owl? Elf owls live on bugs, so they wouldn't necessarily be enemies with the usual prey. But I think they live in the desert...

[detective who.]

This is absolutely fascinating. I'll be there to join up, if/when you make this into something. I'm really intrigued, ehehe.

[Arcaii]

Wonderful! The idea gets to stick around, then.

[~*Amber*~]

I was thinking of burrow owl actually, the tiny ones with really long legs and run like doofuses. They do eat mice and eat but they eat a lot of bugs as well so I dunno

[Arcaii]

I think they're also desert animals? I'm not too sure.

Anyway, speaking of, I might as well think about the predators. Gives me something to do other than stare hopelessly at the screen and wait for my tablet to return from war.

So in this world, there's a sliding scale of sapience that every playable animal resides on. However, the separation of predator and prey is so vast that the scale might as well not even exist when talking about them. Meat-eaters like cats, coyotes and owls don't recognize the critters they eat as beings with personalities and families - if they did, they would have to struggle with their morality and diets (as if they don't have enough trouble with the weird new coating of wood and metal mice are suddenly wearing). Likewise, prey animals can't see their hunters as anything but faceless, cruel behemoths without brains. I'm sure that if you sat down and talked with a mountain lion (provided it had eaten first) you would be surprised at how intelligent it is, though the intelligence shows itself in an entirely different way than, say, a shrike.

Predators are an extremely dangerous enemy to tango with, so the player would either need to have a party of their own characters, or work with a group of other players to fight them properly. Smaller enemies like minks and weasels, would require a group of at least six characters to take down. As you climb the ladder of size, however, larger and larger parties and more indirect methods (which is where rangers shine) would be employed to minimize injury and death. Eventually, once you get to the size of coyotes and bobcats, it becomes a faction event (which is something else I'll discuss later) and that entire section of players would need to work together to defeat the enemy. Any larger, like a puma or bear, and it becomes a sitewide event that would probably take a couple days to defeat with enough of the factions working together.

The loot, to say the least, is definitely worth the effort. You have no idea how much beastmasters and necromancers will pay for coyote bones and puma hair.

[abxy]

Oh my god.

This would be multiplayer, right?
Could you play as different animals?
Just the two questions I want to ask because I am DOWN for this. Like, DOWN DOWN.

[Arcaii]

Heck yeah, man! It would be built around two different play styles. For the people like me who want to play alone, they can make a party of ten or so characters and go on quests by themselves. For those who enjoy the MMO experience, they can form teams with other players.

If I form this thing in the distant future, it would start with about 12 different animals within the three groups you could choose to play as. Terrain animals like mice, rats, squirrels and lizards, avians like bats, hummingbirds, jays and ravens, and amphibians like frogs, toads, salamanders and newts. The list would expand as time goes on, of course, but if it's small and doesn't eat meat, it'd be playable.

[~*Amber*~]

I am so down with a crow or bat. I have a soft spot for avian type animals

[Comettail76]

That sounds awesome, if it's made I'll certainly join it. I'd probably want to be a rogue, ranger, or beastmaster, mainly depending on if I can summon wildcats far enough into the game as a summoner beastmaster and also on what other people pick [I tend to try to pick less common classes].

[Arcaii]

I tried to consider what would be useful in the game. I'd hate to have a bard situation.

Anyway, in trying to stave off the art-boredom, I bought Tomodachi Life for myself and immediately filled up the first floor of the island apartments. One lookalike Mii, because I was forced to, and 7 of the exact same person.

I call it Jahn Island.



Stay tuned for the adventures of the clones.