Forgemaster Gender-Locked?

[longblade 29]

I'm totally not a fan of gender locking. I get if it is an important part of the story, but if really sucks when you like playing your own gender in a game the thing you want to play is only the other one.

 

imho

[gauis 528]

Stoneborn have no penis, confirmed.

Umm Besides stone he said they are also made of wood. Wonder what part of the anatomy is mad of wood...

[valor 2,134]

The females could simply have massive beards too... ya never know.

[teh_ninjaneer 493]

Umm Besides stone he said they are also made of wood. Wonder what part of the anatomy is mad of wood...

 

Muscle and sinew.  Wood bends a lot easier than stone!

 

What are you thinking of?

[youma 423]

They have no sex because they have no reproductive capacity. They identify as male because they relate to the god who created them and in the image in which they were created.

Edited January 29, 2015 by youma

[bairloch 2,136]

Can it be gender locked with no gender? They are a sterile race, created by the gods. When one dies, there are none to replace them. This is why they mourn. They will eventually dwindle unto extinction.

 

The most interesting thing was telling us that they are the same as the Hunger, which makes them a race, PC or NPC, so it's not just a food mechanic.

 

They hunger for you.

[mandalore 2,649]

Who care's what gender they are.  They are made of stone.  Move along, nothing to see here.

[dwarfurious 402]

Yes, the Stoneborn ARE all one gender.  (Male-ish, since they don't reproduce. technically, since they are made of stone and wood, they're more like golems.)

 

I'm not willing to bend on this one, because who they are and where they came from are critical to the game's narrative.  This particular chapter is a cornerstone of our backstory.

 

With the other archetypes, I'm pretty open in this regard.  If enough people are interested in female Centaurs -- sure, no problem!  It's not that I don't like the idea; it's just that we're trying to be realistic and spend our resources on the features/assets that will be the most popular.  We had to make educated guesses as to what fell on either side of that line.  If we made the wrong call, and you guys REALLY want a female Centaur Legionnaire (or whatever), we are totally cool with that.

 

But when the narrative relies on it, well, that's another matter.  I hope you understand, and will be willing to give me this one.

 

Todd

ACE

YES, finally the DWARVES are central to the story rather than passengers on the elven narrative train.

[Dynimix 192]

I think it is interesting how they don't necessarily get into the normal quips of the world and allow for one race to be something entirely distinct. Stoneforge obviously look like males, but they obviously do not procreate in the same err...fashion and are seemingly not defined by that. I think it will be interesting to see if there is an alternate way of playing an avatar than male or female. 

[bairloch 2,136]

Anarchy Online has had the Neuter Atrox race vat-born for a looong time. It doesn't really change anything unless you're an RPer. As RP, it opens up lots of fun dialog.

[dwarfurious 402]

I think in WoW, female dwarves were the rarest character of all. Still, it may not be too late to get a second Dwarf Archtype that is more female in appearance and has a different role. I'd like to see at least two Dwarf archtypes to make our Dwarven factions viable!

[onebalancewiz 6]

Really hope the Frostweilder isn't gender-locked :/

[shadow2015 11]

Stoneborn = super cool!

 

Love the beard!

[NicholasLionRider 484]

I am cool with this being male only. If any girl wants to be a burely, rustic female with a beard that is overly muscular and covered in dirt...okay..."sorry" but let's face it, this doesn't seem like a big deal. Centaurs I could see girls playing, dwarf like creatures, seriously? I am surprised WoW has as many girl dwarf players as it does since typically, Dwarves are only meant to be male.

[emralled 67]

This is the kind of gender locking that doesn't perturb me in the least. The Stoneborn are a genderless race of stone dwarves, their lore makes their single "gender" logical since there is no reproduction involved with this race and they were all created at once long ago. No problem with this.

 

It's different with animal/mammal races like centaurs, where dual genders make sense (and female centaurs are even mentioned in the lore). JTodd knows this, he's not against the idea of dual genders in some monster races, he's just trying to spend the budget wisely.

 

Making a non-humanoid race at all is very uncommon in games as it is, because it is more expensive and more work than re-using the humanoid biped animations and skeleton, so I applaud Artcraft for doing something hard and pricey but ultimately unique and just plain cool with their centaurs. If it means we can only have one version of some monster races in order to have them at all, because they are double or triple the cost of a traditional humanoid race to make, well, that's much better than not having them at all!

 

But, I hope that if the game has budget left over after the more important features of the game are in place and working as intended, and/or the game makes a lot of extra "stretch goal" money at some point (from selling early access, kickstarter, investors, selling in-game items, subs, etc, if they choose to do any of those things), and the team acquires the funds they need to expand the game, some of the gender locked races will have their other (lore-permitting) gender added as playable at some point in the distant future, if there is enough demand for it. I think that is a sensible approach.   

[drifterzero 12]

Yes, the Stoneborn ARE all one gender.  (Male-ish, since they don't reproduce. technically, since they are made of stone and wood, they're more like golems.)

 

I'm not willing to bend on this one, because who they are and where they came from are critical to the game's narrative.  This particular chapter is a cornerstone of our backstory.

 

With the other archetypes, I'm pretty open in this regard.  If enough people are interested in female Centaurs -- sure, no problem!  It's not that I don't like the idea; it's just that we're trying to be realistic and spend our resources on the features/assets that will be the most popular.  We had to make educated guesses as to what fell on either side of that line.  If we made the wrong call, and you guys REALLY want a female Centaur Legionnaire (or whatever), we are totally cool with that.

 

But when the narrative relies on it, well, that's another matter.  I hope you understand, and will be willing to give me this one.

 

Todd

ACE

 

Glad to see you guys take a page from SB Dwarf lore - it's the most original and best I've read.

[vVe 460]

Who care's what gender they are.  They are made of stone.  Move along, nothing to see here.

Bitter much?

[vVe 460]

Really hope the Frostweilder isn't gender-locked :/

She shouldn't be.

[squirlypete 14]

I'm not willing to bend on this one, because who they are and where they came from are critical to the game's narrative.  This particular chapter is a cornerstone of our backstory.

 

 

Appreciate the confirmation!

 

Any chance you can tell us how the narrative will effect the player's experience in-game? (or if its just a backstory for us players to build on?)

[indianburn 12]

I am a BIG fan of the little guys. Are they little? Don't really have any scaling comparison to tell relative heights. Devs have not really used the term dwarf or anything indicating a smaller stature. 

 

One of the silly thing that I always liked about SB was character model size was relative to race + strength. You could tell a Con Barb from a Str Barb with a glance. I don't think I've played a game since that had that feature. Might be cool to see visual ques for other stats. Really high Dex gives you a blurring motion when you move. Spirit gives you an aura. Intelligence, not sure maybe a huge head, like a super villain?  

 

 

^ this