Playable Races

[ObiQuiYett]

Well, they had to leave room for the expansion packs.

[Krusedullfaen]

The reason is simple;

 

None of the "stranger" races, such as Wookiees, would fit in the storyline as a character.

 

Bioware spent money developing facial animations for each of the available races, and they were chosen BECAUSE they were similar enough to use the same ones.

 

How would a Wookiee frown? Would you see it?

And what about the voice? Would it speak perfect Basic? Or just have random growls for every line of dialogue?

And how would they express subtle emotion in a *growl*? Human-voices can emote very delicately, running the gambit from depressed to scared to confused. We, as humans, are not designed to understand the subtext of growls.

 

So essentially, playing one of the non-humanoid races would hang the story out to dry in favor of novelty. It's very hard to become invested in a character that you can't understand on a deeper level than reading the subtitles.

 

But shouldn't that be a choice the player makes?

 

That point aside, there are plenty of races that fit all of these criteria more or less, such as the Togruta and Nautolan, who are already in the game and function just as well as a Twi'Lek does in relation to gear (That being headgear in particular). Why aren't these two playable?

 

My problem is the lack of variety, all the reasons you stated are certainly understandable, but the fact that every race looks essentially the same detracts much more from the experience if you ask me.

 

If I could play a Wookiee I would put up with the growling, that's what wookiees do and if I had made the choice to play one I would know and be prepared for that, even if I didn't I would have nobody to blame but myself for the lack of emotion in my characters dialogue. And to be fair, the fact that player dialogue uses a lot of stock sentences for minor options already makes it seem stilted.

 

The Nautolan is a good example for a race that should be playable. They look human enough to be relatable, they speak basic but, they are alien enough to add some variety. Variety which I feel is needed.

 

The Togruta is more of a preference thing for me, I like the race and seeing as they are so similar to Twi'Leks in terms of their head situations I see no reason they should not be playable.

 

What really bothers me though, is that there are no "ugly" races. Weequay are in the game, they speak basic and in my opinion look awesome. A weequay can be anything froma bounty hunter to a Jedi knight and yet they are not playable because they are apparently not pretty enough. I can see why few would want to romance a Weequay, but again, should that be a choice the player makes? Why should playing one of the "pretty" aliens be our only option? If anything a character that looks ugly can make for a much richer and deeper character based on it's motives, personality and choices and the reaction they get from other characters based on those qualities weighed against their appearance.

 

In short (too late, I know), I think the fact that every race is a "pretty" race detracts from the variety and hinders players who wish to make richer, more interesting characters. Seeing as race choice is purely cosmetic, adding more would have no effect on the actual gameplay, only add more variety and depth to our characters.

[Raiellyn]

Krused, I'm not going to quote that in order to save a bit of room, but here is my general reply (might miss a few things, as I'm not looking right at it.)

 

The major issue I see with playing a vastly-alien race, like a Wookiee, is situational. For instance, there are times when people threaten your character as they see you as an easy target. My smuggler, for instance, was confronted by three wannabe bounty-hunters on Coruscant who thought she would be an easy mark.

 

Who would threaten a Wookiee?

 

Now, those other races you mentioned, like the Togruta, Weequay, and perhaps even Cathar, could work perfectly. They fit all the criteria, with the possible excepiton of the Weequay... Can they speak Basic? I have yet to meet one that speaks, so I really have no idea. =/

 

But anyway, the only real problem I'd see about playing an "ugly" race would be some off-hand comments in the story, such as that one kid on Ord Mantell crushing on my FemTrooper.

 

Perhaps they could gather up the less-pretty races, and create new stories for them? I read another thread on a neutral faction idea, and I think that might work perfectly. A Hutt cartel lackey who rises to power in the gangster-underworld, like a dark-version of the smuggler? Very rough idea, I know. And it'd require much more balancing than it'd probably be worth. Not to mention how PvP would work after that...

Still, it's better to think up ideas than to just point at Bioware and whine.

[Argyuile]

We *****ed about the races choices in beta. Ya 5 years of development and this is what we got race wise.

[kaoticdrake]

Ya 5 years of development and this is what we got race wise.

 

What is with this line? Honestly, people keep using it as if to say that Bioware's five years of hard work wasn't five years of hard work. What exactly do you think went into their five years of hard work? Do you think they just said "**** it" and ate pizza instead of doing their job? They created, from scratch, a vast universe with eight massively different storylines. A large number of crew skills, all kinds of armor and equipment. 16 very different classes with all kinds of different abilities and then skill trees that can vastly change those abilities further.

 

Not to mention all the testing, tweaking, moderating forums and listening to fans to try to bring about an awesome game. Stop acting like they did nothing in those five years and that they could have just pulled the specific rabbit out of their *** that you wanted to see.

 

As for the original topic. It's not that they can't or won't institute more species with a higher variance of customization. It's that it takes time and they have a lot of balancing, bug fixing, unkinking and other stuff to do. They are slaves to their work right now, don't expect them to magically wave a wand and have it done. Don't expect them to come onto the forums, taking time away from their work, to confirm and overexcite us with promises, all the while losing a massive group of fans because of all the bugs that aren't fixed. Or to deny us our request and lose half their fan base in an instant.

 

That is all folks. Show some patience, be happy and understand that they haven't stopped working on the game. A new patch every week and doing their best to keep us updated on what they're fixing and what's coming in the future should be proof enough of that for you.

[Bielduwyn]

------------

4. Wookie

5. Droid

6. Trandoshan

7. Jawa

8. Gungan

9. Gamorrean

etc..

 

Ahahaha.... No.

 

Wookiees: Can't speak basic, so no heartfelt dialogue, many NPCs simply wouldn't understand them either, and you can't have romantic subplots with them.

 

Droids: Just, no. People of the Star Wars galaxy see them as tools rather than people. You just wouldn't be taken seriously if you were a droid running around.

 

Trandoshans: Same problem as Wookiees, with the added issue that nobody likes them, even the usually unprejudiced Jedi don't trust Trandoshans as far as they can throw them. And in the xenophobic Empire they wouldn't be trusted at all. They can't be used anywhere within the existing eight classes because of this. And to me it'd seem like a waste of effort to craft a whole new class and story for them, but more on that later.

 

Jawa: Come on, we are trying to play a serious story driven game here, not a slapstick.

 

Gungan: Same as the above.

 

Gamorrean: Same problem as the Wookiees, plus they are seen as simply hired thugs in the eyes of most galactic citizens.

 

 

And finally. Why should Bioware put the time and energy into making these exotic races and a whole new class and story to go with it? Have you taken a look in-game? The vast majority of player characters that I see are white skinned humans with dark hair. Basically, most people are modelling their characters after themselves, after humans I probably see the most Miraluka who are basically humans with eyepatches, then cyborgs, and then the more alien races start appearing, with Chiss and Mirialans probably bringing up the rear.

 

So if most people can't even get themselves to make Zabraks, Mirialans or Chiss... then why in the blazes should Bioware waste the effort to make playable Gamorreans if 0.5% of the playerbase will actually use them?

 

Any and all future races will most likely follow the guidelines set by the existing races, humanoid, capable of speaking Basic and to some degree or another kissable. So you can hope for Togruta with at least some reasonable odds of success, but I think the line will get drawn with Cathar on how exotic Bioware is willing to go with player species.

[Votum]

I want to be a hutt

[ErikModi]

This game has the worst choices of playable races I have seen in an mmo.

 

I do agree that I would have liked a little more diversity.

 

especially for a Star Wars game they should have paid more attention to the races the players could play.

 

And so should you.

 

I've been playing through the game and have seen almost 9:1 ratio of humans to ailien races.

 

And the reason is simple, all the other ones suck.

 

According to you.

 

blind people are humans that are blind, not a race of their own.

 

Miraluka are indeed classified as "near-human," but have such a physical divergence in that they are blind and "see" through the Force that they are almost a different species, and treated as a separate species from humans in. . . oh, every Star Wars Role-Playing supplement ever.

 

I have no idea who the hell these "Chiss" things are. The only characteristic they got is their blue skin? really?

 

The Chiss is the species of Grand Admiral Thrawn, who appeared in the first, and arguably best, of the big push of EU novels between Return of the Jedi and the release of Men Phantom Menace.

 

"Mirilian", okay so now we got green people,

 

Near-Humans with a distinct skin tone, and unique culture which includes tattoos.

 

"Sith Pureblood"? didnt know Star Wars had Draeneis.

 

Bringing in WoW? Really? Anyway, the Sith Species is a staple of ancient Sith lore. http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sith_%28species%29

 

"Rattakis"?

 

Also known as the species to which Asajj Ventress belongs to.

 

Alright that only leaves 2 other ailien races and I think they are rather ok

 

"Twileks" stay true to Star Wars lore, and so does "Zabraks". So they are alright.

 

I'm sure BioWare is so pleased that they meet with your approval.

 

Since there are no racial ability and attribute difference in the races, there are simply no reason to play some ugly half-assed races.

 

Again, only "ugly, half-assed" according to you.

 

I realize that the game is in the old republic time line, but if you're going to introduce new races, at least do it with some love,,,

 

I thought they did.

 

I mean why couldnt they just let us play Wookies?

 

Given how important armor and equipment are in this game, doing Wookiees properly would be quite difficult. Just look at the nightmare that was playing a Wookiee in SWG.

 

Gungans?

 

May not even be a known species at this time. They certainly didn't become galactic players until after the events of The Phantom Menace. Besides, with all the Jar-Jar haters out there, the Gungans have gotten a massively unfair bad rap.

 

Kel Dors?

 

Save something for the expansions.

 

Why add some weird scratch-made garbage races when there are already iconic races that star wars fans are dying to play?

 

All of these races existed in Star Wars canon previously. None of them are "weird scratch-made garbage."

 

Some of the races just seem so out of place, it kills the lore, I guess they won't be removing them so I hope they plan to release them in their future expansions. Or was that their initial plan?

 

I go agree that the Chiss seem out of place, as they weren't commonly known in the galaxy until the New Jedi Order era, some twenty years after A New Hope. But then, you said you have no knowledge of the Chiss, so that can't be your complaint, and all the other races fit in just fine.

 

maybe I've got stuff against lucas, not bioware. But if they knew some of Lucas's races sucked why did they decide to put them in the game? so in the end it is part of their fault.

 

I have absolutely no idea what you're trying to say here.

[JadeBranch]

So, how much further would you have delayed development for the game, and/or what would you have cut out of it for a greater variety of PC racial choice? Factoring in how long the game was in development and the delays it already had in getting out, as well as a number of features that are either incomplete (Legacies, romance options) or put on the back burner just to get the game out a) on time and b) before the initial development budget pulled a Tabula Rasa (IE: The game wouldn't be sustainable even with WoW numbers, and would never realistically make back it's cost)?

 

I don't really have any complaints with the racial choices that were added in or the reasons that they were limited (at the start - there's nothing saying they can't add more things in later). Then again, I'm a Star Wars fan and more then a little biased. As far as near-humans go, they picked three of the more popular ones out of the gate (Twi'leks, Miraluka, Chiss) and added an interesting selection of others (Rattaki, Sith Pureblood, Zabrak, Miralan) that all for the most part had major scene presence in both the movies, and in other televised formats (Clone Wars Micro-series, the 3D series, etc.).

 

I can appreciate different viewpoints on it, but on the other hand... it's at least got more PC-racial diversity then Rift did. Or EVE Online. Probably ties Star Trek Online, though, if we give 'custom' alien options as a bonus.

 

It's a give-take thing.

 

You must have skipped over the part of my post where I said I understood why they did it and had a budget for their game to abide by.

[Forgon]

The races are fine imo, and all they need to add are the Cathar, Duros, Nautolan, Togruta, Falleen, and maybe Umbarans (they are really similar to Rattaki so the hair and other options better be good to differentiate them).

 

Honestly, they got races from all different spectrums of the EU from prominent from the movies to background characters in the movies, to races from comics, to races featured mostly in novels. It is enough.

 

 

Edit: By "need" I mean "that I want to add for a bit more variety".

Edited January 8, 2012 by Forgon

[Deshiel]

Those cyborgs are realy a pain in the ear...

 

Instead of cyborgs, they should have added atleast one beast race.

 

 

thar brings the question... Why are cyborgs humans-only?

 

When main cybernetic industries are alien.

 

The cyborg as race is a big big mistake I believe.

 

BTW... Somebody said that playable races are near human because of the armor stuff and the motion bla bla...

 

but the real reason is the voice acting itself. Without it, Bioware would surely allow us to play as wookiees.

Edited January 8, 2012 by Deshiel

[soujirop]

The only thing I have to complain about races is that you can't choose the sexy togruta as playable race.

[kaoticdrake]

Those cyborgs are realy a pain in the ear...

 

Instead of cyborgs, they should have added atleast one beast race.

 

 

thar brings the question... Why are cyborgs humans-only?

 

When main cybernetic industries are alien.

 

The cyborg as race is a big big mistake I believe.

 

BTW... Somebody said that playable races are near human because of the armor stuff and the motion bla bla...

 

but the real reason is the voice acting itself. Without it, Bioware would surely allow us to play as wookiees.

 

There are three large reasons for the various races they've chosen (aside from cyborg which is just ridiculous)

 

1. Voice Acting: The species needs to speak galactic basic. They chose that because they don't want characters skipping through dialogue halfway through their quest line because they get sick of listening to "Huuuuurrrrghhhhharrrrggghhh" Wookie speak.

 

2. Romance and human connection: They want you to feel related to the story and to your character, so they felt the less human that your character is, the less connection you'll have to that character. The less you'll feel like YOU are in the story. Sure you can argue all day about your personal perspective and how you're a huge fan of the Star Wars universe and how you wish there were more races. What it comes down to is the NEW fans they're trying to draw in. Those people are generally casual, they don't know much about the Star Wars universe and they won't have as much connection with less human races. Also, watching a wookie romance a Twilek would be awkward and they don't want to just remove that option. Though seeing all the uprising against it, they may consider it.

 

3. Armor/Models/Animations: They put a lot of work into the animations and player character models, doing everything they could to reduce clipping and create an appeasing visual appearance. Sure, there are still problems, and that is EXACTLY WHY they shouldn't even be considering putting in new races yet. They need to fix the problems they have before they create more.

[Hanscholo]

This game has the worst choices of playable races I have seen in an mmo.

 

especially for a Star Wars game they should have paid more attention to the races the players could play.

 

I've been playing through the game and have seen almost 9:1 ratio of humans to ailien races.

 

And the reason is simple, all the other ones suck.

 

blind people are humans that are blind, not a race of their own.

 

I have no idea who the hell these "Chiss" things are. The only characteristic they got is their blue skin? really?

 

"Mirilian", okay so now we got green people,

 

"Sith Pureblood"? didnt know Star Wars had Draeneis.

 

"Rattakis"?

 

Alright that only leaves 2 other ailien races and I think they are rather ok

 

"Twileks" stay true to Star Wars lore, and so does "Zabraks". So they are alright.

 

Since there are no racial ability and attribute difference in the races, there are simply no reason to play some ugly half-assed races.

 

I realize that the game is in the old republic time line, but if you're going to introduce new races, at least do it with some love,,,

 

I mean why couldnt they just let us play Wookies? Gungans? Kel Dors?

Why add some weird scratch-made garbage races when there are already iconic races that star wars fans are dying to play?

 

Some of the races just seem so out of place, it kills the lore, I guess they won't be removing them so I hope they plan to release them in their future expansions. Or was that their initial plan?

 

maybe I've got stuff against lucas, not bioware. But if they knew some of Lucas's races sucked why did they decide to put them in the game? so in the end it is part of their fault.

 

ok thats it.

 

Someone commenting on the cannon of star wars lore that doesnt know what a chiss is.

 

I stopped there.

[GCRust]

I want to play as a Droid really bad.

[nmrdead]

Wookies, really? Can you just imagine the annoying dialog you would get out of them.

 

edit: Just as a side note I would of liked the Nautolan as a playable race

 

if they can make the twileks speak english,which they never did in movies until clone wars then dialog for a wookie shouldnt be too far out of a developers reach

[vallonus]

if they can make the twileks speak english,which they never did in movies until clone wars then dialog for a wookie shouldnt be too far out of a developers reach

 

Its said in canon that wookies can't speak basic so to change that would bring tons of nerd rage.

[nmrdead]

This game has the worst choices of playable races I have seen in an mmo.

 

especially for a Star Wars game they should have paid more attention to the races the players could play.

 

I've been playing through the game and have seen almost 9:1 ratio of humans to ailien races.

 

And the reason is simple, all the other ones suck.

 

blind people are humans that are blind, not a race of their own.

 

I have no idea who the hell these "Chiss" things are. The only characteristic they got is their blue skin? really?

 

"Mirilian", okay so now we got green people,

 

"Sith Pureblood"? didnt know Star Wars had Draeneis.

 

"Rattakis"?

 

Alright that only leaves 2 other ailien races and I think they are rather ok

 

"Twileks" stay true to Star Wars lore, and so does "Zabraks". So they are alright.

 

Since there are no racial ability and attribute difference in the races, there are simply no reason to play some ugly half-assed races.

 

I realize that the game is in the old republic time line, but if you're going to introduce new races, at least do it with some love,,,

 

I mean why couldnt they just let us play Wookies? Gungans? Kel Dors?

Why add some weird scratch-made garbage races when there are already iconic races that star wars fans are dying to play?

 

Some of the races just seem so out of place, it kills the lore, I guess they won't be removing them so I hope they plan to release them in their future expansions. Or was that their initial plan?

 

maybe I've got stuff against lucas, not bioware. But if they knew some of Lucas's races sucked why did they decide to put them in the game? so in the end it is part of their fault.

 

ok thats it.

 

 

i think the races they have are pretty cool. if you think the gungans should be playable theres something wrong with you.as for wookies i am shocked their not playable at all.as for some of the iconic races.i think their needs to be some......but the moment i see an ewok playable im going to lose it

[Intarabus]

Droids should be a race

 

Very true. I am always thinking, it would be cool to add droids as non-leveling, solely depending on tech, class. But maybe that is hard to work with the game concept.

[Intarabus]

Wanted to make a similar threat. Although I like the game very much, one thing I do not like is the treatment of aliens. Anyway, race does not seem to play a big role on the coices, so far I did not notice the race bonusses.

Character-wise: the Imperium, to me, has the better choices. There are the pureblood sith, which have never been before in any star wars game, as I remind. And the have the Chiss (which fit, according to EU comparison, perfectly to the agent) and the Rattataki, which are a lesser cool, but ok.

Republic sucks at it, Mirialans are a kind of boring race, and the Twilek seemed obvious (the game is packed with them). Miraluka are cool in terms of the Eu-characters, but come on, thats just a kind of Geordi LaForge-race. Zabrak - ok, both sides have them.

All character races are near-human (except Pureblood maybe), but, instead of other players, I do not see the point, why you should not be a wookie jedi (much growling, sure, but is'nt that cool). That is the one thing galaxies had done better, where you had more choice, Rodians, for example.

 

NPC-wise, they could have also put more species. As far as I can see, they used a lot of species of the cantina scene. I remember also human overlap (but come on, was the same as in new hope) an a lot of Twilek, Togruta and Nautolan. Except one companion, I never saw a wookie. So far, they have like 40 NPC-races, I would like to have the double. And I want to play a trandoshan.

[Izorii]

I really dont like the playable species. Currently I am only playing through to build up legacy levels to hopefully unlock new speices. I dont know if being able to play the species I want to, just hoping they come in on legacy or we get an official anoncement saying wont happen so I can stop building up legacy levels.

[Punkre]

I am sure others have said it but a few things:

 

1. all playable races need to be able to speak basic, because listening to "MURAGGGRUU YUUAAR NGGHHH" for 50 levels will get annoying and bioware avoided this intentionally.

 

2. all races need to be able to romance their companions, so races with weird/no mouths are out. SO no Keldor, no Jawa. And races you would find disturbing to think about romancing a human (ish) male/female are out.

 

I am still hoping for Cathar, Voss, and a few other potential races that Bioware has already put in the game. And for those that can't get over this, this is Bioware, the story comes before your want/need to play a different race.

[Isomorphix]

I think it's pretty much ubiquitous that players want Nautolans and Togruta as playable races. That would be easy. And frankly being a bad *** Togruta Bounty Hunter would be cool.

 

Miraluka was a cool idea... I mean it was a simple headwear tweak, but the RP ramifications are interesting.

 

I play a cyborg. I don't know why. I thought it was a cool idea at the time. But if you've never played a cyborg, don't. The cybernetics are stupid, and don't even make sense sometimes. You can get what are essentially cybernetic snake bite piercings that connect a stand of hardware to your jaw. It looks like jewelry, and I have no idea what its supposed to do.

 

I just went and chose the least stupid looking one, which happens to give you a decent beard.

 

 

 

 

 

By way, someone made a comment of most players being white skinned humans. I agree with that. It's sorta sad. So what did I do? I made a black bounty hunter. With green eyes. **** with it.

[Kharnis]

Someone commenting on the cannon of star wars lore that doesnt know what a chiss is.

 

I stopped there.

 

Except for Thrawn, name me a Chiss character who was an important character and not a very minor one.

[Sladeynaught]

To be fair on Bioware they have done a really good job, maybe on some DLC they will add new races