Hope for Diversity in the next Big City :)

[Theomen712]

I for one will forever remember Athkatla as one of the greatest locales in a game I've ever had the pleasure to explore, and i am adamant that Project Eternity will shoot for the moon and attempt to give us another diverse, enthralling city to explore at our leisure. What i am interested about though, is in the possibility of a wide open, unique rendition of a city with the influence of one of the other main races in the story. Athkatla was amazing, and alive with content, but it was mainly a "Human City". Elves were sparse, dwarves were even less than sparse, and i believe there was only one gnome in the whole City that i could remember "Jan Jansen" (Whom i loved ). Why not have spralling deep ancient dwarven cities like Moria from LOTR, only NOT have it been a dungeon for once? The cities for other races in these games tend to always be hostile, barren areas where enemies swarm instead of actual Hubs for the player to experience what a city Ruled by the Elves, Dwarves or even Godlike races would be like. I probably havent played enough D&D based, or Fantasy based games to say they all work this way but quite a few do. I know with Obsidian we are all in good hands with this game but i just want to give out ideas i feel would take this Project from amazing to Legendary. I want more than a 10/10 for Project Eternity, I want Game of the Year in 2014

Cities like this would be welcome:

It doesn't feel so Human, but that's where it gets its charm.

[Godwin]

I disagree in that Athkatla was ideal having a majority human city, any city should have one majority culture or all cities would end up feeling generic.

[Theomen712]

That's what i'm expecting from the first Big City in P:E. A human majority with the other races sprinkled in, but i'd just like something away from that tried and true formula with the next one, if we get there before next week.

Edited October 12, 2012 by Theomen712

[Elthosian]

Has it been confirmed that the first big-city is going to be human-based? I'd prefer to have both cities to be from non-human races, maybe having both mega-cities be from each one of the "weird" unrevealed races? Elf or dwarf-based would be great also!

[adamsorkin]

Why would you want an Old, Old Wooden Ship in the next city?

[Tale]

It's probably a Free Palatine city. Which is mixed.

[AlphaShard]

There were many halflings namely the rest of jan family, his girl and the halting she married. Then there were a number of halfling NPCs around a few that fight you. The copper coronet and the five flagons inn had many dwarves and halflings. I think the dive flagons was owned by a halfling. As for elves it is hard to say but I don't think all the cowled wizards were human and I'm sure there were some elves around.

Edited October 12, 2012 by AlphaShard

[elenuial]

You know what would be crazy? Having non-white humans and a respectful take on non-white culture as the majority culture in a city. I would settle for the "fantasy races are analogues of real world races" trope if peeps did something beyond "elves are one kind of white; dwarves are a different kind of white; etc."

 

I mean, that's pretty much never going to happen. But one can always dream...

[Umberlin]

Well you can have nations/cities centered on a racial group or two, and then cities/nations centered on a more diverse set of racial groupings. It's not far fetched for any setting, be it non-fiction or fiction, for there to be some places that are just more multicultural by nature. Trade cities that act as a merchantile mecca for instance.

 

You know what would be crazy? Having non-white humans and a respectful take on non-white culture as the majority culture in a city. I would settle for the "fantasy races are analogues of real world races" trope if peeps did something beyond "elves are one kind of white; dwarves are a different kind of white; etc."

 

I mean, that's pretty much never going to happen. But one can always dream...

 

The original Guild Wars is probably one of the few you'll get close to that in. They were always hailed for the lands and peoples of Cantha and Elona being well done fantasy twists of existing racial groups, though more in concept than in execution as everyone was still audibly speaking English, for the most part (unless you changed language settings, obviously, but I mean within the game context). So while it may not have gone into ideas like, "language differences and cultural differences resulting in a loss in translation" there was a still an obvious effort made to keep things well done outside of Ascalon (the more western grounded fantasy kingdom and its Ascalonian people).

Edited October 12, 2012 by Umberlin

[AlphaShard]

I liked that we had a variety of race in the NPCs at least in BG games.

[rjshae]

Hopefully the humans are a forest green, the elves are azure, and the dwarves are a pale shade of mauve with magenta pupils. Then we can get back to playing the game instead of reliving modern concerns.

 

Alternatively, you can look at skin tone of northerners from the perspective of an evolutionary adaptation to lower levels of ultraviolet radiation and its consequences in terms of vitamin D deficiency.

Edited October 12, 2012 by rjshae

[elenuial]

A fully-realized mercantile trade city written with an eye towards historicity would be boss.

[limaxophobiacq]

Given that it'll probably be an Aedyr or Dyrwood city, I think it'll either be mixed human-elf-dwarf or mixed human-elf.

[Hassat Hunter]

Well, the elf-city of BG2 looked nice, but all those tree-bridges are annoying to navigate. So, rather not that.

 

The Dwarven City idea sounds pretty cool.

[limaxophobiacq]

I really hope the cities will have distinct aesthetics with their own architectural styles. Baldurs Gate and Athkatla were kind of same-y and bland.

Edited October 12, 2012 by limaxophobiacq