Human enemies?

[Martyn van Buren]

Are these planned?  If not, I want to argue for them --- I think this belongs in the fora, as it's kind of a stylistic choice.  Anyway, I think there are two good reasons to add them:

1. I think it'll make it easier to engage with the game emotionally, and help to develop the "post-disaster" vibe that I think Arcen is going for.  I mean, after a disaster of this scale surely some people are going to wind up trying to survive in a more aggressive way than standing around next to an Illari stone and banding together in peace and brotherly love?  I think seeing human bosses --- and hopefully human lieutenants and overlords ---  would make the situation more interesting.  I don't feel especially angry about monsters hoarding resources and oppressing the land --- after all, that's what monsters do.  How the hell can you get mad at an amoeba?  And the crippled dragon is kinda pitiable.  Whereas a human who's lording it over a stronghold full of giant skelebots and crippled dragon, or hoarding some stone, or rampaging across the land demanding resources --- he had a choice, and I can see feeling a lot better about wiping him off the map.  Plus, maybe one day, when the game is more developed and has more story, it can force us to sit down and think about the real moral calculus behind killing off a band of the few survivors of your own kind just because of how they've responded to a pretty nasty situation.

2. It is also a cool and interesting thing in these kinds of games to see whether you can beat someone with the same powers and abilities as yourself.  If the new AI is going to be able to decide between and use a range of different attack behaviors, surely a human with a variety of different spells is a good way to show it off?

[Dizzard]

I made a suggestion on mantis to have civilizations/settlements that don't join up with you.

It makes sense really, if the calamity really happened people would be more wary and suspicious.  We could be a civilization of cannibals for all they know.

So as long as we have separate civilizations there's room for disputes and misunderstandings. Also we could always have bandits. It seems like a given that bandits will pop up in most situations.

[Professor Paul1290]

I kind of pictured the rival/nemesis I suggested some time ago as a human (or sentient robot) character, though that would be a single individual and not a group.

I really like the idea of having the occasional settlement that doesn't want to join for whatever reason. Perhaps some of them could be hostile bandit camps.

Of course, they don't need to be hostile if they don't join you. There could be friendly settlements that are entirely NPC controlled to give you something else to interact with. Perhaps you could have the option of eventually convincing them to join you by making them happy or protecting them from harm.

[superking]

We need a herobrine sort of character who stalks us in the wilds   

[Coppermantis]

I actually thought leiutenants/overlords would be Human until I first encountered one, because the monsters, save for skelebots, don't really seem like they'd be the ones to try to sieze power and oppress the people.

Adding neutral/hostile settlements or bandit groups would indeed make the game much more interesting. Or maybe, to adapt Professor Paul's idea, some sort of assassin sent by an overlord from time to time who will follow you. The specific details would need to be ironed out because there are a lot of ways this could be done badly, but it sounds like it could be a fun mechanic.

[x4000]

Human enemies of various sorts are definitely planned, it's mostly chance I've not added any yet.  And actually some humanoid ones of other sorts beyond just the robots, too.

[Underfot]

I actually thought leiutenants/overlords would be Human until I first encountered one...

Same here.  The lore in my head equated rampaging monsters/micro bosses as having not received a full complement of consciousness shards in the breaking event, while the lieutenants and overlords are fully conscious but choose to be evil oppressors.  It still works with the current setup, we just have 'fully conscious' amoebas and dragons.

[x4000]

Lore-wise, I think a lot of the overlords will actually be humans or similar that have been corrupted and turned into a monster form, kind of like Gannondorf/Gannon.  But that won't be the case for all of them.

[Professor Paul1290]

In addition to adding human enemies, I guess it wouldn't hurt to have friendly or maybe even sentient versions of a few creatures that now merely serve as feral enemies. Your perspective on a creature sometimes changes somewhat a bit if you know that some of them might be capable of communicating with you.

I think it could add to the atmosphere a bit if, for example, you encountered at least a few giant amoeba that didn't attack you and perhaps even talked a bit.

I guess that would be "humanizing" some enemies in a way. 

[x4000]

Yeah, there's definitely a lot of interesting ways to go with that, and I've always liked friendly mobs on occasion, too.  "It's a secret to everybody" and all that.

[Martyn van Buren]

Ah, nice!  It seems like when things like this really stick in my throat it usually turns out to be a feature we're waiting on.  Very glad to hear overlords will have some connection to humanity --- it would be pretty weird if all those NPCs were gossiping about the mercilessness of someone who turns out to be just the Giantest Amoeba.

[x4000]

Ah, nice!  It seems like when things like this really stick in my throat it usually turns out to be a feature we're waiting on.

Not always, but I think that is quite often the case when players are missing something.

gossiping about the mercilessness of someone who turns out to be just the Giantest Amoeba.

Epitaph!

[Coppermantis]

Lore-wise, I think a lot of the overlords will actually be humans or similar that have been corrupted and turned into a monster form, kind of like Gannondorf/Gannon.  But that won't be the case for all of them.

That sounds cool. It was the phrase in the title scrawl "...and would-be tyrants popping up..." that made me think of enterprising humans taking advantage of the chaos to seize power.