Post by kalbaern on Apr 27, 2015 10:55:45 GMT -5
When we first began building The Savage Frontier and Surrounds, many of our humanoid NPCs belonged to tribes or clans. As we continued to to expand, we found that the abilities, general builds and CRs of many "tribes" overlapped each other. I.e., we had "Yellowtooth Goblins" ranging in CRs from 1 thru 5, while the "Twisted Spear Goblins" scaled from CRs 3 thru 10th and so on with each -tougher- tribe. So we had a lot of overlap or redundancy we'd created.
Wanting to be more efficient (most call it frugal ... and a few more cheap
) I began replacing these -tribes- with generic goblins, bugbears, orcs, etc... and instead just used scaling ranges in lower level areas that matched what the previous tribes scaled to. While this meant we could slim or creature palettes by several hundred creatures, it took away a small piece of the old -flavor- here. We all knew that the "Yellowtooth Goblins" were good for low levels to cut their teeth on and that tribes like the "Grubbers" or "Twisted Spears" would be tougher. In the past year or so, most of our older players have commented that they miss the old tribal designations and I'll admit, I have too. So they will soon begin appearing again. 
For those that know me, "I can't believe he's going to bloat the palettes again!" is likely what you're thinking. Well, I'm not going to add more fodder just to regain our tribes. Instead, I'll be setting variables on areas/maps that will dictate what "tribe" frequents that region. When the creatures spawn in, they'll be renamed with a tribal designation. We already do something similar with other NPCs that get random names when they spawn in, it'll just be a naming set by -where- they are encountered. There will still be cases where they'll lack a tribal name, these are mainly random encounters in wilderness regions or dungeons that are outside the sphere of influence of an actual tribe or clan. In addition, various other NPCs will use similar methods to denote guild or group affiliations. An example of this would be the -elven patrols- found in some areas of the High Forest that will soon denote they are from "Reitheillaethor" or "Elvenport" or "Evereska" and other areas or even farmers, shepherds wood-cutters with a city/village denotation.
Anyhow, this will be a work in progress, with the restored "flavor" trickling in with each update.
Wanting to be more efficient (most call it frugal ... and a few more cheap
) I began replacing these -tribes- with generic goblins, bugbears, orcs, etc... and instead just used scaling ranges in lower level areas that matched what the previous tribes scaled to. While this meant we could slim or creature palettes by several hundred creatures, it took away a small piece of the old -flavor- here. We all knew that the "Yellowtooth Goblins" were good for low levels to cut their teeth on and that tribes like the "Grubbers" or "Twisted Spears" would be tougher. In the past year or so, most of our older players have commented that they miss the old tribal designations and I'll admit, I have too. So they will soon begin appearing again. 
For those that know me, "I can't believe he's going to bloat the palettes again!" is likely what you're thinking. Well, I'm not going to add more fodder just to regain our tribes. Instead, I'll be setting variables on areas/maps that will dictate what "tribe" frequents that region. When the creatures spawn in, they'll be renamed with a tribal designation. We already do something similar with other NPCs that get random names when they spawn in, it'll just be a naming set by -where- they are encountered. There will still be cases where they'll lack a tribal name, these are mainly random encounters in wilderness regions or dungeons that are outside the sphere of influence of an actual tribe or clan. In addition, various other NPCs will use similar methods to denote guild or group affiliations. An example of this would be the -elven patrols- found in some areas of the High Forest that will soon denote they are from "Reitheillaethor" or "Elvenport" or "Evereska" and other areas or even farmers, shepherds wood-cutters with a city/village denotation.
Anyhow, this will be a work in progress, with the restored "flavor" trickling in with each update.
