I see this race as having very few numbers of permanent units. The biggest strength this group has is what it can do with the surrounding environments–calling on plants and animals to aid them. When I picture the battlefield with them, I see only a handful of units (hundreds, really) against thousands. Then, on the initial charge of the enemy I see the ground opening below them, great bolts of lighting striking down from above, vines and trees attacking, snaring. This would be a group with very little defense, very few numbers, but very powerful abilities–if overwhelmed or outplayed they’d go down in no time, but in the hands of a competent leader they’d be very hard to beat. Of course they’d have other bonuses, movement bonuses, concealment bonuses, etc.

Standard fare here. While I could try to spice them up, I feel a familiar race or two to be needed–gives the new player something to use while getting familiar with the game. As for units, footsoldiers, archers (longbow and crossbow, mounted too perhaps), cavalry, siege (catapult, trebuchet, ballista, etc), and so on. Should there be some magic in it? Perhaps some divine miracle working… Don’t really think so, other races cover those. Overall stats should be pretty average, but their strengths will lie in their leadership and morale, numbers too.

The ‘light’ here being ‘good’ (at least outwardly). Religious zealots seem the best choice for this, with light Christian/European influence. While probably the best choice for taking up heaven’s fight, it would be quite easy to play them as hell’s ally, horribly corrupt internally and externally. I picture heavily armed and armored knights and foot-soldiers. Attacks would be heavy but slow, and the protection ratings would be high with low dodge ratings–perhaps decent parry. Slow, heavy, tough and fanatical best describe this race.

Mystical says it all, heavy influence from the Mystic religions of the Middle East, India and Far East. Not only the religions but the cultures as well, I’d love to see units like war elephants, meditating warriors, monks, etc. I can envision a mostly light-armored and armed army using greater numbers and agility. Strikes should be slightly stronger than normal, while being slightly faster. The downside being the lightly armored bit, they wouldn’t have as much health or protection, though they would have a much higher dodge rating. Will need to update this race (and likely all) after some researching.

Ok, been thinking on races some for that RTS idea. Of styles, I feel that having races that are specialized in different areas (or types of things, more accurately) is the best way to go–as opposed to having races that look different but function in similar ways. Have names for them, but will leave those out at the moment–they’re somewhat labels and don’t have any true meanings yet. Anyway, here’s the types:

Humans

Undead

Nature based

Mystical based (as in, eastern influenced magics)

Magic based (western influenced)

Light based

Shadow based

Technology based

Shapeshifters

Germanic based (barbarians, giants, etc)

The humans are the general, familiar race – perfect for beginners. I was hoping for some real differences between the races, I think this is pretty decent. My favorite so far, as I can imagine how they’d be implemented, is the Shapeshifters–having an army of people turning into all forms of animals and charging the enemy, bears plowing through as pumas, cheetahs, lions circle about at great burst speeds and maul enemies, falcons and eagles swooping about – it seems like a lot of fun. For each race the player would make their general avatar, which should be something quite cool (for the shapeshifters, something magical, perhaps a chimera? dragon? phoenix?).

I’m still going with the heaven versus hell type them, but decided against using them as races–instead provide special units for the armies that fit their race. For those players that wish to dispose of both heaven and hell, either special racial units or units that are from their races original religions/beliefs. For those that wish to play both heaven and hell, the gain of both types of units – but inability to use the units together, or even keep them within the same regions.

More detail to come (as always). I’ll try fleshing out the rest of the races.

Started thinking on the world layout, getting ideas on how that would look and function. At the moment I have a simple three continent layout–one island and the other two connected by a tight tract of land. The point of the map is to create strategic attacks, mountains and rivers border lands and cause problems for crossing (crossing them is possible, but require certain abilities or technologies–or have greater risks). Each region has it’s benefits, it’s negatives, and it’s reason for being and strategic importance (hopefully, heh). Going to have to come up with some history and content for each region, they should all feel familiar but unique.