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.