Vulcan Portraits

[Zerovirus]

...Where's the story?

[johndh]

There is really no creativity or artistic direction here at all, is there?

[powershot]

The story is right there, I just was not finished with it.

[Obselescence]

Right, so Vulcans being cave-dwellers? Let's roll with that, then.

Ignoring the rest of the backstory for a bit, let's look at what being cave-dwellers with almost no sight of the sun for hundreds and hundreds of years (since apparently the races living above-ground had no idea that Vulcans existed) means for your faction.

First up, just by saying Vulcans are cave-dwellers, the existence of Vulcan archers becomes a bit of an implausibility. I'm not entirely sure how Vulcans could have developed archery in the caves -- owing to a lack of wood and the fact that generally archery doesn't do anything for you in caves. Odds are there isn't anything that'd actually be big enough for you to hunt with arrows in the first place. Even then there's the fact that it's just plain dark (because it's a cave), so aiming pretty much goes out the window. Heck, it's a wonder the Vulcans aren't blind or nearly so, having spent maybe a thousand years or so holed up in a location where sight is essentially vestigial. So basically, on the cave-dwelling premise alone, Vulcan archers are out of place.

Just an example of why it'd probably be a good idea to have a basic backstory in place before going into things. :X

Now, as for the backstory itself...

Spoilered for more long.

Spoiler:

Now first you need to know about the Cersian alliance. It consists of all my races. The nightlings(dark humans),Zepholytes(sand hunters),Venosians (regenerating kinda dark humans),Valkryies(elves with golden wings on their ears and back),and Cavers(humans who have been underground).

I want to know how this alliance formed and where are the other three races in this deal. I've read through the backstory and I can't find any mention of these Venosians, Valkyries, or Cavers. If there are Cavers on the island here, you'd think they'd be at least tangentially important to the Vulcans, since they're both living in caves underground.

And then someone was born named Espeon. He was a Vulcan king though he had no heritage.

That... doesn't make a lot of sense, come to think of it. Not on its own. You generally aren't a king if you're born with no heritage. Concept of royal blood and all that. It's possible to be crowned a King by being good enough at destroying everybody who disagrees with you on the matter, but there's no explanation of that here. I'm just sort of wondering how this guy with "no heritage" rises to King.

Also, side note, I'd suggest renaming the King. Espeon reminds me an awful lot of the furry purple Pokemon. :X Would be sort of like naming something "Pikachu". :X

Of course, they didn't fight and since Vulcans lived on Castain island, the were automatically part of the Cersian alliance.

What? :X

Why didn't they fight? The Vulcans are essentially an alien entity to the Zepholytes and the Nightlings. After a few hundred years below ground, the Vulcans probably speak a completely separate language. Why are these people instantly friendly with each other when for all they know, the other side could be planning to slit their throats? Wouldn't there have even been a little initial fighting based on misunderstandings?

Also, being entitled to the Cersian Alliance by basis of living on Castain Island... sounds maybe a little fishy. Generally alliances tend to be made when two nations are either very friendly with each other (which'd seem odd since the Vulcans had just met the surface dwellers) or because there's some kind of greater enemy that makes for the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend policy. That doesn't seem to be the case for this story, so the Alliance in itself seems a little odd.

Espeon the second was born from Royal humans in Weldeyn.

I'm not sure how the second in a country's royal line can be born to another nation entirely. There seems to be a big omission here. Otherwise it'd be like a Russian named George III being crowned as the English King... for no obvious reason other than a name.

P.S. Vulcan/ice drakes come around when a Vulcan and an Ice drake have children. I am thinking about making a campaign about that. Just so you know Vulcan reproduction is different from human reproduction.

This is kind of another reason why I'm suggesting that you try to mold your units to the story instead of the other way around. This is a stretched explanation for a unit that's already pretty implausible. I'm not really sure I want to know how Vulcan reproduction works, but unless Vulcans are actually reptiles (despite showing no reptilian tendencies -- and even then that'd make the Vulcan halfling concept impossible in turn), reproducing with a Drake would be functionally impossible. Not to mention sort of weird. :X

But if we were to assume that a Vulcan-Drake hybrid were somehow possible, odds are it would not be comprised of a Vulcan head on a Drake body. Again, imagine a human head on a T-Rex body and why that wouldn't work. :X

So, if for some reason you're really deadset on a Vulcan-Drake hybrid (though I have no idea why), you'd want to at least rework the sprite to be less obviously impossible. :X

All said, it's just my suggestion that your unit design could stand to be reworked on the basis of a faction identity, since the call for Vulcan portraits implies you want this to be a plausible faction at some point, and the portraits would be based on your unit design.

[powershot]

Right, so Vulcans being cave-dwellers? Let's roll with that, then.

Ignoring the rest of the backstory for a bit, let's look at what being cave-dwellers with almost no sight of the sun for hundreds and hundreds of years (since apparently the races living above-ground had no idea that Vulcans existed) means for your faction.

First up, just by saying Vulcans are cave-dwellers, the existence of Vulcan archers becomes a bit of an implausibility. I'm not entirely sure how Vulcans could have developed archery in the caves -- owing to a lack of wood and the fact that generally archery doesn't do anything for you in caves. Odds are there isn't anything that'd actually be big enough for you to hunt with arrows in the first place. Even then there's the fact that it's just plain dark (because it's a cave), so aiming pretty much goes out the window. Heck, it's a wonder the Vulcans aren't blind or nearly so, having spent maybe a thousand years or so holed up in a location where sight is essentially vestigial. So basically, on the cave-dwelling premise alone, Vulcan archers are out of place.

Just an example of why it'd probably be a good idea to have a basic backstory in place before going into things. :X

Now, as for the backstory itself...

Spoilered for more long.

Spoiler:

Now first you need to know about the Cersian alliance. It consists of all my races. The nightlings(dark humans),Zepholytes(sand hunters),Venosians (regenerating kinda dark humans),Valkryies(elves with golden wings on their ears and back),and Cavers(humans who have been underground).

I want to know how this alliance formed and where are the other three races in this deal. I've read through the backstory and I can't find any mention of these Venosians, Valkyries, or Cavers. If there are Cavers on the island here, you'd think they'd be at least tangentially important to the Vulcans, since they're both living in caves underground.

And then someone was born named Espeon. He was a Vulcan king though he had no heritage.

That... doesn't make a lot of sense, come to think of it. Not on its own. You generally aren't a king if you're born with no heritage. Concept of royal blood and all that. It's possible to be crowned a King by being good enough at destroying everybody who disagrees with you on the matter, but there's no explanation of that here. I'm just sort of wondering how this guy with "no heritage" rises to King.

Also, side note, I'd suggest renaming the King. Espeon reminds me an awful lot of the furry purple Pokemon. :X Would be sort of like naming something "Pikachu". :X

Of course, they didn't fight and since Vulcans lived on Castain island, the were automatically part of the Cersian alliance.

What? :X

Why didn't they fight? The Vulcans are essentially an alien entity to the Zepholytes and the Nightlings. After a few hundred years below ground, the Vulcans probably speak a completely separate language. Why are these people instantly friendly with each other when for all they know, the other side could be planning to slit their throats? Wouldn't there have even been a little initial fighting based on misunderstandings?

Also, being entitled to the Cersian Alliance by basis of living on Castain Island... sounds maybe a little fishy. Generally alliances tend to be made when two nations are either very friendly with each other (which'd seem odd since the Vulcans had just met the surface dwellers) or because there's some kind of greater enemy that makes for the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend policy. That doesn't seem to be the case for this story, so the Alliance in itself seems a little odd.

Espeon the second was born from Royal humans in Weldeyn.

I'm not sure how the second in a country's royal line can be born to another nation entirely. There seems to be a big omission here. Otherwise it'd be like a Russian named George III being crowned as the English King... for no obvious reason other than a name.

P.S. Vulcan/ice drakes come around when a Vulcan and an Ice drake have children. I am thinking about making a campaign about that. Just so you know Vulcan reproduction is different from human reproduction.

This is kind of another reason why I'm suggesting that you try to mold your units to the story instead of the other way around. This is a stretched explanation for a unit that's already pretty implausible. I'm not really sure I want to know how Vulcan reproduction works, but unless Vulcans are actually reptiles (despite showing no reptilian tendencies -- and even then that'd make the Vulcan halfling concept impossible in turn), reproducing with a Drake would be functionally impossible. Not to mention sort of weird. :X

But if we were to assume that a Vulcan-Drake hybrid were somehow possible, odds are it would not be comprised of a Vulcan head on a Drake body. Again, imagine a human head on a T-Rex body and why that wouldn't work. :X

So, if for some reason you're really deadset on a Vulcan-Drake hybrid (though I have no idea why), you'd want to at least rework the sprite to be less obviously impossible. :X

All said, it's just my suggestion that your unit design could stand to be reworked on the basis of a faction identity, since the call for Vulcan portraits implies you want this to be a plausible faction at some point, and the portraits would be based on your unit design.

Ok, lets change it so Vulcans lived closer to the surface.

They needed archers for fighting clans and nagas because at times they were close enough to the surface to fight nagas and sea orcs.

Vulcans have underground trees.

The cavers and the other races don't live on the Castain island, and neither do the Nightlings or Zepholytes. They just captured it.

Kings are based upon Leadership most times for Vulcans, that means 3 kings could live at once.

Names not changing.

The Cersian law says any native that lives in Cersian territory is automatically part of the alliance unless they object. (sorry, house rules). The Vulcans agreed because (as I have talked about and (this is not talked about) humans hate them) they were actually being nice to them.

About the language, I suppose you could ask why Elves and humans speak the same language.

Vulcans can be born from humans in very rare cases, but it is possible.

Vulcan\drakes can happen since Vulcan DNA is easily modified, this is partly why they have Vulcan Geneticist.

[Obselescence]

Really at this point, all I have left to say is that you're trying hard enough to stretch your backstory around your units that you have claimed underground trees.

Let that sink in a moment.

I tried. Have a nice day.

[powershot]

Really at this point, all I have left to say is that you're trying hard enough to stretch your backstory around your units that you have claimed underground trees.

Let that sink in a moment.

I tried. Have a nice day.

Vulcans have made magical trees, they are more advanced than humans and I said it in the back story.

[Obselescence]

Vulcans have made magical trees, they are more advanced than humans and I said it in the back story.

The basic idea is that you seem to be inventing justifications to force through things that wouldn't otherwise make sense.

Vulcan\drakes can happen since Vulcan DNA is easily modified, this is partly why they have Vulcan Geneticist.

Like so.

Weren't you saying before that Vulcans/Ice Drakes were possible because Vulcans reproduced differently than humans?

This explanation kind of implies that something had to be changed to force in Vulcan-Drakes because of the biological impossibilities pointed out.

Even then, I'm really not sure why Vulcans aren't fighting with assault rifles and tanks at this point. They're obviously advanced enough.

But that's all beside the point, there's not really much I can say if you're bent on trying to force-fit things into a story.

So... Right. Have a nice day.

[powershot]

Vulcans have made magical trees, they are more advanced than humans and I said it in the back story.

The basic idea is that you seem to be inventing justifications to force through things that wouldn't otherwise make sense.

Vulcan\drakes can happen since Vulcan DNA is easily modified, this is partly why they have Vulcan Geneticist.

Like so.

Weren't you saying before that Vulcans/Ice Drakes were possible because Vulcans reproduced differently than humans? This explanation kind of implies that something had to be changed to force in Vulcan-Drakes because of the biological impossibilities pointed out. Even then, I'm really not sure why Vulcans aren't fighting with assault rifles and tanks at this point. They're obviously advanced enough.

But that's all beside the point, there's not really much I can say if you're bent on trying to force-fit things into a story.

So... Right. Have a nice day.

Magic trees are possible, feeding on another energy source beside the sun is possible.

They don't use rifles and tanks, they use things like thunder sticks, metal air balloons and so on.

The DNA makes the head turn Vulcan and the body turn Ice drake. What would you expect?

[Chtomorc]

What would you expect?

WINR... So we can expect everything.

Obselescence just want to bring more common sense and definition to your faction, in order to improve it and make it more realistic (in a wesnothian way).

If you want to be the only one who play with them and that doesn't bother you, then keep that state of mind, Powershot.
But if you want to share your factions with the community, maybe listening the free advices from someone who try to help you improve them will be a good starting point.

[powershot]

What would you expect?

WINR... So we can expect everything.

Obselescence just want to bring more common sense and definition to your faction, in order to improve it and make it more realistic (in a wesnothian way).

If you want to be the only one who play with them and that doesn't bother you, then keep that state of mind, Powershot.
But if you want to share your factions with the community, maybe listening the free advices from someone who try to help you improve them will be a good starting point.

Actually, I started a campaign about them.

And I've logically explained everything.

[Boldek]

hey! you could make vulcans sort of like wcs, they steal the bodies of other races, like shapeshifters or something! then you wouldn't have to have to go to great extent about DNA and all that trouble.

[powershot]

hey! you could make vulcans sort of like wcs, they steal the bodies of other races, like shapeshifters or something! then you wouldn't have to have to go to great extent about DNA and all that trouble.

They don't steal bodies, It's just that DNA makes them have the head of a drake, come on, it's possible.

[thespaceinvader]

No, it's not. Take a high school biology class, maybe you'll learn why not.

[powershot]

No, it's not. Take a high school biology class, maybe you'll learn why not.

Ever dissected a Vulcan?