[Shade Genkai]

Races in SL2, while distinct and noticeably different in reference to each other, have little that can mark personal distinction between individual members of each race. While this can be good to show solidarity in the setting itself and as there has been little to limit players from adding their own personal touches to their characters through their profiles and playing styles there is something that can be said for implementing a system for mechanical benefits to such personalization. Which is where this idea comes from.

Furthermore if implemented this could be a possible solution for many of the complaints that have been voiced about various races and their balancing issues. So without further adieu, here is the Racial Skill Ranks idea.

As can be determined from the name of the idea the main premise is to add ranks or a kind of gradation to the already present racial skills and passives as well as adding a few more passive or active skills to a few races so that they wouldn't be further imbalanced or pushed into being imbalanced by the idea. One of the greatest benefits of this idea though is that it promotes putting more focus on the ic benefits and detriments of picking a race not just for their mechanical benefits but for what it implies for the character itself as well by tying the two together even more firmly while at the same time not denying already existing character concepts and perhaps even rewarding those that stuck to their guns.

Mechanically speaking, the main premise of the idea is to give racial skills and passives the same 'ranks' that are available to class skills in order to boost their natural output or to give them additional effects the more they are focused on. Each skill/passive could be given the normal five(5)possible ranks and each character would have a pool of ten(10) or so points to use at their leisure. In keeping with the basic point of the idea this would be available upon creation (possibly accessible from the character window) so that each character would still have an equal starting point with the results of their build still being based upon the effort they put into it. Furthermore there could be the possibility of taking a point from certain skills to remove them from a character entirely and to offer an extra point to be put elsewhere(of course if this were to be implemented at all it would only be for certain skills to avoid ridiculous situations that would actually stop a character from even being identifiable as their race).

The most evident issue with this idea (aside from possible difficulty or tedium in coding) would be that not all races have enough racial skills and/or passives to make them able to properly benefit from this idea. The solution, of course, would be to either add extra skills/passives (which I have ideas for if the concept itself is found to be interesting/doable) or to give the races with fewer skills/passives either a higher rank cap, more points to put into their skills/passives, or both. Another possible, though less important, issue would be the resetting of these choices after they've been made. For a solution I'd recommend adding the ability to do so to the currently available Fruit of Fluidity for convenience in both coding and for the players if adding another fruit would be too much trouble.

Listed below are possibilities for how the idea can be made compatible with already existing skills/passives. (All already existing skills start at rank one with their natural effect.)

(For ease of viewing, or at least to lessen the length of this post, all of the examples can be found in the following link.)
https://pastebin.com/rFzHidMY

[GSM]

I’m not entirely against this idea (and frankly it sounds cool as fuck, not gonna lie) but there are a lot of issues with the concept, mostly concerning balance. Some races are already at the tipping point between completely overpowered and begrudgingly accepted because of said power, and others are entirely awful unless you capitalize on a single gimmick.

Personally speaking, I love this idea. And even though these skills mostly seem to be for role playing flair, I just think it would make races that don’t deserve it at the moment to be that much better.

Also it doesn’t account for people being half of one race and half of another, e.g. half-Glykin half-human, but I imagine that would be far too cumbersome and lead to Mary Sues, so this point’s pretty moot but still something I thought of.

[Lolzytripd]

This is what the San stat is for.

This can also be solved by giving more races Optional traits to obtain via the "sometime changed in the future" Trait system.

Another fun thing that could however be done is to allow people to become rarer variants of races through LE.

[Syeburn]

I like this idea. I don't like all the things you're putting down on paper here. Which is to be expected, given all the stuff you've typed out! As much as I appreciate all the work you've put into that pastebin and by extension this topic, I think that it should be used more so in the way of suggestions and such than being put right into the game.

There are a few races that are very impactful to the way you play - ala Lich and then there are most every other race which is 'are these base stats good?!??!?!'. I'd be cool to see more races being capable of playing into a racial niche kind of build. In the sense that sure you can go whatever build you want on the race, but theres still a themeatic there you can play into. (Think Wyverntouched kinda?)

[Autumn]

Racial skills already scale from SAN, which is what differentiates characters of the same race.

Mechanically speaking anyways, that and class setups/the character itself and playby. etc.

[Shade Genkai]

The suggestions in the pastebin are indeed intended first and foremost as suggestions. I'd of course quite like it if some of them were used (mostly because I think certain ones would lead to some interesting ic situations, if not just amusement in general) but I'm quite okay with whatever spin is taken on the idea itself. If any at all.

SAN does, of course, handle a good bit of differentiation when it comes to certain races abilities, but a number of said effects are rather lackluster at best. Or they just don't account for the various different ways people could try to play a certain race. (For instance, there have been a number of players with beast race characters that have a tendency to play their characters in a more savage/beastly way than in a cultured sense. And the number of mechanation players that rp their characters as being purpose built is normally near the majority from my own experience.) While I am aware that the majority of the ideas I posted were combat oriented (and there's a reason for that) I'd mostly like to see the idea executed as more of a method to promote even more development and depth in creation than is already present.

And I definitely welcome anyone to post suggestions for such example traits where I failed in accomplishing such.

[Lolzytripd]

Instead of a new racial point system I'd rather suggest mutually exclusive traits for an improved trait system

Imagine if every race had three racial traits, and each of those traits had a greatly improved version at the cost of an additional trait. You would be limited to two or three traits max and thus nobody could be the "perfect" member of their race.

[Fern]

These are so cool! But like GSM pointed out, balance issues could spring up... sadly. Maybe there'll be a way to implement them in the future, I'm not sure.

The new trait system does sound like a good opportunity, though.

[Autumn]

Racial traits would be a better idea when the trait rework™ eventually comes into play, as it stands there's only a few races that get racial traits but they do feel unique on their own.

[Neus]

There will be some more varied options for traits as far as races are concerned in the trait rework, yes. Just to give an example, and please note that everything involving new traits or trait reworks are a WIP and subject to change at any time;

Fasting Vampire; Removes the penalty for being low on essence and any bonus damage taken from Holy. Gaining Essence in any way removes this trait, and if it was gained in a battle, you are stunned and inflicted with a status called Feeding Frenzy, disabling the use of all skills for that battle except for Movement and Banquet until your Essence is at least 100 at the start of a round.