"Elves as a playable race", how does it fit in New Britannia lore?

I completely agree.

 

Elves are one of the best race out there. One day you will be saved by one. You will see. They will not want your money or anything by saving you. I can't wait to be an Elf....

 

If I could like the above post forever, I would.

 

As long as they make them very attractive Elves, I really wouldn't mind !
~Time Lord~
X

 

I'll admit, that I don't mind elves. In DDO, Warcraft, EverQuest and LotRO, I have elven characters. Heck, my character in our Pathfinder campaign is an elf.

I have issues with elves in SotA, because there were specific reasons they were *removed* from the Ultima series. As a spiritual successor, I want SotA to be as close as possible to the play style of Ultima, including Ultima Online up until the EA takeover. Further, we were told for a year that you would be playing yourself, projected by the Lunar Rifts into New Britannia. The body here is unlike your own (being able to resurrect, heal from crippling injury, etc), but you are essentially yourself. I'm assuming the body is created from self-image, or something similar, and just can't see how you can project into a race you haven't even seen yet. Perhaps the lore will explain how this is, but based on what has been released so far, I just can't buy into it.

If the elves were introduced as the ones for Ultima X Odyssey were, where they were the return of the Sosarian Elves, I'd accept their existence and perhaps the desire to play them as characters. These elves are... abominations. Humans, twisted by evil magic into something deadly and forced into combat with mankind. Yes, some few may rebel at their treatment, but are they ever going to be really free of their legacy? Of the magic that created them? Why would you want to play one of these ugly monsters?

Before someone retorts that the player elves will be the "beautiful" version... no, they won't be. Or at least, they shouldn't be. The only creature we know have a good and evil side are the Imps/Emps, as Stephen Daniele was describing them during Pen of the Avatar. There is no reason for elves to have such a division, and defies logic for such to exist. Plus, that requires another full set of assets, rather than being able to reuse the existing elven assets, which have been in the game for several releases now.

 

Sure, they could There could be attractive, naturally occurring species of elves on the mainland which have lived in isolation until recently, as opposed to these Obsidian-created abominations. Just because you haven't met them yet (since we've been stuck in the Hidden Vale) doesn't mean they can't exist... See, a simple, perfectly logical explanation

 

I'm not talking about what we've seen in Pre-Alpha Releases. Those are systems tests, nothing more. However, we have received some lore snippets from Arabella, via the Update of the Avatar, and we have an entire novel of lore from roughly a hundred years ago. The Titans were accumulating the knowledge of centuries; you think if they found out "good" elves were around they wouldn't have gone to them for help? And if they are small enough to live in isolation following a cataclysm that scattered millions around the globe, their population would not be sufficient to allow for player characters of that race.

 

Yes, I am well aware of all of the lore from the novel and the snippets from Arabella. Maybe the Titans didn't find the "good" elves (even they admitted they weren't all knowing) and even if a relatively small number (say, a few thousand as opposed to millions, organized into smaller-sized groups which were scattered all across New Britannia) survived The Great Cataclysm by living in isolation, after 400 years of breeding, you certainly would have sufficient numbers to allow for player characters of that race...

 

Elves are as playable as Orcs..... For that matter, we've had spiders in the game forever, so why couldn't "any wanted thing or race be playable" if enough imagination and RP is wanted in our game...

Ultima = Ultimate in Everything!
Stay true to the name and all else comes all in their ~Time~
Marketing for the masses and not "the one" just makes good sense to me
Everyone should truly get what they want from something branded as the "Ultimate in Ultima"
~Time Lord~

 

In LoTR-O, my main character was a spider and second favorite (which I actually played more) was a warg.

It is a cartoon video-game we're talking about here, let's not forget that.

 

These aren't the elves that were removed from Ultima though. These are a new people unique to New Britannia. In some ways the use of the name elf could be a big advantage to this game, as new players will join, think "Oh an elf! Yay!" only to have their preconceptions broken by the reality of life in New Britannia. So long as this lore remains consistent, I don't think there is a problem. Travelers / Avatars have long been able to incarnate in various forms, changing gender or appearance, so I don't think a playable race is a huge stretch (tho $500k sure is!). That being said, I could also see a place for elves as adopted family or 'playable companions' (in fact I hope to see some as NPC companions).

Considering all the concerns raised in this thread, like resolving all these inconsistencies, creating new quest lines and content for player elves, I can't argue with the amount of the stretch goal. The high price tag indicates that they really want to do this right if they do it.

 

please no

 

That's a very good point, as we've been told many times how this game will challenge our morals and our inner biases. Perhaps calling these human mutations "elves" was an entirely deliberate one which they knew very well would cause a ruckus. But more importantly, we've really yet to see what their impact is in the game since we know next to nothing about the game's actual story.

Yep, I really do think they've built in enough buffer for all of that beyond simply delivering character models we can jump around in the game.

 

I don't really get why some have a big issue over elves....everyone knows for a fact that people will RP them whether they can create a char that looks like them of not.

 

It is known Kahleesi. It is known.

 

It's mostly because RG hammered home the point that "your Avatar is you". That's why I was originally against the idea. When I revisited the thought with consideration of BotA lore, I decided it's not such a big break after all. But I can see why people excited about playing a more "down to earth" kind of fantasy game might be a little irritated by it.

My big beef is with the Stretch Goal Store.

 

Um. If "Elves" are created by the Obsidians, then wouldn't something that evolved totally independently at the very least be something other than an Elf? I might say potato, you might say potahto, but ideally neither of us is talking about cabbage.

 

@Oakwind, elves in bikini armor with longing glances just makes the concept less attractive, not more attractive.

I kind of understand why they don't want the "good elves" to look as deranged as the "bad elves", although I don't think the appearances have to be as divergent as they've suggested the plan is. I think elves can still look friendly with black eyes / no eyebrows. Still alien, but not unfriendly. I don't think the elves need to look un-alien to look friendly, in fact I prefer them to look a bit alien.. I've done this look (black eyes, no eyebrows) in Skyrim and also in STO and you can create a benevolent-looking character with that look.

I can't find a image reference on the web that matches that look completely like that, but here's a start, with black eyes but still with the eyebrows,



And here's an example of how no eyebrows can look friendly,


Not discounting the pupils with eyebrows look as bad, it is a softer, more gentle look, and am waiting to see what the art team comes up with.