Players of a race playing together to build a node in their style is very far from the reality of the game
Right, so given that how would a node even form for a culture if the race isn't working together to establish it?
This isn't wow where the races already have established homes. There are ruins of ancient civilization, but it's still the people coming back through the portals that are building it. There is nothing lorewise OR mechanics wise that can justify forcing particular nodes to be a minority race.
Just everyone is playing together and the majority of race establishes their style. There is no in lore "and then the orcs travalled together over the mountains to find a new home". If you're a whatever race only guild you will always have disadvantages
Just everyone is playing together and the majority of race establishes their style. There is no in lore "and then the orcs travalled together over the mountains to find a new home". If you're a whatever race only guild you will always have disadvantages
The players form their own lore on node development. That's the point - the nodes are not pre-assigned to any given race.
What disadvantages to you see in being in a race-only guild? Bear in mind you are talking to someone in a race-only guild.
What disadvantages to you see in being in a race-only guild ?
We. - NEED. - race-only. Guilds. !!
In WoW Example on my Server - i will never and i truly mean "NEVER" - see a huge Dwarf-Group otherwise. Or an Elf-Group. Or a Human Soldiers/Knights Group.
It is a sad but solid Truth. People need to organise it. Especially - ESPECIALLY - for Roleplay.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Kinda starting to look for a Guild right now. (German)
In WoW Example on my Server - i will never and i truly mean "NEVER" - see a huge Dwarf-Group otherwise. Or an Elf-Group. Or a Human Soldiers/Knights Group.
Vanilla had PvP/RP servers. I joined a troll-only guild. Was definitely a thing, you just didn't know where to look.
What disadvantages to you see in being in a race-only guild ?
We. - NEED. - race-only. Guilds. !!
In WoW Example on my Server - i will never and i truly mean "NEVER" - see a huge Dwarf-Group otherwise. Or an Elf-Group. Or a Human Soldiers/Knights Group.
It is a sad but solid Truth. People need to organise it. Especially - ESPECIALLY - for Roleplay.
Might be interesting to see the some mechanical effects from a racial archeture of a node.
It could provide some buffs to all node citizens, essentially a round about way to have racial buffs through group interaction rather then individual character creation. Several buff options could exist with the mayor choosing which one to activate.
Still it's a meaningful sample. Enough to understand that no race will have an overwhelming majority. So diversity gonna be here.
It's seems to me logic that that architecture sues to the majority. Imagine some small doors for Goblins where 80% of the population is tall.
Regarding all backers and supporters, as well as potential overall players, no 440 is not enough.
Anyways, even if there are guilds forming with one single race only and they are able to get a node - it's anyways a system that doesn't favor diversity. You will have dominant races
imo if there’s going to be racial architecture differences, I’d rather the node villages/cities have a consistent look & feel. This would be better than every city looking like a hodge-podge of random edifices.
I don’t care if it’s based on population, or the mayor, or some other attribute.
The values are different, but the message is clear: There are dominant races. And the same will happen in Ashes.
So, the node architecture should be tested and checked in detail before launch, nobody wants 80% „race A“ nodes all over the realm.
Well, if 80% of people picked that race, then yes actually, the majority wanted that style.
But why is it a problem to implement a system, that is allowing other styles? Because it's against inteprids initial plan? I don't get this point of view. It's not a downside to have variety
The values are different, but the message is clear: There are dominant races. And the same will happen in Ashes.
So, the node architecture should be tested and checked in detail before launch, nobody wants 80% „race A“ nodes all over the realm.
Well, if 80% of people picked that race, then yes actually, the majority wanted that style.
But why is it a problem to implement a system, that is allowing other styles? Because it's against inteprids initial plan? I don't get this point of view. It's not a downside to have variety
It wouldn't be an Intrepid-made problem if players pick these races, so it's not up to them to adjust things so the minority races can have the big metros in their style.
Personally I dig the Vaelune and Py'rai styles most, and the Niküa and Vek styles second. I'll probably play a Tulnar and Empyrean for character themes.
Well, if 80% of people picked that race, then yes actually, the majority wanted that style.
Sure, but still that potentially leads to domination and probably boring, equal looking nodes all over.
So, a possibility to change or decide actively which node design is used would be cool.
We can guess: Elves and Humans will dominate, Tulnar not.
Is the node design split into the sub-races? No, hm? If yes, Vek Orcs also will likely be more unpopular than RenKai. Just guessing.
Yes, they're all split by subraces and each subrace has a distinct style from its counterpart.
What you're calling 'domination' is just the reflection of general player choice. That you picked the unpopular option doesn't make it an issue that the popular option won out.
Renkai orcs look boring imo, I wouldn't immediately consider them more popular than the visually distinct and culturally unusual Vek.
Edit: To be clear, I wouldn't be bothered if they let players pick what racial style to support with any exp contributions, but I wouldn't want to see anything beyond that.
Yes, they're all split by subraces and each subrace has a distinct style from its counterpart.
Which is cool, but increases the issue, if no additional choice is given to player hands, because its nice to get to Vek nodes and Tulnar nodes, but that will be the minority in relation to Elves and Humans, as experience of other MMOs shows us.
Edit: To be clear, I wouldn't be bothered if they let players pick what racial style to support with any exp contributions, but I wouldn't want to see anything beyond that.
At least a possibility to change/adept it would be nice to avoid that its locked, perhaps during level up of a node or to whatever suitable moment. Otherwise all the cool architectures will be not be seen a lot - just my personal guess, maybe Im fully wrong and it will be balanced because, for whatever reason, Ashes will have more balanced race population - but I dont believe that this will be the case.
Edit, from wiki:
„This style and culture change happens at every stage“
So, thats already in, but still its only formed by the most contributing race/culture, no other choice is given. Perhaps thats ok, perhaps that leads to boring, equal looking nodes of the dominating races.
Yes, they're all split by subraces and each subrace has a distinct style from its counterpart.
Which is cool, but increases the issue, if no additional choice is given to player hands, because its nice to get to Vek nodes and Tulnar nodes, but that will be the minority in relation to Elves and Humans, as experience of other MMOs shows us.
Edit: To be clear, I wouldn't be bothered if they let players pick what racial style to support with any exp contributions, but I wouldn't want to see anything beyond that.
At least a possibility to change/adept it would be nice to avoid that its locked, perhaps during level up of a node or to whatever suitable moment. Otherwise all the cool architectures will be not be seen a lot - just my personal guess, maybe Im fully wrong and it will be balanced because, for whatever reason, Ashes will have more balanced race population - but I dont believe that this will be the case.
It was never locked in the first place. It's based on which race contributed the highest amount of exp to the level up.
Your discontent stems from a lack of each race having their style represented, but that's by design and a direct result of player choice. Even if players could pick what type of style they're contributing, you're still not going to see many Tulnar nodes.
.
Edit, from wiki:
„This style and culture change happens at every stage“
So, thats already in, but still its only formed by the most contributing race/culture, no other choice is given. Perhaps thats ok, perhaps that leads to boring, equal looking nodes of the dominating races.
In both cases it's ok if that happens.
0
nanfoodleMember, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
while in theory it sounds great and logical, that a node gets the style of the most contributing race, its actually not a well thought of system.
In every mmo you have races, that are played much more than others, so a niche race will maybe never or very unlikely see a node in their style.
I guess there should be an alternative system. Maybe the mayor's race or swappable and you need a blue print that is only craftable by the race itself.
I 100% agree with this. I also don't like it going by the majority of players that decides this. I would rather it go by percentage. So you have 60% humans, 15% elves, 5% dwarfs, etc, that raised the node. There is still a 5% chance you get a Dwarf node and a 15% chance you get an Elven node. Fact is, as it stands. Human nodes will be most common.
while in theory it sounds great and logical, that a node gets the style of the most contributing race, its actually not a well thought of system.
In every mmo you have races, that are played much more than others, so a niche race will maybe never or very unlikely see a node in their style.
I guess there should be an alternative system. Maybe the mayor's race or swappable and you need a blue print that is only craftable by the race itself.
I 100% agree with this. I also don't like it going by the majority of players that decides this. I would rather it go by percentage. So you have 60% humans, 15% elves, 5% dwarfs, etc, that raised the node. There is still a 5% chance you get a Dwarf node and a 15% chance you get an Elven node. Fact is, as it stands. Human nodes will be most common.
RNG is a terrible way to determine the style for a node. Majority rule is the best way to keep the most people happy with the result.
1
nanfoodleMember, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
while in theory it sounds great and logical, that a node gets the style of the most contributing race, its actually not a well thought of system.
In every mmo you have races, that are played much more than others, so a niche race will maybe never or very unlikely see a node in their style.
I guess there should be an alternative system. Maybe the mayor's race or swappable and you need a blue print that is only craftable by the race itself.
I 100% agree with this. I also don't like it going by the majority of players that decides this. I would rather it go by percentage. So you have 60% humans, 15% elves, 5% dwarfs, etc, that raised the node. There is still a 5% chance you get a Dwarf node and a 15% chance you get an Elven node. Fact is, as it stands. Human nodes will be most common.
RNG is a terrible way to determine the style for a node. Majority rule is the best way to keep the most people happy with the result.
Or a very boring way to homogenized Ashes. This tread is about the fact this is not what all people want. Also people that say they want this, will not realize after launch why cities are so boring. Best part of fantasy is the variety. It's a celebration of races and architecture diversity.
while in theory it sounds great and logical, that a node gets the style of the most contributing race, its actually not a well thought of system.
In every mmo you have races, that are played much more than others, so a niche race will maybe never or very unlikely see a node in their style.
I guess there should be an alternative system. Maybe the mayor's race or swappable and you need a blue print that is only craftable by the race itself.
I 100% agree with this. I also don't like it going by the majority of players that decides this. I would rather it go by percentage. So you have 60% humans, 15% elves, 5% dwarfs, etc, that raised the node. There is still a 5% chance you get a Dwarf node and a 15% chance you get an Elven node. Fact is, as it stands. Human nodes will be most common.
RNG is a terrible way to determine the style for a node. Majority rule is the best way to keep the most people happy with the result.
Or a very boring way to homogenized Ashes. This tread is about the fact this is not what all people want. Also people that say they want this, will not realize after launch why cities are so boring. Best part of fantasy is the variety. It's a celebration of races and architecture diversity.
It doesn't matter if it's not what all people want. The node styles are based on the choices of the majority contributors, and thus it is what most people in that particular area want.
It wouldn't make any sense to load the dice in favor of any race over others, even if you personally want the less popular racial styles to be more common.
while in theory it sounds great and logical, that a node gets the style of the most contributing race, its actually not a well thought of system.
In every mmo you have races, that are played much more than others, so a niche race will maybe never or very unlikely see a node in their style.
I guess there should be an alternative system. Maybe the mayor's race or swappable and you need a blue print that is only craftable by the race itself.
I 100% agree with this. I also don't like it going by the majority of players that decides this. I would rather it go by percentage. So you have 60% humans, 15% elves, 5% dwarfs, etc, that raised the node. There is still a 5% chance you get a Dwarf node and a 15% chance you get an Elven node. Fact is, as it stands. Human nodes will be most common.
RNG is a terrible way to determine the style for a node. Majority rule is the best way to keep the most people happy with the result.
Or a very boring way to homogenized Ashes. This tread is about the fact this is not what all people want. Also people that say they want this, will not realize after launch why cities are so boring. Best part of fantasy is the variety. It's a celebration of races and architecture diversity.
It doesn't matter if it's not what all people want. The node styles are based on the choices of the majority contributors, and thus it is what most people in that particular area want.
It wouldn't make any sense to load the dice in favor of any race over others, even if you personally want the less popular racial styles to be more common.
That's not how it works now. It's defaulted to the majority of what ever race leveled the node. So if 51% are human. You get a human node. No one picks anything. Want has nothing to do with this.
With races not benefiting character abilities it’s going to come down to the more popular races (mostly aesthetics). Unless you have a large number of players get together and intentionally focus a node with a single race. I do think each race should have benefits from the particular environment, which could offer some incentive for players of a particular race to settle in a given node.
while in theory it sounds great and logical, that a node gets the style of the most contributing race, its actually not a well thought of system.
In every mmo you have races, that are played much more than others, so a niche race will maybe never or very unlikely see a node in their style.
I guess there should be an alternative system. Maybe the mayor's race or swappable and you need a blue print that is only craftable by the race itself.
I 100% agree with this. I also don't like it going by the majority of players that decides this. I would rather it go by percentage. So you have 60% humans, 15% elves, 5% dwarfs, etc, that raised the node. There is still a 5% chance you get a Dwarf node and a 15% chance you get an Elven node. Fact is, as it stands. Human nodes will be most common.
RNG is a terrible way to determine the style for a node. Majority rule is the best way to keep the most people happy with the result.
Or a very boring way to homogenized Ashes. This tread is about the fact this is not what all people want. Also people that say they want this, will not realize after launch why cities are so boring. Best part of fantasy is the variety. It's a celebration of races and architecture diversity.
It doesn't matter if it's not what all people want. The node styles are based on the choices of the majority contributors, and thus it is what most people in that particular area want.
It wouldn't make any sense to load the dice in favor of any race over others, even if you personally want the less popular racial styles to be more common.
That's not how it works now. It's defaulted to the majority of what ever race leveled the node. So if 51% are human. You get a human node. No one picks anything. Want has nothing to do with this.
That is indeed how it works now. You pick your preferred race which comes with their particular racial architectural style. That is the choice part.
But even if that choice was separated into 'character race' and 'preferred architecture style', you still wouldn't be happy with the system because you've don't want it to be possible for the majority of nodes to be one style, even if the majority on a server do want it to be that particular style.
In essence, what's being asked for is for player choice to be made the secondary or tertiary decision maker, and that's just not going to happen.
while in theory it sounds great and logical, that a node gets the style of the most contributing race, its actually not a well thought of system.
In every mmo you have races, that are played much more than others, so a niche race will maybe never or very unlikely see a node in their style.
I guess there should be an alternative system. Maybe the mayor's race or swappable and you need a blue print that is only craftable by the race itself.
I 100% agree with this. I also don't like it going by the majority of players that decides this. I would rather it go by percentage. So you have 60% humans, 15% elves, 5% dwarfs, etc, that raised the node. There is still a 5% chance you get a Dwarf node and a 15% chance you get an Elven node. Fact is, as it stands. Human nodes will be most common.
RNG is a terrible way to determine the style for a node. Majority rule is the best way to keep the most people happy with the result.
Or a very boring way to homogenized Ashes. This tread is about the fact this is not what all people want. Also people that say they want this, will not realize after launch why cities are so boring. Best part of fantasy is the variety. It's a celebration of races and architecture diversity.
It doesn't matter if it's not what all people want. The node styles are based on the choices of the majority contributors, and thus it is what most people in that particular area want.
It wouldn't make any sense to load the dice in favor of any race over others, even if you personally want the less popular racial styles to be more common.
That's not how it works now. It's defaulted to the majority of what ever race leveled the node. So if 51% are human. You get a human node. No one picks anything. Want has nothing to do with this.
That is indeed how it works now. You pick your preferred race which comes with their particular racial architectural style. That is the choice part.
But even if that choice was separated into 'character race' and 'preferred architecture style', you still wouldn't be happy with the system because you've don't want it to be possible for the majority of nodes to be one style, even if the majority on a server do want it to be that particular style.
In essence, what's being asked for is for player choice to be made the secondary or tertiary decision maker, and that's just not going to happen.
How do you know? It's not even alpha 2 and they want feedback. What you are doing is defending the initial concept, which is right now just a concept.
while in theory it sounds great and logical, that a node gets the style of the most contributing race, its actually not a well thought of system.
In every mmo you have races, that are played much more than others, so a niche race will maybe never or very unlikely see a node in their style.
I guess there should be an alternative system. Maybe the mayor's race or swappable and you need a blue print that is only craftable by the race itself.
I 100% agree with this. I also don't like it going by the majority of players that decides this. I would rather it go by percentage. So you have 60% humans, 15% elves, 5% dwarfs, etc, that raised the node. There is still a 5% chance you get a Dwarf node and a 15% chance you get an Elven node. Fact is, as it stands. Human nodes will be most common.
RNG is a terrible way to determine the style for a node. Majority rule is the best way to keep the most people happy with the result.
Or a very boring way to homogenized Ashes. This tread is about the fact this is not what all people want. Also people that say they want this, will not realize after launch why cities are so boring. Best part of fantasy is the variety. It's a celebration of races and architecture diversity.
It doesn't matter if it's not what all people want. The node styles are based on the choices of the majority contributors, and thus it is what most people in that particular area want.
It wouldn't make any sense to load the dice in favor of any race over others, even if you personally want the less popular racial styles to be more common.
That's not how it works now. It's defaulted to the majority of what ever race leveled the node. So if 51% are human. You get a human node. No one picks anything. Want has nothing to do with this.
That is indeed how it works now. You pick your preferred race which comes with their particular racial architectural style. That is the choice part.
But even if that choice was separated into 'character race' and 'preferred architecture style', you still wouldn't be happy with the system because you've don't want it to be possible for the majority of nodes to be one style, even if the majority on a server do want it to be that particular style.
In essence, what's being asked for is for player choice to be made the secondary or tertiary decision maker, and that's just not going to happen.
How do you know? It's not even alpha 2 and they want feedback. What you are doing is defending the initial concept, which is right now just a concept.
Yeah, he is.
Nothing wrong with that if you like the initial concept - what else would he be defending?
Fact is, there is nothing wrong with the system as we currently understand it to function. The only comments against it have been personal preference in nature.
while in theory it sounds great and logical, that a node gets the style of the most contributing race, its actually not a well thought of system.
In every mmo you have races, that are played much more than others, so a niche race will maybe never or very unlikely see a node in their style.
I guess there should be an alternative system. Maybe the mayor's race or swappable and you need a blue print that is only craftable by the race itself.
I 100% agree with this. I also don't like it going by the majority of players that decides this. I would rather it go by percentage. So you have 60% humans, 15% elves, 5% dwarfs, etc, that raised the node. There is still a 5% chance you get a Dwarf node and a 15% chance you get an Elven node. Fact is, as it stands. Human nodes will be most common.
RNG is a terrible way to determine the style for a node. Majority rule is the best way to keep the most people happy with the result.
Or a very boring way to homogenized Ashes. This tread is about the fact this is not what all people want. Also people that say they want this, will not realize after launch why cities are so boring. Best part of fantasy is the variety. It's a celebration of races and architecture diversity.
It doesn't matter if it's not what all people want. The node styles are based on the choices of the majority contributors, and thus it is what most people in that particular area want.
It wouldn't make any sense to load the dice in favor of any race over others, even if you personally want the less popular racial styles to be more common.
That's not how it works now. It's defaulted to the majority of what ever race leveled the node. So if 51% are human. You get a human node. No one picks anything. Want has nothing to do with this.
That is indeed how it works now. You pick your preferred race which comes with their particular racial architectural style. That is the choice part.
But even if that choice was separated into 'character race' and 'preferred architecture style', you still wouldn't be happy with the system because you've don't want it to be possible for the majority of nodes to be one style, even if the majority on a server do want it to be that particular style.
In essence, what's being asked for is for player choice to be made the secondary or tertiary decision maker, and that's just not going to happen.
How do you know? It's not even alpha 2 and they want feedback. What you are doing is defending the initial concept, which is right now just a concept.
How do I know that player choice isn't going to be put on the back burner to appease a minority of players? Because player impact on the world is a central design pillar.
I realize you want a guarantee that less popular races will have their nodes styles used, but that can't be done without removing the central design pillar of players being the primary impact on the world.
If there were mechanical perks to the aesthetic styles there'd be more to discuss, but these are entirely visual. The node type has exponentially more bearing on player content than how the node looks.
Comments
Just everyone is playing together and the majority of race establishes their style. There is no in lore "and then the orcs travalled together over the mountains to find a new home". If you're a whatever race only guild you will always have disadvantages
The players form their own lore on node development. That's the point - the nodes are not pre-assigned to any given race.
What disadvantages to you see in being in a race-only guild? Bear in mind you are talking to someone in a race-only guild.
We. - NEED. - race-only. Guilds. !!
In WoW Example on my Server - i will never and i truly mean "NEVER" - see a huge Dwarf-Group otherwise. Or an Elf-Group. Or a Human Soldiers/Knights Group.
It is a sad but solid Truth. People need to organise it. Especially - ESPECIALLY - for Roleplay.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Kinda starting to look for a Guild right now. (German)
Vanilla had PvP/RP servers. I joined a troll-only guild. Was definitely a thing, you just didn't know where to look.
Why do you NEED to see a huge Dwarf group?
It could provide some buffs to all node citizens, essentially a round about way to have racial buffs through group interaction rather then individual character creation. Several buff options could exist with the mayor choosing which one to activate.
Still it's a meaningful sample. Enough to understand that no race will have an overwhelming majority. So diversity gonna be here.
It's seems to me logic that that architecture sues to the majority. Imagine some small doors for Goblins where 80% of the population is tall.
Regarding all backers and supporters, as well as potential overall players, no 440 is not enough.
Anyways, even if there are guilds forming with one single race only and they are able to get a node - it's anyways a system that doesn't favor diversity. You will have dominant races
I don’t care if it’s based on population, or the mayor, or some other attribute.
Just take one comparison: WoW. Lot of cool races, still some are dominating it.
2019, bit older, but will not have changed a lot:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/276315/distribution-of-world-of-warcraft-characters-by-race/
Or here:
https://www.dataforazeroth.com/stats/races
The values are different, but the message is clear: There are dominant races. And the same will happen in Ashes.
So, the node architecture should be tested and checked in detail before launch, nobody wants 80% „race A“ nodes all over the realm.
Well, if 80% of people picked that race, then yes actually, the majority wanted that style.
But why is it a problem to implement a system, that is allowing other styles? Because it's against inteprids initial plan? I don't get this point of view. It's not a downside to have variety
So, a possibility to change or decide actively which node design is used would be cool.
We can guess: Elves and Humans will dominate, Tulnar not.
Is the node design split into the sub-races? No, hm? If yes, Vek Orcs also will likely be more unpopular than RenKai. Just guessing.
It wouldn't be an Intrepid-made problem if players pick these races, so it's not up to them to adjust things so the minority races can have the big metros in their style.
Personally I dig the Vaelune and Py'rai styles most, and the Niküa and Vek styles second. I'll probably play a Tulnar and Empyrean for character themes.
Yes, they're all split by subraces and each subrace has a distinct style from its counterpart.
What you're calling 'domination' is just the reflection of general player choice. That you picked the unpopular option doesn't make it an issue that the popular option won out.
Renkai orcs look boring imo, I wouldn't immediately consider them more popular than the visually distinct and culturally unusual Vek.
Edit: To be clear, I wouldn't be bothered if they let players pick what racial style to support with any exp contributions, but I wouldn't want to see anything beyond that.
At least a possibility to change/adept it would be nice to avoid that its locked, perhaps during level up of a node or to whatever suitable moment. Otherwise all the cool architectures will be not be seen a lot - just my personal guess, maybe Im fully wrong and it will be balanced because, for whatever reason, Ashes will have more balanced race population - but I dont believe that this will be the case.
Edit, from wiki:
„This style and culture change happens at every stage“
So, thats already in, but still its only formed by the most contributing race/culture, no other choice is given. Perhaps thats ok, perhaps that leads to boring, equal looking nodes of the dominating races.
It was never locked in the first place. It's based on which race contributed the highest amount of exp to the level up.
Your discontent stems from a lack of each race having their style represented, but that's by design and a direct result of player choice. Even if players could pick what type of style they're contributing, you're still not going to see many Tulnar nodes.
In both cases it's ok if that happens.
I 100% agree with this. I also don't like it going by the majority of players that decides this. I would rather it go by percentage. So you have 60% humans, 15% elves, 5% dwarfs, etc, that raised the node. There is still a 5% chance you get a Dwarf node and a 15% chance you get an Elven node. Fact is, as it stands. Human nodes will be most common.
RNG is a terrible way to determine the style for a node. Majority rule is the best way to keep the most people happy with the result.
Or a very boring way to homogenized Ashes. This tread is about the fact this is not what all people want. Also people that say they want this, will not realize after launch why cities are so boring. Best part of fantasy is the variety. It's a celebration of races and architecture diversity.
It doesn't matter if it's not what all people want. The node styles are based on the choices of the majority contributors, and thus it is what most people in that particular area want.
It wouldn't make any sense to load the dice in favor of any race over others, even if you personally want the less popular racial styles to be more common.
That's not how it works now. It's defaulted to the majority of what ever race leveled the node. So if 51% are human. You get a human node. No one picks anything. Want has nothing to do with this.
That is indeed how it works now. You pick your preferred race which comes with their particular racial architectural style. That is the choice part.
But even if that choice was separated into 'character race' and 'preferred architecture style', you still wouldn't be happy with the system because you've don't want it to be possible for the majority of nodes to be one style, even if the majority on a server do want it to be that particular style.
In essence, what's being asked for is for player choice to be made the secondary or tertiary decision maker, and that's just not going to happen.
How do you know? It's not even alpha 2 and they want feedback. What you are doing is defending the initial concept, which is right now just a concept.
Yeah, he is.
Nothing wrong with that if you like the initial concept - what else would he be defending?
Fact is, there is nothing wrong with the system as we currently understand it to function. The only comments against it have been personal preference in nature.
How do I know that player choice isn't going to be put on the back burner to appease a minority of players? Because player impact on the world is a central design pillar.
I realize you want a guarantee that less popular races will have their nodes styles used, but that can't be done without removing the central design pillar of players being the primary impact on the world.
If there were mechanical perks to the aesthetic styles there'd be more to discuss, but these are entirely visual. The node type has exponentially more bearing on player content than how the node looks.