Steef Spirituality, Wildlife, Classes. Your thoughts please.

[drakan90]

Looking at all the images from new game, it seems that this game looks to be less bound to prophecy, chanting, magic shamans etc. It looks to me like this new game is more...earthly. Although magic could be the explanation to Steef leg number changing type things. Do you lot think this too?

And what about wildlife? It featured heavily in the other games, but the only real wildlife things I've seen are small things, like bugs, squirrel thingies and Slegs. The rest are all types of character/'Intelligent' race. Do you think Wildlife will feature as much in this game, or will it be more bounty hunters cronies etc.?

One last bit. All the characters in this new game dont seem to be heavily Industrialised, or heavily Native. They seem to be middle-ground. Its not entirely accurate to call the Bounties Industrial, or the Bounty Hunters/Steef Native. Do you think new classes will have to be added to the Oddworld list for this game?

Your thoughts on another one of my deeply thoughtful threads. Man I'm good...or I've missed a lot and everyone already knows this stuff...

[Dualist]

Well you know, I think this game takes place in a "Western" kind of theme. I think Strager is a hero's quest for what his ultimate bounty and to find who he really is.

And these Steefs are outlawed or outcasted, that's why on one of those cards on the back says: "Most humilating experience was caught by a steef" or something.


I don't really see how magic shamans or chanting or propehcy could be in this sort of theme OWI has going forth with it.

I think Stranger is by far the coolest character I have ever seen in a game. He looks badass, and is a lone wolf who has to look out for himself.


I also believe Stranger is going to tell the story of maybe real world events that are going on today. You know previous Oddworld games have that anti-commercialsm stuff thrown in their, and I think Stranger will have an approach about finding who you really are and how the world treats people that are different from them.

So you can actually connect to the main character as he is progressing in the story.


I think these new characters, like you said aren't really industrilized. This takes place on a different side of Oddworld that I guess, aren't that big into buisness or corporations. Although I totally dig the enemy design characters, it has that feeling of these guys being really bad and want to get Stranger.

Lastly, I think there is going to be a wildlife in it, becuase I remember there is NPC's throughout the game, and maybe little criters that will inhabit the different the areas Stranger will be visiting. So yeah its possible, and plus with the graphics looking amazing, from what I hear, then it defiently is a possibility.

Man I want this game more then ever.

[Wil]

A very good topic, drakan.

I think it would be accurate to call the Outlaws 'industrial', because I in no way see them living in harmony with the land. We know a dam and illegal mining is involved, and that the inhabitants of this new locale use Moolah, which is the currency the rest of Mudos (so far as we know) uses. It's certainly more accurate than calling the Raisin 'wildlife', and possibly more so than calling Gabbits 'natives'.

For wildlife in the new game, I think it's possible that the small creatures are all we're going to see. Slegs don't look as small as Fuzzles or Bolamites to me, and from remarkably little judgement, I'd say they're slightly larger than most Slogs (ignoring those whoppers from MO). I get the feeling, though, that Steefs are a half-wild race, which would possibly add a predator species to the new environment.

[Esus]

For some reason, I do think this game is somewhat spiritual, and very much about Stranger getting to truely know himself and his own spirituality, hence the spiritual steef poster, yet again.
I do think that Stranger himself is semi industrialised, with the gun and the bounty catching.
I also think, like steers, that Stranger will mature into his centaur form (perhaps).
And perhaps the centaur forms aren't called steefs,

[drakan90]

It's certainly more accurate than calling the Raisin 'wildlife', and possibly more so than calling Gabbits 'natives'.

Yeah thats why I put the Raisin in the Native section of my site. But I think calling gabbits native is pretty correct, I mean, they're intelligent enough to speak, and should really deserve a slightly higher status than wild life. Dont you think?

btw what are Bolamites?

Yeah, I see what you mean with the mining etc. but I still think they're more...in the middle. Not as inclined either way (like in the others, where it was either big machines and guns or loin clothes and pointy sticks). Know what I mean?

[Xavier]

this is a Bolamite... one of the Live Ammo

[Wil]

Here's a Bolamite without the cartoon style of drawing. :P



The lack of big machinery may simply be due to the different location of the game, which seems much more rural than industrial. The Outlaws also might not delve into large-scale manufacturing so much simply because they're outlaws, and wouldn't be able to set up a legitimate company like the Magog Cartel. They definitely have weaponry and don't just wear loinclothes.

But I just realised your idea includes Clakkerz, for whom I will definitely agree with you. Heh, I guess in my haste to forget about them where ever possible, I forgot all about them

EDIT: I should credit Depths Of Oddworld for blowing up that image from AIA.

[Sekto Springs]

It sounds to me that they'd also live in a half wild-half industrial, like Stockyards, but it looks nothing like that.

[drakan90]

Ooh a Bolamite. I got an image of one of those. ...whassa clakker? I should really stay up to date on these names...

[Xavier]

this is a Clakkerz:

[Sekto Springs]

Ooh a Bolamite. I got an image of one of those. ...whassa clakker? I should really stay up to date on these names...

You really are behind.

[drakan90]

When was this announced? I though they were called Hickens. I should really search around those New Character threads instead of just checking the first few posts...

[Xavier]

Hickens was a fan-made-name...
Lorne told us in december on the official site their real name was going to be Clakkerz

[Sekto Springs]

As intelligent as the name 'Hickens' sounds, I doubt Oddworld would actually name a species that. Even if that was their name, it would probly be spelled 'Hickenz'

[drakan90]

lol. Ohh right. Okay. I think they should stop using Z's...

[Oddish]

Yes, no more Z's.

Clakkerz for Yakkerz.


Yup

[Volsung]

As appears to be hinted at in other posts on the forum, this game seems to begin the "blending" of which Lorne Lanning speaks so highly of and of which we've seen so little. The blobs and salamanders are clearly native, while, as Max points out, the outlaws must stand in for industrial. The backgrounds of the trading cards are all industrial in form (With the exceptions of D. Caste Raider, Blisterz Booty and maybe Meagly McGraw) and they are all of bosses and minions. Plus, lets not forget that industrialization and the introduction of "Moolah" as a form of currency can't take place overnight.

In the Abe games we had stumbled upon a fully formed caste society running at full speed. I believe the Stranger game is hinting at the process it takes to get there.

As for Stranger himself, if the "spirituality" or "maturity" theories hold any water, he must eventually side with the natives by becoming his brute form, thus casting his lot with them.

And the infamous clakkerz look like your average annoying and undereducated joe public. Probably--as Max says--they are the only true middle of the road race. Though methinks they probably already place too much value on the moolah to truly go native, they don't seem shrewd enough to reach any prominence in the oddworldian financial market.

[Nate]

My guess is that on the industrial scale; the Hickens are the lower class, glukks are the middle class and Khanzumers are the upper class. The native creatures are not on the scale except for when they've been enslaved, when they would be worker class (lower than lower class), though in the future we are to see muds in the cities that would fit in the middle class.

[Volsung]

I think the species may all be grouped together in the different classes. Some may generally be on the bottom and some may generally be on the top, but the later Oddworld games will probably be mixing all of them more liberally. The only difference seems like it would be the mindset. Muds are complacent working as slaves until they start getting killed left and right. The defining feature of working muds in the city would probably be just that they're fully integrated into the system--they might be what we would call ambitious, and attempt to climb the industrial ladder.

But yes, natives have nothing to offer the industrial world except labor and habitat, they would not generally be able to help the economy because it uses Moolah, an item of exchange with no practical value (to them)

[Sekto Springs]

Here's the ladder as I see it.

1. Khanzumers--I believe--will always be on top of the economy, they're the ones who have the upper hands in the market and virtually everything else. I don't know the official say on Khanzumers but I've heard that glukkons and the cartels have to exchange products for Moolah and their lives in fear of being...eaten? So they are the highest.

2. Queens. Margaret mostly, she rules the magog and all glukkons. Skillya is somewhat lower. Sam is an entirely different story.

3. Glukkons and their cronies are next. Though they aren't the highest class we know, they have far surpassed nativity with technology.

4. Outlaws? Okay, these are defineately the next in the ladder. They seem just below industry but high enough to construct weapons, even if they seem a bit outdated (I. E. Bluderbuss). They also include Moolah in their society, I have my doubts that these guys have the brains to make their own weapons, thus they bought them (plus it also mentions something about a hunting store on the trading cards).

5. Clakkerz. Lower than outlaws, higher than muds. Uneducated, yes, but it seems they have a sense of currency (which is Moolah) making them the next to the last step in the ladder. They've also seemed to evolve into towns as apposed to villages and over-alls apposed to loin cloths.

6. Muds, Salis, and whatnot. Whats to say.

7. Wildlife.

-input inputted

[Wil]

SS, your elementary scale makes sense. I'm thinking that industrial families such as the Glukkons and Vykkers rank pretty much equally in the macrocosmic scale of society, though these seem to be pretty major industrial strengths in Mudos, so maybe there are weaker, less wealthy families, which would still stand on much the same ground as the Cartel, but being that it is a technocratic society, simply can't exhibit as much power.

Personally, I would love to see the hierarchy of the Vykkers Conglomerate, but that's going slightly off-topic.

[drakan90]

I dont see why Khanzumers are rated highest on the scale. You guys all seem to think Khanzumers are all powerful boss guys, but I think they are what their name says. Consumers. Think about it, consumers have the power for a business to sink or swim, but it dosnt make us above the big company bosses.

Thought of the day: Cheese, whats up with that?

[Nate]

We are talking in terms of power, particularly financial power. The whole of Industrial society is based around Moolah and thus those who sell are under the power of those who buy, most significantly the Khanzumers.

[drakan90]

Still, people seem to view them as almighty...death bringer...people...really rich etc.

[Wil]

Drakan has a fantastic point that's been brought up before: just because Khanzumerz are the most important creatures to Oddworld's industry, that doesn't make them the arastocrats of society, nor does it give them any political power.

Having said that, Lorne did say they were the only truely evil beings of Oddworld, so it makes sense people have extrapolated that in the way that they have. It could just mean that they think only of their wants and cravings, while even Glukkons are only trying, ultimately, to pay the 'rent' (even if that rent is acceptance by others).

[drakan90]

^ See! I'm good! I am goo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-d!