Wolfire Games Forums

the lugaru universe is not as of this moment a vast and expansive world with centuries of lore. It is a fantasy that does not focus on magic and has some exaggerations. It is a solid concrete world that has few fantastic things.

This sets overgrowth/lugaru apart from the typical fantasy. the characters are also easy to connect with because of the way they treat the world. This isnt some kind of large magical place. The hobbits in the lord of the rings couldnt even look at an elephant without being amazed by the magic. Everything that was in lugaru was part of there world. and this is something i expect to be carried over to the next game.

the only thing that seperates lugaru 9from my understanding) from an ancient earth is the fact that mammals are anthropomorphic. This allows us to get a clear sense of basic character for earth race. rabbits kind. dogs curious . Rats sneaky , cats greedy, wolves vicious. it allows players to connect. This creates an obvious problem. the inclusion of none sapient creatures. luckily unlike most anthropomorphic universes it seems that overgrowth has restricted itself to mammals.
this leaves a large amount of animals that could be included as ambient or functional wildlife.
functional wildlife as well as ambient is an important part of many roleplaying games and shooters. for examble in fallout there were men who used pack brahmin (two headed cows) and in gears of war 2 when underground there are many creatures. some games even have mountable creatures but i think that this aspect is not something overgrowth wants to get into. however the games plot and environments can allude to the idea of an animal being used. this also creates a problem with the fact that there are not many large none mammal species. And i personally feel it would be over teh top if overgrowth used an extinct species or increased the size of something rediculously (no giant chameleons. but there are ways to work around this.

now i am going to present a list of creatures and the anthropomorphic races they should be assosiated with. this list does not represent facts or any information from the developers. simply my suggestions


Rabbits: Iguanas (pets) eagles/hawk/falcons (also pets) tortoises (pack animals/mounts)
Felines(cats): cassowary (mounts) cockroaches (pests brought from homeland) cockatoo (pets)
wolves: condors (guard animals of camps and such same role as dogs in reality) cockroaches (kept in small cages for snacks)
rats: canaries/owls/sparrows/robins/cardinals (rats dont have good eyes so they use a bird to help them see lives on there head)
dogs: emu ( WAR mounts) turkey (primary food source)

ambient: hermit crabs, crows, pigeons (in cat cities) dodo (extinct but they are so cool) tortoises, iguanas, crocodiles/alligator/caiman (call them caiman make it a generic gator), vulture, roadrunner, tortoises.

Ralok wrote:dogs curious .

This would explain why curiosity killed the cat.

dogs being curiuous is in a stupid way a slight nod towards scooby doo. even though that damn dog refused to do anything and was in all likelyhood his speaking ability stemmed from a groupd of people experimenting in the back of there van with various narcotics

There's already been a little bit of talk about this in the... SPF!
There's also been talks about mounts... even flying mounts.

Ralok wrote:Rabbits: tortoises (pack animals)

This makes sense, because we all know that the tortoise wins in a race with a rabbit (or at least with hares).

yes that was intended there needs to be some cultural references in lugaru

plus it is really the only nonfictional and none extinct animal that size with four legs that isnt a mammal that wont bite your hand off.
at least the only one i could think of.

imagine if you will a rabbit on top of a turtle with packs full of things and the rabbit just sitting back leisurely enjoying the slow ride.

imagine a caravan of bunnies with carts being pulled by toroises.

I actually figured caravans would be with pack emus or whatever. The only reason they'd use them is for carrying stuff they otherwise wouldn't be able to alone. Rabbits can move very quickly long distances without the need for a mount.

emus would be cool. but the scraggly look seems to fit the idea more of a dog or rat then the look of a rabbit. of course they could be the universal mount the one that nobody minds using. it would seem to me the legs of an emu could be adapted from the current overgrowth system

but i think the tortoise is more symbolic. plus i think the rabbits would enjoy the pleasant slow ride. and for game play purposes a tortoise can be made bigger like rabbits and dogs. doesnt need to be totally accurate. but truly it is a little impractical.

Ralok wrote:

rats: owls

since when has owls and rats been friends

this is a fantasy. ive intentionally put some races together with races that are often assossiated as enemies.

tortoise, rabbits
owls, rats
turkeys, dogs (to complicated dont ask)

*shrug*
Whatever the devs find interesting and appropriate, they'll choose.

If I was a dev, I'd not be so sure about this kicking my spark...

I still say Ostrich = Mount.

Yes, even now I am still obsessing about Ostrich mounts.

I don't think wolves eat cockroaches for snacks.

Edit : Or insects.

if you can think of something eviler that the wolves could eat like skittles that isnt a mammal please tell me


and dont tell me roaches arent evil. something my grandma made me watch had a profound effect on me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBim1j1tVbE