Hi to you, too! I'm doing well enough and hope the same of you. :) I'm sure that since this reply is rather late you've gotten your answer, but no, I don't believe the game is running at all.

I'm not sure what made me think of this out of nowhere, or cause me to actually remember my password, but I wanted to pop in and wish everyone a happy new year. Hope all is well with you all!

I'd ask "how was Christmas?" but I'm not sure you'd particularly remember, 4 months down the road.. :lol: I actually don't keep up with many of the old folk, unfortunately! I've lost track of almost everyone now. I have a few game friends on Facebook or MSN, but even there I'm bad about keeping up. I don't think that's particularly surprising, given how long it took me to post here. :D

Wow! Last time I remember you playing I think you were working on the first and being mostly confined to bed. :P How old are they now? Haha, my only gaming is pretty much restricted to Facebook and iPod apps. I don't think the game is running right now but I dunno what's going on.. Things are pretty good here, just working and saving whatever money I can muster. I'm behind in my Christmas shopping and have to go back to work on Monday and I'm a little panicked, but it's okay.. :lol: Any big Christmas plans for you?

Hey Star! :) How's it going these days? You were a crazy busy lady when you played, so I can't even imagine what that means for being "busy" now.. :P Yeah, I never really was much of a gamer so this was pretty much it for me as well. I just fiddle around with facebook and ipod games and that's the extent of my entertainment!

Haha.. hi to you too, Noppy!

I spent a few days at guessing passwords, but I figured it out! Helloooooo! :P I'm totally just making noise to see who makes noise back, again.

Lub lub lub. Hope everyone's doing well these days, wherever they are and whatever they're doing!

On a random note I'm sad because I had new messages but hadn't been on in forever and a half so the board apparently emptied my inbox. :(

Um, I visit occasionally, but I don't really play. I've probably amassed a large amount of idling hours by now from losing link, whoops. Ancient Riane!

I'm going to start off by stating my bias: I don't really like the idea at all. That being said, there are a number of reasons I'm not sure this could ever work. Please keep in mind these are my opinions only, so they mean absolutely nothing when all is said and done, so don't bother wasting your breath arguing with me - it really won't get anyone anywhere. Let's pretend we have an animated giant rock monster. Rationally, this rock monster would be massively strong, but assigning it a dexterity value? I'd give it one, maybe two points at the max. Can you see the flaws coming already? Because it's so massive and heavy, speed is totally lacking, and there is no way this thing could get more than one attack in per round. Skills like archery, even wielding most weapons, etc are basically lost on it. Mounts? Never. They'd squish the poor things. I can't imagine rock monsters being very intelligent, and I can't imagine them being able to pull off a spell with any speed or intensity. Acrobatics? Dodge? Any and basically all thief skills? Yeah, not a chance. It's a race where the stats would be so skewed in either direction and the skills and spells available to it would be so limited that it would be a nightmare to balance and a horror to play. I can't see this ever being applied as a playable race with any success, especially when we're working on __balancing__ the game, not throwing it into further chaos. Another reason I don't like the idea is that it just doesn't __fit__ within the game as I know it. When I think of Sentience, I think more of a medieval/high fantasy type world, with elves and dragons and all that jazz. Sure, there are exceptions, but there seems to be a clear enough theme. The playable races are largely humanoid or human-based. I honestly, in my mind of minds, can't picture a giant stone creature coming by in Olaria with a "hey man, what's up?". I can't even wrap my mind around it. I'm also a little biased in that I hate ideas ripped from other sources (aside from the typical fantasy clichés of things like elves, drow, etc), especially other games. If you find something in a game that you like, the best idea is to consider the concepts behind it and why it is such a success, then apply that in a new and interesting way to create something original rather than to just rip it out and create a carbon copy. On the other hand, I could see a stone beast being a completely valid idea for an NPC. For example, maybe there's a kingdom with a wicked sorcerer bringing life to inanimate objects to do its bidding. Animated rocks, trees, etc, who knows. It could be an interesting application for an NPC in this manner. It's not a bad idea in general, just has the potential for a horrible application of a playable race. However, as Xevira stated, a similar stone defense style construct could be applied in a creation of something like a gargoyle, where there would be no innate superpower advantages and a clear disadvantage. Obviously a race like this would also take some work, but it's a more likely option and fits more closely with the theme of the game, in my opinion.