It's a minor issue in the scheme of things, but so far the personality descriptors or summaries for characters seem somewhat bland, repetitive, and clunky.
"Adventurer" and "Ravener" for example appear overused since several traits can apparently give these descriptors. "Ravener" seems to come from Gluttonous and Greedy. I think could be either broken up ("Glutton" is an obvious addition) and/or given more stringent requirements (being both Gluttonous and Greedy, for example).
"Absolver" and "Empath" are a bit clumsy. Somebody once pointed out that the latter sounds like it's from Star Trek. Personally, I think something like "Soul" would be more natural instead of "Empath". One could also use "Altruist," but as a more modern term it could seem out of place. "Absolver" might become "Peacemaker," although early on we saw a "Conciliator" descriptor.
In general, I think there's some room for more nouns, especially something more evocative. For example, mixing in animal metaphors could make for some evocative descriptors:
Dove
Lion / Lioness
Mule
Vulture
Although I assume there's a wish to avoid some loaded terms.
The adjectives could also be improved based on what we've seen. One early example was a character described as a "Dishonourable Empath" based on them having both the Deceitful and Compassionate Traits. That is a bit unevocative, I think. Even if we were to change it to "Dishonourable Soul" as suggested above, the problem would still be there.
There could be room for more nuance with adjectival descripors. For example, this combination of a very positive sounding Trait - Compassionate - with a somewhat sinister Trait - Deceitful - could make the character "Well-intentioned" rather than "Dishonourable". So the result could be "Well-Intentioned Soul," which I think gives a much stronger impression of a character.
Of course this depends on how exactly the description system works exactly, Is it like Compliments and Insults in CK2, where the descriptors are directly coded into the Traits? Or is there a separate system where descriptors are defined and given different weights?
I think the former is unlikely based on how the descriptors have been generated so far, but if that is the case, I hope that a more flexible system will be patched in at a later date (there's much higher priorities obviously). If it's the latter, I at least would be willing to mod in new descriptors.
"Adventurer" and "Ravener" for example appear overused since several traits can apparently give these descriptors. "Ravener" seems to come from Gluttonous and Greedy. I think could be either broken up ("Glutton" is an obvious addition) and/or given more stringent requirements (being both Gluttonous and Greedy, for example).
"Absolver" and "Empath" are a bit clumsy. Somebody once pointed out that the latter sounds like it's from Star Trek. Personally, I think something like "Soul" would be more natural instead of "Empath". One could also use "Altruist," but as a more modern term it could seem out of place. "Absolver" might become "Peacemaker," although early on we saw a "Conciliator" descriptor.
In general, I think there's some room for more nouns, especially something more evocative. For example, mixing in animal metaphors could make for some evocative descriptors:
Dove
Lion / Lioness
Mule
Vulture
Although I assume there's a wish to avoid some loaded terms.
The adjectives could also be improved based on what we've seen. One early example was a character described as a "Dishonourable Empath" based on them having both the Deceitful and Compassionate Traits. That is a bit unevocative, I think. Even if we were to change it to "Dishonourable Soul" as suggested above, the problem would still be there.
There could be room for more nuance with adjectival descripors. For example, this combination of a very positive sounding Trait - Compassionate - with a somewhat sinister Trait - Deceitful - could make the character "Well-intentioned" rather than "Dishonourable". So the result could be "Well-Intentioned Soul," which I think gives a much stronger impression of a character.
Of course this depends on how exactly the description system works exactly, Is it like Compliments and Insults in CK2, where the descriptors are directly coded into the Traits? Or is there a separate system where descriptors are defined and given different weights?
I think the former is unlikely based on how the descriptors have been generated so far, but if that is the case, I hope that a more flexible system will be patched in at a later date (there's much higher priorities obviously). If it's the latter, I at least would be willing to mod in new descriptors.
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