Thanks.  Yea, in Elemental, it's a big more complicated because you build housing yourself.  So we don't want a situation where players feel like the "best" path is to eliminate the "foreigner" housing and replace it with their "native" housing. That's just tedious and would lead almost certainly to users asking for a way to "automatically convert foreign housing" (i.e. automated genocide) which is a pretty strange thing to be programming UI for.

The only game that I know of that has two races living and growing side by side is MoO2. I thought it was really neat how it was implimented too. I'm not sure about MoO3 because I forget that forgetable game, but I always thought it added to the realism and fun of the game where you could have populations of other races and transplant them to wherever willy nilly.

On the planet Orion, I used to always transplant 2 of each captured race to that planet to essentially make it my universal world where all races can share in the glory of the greatest planet in the galaxy.

Building on that, a basic way to deal with races would be to have some kind of penalty for conquered cities of a different race - lower taxes, increased cost of training troops, chance of rebellion, etc - and reduce these penalties via a line of Diplomacy techs, perhaps even add bonuses (unlocked later in that tech line) for multicultural/racial cities. The whole diplomacy tech area needs the help anyway, I have difficulty envisioning any situation where I'd research it over civilization or warfare, this would put it right up there with warfare if you're conquering enemy races. Plus it would be a good way to slow down the landslide effect where a player conquers a couple cities, becomes more powerful, able to conquer more cities, etc.

But as I said that's a pretty basic way to deal with races, tax penalties are bland, if you folks at Stardock want to invest the time into something more elaborate - say ability to create units or buildings unique to the conquered race that are somehow different from your own, I'm all for that too.

I guess one would need to define, what races are to be IF multiple ones are included.  Standard fare, Men, Elves, Dwarves, etc. ?  Can there be Minotaurs, Vampires, etc. ?  Also another question that needs to be answered, is each race going to have a special unit/trait/ and/or building that only they can make?

My take is a yes on multiple races.  I would also have minotaurs, vampires, demons and undead along with Man, Elf, Dwarf, Orc.  I would also give them each a special trait that is theirs alone.  As for units this one can go either way for me.  Building I'd like to see done also, and have it so gives the player bonuses.  Possibly to offset penalty for the race (but only partially).  I think to truly make each faction unique, multiple race is the way to go. 

And thats my 2 gilders.

Troggs!

Will their racial music be "Wild Thing"?

Also Stardock seems to like to do fresh and new things like the Dynasty system maybe for those races that would be incompatible there can be some sort of a hybrid (race tree) that one can access once one has the correct tech building (say Advanced DNA research) allowing the invading forces to use the DNA of the race they just conquered to make units that can only be obtained after such conquest and the results would be random and unpredictable production of units like the dynasty system. For us Role Players this would be a great way to expand our stories. Say... after an out of control unit is created by our actions and now we have to deal with the consequences etc...

A big difference between MoM and MOO2 when it comes to different races is that in MOO2 you could mix races in your city, but your military units were always of your own race. In MoM, each city kept it's own race but then you could hire their special units from that city. For a fantasy game, MoM's method is very simple and fun.

One of the many things I really liked about Master Of Magic was the buildings and Units that were unique to each race.  I'm sure all this could done by modding.  Or maybe they are planning a "fantasy creatures" expansion in 12 months with a bunch of new magical races - some magical units (i love the griffins etc) some racial buildings and some racial spells.

Somehow I'm betting the modders will beat them to it - but then Multi Player will be a matter of what game mods are allowed etc. because of game balance...

Some really good points in this thread by the way - personally I liked the way MOM handled taking cities of other races... raze it or keep it - if you keep it then you get to build the units and buildings of the conquered race...  Personally I think that, for example, a elven city being conquered by humans slowing becoming a half elven city then a human city might be really interesting but a bit too complex.

It seems the Devs are leaning more towards what is easy to implement and some of the more zealot SD fans agree. To hell with that! I want complexity! There is something to be said for the replayability that comes from a game with layers of cool stuff going on, even if it is hard to implement or makes your brain hurt to try to get it right. The easy way seldom yields the best results.

Why reinvent the wheel? MoM's system of no race mixing is the simplest and makes the most sense strategically. When you capture a city, it maintains its race. Any units built at that city maintain that race. Building a settler at any city produces a settler of that race, allowing you to found new cities of that race.

This simple system gives you a great deal of power and flexibility, allowing you to build armies of unique units from many different races.