http://www.yourepeat.com/watch/?v=e4gGNjIXdA4 Human is my first choice, Novakid second, hylotl third, apex fourth. I just don't find interest in floran or glitch. Florans are too, "Unique". Glitch are a bit boring. Wouldn't you get tired of hearing, "Statement. I am from blah blah blah"?
Floran, I loved the Florans when I first saw them, although I'm guilty of being one of the "Raised by Humans" Floran, which is extremely apparent with Sat who literally acts nothing short of Human in both speech and nature. Then there's Avian... Hylotl... Glitch... Human... and finally, Ape-me-Apex...
I find all of the races pretty neat in their own little ways, (Medieval AI, sentient Audrey IIs, Mayincatec birds, Orwell's Planet of the Apes, Anime-lovin' fish people, etc.) but I tend to stick with humans because they're familiar. Yeah, pretty vanilla but I'm a sucker for context that I can build from.
Avians for life. Always loved birds. Had a owl character LONG before starbound, and Avian have some very deep and interesting lore. For those who want to know more, just click here. I'll type up s quick tl:dr version for those who don't want to read ten pages of awesome. Avian History in a Nutshell -Avians were a primitive tribal race living on a harsh planet -Aliens come and Teraform their planet -Aliens abduct Avians for experiment -Aliens forcefully evolve abducted Avians -Aliens take the most intelligent Avian, Kluex and evolve him even further, giving him wings -Aliens place new Avians down on planet and watch -New Avians surprise aliens by not ruling over the other Avians as expected -New Avians breed with old Avians to make a hybrid. (This is the modern avian) -Aliens leave and Kluex leads the Avians to glory, building a great civilization -Kluex dies at a very old age after giving up his rule to the next in line -A few Avians start to worship their fallen hero as a god (Start of the Stargazers) Next Era -Avians expand, advance, and explore -Avians start to explore space -Avians build shines to Kluex and telescopes on habitable planets -After a long time searching with no signs of intelligent life Avians recall all space travelers -Space travel is banned and over population occurs due to the recall Note: at this point there are two Avian factions, The loyalists (60% of the avian population and the main government) and the Stargazers (40% of the population) -Stargazers keep looking through telescopes left behind on other planets -Stargazers finally make contact with aliens -Loyalists are xenophobic and are afraid that the aliens will destroy avos -Stargazers insist that Space travel and communications begin at once -Loyalists refuse -Stargazers send assassins to kill Loyalist leader -Civil War! -War lasts generations -In a final battle between the two leaders using robotic wings, the Stargazers win the war -Stargazers now rule Avos -Stargazers secretly send out first FTL ship to meet with the aliens so the public is not worried -Aliens turn out to be the Glitch -Glitch and Avians trade knowledge and tech -Avians go home -Stargazer leader starts rumor about the Glitch to get Avos more comfortable with the idea of aliens -Space travel resumes once more! Current Era -Avians discover Floran -Avians find out Glitch have attempted to contact Floran in the past and were killed and their technology assimilated -Avians realize that Floran gaining space travel would be bad -Avians research Floran from space -Gas explosion on avian ship causes it to crash land on Floran Planet -Avians call in military blockade -Floran fight their way to the ship, steal it, and activate the FTL drive while still on the planet, causing an explosion what wiped out 3000km^2 -Floran escape with technology and Floran space era begins -Shamed by failure, Avians spread out in search of new life Yes... This IS the tl:dr version. That should give you an idea on how deep the full lore is.
Personally, I can understand what people mean about humans being boring, but I disagree. And not because humans are bloody unique on Earth in reality. (That's a valid point, but the fact that we're intimately more familiar with them than any other race is the perfect counter to that point, so it doesn't really get anywhere.) Rather, I personally think that a human can be exceptionally interesting, just as a Hylotl or Floran or anything else can be boring as sin. Why? Character. A race cannot and should not define what your character is, the character should define what the character is. Their interests, their goals, their ambitions, their likes and dislikes, their regrets. Whatever the case, the key to an interesting character is in the character itself, not the race. That said, I do think that a race does add something to a character. I'm not saying it's unimportant by any means, because it is! Race means culture, and culture can be a rich pool of knowledge and flavour that you can pull from to make your character more than it could be otherwise. A great example is the Avian lore that Leif was kind enough to overview. This sort of stuff can be implemented into a character to make it exotic and interesting, or give it ambitions and motivations that just wouldn't work as well with a human. (Their religion is a great example.) However, race can also be used as a crutch, and result in characters that have nothing truly interesting about themselves as an individual beyond "I am a bird look at my feathers." It goes both ways, on that note. Point is, race is a tool. Some choose to pick something exotic for want of playing something new and exotic. Others want to stick with something more familiar, and focus even moreso on personality. But in either case, the resulting character can be done really well, or it can just be boring and uninteresting. It all depends on the player. ---------------------------- Now, on a more on-topic note? Glitch are amazing. I personally really enjoy all the races in Starbound, but Glitch have a really interesting culture and physiology that have a LOT of possibilities for different characters to draw upon for personal backgrounds, motivations, goals, and personalities. It's a veritable treasure trove of story to work with for all kinds of different player characters, and that's why I like 'em. I do wish they'd get a little bit more love; they're really fun to play right. (I also hope that they get the really nice lore expansions that Avians have at some point. Glitch lore is pretty extensive, but it's bloody difficult to research, since it's spread out through codices and item descriptions and junk. Same goes for Hylotl, they could really use a lore-dump.) (At least they get more love than Apex.)
The more I learn about the Avian lore, I find it harder to like them. That, and it's near-identical to the Hissho from endless space.
If it makes you feel any better Chronicle, while Avians are my preferred race, Glitch are to me, the most interesting race.
As much respect I have for avians and how much I love this gif...... It looks like that owl reeeaally needs to go to the bathroom.
Sing it. I'm still a bit confused when it comes to villages of what I assume are full of non-Outcasts on different planets. If they're stuck with medieval tech, you'd think space travel wouldn't be going on. But then maybe each settlement is its own, separate thing that was seeded by the Whoevers. Or maybe I overlooked because their lore is all over.