Animals in Silgrad Tower: Oblivion

[Razorwing]

I think we should throw some ideas around on what kind of fauna we would like to see in Silgrad Tower: Oblivion. The ideal situation, in my personal view, would be imported animals from Elder Scrolls III which have been jazzed up with more polygons and such, but unfortunately I don't think that will be possible.

Because as far as I know, importing meshes in 3D Studio Max works fine, but importing animation does not. So we might get a Guar imported into 3D Studio Max, but unless we give him completely new animation he won't be able to do anything. Animating is way out of my league.

However there is a very convenient loophole. We don't really know that the creatures in Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind are supposed to exist everywhere on the mainland. It would be pretty strange to have a sharp border like that, because as we all know, animals don't care about the borders we humans draw up. It wouldn't be unrealistic to think that Vvardenfell has a "Galapagos Island" situation going on, where the fauna on the isolated island were sheltered from the strain of evolution; and that the situation for those animals were much harder on the mainland than on Vvardenfell. It might just be that those animals were driven into extinction on the mainland -- at least in the western part of the mainland, with the border to Skyrim and Cyrodiil.

So, as we know that a lot of the animals in Skyrim (Bloodmoon) and Cyrodiil (Oblivion) are animals that exist in real life -- wolves and bears / deers, horses etc -- allowing our landmass to be influenced by the fauna of those provinces might yield several advantages.
1) Might be seen as making sense
2) We can hunt the net for 3DSM-animals, which are animated and good to go; there's no shortage of real-life animal models
3) We don't have to make the TES3 animals more advanced, like upping the poly count or adding new texture maps supported by Oblivion
4) We don't have to animate them, as that is already taken care of

There's another option as well -- just using animals that come with Oblivion. While that's certainly the easiest way to go, and the way I think we should go with initially (when placing levelled lists and such), I personally feel we should strive for making our mod stand out from the normal game as much as it's possible. Speaking as a player, I entertained myself for half an hour chasing after faeries Trying to kill them was a fun sport. I'd love for those kinds of things to return again (though not specifically fairies).

Please share your thoughts

[kalikut]

I've no knowledge of making 3d objects, but I think it would be best to start out with Oblivion animals and then add some new models where/when possible. I wouldn't want anything that doesn't feel natural for the location.

[Ben Vagara]

Well the Jarnhald Mountains area has wolves and foxes not found in regular MW. I would think that the closer to the isle of Vvardenfell the less likely something different than traditional MW creatures would be found. But near the Cyrodiilic and Skyrim borders, creatures appropriate to those regions would be occassionally found.

Ben

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by Ben Vagara
Well the Jarnhald Mountains area has wolves and foxes not found in regular MW. I would think that the closer to the isle of Vvardenfell the less likely something different than traditional MW creatures would be found. But near the Cyrodiilic and Skyrim borders, creatures appropriate to those regions would be occassionally found.

Ben

Yes, Jarnhald is certainly special with regards to the rest of our landmass. Seeing as Oblivion will have Nord-style towns, I don't think it would be a stretch to imagine that they'll include wolves and other animals which would be perfect for your area. Though if you'd like, don't hesitate to search the net for animated 3DS animals you'd like to use and see if you can get permission to use them. If you find a wolf for example, and then find out Oblivion has wolves, then the wolf you found can just be reskinned and called something else, and so still be used (to great effect).

We won't be allowed to resuse content straight from earlier Elder Scrolls games, btw

[Ben Vagara]

I suspected that old content won't be useable... no problem there, tho'.

Depending on the shape of the landmass in Oblivion, we may actually have the opportunity to do more Skyrim edging...

For the Reich Forest, deer and such would be nice.... and whatever else Oblivion has for wooded areas...

Ben

[Razorwing]

I had the same idea to add deers to Reich Forest, but in Silgrad Tower: Morrowind. It didn't get picked up then, but if there's support for doing it in OST I'd :applause: that

Personally I voted for "Mix Ob. animals with new 3DS" because TES3 showed what wonderful things can be produced by the community, and I'm sure we'll find little gems we'd like to populate our land with. I'd love to see wasps back, for example; they're insects, so they fit nicely in a Morrowind setting, and they have attack animation (many community-made animals don't have that).

[sunsi]

Being totally ignorant of engine limitations and other tech stuff that goes into the game (even though it's explained in simpler terms) here are a couple of things I have thought of.

The news that there will be horses in Oblivion is really exciting and I thought why not falconry also. Of course, these "falcons" don't have to look like the ones we see in the real world they can even be a combination of creatures like Winged Twilights and flying reptilian animals whatever the imagination can dream up.

Another thought was to have pet boas or pythons that wrap around your characters body making the animations more real and lifelike and offering many colors especially black. I would like to see the scales on the snake and when it moves I want to see that distinct undulating movement below the skin surface so typical to snakes.

In general I'd like to see all animals have very realistic behavior as much as possible and to be able to pet my dog/cat and see my hand in 1st person view as I reach down to stroke it's head and to have the pet respond to gestures of affection (wagging tail, purring, etc.).

I'm not asking too much am I, lol?

[Razorwing]

sunsi: Did you mean hippogryphs? Half horse, half bird-of-prey?

[Geonox]

I think new animals would be nice, allthough it takes some time to model everything but it would take I think allmost as much time as modifying tes 3 models. I think a lot of people would also think it's nice to see some new creatures ingame, because there aren't a lot of mods which actually add new creatures ingame.