Naga and Paatru Models, anyone?

[Deeza]

These two new races are very important for Black Marsh - and as far as I know both of them still need to be done. Basically I want to ask - how are we going to do them?

I know that there was a Naga head model being developed by the Grey Wizard, but I have no idea what happened to that. Does anyone know if he ever finished it?

As for the Paatru (frog people), I think that the last time this was discussed, they were to be a non-playable race. With this in mind, could we make them creatures?

I was thinking of using goblin animations and base mesh (this would allow them to use shields and weapons). Do any of you have a better idea?

[Koniption]

I haven't checked the goblin race recently, but does the goblin race have swimming animations??

If not, you'd want to use a different creature that swims, or somehow add swimming animations to the goblin race.

Frog people should swim like frogs!

(PS - I'm not volunteering to do this, I still got my centipede to do.)

[LPS_]

CENTIPEDE!? That's much work for anims, a millipede would be easier to make, I think.

[Koniption]

Actually, it's stubbier than most centpedes or millipedes, for walking across landscape purposes. I'm being patient with animating all the legs.

Koniption

[Deeza]

Good point about the swimming. I don't know. I think they swim. Does anyone have an answer to that?

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Well, I think the obvious choice there is to give the Baliwogs and Grummites a good grooming...it's possible to make creatures into NPCs after what was achieved through the expertise of SaidenStorm over at 'Silgrad Tower' where it became possible to speak to a lich. The lip synching presents a problem though, and you've got me stumped about the question of swimming.

In the meantime, Koniption's centipede looks damn cool! I'm just hoping we can get something like a giant, fast-moving slug that you can use as a mount .

[Koniption]

Originally posted by Ibsen's Ghost
Well, I think the obvious choice there is to give the Baliwogs and Grummites a good grooming...but you've got me stumped about the question of swimming.

In the meantime, Koniption's centipede looks damn cool! I'm just hoping we can get something like a giant, fast-moving slug that you can use as a mount .

I just checked - goblins do not swim..there are no swimming animations.

You'd need to use different creature.

A giant fast moving slug???! But aren't slugs slow by nature??!

So first you compliment me, then you mention something you wish you had - Ibsen, is that a brown stain I see on your nose??? :eek:

j/k

[Deeza]

I think that under the current plan, Paatru wouldn't speak any language the player can understand, and probably communicate by croaking, so it wouldn't be necessary for them to be NPCs.

As an alternative to swimming, perhaps they're more like tree frogs, and get around by jumping a lot (in the manner of Scamps)? Maybe they're like that lizard which can run across the surface of water without sinking (a cop-out I know, but the alternative would most likely be to create a new animation, which sounds ridiculously hard from what I've heard).

[Koniption]

Originally posted by Deeza
I think that under the current plan, Paatru wouldn't speak any language the player can understand, and probably communicate by croaking, so it wouldn't be necessary for them to be NPCs.

As an alternative to swimming, perhaps they're more like tree frogs, and get around by jumping a lot (in the manner of Scamps)? Maybe they're like that lizard which can run across the surface of water without sinking (a cop-out I know, but the alternative would most likely be to create a new animation, which sounds ridiculously hard from what I've heard).

Yeah, but if these expansion projects require Shivering Isles in order to be played, you can easily use the Baliwog or Grummite skeleton and animations for a custom frog person mesh that you weight paint to the skeleton's bones.

Back at the now deceased Ocean Mod that I worked on, we had a member named tuskanred that actually completed a frog person race (NPC) and it looked pretty cool. I never got my hands on the mesh and all of the old main members have not heard from tuskanred, especially since the hurricanes hit the USA this year. We are hoping he's ok and that nothing bad has happened, regardless of whether his creations survived or not. I don't have a picture of the frog person, neither.

The frog race was gonna be called the Huat Fi, and we had all collaborated on really cool lore and stuff for them. For instance, one of the ideas was that they ate small insects and larva , but feared the larger insect creatures that could hurt them. Therefore their act of consuming the smaller insects showed their disdain and was act of their limited power over the large insects.

We also thought of docile tadpole children version of them using the slaughterfish skeleton, with tadpole eggs in ponds and such.

Some of their containers were actually sturdy hollowed out piles of still wet mud or clay, that had liquids, food, insects, slugs, combo of the two, and the hole in the mud pile wold be sealed with something simple like more mud or a wood plug. They would either keep the mud wet for wetter contents or let it dry out (if non liquids inside), and then either unplug it, scrape the mud off the top, or crack it open (if dry) to get what's inside.

They also liked to make pickled slugs, flies, worms, etc, and actually some of my insects I made (not released to public yet - I have a fly and a worm "flora" insect done, but want to improve the worm animations and use an alternate texture that is not copyrighted before releasing and also improve the texture mapping cause it's too large as it is now) were made for the Huat Fi. I can maybe send you the fly files, but I'm not done with the worm files.

You had to access the Huat Fi's mud/etc dwelling by diving into a lake and using an underwater entrance to enter each Huat Fi dwelling. Each dwelling has an entrance underwater, or maybe only one entrance to enter "the city" of the Huat Fi or something like that.

I've written too much now, but you get the picture. I think it's ok if you use the ideas I posted, cause the Ocean Mod is not operating any longer.

Koniption

[Deeza]

Really, the Ocean mod is dead? A shame, I genuinely thought it was making good progress.

Still, those ideas are all excellent. I'm sure we could make use of some, or most of them. It's just a question of finding a modeler (I'm not implying anything Koniption, don't worry - I know how busy you are ) Thanks a lot for your input!