Creatures From Lurkspace

Pretty much what it says up there. After this funk that I've been in for about a month suddenly ended I found myself able to work on things without having to force myself to. As I am sure you may have noticed by my last blog post and my last post in this thread I did fix my little grendel problem. At least until my younger brothers decide to try "pranking" the much bigger me by messing around with the laptop again. Hrmnph.

So what was it that peeved me so much that I got it into my head to go around fixing sprites? Well, believe it or not, it was the honeypots. More specifically that spot of red on the lower right hand side of the jar. To me it stuck out like a very sore thumb and I just had to fix it. To an extent, I had, but I'll be darned if I can find where else the uncustomised Windows 7 GOG.com install put them! Besides the two typical "My Documents" and "Programs(x86)" directories. This lead to going on a hunt for sprite files that used the honeypots and applying the same "Get rid of that farkin' red dot!" fix. In my COB collection that meant two more: Slink's Strained Carrots and Steerpike's One-Shot Honey. The jar on Steerpike's honey vendor didn't irritate me as much as everything else had, but one day out of boredom I just might adjust that one a teeny bit. The vendors with Slink's strained carrots, on the other hand, were a different story. The adjustment isn't too terribly noticeable though. There's now a slight bit of shading on the label and the jar itself doesn't have that accursed red blotch on it.

And before I knew it I had wiped the word "Honey" off of the jars and made myself a jar of mashed parsnips! I would have to say that at a close range this isn't a bad-looking try. In game it seems to blend right in but on the coding end it is far from perfect. Either my test subjects are just too stubborn to try something new or I had muddled a script somewhere. Knowing that I am new at this and following some old resources archived by the Wayback Machine, my luck it is probably both. I'll overcome one of them eventually! At the moment these mashed parsnips are one-shot but I intend to make the jars refillable like the honeypots. I just have to figure out how that was accomplished and for the life of me I am having difficulty finding those honeypots and beehives to take apart for study.

Until I figure it out, does anyone know a few good free file hosts where I can upload my files to once I get them to the point where I feel comfortable with releasing them for public testing? I don't feel like unleashing a thoroughly untested COB upon the downloads section of the Creatures Caves until I know for sure that it isn't going to blow someone's house up.

Edit: Whoops! This is an old post (marked originally at 1/26/13 @ 10:11 PM) and was not meant to be reverted to draft! The latest post shall be up shortly!

Yes, I realize how very late this post is. At the time I was composing it I finally received my own copy of Guild Wars 2 and have been distracted with it ever since! I'm not usually one to stick with MMOs for longer than a week but this one has made it difficult to put down. It has to be that I can use such unconventional items like rocks, sticks, shovels, hoes, and cow pies as temporary weapons with which to do in my foes. I am terribly fond of the shovel and wish I could permanently arm my little Asura Necromancer with one; it just seems so fitting!

But, onward with my intended post!

Even though I had already posted these in one of the galleries at the Creatures Caves, I decided I might as well post them here in my blog too. If it isn't so obvious I tend to get very wordy. And what better place to get even more so than my own blog! Just, please, remember that these are all merely first drafts and subject to change. After all I still have my Mackerel pattern to complete before I start working on any of the new ideas. Projects "Abominable" and "Frostback" are on the back burner until I stop hating every minute that I spend working on them. It's an unfortunate setback, but it happens every once in awhile.

Because I wasn't sure of the size limits when it came to picture posting on the Creatures Caves, these images are actually much smaller than the original. In the case of the first one the original was much duller due to the terrible lighting at the time I took a picture of it. The second one was a test scan that I doctored a bit after I had found that there were deep scratches in the scanning bed that I missed in my excitement over having an all-in-one machine that I didn't have to fight in order to make it play nice with the laptop that I have available to me.

Part #1 - Norn/Ettin

Though it looks clean or neat, but since its my own work I actually consider this to be sloppy for a rough draft. I don't usually use pen straight away because of the fact that ink is just a wee bit more permanent than pencil. Obviously the pens were much closer (There are tons of them floating around the house, too.) and I wasn't particularly thinking about how odd the color choices I made were. I simply just grabbed one at random, tested to see if it worked, and went on from there. The dark blue is sort of a reference to the original body shape and the brighter colors being the changes to said shape. That black blotch off to the side is covering some rather disturbing fails at matching heads. They came out really creepy and I still don't want to give anyone nightmares with them.

These creatures might not become Ettins if I ever get around to making them a reality. The ideas hit me while I was in the process of modeling an Ettin body in Blender. (Thanks to my awesome mum for allowing me to make off with her cordless trackball mouse that she hardly uses now because she bought one more suited to her Guild Wars addiction. With the ball back underneath my thumb, and a mouse wheel, it has made using the program on a laptop much easier.) There is a side view and a view that could either be the back or the top. The first two drafts are definitely aquatic breeds and the third could be either amphibious or strictly aquatic. In the case that my chicken scratch above each is unreadable, from top to bottom the breed names are "Pearlscale," "Balloon Molly," and "African Dwarf Frog."

The top, "Pearlscale," named after the breed of goldfish it was an attempt at a resemblance to. The actual goldfish itself is a funny-looking thing. Think of an orange or a golfball with a mouth, a pair of eyes, and fins; and you have the basic image of what a Pearlscale looks like. Because of the fatness of the hybrid creature I was thinking that maybe the belly of the females would darken in color or gain some other distinctive marking indicating pregnancy; though from the way the sprite sheet appears set up you wouldn't notice the difference until around the second or third stage. Mimicking the strange scales that gives the goldfish its name would pose an interesting challenge.

The middle, "Balloon Molly," is another fishy attempt that includes an alternate "tail." Maybe the different tail types could be gender linked but I would have no idea which gender would get which tail. Maybe they will grow into their tails, as well as their skin/scale patterns? Pregnancy indication could be made the same way as the Pearlscales or it could be a combination of a change in color/pattern and a growing belly. Instead of laying eggs like the Creatures are programmed to do they could bear live young like the actual fish. That is definitely something I will look into when I'm not focused on the modeling aspect or have my attentions elsewhere. I recall there being rumors of a modification that allows live birth but I am not sure if it came to fruition and if it actually works.

The bottom, "African Dwarf Frog," is meant to look, well, froggy. And a bit sporty in comparison to the pear-shaped bodies of the Ettins. In the real world these little amphibians are skinny when you look at them in profile, but wide when you look at them from above or head on. They appear to spend most, if not all, of their life in water. These amphibians are yet another item on my research list as I have never owned and cared for one before and my brothers each have a pair of them in their aquariums. They're very lucky boys, because when I was their age mother wouldn't allow me to have anything other than fish in mine! This sprite set includes a look at the "Flippers" and spotty pattern that the frogs possess. Unless someone actually wants a psychedelic Kermit, their color scheme are supposed to be muddy.

Part #2 - Grendel

Here I must say again: Thank you, Grendel_Man, for pointing out a breed that I have overlooked in my search for grendels to try! I never would have noticed them if someone hadn't pointed them out at all. And I am also glad to know that someone, somewhere, must have had the same idea even if they turned out different in a few ways.

And here is yet another strange-looking trio. Though the title above makes this as clear as day, if not I am sure that you all might be able to recognize what species these are supposed to be. After posting the first image to the Cave galleries I remembered that there were a few breeds of goldfish that would suit the Grendels perfectly. These goldfish breeds are the "Ryukin," the "Eggfish," and the "Lionhead." Well, perhaps the Ryukin is the closest fit since both they and the grendels have a hunched back. As you can tell, this is a bit more organized and less messy than the first. I remembered this time to find some pencils before working.

Just like the other submission, here's what my chicken scratch reads:

Down the left margin are the breed names. From the top breed to the bottom these are "Ryukin," "Lionhead," and "Eggfish." That weird little symbol near the top right corner indicates where an arm can be. Near the top-middle of the page is a rather simple key to remind me what was what. The top two are the ink which were used to show the original lines of the body (dark blue/indigo) and the new changes (black). The three below them were for an example in skin/scale pattern. The "empty" square is the base color while orange and the blue are just stand-ins for whatever colors are decided on later. I messed up the view labeling, originally, the left side is the "Back" view and the right side is the side view. Please note that, on paper when it comes to curved surfaces, I am absolutely terrible at making sure that patterns and some physical features look close to the same depending on the view angle.

The Ryukin - This perhaps may be the easiest breed out of the three because all it would take is the shortening of the body, a slight potbelly, and a stubby down-turned tail base. The tail could move or it could be statically attached to the body like in the C12DS creatures. I may have gotten the term wrong like I'm prone to do but a common trait in this breed of fish is a "Double Tail" and some are fused together at the top, called a "Veil Tail." (Here's an interesting fishy fact: In a typical non-fancy goldfish the caudal, or tail, fin is two layers thick. The genetic mutation that we call the "Double Tail" in the fancies is not two full tails, but one tail where the two layers that normally make it up are split apart either completely or fused along the top edge. The latter is where we get the term "Veil Tail" because the tail, well, resembles a veil.) In this breed, and possibly the other breeds as well, the fin down near the tail could take place of the thigh section of the creature sprite while the shin remains "invisible." An example of this invisible sprite can be found in the Ettins, who are visually tail-less but possess a tail gene that uses this sort of sprite to maintain that appearance. Why this is the way it is I believe has more to do with the game engine, which in itself is just something else I have yet to test to see for certain if it is how I think it is. Anyway, this arrangement of the thigh section being a fin and the shin being invisible could aid greatly in the illusion that the creature is swimming instead of leaving that fin statically attached to the body like the tails are in the case of the C12DS creatures. (Not to mention giving the SERU agent more to work with in the creation of wacky-looking creatures! Imagine: Finned hover-creatures!) The orange and blue is an example of a mild calico pattern that can be found in the fish itself.

The Lionhead - One of the funniest goldfish I've ever seen and may be one of the creepiest, personal mileage pending on the creep factor. I've always found the Bubble-Eyes to be the most disturbing because of the large fluid sacks beneath their eyes that gives the breed its name. Their tail is much like the Ryukin above, but instead of joined at the top like a Veil Tail they are split into the Double Tail variety. The overall shape of the finnage is short and rounded and their squat, egg-like, body lacks a dorsal fin. They may or may not have arms depending on which looks better once three-dimensional modeling takes place. What gives the Lionhead its name is the sacks of fluid that in some specimens looks like the fish is having a very adverse reaction to insect stings. Between the back and side views is an example Grendel head with this trait of the harmless-seeming growths taken to the extreme. This actually does exist in many Lionhead specimens and is said to be desired in a show-winner. In my opinion I would rather like my fancy goldfish to be able to see so that its easier for me to teach it tricks.

The Eggfish - This breed is very much like the Lionhead, sans extreme fluid sac growth and a more egglike body that gives the fish its name. The tail fin can be joined along the top in a Veil Tail, rounded and split in the typical Double Tail, or deeply forked and overlapping in the rare Phoenix Tail. Until I gave this fish a closer look I never knew that the last tail type even existed. These fish are often found in a solid color, white or red/orange being very common; and the rarest of all being a blueish/silvery/gray paired with the afore-mentioned Phoenix Tail. On paper the arms on this hybrid could most likely be found down low and close to the neck, or may be omitted altogether like in the case of the Lionhead above.

Regardless of the breed that I go through with releasing, if I ever decide on any, all goldfish hybrids will grow into their body type and coloration much like the real life fish. Didn't know that all goldfish started out as muddy and plain looking little fish? Well, now you do! Depending on the quality of the fish's environment, the bodies of most goldfish fry take their shape within a week and do not gain that signature red/orange/yellow coloration until after a year of life. The quality and amount of light and food are perhaps the biggest factors as far as coloration is concerned. However, they are also perhaps the most dirtiest of all fish because of their high waste output, which is why it is very ill-advised to leave them in the traditional goldfish bowl all their lives. Another thing is that they are opportunistic eaters and will eat everything organic in their environment, even their own young! And don't forget that the memory of a goldfish spanning three seconds is very much a myth. They can actually remember things as far back as three or more months and are in fact intelligent enough be taught tricks, responding very well to positive reinforcement, especially when there's food involved.

What would all these fishy facts for the hybrid creature breeds? Well, for starters, because of the engine limitations the only thing that would affect their appearance is age. As it is there are a lot, and I am making an under statement here, of image frames in each individual sprite file. So there is quite enough of work cut out for me already on age alone. On the virtual biochemistry end I have no clue how much of an impact on fiddling with a creature's waste management system will get me. It appears to me that not much seems to be known about those genes. Their eating habits will include the addition of critters and bugs but again there are limitations when it comes to interactivity with their young. So, no egg and hatchling eating for these mers! At the very least they will have standard CL creature intelligence, unless someone can successfully convince me to play around with CFE and Gizmo genetics. The only requirement I have in mind for myself is that these creatures be almost fully aquatic from the start. Almost. To be fair to those without the "Eggs Hatch in Water" modification the hatchlings should be able to survive a short period of time on land, but they must reach the water before they suffocate.

And that leaves room for a very good metaroom idea. But that will be saved for another post.

Optional Extra
Every once in awhile, when I'm shuffling through my vast music collection, I come across something that seems like it either fits perfectly or sort of fits with whatever I happen to be working on. Though it does not fit with the aquatic theme, it does sort of fit with the in-game setting of the third Creatures installment. Even if the ship and its occupants are not exactly lost in the vast reaches of space, to me it feels as though they are. Mostly not of their own free will considering the attitudes of the Shee. Oh, I might as well just let you listen without babbling in circles! Here is the cleanest-sounding, and prettiest music video, of Avantasia's "Lost in Space". If one cannot view this in their own country I am sure that a google search of "Avantasia" combined with "Lost in Space" might herald a result that you can listen to.