Visible dragon armor

[Romirez]

playing Divinity 2.... having gotten to the portion where you gain your dragon form, it makes me jealous that Istarian dragons do not have visible armor like Divinity 2 does.

how hard would it to code? is it part of that 'dragon revamp' that is kinda cancelled that i heard about?

[Frith-Rae]

1 - It was, to my knowledge, never part of the dragon revamp that was/is/ going on (on hold I believe)?? Hard to remember...

2 - I belive it would be very hard to code. Your basically asking for a the biped-like differences in armor and apperance to be done to dragon gear. In addition to making the dragon models display that armor (I realize you can mod this but its only client side, I have no idea what it might entail to make it work server side - i.e. REALLY work LOL). I mean you are talking about hundreds if not thousands of slot appearance work.

Considering that the suggestion thread for the vet-token rewards SPECIFICALLY stated NO NEW ARTWORK I have a feeling that the numbers available for art-asset work are either very low or extremely busy and backed up. Adding to the idea that - no this is not on the table.

Any official can be free to chime in on this but I dont think this has ever been something they have seriously considered doing due to the volume of work. Would love to be corrected though

[Solitaire]

There are some planned dragon enhancements that I was working on but I had to step away from the game for a time for personal reasons going on in my life. They require asset and client work to accomplish. So yeah they are kind of on hold for the time being but I sure as heck want to finish them even if it the last thing that I'm ever able to accomplish for Istaria. Most especially because they are dang cool looking and I think they would greatly improve how a dragon can look. I was in the early stages when I had to stop. I might have to drop one or two options but I want to get it done. I'm sorry that I was not able to accomplish it before I had to step away but other matters took precedence.

Just from my experience working with the models, dragon armor is a sticky problem. There are good reasons to have it but at the same time the dragon models were not designed to wear armor and it would require a significant amount of rework to accomplish in a manner that does not looked like a hacked in PoS. For one, the UV maps on the dragon bodies are in no way shape or form arranged in a uniform pattern that would allow an armor texture to appear undistorted. Especially in areas of high visibility like, as an example, a chest scale. I know some players have done dragon mods and they can probably attest to how difficult it is. There are other problems with attaching armor objects to the dragon model though I did not experiment much with them. My only attempt was to create a dragon claw. It was a miserable failure and I gave up on the idea.

[Romirez]

long story short the dragon models are a disjointed mess that needs work?




so, no armor. what kind of Enhancements were you working on Solitaire? i'm rather curious now.

[Frith-Rae]

YOu dont wnat to know...then you dont have to feel sad when you are reminded that he has had to put them on hold...=D

*hugs Solitare* that work you were doing was awesome, and I hope your life gets you to a place where you have such luxuries to work on things again. And not just because Id love to see them live, but more so because Ihope it means your life will be in a good place . For this is most important!

[Solitaire]

I would not call the models a "disjointed mess" but they do need a lot of refinement. To be honest, I never liked the dragon models. I had given thought to rebuilding the whole model and skeleton and animations from scratch but that is far more work than I ever had time for.

I can't really reveal what I was working on. Just leave it that I have not given up on it and will chip away at what I need to do to get it in. The only thing that I will say is that they would have been some new appearance options which has been hinted at before.

I'll tease you a little bit with something. This is a personal project of mine that I have been chipping away at every so often for months. But I hope that sometime it might be used in some way if I can complete and animate it. It grew out of and continues from when I was adapting all the various head models to the khutit body. Just a tease, nothing more.

Frith, Thanks.

[LOVWYRM]

whatever you have for us --whenever--
will be much appreciated, Solitaire

Happy New Year and*winghugs*

[Dhalin]

I would not call the models a "disjointed mess" but they do need a lot of refinement. To be honest, I never liked the dragon models. I had given thought to rebuilding the whole model and skeleton and animations from scratch but that is far more work than I ever had time for.

I can't really reveal what I was working on. Just leave it that I have not given up on it and will chip away at what I need to do to get it in. The only thing that I will say is that they would have been some new appearance options which has been hinted at before.

I'll tease you a little bit with something. This is a personal project of mine that I have been chipping away at every so often for months. But I hope that sometime it might be used in some way if I can complete and animate it. It grew out of and continues from when I was adapting all the various head models to the khutit body. Just a tease, nothing more.

Frith, Thanks.

Wings on a khutit?

Oh, that would look so awesome. I wouldn't care if they can or can't fly, but at least the khutit would look very noticeably different than a Sslik, and would look MUCH more dragon-ish. One can dream, eh? lol.

[Romirez]

indeed, that would be awesome.

[Chioxin]

I second the desire for visible clothing objects on dragons! Mostly because it fits Chioxin so well! I certainly understand that it may be difficult though =( Oh wells.

Just thoughts...

Games are now including "Social" slots. It might be an idea to look into, but I have no idea how your game works. Basically, these slots allow players to equip items that are simply there to "look cool" and personalize themselves. They have no effect on the game. Terraria uses this.

So instead of making all scales actually have an armor look to them, would this be easier? Or just more cumbersome? You'd at least not need to add a look to EVERY kind of scale out there with this method, really. It also gives you the benefit of starting small, and working up?

I also think Bipeds would really enjoy this idea. They can have their cool armor, but also have their own personal look. I also imagine something like this is WAY easier to implement on Bipeds than dragons at the moment.

[Valareos]

Having done modeling myself, I can see what solitaire is teasing at. Redoing the entire dragon structure based on a bipedal stance WOULD make creating armor and stuff easier.

I know how much of a time i have trying to make clothing that fit on my millenium dragon models. soo much work for so little gain, you literally have to start from scratch

[Frith-Rae]

huh...those shots to me were just teasing at having wings on Khutit form.

Not doing bipedal armor for dragon form; or redoing the whole shebangn based on khutit form. But perhaps I missed something LOL.