Dragon Armour?

[Melanth]

Everyone agrees that the new fall festival masks for dragons are awesome! Great thanks to all who submitted designs Something got me thinking; The 2008 contest winning design is a helm yesh? Is it possible to apply visible texture designs to parts of a dragon other than the head? Or, more to the point, link said textures to equippable scales..?

Just a thought :P

[Steelclaw]

Well, it's certainly not impossible. The question is "Are visible scales practical?".

I believe Zex has been playing around with a possible implementation of Shartan's concept art, though I have no idea how much progress was made.

[Deth]

It would be a lot of work. Not only would they have to dissect the dragon model but then have to create all the scale art. I would love to see it but again it would be one of those things way way down on the pony list. Also myself I am not completely happy the way the current head scales look. Currently it is a skin replacement not a helm placed over the head. I would like to see more of a real "helm". But that would be more work I am sure.

[Takora Drakan]

I rather have a "real" armor than a slapped texture on my scales.

[Zexoin]

Well, it's certainly not impossible. The question is "Are visible scales practical?".

I believe Zex has been playing around with a possible implementation of Shartan's concept art, though I have no idea how much progress was made.

Well, nothing good, sorry >.>

[Solitaire]

This thread has got me thinking. Armor on dragons would be cool, but the models are not set up for that at all. However, it may be possible to see if we could come up with some kind of body art instead because it could work in the same manner as stripes and spots. I'm not saying that we are going to do it because the idea is less than 5 minutes old as I write this and I would have to do a lot of research and experimenting to see if would be feasable. Frankly, I have not yet taken the time to learn character models because of lots of other projects, but I'm curious to see what people think about the idea before a lot of time is devoted to it.

[Deth]

I like that idea. I think in the long run it could look cooler as I was not completely sure how many different looking Armour scales could be created. Different runes of power might be interesting. Would have to see an example before I make a finial option really thinking about it.

[Hraefn]

Dragon armor would be spiffy. Even if it was just something like how a mask shows up.

Speaking of decals, is there any way to get the white coloration of decals to be made available to players? ;D I'd love markings like these:

[Solitaire]

Did you mean change those markings to white? If so, I'm not sure at this point because I have not worked much with the characters yet. It should be a matter of allowing more tints to be applied to those markings. But working with near whites and blacks is difficult with this system as I found out when trying to make a truly "black" dragon. I got black, alright. More like a walking "hole" with a dragon shaped profile.

[Hraefn]

No, not change them, but make that decal tint available on the character creation screen. As of now, those marking colors are seen on plenty of NPCs, but players can't shoose it as an option when they're making a new dragon.

I know it's not exactly something you all are worried about these days (wow you guys sure know how to keep busy! Good for you, I love the fruits of your labours ) but I know a score of people, including myself, who always oogle at decals like those whenever they're stumbled upon. I've heard of a couple of players who were able to make a dragon with such decal tints thanks to a bug or glitch that occured during the creation process, but that's it.

[Scaleth Drakescale]

Speaking of decals, is there any way to get the white coloration of decals to be made available to players? ;D I'd love markings like these:

LaughingOtter on order also has white decals.. but he's a developer, so its not the same. Oh, how I would love black and white decal tints! <3333

[Zexoin]

Did you mean change those markings to white? If so, I'm not sure at this point because I have not worked much with the characters yet. It should be a matter of allowing more tints to be applied to those markings. But working with near whites and blacks is difficult with this system as I found out when trying to make a truly "black" dragon. I got black, alright. More like a walking "hole" with a dragon shaped profile.

Well, here are some experiments I did with already existing tint files. I think some are worth being implemented in the character creation.
http://firedragoness.deviantart.com/...ation-74213672
http://firedragoness.deviantart.com/...Decal-74215375

[Vaz]

Brown scales please.

[Soraii]

I myself think the pre-colored textures should be made availavle as well, I myself have the pre-colored skin #4 swapped in place of what I chose for Soraii. The options of some pre-colored skins like that would add even more variety as most of the player skins seem so washed out no matter what tint you apply to them... (those pre-colored skins are just so much more apealing to the eye with greater color variations....)

But then again even if they dont impliment that I am using it for my own viewing so It matters not

Soraii

[Solitaire]

I believe that the pre-colored skins were originally intended to make distinctive NPCs that stand out and are instantly recognizable as key characters. Ryson is an example of such an NPC. For those that remember the old promotional videos, Mia is another. Unfortunately, she is broken currently. There were others as well. It is one of my pet projects to locate them and get them working and available for the content guys to use.

The current way of character creation and textures gives a wide variety of choices so that it will be rare to run across another character that looks just like yours does. The drawback of that is that you are taking a grayscale texture and just washing a tint over it and that does not allow for a lot of fine detail. But if we used pre-colored, even if we made a lot of them, you could wind up with 10 dragons all in one spot that are identical twins for the most part.

[Zexoin]

What could be done is making more details customizable, like horn color, precolored decal, ect... which could add more variety to the character. I also think that bipeds are lacking customization options. Would be nice to add some more.

[Creoste]

Hmmmn, sorry to be kicking the dead goat, but it would seem wasteful to have a whole new topic for this...While the bipeds need more customization (I tried them all out, I vas saddened :<) they also need a bit of fixing...as they're a bit out of proportion. The humans are fine, but the elves and the half giants are not so much. The odd porportions also really draw the eye to the low poly count of these species--which in turn draws attention to the shading deficiencies...which then wierds up the porportions...so it all circles itself.

Frankly, another problem is the TINY variations between the majority of bipeds. Elves, humans and fiends...if those body types were changed into subtypes of the human one, would just make the humans in general far more colourful. Also, perhaps there is a need for ingame customisation--tattoo parlours, decorative jewellery stores...For jewellery and the like, they could just be texture overlays.

Another thing I've noticed is...well...all the game porportions are designed for dragons. Bipeds look really out of place. Especially in the environment...I mean, those mushrooms, the grass! You loose your character in them, because it's all catered to the dragons. And consequently, dragons don't even feel so big until they stand next to a biped.

Ok, I think I lost my flow...shutting up.

[velveeta]

sorry, creo, and please don't take this the wrong way - please keep in mind i am old, and you know how old farts are - but i must disagree.
i don't want wow graphics in my istaria.
i like that istaria graphics are quirky. makes it even more unique, to my mind. sure sometimes there are holes in weird places and sometimes you can't find your onion plant because the grass is thick. i like it.
i like the warm colors, as opposed to the beautiful but cold palette of wow and vanguard.
i like how vel looks - even the uneven coloration by her mouth that makes her look like she is missing half her jaw. i like her green toeclaws when she is wearing her fave armour. i like how she runs and i like how she looks when she is swinging that huge warhammer. i think the differences in shading and such make istaria a more real virtual world - there are more things in heaven and istaria than you dream of!! . i like that the world seems designed for larger than life beings - reminds me of my feelings about ancient egypt........gives me much unneeded encouragement to try to make my alts become larger than life to fit in.....

i do agree that a larger selection of personalization stuff (tattoos, head and skin patterns, etc.) that can be combined (tattoos with skin patterns, hair styles with headpieces, etc.) would be very sahweet, so i could def get behind ya with that, but otherwise, i am very happy with the look of horizons.....

but that which is to be will be, and so it should be.....

[Creoste]

Hmmmn, I think I'm misunderstood. I LOVE the Istaria graphics. I think that they have so much to offer over the WoW ones. Frankly, the movement...oh my god, the movement of the characters is freaking gorgeous. I was speaking from an artist's point of view, that the porportions were a little wrong--WoW is, frankly, REALLY REALLY BAD when it comes to that. Yesyes, it's all very highpoly and smooth, but...TINY or HUGE heads. :B

[Xarog]

Personally, I'd settle for most armour on sslik being placed on the right part of the model. Most of the stuff I wear is invisible purely because I don't like having to see it stuck halfway in my character's neck.