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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Why the dinosaurs?
Snokey
Member
Hi!
Let me start of by saying that I am extremely excited about the game and I think it is going to be a huge hit, no doubts about that. My only issue with this game since the start was the IP and the visual representation of the game. Don't get me wrong, the graphics are absolutely gorgeous for a mmo and most parts look beautiful and on point (The dragon raid for example looked exactly as it should and made me feel like I was in Molten Core all over again haha.)
But then there are parts that just don't fit with the rest, like the dinosaur mob that was seen in the latest preview. Why does that raptor has to look exactly like a raptor illustration from a history book? Something like that works for games like Ark, because of the game's setting, but a high fantasy game should look and feel more 'magical'. I don't know if you can see my point, especially when games like WoW has dinosaurs in them as well, but they work there thanks to the overstylised meshes and textures with crazy colours. This DInosaur mob looked just like something straight out of Jurrasic Park and immidietly put me off.
If I may suggest, make your dinosaur mobs look more 'magical looking' and less 'realistic looking' . TES: Morrowind would be a perfect inspiration for this. In Morrowind you have dinosaur looking mobs like Clannfears, Kagoutis or Guars... You can tell that they are like a 'dinosaur type' creature, but so heavily altered, that they fit into the setting perfectly.
Reference to what I am talking about: https://imgur.com/3kAeWRz
Let me start of by saying that I am extremely excited about the game and I think it is going to be a huge hit, no doubts about that. My only issue with this game since the start was the IP and the visual representation of the game. Don't get me wrong, the graphics are absolutely gorgeous for a mmo and most parts look beautiful and on point (The dragon raid for example looked exactly as it should and made me feel like I was in Molten Core all over again haha.)
But then there are parts that just don't fit with the rest, like the dinosaur mob that was seen in the latest preview. Why does that raptor has to look exactly like a raptor illustration from a history book? Something like that works for games like Ark, because of the game's setting, but a high fantasy game should look and feel more 'magical'. I don't know if you can see my point, especially when games like WoW has dinosaurs in them as well, but they work there thanks to the overstylised meshes and textures with crazy colours. This DInosaur mob looked just like something straight out of Jurrasic Park and immidietly put me off.
If I may suggest, make your dinosaur mobs look more 'magical looking' and less 'realistic looking' . TES: Morrowind would be a perfect inspiration for this. In Morrowind you have dinosaur looking mobs like Clannfears, Kagoutis or Guars... You can tell that they are like a 'dinosaur type' creature, but so heavily altered, that they fit into the setting perfectly.
Reference to what I am talking about: https://imgur.com/3kAeWRz
1
Comments
Morrowind is only one part of one province of Tamriel, which itself is only one continent of Nirn. If you look at Tamriel as a whole (ignoring the rest of Nirn), there are perfectly mundane animals out there, as well as the fantastical and magical.
If you take all games set in Tamriel, you have;
Ants
Antelope
Badgers
Bats
Bears
Bees
Beetles
Boars
Butterflies
Camels
Canaries
Cardinals
Cats
Chickens
Clams
Cows
Crocodiles
Deer
Dogs
Dolphins
Dragonflies
Eagles
Elk
Falcons
Foxes
Frogs
Goats
Geese
Hare
Hawks
Heron
Horses
Jackals
Lions
Mammoth
Monkeys
Owls
Ox
Parrot
Pheasant
Pigs
Porpoise
Rabbits
Rats
Ravens
Reindeer
Saber-tooth tigers
Salmon
Scorpion
Seagulls
Sheep
Snakes
Springbok
Termites
Vultures
Warthog
Wasps
Whales
Wolves
Worms
And these are only the animals in Tamriel that are effectively exactly as they are in the real world, or as they were, in some cases. If I were to include animals that are still somewhat mundane, but are different from their real counterparts, the list would be 50% longer again.
The thing with fantastical creatures is - if that is all a game is made up of, those fantastical creatures soon become mundane. In order for them to remain fantastical, they need to be somewhat rare, interspersed between more mundane creatures.
To me, having raptors in Ashes is no more out of place than having mammoth in Skyrim.
Are you really saying that Ashes should not have Jurassic Park style dinosaurs because no other high fantasy IP has had them in their world?
Maybe you should expand your high fantasy horizons then.
There are high fantasy settings - including IP's created for MMO's - that have dinosaurs.
Your argument seems to be based around the notion that the limited amount of high fantasy you personally have been exposed to doesn't have them, therefore no high fantasy should.
I hope I don't need to go any further for you to realize how rediculous that is.
guild wars 2 has them
Warhammer has a whole race of them ain't that right @mcstackerson
Yar
Honestly most fantasy MMOs have some kind of dinosaur in them, usually resembling Jurassic Park (the common image of them until recently). If Ashes didn’t have dinos, I guarantee you people would ask, “Where the hell are the dinosaurs?!”
I guess it's just personal taste. In a fantasy setting anything can go. I'm not a fan of dinosaurs in a fantasy setting but that's just me.
Clever girl...
Lineage 2 Veteran
Even Star Trek Online has dinosaurs (my character can summon a velociraptor with mounted lasers in combat). They are genetically engineered in an artificial park environment inside a giant Dyson Sphere.
dinosaurs with frickin laser beams
I grabbed the pet in a deal that literally advertised having a “dinosaur with frickin laser beams on its head”.
its nice to know that over people played Gammarauders
Roddis is best