Unreal Universe Monsters! Lets make some art together!

[KazeoHin-TechAE]

I'm really excited about your gassbag concept, Sly! That looks much more in-tune with the original. I've always thought of the gassbag a bit like a tortured soul: it lives in dark, dank areas, it can't move very fast and it produces disgusting gas all its life. I always imagined it would just be this disgusting abomination of a creature: but your concept is much more of a REAL creature that could actually exist. I'd love to see what this gassbag would look like in, say, a 3/4 view, in action. Like, how would a documentary on NaPali show the gassbag defending its... eggs?

I'm in agreement with Sly, That Krall concept is one of the coolest looking kralls I've ever seen (including the UT3 and U97 ones). Krall by default come in two different flavours, you got the standard red ones, then you got the slightly more elite blue ones. I think with modern day technology, we can't really get away with a simple palette swap like we could in the old days. I would like to see a basic, pleb krall as well as a beefy, bodybuilder krall, to replace the two types normally found in invasion.

Personally, I would love to see a HUGE variety of monsters teired like the Skarj. Not just two types like the Titans and Krall, etc. But a full faction of monsters for each type starting from a basic, pleb monster and rising up through the ranks to Boss monsters. With Skarj, you have the basic skarj, then you have the slightly stronger (blue?) version, then you have the warlord, then the queen. It would be great to see this variety and depth to all the 'factions'.

Imagine something like a normal Gassbag, then imagine one slightly bigger that shoots two projectiles at a time, then you get the badass four-armed gassbag that just doesn't stop shooting, then you have the GIANT gassbag that produces lower teir gassbags as well as fires projectiles. You could have invasion with 'themed' rounds that build up to a faction's boss every couple of waves. It would be a really fun way to keep invasion feeling fresh even wave after wave.

[Sly.]

Thanks!

Oh yeah, I'd also like to see some more variety in visuals, it can be dangerous though. We shouldn't go overboard with visual differences so you can still tell "these are Kralls" or "these are different Titan types". Basically, have the "base-monster" done and work off that and modify it to create the new type, similar to how they made a default texture for those low poly monsters and then applied changes to it. To save time and provide some monster meshes to programmers like Wail, it would be best to focus on the necessary base types first before expanding the pool!

Gasbag eggs?
Heh, I could imagine it would puke them out and keep it warm it with its "heated bag". Could even be a boss monster functionality for the spawning to keep things interesting and have different "phases" of boss fights.

[Metalfist]

@Sly: Great work! I really like this concept with the gas containers being a weak spot! It provides more gameplay possibilities as you mentioned and is a refreshing change from the original gameplay (shoot til it drops). Although I wouldnt't set a timer when he is on the ground, that would be confusing. Rather have them be weak and easy to kill (low hp by the fall?). I'm totally imagining them running at the player trying to eat them NOMNOM! Player: "Eat this!" *shoots rockets in his mouth and it explodes" :P.
Just a note: I wouldn't make the belly bag glow too much as it would be an easy target.

As for the sketch I think the arms should be a little adjusted. Something feels a bit off from the original proportion wise. The hands have some issues and should be adjusted (look a bit more into anatomy of a hand as the thumb shouldn't just stick out of the side of a hand and look at the screenshot below).

When looking at the original I also noticed there was a red circle on top of his hands. What could that be?

Could you add some more detail/skin patterns on the arms as we need to sculpt a lot more details into them?

[AndyN]

Thanks for the input guys, I'll see what I can come up with.
As for the gasbag, I like your ideas, Sly. About the concept picture though - maybe you should flatten the body a bit?

[Wail]

AndyN's Krall concepts are spot-on. #8 is my favorite there too. My one concern would be making sure the features don't turn into something insect/alien-like. The Krall seem to have more of a dinosaur-like anatomical structure so some of the hard edges there might be covered by skin.

Sly your Gasbag is really fantastic as well. I'm still not totally sold on how well this guy will translate to the new game... the idea of a floating ball with hands is kind of inherently almost comical. It's tricky to tread that line between feeling believable, threatening, and yet retaining some of the goofiness and charm of the original. Your concept really walks that fine line, which is awesome. Getting it in game and making it feel 'right' amidst the current character designs is the real tricky part.

[Mll]

Sly your Gasbag is really fantastic as well. I'm still not totally sold on how well this guy will translate to the new game... the idea of a floating ball with hands is kind of inherently almost comical. It's tricky to tread that line between feeling believable, threatening, and yet retaining some of the goofiness and charm of the original. Your concept really walks that fine line, which is awesome. Getting it in game and making it feel 'right' amidst the current character designs is the real tricky part.

If you could have some visual use for the float (gas being expelled under the body), I think it would seem less comical
I would like to add that the hands seem kinda useless at the moment, how about giving the gasbag a gravity-affected projectile, then it can pull flames out of its mouth and throw them? at the moment they just seem to add to its weight and make it seem silly.

[Dementiurge]

Defining particular poses or animations for the gasbag's states would probably help in identification as well as give a mechanical foundation for the 'floating ball'. Just as flowing flags or croaking frogs can sell a living and breathing environment (even if there is no wind or frogs to be seen), animations can sell the idea that the gasbag is controlling its flight, even if there's no obvious propulsive gas.
E.g.
Drifting - The arms hang down trail slightly.
Dodging or sprinting - The arms hang down and swing behind as the 'body' leans forward.
Attacks - Arms are raised forward and then hurled back to counter the force of belching.



Nali Cow
Am I the only one who thinks the face and ears are ugly up close? They're very well done, but it's strongly reminiscent of a hairless cat or rat.

[iLikeTheUDK]

You should check out the Sun Kralls for UT3. They're considerably closer to the Unreal 1 Kralls than the UT3 ones.

[iLikeTheUDK]

IMO it should look more like a stingray. Even its movement is more like a stingray swimming through water than a bird flying. Much of Unreal is actually quite fantastical rather than proper sci-fi and doesn't make a lot of sense. I gather that for a planet that has four-armed humanoids who can levitate (at least one of which was seen at one point to be an actual ghost), we should take liberties with how we know the universe works.

[iLikeTheUDK]

I like the idea with the Gasbag. Maybe move the bubble more to the back, and flatten and/or widen it.
As for the Krall, IMO the Sun Kralls someone made for UT3 seems to be a nice (albeit slightly under-detailed) cue for what a modern, hi-poly Krall could look like.

[Sly.]

Trying to find a common ground between the new wing arms and the old ones without making them too much "nonsense". Also added some details showing how structures could look like.
The arms could work a bit like spines there. I also tried to visualize it but I guess the resolution might be a bit low.

Also, I think the skin of the wings might have to be made a bit thinner, it looks a bit thick on the model.
EDIT:
For comparison, the original shot I based it off:

[iLikeTheUDK]

I don't think this wing structure will fit the stingray-like animation. And there's something poetic, majestic even, about seeing a stingray-like creature glide through the air.

[Hunterman]

For the Gasbag's lower gas ball chamber there should be like a haze around it to show it's heat and that it's using that for buoyancy

[KazeoHin-TechAE]

Trying to find a common ground between the new wing arms and the old ones without making them too much "nonsense". Also added some details showing how structures could look like.
The arms could work a bit like spines there. I also tried to visualize it but I guess the resolution might be a bit low.

Also, I think the skin of the wings might have to be made a bit thinner, it looks a bit thick on the model.
EDIT:
For comparison, the original shot I based it off:

Nice paintover, Sly! Though I still like the more bat-like wing structure, the extra details added by your paintover make the Ray-like wings a bit more believable. It still suffers from the problem I have understanding how this creature would land, either on a cliff face or the bark of a tree, or even just flat ground, I don't see how this Ray-like manta could survive day-to-day life.

[Dementiurge]

Of course, landing is only half the challenge. The manta flies as if it's moving through a heavy viscous medium like water, which is probably because it's clearly inspired more by underwater mantas than by flapping birds. How it flies, much less takes off without the aid of gravity, would be a mystery best left suspended (pun!) in disbelief.

The tail does need to be thicker, perhaps with fewer and more powerful segments. The manta beats the player with that tail-it's not just a stinger.