 Creature Lore: Adding to Deeza's Work |
Braggi
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Registration Date: 2006.09.23
Posts: 287
Location: B.C. Canada
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 Creature Lore: Adding to Deeza's Work |
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Here is the first of several posts covering the monsters we would like
to include in the mod. This is a fairly ambitious list, but I think it
is actually quite do-able, since a number already exist.
I would also like to thank Deeza for starting the subject and for
adding the link to the giant spider resource at TESNexus. That was one
we hadn't had time to track down, so thank you very much! 
Without further ado...
Most of the creatures proposed here are “homage monsters” for TES 1 and
2. At this point, the majority will require some work to make possible,
including finding sounds and retexturing/altering existing meshes.
Constructs (aka "Antronachs" in TES2 or "Golems" in TES1)
As largely unintelligent magical constructs, these creatures have some things in common. They are:
- immune to illusion magics (charm, calm, demoralize and so forth)
- resistant or outright immune to normal weapons
a) Stone: If possible, the stone construct should be able to
throw rocks as an attack. The current storm antronach could make an
excellent base to work from, since it is an animated pile of stones to
begin with. Low to average to low weakness to cold, high resistance or
immunity to shock, slight to average resistance to fire, normal effects
from drain health. The concept art for the creature is drawn from the
creature files of TES1: Arena. (See screen shot below for TES1 concept.)
b) Flesh: Done! The first Image is from TES2 Daggerfall. The second image is from Phitt’s “Loreless Creatures Pack”,
which is a modder’s resource. Will simply require tailoring in terms of
attacks and resistances. Powerful melee attack and immune to lightning,
very vulnerable to fire, slightly vulnerable to frost.
c) Iron: Immune to lightning and cold, resistant to fire.
Powerful melee attack and damage. Shock does no damage but causes
paralysis. Normal effects from frost. Immunity to weak fire spells and
reduced damage from powerful fire effects. The concept art for the
creature is drawn from the creature files of TES1: Arena. If there are
any “animated suits of armor” mods, we might want to consider one of
those for the iron construct. Alternatively, we might want to figure
out a way to add armor to the existing humanoid mesh, but not have it
be removable by the player when the creature is slain (similar to the
Blade armor worn by the Captain who is slain in the tutorial dungeon
while escorting the emperor – her Akaviri blade could be picked up, but
her armor was not available.)
Dragonlings
These are small Tamriellic dragons, similar is appearance to the
Akatosh statue. They appeared in TES2 (see the upper image) with a
fiery breath and bite attacks. In size they range from about that of a
wolf to that of a land dreugh. Currently, there is a version of this
creature available in Saiden Storm’s “Custom Creatures” plugin
(see the lower image.) (The plugin is listed as a modder’s resource in
its readme.) There are skin textures available for it in various colors
through Sam Fisher’s Akatosh Mount Retexture, also a freely available resource.
The first image is from TES2 and the second is from the Akatosh Mount mod.
Braggi has attached these images (downsized versions):
    
This post has been edited 5 time(s), it was last edited by Braggi: 2008.08.26 03:23.
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2008.08.20 03:13 |
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Braggi
Seigneur
Registration Date: 2006.09.23
Posts: 287
Location: B.C. Canada
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| Creature Lore: Adding to Deeza's Work Pt. 2 |
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(Apologies for the multiple posts here folks, however I am limited by
the number of attachments a single post may contain and I have a number
of images to add for illustration of each monster.)
Giants
Done! Similar to ogres, but larger, with brownish-beige skin, giants
attack with large clubs. The first image is from TES2 Daggerfall. The
second image (the giant is furthest to the left) is from Phitt’s Loreless Creatures Pack. The ESP is a modder’s resource.
Giant Bats
Done! – Mr. Siilka’s Bats is available as a modder’s resource.
Harpies
Voice would have powerful charm and demoralize
creature abilities (especially dangerous if the player is using
companion mods that allow them to have one or more party members).
Concept art is from TES2 Daggerfall creature files. We have permission
from Vitalikk, creator of the Woman-Imp mod
(see the second image), to edit his creation and include it. It would
work best to give her feathered wings (instead of bat-like), a feather
covered body and scraggly hair. Adding chicken’s legs and feet (from Mr. Siilka’s farm animals) might also be possible.
Mummies
If a "suit of armor" could be generated to simulate bandages, then the
creature could be a simple variation on the human animation skeletons
already in the game. Similar to the zombie, this creature would cause
disease by touch and have a powerful melee (hand to hand) attack). It
should also have a substantial weakness to fire. Concept art is from
TES2 Daggerfall creature files.
Sabretooth Tiger
A re-texture for the mountain lion by Alienslof currently exists and is available as a modder’s resource.
One more post to go and we're done!
Braggi has attached these images (downsized versions):
    
This post has been edited 3 time(s), it was last edited by Braggi: 2008.08.20 10:59.
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2008.08.20 03:31 |
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Braggi
Seigneur
Registration Date: 2006.09.23
Posts: 287
Location: B.C. Canada
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2008.08.20 03:42 |
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Deeza
Editor
Registration Date: 2008.06.03
Posts: 1,066
Location: Procrastination
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2008.08.20 23:20 |
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Braggi
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Registration Date: 2006.09.23
Posts: 287
Location: B.C. Canada
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Thank you.
We did have the list from the original Daggerfall hint book and still
use if for reference, however your link gets it where everyone can see
it *and* includes clear illustrations as well (which the hint book
lacks in a lot of cases). Much obliged!
Some creatures that come to mind from that list as possibilities for
addition are the lamia and the gargoyle. These creatures only appeared
in TES2 and they were fairly interesting creatures as well. Any
thoughts? And, does anyone have a concept to present on how these
creatures could be done? If so, drop a thread on it itnto the Visual
Discussions Forum.
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2008.08.20 23:35 |
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Braggi
Seigneur
Registration Date: 2006.09.23
Posts: 287
Location: B.C. Canada
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I saw the Gargoyles in the Lore Creatures pack and considered them - I
do wonder if there could be a little more similarity between the TES2
versions the Lore Creature. However, that is also a pretty niggling
point and I'd personally be willing to go with something simpler.
As for the mermaid, you are right. I actually had a similar mod adding
mermaids but didn't like the way they were done - mostly eye candy and
no a lot of combat or tactics. They could be re-textured and
re-designed though, I suspect.
Good point about the scorpions. I do know that you find them in
dungeons right across High Rock as well in TES2. (Ran into one last
week when I was playing that game for inspiration.)
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2008.08.20 23:55 |
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Deeza
Editor
Registration Date: 2008.06.03
Posts: 1,066
Location: Procrastination
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Possible a spawning script error?
As far as I'm aware they were definitely meant to only be in Hammerfell.
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2008.08.21 00:33 |
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Braggi
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Registration Date: 2006.09.23
Posts: 287
Location: B.C. Canada
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I'm not sure why the bestiary author over at TIL decided to say
scorpions were native only to the Hammerfell deserts - that is most
puzzling. The leveled lists in each of the dungeon types given below
pop them out like clockwork once your character is of the appropriate
experience level to handle them.
As far as I know the inclusion of the scorpions across all the regions
of TES2 was by design. I was fortunate enough to come across a
remaindered copy of the Daggerfall Chronicles
(the offical Bethesda hint book) some 6 years back which I still have.
On pages 50-52 of that work there are listings of all the dungeon types
in the game and what kind of creatures inhabit them.
(As an aside, this is also a source I used for a number of the dungeon
type concepts in the "Ongoing Claims - Random Dungeons" post in the
Claims Forum.)
At any rate, the giant scorpion is listed as appearing in the following dungeons:
- Orc stronghold,
- Natural cave
- Harpy nest
- Spider nest
- Giant stronghold,
- Dragon's den
- Scorpion nest.
At least one (and usually more) of these existed in every region of
High Rock and Hammerfell in TES2. In fact, my personal home base in
TES2 has always been Westhead Moor, a walled town near Daggerfall City.
Some examples from it:
- The Fighter's Guild sends you into harpies nests and giant
strongholds within the Daggerfall region as mid-level generic quests.
- The Knights of the Dragon send you into orc strongholds to hunt down various orcish leaders, again within in the same region
- Ditto the Temple of Kynareth, which sends on ingredient fetching
quests to natural caves and the Mage's Guild which often send you to
one of the above dungeon types to hunt escaped rogue antronachs or
outlaw mages.
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2008.08.21 09:02 |
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Creature Lore: Adding to Deeza's Work Pt. 3
