Carnivores Phantasmagoria: End of Year Progress Report (12/31/2023) news

Howdy again. The holidays have come and are about to go, and progress has been pretty steady on Phantasmagoria. First thing to get out of the way;

My original idea of a Beta 1 containing maps 1 and 2 is no longer the plan. The first release of Phantasmagoria will contain the core roster and the completed map 1 with its full roster of ambient species, and subsequent releases will each contain a new map, following a release schema similar to Carnivores Triassic from 2012-2017.

Second, and very importantly, I have put together a large progress report document with the planned content and ideas for the project that will be updated any time I make or do something for the mod. Check it frequently to keep up-to-date with new updates or additions. I've put some hints towards some of the secret content in the document as well.

Onto the progress;

Since the last progress report, quite a bit has been done regarding the map. The Everautumn Weald has undergone a lot of changes;

First, about half the plant objects have been replaced or updated with new assets, from Jurassic Park Revolution by Tormer, who has given me permission to use some of the plant objects with credit given.

The open plains of the outer ring of the island now are covered in tall grass that can obscure the smaller predators such as Sinornithosaurus, and the dangerous and highly quick relative of the cityscape Nanotyrannus, the Zhuchengtyrannus, will now only spawn as a map ambient in the open plains on the outer edge of the first area and on the borders of the autumn forest and swamp regions.

Speaking of these subregions, the island's autumn forest has been given a layer of low lying red grass as well as interspersed green pine trees to help break up the autumn colors with more vibrancy;

While not yet modeled, those who have seen my planned concept art for A New World will remember the Gigantspinosaurus planned as a DLC huntable. While not a 100% guarantee, I would like this to be created as an endemic huntable for the first map that only spawns in the autumn forest for the first beta release, and I have given it an updated concept art design;

Another new addition to the map is an entire new subregion, the swamp. The old map ambients of the Coelacanth, Dragonflies, and Trilobites will now all spawn in this subregion of the map, as well as a unique huntable, the Slough Pinacosaurus, a subspecies of the Central Sector Pinacosaurus featured in Legacy. Additionally, Phosphorosaurus, presently a placeholder reskin of Mosasaurus from the default MEE, can be found patrolling the lakes as a hazardous predator. In the future, Phosphorosaurus will be receiving a new model and be moved to the ocean, and the amphibian Trematosaurus will be put in the lakes instead.

The center of the island is the eponymous "Weald" for the area's name, a foggy and dense forest. It has received the least total amount of changes, primarily only having a few fixes regarding the water, plant placement, and new rocks.

However, one new addition to this subregion of the map is the Xuanhosaurus, a large Allosaur that might be a familiar face; (note, everything is still a bit WIP so I have yet to apply opacity flags yet) who PROUDLY declares himself the final authority on all things Carnivores:

In addition there have been numerous reworks and redesigns, such as a new reskin for Fukuisaurus, and more distinctly a complete makeover for the Tyrannotitan, including sexual dimorphism to make use of the new Variant features of the MEE 1.05/6 updates;

The goal is that every dinosaur and huntable creature in the mod will have at least 1 variant to hunt for. Species with sexual dimorphism such as Tyrannotitan will have a variant for the male and for the female, meaning a total of 4 Tyrannotitans can be found and added to your trophy room. Depending on how many total huntables there are (it is important to keep in mind the key limitation of 128 total trophy slots) some may be given additional variants for added variety, but this is a future far off goal. An example of one of the variants that isn't just a male/female variant is the Albino version of the Slough Pinacosaurus,

This rare variant is an albino, where the chemicals in the plants they eat that normally turn just their mouths blue have stained their undersides and faces with the color. Each variant dinosaur will either be in reference to real world animal variations such as Albino, Melanistic, Leucistic, Piebald, or variants referencing cultural and paleoart skins for fun.

Since the last update, the Zhuchengtyrannus has been replaced on the main roster by Saichania, to give the roster an even split of 5 herbivores, 5 carnivores. This massive ankylosaur is related to the Euplocephalus in the Central Sector, and is the largest known Ankylosaur on the dinosaur planet. Its massive size and heavy armor protects it from the gigantic Tyrannotitan, though it can fall victim to the more agile and nimble Xuanhosaurus which can use its long arms to reach under the armor and prey upon the creature.

In addition to the maps and variants, quite a bit of other stuff has been worked on;

First off, the entire placeholder weapon roster has been completed. Note, in the future, all weapons will be receiving custom new models (retaining this style and aesthetic) made originally for this project.

Next, the call icons of the dinosaurs have been made for quick reference to their size, mortal zones, and continue the analog computer style aesthetic;

To go with these, here are the menu images for the huntable roster as of now;

As you may well notice, Huaxiaosaurus (replacement for the old Trachodon) and the 8th slot Carnivore are not present. These are WIP, and are one of the main things I'm waiting on for the first release. A few things that still need to be done are the Sounds, Updating the mod to 1.06 MEE, applying opacity/mortal flags to all the dinosaurs, creating skin variants for all the core and Area 1 species, refinements of some of the menus, and finishing touches to the map with custom objects. For this, I will have to learn blender, which is my first goal of the new year. Aside from that, Daubeny has been doing a fantastic job helping me with models and animations and this project could not have gotten as far as it has lately without her help, so keep being epic, and everyone go check out Archipelagos, it's pretty cool.

I will not give any specific dates, but I would personally like to see the first beta release by February. This is not definite and could be sooner or later, and really depends on how well I take to blender, as well as waiting on others to finish things for me. The progress document contains a list of all the current objectives that need to be completed for the first beta. Beta 2 will be more thoroughly complete, as in beta 1 most of the ambient roster will likely be placeholder models, though again this is subject to change.

Any and all feedback is appreciated, as I would like to make this project the best it can be so it can go above and beyond what New World once was and be a project I'm both proud of and that the community can be happy with.