Carnivores Phantasmagoria Progress Report (January 2024) news

Howdy again. A new year, and a lot of stuff has happened since the last progress report. There's a lot to get through, including an update on the mod's first release, some overhauls to existing content, and cool new stuff.

Progress and Features Document

First, I will go ahead and discuss the change in plans relating to the mod's first release. While previously I stated I would like a first beta release to be in February, I have changed my mind. I will no longer release a full beta of the project with the mod's old assets. Instead, once the old assets are sounded, I will instead release those as a separate addon file with their new skins for people to play around with or use in the old alpha demo of New World, what they were made for originally. The first beta of the mod proper will come once the core roster is modeled and animated w/ the new models and redesigns, and the first map and trophy room are brought to the level I want them to be.

Next, for the BIG new thing- the Huaxiaosaurus. A reimagining of the old Trachodon which itself was inspired by Shantungosaurus (Huax being a dubious synonym of Shant irl), the Huaxiaosaurus is a gigantic hadrosaur that is the largest dinosaur in the Aberrant Sector, growing to over 23 meters in total length and weighing up to 50 tons, even larger than some of the Sauropods of the sector. It is truly exemplary of the things that make the sector 'Aberrant'. The model was made by Will/NobodyWasTaken, and the skin by himself and I.

Onto the next major updates, the style. First, it is important to explain the new style direction. The original game was inspired by the artstyle of Zdenek Burian, and this was hugely prevalent in the 'canon wars' era. In recent years, as we have gone more to the ideas of 'headcanons' and our own universes, we've become more accepting of unique styles and ideas within the universe. I looked to Cityscape, and its unique Todd Marshall style while still being canon to the universe overall, and took inspiration from that, and decided to go my own way similar to that. Carnivores itself was likely based on the references the original developers had access to, rather than being a strict style they decided on. If the Burian aesthetic is core to what the original creators thought Carnivores should be, Tatem would have stuck to that idea in the future with their new creatures or with HD, but they did not follow this style. So, instead, I'm going to be making Phantasmagoria in not just a 'colorful' Burian aesthetic, but instead I am going for a different aesthetic that aims to be more based on paleoartists of the time I grew up, in the late 90s and early 2000s, with the goal of making Phantasmagoria seem like it was made in the mid 2000s after Cityscape in terms of visual fidelity. The dinosaurs will be most heavily inspired by the works of artists such as Steve Kirk, Wayne Barlowe, James Field, Luis Rey, and John Bindon who were hugely influential for me as a child, as well as others of that era. Hopefully this will bring a sense of nostalgia to those who grew up with the same artists.

As for my own twist on the style, I have been increasing the darkness and contrast on some skins, with sharper details and harsher shadows that bring out more of the animal's features. For some examples, here are some of the prominent creatures I've made updated skins for following my restyle;

Xuanhanosaurus, based on Raul Martin's Allosaurus:

Agathaumas, drawing from John Bindon and James Field's Ceratopsians:

Dilong, taking inspiration from the Eotyrannus by James Field and feather textures similar to Steve Kirk's style:

Saichania, taking inspiration from Steve Kirk's depiction of the animal with a beak and its nose moved to a more appropriate place for the genus:

Now, onto the map and its changes. In accordance with the re-style, I want to ditch as many old Carnivores assets as possible, and instead use new or updated ones or objects from games or mods made around a similar timeframe to what I want Phantasmagoria to feel like (2004-2009). While the map restyle is not complete, I will walk through the process I have done so far in terms of updating it.

To start, this tree is from the mod Jurassic Park Revolution, and was ported from Zoo Tycoon 2, which I reskinned for the mod in the prior map iteration;

I learned UV map editing by taking this tree and making its UV map make more efficient space use, and then drawing a new texture for it by hand making the tree look much higher fidelity with the same model and texture space;

Next, I took a pass at the trees in the autumn forest, making them much more lush and lively, causing overlaps in the trees that creates a more alive, but claustrophobic and tangled feel while within the autumn forest.

Next, I decided the atmosphere should also change in the map to fit a more, gloomy and halloween feel that I was going for with the trees. I decided to go for a more overcast and gloomy sky, not quite 'Silent Hill' but very somber and sullen, apparently it looks like the sky from Chasm: The Rift, which is a happy accident.

While I've not updated the textures in the conifer forest and foggy region yet, just the combination of the sky and the fog I think really brings out the area's atmosphere a lot.

Following these artstyle changes, the mod has also been ported to the MEE 1.06.1, and makes use of the new features such as herds with variations like dimorphism and rare spawning variants of the animals. Here are a few examples of the dimorphism;

In addition, there are the dinosaur variants, such as the Albino Pinacosaurus from last report. I will be keeping these a secret for players to explore once the mod comes out, as I want to put a lot of time into making them standout and unique. These variants will be references to classical paleoart, paleomedia, games, and the Carnivores community and other creators. All the huntable species (bonus/cryptid species excepted) will have at least 1 variant, while those with dimorphism will have 1 for the male and 1 for the female, meaning dimorphic animals will have 4 possible variations to hunt down. The final product of the mod will be making use of almost all, if not all, of the 128 possible slots allowed in the trophy room. While hunting these rare variants, they will appear as a ? on the Radar (which unlike New World will be legitimately attainable, just will be expensive as a lategame unlock). Each variant will have a unique color of ? for its map, for example, if you see a white ? on the map, you will know the Albino Pinacosaurus is there for you to track down and find. While I won't reveal what they are, the other variants I have currently created for the first map have a dark red ? and a bright green ? respectively.

In order for the new artstyle to really take, that will also require the old dinosaur assets to be remade and replaced. While most of them have not received models yet, the following are all concept art for dinosaurs that will be remade according to the new arstyle, taking after artists I mentioned above;

In addition to my own concepts, talented artists have been helping me as well. My good friends Marina the Witch and JurassicJuan have provided some concepts for the mod, and here are a few examples;

If you want to keep up with the species that are going to be in the mod, check out the progress report at the top of the page. The full roster isn't in there as I want to keep some surprises, but I will update it frequently as stuff gets added and worked on.

One animal in particular, the mod's flagship, Cruentomarinyx, is the first creature with a new concepted redesign in the new style to have received a model created by Will/NobodyWasTaken, who I worked with to create the Gojirasaurus Remake addon for MEE (check it out if you haven't!). This model should provide good insight into the general feel and fidelity I am pursuing for the mod ahead, and I am excited for it to properly come to life with textures and animations.

With all that, I think that covers the major progress of the last month of the project. Thank you to all those who took the time to read this and are interested in my weird spooky dinosaurs and to those that are excited for a silly project that's going on 12 years old now. I've been making this mod in some iteration or another for nearly half my life, and I am excited to see it come alive in a thorough way that really makes the best use of the engine that it can.

Anyway, enough rambling, until next time.