Guild Chat Livestream Notes – HoT Creature Design
(Notes copied off of a Reddit thread: by Dulfy.)
Uses existing rigging for new HoT mobs. Building rigs takes a lot of time so we repurpose them on other creatures.
- http://imgur.com/a/EArXO
- Bristleback rig is based on the quaggan rig and would do quaggan animations until we adjusted it.
- rig is used for the vampire beast rig in HoT. We removed the tail rig.
Concept arts often have real world materials associated with different parts of the creature to give the modelers an idea. Modelers then refine the concept. Example shown is the Axe Commander.
- We also work with special effect artists to give special animations like the ax commander charging up an attack that players need to avoid.
- http://imgur.com/a/1l8GV
It takes several months for a monster to go from concept to completion. We also adjust mobs based on alpha/beta feedback.
We heard that worms when you cut them in half, they regenerate into two, so we made the Mordrem Maggot split into two when you kill them,. The Maggot uses the missile animation for the split. When additional mobs spawn, we try to get them to give less XP as people used to farm them.
With the Mushroom bombers, they initially provided no danger to ranged players so we added an attack where they throw their gunk at players.
- Mushrooms are based on the spirit rigs and they have butts added in by an artist since they have 2 legs.
A lot of monsters have affinity family tags that defines who they are hostiles and friendly with. Mushrooms and Mordrems for example don’t get along. Some creatures are allies and some creatures don’t care if others get attacked.
Vampire Beast Crawlers have a condition that cannot be cleared called Vampire Infection which heals the boss. This condition can be fairly deadly when the Vampire is scaled to the champion/legendary rank. It wiped many groups at the hero point.
Other game inspiration for the HoT mobs?
- Played too many games, Monster Hunter 4 had some great monster animations. During the fight when the monster get stunned they had some great struggle animations so we used some inspiration for that in Chak Gerent when the breakbar get broken.
- Crow Wings in GW1 were inspired by a dead crow in the parking lot.
More Enemies with specified roles in the future? (i.e. menders, dps enemies)
If monsters are part of a larger army we tend to give them roles that complement each other. It is something we definitely want to keep going.
Enemies from GW1 that will make a return in GW2?
Maybe, we can’t talk too much about it. We have a huge backlog of GW1 creatures we may use for inspiration.
Is it hard to design monsters to react to different situations
For standard mobs we try not make them too hard. We made the monsters harder in HoT and I think that is at a good point right now. For boss monsters we tend to give them more intelligent AI
Pets in HoT
Pets in HoT reused the monster animations and had their skills tweaked.
When an Ettin swings a club, where is the damage field? Is it tied to the club or a cone in front of creature?
Usually just a cone in front of the creature but we have lots of different options. We usually go the easiest route.
Ingame bestiary
Like the idea but it is not something that the animators works on. Maybe the rewards team?
When creating monsters that were in GW1, how much freedom do you have?
GW1 was made so long ago, you gotta remake it cooler so we do have a lot of freedom. When a designer takes over a creature, they often put their own spin on it.
Pocket Raptors, inspiration? How many player deaths are the pocket raptors responsible for?
Pocket raptors were responsible for 1.2 million player deaths so far. They were based on the raptors in Jurassic Park.
I am studying in a 3D animation course, how do I become a creature animator?
Just start animating now and don’t wait until you think you are perfect. Game designing schools didn’t exist in the 90s, so some animators started with MUDS. Even if it is something on paper we look at that when evaluating new applicants.
Favourite/Least Favourite mobs in HoT
Brian Walter
- Favourite: Gold Gizzler – a champion arrowhead that just throw rocks
- Least Favourite: Mushroooms because they swarm you too much and knock you down.
Ben Phongluangtham
- Favourite: Axe Commander in Dragon Stand. He has killed a lot of players.
- Least Favourite: Chak since they have so much missile reflects/shields.
Rubi
- Favourite: Mushrooms
- Least Favourite: Smokescale cuz of the smokefields.
ANet may give it to you.
(edited by Just a flesh wound.3589)