Scale of the Creatures

[Jackie's Fable]

I love this game. I think it's incredible what you've done thus far. But there is one issue that bothers me immensely whenever I play the game:

I wish the scale of some of the creatures became much larger, or new creatures get added in that are extremely large. The Sea Dragon Leviathan while in description sounds terrifying, visually in the game looks very unimpressive to me.

The ocean becomes really, truly scary when you can't fully picture the monster attacking you. The idea of a creature so huge, that one suction cup on one of its tentacles is larger than your cyclops submersible. Potentially seeing a creature that has a mouth capable of swallowing the Aurora whole.

Just a creature that is so unfathomably large, even the ocean seems small in comparison. That to me is what makes nightmares a reality.

I completely understand that having a monster that ridiculously large would be very hard to implement, so I can see why this has not been done yet.

- - -

On a side note as well, I think the game should have fog similar to that of Minecraft to obscure things more. It would help the immersion greatly in my opinion.

Thanks for reading everyone. :)

[Jackie's Fable]

Originally posted by Jorkfriend:

Originally posted by Logic, Inc:

Where do you draw the line at what is excessive though?

More games should push the limits of what people can handle, in my opinion. Extreme experiences with crazy things are what make games so incredible to play.

The aurora is a monstrously huge ship and it's landed on actual land. The only zone that goes extremely deep near it is the lava zone itself, which is blocked by narrow tunnels.

The context of a giant many-toothed monster swallowing a burning metal ship is extremely excessive and nonsensical for those reasons.

Meanwhile, the context of a giant creature that kills the player in the void itself makes a lot more sense and would be better than the developer's intended idea of just spamming reapers/dragons in there.

I guess I agree in that sense. Could you imagine being in a part of the game where the ocean is too deep to see the ocean floor and nothing is visible around you? Then out of no where this super-massive creature appears below you in the murky depths.

♥♥♥♥ that noise lmao

[OverwatchJunky]

Originally posted by Logic, Inc:

Originally posted by Jorkfriend:

That would just be excessive.

I still think when the player goes too far down/towards the Void (where the map ends) an extremely massive creature should grab you and pull you down. Sadly, they're planning on just spamming the void with tons of reapers and dragons instead which is lame.

I'd always picture it like Father Dagon's hand just grabbing you from the depths and pulling you down into the tenebrous abyssal nothingness, but oh well.

As for actual monsters, I think it's fine where it's at. I still would like more leviathan creatures though. We're supposedly gonna get a "wraith leviathan" that'll end up in the lost river biome but it's gonna be smaller than a sea dragon.

Where do you draw the line at what is excessive though?

More games should push the limits of what people can handle, in my opinion. Extreme experiences with crazy things are what make games so incredible to play.

Ecologically you draw the line at the spot where the animal has no viable food source and cant be sustained by the creatures that are available to eat. A monster that huge still requires a plentiful food source. If it cant sustain itself is dies. Maybe that is what happened to the skeleton in the lost river? Too big ad could not eat enough to survive


Think of it like that goldfish you won at the carnival/fairgrounds as a kid. If you feed it ad change its tank it will get bigger and live longer. I remember when I was a kid, my aunt helped me keep my goldfish alive for almost 5 years!! It increased to maybe 10 times its original size when we brought it home. We bought bigger tanks, got better food and it lived for 5 years.

From the technical/gamig point of view, it also has to do with modeling and rendering/animations. An object of that size (even if it wasnt a monster) would suck most CPU/GPUs dry just trying to render it ito the enviroment let alone animate it.

[Jackie's Fable]

Originally posted by OverwatchJunky:

Originally posted by Logic, Inc:

Where do you draw the line at what is excessive though?

More games should push the limits of what people can handle, in my opinion. Extreme experiences with crazy things are what make games so incredible to play.

Ecologically you draw the line at the spot where the size of the animal cat be sustained by the creatures around it. The size of an animal is liited based on the environment it lives in and its food source.


Think of it like that goldfish you won at the carnival/fairgrounds as a kid. If you feed it ad change its tank it will get bigger and live longer. I remember when I was a kid, my aunt helped me keep my goldfish alive for almost 5 years!! It increased to maybe 10 times its original size when we brought it home. We bought bigger tanks, got better food and it lived for 5 years.

Also, ecologically, a monster hat huge still requires a food source. If it cant sustain itself is dies. Maybe that is what happened to the skeleton in the lost river? Too big ad could not eat enough to survive.

From the technical/gamig point of view, it also has to do with modeling and rendering/animations. An object of that size (even if it wasnt a monster) would suck most CPU/GPUs dry just trying to render it ito the enviroment let alone animate it.

I wrote in my original post that I can completely understand why something like this would be extremely hard to implement. It's a really complex idea that requires a lot of thought to produce. But it's also an idea that would be very successful if done right.

[OverwatchJunky]

Originally posted by Logic, Inc:

Originally posted by OverwatchJunky:

Ecologically you draw the line at the spot where the size of the animal cat be sustained by the creatures around it. The size of an animal is liited based on the environment it lives in and its food source.


Think of it like that goldfish you won at the carnival/fairgrounds as a kid. If you feed it ad change its tank it will get bigger and live longer. I remember when I was a kid, my aunt helped me keep my goldfish alive for almost 5 years!! It increased to maybe 10 times its original size when we brought it home. We bought bigger tanks, got better food and it lived for 5 years.

Also, ecologically, a monster hat huge still requires a food source. If it cant sustain itself is dies. Maybe that is what happened to the skeleton in the lost river? Too big ad could not eat enough to survive.

From the technical/gamig point of view, it also has to do with modeling and rendering/animations. An object of that size (even if it wasnt a monster) would suck most CPU/GPUs dry just trying to render it ito the enviroment let alone animate it.

I wrote in my original post that I can completely understand why something like this would be extremely hard to implement. It's a really complex idea that requires a lot of thought to produce. But it's also an idea that would be very successful if done right.

Its not just the thought ad effort to produce it. There is such a thing as too much when it comes to the sheer size of a rendered object that is also animated.

The Aurora ca be so big because it doesnt move. If you added motion into the mix it makes it far harder to render.

To quote Ian Malcom from Jurrasic Park. "Your scienctists were too preoccuied withwhether or not they could that they didnt stop to think if they should."

Ian Malcoms point tells us that just because something CAN be doe does not mean it SHOULD be done.

For example. Can I eat a pencil? Yes. But...is it a good decision? Is it bad for me? Could it potentially kill me? All yes answers.

You also have to condier the man hours it takes just on modeling. That much effort into one modeling job is pointless in the long run.

[zaeroid]

I'd very much like some lovecraftian should-not-be to roam the abyss. Maybe reach it's tentacles at 3000 meters? And going deeper would mean certain death even in the Cyclops?

Wouldn't fit the story they're making tho'.

[Jackie's Fable]

Originally posted by zaeroid:

I'd very much like some lovecraftian should-not-be to roam the abyss. Maybe reach it's tentacles at 3000 meters? And going deeper would mean certain death even in the Cyclops?

Wouldn't fit the story they're making tho'.

I just want one creature in the game that is so huge you can't see all of it on the screen at once.

[Artanis]

And here I am not wanting to go through the leaf plants because things are there. Scary is scary.

[Xxanno]

They should get a bigger monster roaming in the deep and open parts of the map. My idea would be something like Nidhog. Of course it should not be too big.

The idea about instant death if you go too far/deep from the map seems like a perfect idea. They could perhaps play a prerendered cutscene to save CPU for weaker computers.

[aaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

It's a weird thing but the first person view makes things look smaller but just set speed to 0 and free cam and you'll see the dragons true size

[Raina]

Just saying "make bigger stuff!!" Really doesn't make sense at all. On notes others brought up. The planet has to support that creature. And not just one. Animal populations don't just consist of one individual. There would need to be more than one at some point and if there is not a way to support even one then there is no way to support a breeding population.

Not to mention the fact most of the ocean is to shallow for something that big. How would it move around and hunt? Most of the food isn't in the depths.

Honestly you are looking at it wrong if you don't find smaller creature scary to. Something doesn't need to be huge to majorly screw you over. Crab squid could strand you in the dark depths, warpers pull you out into the vast crushing ocean with little warning, bone sharks stalk you in the dark. As a person on that planet in that situation that ♥♥♥♥ would be terrifying. You have to kind immerse yourself in the game. (alternately play hardcore mode you will be afraid of a lot more stuff that way.)

[Shinry]

Originally posted by Birdy:

And here I am not wanting to go through the leaf plants because things are there. Scary is scary.

Me too, first game I've ever encountered that triggeres Thalassophobia. xD
After a few hours it gets better for shallow water and when you know the spawnpoints of the Leviathans but the one time one went out of his spawning area and attacked me from behind it really made me jump xD
Still too afraid to go to the more dangerous areas (The blood kelp zone next to the dunes was my farthest expedition with the cyclops) and surely wouldn't even dare when there was something even more dangerous.
But that's just the thing for me :'D

[Apop85]

they really feel big enough to me ^^. But in ego perspective they look quite small compared to 3rd person view
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Dk8Q1UB5Oo

[Jackie's Fable]

Originally posted by Raina:

Just saying "make bigger stuff!!" Really doesn't make sense at all. On notes others brought up. The planet has to support that creature. And not just one. Animal populations don't just consist of one individual. There would need to be more than one at some point and if there is not a way to support even one then there is no way to support a breeding population.

Not to mention the fact most of the ocean is to shallow for something that big. How would it move around and hunt? Most of the food isn't in the depths.

Honestly you are looking at it wrong if you don't find smaller creature scary to. Something doesn't need to be huge to majorly screw you over. Crab squid could strand you in the dark depths, warpers pull you out into the vast crushing ocean with little warning, bone sharks stalk you in the dark. As a person on that planet in that situation that ♥♥♥♥ would be terrifying. You have to kind immerse yourself in the game. (alternately play hardcore mode you will be afraid of a lot more stuff that way.)

You could easily fit such a large creature into the lore of the game. Maybe it's a near-dead species with only one or two of its kind left BECAUSE it is eating literally everything on the planet and as a result is starving itself.

Maybe while they are extremely large, they feed off tiny creatures like peepers. This massive creature could actually be passive; instead the threat comes from it potentially crushing you by accident. Not only is that not uncommon in real life, but could actually make a lot of sense in explaining why the whole ocean isn't absolutely crawling with millions of tiny fish.

Originally posted by Raina:

Not to mention the fact most of the ocean is to shallow for something that big. How would it move around and hunt?

The game has hardly shown even 5% of the whole planet. Look at the horizon. It wouldn't be hard to believe that the ocean gets much deeper a significant distance away from everything. The developers could utilize this to add more equipment into the game. Maybe you would have to gather the resources to make a vehicle that can drive extremely fast, so you don't spend hours trying to this part of the planet. The ideas are endless, you just need to be open-minded.

[Raina]

Originally posted by Logic, Inc:

Originally posted by Raina:

Just saying "make bigger stuff!!" Really doesn't make sense at all. On notes others brought up. The planet has to support that creature. And not just one. Animal populations don't just consist of one individual. There would need to be more than one at some point and if there is not a way to support even one then there is no way to support a breeding population.

Not to mention the fact most of the ocean is to shallow for something that big. How would it move around and hunt? Most of the food isn't in the depths.

Honestly you are looking at it wrong if you don't find smaller creature scary to. Something doesn't need to be huge to majorly screw you over. Crab squid could strand you in the dark depths, warpers pull you out into the vast crushing ocean with little warning, bone sharks stalk you in the dark. As a person on that planet in that situation that ♥♥♥♥ would be terrifying. You have to kind immerse yourself in the game. (alternately play hardcore mode you will be afraid of a lot more stuff that way.)

You could easily fit such a large creature into the lore of the game. Maybe it's a near-dead species with only one or two of its kind left BECAUSE it is eating literally everything on the planet and as a result is starving itself.

Maybe while they are extremely large, they feed off tiny creatures like peepers. This massive creature could actually be passive; instead the threat comes from it potentially crushing you by accident. Not only is that not uncommon in real life, but could actually make a lot of sense in explaining why the whole ocean isn't absolutely crawling with millions of tiny fish.

Originally posted by Raina:

Not to mention the fact most of the ocean is to shallow for something that big. How would it move around and hunt?

The game has hardly shown even 5% of the whole planet. Look at the horizon. It wouldn't be hard to believe that the ocean gets much deeper a significant distance away from everything. The developers could utilize this to add more equipment into the game. Maybe you would have to gather the resources to make a vehicle that can drive extremely fast, so you don't spend hours trying to this part of the planet. The ideas are endless, you just need to be open-minded.

Except that roll in lore is already taken. The giant pasive sea emperor. And even if it's near extinct now that does not mean you can disregard the food source. They had to be able to sustain themselves long enough to even evolve or have a breeding population to make the few that would be around.

There are a lot of fish actually. Oceans don't typically have fish stuffed in them Gill to Gill. There is supposed to be a lot of empty space to sustain everything living there. There is a difference between open minded and just disregarding biology.

[Black Hammer]

Could always add Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. And Great Cthulhu.Toss in the Father-Of-All-Sharks for good measure.