Creature Concept Contest comments

[Mats Persson]

The Creature Concept Contest is over, and as we promised we’ll comment on the prize-winners work. We also decided to include a short description on how I go about when designing and deciding on creatures for Mortal Online myself.
Just jump to the next post if you only want to read the comments on the winners!


Creatures in Mortal Online

First of all, a disclaimer: My thoughts here are not a description on how the in-game systems in MO work. What this means is that although I write about evolution, we don’t have actual dynamic evolution in the game. And if I write about shape-changing magic, it doesn’t mean there will be the same kind of magic accessible for players in the game. We will try to implement some of these ideas in due time, but this text is to be regarded as my own design philosophy as Creative Director for our game:

In the world of Mortal Online life is based on evolution. While somewhat different from our real-world evolution, it follows the principles of natural selection, adaptation and genetic drift, meaning a creature will develop according to its environment. What most obviously differs from real-world evolution is the speed of this evolutionary process; it is progressive and could be said to have a memory. To be more specific, “genes� may sometimes change and adapt during a creatures actual lifetime, meaning for example that an individual that develops extraordinary strength during its life may actually pass this on to its offspring – somewhat similar to the old theories of inheritance of acquired characteristics or pangenesis. For instance, putting a flock of wolves on an isolated island would not only produce a new wolf-race, it would probably lead to a new type of wolf-species in a matter of only a few generations. This quick adaptation comes with a price though, as overspecialization breeds in weakness.

On top of this, the Gods or rare magic have historically interfered with the evolutionary process although it is nowadays forbidden by the gods themselves by the ancient Rule of Dawning. However, if one were to break that rule, this kind of manipulation must still obey certain primary rules of nature, and it costs a lot of energy. In essence, the more a creature is to be changed, by forcing evolution in a certain direction or by speeding it up (or by reversing it), the harder it becomes and the more energy is required. If a God for instance wanted to create an entirely new type of creature from nothing the energy cost would be tremendous, while modifying or combining already existent species according to their hereditary possibilities would be much cheaper.

Due to the nature of genetic heritage (a creatures or persons Sheut in the MO world, meaning core or shadow –their physical form), creatures may undergo relatively dramatic changes in a short time. Over some generations, a species may re-shape its arms to fins to adapt to a life underwater for instance, although naturally adapting by evolving an extra pair of limbs would be very rare as there would be no rudimentary limbs to start from: it would have to happen as a result of a mutation or as an atavism (meaning characteristics from a much earlier stage in evolution would appear again). On the other hand divine intervention, life-manipulation rituals or controlled breeding opens up the possibility for recalling such features on a wider scale, although that knowledge together with the conscious creation of new species are regulated and forbidden by the Gods as mentioned before.

However, before the Rule of Dawning several creations saw the light of day as a result of forced manipulation by the Gods themselves or by intelligent species wielding great power. Thus, manipulated creatures combining different traits between evolutionary branches such as Griffin or Minotaurs appeared, and those that weren’t overspecialized for their “purpose� managed to survive the coming events and produce offspring, leading to new species and races over time as they too adapted to the environment. Likewise, the majority of “intelligent�, in this case meaning conscious, creatures has been dawned in similar events requiring even more power, although a minority is a product of natural evolution.

Apart from the “natural� creatures of the world, so-called magical beings also exist. They could be said to follow the same evolutionary rules as the natural ones, but as most magical creatures exist only temporary or are powered by a magical or divine source, the energy cost of modifying them is much less than for permanent creatures, allowing for far more flexibility. This is true for both spirit beings and artificial life such as the undead.

Finally, there are truly ancient creatures in the world that were created when not even the primary rules of life and nature where set in stone among the gods. But of those you won’t learn here


It’s both a great challenge and a big responsibility to create an entire eco-system for a fantasy MMO that in MO’s case should also be believable and coherent. I’ve chosen to go with a system I know by heart, modifying it slightly along the way. Designing the ecology around the principles of evolution has not only produced consistency but a lot of species, families and clades I would never have thought about including otherwise. Also, the inherent hierarchical design of the evolutionary tree is of course very useful in the actual game mechanics. (To make up an example: we have the possibility to introduce a certain Sheut-damage enchantment for swords, where you upon enchanting the sword get to choose if you want it to deal 100% of its damage to only a specific race, or 50% of its damage to a group of races (a species), or 25% of its damage to all races in all species in an entire family. Then again, to learn that spell you probably have to learn about the creatures and their evolutionary branches in the game.)

Thank you for reading. I’m really looking forward to the day you’ll join the game to hear your comments on our world!

[Mats Persson]

On to the Creature Concept Challenge comments!

1:

Resin – Dryad
The Dryad fits the theme of MO well. A good description together with a nice concept made us fall for this rather special creature. Nymphs and their sub-species are already in and at this point, we don’t know if we will rewrite and adjust the rest of our Nymph lore according to Resin, or if we will re-classify and rename Resin’s Dryad to keep our own lore intact (probably into a special tree-creature). Anyway, you will be able to follow its progress here on the forums!

2-5:

tincovilya – Naketal
This little “seahorse that makes heads explode� according to the feedback(!) really got to us. It will probably be renamed and undergo heavy changes, but the core idea really inspired us as it led to emotional outbreaks in the office as well as intense discussions, and because of all this inspiration we decided to give it a prize.

Lachrymose – Dredfel
A beautiful picture and a nice story made the Dredfel reach top 5. What’s both positive and negative is that it’s kind of hard to relate to, and by that I mean it’s hard to decide what the “core� of the creature is, although it has several similarities to existing creatures. If you read the “Creatures in Mortal Online� description above, it’s hard to know where to start as it really doesn’t fit into a natural evolutionary branch. In short, I would see three possibilities:
1. Making it a magically altered creature, a mixup of several other creatures.
2. Creating the natural Dredfel ancestor species, but that species would in turn have difficulties fitting in due to the rather strange combination of features.
3. Ignore the stuff that stands out the most, instead developing them similar to Beastmen, building on for instance goats. But that would kind of ruin it.
All in all, it’s a unique creature and a good concept that really deserves its place among the winners, but chances are small you will see the Dredfel getting realized in MO.

iganuk – Abomination
The idea of necromancer-summoned abominations has been done before in several versions. What got our attention was the good drawing, and the fact that it wasn’t humanoid (like Frankenstein or a beast) but rather a haphazard mass of bodies. If iganuk’s abominations are included in MO, they will probably be made as slow-moving “walls� used as strategic obstacles in combat or battle.

Rathius – Feccna
The Feccna perhaps isn’t the most exciting creature of the batch (compared to dragons and whatnot), but it is believable and a good candidate for a common creature in dry regions. These creatures can actually often be harder to make than more extreme fantasy creatures. I will think about this one…

Honorable mentions:

catmorbid – the queer Qa’dhir
This is one of my favorites. Good picture and great description! The only problem with this one is that it is too much alike one of our existing MO creatures. As such, it simply becomes too hard to judge it, and I wouldn’t want to mix it up with its MO cousin either. It would feel wrong to give it a 1-5 position (thereby putting out another concept) if we at the same time said “it’s great but doesn’t really contribute anything, as we already have one like it, and you won’t see it being made�. But it certainly deserves a prize!

Adrala – the gruesome Grang
The exact same thing applies here as for catmorbid’s contribution. It is simply too similar to its MO counterpart. And there can only be one Grang!

dawnofdeath – the mortiferous Myrrormr
I love the picture, and I really like the updated description. However I don’t want to be accused of helping out whether that was the case or not by awarding it a 1-5 position. But a prize it gets, nevertheless!

isdrake – the zootaxy-less Zyva
As it turned out isdrake is actually a “close friend� of one of the team members, this contribution couldn’t really be part of the contest. I decided to put it in Honorable Mentions as I really like it (and the contributor would most probably have received a beta anyway.)

[Resin]

Wow. This sheds a whole lot of light on your thinking process.
Nymphs are in? Are they small farie-like creatures or spirits of things like rivers, forests, lakes, etc. Tree-type creatures? Will you have things like Ents? The existence of the creatures you have will probably necessitate some changes in my thinking. The combination of evolutionary and theological origins is interesting.
It sounds like deities are very real and present in MO, not something that players will just be making up. I'm interested to start learning about them.

[Zageron]

I'm going to enjoy this game. I love your method of thinking. The way your lore develops the story is amazing.

Most enjoyable information I've read to date! :]

[LightsabeR]

Really enjoyed reading that Mats, thanks.

Originally Posted by Mats Persson

Finally, there are truly ancient creatures in the world that were created when not even the primary rules of life and nature where set in stone among the gods. But of those you won’t learn here

Looking forward to this. I'm going to presume that some of those ancient creatures are the "raid bosses" that only spawn once.

[Lachrymose]

interesting stuff there mats.. i look forward to seeing how you implement your ideas into MO. also, it's good to hear some feedback from the contest. had i known your intentions, i would have probably done things a little differently, but i'm glad to hear you've got such a solid plan for the creatures that you don't just throw anything in even if it doesn't really fit with the core idea.

[Mathael]

Nice read there Mats, thanks for the update. To all the winners for the creature contests and the honourable mentions, a big congratulations!

[Tincovilya]

sweet looks like a good plan, and the implementation is done very well! I must say I am very impressed by the level of backstory that goes into everything you do, the world lore is phenomenal

[Joszek]

Are they any concepts or 3d models already drawn by SV graphic artists ?

[Doomtrain]

I see MO is nicely going forward.
Love the evolution aspect and I can't wait to see how you implement it in MO lore in game.
If one small thing is id be great to see pictures in concept winners post.

[catmorbid]

I really like your evolution approach to the game's ecology! Also, thanks for the comment. Now I'm really anticipating what will your creature-similar-to-mine be like!! (pictures, pretty please?:P) Then again, It did cross my mind when thinking about the entry, that you guys probably have some big insect race in and mine might end up being too similar, but still decided to go on with the flow.

[Traceur]

about lachry's creation: i think that it's origin seems to me to make most sense with that of humans, who have evolved a certain way to fit to a life style resulting out of religious beliefs, a combination of the Cynic cult & the Spartans of Greece:

imagine a society of warriors that did not believe in using armor, which filtered themselves by the development of tougher skin through masochistic rituals, literally, until through a few generations it became a hide.
on a similar token, an early sport where children and young members would tie their hands behind their backs and had to fight each other face to face most literally, yet since humans do not have upfront jaws to easily attack by the bite, they fenced with their foreheads to sacrifice the losers in the name of the winners. the thicker foreheads who cracked the least survived, growing two protrusions from the front of the sculpt, to further become longer & sharper and be used as weapons.
not burning their meat & not using tools to cut it, living in the wild and having not much time to rest as they feed upon the pray due to the risks, they developed carnivor teaths.
they did not believe in clothing, and as they pushed themselves to extreme of climate endurance, they naturally developed hairier bodies that could be shaved by the blade or simply pulled off in warmer climates.
as they grow in agility, they developed a martial art form of not only fighting, but moving and walking by, where one always has to be on his toes like a cat. but because the human upright posture does not front legs to balance the hind legs as felines do, the energy cost of balancing themselves was very big for human feet: the toe became bigger and thicker to consist the majority of the foot, the remnant of the other 4 fingers simply precluding little nails on it's side, and the toe nail has grown to cover the whole toe as a shoe, increasing in density, essentially becoming a hoof.
but during this process, as they abandoned civilized life, the mental analytical skills that had no use in the wild fall aside: they can not read, they can not do math, they have no talent in music or art, only a memory of the engineering skills for crafting anything complex remains in their blood streams.
last but not least, while they may have started as a religiously specialized society, eventually their build meant they hardly had a need for each other, and they lost the need for communal bonding altogether. as such, gradually they each could have increasingly larger feeding grounds, they grow in size (btw, there is avidence to suggest that the exact opposite phenomena happened to an extinct homo sapian 'ethnicity' a couple of thousands years ago in new zeeland).
- an alternative set of explanations could be self-endowment via rituals: they cut off their feet and curve hoofs from their leg bones, upon their 'bar mitva' they drill holes in their scalp and let it heal around a set of installed horns from their first pray, they painfully tailor the tickest hide along with the animals furr to their own flash... you could mix between those 2 sets of explenations.

i really like the isdrake - i mean it to the point that if i was the judge, on pure concept and asthetics, i'd give it the first prize among the others. i realize you don't want to be accused of kleptocracy, but removing it from such because the creator is someone's girlfriend or whatnot is sort of the exact oposite of kelptocracy and just as biased... well, anyway, it's just a beautiful concept and IMO the best one, it's original yet very fantasy like.

on a last note:i love your take on fantasy evolution, and am curious: how does the bullhorse henrik mantioned in one of the interviews fits into this? creatures who have undergone into extreme differences to be asthetically similar to what on earth we count as different species... actually breed together? so technically (for example) 'all hoofed animals' are the same species even if one is horse and the other is cow?

[Mats Persson]

Originally Posted by Traceur

on a last note:i love your take on fantasy evolution, and am curious: how does the bullhorse henrik mantioned in one of the interviews fits into this? creatures who have undergone into extreme differences to be asthetically similar to what on earth we count as different species... actually breed together? so technically (for example) 'all hoofed animals' are the same species even if one is horse and the other is cow?

Thank you! I understand the confusion, but it's actually not a bull at all. It's simply called "bullhorse" by humans because it's.. big and muscular. There are many other races and species this will apply to.

[Defiant One]

Your approach on backstory and lore of the world makmes me believe that once again Ill play a game and will feel like im actually reading a good fiction book.

[adrala]

WOW!
If what Mats wrote in here goes into the game I think MO will really revolutionize the genre.
What I couldnt really undrestand is...
Is the animal/mob population really dynamic (i.e. you travel and in a cave you see a pack of wolves..after 2 weeks you visit the same cave but you find that the wolves have grown bigger and their fur has turned into poisonous stigns)
or it HAS been untill the game starts and we, players...will find only the resutls of it?
Also..to what extent we player can have some control over mobs?( a part from epic ones) Can we overhunt the rabits and make them extint?

[Cye]

A side note about iganuk's submission:

I loved the idea for The Abomination. As soon as it was posted I said to myself "that's awesome."

Out of admiration for the original I sketched a quicky-version of my own take on the concept. Some segments were completely sketched while others borrowed limbs and weapons from other undead submissions from DeviantArt.

The Abomination

[Resin]

Sweet Cye! I like the abomination, it would be cool if as you smashed it, it became smaller but more mobile. I like mat's take on using them almost like slow moving bone walls.

[Mats Persson]

Originally Posted by Resin

Sweet Cye! I like the abomination, it would be cool if as you smashed it, it became smaller but more mobile. I like mat's take on using them almost like slow moving bone walls.

Well, as I said before there have been numerous takes on "abominations" in fantasy games before, like:this, this, this and this for example. But I really like the idea of an almost immobile haphazard mass of dead flesh instead of a Frankenstein. And I must say when it comes to the undead it's hard to be original.

[Cye]

"almost immobile" is a bit harsh, but certainly sluggish. I like the idea though, that while it has very limited mobility, it can attack from several locations/directions at once, at varying heights and distances.

I agree with Mats entirely, that it appears more of a guardian type creature than anything else.

Also, before the submission, I'd never seen the undead concept pertain to a pile of bodies skewered together.

[Mats Persson]

Originally Posted by Cye

Also, before the submission, I'd never seen the undead concept pertain to a pile of bodies skewered together.

Well, we actually have one (hmm, two!) just like that. But.. yet very different.

[Mathael]

I love the drawing Cye, and the idea that rather them just simply being a reanimation. As oppose to WoW's abomination like creature, which seems entirely disgusting, this one is not only frightful, but will prove surprising when engaging in combat.

[Traceur]

here, an extremely late creature entry that only really came to mind based on a possible symbiotic relationship with Resin's Dryad..

[Jedi]

I want to see a gloomy, gothic style in this game. The classics of genre. From creatures, it is pleasant it would be to see dragons: enormous fire-spitting creatures with powerful wings, almost invincible competitors. History of origin not who does not know, but in this world they live long years. What to battle with them on equal, it is needed to have detachment of right warriors which will be armed at least. Orks, elvs, dwarfs, – it mediocrity already. I hope, we will enjoy new races which really will interest and will bring in that – that new. It would be desirable to see various areas. Tropical jungles, and snow tundra. Magnificent f'ordy, and thick enigmatic forests unusual creatures live in which. All of it very inspires.

[Ceynt]

congrats all... very nicely done.

[TayanKhan]

Ganbat Badamkhad is a great art worker, he did a loth of art work fot Mount&blade.

Look at this art work.



well the art work of Mortal online looks cool 2, it hase a nice good barbaric style in it,

[Dingo]

Just want to say It's very nice to see the way you think when designing the world of MO, the creatures. I have never cared about an MMO's lore because it usually bored me to tears, but I really liked what I read. Seems like ancient beings, deities, gods etc will all be very real in the world of MO. Not just random phat loot bearing mobs.

[kelthazan]

I never seen iganuk's abomination can any one post me the link?

[Wolfhammer]

Well this thread was locked/closed yesterday so I answered it in general chat..

http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/3...te-effort.html

[Shutat]

Will there be any more Creature Concept Contests or was that it?

I missed out. Booooo! ...

[Dark Deity]

Yeah I just found these forums today and I wish I had known about them before... I'd submit oodles of critters *cry*

[ZodiacEclipse]

I'd be up for another contest. I definitely need to improve on my last attempt. Maybe just monthly community contests to get everyone psyched for when the beta is ready.

[Spiderspy]

Ah I just love this game more and more the further I read^^ This is something huge and revultionary! I have always wanted this in a game but never seen it .

Besides I really hope there will be more creature or other concept contests^^ found it today :/

[LifeofHonor]

Originally Posted by Mats Persson

2-5:

tincovilya – Naketal
This little “seahorse that makes heads explode� according to the feedback(!) really got to us. It will probably be renamed and undergo heavy changes, but the core idea really inspired us as it led to emotional outbreaks in the office as well as intense discussions, and because of all this inspiration we decided to give it a prize.

I bet you guys are going crazy!

All this is great info keep it up.

[Kyrodin]

This thread sure has me excited on many fronts. I loved the information and the thought process SV is putting into this game. I was also excited for the chance that the community was having literal direct impacts on the game as seen "here."

Finally, congratulations to all the winners and honorable mentions. Job well done.

[kurai]

Congrats to everyone who won. I can't wait to slaughter your creatures in game :]

[blazeblade]

amazing: a developer starts a creative creature design contest! disappointing: i missed it!

the community submissions looking good, congratz!

Originally Posted by LightsabeR

Looking forward to this. I'm going to presume that some of those ancient creatures are the "raid bosses" that only spawn once.

i also read about it, i wonder how many peopels will then just sit arround and start camping their locations 24/7 ..

[Vertin]

New contest please....

[Dlayer]

I wonder if there will be giant spiders with their sticky nets out in the forest that can immobilize you with poison.

[Gresk]

Originally Posted by Mats Persson

But I really like the idea of an almost immobile haphazard mass of dead flesh instead of a Frankenstein. And I must say when it comes to the undead it's hard to be original.

Sounds just like a Shoggoth to me but I haven't been privvy to the artwork so please do not take this as any sort of insult against the original contributor but more a compliment as the Shoggoth is one of those beasts that you always want to meet in an MMO but dread the day you do.

I'm unsure if your a fan but popping your feet up and reading a load of H.P. Lovecraft or Brian Lumley can open up chains of thought regarding monsters that you barely thought possible from the 'normal' mind

[Brazen]

Congratulations to all.!! The entries were all stellar and surprised alot of the entries weren't in the top 5.((I would've hated judging this))

I hope that another contest of this sort happens again. I would love to get my feet wet and break out some 3d proggies to play and create.

Good job all!!

P.S. Ugh I really hate that I missed this competition

~Brazen