Primeval Abyssian (my extra-dimensional non-humanoid alien game)

[Chris*ta]

I usually find that I can only do good 2d sketches after hashing out a practice sculpt. Usually something along the lines of draw a rough 2d, sculpt a rough 3d, then sketch ideas for the bits that failed miserably :P

This seems unnecessarily complicated

I shouldn't really talk. Although I do pretty well at drawing/painting, I've never done well at sculpting

I am really looking forward to this game, AX. It's hard to really know what to make of it yet. I guess I'll have to put in the time to read all the background you've posted. I've skimmed this and your blog, but I was mainly looking at the pretty pictures

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Yeah, that is definitly the intention there. Even then, those kind of things seem to be strangely abscent from sci-fi wargames - allthough in other forms of media they are definitly fairly common tropes.

Might be the focus on space-fantasy - not sure if pulpy stuff would gel with space elves? ...although hybridizing pulpy stuff and space-fantasy could be fun.

Ancestors in a way, yes. The Ether could be seen as a kind of semi-conscious universe, it's first attempt at evolving a species (the Karuthrax) was a catastrophic failure that even damaged it somewhat - so it developed primitive proto-races as a kind of anti-body type defence.

Ohhh, missed the living universe angle. Gives a lot of flexibility in the setting, especially with designs, good thinking. Assuming the Synapse/Jequerita aren't an intentional creation of the universe, judging by their contrasts?

Oh not bad! never heard of this game though, but I see some nice floaty weird things so it gets the thumbs up from me!

It's pretty much Doom with a plot :P Fun series, sometimes obtuse.

This seems unnecessarily complicated

I shouldn't really talk. Although I do pretty well at drawing/painting, I've never done well at sculpting

:P Yeah, it's just what works best for me. I find drawing to plan out a sculpt a bit different from normal sketches - say, if I were just sketching a Hrud, I wouldn't be at all concerned about what's going on with its armpit and groin, but I need to figure that out for the sculpting (but I don't recognize all such problem areas until I've attempted a sculpt etc etc).

And keep on practicing with the sculpting, it's something that gets picked up over quite a while of practice; here're my first two sculpts alongside my latest two :P


Edit: @Asymm; finally got a pick of something using a glue gun to bulk out/texture it, [URL="http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?23602-Warp-Rift-Jackhammer&p=245201&viewfull=1#post245201"]here's the look[/URL]. Not sure if it's what you'd need for the "cloud".

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Might be the focus on space-fantasy - not sure if pulpy stuff would gel with space elves? ...although hybridizing pulpy stuff and space-fantasy could be fun.

Ohhh, missed the living universe angle. Gives a lot of flexibility in the setting, especially with designs, good thinking. Assuming the Synapse/Jequerita aren't an intentional creation of the universe, judging by their contrasts?

The universe (or Etherverse) isnt perfect, it's a bit like Microsoft Windows - it works but it can be pretty glitchy at times, and that goes for the Ethers evolutionary cosmic programs too.

That said, there might be something else out there, hiding and disguised in the universal boson field....

It's pretty much Doom with a plot :P Fun series, sometimes obtuse.

Ah, I did love Doom I and II and Quake I. Might be my kinda thing then...speaking of, wish they'd return to the Quake I universe, was way cooler than the succeeding ones -_-

:P Yeah, it's just what works best for me. I find drawing to plan out a sculpt a bit different from normal sketches - say, if I were just sketching a Hrud, I wouldn't be at all concerned about what's going on with its armpit and groin, but I need to figure that out for the sculpting (but I don't recognize all such problem areas until I've attempted a sculpt etc etc).

Yeah, that's the thing with me too - when sketching your not really thinking about how to actualy sculpt the bloody thing in the first place. I've probably created a whole truck load of sculpting nightmares for myself in that regard. Lovely.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Ah hell, heres another sketch It's name is Sytelth and is one of several Tolathian Characters. I am wondering if having special characters will make these aliens a bit more relatable or indentifiable.




heres some backround on this Tolathian Character :

Sytelth - Sword Of Disharmony

The Tolathian Cyclone-Master known as Sytelth is a veteran of many brutal campaigns and merciless bloody wars across the Etherium. Once a young and berserk crusader - now a cynical and hardened military general with a feared and respected reputation, Sytleth's most defining features are the patch of scarred flesh where it lost an eye to an Ekimmu Gale-Wraith, after raiding it's asteroid-crypt. The most prominent feature however is the Prymarsiam sylor-bullet stuck in the top of it's head - the bullet is partially embedded in it's brain in such a way, removal would cause more damage killing Sytelth - so without any choice Sytelth has decided to keep the Bullet in it's head as a reminder of it's own weaknesses.

Sytelth was once a part of a larger Cell, but it's berserk methods of war have forced it to leave to form it's own Cell, along with those that still believed in it. Over the years, Sytelth's Cell otherwise known as the Berserkers Of Cale-mire have grown to several hundred making them a small but brutal Cell with a infamous reputation. Many other Cells will find Sytelth's methods to be too head-on and simplistic, while others recognise that a Cell such as Sytelth's make an essential weapon for more extreme enemies that lack honour.

Sytelth's unconventional ways have lead it to upgrade it's own armour and even its' weapons. Sytelth has converted it's Cyclonic-staff into a powerful ranged weapon, the Thunder-Reaper, while on it's own right arm it has hard-wired a pair of Wind-whips into it's own flesh. Due to the brutal nature of Sytelth's Cell - it favours a large number of Gusts as infantry along with Mammatus' for heavy support and specialised roles carried out by the loyal contingents of Enhanced-Ones that stuck by Sytelth and abandoned their previous cell.

The atmosphere of Cale-mire is thick in Vapourous oxidisers effecting the skin-pigment of Sytelth and it's Cell, making them an unusual dark green and grey colour. Cale-Mire is perfect for Sytelth's Cell - they live in the strongholds in the upsidedown floating mountains of Sayrmayr, which are built out of the blackened granite-like rock. The sky is a putrid turquoise that quivers and shakes constantly giving a water-ripple type effect. The ocean of Cale-mire known as the Drayhu is a crystaline pink slime that houses the deadly forpid crawlers, small but deadly mindless beasts that are used for training and hunting. Cale-Mire is lone in the Ether, as it orbits no star, and no moon orbits it - just like Sytelth itself, it's brutal light stands out among the rest.

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Unique characters would probably work, it's nice for an army to have big-name character to root for/hate. Kinda annoying if the unique one is "The Ultramarinest Ultramarine" since it devalues generic characters, but Sytelth sounds fairly divergent.

Like the look of him, the missing eye makes him more recognizable. Maybe reposition/shrink the bullet in his head, though? Its current size and position, sticking straight up in the air, has a kinda slapstick feel. Maybe shorten it until just the end is visible, and make the flesh around it look really warped/unhealthy, like it's affected by the Tolathian (nonfatal) equivalent of gangrene?

Hmm, you mentioned leaders unlocking army-wide abilities, such as turrets - would Sytelth bring those Forpid Crawlers with him?

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

Unique characters would probably work, it's nice for an army to have big-name character to root for/hate. Kinda annoying if the unique one is "The Ultramarinest Ultramarine" since it devalues generic characters, but Sytelth sounds fairly divergent.

Yeah, I would rather have the characters be somewhat quirky, eccentric, rogue-like (not the computer game genre type!) or more divergent from the "norm". If theres one thing I love about 40k it's that it has things like Chapters, warbands, craftworlds, dynasties ect. I think that is something that is fairly important in a wargame to enable people to create their own backstories and colourschemes, but seems fairly abscent from a lot of games I've noticed. Tolathians have Cells, Luuran have Churches ect - so I want the armies to have several characters that can represent some of those kind of army-themes.

Like the look of him, the missing eye makes him more recognizable. Maybe reposition/shrink the bullet in his head, though? Its current size and position, sticking straight up in the air, has a kinda slapstick feel. Maybe shorten it until just the end is visible, and make the flesh around it look really warped/unhealthy, like it's affected by the Tolathian (nonfatal) equivalent of gangrene?

Those are some good suggestions, thanks I definitly agree. I wasnt really thinking much about the bullet, other than I wanted it in there, so yeah just the top poking out with some corrupted flesh around it would be perfect.

Hmm, you mentioned leaders unlocking army-wide abilities, such as turrets - would Sytelth bring those Forpid Crawlers with him?

Turrets? forpid crawlers? not sure what you mean there? then again I've got so much stuff on my computer I definitly forget everything I have at times D: But to answer the question - yeah, characters (at least the cell-specific ones) will change how armies work somewhat. Sytelth would allow up to six squads to have a defence sentry-drone (like the one pictured next to it). I guess they would have a "Charge" type rule as well, since they are a little more angrier than your typical Tolathians.

Also, as a side-note - Incase anyones curious to hear what a Tolathians voice sounds like, they found fairly similar to the vocal style I developed for my Death-robot music genre : [url]http://soundcloud.com/chrisctan/morpheus-rebirth-dominion[/url]

in the web series, they won't be AS extremely processed as that though since you'll need to actually be able to hear the dialogue

[Chris*ta]

I am growing curiouser and curiouser about this game ...

In other news, the spellcheck on this forum is happy with "curiouser". I'm not sure if that's a victory for Lewis Carroll or not

[Rev. Tiberius Jackhammer]

Turrets? forpid crawlers? not sure what you mean there? then again I've got so much stuff on my computer I definitly forget everything I have at times D: But to answer the question - yeah, characters (at least the cell-specific ones) will change how armies work somewhat. Sytelth would allow up to six squads to have a defence sentry-drone (like the one pictured next to it). I guess they would have a "Charge" type rule as well, since they are a little more angrier than your typical Tolathians.

The forpid crawlers mentioned in Styleth's backstory :P The thingies living in the pink crystal sea? I'm probably misremembering something from the blog as "turrets" instead of "sentry drone".

Good to have the leader be a defining presence for the army, that's one of my grumbles with 40k (If only I could pick a character's Warlord trait ;o; ).

Also, as a side-note - Incase anyones curious to hear what a Tolathians voice sounds like, they found fairly similar to the vocal style I developed for my Death-robot music genre : [url]http://soundcloud.com/chrisctan/morpheus-rebirth-dominion[/url]

in the web series, they won't be AS extremely processed as that though since you'll need to actually be able to hear the dialogue

Huh, I'd assumed the webseries would be using sub's with unintelligible speech - then again, probably helps if the viewer has something comprehendible to hear :P Sounds nice and weird!

[Chris*ta]

I'd also say that unique characters are a really good idea. I remember reading a Standard Bearer where Jervis discusses the reason for having unique characters and the reason that I remember is they're highly effective as a way to illustrate some point about the lore for that army/faction/whatever.

Which I think would be helpful considering so much of this game is alien.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

The forpid crawlers mentioned in Styleth's backstory :P The thingies living in the pink crystal sea? I'm probably misremembering something from the blog as "turrets" instead of "sentry drone".

Good to have the leader be a defining presence for the army, that's one of my grumbles with 40k (If only I could pick a character's Warlord trait ;o; ).
Huh, I'd assumed the webseries would be using sub's with unintelligible speech - then again, probably helps if the viewer has something comprehendible to hear :P Sounds nice and weird!

Ahhh, nah the pink slime creatures are just a backround tidbit really. I like to add things like that to the backround to add a little mystery, sort of like how 40k has it's "minor" xenos races.

I did consider the unintelligible speech, but I think its already pretty unrelatable as it is - I'll probably just put a "Translated into human language through unimaginable technology" At the beginning of each episode XD

Glad to know I'm on the right track with special characters, that's quite encouraging! thanks guys!