Concept Art! (Driders, Locusts, Lurkers, and Wildlife)

Do you know what these are exactly (Driders? Lurkers? Wildlife?)
Have you seen these before?
I found them in the Concept Art section under media on the main page.
Just wanted to share it cause it peaked my interest!

 

4 anti virtue factions of ep 2 e.g. cabalists ?

 

I'd love to see some of that in the game.

 

Those are frigin awesome!

 

Awesome art but seems inspired from D&D and possibly StarCraft. A lot of the games, even Ultima were inspired from Dungeons & Dragons. Seems like a lot of Underdark (from D&D) inspired species, myconoids too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drider

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underdark

The lurkers may be a blend of inspiration from the zerg of StarCraft as well.

Looks good and I have no problems with it at all.

Edit: #3 looks a bit like a Piercer

 

Interesting...

 

Would love to see some of these, along with some backstory as well.

That being said, these were concept art of some things that were being tossed about long before there really were anything like them in the game.

 

Also the premise behind them was VERY EARLY concept and I think if you dug through the early Kickstarter videos is explained how the creatures had levels based off of chess piece "levels". Thus far, it seems like that premise has been back-burnered or abandoned as the game has evolved.

 

Is the Oracle actually Lolth?

 

I always found forcing it into a chess hierarchy as a bit artificial, but the basic concept of hierarchical enemies sound, and it could apply to enemies we have now in the game.

So, if you go now to Penawr Island, every pirate there seems to be on the same hierarchical level, all look the same, all are dressed the same and wearing tri-corner hats. Though obviously not strictly realistic, I would expect that as a captain's hat, and pirate grunts to just go around with bandanas. We also used to have a 'bandit leader' in Etceter Crag mines, before it was replaced by a wizard. We basically now have bandits with different tactical abilities; ie melee, archers, and you even have wizards; but it would be nice to think about how they'd organize on a hierarchical level. So, I was thinking of doing a post on the "hierarchy of rogues."

You could have
<-- Leader (The boss, not necessarily the toughest, but has the best equipment, also smartest - Queen)
<-- Henchman (Also good equipment, but not the toughest - Bishop)
<-- Enforcer (Good equipment, and tougher - Knight)
<-- Brute (Strong man, decent equipment - Rook)
<-- Grunt (Cannon fodder, with basic equipment of different types - Pawn).

Not all of these would necessarily appear at once. Sometimes, it might even be all grunts (brotherhood of petty thieves), sometimes a leader and henchmen (group of skilled thieves), etc. A lot of role-playing possibility. They'd only appear together when it makes sense. And they'd have different models, so they'd look different.

Then, you could do the same with wizards, and have mobs like masters, acolytes, etc.

And you'd also have the same variety of fighter/archer/mage, where it makes sense, in the mix of the hierarchy, but the hierarchy would help the mobs make decisions.

The Lurker is basically a goblin variant. Not your standard Tolkein/D&D goblin, but follows the pattern of a goblin from real world lore. Locusts are a giant insect variant combined with a sand worm variant.

You could easily mistake #4 for a mix of a Zorn and a Pincher, both early Ultima creatures. And we've had weird things like acid slugs, corpsers, rotworms, etc.

Its basically why I'm not really concerned about the game tries to "be original". It ends up being the same thing anyway. Just make it good. I like some of this concept art, but I'd like to also see some of the "boring" stuff like Ultima monsters and atmosphere animals.

The really weird things might not feel right in the game at all, though on the other hand, may if we ever go into space using kobold rocketry Obviously some would originate at shardfalls and such as is the lore too :>

Oh, and I'd still like to see this guy.

 

Me too.

 

It’s truly sad that I know who Lolth is.....

 

Don't be sad. You got the joke.