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Patreon Poll - Which mod should I make next?
Posted 3 years agoSince I'm wrapping up work on the Midnight Suns anthro mod, I've posted a poll for patrons to decide which game I should add anthro characters to next. I only actually have three patrons right now, so if you join while the poll is up, you can have a pretty big influence on that decision.
The poll is at: https://www.patreon.com/posts/which.....hould-78155758
The options in detail, are:
Cyberpunk 2077 - Exotics:
Believe it or not, the tabletop RPG series that Cyberpunk 2077 is based on includes furries- the "Exotics" are people who turn themselves into human-animal hybrids through surgery and genetic modification. The lore is compelling enough that I'd planned to make a mod that turned the PC and some of the important NPCs into exotics- and maybe added other things like billboards with advertisments for exotic surgieries and so on- as soon as the game released. However, with the game's disasterious launch and lukewarm reviews, I've put that project off. I could, however, make that now.
Elden Ring - Half-Animal Tarnished:
Everyone says that Elden Ring is a masterpiece, and I've been meaning to try it. The setting apparently includes some half-animal characters, and there are a few non-human character creation options, so a half-animal player character should hopefully fit in to the setting without too much immersion-breaking. Maybe I could explain it as a human cursed by one of the setting's demigods? I think I'd probably start with either a pine marten or a cheetah, and maybe add some other options later depending on interest.
Mount & Blade II - Were-Creatures:
The setting of the Mount & Blade action/strategy series doesn't actually include supernatural elements, but it is a secondary world rather than anything trying to be historically accurate, so I don't think were-creatures would clash too badly. The idea would be to add in a few new options for the playable character and recruitable soldiers- werewolves, were-cats, maybe kitsune- possibly with some minor gameplay effects in addition to the cosmetics. I'm not very familiar with the engine, so creating this mod would be a bit more time-consuming than some of the other options.
Baldur's Gate III - Tabaxi Race:
In Dungeons & Dragons, the Tabaxi are a race of playable cat-people. I think I can add them as an option in the new Baldur's Gate RPG. This would also be a pretty difficult mod to build, since it would involve a lot of different cosmetic options, some significant gameplay changes, and I'd also need to find a way to modify or remove in-game dialog referencing the player's race. AI text-to-speech models fine-tuned on the game's vanilla dialog might provide an interesting solution to that last problem.
Into The Breach - Avali Pilots:
I actually already made this mod, although four of the six custom portraits were modifications of other peoples' avali illustrations, so I'm not sure it would be ethical to release as-is. I could, however, draw some new avali portraits from scratch, which I can design to match the game's art style and which would all include damaged mech variants. This would be the easiest mod to create, since it would just involve a few low-resolution 2D images.
Skyrim - Khajiit Appearance Overhaul:
The Khajiit in Skyrim have never looked very good, even with existing mods like CoverKhajiit and the digitigrade mod. The problem is the combination of a model that tries to represent thick lynx fur with a single low-polygon mesh along with the overly simplistic way the color overlays are applied, which leaves the texture looking terrible with anything other than white or black fur- the entire thing really needs to be re-done from scratch. Unfortunately, the quality I could achieve with this mod would be a bit limited by the engine- also, pretty much everyone with an interest in this game has already played through it multiple times, so it may be a bit too late.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Ratfolk:
The sequal to Kingmaker, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Rightious, is a traditional CRPG that I enjoyed a lot, and I've been meaning to try the first in the series. But while WotR inclues an anthro race in the vulpine Kitsune, Kingmaker only includes the standard human-like races. Ratfolk are an existing race in the Pathfinder tabletop RPG, and could make for a fun addition to the game- they would definitely play up the humble origins to royalty narrative. I could possibly also switch some of the important NPCs to ratfolk, depending on narrative constraints. This would, however, be a pretty complicated mod to build and could take a while. From what I hear, Kingmaker is also a bit harder to get into than the sequal, which could narrow the appeal.
The poll is at: https://www.patreon.com/posts/which.....hould-78155758
The options in detail, are:
Cyberpunk 2077 - Exotics:
Believe it or not, the tabletop RPG series that Cyberpunk 2077 is based on includes furries- the "Exotics" are people who turn themselves into human-animal hybrids through surgery and genetic modification. The lore is compelling enough that I'd planned to make a mod that turned the PC and some of the important NPCs into exotics- and maybe added other things like billboards with advertisments for exotic surgieries and so on- as soon as the game released. However, with the game's disasterious launch and lukewarm reviews, I've put that project off. I could, however, make that now.
Elden Ring - Half-Animal Tarnished:
Everyone says that Elden Ring is a masterpiece, and I've been meaning to try it. The setting apparently includes some half-animal characters, and there are a few non-human character creation options, so a half-animal player character should hopefully fit in to the setting without too much immersion-breaking. Maybe I could explain it as a human cursed by one of the setting's demigods? I think I'd probably start with either a pine marten or a cheetah, and maybe add some other options later depending on interest.
Mount & Blade II - Were-Creatures:
The setting of the Mount & Blade action/strategy series doesn't actually include supernatural elements, but it is a secondary world rather than anything trying to be historically accurate, so I don't think were-creatures would clash too badly. The idea would be to add in a few new options for the playable character and recruitable soldiers- werewolves, were-cats, maybe kitsune- possibly with some minor gameplay effects in addition to the cosmetics. I'm not very familiar with the engine, so creating this mod would be a bit more time-consuming than some of the other options.
Baldur's Gate III - Tabaxi Race:
In Dungeons & Dragons, the Tabaxi are a race of playable cat-people. I think I can add them as an option in the new Baldur's Gate RPG. This would also be a pretty difficult mod to build, since it would involve a lot of different cosmetic options, some significant gameplay changes, and I'd also need to find a way to modify or remove in-game dialog referencing the player's race. AI text-to-speech models fine-tuned on the game's vanilla dialog might provide an interesting solution to that last problem.
Into The Breach - Avali Pilots:
I actually already made this mod, although four of the six custom portraits were modifications of other peoples' avali illustrations, so I'm not sure it would be ethical to release as-is. I could, however, draw some new avali portraits from scratch, which I can design to match the game's art style and which would all include damaged mech variants. This would be the easiest mod to create, since it would just involve a few low-resolution 2D images.
Skyrim - Khajiit Appearance Overhaul:
The Khajiit in Skyrim have never looked very good, even with existing mods like CoverKhajiit and the digitigrade mod. The problem is the combination of a model that tries to represent thick lynx fur with a single low-polygon mesh along with the overly simplistic way the color overlays are applied, which leaves the texture looking terrible with anything other than white or black fur- the entire thing really needs to be re-done from scratch. Unfortunately, the quality I could achieve with this mod would be a bit limited by the engine- also, pretty much everyone with an interest in this game has already played through it multiple times, so it may be a bit too late.
Pathfinder: Kingmaker - Ratfolk:
The sequal to Kingmaker, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Rightious, is a traditional CRPG that I enjoyed a lot, and I've been meaning to try the first in the series. But while WotR inclues an anthro race in the vulpine Kitsune, Kingmaker only includes the standard human-like races. Ratfolk are an existing race in the Pathfinder tabletop RPG, and could make for a fun addition to the game- they would definitely play up the humble origins to royalty narrative. I could possibly also switch some of the important NPCs to ratfolk, depending on narrative constraints. This would, however, be a pretty complicated mod to build and could take a while. From what I hear, Kingmaker is also a bit harder to get into than the sequal, which could narrow the appeal.
On the recent deletions
Posted 3 years agoOver the past couple of years, I've been experimenting with using AI image generators as part of a larger artistic process. So far, I've gotten the best results by starting with ten to fifteen AI-generated images, modifying and compositing those together, then extensively painting over that or combining it with 3D models to produce final images. I've posted ten images made with that kind of process here- each one representing around 8-12 hours of work, most of that time being very traditional digital paint work with a Wacom tablet.
Unfortunately, FurAffinity instituted a policy a couple of months ago banning AI art, and all of the images were recently deleted by a mod. This is, of course, pretty absurd. A sensible policy on AI art would treat it like purchased stock photos- banning unmodified or minimally modified generations, but treating art that heavily modified or painted over the AI-generated parts as new, valid works.
I plan to keep experimenting with using these tools to make a new kind of art outside of the furry community, but I probably won't be participating here going forward.
You can still find the original images at: https://imgur.com/a/z9ZbDNl. Unfortunately, the narrative text I wrote to accompany each image and the story sections that I posted in the comments seem to have been permanently lost with the deletions.
Unfortunately, FurAffinity instituted a policy a couple of months ago banning AI art, and all of the images were recently deleted by a mod. This is, of course, pretty absurd. A sensible policy on AI art would treat it like purchased stock photos- banning unmodified or minimally modified generations, but treating art that heavily modified or painted over the AI-generated parts as new, valid works.
I plan to keep experimenting with using these tools to make a new kind of art outside of the furry community, but I probably won't be participating here going forward.
You can still find the original images at: https://imgur.com/a/z9ZbDNl. Unfortunately, the narrative text I wrote to accompany each image and the story sections that I posted in the comments seem to have been permanently lost with the deletions.
