Do you have the full size 1920x1080 photo? I have it up on a 60" TV screen and the feet look nothing like a Ratonga. The legs have an inverted, bent (monster-esk look) with large claws at the end. A Ratonga has more human type feet, but small and mouse/rat like.
The head has small spikes on the edges, along with what look like two small horns on the top. The face is elongated with a downward beak and the tongue is sticking out. The hands have three fingers and clawed. The skin is leathery looking.. Yea, and the tail..
Yes, i'm looking at it blown up. The head looks like it has horns because he's wearing a skull-mask - at least i think so. The feet are lifted same way as a ratonga's - could be just exaggerated, but could be as you say - something else.
It might also be Di'Zok. Those looked quite similar to that.
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall Currently Playing: ESO
21 races? If they managed to pull that off at launch they deserve to win some sort of award lol. Even the original amount of EQ races was a huge amount compared to many MMORPGs today.
Originally posted by Thunder073 Yeah i would agree that he failed at recapturing the magic, but I also feel there is more symbolism to be had. Out of everything the picture entails i feel her wielding a bow is the most interesting part of the wallpaper, its very unusual...
The artist probably never played any EQ game and isn't aware of any lore.
Although you have to wonder how this stuff made it past QA.
On the flip side I think that the artist was most likely guided quite well by SOE and was told what to incorporate as well as was shown what the characters looked like in game. The artist then produced a version that incorporated the old box, the new game and then his own interpretation of both.
Nonetheless it was designed to spark conversation. Most of SOE's teases are just that.
quoted because this is how things work in a production environment. a company as large as SOE with as much riding on this game as there is would never allow anything to hit the public eye without being meticulously screened. in all honesty that rendering is probably version 50 at the very least with revisions from the heads of marketing / art as well as the chief players like smed.
you guys saying "this is no way reflects the way the game will be!" can live in your fantasy world until august 2nd, but when the walls come down you will see something very similar to this on the screens.
Anyone else think that Firiona having a bow is a hint at a classless system? She is single-handedly the iconic symbol of EQ and of a caster class, yet she is wielding a bow?
What do you guys think this symbolism is meant to represent? Its a very bold statement imho
Nothing its just meaningless art work ment to get people talking and hyping a game with no factual basis.
It may be a bold statement to you but then I'm guessing your not a suite in Advertising that gets paid to make everything seem great weither its good or bad as a means for a living.
Because saying, "Hey, buy our stuff, it totally sucks." makes ALL the sense in the world...
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
Originally posted by Thunder073 Yeah i would agree that he failed at recapturing the magic, but I also feel there is more symbolism to be had. Out of everything the picture entails i feel her wielding a bow is the most interesting part of the wallpaper, its very unusual...
The artist probably never played any EQ game and isn't aware of any lore.
Although you have to wonder how this stuff made it past QA.
On the flip side I think that the artist was most likely guided quite well by SOE and was told what to incorporate as well as was shown what the characters looked like in game. The artist then produced a version that incorporated the old box, the new game and then his own interpretation of both.
Nonetheless it was designed to spark conversation. Most of SOE's teases are just that.
quoted because this is how things work in a production environment. a company as large as SOE with as much riding on this game as there is would never allow anything to hit the public eye without being meticulously screened. in all honesty that rendering is probably version 50 at the very least with revisions from the heads of marketing / art as well as the chief players like smed.
you guys saying "this is no way reflects the way the game will be!" can live in your fantasy world until august 2nd, but when the walls come down you will see something very similar to this on the screens.
Just to throw more wood on this fire.. here is an artist's rendition of Firiona Vie prior to her appearing in EQ2:
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall Currently Playing: ESO
Back to the "Ratsar". It's really quite hard to make the creature out. I agree that it doesn't quite look like a ratonga, but it doesn't look reptilian either. It has feet very similar to ratonga feet. The tail is definitely lizardish. The face is impossible to make out as it seems to be wearing a sort of skull mask. The biggest problem is the hands. Ratonga have proper 5-fingered hands with long fingernails. This "thing" clearly does not.
Kobold does seem to be a likely possibility.
Do you have the full size 1920x1080 photo? I have it up on a 60" TV screen and the feet look nothing like a Ratonga. The legs have an inverted, bent (monster-esk look) with large claws at the end. A Ratonga has more human type feet, but small and mouse/rat like.
The head has small spikes on the edges, along with what look like two small horns on the top. The face is elongated with a downward beak and the tongue is sticking out. The hands have three fingers and clawed. The skin is leathery looking.. Yea, and the tail..
Remember, this wouldn't be the first time in history an animal race was re-created in looks. Does the Elder Scrolls ring a bell?
In Marrowind the Khajiit and the Argonians had animal like hook shaped animal legs and then in Oblivion and Skyrim they were given more human legs.
quoted because this is how things work in a production environment. a company as large as SOE with as much riding on this game as there is would never allow anything to hit the public eye without being meticulously screened
lol
EQ GoD expansion came out with the wrong levels
EQ PoP expansion came out half finished, they were actually making the raid zones while the expansion was already released
SoE actually gave a hacker raid gear in EQ in exchange for his hack, when he was the only one with top raid gear on the server, people demanded an answer at fan faire
SoE left open bugs in the GM program in EQ, which allowed players to become GM
Hackers managed to crash the EQ servers for weeks in a row, the servers crashed about every 30 minutes
SoE and QA. lol, you're hilarious
If QA of SoE was responsible for an air traffic control tower, they would crash all their planes within 24 hous
quoted because this is how things work in a production environment. a company as large as SOE with as much riding on this game as there is would never allow anything to hit the public eye without being meticulously screened
lol
EQ GoD expansion came out with the wrong levels
EQ PoP expansion came out half finished, they were actually making the raid zones while the expansion was already released
SoE actually gave a hacker raid gear in EQ in exchange for his hack, when he was the only one with top raid gear on the server, people demanded an answer at fan faire
SoE left open bugs in the GM program in EQ, which allowed players to become GM
Hackers managed to crash the EQ servers for weeks in a row, the servers crashed about every 30 minutes
SoE and QA. lol, you're hilarious
those are programming errors, not art problems. trust me, if artwork goes out to the public it is vetted, vetted, and vetted again by numerous people. since this is the first real imagery anybody has seen of SOE's flagship game there is no way they let it pass through without literally driving the artist crazy with edits. i speak from a position of experience.
quoted because this is how things work in a production environment. a company as large as SOE with as much riding on this game as there is would never allow anything to hit the public eye without being meticulously screened
lol
EQ GoD expansion came out with the wrong levels
EQ PoP expansion came out half finished, they were actually making the raid zones while the expansion was already released
SoE actually gave a hacker raid gear in EQ in exchange for his hack, when he was the only one with top raid gear on the server, people demanded an answer at fan faire
SoE left open bugs in the GM program in EQ, which allowed players to become GM
Hackers managed to crash the EQ servers for weeks in a row, the servers crashed about every 30 minutes
SoE and QA. lol, you're hilarious
those are programming errors, not art problems. trust me, if artwork goes out to the public it is vetted, vetted, and vetted again by numerous people. since this is the first real imagery anybody has seen of SOE's flagship game there is no way they let it pass through without literally driving the artist crazy with edits. i speak from a position of experience.
Really, you think art QA is any different?
This is armor that came out for EQ.
It was so wrong and totally didn't even fit the character, they have revised it 3 times now, and it still looks like complete ****
They made a new human model in EQ a few years ago, it was so bad they had to remove it.
During an expansion release, crocodiles in Loping planes, had human models. When a crocodile looks like a human, there's some flaws in your QA department.
quoted because this is how things work in a production environment. a company as large as SOE with as much riding on this game as there is would never allow anything to hit the public eye without being meticulously screened
lol
EQ GoD expansion came out with the wrong levels
EQ PoP expansion came out half finished, they were actually making the raid zones while the expansion was already released
SoE actually gave a hacker raid gear in EQ in exchange for his hack, when he was the only one with top raid gear on the server, people demanded an answer at fan faire
SoE left open bugs in the GM program in EQ, which allowed players to become GM
Hackers managed to crash the EQ servers for weeks in a row, the servers crashed about every 30 minutes
SoE and QA. lol, you're hilarious
those are programming errors, not art problems. trust me, if artwork goes out to the public it is vetted, vetted, and vetted again by numerous people. since this is the first real imagery anybody has seen of SOE's flagship game there is no way they let it pass through without literally driving the artist crazy with edits. i speak from a position of experience.
Really, you think art QA is any different?
This is armor that came out for EQ.
It was so wrong and totally didn't even fit the character, they have revised it 3 times now, and it still looks like complete ****
They made a new human model in EQ a few years ago, it was so bad they had to remove it.
During an expansion release, crocodiles in Loping planes, had human models. When a crocodile looks like a human, there's some flaws in your QA department.
again, completely different from hiring a freelance artist to do 1 rendering as the vanguard of your next flagship game launch. armor modeling for an expansion is an assembly line, as is model rigging. the issue with the crocs is that the human model is set to be the default model for an NPC that isn't accessing its associated files correctly, so that was another programming problem.
my point is, one-of pieces like this artist was commissioned to do for EQ:N's splash page will have been poured over by pretty much everybody with a say involved in the project. it is the face of the company who has been desperately trying to change how they run over the past couple years, seemingly for the better at this point.
We all know Vah Shir or Kerran are smaller than Ogres.
But he made Vah Shir / Kerran twice the size of Ogres.
Are you going to tell us that was intentional?
No it was a mistake of the artist, and somehow it passed QA (or rather lack thereof)
Firiona Vie wielding a bow and sword was likely a mistake too, unless for some ridiculous reason, the lore did a 180 and she is now some type of ranger...yeah right.
While Firiona has always been illustrated with a staff, she is actually a paladin. Paladins, if I remember correctly, could use bows in EQ1...
I personally appreciated the piece. It does carry a bit of nostalgia... and made me appreciate the original that much more (because for me at least, the original IS EQ). Whenever I think of the EQ brand, I always go back to that original painting by Keith.
We all know Vah Shir or Kerran are smaller than Ogres.
But he made Vah Shir / Kerran twice the size of Ogres.
Are you going to tell us that was intentional?
No it was a mistake of the artist, and somehow it passed QA (or rather lack thereof)
Firiona Vie wielding a bow and sword was likely a mistake too, unless for some ridiculous reason, the lore did a 180 and she is now some type of ranger...yeah right.
Have you looked at Dave's twitter?
He was asked about the bow and sword. And his reply seemed a tad mysterious.
We all know Vah Shir or Kerran are smaller than Ogres.
But he made Vah Shir / Kerran twice the size of Ogres.
Are you going to tell us that was intentional?
No it was a mistake of the artist, and somehow it passed QA (or rather lack thereof)
Firiona Vie wielding a bow and sword was likely a mistake too, unless for some ridiculous reason, the lore did a 180 and she is now some type of ranger...yeah right.
again, alternate universe. kerran / vah'shir could very well be larger than ogres now, who knows? if you take a trip back in time to the launch of shadows of luclin and remember the differences between the old and "new" models back then would you still make this same argument?
While Firiona has always been illustrated with a staff, she is actually a paladin. Paladins, if I remember correctly, could use bows in EQ1...
Even if your far fetched explanation was intentional, it would still be wrong, you can not hold a sword together with a bow, with any class.
And there you have it, a classless system?
This is how Dave replied on twitter (his reply at the bottom).
"Project NorrathProjectNorrath15h I'm calling it, Firiona Vie is a ranger now"
"KinyaKinya_Babagra8h@ProjectNorrath@DaveGeorgeson She has a sword also in other hand. Her cloth armor and head gear suggest a mage = classless toons?"
We all know Vah Shir or Kerran are smaller than Ogres.
But he made Vah Shir / Kerran twice the size of Ogres.
Are you going to tell us that was intentional?
No it was a mistake of the artist, and somehow it passed QA (or rather lack thereof)
Firiona Vie wielding a bow and sword was likely a mistake too, unless for some ridiculous reason, the lore did a 180 and she is now some type of ranger...yeah right.
and Dark Elves with a set of horns like devils are something new as well
While Firiona has always been illustrated with a staff, she is actually a paladin. Paladins, if I remember correctly, could use bows in EQ1...
Even if your far fetched explanation was intentional, it would still be wrong, you can not hold a sword together with a bow, with any class.
Right, and if you actually participated in any of the original EQ live events, you would know my "far fetched" explanation isn't actually "far fetched" at all.
It's artwork. It's intent was to promote and hype up EQN while evoking a bit of nostalgia for us old-timers by using Keith's original a source of inspiration. As such, I should expect everything conveyed to match up exactly with actual gameplay.... right
Dave Georgeson: "I agree with Chris. Let's say I have a character that I really, really like. And I've named him and I wrote a background for him and I figured out what he looks like and I've created his house and all this other stuff. I don't feel like I should have to be relegated to a single class. I don't feel like that that's a restriction that needs to happen. And I do believe that there are ways to balance the game to be able to let you have more choice. Because ultimately this is a role playing game and you should be able to play the role that you want to play. Without necessarily having to recreate another character. My opinion. And I think that there's a lot of ways we can go down those paths so that they are really interesting and very cool for the players. And we will be pushing that a lot farther."
Comments
lol
Yes, i'm looking at it blown up. The head looks like it has horns because he's wearing a skull-mask - at least i think so. The feet are lifted same way as a ratonga's - could be just exaggerated, but could be as you say - something else.
It might also be Di'Zok. Those looked quite similar to that.
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
Haha. I think the Ratongas in EQ2 were cool.
I also think the Iksar, Dwarfs, Gnomes and Halfings are cools too.
My wife really likes the Iksar and the Ratongas.
If the game is missing either of them it's going to be hard to convince my wife to play EQN.
I hope that all races from both EQ and EQ2 are represented. But that's so many it's hard to see them doing it right off the bat.
Human, Erudite, Barbarian, Drakkin, Ogre, Troll, Iksar, Dark Elf, Vah Shir/Kerra, Froglok, Gnome, Halfing, Dwarf, High Elf, Wood Elf, Half Elf, Ratonga, Fae, Arasai, Sarnak, Freeblood...
21 races? If they managed to pull that off at launch they deserve to win some sort of award lol. Even the original amount of EQ races was a huge amount compared to many MMORPGs today.
But I hope you get your rats. They were cool. :P
Legends of Kesmai, UO, EQ, AO, DAoC, AC, SB, RO, SWG, EVE, EQ2, CoH, GW, VG:SOH, WAR, Aion, DF, CO, MO, DN, Tera, SWTOR, RO2, DP, GW2, PS2, BnS, NW, FF:XIV, ESO, EQ:NL
quoted because this is how things work in a production environment. a company as large as SOE with as much riding on this game as there is would never allow anything to hit the public eye without being meticulously screened. in all honesty that rendering is probably version 50 at the very least with revisions from the heads of marketing / art as well as the chief players like smed.
you guys saying "this is no way reflects the way the game will be!" can live in your fantasy world until august 2nd, but when the walls come down you will see something very similar to this on the screens.
Because saying, "Hey, buy our stuff, it totally sucks." makes ALL the sense in the world...
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
Just to throw more wood on this fire.. here is an artist's rendition of Firiona Vie prior to her appearing in EQ2:
"Id rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
- Raph Koster
Tried: AO,EQ,EQ2,DAoC,SWG,AA,SB,HZ,CoX,PS,GA,TR,IV,GnH,EVE, PP,DnL,WAR,MxO,SWG,FE,VG,AoC,DDO,LoTRO,Rift,TOR,Aion,Tera,TSW,GW2,DCUO,CO,STO
Favourites: AO,SWG,EVE,TR,LoTRO,TSW,EQ2, Firefall
Currently Playing: ESO
Remember, this wouldn't be the first time in history an animal race was re-created in looks. Does the Elder Scrolls ring a bell?
In Marrowind the Khajiit and the Argonians had animal like hook shaped animal legs and then in Oblivion and Skyrim they were given more human legs.
Legends of Kesmai, UO, EQ, AO, DAoC, AC, SB, RO, SWG, EVE, EQ2, CoH, GW, VG:SOH, WAR, Aion, DF, CO, MO, DN, Tera, SWTOR, RO2, DP, GW2, PS2, BnS, NW, FF:XIV, ESO, EQ:NL
lol
EQ GoD expansion came out with the wrong levels
EQ PoP expansion came out half finished, they were actually making the raid zones while the expansion was already released
SoE actually gave a hacker raid gear in EQ in exchange for his hack, when he was the only one with top raid gear on the server, people demanded an answer at fan faire
SoE left open bugs in the GM program in EQ, which allowed players to become GM
Hackers managed to crash the EQ servers for weeks in a row, the servers crashed about every 30 minutes
SoE and QA. lol, you're hilarious
If QA of SoE was responsible for an air traffic control tower, they would crash all their planes within 24 hous
Her being a ranger is okay, but she looks more like a Power Ranger than anything in any EQ universe to date.
those are programming errors, not art problems. trust me, if artwork goes out to the public it is vetted, vetted, and vetted again by numerous people. since this is the first real imagery anybody has seen of SOE's flagship game there is no way they let it pass through without literally driving the artist crazy with edits. i speak from a position of experience.
Really, you think art QA is any different?
This is armor that came out for EQ.
It was so wrong and totally didn't even fit the character, they have revised it 3 times now, and it still looks like complete ****
They made a new human model in EQ a few years ago, it was so bad they had to remove it.
During an expansion release, crocodiles in Loping planes, had human models. When a crocodile looks like a human, there's some flaws in your QA department.
Yup...no flaws here:
Promotional pre release art, as part of a fucking marketing push on twitter and facebook IS NOT THE SAME as a random in game screenshot.
Vah Shir are twice as big as Ogres in his poster.
Are you seriously telling me that was intentional? Vah Shir suddenly grew and Ogres shrunk?
again, completely different from hiring a freelance artist to do 1 rendering as the vanguard of your next flagship game launch. armor modeling for an expansion is an assembly line, as is model rigging. the issue with the crocs is that the human model is set to be the default model for an NPC that isn't accessing its associated files correctly, so that was another programming problem.
my point is, one-of pieces like this artist was commissioned to do for EQ:N's splash page will have been poured over by pretty much everybody with a say involved in the project. it is the face of the company who has been desperately trying to change how they run over the past couple years, seemingly for the better at this point.
We all know Vah Shir or Kerran are smaller than Ogres.
But he made Vah Shir / Kerran twice the size of Ogres.
Are you going to tell us that was intentional?
No it was a mistake of the artist, and somehow it passed QA (or rather lack thereof)
Firiona Vie wielding a bow and sword was likely a mistake too, unless for some ridiculous reason, the lore did a 180 and she is now some type of ranger...yeah right.
While Firiona has always been illustrated with a staff, she is actually a paladin. Paladins, if I remember correctly, could use bows in EQ1...
I personally appreciated the piece. It does carry a bit of nostalgia... and made me appreciate the original that much more (because for me at least, the original IS EQ). Whenever I think of the EQ brand, I always go back to that original painting by Keith.
Have you looked at Dave's twitter?
He was asked about the bow and sword. And his reply seemed a tad mysterious.
It could very well be deliberate.
SWG, Eve, Planetside 2, EQN, Star Citizen
Even if your far fetched explanation was intentional, it would still be wrong, you can not hold a sword together with a bow, with any class.
again, alternate universe. kerran / vah'shir could very well be larger than ogres now, who knows? if you take a trip back in time to the launch of shadows of luclin and remember the differences between the old and "new" models back then would you still make this same argument?
You can if you're firing swords instead of arrows.... =p
And there you have it, a classless system?
This is how Dave replied on twitter (his reply at the bottom).
"Project NorrathProjectNorrath15h I'm calling it, Firiona Vie is a ranger now"
"KinyaKinya_Babagra8h @ProjectNorrath @DaveGeorgeson She has a sword also in other hand. Her cloth armor and head gear suggest a mage = classless toons?"
"Project NorrathProjectNorrath5h @Kinya_Babagra @DaveGeorgeson Any comment on that Dave?
"
"David GeorgesonDaveGeorgeson4h @ProjectNorrath @Kinya_Babagra not yet.
"
SWG, Eve, Planetside 2, EQN, Star Citizen
and Dark Elves with a set of horns like devils are something new as well
Right, and if you actually participated in any of the original EQ live events, you would know my "far fetched" explanation isn't actually "far fetched" at all.
It's artwork. It's intent was to promote and hype up EQN while evoking a bit of nostalgia for us old-timers by using Keith's original a source of inspiration. As such, I should expect everything conveyed to match up exactly with actual gameplay.... right
From my July 4 thread:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/952/view/forums/thread/389233/Dave-Georgeson-Discusses-How-EQNext-May-Have-Multiclasses-Like-FFIXFFXIV.html
Dave Georgeson: "I agree with Chris. Let's say I have a character that I really, really like. And I've named him and I wrote a background for him and I figured out what he looks like and I've created his house and all this other stuff. I don't feel like I should have to be relegated to a single class. I don't feel like that that's a restriction that needs to happen. And I do believe that there are ways to balance the game to be able to let you have more choice. Because ultimately this is a role playing game and you should be able to play the role that you want to play. Without necessarily having to recreate another character. My opinion. And I think that there's a lot of ways we can go down those paths so that they are really interesting and very cool for the players. And we will be pushing that a lot farther."
Chris:"In EQNext."
Dave: "In EQ Next."