I will make a post in the Player Studio general discussion area about Tinkerfest items and mention the Gnomish stuff I've made that is currently in the pipeline, unless you know of a better way to bring those items to their attention for Tinkerfest release.
I'll just shoot Covic an email. Edit: Sent, just waiting for a reply. I almost sent Georgeson an email by mistake
A: Sounds complicated, which in turn fits with B: Sounds like it would be made by a bunch of mad gnomes Trying to visualize what you are conceptualizing, your unhumidifier sounds like it would fit in with the other odd animated tinkerfest contraptions that have been 'invented' over the years. Spinning sawblades seems too Freddy Krugar but an odd gear mounted slingshot contraption on a hand-guard might be interesting although I think it would be a limited audience in SC. Estred, IMO, the problem here is that those who respond in this thread have not seen anything from you beyond your accepted Dark Wizard's table, your screenshots of your pigtails and you Siren's staff. You have also mentioned the difficulties and complexities of doing shield work. Early on, in this thread you indicated that it was personal preference to you to NOT post your images. Based on the feedback you have given Rawl, it would appear that you have more technical proficient and reading your feedback has provided all of us with a better understanding of the work involved in creating items. I applaud you for your willingness to help Rawl work through the technical details in an open forum. I can accept that you may desire only feedback to come from the PS creators and the SOE developers in the Player Studio Council Forum on your own items. As decorators, (again IMO) because Rawl is taking us through his creation journey with him, we have a feeling of vested interest. Because we have watched an item evolve, we are more attached to it, we dream about where we can use it. The fact that we see an item from every angle during the process, being snarky decorators, we are already thinking, "I can use the back of that here, the bottom of that there, I could rotate, flip, add, hide..." etc etc. It's what we do on our end. Because of this, Rawl's items when they hit SC will sell on a constant basis. Now that being said, I LOVE the Dark Wizard's table. I have purchased a number of them for a personal Dimension Pocket design I am working on. You may not want to know what I have done with some of them. But I'm frustrated with you. I want to see the rest of the set. I keep coming up on a personal roadblock thinking "I could do this, but what if Estred creates that?" So my DP sits... and waits. Having read your posts and responses here and in Player Studio, I also understand that your life is busy. Honestly, based on your table, knowing your time is occupied, I would beg you to put aside hair styles and weapons Get your DW set done! Post your images! Let us be invested in your process! Give it to me NOW! But .. in the meantime, if you truly must..../sigh... I would suggest reviewing the Tinkerfest thread for player desires and in reviewing this thread... Tinkerfest chandeliers, clocks, pots/pans hangers, gear oriented tables, rugs with gear designs, curtains and curtain rods, windows, vases, water coolers, water fountains... Or you could get gather up the gnomes, lock them in a room in Estred's house with food and water, and then go finish the Dark Wizard set
Well, if you all want more Dark Wizards I can certainly make it. I have a tendency to get sidetracked with my own enthusiasm when I discover a new method to creating a mesh or laying out textures. I have somewhat gotten over my personal dislike of posting WIP's the more I know the PS community. Thanks for the detailed feedback though Truian. I will see about completing that table that has sat at 80% complete for the last month and work towards more items from the DW set. Speaking of, this is the 1st pass at texturing the Table in question. It was declined due to bad textures, I am reworking them. This was before I renamed it to the Dark Wizard's Table. This now is the "Dark Wizards End Table"
to quote someone... Squeeeee!! Ok having gotten that out of my system... Do you see any part of this also being animated? If not, have you considered either making the interior table top more circular to flow with the outer ring? As it is now it has a more triangular shape attaching to the three legs. Conversely, making the outer ring more triangular to flow better with the interior ring? In terms of texture, the only thing I see that is 'different' is the exterior flat surface of the out ring seems too smooth although that may just be my perception.
Ideally the center gem is being redone as a void-crystal, hopefully with the sparking lighting effect. The top part of the table (the floating part) like the other Dark Wizars item would rotate slowly. The top and the ring are actually both circles, it's a trick of the eye on the top-side viewport. Ugh, I had a preview of the Dark Wizard's Collumn but it just corrupted... thank god for Autoback's. Once I recover it I will be uploading a grey-map of it. Granted the polycount will be far too high as I bake my normals from high poly down. Edit: Here is the recovered Pillar. No textures and the poly count is not reduced. I am still tweaking the ratios of top to bottom they are supposed to be identical but I think it had it off.
I wonder if holding a vote *gasp!* on what items (esp. their 'skins') the majority would like, and if that would move SOE to select items based on feedback rather than their own (albeit skewed) view. If everyone voted yes for the plaino-undecorated wood, would that get us some plaino-undecorated wood??
OK, fixed some things. Now the question, the spiral and of course what do you think overall of the model? Part of the reason I never posted these is they were untextured. The coloration atm will follow that of the previous Dark Wizards sets so expect dark earthy trim. The tubing around the columns was going to be a form of energy tubing with metal bracing. The center gem was going to feature another eye-ball, not the same one as the Dark Wizard's Table though. An alternative, that ring in the center could be left floating, as that fits with the Dark Wizards set thus far of "floating" parts. The bottom... I am undecided as I changed the original design to add something more eye catching at the start. And another interpretation, this one is actually Player Studio ready at 1988 Triangles. I may be able to put the ring back in, depends on how I cut out poly.
Can't I have both? /greedy I very much like the thinner 'tubing' that scrolls around the column. I would love if it had that purple pulsating liquid effect. I do like the bottom one with the open floating 'eye' but prefer the columns to have vertical insets as per the top one. I think the insets would look cool with that 'white' texture that appears on your DW end table. I think the contrast with the ribbing in that dark archaic stony texture could be interesting. I remember that you said you had 9-12 pieces for this set sketched out. Would any of them include any kind of alchemist's work table or cabinet?
The insets will be there, just on a Normal map. I had to curb the model to fit the poly count. Yes one of the 9-12 items is indeed an alchemists table complete with (i hope) disembodied void-ripper claw in a jar! Do you prefer the Ring with the floating piece or just the eye itself? I have versions with both the Eye and the Eye-Ring floating in the middle. Also, those took like 50 minutes to make so I can make adjustments quickly if needed
The item is tentatively called the Dark Wizard's Sentry. I am working up color schemes and have posted these images on the Player Studio Forums.
I spent all day reworking this. I had to redo some mesh stuff which means I also had to redo the entire UV map unwrapping. You can see I changed the scrolling, made it yellowish and changed the tires from wood to something blackish I hope they like this one enough to approve it.
Looks much much better imo, I am lovin the trim color and the tire change. Color scheme now reminds me of the mistmoore piano and the bench that goes with it and for me at least that's one of my fav color schemes out there for wooden items.
I think player commentary about like certain things and texture types might be generally helpful, especially if there are many people who express similar preferences. Even so, they are slow to change their minds on stuff, like for example several years ago at a fan faire someone asked it they would bring the Beastlord to EQ2. They were very firm in the answer of NO! But as we all know, beastlords are now in EQ2. (Only took them a couple of years to change their minds ) So in summary, I think they might consider player input, but their own preferences would hold greater weight most of the time.
I like the one with the floating ball in the middle, but they all look pretty cool to me, even at this stage. Thanks for sharing your progress.
Rawl, Did they update any sort of status on the matching set you were working on; The Dresser, Nightstands, Bed, and Chest of Drawers? Just curious, since that's an entire set I would use hehe
Hello I just checked the status of those items, the Dresser with Mirror is "Approved" and the other items are "Pending Content" which means they are reviewing the items and preparing their surfaces, etc. so they function correctly in the game. I think the next step for those items is for them to move to "Completed" which means they are ready for release into the SC store with the next update of the SC Player Studio items. There is no discernible due date for when that will happen, but it could be a up to a couple of months.
I am super disappointed that you need to redo the grapevine kitchen items. I loved the simplicity in them. I don't understand what could possibly be wrong with grapes 8(. The cabinets are so pretty. 8( I was so looking forward to buying them. =) I just can't see me with a tinker kitchen /sad face I love the stuff you guys have been showing and sharing with us =) This posting is one I read daily and I thank you for caring about what we want!
Don't give up yet. Hopefully they will like these revisions. Part of the problem with the prior version were the images I put over the wood texture on the side, back and front. (They looked bad in game.) I think this trim is appropriate because it is sort of like a seal around a package of wine, isn't it? I've added an inlay around the bas reliefs as well as accented the boarder trim for the drawers and doors. I hope they approve this so I can fix the wall unit accordingly and you can enjoy them in your home(s). Happy Face now?
