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 Creaturegirl  |
In all honesty I was pretty peeved when I first saw the norns for Creatures online. I'm so used to the norns from the other games that I at first thought It was just the shock of seeing them in 3D. But after staring at them for awhile I noticed a few things absent or modified from them than the older norn breeds: ~Tails, most of the norn breeds, even custom ones, have tails. I enjoyed it when a tail of one breed of norn would show up on a different body type of a newly hatched norn. Even more hilarious if you spliced a norn with a grendel and you end up with a scaly tail on a norn with long grendel arms. I can only hope the other breeds have them. ~Ears, they look too much like little spikes suck on their heads. I loved the large ears on the older breeds, they looked especially floppy in C3 and DS which gave them a more cuddly look to them. ~Nose and mouth, they hit uncanny valley for me here. They look too human-like, a baby button nose and human mouth. As opposed to the varied, more or less muzzle-ish faces of the older norns. They poked out from their faces just enough so that their smiling faces didn't look too human. ~Hair, they're totally bald! It was the older games that got me to like my digital pets having hair, and fur ruffs the way they looked. Now that the new ones lack such a feature I feel like they all got shaved on top. Or overbreed to have that 'no hair' defect. ~Toes, they look more like elephant feet now. I liked the longer toe appearance. Something about the stumpy feet just makes me say, no. So overall I look at them and all I can think is I see cat eared, elephant footed, smoosh faced ape children. Better, or worse yet, they now look more generic, like a cousin to the Eyepet. At least those things had a cute little tail. I know I know, its the fan rage in me that doesn't like the changes. I actually thought about it and would probably be more accepting of it if the changes weren't so drastic to me. Or if the breeds they didn't unveil yet looked more like the other norns ie, longer ears, tails, larger eyes. |
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 Manic Scribbler razander |
 Here's a picture from late January, if anyone's curious about what the new norns look like. Here's Steve Grand's first attempt describing a norn. The following is an excerpt: Gawky and awkward. Curious, twitchy, interested in what's going on around him. Naughty. They didn't stick to "spending most of the time facing to the side" part, but I think they've got the "varied in more ways than just their faces" down. Aside from obvious things like fur, we've got ear shape and size, hand size, foot size, shoulder width, and general build. I can't see how they look samey at all. |
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DrWhite |
I don't buy the idea that removing tails from the Norns has any significant impact on mobile devices. It's just not that much extra for an iOS device to deal with, and frankly if iOS can't handle a bog standard feature of Norn anatomy it is not the platform for the game. I really don't like the new Norns. I don't think it's fandom, I didn't much like the C3/DS Norns either. The progression toward ever more cartoony, exaggerated creatures just doesn't appeal to me. Assuming their behaviour remains interesting, I'll live with it, but to be honest I think the gaudy colours and over-blown features of these cartoon characters leaves them looking hideous and infantile. I don't see the upside in making them look *that* ugly. |
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 Puddini |
Some say they're too realistic, others say they're too cartoony -sigh- I must be the only person to like the new Norn design and to not care about the lack of tails. I really like how much more varied they are now and how instead of having only simple color changes and different parts, they look more like actual crossbreeds and can have many different colors and shapes and markings and patterns and I'm going to be a social outcast in the community for liking them |
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DrWhite |
I can't speak for them, of course, but I suspect those worried about the new Norns being 'too realistic' are largely referring to their uncanny valley faces rather than the whole design. As a whole they just don't look right. Aside from a few species of bird with certain mutations, you don't see this sort of widely varied colour pallet in nature. A species where one member might have a bright blue face, yellow body and giant hands isn't likely to have another member with black fur, white spots and tiny hands, and yet another member that's completely different and another and another... It's just arbitrary, artificial colouring slapped all over at random to create a bunch of different-looking creatures to collect. It reminds me of pets in World of Warcraft, which were pretty much there to make people want to buy different coloured animals. I doubt you'll be a social outcast for liking the new Norns, but I just don't see any positives about the new look and I think those feeling the same have a pretty valid complaint. |
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 Code Monkey evolnemesis |
My opinion on them is mixed, I have a hard time getting used to the new look but it's not THAT bad, mostly just that they look more ape-like, and the faces do hit the uncanny valley a little bit too hard... I definitely miss tails and horns... and the breeds do have some differences, like hand size, foot size, shape, ears, etc.. but I don't like how most of the difference between any two norns seems to be mainly just a colorful 'skin' painted over what is basically the same model just stretched in a few places. Mrwhite: "A species where one member might have a bright blue face, yellow body and giant hands isn't likely to have another member with black fur, white spots and tiny hands, and yet another member that's completely different and another and another... It's just arbitrary, artificial colouring slapped all over at random to create a bunch of different-looking creatures to collect." I don't really agree with this... yes, there is a lot of variation between individuals with the new ones colors and patterns, but I don't find it that unrealistic for norns... remember that in the earlier games, individuals could randomly sprout grendel arms or head/body parts from totally different looking breeds... mixing 2 norns could give you all kinds of weird results, including floating heads... If anything the color variety should be there because it's actually MORE natural. And the Shee were not known for making practical things... they made norns very genetically unstable. Fishing Cactus actually took a lot of trouble with the genetics to make spots and stripes that can inherit some of their characteristics from parents, and yet have some form of procedural generation too in some of the types, to give variety in where the spots/stripes/colors are, even different eye colors, which IS actually realistic... the color variations really are most of the variety you can get with those models (other than just stretching on various parts), if they weren't there I think I'd get bored pretty fast. Look at pigeons, they can have several different colors of totally randomly placed spots, kind of hood patterns, or be white, grey, dark, have various different shadings of feathers around the neck, and different colored eyes, look at horses, they have several different types of patterns and colors... they can be white, black, blue, red, brown, faun, or have random spots of any of these colors, and in any of their colors they can also have points like siamese cats or regular patterns like some kind of dogs, or a better example yet, cats... who can have all different kinds of spots, stripes, patterns, hair lengths, and colors... and remember also that those are all natural species... and not genetically unstable creatures who barely live longer than a few hours and are very prone to mutations and easy to practice selective breeding on... I do agree with you though that the overall look is not really as appealing to me... I am not sure if it's just because it is so different or what though... the lips definitely bug me, they seem too primate-like also, at least in my opinion, and I really do miss the tails. Also I'm a little upset there are no Grendels or Ettins... I really hope they do add them. EDIT: Lol, looking at the first post of this thread... 3/31/2012... 'seeing how C4 will come out around September'.. here it is more than 2 years later and they still don't even have a date yet... (maybe it will be out by September of this year...  )"For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love." "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself." - Carl Sagan |
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 Tartan Badger Hellfrozeover  |
To me, they still look like norns but like a Hebe norn who lost his tail in a splicing accident. Like someone mentioned above, they don't have hair. That is the first thing that I noticed and I don't like that. I'm not completely dissatisfied with how they look but I'm not completely happy either. DUNDUNDUUUUUN! |
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 VioletGrendel |
I think they look completely revolting. I'm sorry if that upset anyone, but it's the truth. They look nothing like norns at all, they have none of the expression of the previous games. Both they and the Shee look ridiculous.mi haven't seen any grendels, but I am sure they will be just as bad. I mean, the Shee looks like a tall, thin human with pointy ears and measles! But this is for discussing the norns. I think the move to 3d was a bad mistake. Creatures is traditionally 2d, its world varieds and beautiful, and its norns gentle and inquisitive. I think Fishing Cactus have lost that feel to the game. They don't have the same vision of it as I do, and I will always view their game as rather nasty. What is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything? 42! |
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 daz |
I'm not keen on the changes to the mouth, nose, and feet, and the total lack of a tail, but I'm sure they will grow on me in general, since I don't think they're too bad otherwise and didn't initially like the c3 norns. Except those giant armed morbidly obese ones. What on earth were they thinking? That's not cute and it's certainly not a norn. It's gonna be fun crossing norns and having an intermediate rather than one with limbs mixed and matched, at any rate. The world looks very bland compared to the c1 and 2 worlds. The Shee are just ridiculous, straight out of Jak and Daxter. |
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 Kinga |
I think they're okay. There are a few things I really dont like. And there are other things that I like a lot. I haaaaate the lack of a tail and the tiny ears. Norns just look weird without a tail. The only animal I can think of that doesn't have a tail are apes, and norns aren't apes and they're not supposed to resemble them. The tiny ears look very strange in action. When watching a stream, I really just noticed how strange they looked. the fur on the ears is the same length on the rest of their body, the fur should be short and fine. they also look very thick, like they have some muscle in their ears!? and they can curl their ears over like a scottish fold!? that might be feasible if their ears are longer, but it just looks awkward. It might be my biology side being finnicky, but ears always are very thin, with very thin fur for regulating body heat, and the ears themselves cant move at all except for muscles to cock their ears around! augh. I'm mostly alright with the face. they are very expressive, and I like that a lot. I also like the variables in the shape and size of the ears, arms, and so forth. I always hoped that one day norns would have different body types and variables in their body parts that they could pass on to their offspring... like a norn with a very long tail and a bushy tuft of fur mating with a norn with a short tail and no tuft could result in a norn with a medium tail and a small tuft!! or if you're dealing with a punnet square, a whole mess of different results! I really hope that's how genetics are passed down in C4!! and i've heard a lot of people hating on the big, stocky norn, but I read somewhere that that species of norn lives in colder mountain climates, so I think that is a really good idea and i like them a lot. i love the different body types. over all i just think they look too... bland. they don't have the look and feel of a norn. they don't look like you could point at it and call it a norn... they look like a mascot for a half-bit kinect pet game you could find in the bargain bin. There's nothing about their design that is memorable or recognizable. It would be really easy to mix up their design with a different character from a different game and that is a very big no no in my opinion. tbh i have really low expectations for c4 in general, but that's a different discussion altogether. nothing is as bad as the game's microtransactions and economy... |
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