Things that Bug Me About the Animal Pack

I was in a discussion with a friend last night about the Animal Pack. Both of us have animal themed characters and both had bought the Animal Pack. I always try to take into account that there's simply no way with limited resources to please everyone. However, I was surprised at the number of complaints we had in common. A lot of the conclusion we came to was that a great deal of the pack seemed simply unfinished... like the developers had lost interest half-way through or that 'too much' was going into it for the money, so they stopped features mid-development rather than carry through.

I'm certain that at least some of these complaints have been mentioned before, but I'd like to point out things that really bother me about the Animal Pack, particularly in the way the features don't feel complete.

- Mouths do not close all the way on the cat and dog faces.: Like humans, cats and dogs of all sizes keep their mouths closed unless they are eating, breathing, or vocalizing through them. The cat and dog faces in the animal pack are supposed to be 'threatening', I suppose, but what they really look like is that they have overgrown teeth or are seriously overheated and panting.

- The facial bone sliders don't affect the facial features. This is bad, but not nearly as bad as the fact that...

- Animal heads are MUCH smaller than the human heads, even with the 'Head' scale sliders all the way out. With the possible exception of the minotaur head, all the heads need to have a maximum size that is at least twice or three times what it currently is.

- Animal heads can't be used with any existing hair. My friend mentioned that he worried that the 'Anti-Furry' crowd was the source of this, but I think it's just incompleteness.

- Bird Heads have only hooked beaks. Hooked beaks are limited mostly, but not entirely, to predatory birds and are used for tearing or cutting meat. There are no straight or flat beaks.

- There's no striped texture for the tails despite everything else having a striped texture. Even the new striped texture invented just for this pack isn't applied to it. Why would you not do this?

- Animal Feet can only be used with the 'Monstrous' legs. This is one that can MAYBE be put down to animation issues, but it still seems like a pretty huge gap. Look at a cat or dog's FRONT legs for an example of the way straight digitigrade paws should look if you're going for perfect anatomical perfection... which doesn't seem to matter in the rest of the art.

- There is no fur texture for hooved feet. Again, you guys developed a new fur texture and didn't apply it to all the existing animal feet? Why?

- 'Skin' texture for Cat Claws does not actually remove the fur from the claws. Why not? Furless claws don't exist, but furless hooves do?

"Hay, I'z not furles. I'z hypoallergenick!"
- Changing the color for the fur on the cat claws feet also changes the claw color. This seems like sloppiness on the part of the texture artists. I can't have black fur but then have perfectly white claws... like real animals often do. It's like that second color button for texture masking isn't even there.

- There's no 'Four on the Floor' stance and Beast Run leaves you standing on your hind legs. Beast Run is, in my opinion, the best part of the animal pack. However, when you use it and don't run, it leaves you in a 'ready' stance rather than a 'prowling' stance. The closest you can get is the 'crouch' emote.

I like the Animal Pack. It's an okay pack. However, the state its in seems sloppy and incomplete. It could have been good or even awesome, but it's not.

My main gripes are the aforementioned problems with the heads and the fact the new feet are too spindly unless using a bulked up huge model. Which then makes the rest of the body look rediculous. Sadly.

It's good, don't get me wrong. I'd just like a few tweaks is all =/

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I could do a point for point response, but it's not worth to do so.

Basically all your complaints are the result of:

Engine limitations,
Time limitations
Cost/Benefit limitations.

Sorry dude there is just not enough time in the world to have made a pack that would clear that list of yours.

The only glaring omission I really want to see adressed is the animal fur texture being made available for *flat* feet. It makes no sense whatsoever for a catpersons bare feet to have HIGH HEELS.

One thing that bugs me; on my fire/fire tank with minotaur head, breath of fire comes from between the eyes rather than the mouth :/

I agree with most of this. The things I'd like to see addressed and are hopefully the easiest to address and thus added to the pack are:

1) Properly scaling heads - that way for the few people who say the heads are too big, they can scale them down (I'm not in that camp)

2) Animal Fur on flat feet and other parts that should have them.

The rest would be awesome, especially the closed mouth variants, but I don't know if we'll ever get that. =/

Your tiger will be happier if you unbutton the collar.

My biggest complaint, is with the Engine not the animal pack.

Skin should be a category along with color. Under skin, we have Human, Zombie, Indectoid, Reptile, Animal Fur etc. This way we can wear shirts, Leather Straps, etc, and still see our "skin" underneath,

Yeah, some of the animal heads need to be able to be scaled much larger and have the necks be a bit longer. The female heads I find more problem with this than the male heads.

That and the textures for high heel but not flat feet disparity are my biggest problems. Clipping, no biggie to me, I can work around it, better to have clipping and select what works with it instead of not getting the awesome new parts.

Great pack, love the textures and the meshes, just needs a few tweaks still.. and a part 2 and 3.

I like parts of it, but the standout "I don't get it" decision was to make all 3 bird beaks raptor beaks. I would have done a curved parrot beak, a raptor beak, and a straight softbill beak.

My main gripe is the Savage emote with no ape heads/features.

Hey all,

The feedback in this thread, along with the feedback I've received in PM from some of you, has been forwarded along.

While we're extremely pleased with the positive reception the Animal Pack has had, especially in regards to the variety and quality, we definitely agree that there's always room for improvement.

Thanks all!

- Z