[WIP]Mermaids

[Suludi]

Well, if you go exploring underwater and get killed by slaughterfish, or by drowning, a mermaid would come save you, take you to their lair, and have sex with you. Although I would much prefer a merman save my character and introduce me to their underwater faction.

 

You know, a mermaid can introduce you to their underwater faction just as well... most females of any species have capabilities that extend beyond spreading their legs. Or, in this case, tail fins.

[Kyubi]

Again, I have to agree with Suludi. Spears and harpoons (or tridents for all I care) are an absolute must.

 

 

First of all they are very immersive as you could imagine that a mermaid/merman race would mainly hunt/fight fish - and the best weapon to hunt big fishes is a harpoon.

 

Secondly - again in matters of realism and immersion - a spear is the only melee weapon that you could still use effectively underwater. You probably know yourself that really fast movements take a lot of effort while being in the water and to create enough force while striking with a steel (!) sword, mace, axe etc. so that it would actually be an effective fighting method is nearly impossible, let alone that it would be VERY exhausting to fight this way.

Also a shield would be not as effective underwater as it is in land battles. Blocking the kinetic energy of a strike requires a resistance to "lead off" that energy as it does not simply vanish - law of conservation of energy and such like. On land it's not a problem since the solid ground provides this resistance when blocking (provided that you have a firm stance). However, underwater the kinetic energy would cause you to get pushed away.

 

So yeah, the thrusting movement of a spear would remain the only realistic method to create some underwater battle system in my opinion. And I don't think that the argument "Because they are mermaids they are used to their water environment" is valid here. It is true... but if you take a look at how things behave in Skyrim you can assume that their world has pretty much the same physical laws as our world. And I doubt that mermaids could defy them.

[firepower02]

You know, a mermaid can introduce you to their underwater faction just as well... most females of any species have capabilities that extend beyond spreading their legs. Or, in this case, tail fins.

 

 

Sure they can, but I made my character gay and he would find it more comfortable with a merman. Although plausible, it would be weird if it's a mermaid. I'm sorry, I forgot female mermaids have other purpose, aside from having their vagina and butt permanently exposed. It would really be weird having a mermaid with a vagina and butt exposed introducing him to their faction.

 

The point of a shield aside from not getting pushed back is to "shield" you from sharp objects. They don't have a firm solid ground to back on, but they have their tail well adapted to water, they can use it to propel forward to avoid getting pushed back. But even then, if you have a shield, you could still be flung if the force it strong enough, like jumping from a trampolin. Mermaids are different from humans, they move faster in water because it's their natural enviroment. I'm sure a shark could swim way much faster than a human swimmer. Thus making them more capable of swinging weapons faster than humans. Not everything that lives underwater moves slow, if you've seen dolphin shows, the dolphins there swim pretty fast, equivalent to a human running speed.

[Suludi]

Our mermaids will move pretty slow until we create a swim animation that equals sprint on land. Right now, the animation I made for normal swimming is painfully slow when I use walking speed (W)  instead of running (Shift W). So I'll try and bind the fast version to "walking speed" and an even faster one to "sprint speed" (Alt W) although there is no "sprint speed" keybind underwater (yet). Then again, we got so many new animations via FNIS that it shouldn't be a very big problem.

 

(All this provided someone else isn't already busy making a much faster and better animation than I. )

[firepower02]

Great, so that means mermaids will get to swim faster than humans? Will it not be possible to simply adjust the movement speed of the race in CK? Or on the actor, there is actually a movement speed where you input a number.

[Suludi]

No idea (yet), I'm just randomly tossing thoughts into the thread.

[firepower02]

Oh, I thought you were going to make the fast swimming as the normal swimming and have a faster swimming for the fast swimming. I like your idea. I believe mermaids should outswim the other races.

[mantaman]

guys, i had a terrible idea

 

horkertaurs

[firepower02]

guys, i had a terrible idea

 

horkertaurs

 

Well at least it's in the past now.

[Suludi]

Oh, I thought you were going to make the fast swimming as the normal swimming and have a faster swimming for the fast swimming.

 

I am, I just don't know how to do it yet.

 

guys, i had a terrible idea

 

horkertaurs

 

That's REALLY horrible. LOL.

 

Here's a little swim animation video.

 

 

[mantaman]

Duuude, that worldspace looks beautiful!

[Suludi]

Thank you.

[mantaman]

oi, any chance you'll release it early for playtesting?

[Suludi]

Not until I got rid of those horrible black stripes on the mountains. Those are due to a faulty mesh which I have to repair first, sorry.

[Shade115]

If destruction magic had to be added, It'd have to be a completely new kind seeing as fire would do little to nothing in large quantities of water, lightning obviously would be too dangerous, and ice may have odd effects (such as you may end up getting the spell caught on yourself, freezing say an ice spike to your hand, maybe a perk to allow ice magic). Most likely though the ability to send compressed blasts towards others (like currents) would be the most viable.

[leepingferret]

There's a mod called Colorful Magic which has a few Water-based spells, such as water bubbles, water streams, water lasers... etc. What about a Blizzard-like swirling vortex of water that sucks stuff in?

 

Also, as for combat animations... since there's plenty of trident and spear weapon mods going around, what about a "charging" power attack? As in, the mer would swim at a high speed and impale the target with the spear for damage, it'd be interesting at the very least ^^´

[firepower02]

The water is so clear, for sec I thought it wasn't underwater. She swims nicely, like she actually has a tail. What about hands forward for variation?

[mantaman]

Not until I got rid of those horrible black stripes on the mountains. Those are due to a faulty mesh which I have to repair first, sorry.

 

ahh, its cool man

 

If destruction magic had to be added, It'd have to be a completely new kind seeing as fire would do little to nothing in large quantities of water, lightning obviously would be too dangerous, and ice may have odd effects (such as you may end up getting the spell caught on yourself, freezing say an ice spike to your hand, maybe a perk to allow ice magic). Most likely though the ability to send compressed blasts towards others (like currents) would be the most viable.

 

oi, so no magic in water

 

There's a mod called Colorful Magic which has a few Water-based spells, such as water bubbles, water streams, water lasers... etc. What about a Blizzard-like swirling vortex of water that sucks stuff in?

 

Also, as for combat animations... since there's plenty of trident and spear weapon mods going around, what about a "charging" power attack? As in, the mer would swim at a high speed and impale the target with the spear for damage, it'd be interesting at the very least ^^´

 

now that is a really doable idea!

 

btw, anyone got word on Xeno's progress?

[Halstrom]

The water is so clear, for sec I thought it wasn't underwater. She swims nicely, like she actually has a tail. What about hands forward for variation?

Yep, looks great without much knee movement to start with can always update the animations later, maybe hands in front for the fast swim version.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT_sqLQ9lH0

[skirmish]

 

I think it's impractical to have any type of sword swinging fighting in water. It's hard enough to walk in water, let alone swing a sword. How about enabling shouts/powers/mermaid magic underwater instead? That wouldn't be terribly hard to implement. At least I think.

 

oi, i cant imagine houts or magic

 

shouting underwater would deplete air, fire most likely wouldnt be effective, lightning seems dangerous for everyone involved and ice...ice just might work

 

if we consider any weapon underwater though, it should be daggers

 

 

Mermaids can breathe underwater because, um... mermaids. Anyway, I meant mod wise, using the shout function as a sort of attack, whether it be called a shout or not.

[mantaman]

sonar shouts

[firepower02]

Those mermaid swim pretty slow, they're really just humans wearing mermaid suits.

[Suludi]

 

The water is so clear, for sec I thought it wasn't underwater. She swims nicely, like she actually has a tail. What about hands forward for variation?

Yep, looks great without much knee movement to start with can always update the animations later, maybe hands in front for the fast swim version.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT_sqLQ9lH0

 

 

Thanks for this link, I was looking for something like this to research the wavy body movement. I don't like the hands forward thing much, it's good for stability and direction if you are a human in a mer suit but if you're a real mermaid, the tail movement would be strong enough to push you forward without using the arms. I can give it a try though.

 

As for the water: still working on that.

[firepower02]

Well if you mean you are looking for a wavy body movement of the tail, kinda like a fish, I think those aren't exactly what should be patterned, they are human in a mermaid tail suit, so their tail part has a hinge joint like a knee, as oppose to a fish that would have a bone like a spinal column, if you've seen a fish bone, that's how it would look like. The body movement of a cartoon mermaid would probably have the body movement, or the body movement of a dolphin.

[Suludi]

I know but right now, her body looks very rigid while swimming. I want her to look a bit more flexible, especially since there is no bending when she turns to the left or right.