Hunter Master Sheet
Key Visual Features:
- Melee Creature
- Classic Progression\Power (5 tiers)
- Elemental Progression
- Exotic Progression
Hunter General Description:
The Hunter is an ethereal, dangerous creature who stalks players before attacking then disappearing ethereally. It is a mysterious and fearsome creature that spells trouble for players mainly on middle and high threat worlds. They can be found alone or in small groups. They do not have an idle state, and spawn in an agitated state. They are always aware of all players, and will hunt them down until either the player(s) are dead, or they are dead. Part flying and part stalking these ethereal creatures crawl over, and through the landscape in pursuit of their prey. They move quickly from location to location, pausing periodically to sense where to go next. They attack by pouncing through their target tearing at them with their claws as they go.
Core Design System
This post will cover the additional attribute affecting abilities such as ‘Element’ and ‘Exoticness’ that all the creatures of Boundless will have that is a key part of the overall design system.
- They will affect the result on certain creature behaviours and give the relating stats relevent to the element or exotic attribute applied.
For such an important system design, it was necessary to incorporate this visually as part of the creatures themselves linking our Design holistically with our Art and AI.
Elemental Creatures
A while back, the designers introduced us to the Elements of Boundless which affect Combat, the Forge and Stats.
Diamond (Blast), Ruby (Burn), Sapphire (Chill), Topaz (Shock), Emerald (Toxin), and Amethyst (Corrosion)… Rift, Oort, Blink and Dark.
As they directly affect combat, it is truely fitting that one of our most impressive combat based creatures, like the Hunter here, is the example to deleve deeper into this area.
When doing the concepts for each creature, the area for elemental and exotic treatment must be clearly visible therefore a decent section of the ‘real estate’ of that creature must be availiable for each treatment to be seen from afar.
In the case of the Melee and Ranged creatures, Armour is the primary visual indicator of Combat and therefore is the perfect area targeted for Elemental Treatment. If the Armour on that creature has a colour/texture treatment of a recognisable Element, you can expect a result of gameplay and the stats given on killing that creature to be related to the overall Elemental Design System.
For the Specialist creatures, the area treatment chosen to display an Element is chosen from a key visual part of their identity and personality.
- For the Wildstock - the elemental treatement is on the horns and hooves.
- The Road Runner, the elemental treatment is on the crest, tail and talons.
Exotic Creatures
Exoticness is a bit like the ‘Joker of the Pack’ and is depiced visually as a decal treatment overlaying a pattern into the texture. A more Exotic creature will have a whole varierty of random additional gamplay abilities and stat enhancers.
An example of this is:
- The Hopper usually detonates a classic explosion on either impact or death… An Exotic Hopper may jumble it’s neighbouring blocks on his death instead!
An Exotic creature therefore has a whole crazy list of random attributes that may result from it’s ‘normal behaviour’ - sometime in a good way and sometimes in a bad way.
Fighting these creatures is a risk you must take if you are seeking something more peculiar…roll the dice and find out!
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