Carnivores: Phantasmagoria mod

Howdy again all. What a year huh? So, on with what's going on.

I've not really worked on Phantasmagoria in terms of actual tangible mod progress too much myself most of this year. I've both been playing other games, like replaying older Monster Hunter games in anticipation for Monster Hunter Wilds, playing lots of Elden Ring with its amazing expansion Shadow of the Erdtree, playing several Resident Evil games to help get more inspiration for Phantasmagoria, connecting with new people, and helping with other people's stuff such as Golden Frog's Carnivores Boxart T-Rex. Recently, I've been playing a lot of Legacy's new update playing with the new MEE gameplay features and watching some people very close to me play Carnivores properly for the first time through Legacy and sharing my old projects with them and it's gotten me back in the Carnivores spirit.

However, there are some things that both I and others have done in this meantime I want to catch everyone up on, as well as what's to come in the following year.

First and foremost: Big major progress. I am sure many have seen but Cruentomarinyx, the flagship of the mod herself has received the treatment of a full complete redesign:

Her redesign was inspired by various things, obviously the original concept of this monstrous raptor is an Indoraptor version of the Jurassic World Evolution Deinonychus. In the 6 years since I first designed Cruento, my tastes have changed dramatically and I no longer like the Dein in the way I once did. However, the crest on Cruento's design is iconic, so I redesigned it to feel more natural, and be a little bit reminiscent of something like the Sleestak from Land of the Lost. Her overall design is heavily inspired by 90s depictions of Utahraptor, such as the Walking With Dinosaurs design and the art by Steve Kirk that inspired the Trespasser Tribe B Velociraptor, and a little bit of the Raptors from Carnosaur and some traits of the Algol from Dino Crisis 3, especially in the legs. The Indoraptor inspiration should still come through, and she was given forward facing eyes to appear much more intelligent.

A comparison of her design over time from 2018 to now:

While not fully complete yet, her animations are in progress. The direction for her animations is meant to be unnerving, intelligent, jittery, "off", and scary.

I'm looking very forward to her completion.

This last image is the perfect segue into the next topic. There was the "True Night Mode" Reshade filter mod that came just days after my last article and I experimented with it a good bit as well as additional filters. While there's still more to be done and more experimenting, here are some images of how Phantasmagoria in its current (outdated) state looks with some of these filter effects.

A few effects have been applied to the daytime as well. There is a very slight grainy VHS-style filter, giving it more of that late 90s, early 2000s look Phantasmagoria is striving for:

Keep in mind that this version of the map will be overhauled and redesigned a fair bit as will the dinosaurs in the images, but this should showcase the new sort of 'aesthetic' look the Reshade effects provide the mod.

Since the last progress report, there have been a lot of writing and conceptual changes as well, including to the maps. One of the map concepts has changed entirely and many have been tweaked and updated a bit in concept, the lore and ideas that will be showcased have also been changed.

Area 1 has been renamed to Holm of the Hunter's Moon (from Everautumn Weald). It retains being a halloween inspired map with gloomy skies in current screenshots, but its concept will be altered a bit, mixing the swamp part of the map and center forest part of the map more seamlessly together into the main part of it. It will have endemic huntables basically removed entirely, as its focus will be on the main roster. It will be the only map where the entire main huntable roster spawns. Every other map will have at least 1-2 missing due to the way the secondary huntables will work. They will replace the spawns of huntables of the same niche in their dedicated maps. For example, the Mihunekisaurus will replace Agathaumas spawning in area 2. Holm of the Hunter's Moon will have limited random spawning of dangerous predators isolated to areas away from the spawn points of the map and will have less hzazards than other maps. It will still, however, have its own cryptid and some endemic ambient life unique to it, especially in the ocean surrounding the map.

Area 2 remains mostly unchanged in concept and retains its name, Loch Boscovich.

Area 3 has been renamed from the Hallowed Gravewood to the Fey Gravewood, to better emphasize its darker and more sinister feel, as well as to connect it to european and slavic folklore which inspires the map and its cryptid. It is otherwise the same in concept.

Area 4 has been redone entirely, and been moved to the 5th area slot. Area 4 is now the Devil's Vineyard, the previous map 5 from before, its concept remaining the same.

Area 5, formerly area 4, is now a new map, Nergal's Bayou. Rather than the Riven Wilds which was a blue desert and Volcano, Nergal's Bayou pays homage to Primordial and is a dense, dark and rainy morass of a swamp with deadly Archosaurs, thick waterways full of dangerous predators, and a constant thunderstorm and rain using the new MEE weather effects to provide a very challenging, tense, and scary hunting experience where the sound of rain and thunder quiets the footsteps of approaching predators.

Area 6 is still secret as ever.

Now, we'll get into concept art, of which there is quite a bit.

Moros, the intrepid harbinger, who serves as a the "Dimetrodon" type ambient, a rarer but common scavenger across the Aberrant Sector. Mimicking the juveniles of Tyrrannotitan, their name is derived from how they often follow the massive carnivores and evoke them. Art by the lovely JurassicJuan, follow them on their bsky

Now, onto my concept art. Since the last post I have adopted a style that is a mix of traditional and digital - drawing the concepts on 18 x 24 paper with pencil and texturing and doing shading there, then coloring and touching them up digitally in Photoshop. We'll go through each in the order of their creation.

First, the Butcher, Carnufex:

Anyone who followed the old Plutyrian Cycle projects should recognize this creature. The Carnufex was the flagship huntable of the mod Primordial. In Phantasmagoria, there will be some homage paid to these old Plutyrian Cycle projects, including through some of the maps and huntable roster. One of these maps is the Nergal's Bayou, as described earlier, which is a condensed version of several of the core ideas of Primordial together through the new Phantasmagoria lens. Carnufex is redesigned to fit the new style and serve as a Cruentomarinyx-like analogue for the fetid swamps.

Next up, the Lord of Lizard Eaters, Saurophaganax:

Another Plutyrian A-lIster formerly known as the Blue Plague, I've been using this design for Sauro for over 10 years now, a blue-headed Sauro with a red tail was something I drew in a notebook in high school. It is sometimes forgot by the annals of Carnivores history that I was the original artist of the Carnivores Saurophaganax by Poharex. That said though, This redesign takes after after that as well as various 2000s depictions of Allosaurus, such as Raul Martin's from the Nat Geo Dinosaurs book, Big Al, Gwangi (in the tail primarily), and the Papo Allosaurus. Ecologically, Saurophaganax is similar to its Plutyrian counterpart, but toned down in some ways and exaggerated in others. it is most similar in ecological niche to something like the Indominus rex or JP3 Spinosaurus, a powerful carnivore with robust forelimbs that can flip over or access weakpoints of armored prey that something like a Tyrannosaur would struggle doing, while also being much better suited for hunting Sauropods with its bleeding teeth and large claws. It is nomadic, native to the Aberrant and Western Sectors (something that I might do something with in the future), and wanders across multiple sectors, island hopping and roaming far and wide in search of food. They are the 2nd largest terrestrial predators in the Aberrant Sector, after Tyrannotitan. Following the Gojirasaurus incident in 2272, the large carnivores moved into areas predominantly occupied by T-Rex, which were the most impacted species of the incident, and took over much of their territory. As the T-Rex populations recovered following DinoHunt Corp intervention, the two large carnivores came into frequent conflict, with the two eventually establishing their own distinct territories from one another. Rogue Saurophaganax are highly valuable bounties, as the invasive species can cause large environmental damage if left unchecked. In short, the Blue Plague was averted in this timeline.

While I will not make a habit of showing the rare alternative skins for the various dinosaurs planned, as each species will have at least 1 rare variant skin, I felt the one for Saurophaganax was too important to not share:

Obviously in honor of someone very important in the community. :)

Next is my personal favorite dinosaur and the one I associate most with myself, the decadent Great Wonder:

Keeping its classic color scheme from New World much like the current PG Agathaumas, this 90s and 2000s style redesign is most heavily inspired by PBS's The Dinosaurs Triceratops, Wayne Barlowe's Styracosaurus and Triceratops, and a blue-brown Triceratops by Gregory Wenzel from a book I had as a child. It is also exhibits sexual dimorphism, with the female's colors being more reminiscent of the Triceratops from PBS's the Dinosaurs:

For first time, I am also showing a WIP of the model for the Agathaumas started by the always awesome WillNobody:

Next is another secondary huntable, endemic to the Fey Gravewood, the Grim Reaper, Therizinosaurus:

Rather than a gentle giant with big claws, the Therizinosaurus of the Aberrant Sector is a giant relative of the Cruentomarinyx, serving the role of dominant predator of the Gravewood in the absence of Tyrannotitans which are too large to maneuver the dense forest successfully. Much smaller but still a top order carnivore at around 12 meters, Therizinosaurus are fast and brutal hunters that often slash the trees with their claws to mark their territory. It was inspired by things such as the Night Feeder from Primal, the Dino Crisis Therizinosaurus, the outdated idea of it being a top predator, and a particular image of it from a childhood book of mine with a massive hand reaching from the dark trees to grab an unsuspecting hadrosaur.

Last but not least for the concept art at the moment is the Shield Bearer, Jakapil:

An armored herbivore that takes the 2nd spot of the main roster, this crimson herbivore is inspired by things such as Wayne Barlowe's Fabrosaurus, James Field and Steve Kirk's depictions of Scutellosaurus, and Thorny Devils and Horned Lizards. They produce a unique stomach acid that can break down various plant matters, and have a gastric bypass system internally that funnels excess acids into what serve as effectively tear ducts, allowing it to shoot acid from these ducts as an additional defense mechanism against predators.

More concept art is currently being produced by many of my talented artist friends in the Carnivores community, and I'll be drawing more in the future myself.

Now, as for what else is coming in the future and what to expect with what I'll be doing:

• Drawing stuff, more concept art and designs, in particular for the main roster that needs to still be finished, both from myself and others.
• Port everything into newest MEE, to add the various new features.
• Updates to the menus and visual style.
• Do some graphic design stuff such as logos.
• Get more into modeling so I have to rely on others less and can get more done on my own.
• Practice modeling with some basic map objects to work on the overhaul for area 1, which will also entail redoing map textures (from scratch) to get the new style established and redo object textures that I didn't already make from scratch (nixing any OG carnis stuff), and trying and smooth up framerate a bit (eg less objects and find the happy medium between visuals and framerate)
• Writing and sharing/teasing more of the lore and story/backstory for Phantasmagoria
• There will also be updates on my other project, Jurassic Park Revolution Director's Cut over the coming year as well such as porting it to the newest MEE and working more on integrating the outcast dinosaurs.

As always, the Phantasmagoria Roster Spreadsheet will be kept up to date on the state of what's being worked on.

In addition, on the roster spreadsheet, the amount of ???s in each creature's name is equivalent to the length of its name and there are some hints included in the notes/description. I will unveil creature's names on the roster as people guess them correctly and have already done so for several - except for area 6 stuff and cryptids, those will remain secret.

I will give no schedule for any information releases, I'll do stuff as I feel like doing it. Monster Hunter Wilds is also gonna come out at the end of February, so that will take all my time once it comes out for several months, 2025 in general will probably be fairly packed with games, and I'll work at stuff on my own pace as I want to, this is a passion project after all. I am glad everyone is looking forward to it and excited for it, but do please be patient, as all modders have lives outside of modding.

Oh, one more thing.

To anyone who missed it, here is the main theme for Phantasmagoria, by herit, aka Sign of a Prophet:

Until then, stay Phantasmagorical.