Claw Isle ideas (not from cut plot)

[Andy]

It struck me that Serpent Isle is somewhat out of the normal time stream. I've never played Underworld 2, but I've heard that there are devolved Kilrathi in it....

To set things up:

Before you go back in the past (Silver Seed) have Claw Isle be overrun with Ratmen.

Now, back in the past, let's say that the cat creature (Yearl) in the Silver Seed is the ancestor (created by chaos scientists) of the Kilrathi. The Avatar frees him from his prison confinement in the Silver Seed in a place other than the maze (posibly the jail sell on Claw Isle).

Later, in present day Serpent Isle (after you have freed Yearl) we find his more developed offspring on Claw Isle. They are suffering from disease, and the beginnings of the "Devolment." Several catman corpses are in the surrounding huts. They would call themselves the Kilrat people (a nod to what they did to the Ratmen who are now confined to the dungeon areas of Serpent Isle)..... I have further ideas, but I wouldn't want to ruin any surprises. Does this sound like something worth working on?

Also, I've come across some "Realm of Claw" figures that would be suitable for progeny of Yearl. Below is a character portrait that I made in Photoshop. I can't seem to get Gimp to drag selections correctly, and convert to the proper color palette. This is said to be a current problem in their documentation. Of course, Photoshop seems to put transparent colors where they shouldn't be. So, yes, I am still having problems.

[Crysta the Elf]

im pretty sure Yearl was meant to be the last one left..

i always took it that one of the 'Ilkarthi' crash landed there in the time of mondain (or at least just before where he completed his gem) and was stranded when the continents split... and therefore went about working on a new breed from the existing cats there before he passed away from old age, ignoring the humans that worshipped him as a god.. humans eventually dying off due to the war

yearl most likely would have been very depressed... greeting the avatar with how he was the last living member of the race.. how one by one they succumbed to diseas and died... Yearl developing some sort of immunity to it, but being the only one left... and telling him the only way to save his people was to travel with him into the bowels of teh island to the power source (mirror rock graphic) that the Ilkarthi had used to create the race originally to change teh cats on the island into a new set of cat-creatures, only to realize once there that the source was used up.. or is destroyed when you try to use it... with yearl staying behind when you leave off towards furnace, the cat remarking on how he will spend the rest of his days as best he can.. and write down the history of his lost people, so the world might forget them when he finally passes on

perhaps the avatar was supposed to use a second cage and a piece of catnip (from the island's dungeon) to trap a cat from the main island, and take it into the depths to perform the ritual on it, only to have the stone explode upon trying

regardless, it needs more reasearch.. and thought

[Andy]

Yes, I know he was originally ment to be the last one left.... but since we can only go by conjecture, and the game needs some new larger elements of plot added (to shake the dust off), I feel this is the ideal place to do it without disturbing the other pieces of the active plot yet. Your conjectures are very good, and probably right, however.

I am looking at new ways of expanding the fiction. It will have to be done with the main plot eventually if the original plot is not found. Yes, I would like to go by the original as much as posible, but there are no new leads, and many who do not wish to talk due to legal agreements (or lack of interest). The game is over 20 years old, and it is getting less likely even new sources would remember the finer details, or have important documentation. I have not given up, but there the situation is.

The idea I have for the Kilrat people would have some of them perishing, some of them escaping, and some of them worse off... At anyrate, none of them would be left at the game's conclusion.

[Andy]

Also, you could have a Kilrathi that crashlanded in the past. Attempted what you have stated, and then was captured by Chaos scientists to disect, thus creating a causal time loop. In effect, he would be his own "grandfather." Uh, that's only half serious. :p

[SB-X]

I'd like to keep the Claw plot additions seperate from the Original Story recreation. (unless you do find original documents on it) That said, these aren't bad deas. Can you find some way to tie in the Kilrathi "religion/prophecy" in that says they are destined to conquer all other races?

[yhevhe]

I didn't understand all that very well, but I guess you are saying that UWII comes *after* SI? :S

Plus, those ones were in another dimension, so it's posible they have different levels of evolution. Or they have the power to adapt their bodies depending the ocasion? Just thoughts....

[yhevhe]

Ammm... just forget that one post

[Chris Schumacher]

In the Ultima 1 documentation it talks about how Mondain made allies of some powerful race from the stars. That's where all the advanced technology in U1 came from.
You also fight them in the space sequences, the ships do like quite like dralthi (yeah, I know they're TIE-fighters, but what can you do?)

[Andy]

The add-on I have an idea for would take Ultima 1 into account. That said, I don't know if I'll ever get it done.... Like I said before my tallents are somewhat limited.

To SB-X: What exactly did the Kilrathi Prophecy state? I was unable to complete Wing Commander Prophecy. I know that the "Heart of the Tiger" was supposed to bring them some sort of victory (or so they thought).

[Crysta the Elf]

on the "restoration" side, a suggested addition to Filbercio's manor.. which would also help the redone plot some





(figured was better to post here than in my art thread )

[SB-X]

What exactly did the Kilrathi Prophecy state?

Only vaquely remembered it so I Googled and found this.
http://www.wcnews.com/encyclopedia/show ... php?id=783

I only played the demo of WC:Prophecy so I don't know how it's related, if at all. The enemy were something called "Bugs", but I guess from the title it is related.

[Andy]

Yeah, I thought about the Kilrathi skeleton some. I need to replay the entire game again, just so I have a feel for all of the nuances. It's been years.... Your ideas for the original plot are probably spot on Crysta. The positioning of the skeleton in Filbercio's manor would take it from a faint side quest to a prominent one.

[Crysta the Elf]

i chose the spot that looked the emptiest without good reason.. and that one just looked right ;p

[Andy]

SB-X: thanks for the info. Interesting reading....

[Vasculio294]

Yestarday i finally played around with the exult studio! I had a blast. Of course i can only edited blackgate since i'm having trouble getting it to see serpent isle.

I took the ranger guys face from the fighter town where you get Durpe. And i combine that with the Ferrymans portait. I had to erase the skeleton hand gripping the scythe though. it kinda work out.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/vasculio/ ... ce&.src=ph

Try this!

[Natreg]

The "bug" race of WC prophecy are called Nephilin. The prophecy stated something about the end of the world, or kn'thrak, which means "darkness" or "Void". For the killrathi the end would be the end of all things, not just their own world (which btw was destroyed in WC3 by "The Heart of the Tiger" aka Cristopher Blair).

[Andy]

I'm having difficult with Gimp not allowing transparency on the edges of my character portraits. Now all I get is a black box with the picture instead of an oval. I converted some images to the 256 color palette that was previously posted. What am I doing wrong?

[Dominus]

to make exult studio recognize si properly you have to start ES from Exult.

[Andy]

Actually, it's a problem with Exult allowing transparency along the edges of my created portraits. Gimp still has the transparency. Is it a problem with the plugin to Gimp?

[Crysta the Elf]

you sure its not a problem with the colors youre using?

the transparent color is the very first color in that previously posted pallette (the bright red just before black in the pallette order).

[Andy]

Oh, I know that it's the colors that I'm using :0( ....

I have been using the palette that was posted. On my computer, the first color in the upper left hand corner is black. There is a bright red color in the bottom right corner (that is not transparent). I can either get the tranparency to work, but then other colors in the image are transparent, or I can make the image opaque without any transparency which results in a box with the image (white or black).

I've indexed the posted palette in both Photoshop, and Gimp, and added it to the 256 color palette conversions.

[Andy]

Here's is where I'm at right now....



This image has the oval transparency, but also has some transparency inside the portrait (in the game). Any help on correcting this issue would be most appreciated.... I can also get it to be completely opaque, but then you have the character portrait in a solid box shape instead of the oval.