One thing that has bothered me with Conan is the model quality of wildlife, in particular the ones who appear to have gotten caught in a grimace and the wind had changed. Wolves, tigers, hyenas, even the iguanas suffer from a perpetual mouth breathing issue with the addition of hitting every ugly branch on the way down when falling out of a tree.
While the deer, rhinos and elephants are a few of the better looking models, the horses are quite disproportionate and are some of the ugliest steeds I have seen in a game.
I would really love to see some tlc given to normalise the wildlife in to a more admiral version of themselves, to especially the mouth breathers. Pretty please think of these wild animals.
I will politely disagree. The horse in Conan is quite anatomically incorrect, with a very disproportionate neck, the legs are too chunky and weirdly bent and the head is very flat and doesn’t even have a proper head features. The ears flop in movement and the mane and tail are lacking a few hair cards. While I am sure there are many talented artists working on Conan, I am surprised at the low quality of the horse model, and begs the question if the modeller referenced the heavily available and very detailed anatomical and dissecty references for horses available online, they are a very easy subject to locate references for.
Given this is set in desert, the horses would have resembled the much slimmer desert war horses like the marwari, kathiawari, akhal-teke and arabian. The horse build in Conan just doesn’t make sense for the era and environment.
If we consider timelines of Conan in comparison to earth, it would be during the Egyptian age of 4000-1650bc since 12000bc in earth time factor is the Miocene age which was cavemen and flint arrows.
So taking that into account the desert war horse breeds are Caspian (3400 years), arabian(3500years), marwari (3000 years), Akhal-teke (3000 years) andMongolian horse (3000years).
The first recognised heavy horse breeds (with thick legs) didn’t happen until after the 1700’s, before that some horses were bred thicker after 1509.
The Hyborian age IS 12,000BC to 10,000BC. There’s no disputing it, that’s from REH. If it makes it easier to wrap your head around it. Consider the genre to be post-apocalyptic sci-fi. There is evidence of very high technology, even Star Trek level technology in some of the stories. Things like force field belts and Food Replicators (ones capable of feeding an entire city).
So is what is likely happening (and Funcom owning the entire IP can make this canon if they wish), is that the so called ‘modern’ breeds had pre-cataclysmic analogues that you see in game. Post Cataclysm and going into modern historic eras (5000BC to present) those breeds likely died out.
Especially considering the areas you mentioned are covered in a glacier and apart of what is known in lore as Asgard and Vanaheim within the Hyborian Age. Stygia which would later become Egypt in REH lore exists just south of the middle part of the African Continent.
If the case is finding a horse to fit that bill, then I guess it would be the przewalski horse which has existed for 160,000 years and continues.
Either way, the initial point was that the animals could really do with a touch up. Compared to other parts of the game they look out of place with their weird anatomy and gaping mouths.
I’m just wary of ‘realistic’ suggestions based on history when we’re in a fantastic setting that is set in a prehistoric context. Horse breed in game doesn’t need to match one in real life. But I won’t say no to a higher poly model, higher resolution texture, or more fluid gait.
I have to agree with this assessment. The horses in CE are more like a Belgian or Clydesdale, with a squared off head and stand too tall for the era. The natural breeds were much smaller and compact.
Having said this, I really do not care, lol.
The fact that FC swore never to introduce horses, and then did, just makes me happy.
Also on the main OP’s point of animals needing a facelift, I have never given it a second thought.
I think overall, the artistry in game is amazing.
Those are the very few animals now that can outrun you. It’s helluva annoying thing, but still WAAAY better now. You can basically outrun everything, even big cats, canines… that’s so cheap. I hope almost all of the wildlife gets a speed boost.
Agreed, but animals should protect their territory not always attack on sight, that’s what annoys me in Conan everything even the stupid goats feel the need to harras you on sight…
Can you show me any game with better horses? Exept rdr2, because rdr2 is a game about horses.
Also demanding anatomically correct animals in survival game where mobs cant properly attack player due to bad pathing is ridiculous
none died out, though very uncommon, they do so exist.