About (old) unused skins for devilsaurs/direhorns

[Yoruko]

Now, I'm sure we're all familiar with the blue devilsaur and green direhorn skins that got changed during the PTR for the Isle of Giants patch. (As well as the blue direhorn skin, which I didn't remember to screenshot during PTR.)

One of my biggest wishes for WoD is that Blizzard brings the original, currently unused, skins back for these mobs in some form that is tameable for hunters.

I was one of the people who were really disappointed with the change between PTR and live where these mobs were introduced. The original skins are much more vivid and from my artistic point of view: more polished. Especially the devilsaur skin looks as if there’s been a multiply layer thrown on the skin map which causes it to come off rushed-looking for anyone with any experience in image editing.

Now, the edited skins have been in the game for a good while and there are certainly players who would hate to see them go and be replaced by the originals. This is why I hope they would use the original skins on some brand new mobs in WoD to introduce more texture variety to the game and more choice for hunter pets as well.

To my knowledge, the original skins were overwritten with the edited ones as I cannot find them through modelviewer or such, but I find it unlikely they wouldn't exist in the dev files and if so, it wouldn't be that much work to add them back to the game. (Should there be suitable mobs for them.)

I'm not 100% informed on Draenor lore, but seeing as there are raptors, I don't think devilsaurs would be that big of a stretch. Direhorns are very savage looking as well, so a remote NPC wearing a green and blue direhorn skin wouldn't look that out of place. Especially considering the vivid, lush, jungle environments we've seen glimpses of.

Thoughts?

[Vephriel]

I'm still very confused on that decision myself, especially as the 'toned down' colours were done in such a poor way that even the eyes and teeth became dulled. It just strikes me as an odd change.

[zedxrgal]

That pink /green direhorn is awful looking in my opinion. I do with they would have stayed with the original colors.

I'd support them being put back in. However. Not on Draenor. TO ME ........... a devilsaur seems very out of place on Draenor. The raptors I can kind of see because of the Blades Edge raptors already being there. Again this is in my opinion but the sudden imput of a devilsaur would be over doing it greatly.

[Yoruko]

I'd support them being put back in. However. Not on Draenor. TO ME ........... a devilsaur seems very out of place on Draenor. The raptors I can kind of see because of the Blades Edge raptors already being there. Again this is in my opinion but the sudden imput of a devilsaur would be over doing it greatly.

Why would Devilsaur be out of place? Is it against the lore? As far as I know, there shouldn't be any lore preventing it so if there is I would be happy to know about it.

If a mob in "plain sight" was off-putting, would it be better that it had to be flushed out like the Pandaria rares? That way the skin would be available, but not in the way of your everyday gameplay.

[zedxrgal]

As I said IT'S IN MY OPINION. The thing is. From what I know there is no devilsaurs ANYWHERE in the lore of Draenor. Not like in MoP which is full of dinos. I'm not saying a beast has to be in lore for it to be in a zone but it does help that they're tied in in some way. They're never mentioned. So as such they'd seem out of place.

Why ask for others to respond with their opinion if you're just going to turn around and ask them to justify it or go against it?

[Yoruko]

As I said IT'S IN MY OPINION. The thing is. From what I know there is no devilsaurs ANYWHERE in the lore of Draenor. Not like in MoP which is full of dinos. I'm not saying a beast has to be in lore for it to be in a zone but it does help that they're tied in in some way. They're never mentioned. So as such they'd seem out of place.

Why ask for others to respond with their opinion if you're just going to turn around and ask them to justify it or go against it?

Err, to aspire a more elaborate discussion? I didn't mean to come off as if anyone needs to justify their personal opinion, I simply thought to ask if you might have a more defined reason behind it that I've failed to observe on the grand scale.

If they're not mentioned in the lore, to me it means there's nothing that prevents including a few remote mobs (devilsaurs or direhorns) rather than that they should not exist at all. If there's a passage somewhere that says "devilsaurs (or direhorns) exist exclusively in Azerothian nature" or the like, then that's another story. Which brings me to my earlier point, that if raptor and raptor-esque creature types habit Draenor, then a devilsaur isn't too far off either. (Similar body type, similar ancestry, etc.)

Also, that reminds me, I have to dig up the reason why there's that one isolated devilsaur in a Bio-Dome in Netherstorm.

[Krysteena]

Alrighty guys. Each has a different opinion on the direhorns and devilsaurs I don't see anyone purposely challenging one another, which is good. Just in case we get something go wrong here, no chewing off each other's heads just in case things do escalate. I'm sure they won't.

Personally, I think if they implemented direhorns and devilsaurs then they'd use the colours they used on the isle of giants. It's disappointing, but if they're happy enough the the newer on to add it in I don't see why they'd add the older one in which they couldn't of been happy with. While it's true devilsaurs aren't in Draenor lore and unless I've missed something the only time I've seen dinosaurs in Pandaria has only been when the Zandalari turned up. There's a random devilsaur in Outlands but then again he's surrounded by raptors. Which are in a bio area. Which means there's a chance, in my eyes, he was mutated (sorta) into the devilsaur in that area. But I'm not one to say that's the reason 100%. I don't think there's enough evidence for that idea. It's just a theory (a game theo...no. No quotes. Bad Kayro!)

One thing I'm sure on is them adding the direhorn. Or them not adding it. Here I'll go by lore. Direhorns weren't even heard of till the Zandalari were popping up like weeds in Pandaria. I'm pretty sure no trolls went to Draenor. I'm rusty on my lore of Draenor, so I've probably got facts wrong. I don't see them adding those older colours while I don't like the older green direhorn one, I don't mind the devilsaur. The again, they seem bright. You don't normally have bright predators. However, we CMs see Blizzard don't always apply to this law. I mean, at those bright green pterrorwings flying around.

I know my answer is long winded, but I can't shorten it down much and still have it make sense. So yes, while they may add dinosaurs in I don't think it'd be those colours. They evidently weren't happy with them before, and thus changed them. I don't see why they'd add colours they clearly aren't happy with when they've got nicer (again, personal opinion) colours ready to go.

So, it'd be lovely for them to add the colours for those who'd like them. But I doubt they will. Then again, Blizzard must have some surprises rolled up to heir sleeves somewhere

[Wain]

I'd certainly love to see them somewhere!

The skins are no longer in the database (they had the same file names as the skins that replaced them) but they surely still have them on file. Hell, I still have copies of them on my own computer.

In addition to the two posted, there's also the original blue direhorn, which had a much softer palette. I think it's much nicer:



And while not from a tameable family, there's a different purple skyscreamer they also replaced on the ptr:



Unless they add direhorns and skyscreamers to Draenor then maybe it'd be a while before they could be used even if they did dig them out. But there were devilsaurs in Outland, weren't there? I remember one in Netherstorm...

If they DO add direhorns, there's not only the replaced blue and green, but a bunch of stone colours they could use

[Vephriel]

Yep, Tyrantus is the black devilsaur that hangs in the Eco Dome, and truthfully with the way Gorgrond's shaping up I wouldn't be surprised to see one there. They'd fit in just fine.

It would be cool if they could add the alternative colours in as additional skins somewhere, since some of them gave a drastically different look or feel.

[SylviaDragon]

ah good point about gorgrond. Since i am not in Beta i forgot about that place xD it would be a good spot to use those skins. I don't think i have seen that skyscreamer before, even though I kept a close eye on the Beta patch it came from. He looks lovely.

[Yoruko]

Ooh! Thanks for the additional shots Wain! That skyscreamer variant has completely eluded me, it's a good add as well.

I thought about listing the stone/gem direhorns on my original post as well, but they're sort of available since at least they exist on mounts. Regardless it would be great if they did add them as tameable mobs. I admit I was originally looking forward to the jade variant during PTR. (Would fit straight in with the other gem-themed pets we already can and do tame. Would mean more additions to my jewelcrafting themed alt stable. )

I traipsed all over wowpedia and google but couldn't find any definitive explanation to Tyrantus. The Eco-Domes are summarized as "greenhouses" that protected the life within while the outside succumbed to violent energies and mana storms. I guess, with a bit of imagination, he could be some kind of mutated raptor, but there really wasn't any implication that way. He is an objective in the quest "Overseeing and You: Making the Right Choices" where you need to obtain his hide, but that's about it. (Personally I connect this in my head to how devilsaur hides and the devilsaur set used to be all the rage back in classic, but that's probably just me.) Either he's always been there, which means there's likely been more devilsaurs at some point, or that he was brought there by the ethereals or goblins?

Aah, Veph! You had beta access, right? Would it be too much to ask for a few shots of Gorgrond? (I'm especially curious about the edge towards what will be Netherstorm in the future, but I'm not aware how far players are allowed in the beta yet.)

[Slickrock]

The fauna of WoW is so confusing, anything could really be any place.

If there are raptors in Dreanor, then why not at least Trexes? And yeah, where did the one in the bio-dome come from?

[Xota]

Biodomes were put there by the space mummies who were trying to make it habitable. IIRC, our druids were interested in helping them or finding out how they did it. The flora (and fauna) may not match the original for the area, they could have brought it from their (envoidified) homeworld or it might be from various places on Outland, or pulled over from the Draenor's Emerald Dream equivilent (like an elemental plane of wood or something).

[Quiv]

If they DO add direhorns, there's not only the replaced blue and green, but a bunch of stone colours they could use

I do hope to see wild saddleless versions of the primordial direhorns. They are amazing looking.