Nefan [Savagekin][Persistent]

[Sorum]

Race of character/NPC: Night Elf Savagekin

Class of character/NPC: Druid Savagekin

Name of character/NPC: Nefan. His name back when he was only a Night Elf druid was Nefan Stormkin.

Exact modelID requested: 599 This should be the displayID. While 736 is the NPC id. I hope I am not mistaking. If that's the case.. then I am looking for this model.

Duration that character will be used: Persistent

Purpose for the character/NPC: Nefan is my character for some time now. He is a former druid which gave in to his feral self and became a Savagekin. He is not entirely feral but he isn't very far from it either. The reason why I ask for this CMC is because the druid cat form doesn't provide the right visual which I desire for my character. It has a collar, a few marks and bracers around the front paws. My character, providing he took the shape of a panther doesn't posses such.. And that for I'd like to use a more appropriate model to display the right image to the other RPers without having to emote every difference between the model and the actual character every time a new player enters RP. It really isn't a huge change, I believe the old cat form model was pretty close to my choice as well.

Location the character/NPC will reside: He won't reside in any particular area. He could be found more within Ashenvale but he will also travel through the world seeking to protect animals and hunting those who harm them. And that for he will travel across Kalimdor, and possibly go to Eastern Kingdoms and beyond if he gets the chance by who knows what chance.. Such as being taken by a friend for a ride with a boat or who knows. I cannot foresee what will happen with Nefan and or if he will ever leave Kalimdor.

Level requested: The level doesn't matter to me, I'd prefer 85 for the sake of not dying to mobs during RP but I can take 60 just as fine. Or any other levels, really.

Any special equipment needed: No equipment needed. But I might require to be scaled up a bit to fit the actual character.

[FlyingSquirrel]

I would toss in a mention about how a seemingly feral cat would be able to get across oceans.

[Sorum]

I would toss in a mention about how a seemingly feral cat would be able to get across oceans.

To be fair, I already thought about that and thought it's kind of hard to find such a ride. However, I did leave it like that in order to leave a gate open for possible RPs which may throw him from Kalimdor to Eastern Kingdoms. All through interaction with other players. One way or another.. I did change that part a bit.

[Delta]

I think you'd be better off rolling a night elf and simply having them remain shifted in roleplay, personally.

Although not all druids wear trinkets or dye/paint in their fur, several sources (not the least of which being in-game mechanics) back up the fact that they retain characteristics peculiar to their race and individual appearance, such as elongated ears in the case of NElves, as well as the colour of their pelts. The panther model gives no indication whatsoever, which is somewhat misleading. You'd still have to emote the tiny clues that point to Nefan's true nature to each new person you came across.

That aside, I think you'd want the option to shapeshift back into elf form. I know that you can get extraordinarily far with body language, don't get me wrong. @Hawk's portrayal of Krohn alongside my Argent orc somehow worked ridiculously well. We often had several hours-long roleplay despite the fact that his character didn't speak a word, for the most part. But there were times that he was compelled to assume his native form, and those were precious for their rarity, but they did happen. They had to happen, to remind you that Krohn was more than a particularly smart beast, and that he had a deeper array of emotions and motivations.

Savagekin are hard to play at the best of times, and difficult to master. I'd recommend putting a lot of thought into his past, especially what pushed him from civilisation and made him lose himself to the spirit of the cat.

[Sorum]

I think you'd be better off rolling a night elf and simply having them remain shifted in roleplay, personally.

Although not all druids wear trinkets or dye/paint in their fur, several sources (not the least of which being in-game mechanics) back up the fact that they retain characteristics peculiar to their race and individual appearance, such as elongated ears in the case of NElves, as well as the colour of their pelts. The panther model gives no indication whatsoever, which is somewhat misleading. You'd still have to emote the tiny clues that point to Nefan's true nature to each new person you came across.

That aside, I think you'd want the option to shapeshift back into elf form. I know that you can get extraordinarily far with body language, don't get me wrong. @Hawk's portrayal of Krohn alongside my Argent orc somehow worked ridiculously well. We often had several hours-long roleplay despite the fact that his character didn't speak a word, for the most part. But there were times that he was compelled to assume his native form, and those were precious for their rarity, but they did happen. They had to happen, to remind you that Krohn was more than a particularly smart beast, and that he had a deeper array of emotions and motivations.

Savagekin are hard to play at the best of times, and difficult to master. I'd recommend putting a lot of thought into his past, especially what pushed him from civilisation and made him lose himself to the spirit of the cat.

Hey Delta~

I appreciate your feedback and I like that you actually gave an example of another Savagekin character.. I didn't have the chance to RP with a Savagekin on CotH before! It's nice to at least read something about that..

One way or another, back to what you are saying.. I appreciate your interest and will to help and I respect your opinion on the matter. However I personally feel like the in-game model really doesn't look right. It has that collar with gems hanging by it's neck. Something a Beast would never wear unless tamed. Nefan by default tried to come as close to a beast as he could once he went so deep in the ways of the druids of the claw. I highly doubt that he'd have a collar and bracers in that case. That could make feral animals dislike him or who knows. I am not an animal expert tho.. it just seems off to me in general. I never seen the point of that collar. I really liked the other druid form before it got remodeled. And that's kind of what I am looking for (old form). I'd be glad to use that form if there is any way to do it without a CMC.. but much to my disappointment.. I don't think there is.

I believe me and Hawk have slightly different views on the Savagekin class or perhaps our characters are just a bit different. I'd like to note that unlike Krohn, Nefan would prefer to show his motivations and emotions from the comfort of his form. Lore says that once becoming a Savagekin, returning to the natural form proves to be difficult, and from an outsider point of view (as if I am not the one RPing the character). Knowing that the person is comfortable showing his emotions and motivations through his form.. I don't see why he'd go through such trouble just to show he is in fact.. A Night Elf. The Savagekin kind of abandons that form, or at least keeps it away in order to remain closer to the animals. Of course, you couldn't know that as the character is not profiled and I did not give all the information in this application.

In the end tho, you do have an opinion. Perhaps we don't agree entirely but you did manage to make me think about the possibility of Nefan returning to his Night Elven form for some -really- good reason.. But it's doubtful and I personally couldn't find a reason for him to return. Even tho! You did make me consider a bit, I will look at the default given model of the form and perhaps I will change my mind about the application if I end up feeling a bit more comfortable with the differences between the ingame model and how I aim to present my character. At first I was just thinking about doing others and myself a favor. Not having to spam the same emote every time someone joins RP. Personally.. I wouldn't want others to suffer seeing the same emote over and over again each time someone joins the session. Otherwise.. the differences can be written in TRP2 but not everyone uses that addon. And I believe Grakor (was it?) is the one which made a post about how players shouldn't need addons or spammed emotes to visualize how the model really looks. I suppose I could think of a few differences to apply on the character to set him apart from other panthers.. Something less obvious perhaps. Maybe change the model I am applying for for. Perhaps something that could stand out. That if I don't change my mind entirely on the CMC application.. Which was meant to be a minor thing anyway.

And so, we really come to the end of my post. I hope I didn't bore anyone with how much I wrote for just this reply.. Thanks a lot for your imput Delta, I did not expect any opinion whatsoever when I hit submit~ Well, be it between us.. I actually hit "post reply" but you know.. :3

[Hawk]

Oh, hey, I'm mentioned here.

Not sure if this will be helpful or not, but I'll just say a couple of words about Krohn. I think, in the total of his entire playtime, I had him shift into his Tauren body no more than twice, and those moments never lasted more than five minutes, and even then I think he might have uttered only one sentence of wisdom and that was to Krilari's Tauren. (Mahta, was it? I forget things.) It was a rather painful experience for him to assume his old form and it felt alien to him. It was not a pleasant experience. Hell, one of those times was because Mahta specifically asked him to assume his regular form so she could behold his old friend once more, who had lost much more of his... cowmanity... as the years went by. His speech was broken, gruff, and frankly he wasn't a smart cookie.

For the most part, I was able to convey his thoughts and emotions through body language and vague indications with a nod of his head. It wasn't -too- hard to do this, because... he was an angry Tauren. The guy had problems. Even when a Scarlet Crusader had surrendered, Krohn continue to maul the fallen opponent and it required intervention from the Argent Crusade to get him to stop his assault, and that's really what I feel is one of the core things about a Savagekin. The only code they live by is one they make for themselves, and even then they'd begin to slowly stray from it. Night Elves and such may not have laws but they do have some sense of morality, whereas I feel a Savagekin will, eventually, lose even that sense completely. Krohn was a time bomb from the beginning. I played him during around the middle stage.

He retained enough of his humanity to count as something sentient, but he was still out of control for the most part. All his actions were natural instinct.

But yeah, bottom line, the "return to his original form" thing was done only if really necessary. I believe in the article it says it is difficult, but by no means impossible. Hope I helped somewhat. In truth, there are very, very few scenarios where a Savagekin would have to revert to their original form, but it's nice to have that safety net there.

EDIT: That point in the article is really the only reason I let him even retain that ability. If it said a Savagekin could never revert to their old self, I wouldn't have tried to make a way around it. He'd be a grumpy bear/cat/bird thing forever.

[Sorum]

I am really glad to get a reply from you Hawk, I will put it this way. It really looks like we have about the same vision when it comes to how Savagekins are. I am still considering the whole situation tho, to CMC or not to CMC.. I didn't get the time to actually think about it -that- much today tho. I will most likely meditate on it later. As it is.. I really do understand why it'd be worth to have the ability to swap back at the Night Elf form. But you said it well too: It only happens very very rarely. And providing my character's personality and all that.. I am still rather sure it won't happen... One way or another! I will think and reply/edit this post with my choice regarding the application.

Once again, I really appreciate the input, guys. <3

[ghaskan]

Actually, if you only plan on shifting out of the feral form very rarely (or never), and for very short periods of time, emoting should be enough to convey the change, even if it doesn't give the same visual impact. It's like the reverse of your actual situation in which you have to describe the beast form constantly, and an improvement because, as said, it would seldom happen. Just my two cents!

[Dae]

Although not all druids wear trinkets or dye/paint in their fur, several sources (not the least of which being in-game mechanics) back up the fact that they retain characteristics peculiar to their race and individual appearance, such as elongated ears in the case of NElves, as well as the colour of their pelts.

I know that GMs here can have some limitations on what they can use for CMCs, but I know the legacy druid models are still in the program files. If they still had a display ID somewhere to make use of, they would make a perfect savagekin model- they still are clearly of the character's original race, but to be honest, look much more savage, and lack the collars/trinkets that Sorum seems opposed to.

[Delta]

I've been digging through some .dbc files, and unfortunately, it doesn't look like you can use that model. Not without patching. It's in the game, and you can call it up via the model viewer, but it's not a part of the server's core databases. Look.

(Trigger warning for scary numbers.)

Spoiler:

DruidCat_Legacy is associated with the model id 3143.



But these are the only skins which correspond to that model id. They're all Eversong lynx cats. There's a possibility that it's in the database and unlabelled, but you will literally be looking for a needle in a haystack if you want to search for it manually.

Pity.

[Dae]

Pity.

Indeed... That being said, though, perhaps there's a blue/purple tinting effect that could be applied to one of the lynx models along with a lynx model CMC? The lynx models most strongly resemble druid cats, it seems.

[Sorum]

I've given this a bit of a thought. And I came to realize that I don't need the CMC anymore. I will use the regular model and just emote whatever is needed. Plus that, it's a good thing to have the ability to actually turn back into the Night Elf form.. Even tho I doubt it will ever happen. But hey! We will see.

Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who gave their input on the application and all that. Love you.

Feel free to delete/move this thread.

[Loxmardin]

Archiving.