Defender of Isis' STEED - barely WIP, need idea

Remember the Egyptian Warrioress skin (now called 'Defender of Isis')? One spell idea I have in mind involves a toggle/form-switch (maybe even Robogoblin based) skill called 'Steeds of Bast', where the Defender is granted one of the goddess Bast's sacred cats to ride (giving speed/ranged attack/evasion bonuses but keeping her from tossing spells while riding...don't want to spook the big kitty) and therefore can switch from being on foot to riding a large cat and back as she wishes.

Obviously, the Sentry model's skin file fits quite well right onto the Huntress model's skin file, as you can see (barring the lower body, which is crap on the Huntress model anyway and can't be 'fixed' really). Oddly, you can't alpha out anything on the head, so that means she'll have elven ears and the wrong helmet shape in-game, but strangely, the portrait IS correct with the skin alphas (no ears, helmet fixed).

Now, as you can see, I haven't done anything yet other than putting the Defender on the panther. Anyone have any suggested designs or such for the shield and/or glaive? Or edits for the panther itself (unless you think it looks enough like a 'sacred cat' by default)? ^^

Psy D

Gaha thats cool, now make an egyptian army!! Ahhh.

Ok for the cat skin I would make it leopard spotted see how that looks, and if you dont like that try a just tan. Maybe put a helm on the cat's head and add some more armor to the skin!

See, the tricksy thing is the cat has to look 'Egyptian', something that an Egyptian goddess would consider one of her sacred 'pets'. The helm/armor I'm definitely considering (a lot, actually), but does a leopard look Egyptian? (seriously, I want to know and am asking this...I know it'd look 'African' and Egypt IS in Africa, but would a leopard fit in Egyptian-ish mythology? I don't know myself). Maybe a tan cat...hm...keep the ideas coming, I need em. ^^

Psy D

Once again Psy GREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT SKIN!

I'd say gray fur and try to make it look shorter (i.e. make it look like you can see some skin beneath the fur) and make it look skinnier. I think it will turn out great.

Sacred Cats, whilst all were "Sacred" Basts specific cats had short golden fur, not yellow, litrally golden. A similar color to the lion. So make it nice and golden in color, then add some decoration.

i say do some research on cats in egypt. otherwise u want it to have a desert feeling so a tan color thing would be cool.

everything looks great, but the jaguar will of course have armor.... if i remember the egyptian horses and such had like white cloth with gold armor, should do something like that.

Bronze, not gold, was used for Armor, gold was for decoration (things like the Pharoahs battle chariot would have VERY thin gold beaten onto it, to look good whilst still being extremly light. Beaten gold was used all over the place for war stuff, so a good Gold Beater could earn alot of money.)

You should alpha the ears to make them shorter. I'd go with the tanned cat, but the rest is cool.

Okay guys, thanx for the feedback so far. Attached is a minor update. Since I haven't decided on what best to do with the cat itself yet, I took a quick shot at reskinning the glaive and shield into bronze versions with certain hieroglyphic designs (glaive: Horus' eye surrounded by smaller god symbols; shield: symobls of Isis, Ra, Osiris and Horus).

While I personally like how the glaive turned out, I think I found out why the default Huntress skin has onto a tiny paw print mark on it with the rest team color...the wrapping SUCKS on it for details. Most of the symbols are clearly warped in some way...it's okay in a way, I guess, but... *shrugs*

Alright, now for the kitty. I've heard the following ideas for it here and on a few other boards:

-Leave it as is (panther/jaguar like), just add armor/accessories
-Black furred (same color, make look more like a cat) so it resembles one of those Egyptian cat statues
-Tan furred (desert-ish, but probably not too bright)
-Gray furred
-Golden furred

Accessories probably for most of the other colors there, btw.

I could use a hand deciding...the thing that's slowing me down somewhat on picking is that we have to consider the Defender of Isis riding the cat, in terms of contrast. I don't want to 'lose' the cat or make it look like they're one creature 'together'.

For instance, for the tan and gold possibilities, I don't want the cat to be unseen on a sandy ground texture, nor want the armor of the Defender making it tough to see the cat. That's about the one good thing about the default color...it's pretty good contrast.

More remarks?

Psy D

wow pretty nice! are you making some egyptian project or female project of some kind? sense i noticed alot of your lovely female skins so far lately

shield looks a bit blurry, maybe sharpen it up a bit.. other wys gj on the blade

ShadowFury: Nah, I don't have a female/Egypitan project or anything really...I just have better ideas for female models. ^^ Some of the skins have been used in a failure of a map that barely has a fanbase, so in my book they're still 'unused'. Thanks for the comment though.

Tiki: Sharpened the shield a bit...next will work on the cat, I guess. Still haven't decided what'll look best with the Defender atop the feline though (black and gold actually does remind me of most Egyptian cat statues I've seen, but...still thinking).

Psy D