A couple more strokes to make the shadow merm become a full-fledged Shadow Creature

[Creatorofswamps]

In the latest update, shadow merms have almost completely approached shadow creatures

-"Shadow Merms and Shadow Merm Guards now ignore spider webs and don’t trigger them."-

-The appearance of shadow merms has been changed-

I propose to add a few more momets so that they will become more like shadow creatures:

-Walking on water-

Many shadows can walk calmly on water, if you allow shadow merms to walk on water, this will help players who wanted the mermaids to swim because they do not have to do a swimming animation (shadows just walk on it) and it will also help to perceive it better as a shadow (at least ordinary shadows and Maxwell clones walk calmly on the water)

 

-Eye slits-

This will allow you to establish eye contact with them, in fact, almost all shadows have Eye slits except for Maxwell clones, parasites and tentacles. + the eyes will help you to better reveal the point below

-"physical appearance" under the influence of Pure Horror-

When the shadow merms are under the influence of Pure Horror, visually it is just a Red lightning, whereas the shadows associated with Pure Horror are black, with White eyes and a Red "combat paint ", I propose to equalize the shadow mermaids under the action of Pure Horror with the of Rift shadows, since the moon mermaids under pure luster have already received "possessed eyes", It will be fair .Redesigned sample concept:

These are not critical things that we would not be able to do without, but it would really affect the gameplay and the final perception

 

[Ugur01]

Also, when we feed merms with nightmare fuel or dreadstone, can they turn into shadow merms? In order for us to have a shadow Merm army right now, they all have to die, turn into shadow Merm, and then not die again. This makes it difficult to have a Pure Horror powered Merm army.

Also, sometimes they don't turn into shadow merms when they die. They just die

I'm not sure if this is a feature or a bug

[marshyds]

7 minutes ago, Ugur01 said:

Also, sometimes they don't turn into shadow merms when they die. They just die

im confident that only TAMED merms revive into shadows

[Ugur01]

You may be right. I will check this

[Creatorofswamps]

I just noticed the shadow merms have fanged mouths, but it's only visible from the side

[NPCMaxwell]

8 minutes ago, Creatorofswamps said:

I just noticed the shadow merms have fanged mouths, but it's only visible from the side

This detail sounds so incredibly cute (shadow creatures forever!) Now I'm a bit sad I'm not a wurt player. I adore everything shadowy in this game.

 

(also side note: how did I never notice Maxwell shadows could walk on water?!)

8 hours ago, Creatorofswamps said:

These are not critical things that we would not be able to do without, but it would really affect the gameplay and the final perception

 

I love how the pure Horror here would make them look even CUTER!!!!! That's indeed PURE HORROR (it's called cute aggression for a reason)

[Pet Rock]

11 hours ago, Creatorofswamps said:

Many shadows can walk calmly on water, if you allow shadow merms to walk on water, this will help players who wanted the mermaids to swim because they do not have to do a swimming animation (shadows just walk on it) and it will also help to perceive it better as a shadow (at least ordinary shadows and Maxwell clones walk calmly on the water)

 

Consistency here would atleast by nice. It doesn't make much sense that maxwells shadow puppets can walk on water... I wouldn't mind if merms could swim at base though. This would showcase their aquatic nature and the ability could carry over to shadow merms

[HeatAndRun]

12 hours ago, Creatorofswamps said:

Many shadows can walk calmly on water

Off-topic, but this reminds me of my worst nightmare : Shadow chess pieces walking between ocean boundaries!!

[goblinball]

These changes would be perfect! Them being able to walk on water seems like such a small change but it makes a huge difference. I love your redesign as well, they’re small changes but again they make it much better.

[Dr.Webber]

I kinda want shadow merms to work like mutated merms and have merm guards Look like Wurt’s triumphant skin

 But if they’re sticking to them having to die first this is a good design and hopefully they make it so it’s the same for mutated merms where they have to get possessed by their own gastalt-ified spirit like the possessed boss corpses and use the lunar equivalent to Shadow tentacles (maybe a rapidly opening and shutting anenemy That last same amount of time as shadow tentacles) instead of lunacy for the brilliant mudskipper and speaking of the dreaded mudskipper place with the horrific mudskipper and has A more equivalent and non-dread stone design

[Instant-Noodles]

15 hours ago, Creatorofswamps said:

-"physical appearance" under the influence of Pure Horror-

When the shadow merms are under the influence of Pure Horror, visually it is just a Red lightning, whereas the shadows associated with Pure Horror are black, with White eyes and a Red "combat paint ", I propose to equalize the shadow mermaids under the action of Pure Horror with the of Rift shadows, since the moon mermaids under pure luster have already received "possessed eyes", It will be fair .Redesigned sample concept:

There is actually already placeholder art for a Pure Horror Shadow Merm eye fx, but the fx is currently disabled in the beta.  The code currently references "fx_flame_red", so I assume the final eye fx will be similar to the Ink Blight flames.  

And from code comments, we should also be getting a small variant of the Shadow Merm Guard too.

Spoiler

 Here's a Pure Horror Shadow Merm with the currently disabled placeholder eye fx next to a Pure Brilliance Lunar Merm. 

 

 

[Creatorofswamps]

6 minutes ago, Instant-Noodles said:

15 hours ago, Creatorofswamps said:

-"physical appearance" under the influence of Pure Horror-

When the shadow merms are under the influence of Pure Horror, visually it is just a Red lightning, whereas the shadows associated with Pure Horror are black, with White eyes and a Red "combat paint ", I propose to equalize the shadow mermaids under the action of Pure Horror with the of Rift shadows, since the moon mermaids under pure luster have already received "possessed eyes", It will be fair .Redesigned sample concept:

Expand  

There is actually already placeholder art for a Pure Horror Shadow Merm eye fx, but the fx is currently disabled in the beta.  The code currently references "fx_flame_red", so I assume the final eye fx will be similar to the Ink Blight flames.  

And from code comments, we should also be getting a small variant of the Shadow Merm Guard too.

  Reveal hidden contents

 Here's a Pure Horror Shadow Merm with the currently disabled placeholder eye fx next to a Pure Brilliance Lunar Merm. 

 

This is extremely interesting and encouraging news, thank you very much for telling about it!

[Dr.Webber]

3 hours ago, Dr.Webber said:

I kinda want shadow merms to work like mutated merms and have merm guards Look like Wurt’s triumphant skin

 But if they’re sticking to them having to die first this is a good design and hopefully they make it so it’s the same for mutated merms where they have to get possessed by their own gastalt-ified spirit like the possessed boss corpses and use the lunar equivalent to Shadow tentacles (maybe a rapidly opening and shutting anenemy That last same amount of time as shadow tentacles) instead of lunacy for the brilliant mudskipper and speaking of the dreaded mudskipper place with the horrific mudskipper and has A more equivalent and non-dread stone design

Oh and I forgot to mention I have criterium  for the design of the merm guard  could horns be incorporated into it and if the mutated merm stuff becomes a resurrection thing then I thing it would be cool if wurt’s moonbound skin was a three horned bright eyed frog