Dinosaurs Solution to Raptor Skin Issue

[HailToHolo91]

To any of the developers and designers at Frontier,

I'd like to start off by saying that the game that your team has created is, at this point, amazing. It understandably did start off somewhat rocky, but your willingness to support this game and take both criticism and suggestions from this community and fanbase has escalated this game to extraordinary heights. As you obviously keep somewhat of an eye on the pulse of this community and the issues it presents, you are no doubt aware of the disappointment many of us have in regards to the dull and bland nature of the raptor skins available at this time.

This is the way I see it and, though I may be wrong, what I believe a lot of people are wanting. I think that it's less that people want exact movie skins for the raptors(though that is definitely something that would be appreciated). The more pressing issue as far as I can see is that the skins that are currently available for the raptors are at best boring, at worst ugly. I must say that for most part the skins for nearly all other dinosaurs, save a few, are phenomenal and creative. So it comes off as disappointing that one of the flagship animals of the franchise has such lackluster skin options. As much as I love the raptors from the movies, I rarely ever use them in my parks late game. I opt for the Herrerasaurus as a superior replacement. Which is very unfortunate as the raptors are my favorite element of the Jurassic franchise.

If the issue is an order from Universal to not use skins of the raptors from the Park movies(in order to elevate the new ones) or the World movies(as they are individual characters), my suggestion would be to do similar to what you did with the Wetland Rex skin. It has been noted by many that the Wetland Rex skin that you added is similar to the Buck Rex from The Lost World. Not the same, but close enough to bare a relative resemblance. I would do the same with the raptors.

First, be prepared to overhaul all raptor skins except maybe the base skin.

Second, take a poll and ask the community to vote between all the raptor skins from all movies. As I count, that's nine raptor versions to chose from. Have the poll narrow it down to the most popular five. (Ex. Mine would be JP1, male raptors TLW, Female Raptor JP3, Echo and Charlie JW)

Third, Once you've gotten the five picks, adjust them enough to where they are distinct from the movie counterpart and yet still bare a resemblance. Change the patterns a bit, the color, etc.

I think this would present the best option for both parties. These new skins would not conflict with the individuality of the raptor pack, it would allow for the showcasing of the art team's creativity, and players would get visually stunning raptors to proudly display in their parks. Whether the new skins would be just similar or not similar enough would be up to the player. But if the skins are much more interesting and cool looking I doubt many will complain.

This is all just a suggestion that I hope gets to you guys and you take note of. This has become one of my favorite games of all time and the inclusion of improved raptor skins(and other elements I may make posts about later) would raise it even higher on the list for me.

 

[Indoraptor27]

(Ex. Mine would be JP1, male raptors TLW, Female Raptor JP3, Echo and Charlie JW)

Third, Once you've gotten the five picks, adjust them enough to where they are distinct from the movie counterpart and yet still bare a resemblance. Change the patterns a bit, the color, etc.

I would personally want a skin resembling Blue, JP3 males, TLW males, JP raptors, and Echo. I also want the skins to look as similar to the movie raptors as possible instead of changing them.

 

[HailToHolo91]

I would personally want a skin resembling Blue, JP3 males, TLW males, JP raptors, and Echo. I also want the skins to look as similar to the movie raptors as possible instead of changing them.

I agree, though I would be more than willing to accept a compromise from Frontier if it meant we could get skins that were worthwhile. Echo especially I would love to have as is.

 

[Indoraptor27]

Also welcome to the forums.

 

[HailToHolo91]

Also welcome to the forums.

Thank you for the welcome

 

[gabeluna27]

The character raptors have little chance of appearing because they've confirmed multiple times they want to keep their unique character nature that way. Community manager Paul_Crowther has already confirmed last year they are very well aware of people asking for these features. It's just a matter of knowing how they would come to be if it really would be a thing.

The cosmetic gene effects are cohesive as to what they can already do: change the skin color and occasionally the pattering, and some dinosaurs have 2 pattering options, but the t.rex has 3. So if any multiple extremely different skin designs from the films for any dinosaur were to be a thing, it would be best to have a different mechanic for introduction. Every skin in-game is confirmed to match the aesthetic-ness of the Jurassic Park franchise, but everything is meant to be subjective, meaning not everything in game is for everyone, no matter what it is. So a massive design overhaul for something that's post-launched in a community voting system to pick from, like you suggested, seems unlikely because, this is not how mainstream development typically works.

Also, male designs may be a bit challenging to implement because every dinosaur in-game, except the Indoraptor, is confirmed both by the in-game tour voiceover and developers to be female, as intended for the parks in the films. That's not to say they may not ever have a chance for certain dinosaurs, but I think it wouldn't be easy to make it more sensible.

For further reference, here's what Paul_Crowther had to say in an old forum thread.

If you would like, you can check and see how I suggested how these designs could work in someone else's most previous idea/request thread:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/1993-dinosaurs-model-texture-changes.518265/#post-7918100

 

[HailToHolo91]

The character raptors have little chance of appearing because they've confirmed multiple times they want to keep their unique character nature that way. Community manager Paul_Crowther has already confirmed last year they are very well aware of people asking for these features. It's just a matter of knowing how they would come to be if it really would be a thing.

The cosmetic gene effects are cohesive as to what they can already do: change the skin color and occasionally the pattering, and some dinosaurs have 2 pattering options, but the t.rex has 3. So if any multiple extremely different skin designs from the films for any dinosaur were to be a thing, it would be best to have a different mechanic for introduction. Every skin in-game is confirmed to match the aesthetic-ness of the Jurassic Park franchise, but everything is meant to be subjective, meaning not everything in game is for everyone, no matter what it is. So a massive design overhaul for something that's post-launched in a community voting system to pick from, like you suggested, seems unlikely because, this is not how mainstream development typically works.

Also, male designs may be a bit challenging to implement because every dinosaur in-game, except the Indoraptor, is confirmed both by the in-game tour voiceover and developers to be female, as intended for the parks in the films. That's not to say they may not ever have a chance for certain dinosaurs, but I think it wouldn't be easy to make it more sensible.

For further reference, here's what Paul_Crowther had to say in an old forum thread.
View attachment 140547

If you would like, you can check and see how I suggested how these designs could work in someone else's most previous idea/request thread:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/1993-dinosaurs-model-texture-changes.518265/#post-7918100

I do like the idea you presented. As you said, adding a special cosmetic gene similar to I-Rex would probably work well. One of the things that I intended to note but did not put down was that the Raptor skins in-game would all make great base layers if more interesting markings and designs were put over them. As much as I would like to see skins like Echo in the game, I think it much more likely as well as more sensible to give skins that are, say, 80% similar or something.

 

[Aharttsx]

I still don't see the whole "Raptor Squad skins (Blue in particular) are special characters" as a good enough reason to not release them in the game when they know people are wanting that very thing. Hell, it could even be an opportunity for some interesting content : make a DLC centered about the Raptor squad or something, it could even be a new attraction where visitors could observe the raptors being trained. At the end of the story missions associated with it, unlock research for the genetic imprint of those raptors so you can breed other raptors with those skins - JW does sort of revolve around genetic manipulation and cloning after all. They could probably even do something similar but with Rexy's scarred up skin while theyre at it.

I get that Universal is probably the ones tying their hands on the matter, but even still this is something that I feel they shouldn't be trying to make excuses up as to why they can't add skins for the dinos shown in the movies - they should be trying to figure out ways that they could add this into the game while still respecting those characters.

 

[gabeluna27]

I still don't see the whole "Raptor Squad skins (Blue in particular) are special characters" as a good enough reason to not release them in the game when they know people are wanting that very thing. Hell, it could even be an opportunity for some interesting content : make a DLC centered about the Raptor squad or something, it could even be a new attraction where visitors could observe the raptors being trained. At the end of the story missions associated with it, unlock research for the genetic imprint of those raptors so you can breed other raptors with those skins - JW does sort of revolve around genetic manipulation and cloning after all. They could probably even do something similar but with Rexy's scarred up skin while theyre at it.

I get that Universal is probably the ones tying their hands on the matter, but even still this is something that I feel they shouldn't be trying to make excuses up as to why they can't add skins for the dinos shown in the movies - they should be trying to figure out ways that they could add this into the game while still respecting those characters.

They know some people are asking for them, but they've confirmed countless times already they have no plans for them because the character raptors are unique specimens of velociraptor with their own distinct looks and personalities, to both make them feel more special as actual "characters" and not generic dinosaurs in the game and to stay true with some of the film lore elements the game utilizes for it's own story, particularly the first Jurassic World / fourth Jurassic Park movie.

Maybe that might change, but as of now, I see zero potential for these dinosaur designs to be in the game because they're not and won't be characters here if just added like "there you go, here's some more looks for you to choose".

The only way to further help video game development, specifically for currently active developing post-launch games like this, is to provide constructive feedback. Sometimes those kind of ideas might make it, sometimes they might not.

 

[Aharttsx]

They know some people are asking for them, but they've confirmed countless times already they have no plans for them because the character raptors are unique specimens of velociraptor with their own distinct looks and personalities, to both make them feel more special as actual "characters" and not generic dinosaurs elsewhere and to stay true with the franchise's film lore elements the game utilizes.

Which, in the very first line of my post I say that I personally do not believe this to be a good enough reason to essentially have a game about the franchise's characters and dinos... and then not include the most popular dinosaur characters from it. While they don't exhibit as much personality as the raptor squad does, dinos like the T-rex, Indominus rex, Indoraptor, and Spinosaurus are also fairly prominent characters in the movies (Yes, they are characters - mostly sci-fi movie monsters, but still characters none the less). But no, some how the Raptor Squad is more important than all of those other significant dinos when 3 of the 4 of them are basically just background characters. Sure the raptors do exhibit some forms of personality and are generally tamer than the raptors of previous films, but we actually see very little of echo, charlie, and delta in the first JW and they are dead in the second one... Blue is really the only one that shows any significant personality and has any significant impact on the plot... The fact that Owen mentions Blue in JWE, but Blue doesn't even exist in the game about the JW dinosaurs is something that just does not make any sense to me. As stated before, I believe they could come up with a creative means to add them into the game while still respecting the character's individuality.

The only way to further help video game development, specifically for currently active developing post-launch games like this, is to provide constructive feedback. Sometimes those kind of ideas might make it, sometimes they might not.

In response to your edited post, this is precisely why I tossed out the ideas that i did - my feedback being that X content is missing from the game for X reason when it is a very common desire in the community, and instead of finding reasons to not add it to the game, they could come up with something creative to add it in and still work with the characters, and even gave a potential idea to integrate said content into the game without going against the reason why it's not in the game in the first place....