Bonemouse—
First off, I would like to say that I am in love with this texture pack. I've been using it for about three months now, and it's only been getting better and better. Very nice work, keep it up.
Second off, I would like to ask you can add support for the Better Than Wolves mod. I know that I sound a bit exacting, and I know that mod support is coming soon, according to the OP; however, I just want to know if you're able to do this, in case you'd never get to it, otherwise. I use Better Than Wolves regularly, however, it's a big mod, which means that if I use Isabella alongside it, about half the blocks/items in the game will be default, and half will be Isabella. So I only ever wind up using Isabella when playing Vanilla.
It sounds like a lot of work, but if you're ever able to get around to it, that would be amazing. Thanks
@Beebou
Probably not anytime soon. BTW has a lot of textures and currently I'm getting pounded by the mass amounts of updates coming from Mojang. I'll consider it for the future, though.
@Conker
I'll probably release incremental versions that are snapshot compatible as I work on it. The new changes that they introduce has me rethink mob and armor design which is a fairly big project and needs to be approached a little more carefully. I'll be coming to you guys for opinions on this later.
When a update from Mojang comes out, I approach Isabella from two primary. How can I make this look right? And what problems can I solve?
The major changes revolve around mobs and armor as far as Isabella is concerned. These changes are: Mobs now wear armor, zombie villagers were added, leather armor is dye-able, dog collars are dye-able.
The last 2 problems I have very little control over: The colors of the colored leather and colored collars are hard coded into the game. This will be fixed with MCPatcher, I'm sure. Probably not OptiFine, though.
Dyeing sort of screws with the design of Isabella's armor. As it is is now, leather looks like leather, iron looks like iron ON leather, diamond looks like diamonds ON iron ON leather. This is a fairly minor issue. It is, however, worth keeping in mind since this isn't ideal.
Possible Solution 1: I'm pretty sure the default for leather is brown and really I'd only need to match the leather parts or iron and diamond to the new hard-coded color.
Possible Solution 2: Redesign the armor so they aren't as visually related anymore.
Next up is "Mobs now wear armor"
The most obvious issue is this means I need to get rid of all my RandoMob variations that are wearing armor. Not a huge deal for skellies or zombies, just delete the armored variations. But for netherpigs, the variations are entirely based on them wearing different combinations of the gold armor.
Possible solution 1: Keep gold armor as is and make variations of the base texture for the pigs.
Possible solution 2: Design new gold armor that looks good layered on top of the current zombie pigmen designs.
Another issue that arises from this is that other mobs wear gold armor (correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe netherpigs only ever spawn with gold.) Lore-wise, this doesn't quite fit since the the current gold armor design IS netherpig armor. "Possible solution 2" above would solve this, though.
Next problem is: Mobs don't always wear a full set of armor. The current armor was designed under the assumption that players would want a full set and gradually replace the lower tier pieces for higher tiers (ie swap leather pants for iron pants.) Mobs do not share the player's fashion sense and therefor can spawn only wearing one or two pieces. This looks particularly heinous when a skeleton spawns only wearing pants.
Possible solution 1: Keep armor as-is since armored mobs don't spawn that often.
Possible solution 2: Redesign the armor to look better on mobs.
Because of the skellies, it would probably look best if this new armor had minimal coverage. IE instead of a full chest, just shoulder pads; instead of pants, just a belt.
Onto Zombie Villagers.
From a practical point of view, the major issue with zombie villagers is the size of their heads and how helmets fit on them. With the current mask design of iron and diamond helmets, this will be an issue because they will cover their foreheads and eyes.
Possible solution 1: Ignore, zombie villagers are rare, zombie villagers wearing helmets are even rarer.
Possible solution 2: Ditch the mask design in favor of something more flexible.
From Isabella's lore perspective the presence of zombie villagers implies that zombies and villagers are somehow related. Are villagers the offspring of humans who had been twisted and deformed by magic? If this is the case, is it worth bringing villagers visually more inline with humans?
Anyways, this is wear I'm at. Nothing has been set in stone so if you want to chime in with your concerns, ideas, approval of one thing or another, please do.
I'd say keep the majority of the armor as-is. Like you said, mobs that spawn with armor on are very rare, anyway, so it's not worth changing the texture just so armor looks better on them.
As for gold, though, I'd say change it. I was honestly never a fan of gold to begin with, it looked way too revealing for me, and in a way, not even like armor. It'd be hard to tell that mobs were wearing it.
Just my opinion.
I always thought that the golden armor was pretty cool and unique, but i think it is only me, that also happened with the old glowstone and hlowstone lamp
Dyeing sort of screws with the design of Isabella's armor. As it is is now, leather looks like leather, iron looks like iron ON leather, diamond looks like diamonds ON iron ON leather. This is a fairly minor issue. It is, however, worth keeping in mind since this isn't ideal.
Possible Solution 1: I'm pretty sure the default for leather is brown and really I'd only need to match the leather parts or iron and diamond to the new hard-coded color.
Possible Solution 2: Redesign the armor so they aren't as visually related anymore.
Assuming default colors remain the way they are now, there's no need to redesign. If people want to bling their armor and look like crap while doing so, that's their decision. If Steve?'s alone in the wilderness, he's going to want colors that blend in, not be running around in some garish neon yellow and pink getup.
Next up is "Mobs now wear armor"
The most obvious issue is this means I need to get rid of all my RandoMob variations that are wearing armor. Not a huge deal for skellies or zombies, just delete the armored variations. But for netherpigs, the variations are entirely based on them wearing different combinations of the gold armor.
Possible solution 1: Keep gold armor as is and make variations of the base texture for the pigs.
Possible solution 2: Design new gold armor that looks good layered on top of the current zombie pigmen designs.
Another issue that arises from this is that other mobs wear gold armor (correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe netherpigs only ever spawn with gold.) Lore-wise, this doesn't quite fit since the the current gold armor design IS netherpig armor. "Possible solution 2" above would solve this, though.
I'd probably keep things as-is with option 1. Gold armor is rare for players to be seen wearing since its durability and protection are approximately nil.
Next problem is: Mobs don't always wear a full set of armor. The current armor was designed under the assumption that players would want a full set and gradually replace the lower tier pieces for higher tiers (ie swap leather pants for iron pants.) Mobs do not share the player's fashion sense and therefor can spawn only wearing one or two pieces. This looks particularly heinous when a skeleton spawns only wearing pants.
Possible solution 1: Keep armor as-is since armored mobs don't spawn that often.
Possible solution 2: Redesign the armor to look better on mobs.
Because of the skellies, it would probably look best if this new armor had minimal coverage. IE instead of a full chest, just shoulder pads; instead of pants, just a belt.
Absolutely the first option. If Mojang wants to make armored monsters look like crap, that's Mojang's decision. Monsters aren't very visible, anyway, since they die so fast.
Onto Zombie Villagers.
From a practical point of view, the major issue with zombie villagers is the size of their heads and how helmets fit on them. With the current mask design of iron and diamond helmets, this will be an issue because they will cover their foreheads and eyes.
Possible solution 1: Ignore, zombie villagers are rare, zombie villagers wearing helmets are even rarer.
Possible solution 2: Ditch the mask design in favor of something more flexible.
From Isabella's lore perspective the presence of zombie villagers implies that zombies and villagers are somehow related. Are villagers the offspring of humans who had been twisted and deformed by magic? If this is the case, is it worth bringing villagers visually more inline with humans?
I'd prefer the more squidward-esque villagers. I wouldn't have a problem with zombie villagers having helmets that cover their eyes - they're zombies, what do they care if they can see you well?
RE: Villager Lore
When the zombies-hate-villagers update popped up, I started retconning where the villagers came from in my head. Since zombies were humans at one point and the hate villagers (to the point of ignoring the pure human player,) I figured that zombies (humans) and villagers had a special relationship.
So, remember in The Planet of the Apes, how Heston thought all humans were dead and replaced by the apes only to discover some surviving underground. Except they were all twisted and mutated?
Yah, that's what I figured happened to the villagers.
But the more I think about it (and after reading everyone's feedback) the more it occurs to me that I can just leave it as is. The presence of zombie villagers doesn't mess with my lore at all if we look at the zombies as being the result of a disease/plague.
@Conker, PizzaShark, Montpelier
Thanks for the feedback. I think an action plan is slowly taking shape.
No problem. Isabella is still the most consistent, well-rounded texture pack out there that doesn't stray far from the original Minecraft theme. It's still my default texture pack unless I need a pack that's filling a specific theme (futuristic, post-apocalyptic/modern, etc.) Plus it's interesting picking the brain of someone that's apparently educated in artsy stuff
RE: Villager Lore
When the zombies-hate-villagers update popped up, I started retconning where the villagers came from in my head. Since zombies were humans at one point and the hate villagers (to the point of ignoring the pure human player,) I figured that zombies (humans) and villagers had a special relationship.
So, remember in The Planet of the Apes, how Heston thought all humans were dead and replaced by the apes only to discover some surviving underground. Except they were all twisted and mutated?
Yah, that's what I figured happened to the villagers.
But the more I think about it (and after reading everyone's feedback) the more it occurs to me that I can just leave it as is. The presence of zombie villagers doesn't mess with my lore at all if we look at the zombies as being the result of a disease/plague.
If we're using the Isabella concept where Steve? is shipwrecked in a strange land (think like if Columbus found the North American continent by getting shipwrecked there, not deliberately sailing in that direction), I'd think the villagers would just be a related, but different species to Steve?kind. Like if the aboriginal tribes in Australia were a completely different species from the white people the Brits sent there, rather than just humans with a different skin color and slightly different facial structure.
As for what makes zombies... who knows? Creepers and spiders could be just your usual fauna, but zombies and skeletons have to originate from something that used to be living. Maybe there's a Minecraftian god that curses someone with undeath if they **** him off.
Related, would it be possible to have both Steve?-like skeletons and villager-like skeletons, complete with bony little squidward noses? Maybe it could be accomplished via a special "helmet" for the skeletons to spawn with by default? I guess they'd lose the squidward noses and be just normal skeletons if they picked up a helmet and put it on, but that could be easily ignored.
LOVE this pack, but I really think you should lighten up the stone slabs or at least revert them back to the old stone slabs. Or get the customizer working and put them both in. I can't see them on any of my builds that use other stone materials along with them. Thanks.
First off, I would like to say that I am in love with this texture pack. I've been using it for about three months now, and it's only been getting better and better. Very nice work, keep it up.
Second off, I would like to ask you can add support for the Better Than Wolves mod. I know that I sound a bit exacting, and I know that mod support is coming soon, according to the OP; however, I just want to know if you're able to do this, in case you'd never get to it, otherwise. I use Better Than Wolves regularly, however, it's a big mod, which means that if I use Isabella alongside it, about half the blocks/items in the game will be default, and half will be Isabella. So I only ever wind up using Isabella when playing Vanilla.
It sounds like a lot of work, but if you're ever able to get around to it, that would be amazing. Thanks
Probably not anytime soon. BTW has a lot of textures and currently I'm getting pounded by the mass amounts of updates coming from Mojang. I'll consider it for the future, though.
@Conker
I'll probably release incremental versions that are snapshot compatible as I work on it. The new changes that they introduce has me rethink mob and armor design which is a fairly big project and needs to be approached a little more carefully. I'll be coming to you guys for opinions on this later.
The major changes revolve around mobs and armor as far as Isabella is concerned. These changes are: Mobs now wear armor, zombie villagers were added, leather armor is dye-able, dog collars are dye-able.
The last 2 problems I have very little control over: The colors of the colored leather and colored collars are hard coded into the game. This will be fixed with MCPatcher, I'm sure. Probably not OptiFine, though.
Dyeing sort of screws with the design of Isabella's armor. As it is is now, leather looks like leather, iron looks like iron ON leather, diamond looks like diamonds ON iron ON leather. This is a fairly minor issue. It is, however, worth keeping in mind since this isn't ideal.
- Possible Solution 1: I'm pretty sure the default for leather is brown and really I'd only need to match the leather parts or iron and diamond to the new hard-coded color.
- Possible Solution 2: Redesign the armor so they aren't as visually related anymore.
Next up is "Mobs now wear armor"The most obvious issue is this means I need to get rid of all my RandoMob variations that are wearing armor. Not a huge deal for skellies or zombies, just delete the armored variations. But for netherpigs, the variations are entirely based on them wearing different combinations of the gold armor.
- Possible solution 1: Keep gold armor as is and make variations of the base texture for the pigs.
- Possible solution 2: Design new gold armor that looks good layered on top of the current zombie pigmen designs.
Another issue that arises from this is that other mobs wear gold armor (correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe netherpigs only ever spawn with gold.) Lore-wise, this doesn't quite fit since the the current gold armor design IS netherpig armor. "Possible solution 2" above would solve this, though.Next problem is: Mobs don't always wear a full set of armor. The current armor was designed under the assumption that players would want a full set and gradually replace the lower tier pieces for higher tiers (ie swap leather pants for iron pants.) Mobs do not share the player's fashion sense and therefor can spawn only wearing one or two pieces. This looks particularly heinous when a skeleton spawns only wearing pants.
- Possible solution 1: Keep armor as-is since armored mobs don't spawn that often.
- Possible solution 2: Redesign the armor to look better on mobs.
- Because of the skellies, it would probably look best if this new armor had minimal coverage. IE instead of a full chest, just shoulder pads; instead of pants, just a belt.
Onto Zombie Villagers.From a practical point of view, the major issue with zombie villagers is the size of their heads and how helmets fit on them. With the current mask design of iron and diamond helmets, this will be an issue because they will cover their foreheads and eyes.
- Possible solution 1: Ignore, zombie villagers are rare, zombie villagers wearing helmets are even rarer.
- Possible solution 2: Ditch the mask design in favor of something more flexible.
From Isabella's lore perspective the presence of zombie villagers implies that zombies and villagers are somehow related. Are villagers the offspring of humans who had been twisted and deformed by magic? If this is the case, is it worth bringing villagers visually more inline with humans?Anyways, this is wear I'm at. Nothing has been set in stone so if you want to chime in with your concerns, ideas, approval of one thing or another, please do.
As for gold, though, I'd say change it. I was honestly never a fan of gold to begin with, it looked way too revealing for me, and in a way, not even like armor. It'd be hard to tell that mobs were wearing it.
Just my opinion.
But also OptiFine's CTM implementation is much more limited.
Assuming default colors remain the way they are now, there's no need to redesign. If people want to bling their armor and look like crap while doing so, that's their decision. If Steve?'s alone in the wilderness, he's going to want colors that blend in, not be running around in some garish neon yellow and pink getup.
I'd probably keep things as-is with option 1. Gold armor is rare for players to be seen wearing since its durability and protection are approximately nil.
Absolutely the first option. If Mojang wants to make armored monsters look like crap, that's Mojang's decision. Monsters aren't very visible, anyway, since they die so fast.
I'd prefer the more squidward-esque villagers. I wouldn't have a problem with zombie villagers having helmets that cover their eyes - they're zombies, what do they care if they can see you well?
It'd be pretty low on the priority list if I did.
@Beebou
Thanks for the heads up.
@Conker, PizzaShark, Montpelier
Thanks for the feedback. I think an action plan is slowly taking shape.
RE: Villager Lore
When the zombies-hate-villagers update popped up, I started retconning where the villagers came from in my head. Since zombies were humans at one point and the hate villagers (to the point of ignoring the pure human player,) I figured that zombies (humans) and villagers had a special relationship.
So, remember in The Planet of the Apes, how Heston thought all humans were dead and replaced by the apes only to discover some surviving underground. Except they were all twisted and mutated?
Yah, that's what I figured happened to the villagers.
But the more I think about it (and after reading everyone's feedback) the more it occurs to me that I can just leave it as is. The presence of zombie villagers doesn't mess with my lore at all if we look at the zombies as being the result of a disease/plague.
No problem. Isabella is still the most consistent, well-rounded texture pack out there that doesn't stray far from the original Minecraft theme. It's still my default texture pack unless I need a pack that's filling a specific theme (futuristic, post-apocalyptic/modern, etc.) Plus it's interesting picking the brain of someone that's apparently educated in artsy stuff
If we're using the Isabella concept where Steve? is shipwrecked in a strange land (think like if Columbus found the North American continent by getting shipwrecked there, not deliberately sailing in that direction), I'd think the villagers would just be a related, but different species to Steve?kind. Like if the aboriginal tribes in Australia were a completely different species from the white people the Brits sent there, rather than just humans with a different skin color and slightly different facial structure.
As for what makes zombies... who knows? Creepers and spiders could be just your usual fauna, but zombies and skeletons have to originate from something that used to be living. Maybe there's a Minecraftian god that curses someone with undeath if they **** him off.
Related, would it be possible to have both Steve?-like skeletons and villager-like skeletons, complete with bony little squidward noses? Maybe it could be accomplished via a special "helmet" for the skeletons to spawn with by default? I guess they'd lose the squidward noses and be just normal skeletons if they picked up a helmet and put it on, but that could be easily ignored.
I can help deal with that