NC Style Pet

[Nogitsune]

Apparently Grey, Faerie, and Darigan will be the first colours appearing at the NC mall in a style reminiscent (if updated) of UC pets. Since it'll hit the 23rd, I figured this would be a good time to start any thoughts or discussions or have a place for them once they launch.

[Ailiel]

I'm in disbelief that after all this time they are finally giving us access back to the original art. It's amazing.

Less amazing is that as of the 23rd all of my pets will be auto-converted and wearing their UC selves as a skin. Trying to get used to the idea. I really wish they would allow the original UCs to stay the same, but that may be that's just what I'm used to. At this point I'm more used to the unconverted/converted pet dichotomy than I am to what we had pre-2007, all pets the same.

One thing I think is a bit sad is that you won't need to actually have your pet painted Darigan, Faerie, or Grey to have the unconverted version. Paint Brushes are such an iconic part of Neopets and painting your pet used to be such a goal and a huge deal. Now it's so "meh", I've actually overwritten a few Fountain Faerie Quests this year.

[Jazzy]

Yeah, I feel like it's a mistake not to have to paint your pet first. It's very pay-to-win feeling - if your blue aisha can be maraquan UC with a skin, what's the point of the maraquan pb? I have quite a few UC pets (have never traded but I have six of them which I painted before the switchover) and I don't like that they'll just be wearing a skin.

I would also bet a lot of money that female royalboys/male royalgirls will no longer be possible if it's just a skin on a normal pet, which will be frustrating if I'm correct as I've got a female UC royalboy shoyru and I reckon she's going to immediately go from green to red.

I have saved a copy of all of the UC pet images we have on Neocolours and I am also working on saving a copy of the large version of all non-UC pets, just in case the process of adding UC pets means the image URLs for ordinary pets change.

[Nogitsune]

Yeah, I feel like it's a mistake not to have to paint your pet first. It's very pay-to-win feeling - if your blue aisha can be maraquan UC with a skin, what's the point of the maraquan pb? I have quite a few UC pets (have never traded but I have six of them which I painted before the switchover) and I don't like that they'll just be wearing a skin.

I would also bet a lot of money that female royalboys/male royalgirls will no longer be possible if it's just a skin on a normal pet, which will be frustrating if I'm correct as I've got a female UC royalboy shoyru and I reckon she's going to immediately go from green to red.

I have saved a copy of all of the UC pet images we have on Neocolours and I am also working on saving a copy of the large version of all non-UC pets, just in case the process of adding UC pets means the image URLs for ordinary pets change.

I was kind of hoping I was mistaken in that. It seems a weird thing to have it as some kind of skin over whatever neopet you happen to have. Plus with some of the art upgrades we've seen in clothing and items, I'd rather them focus on the current pets than the UC ones. I could actually see a lot of those ending up resembling the UC in style.

[Jazzy]

Just to say, I have now saved a copy of all of the existing large images, UC and non-UC, as well as making sure I've got all the old images.

Some stats!
There are only 226 grandfathered UC pets.
There are 1965 pets with a full set of old images on the servers, so there are just over 1700 pets which could newly be made UC. There are also possibly a very small number of unreleased pets like the Grey Draik which they may or may not use.

When the new UC skins (or however they choose to do it) go up, I am hoping to put them on Neocolours but it may depend how practical this is - they need to be static images for our purposes.

[Ailiel]

Well done Jazzy, thanks for preserving all that.

Today's the day. This is what I've wanted since basically the conversion happened, some access back to the old art pets, but it is going to be so weird to have my pets auto-converted tomorrow after all this time.

Edit: the news just updated and it will be 600 NC for a "random" style (?) and 1400 NC to be able to choose your "style" (I assume they mean color, in this case Darigan, Faerie, or Grey)

[soupfaerie]

I cant believe this forum is still going! Im THRILLED they are bringing back my old pet art!!

I guess it's an appropriate time to divulge that the original Darigan Poogle was literally uploaded as a joke that you guys would find and freak out over. It was bad on purpose and Adam thought it would be funny. It was never intended to be ACTUALLY MADE later on, i have no idea who ended up drawing the rest of the poses or why they used the crappy one instead of designing one for real but I was annoyed by that

[Jazzy]

Hey, welcome back! I always loved your Plushie Moehog (at least I think that one's yours, right?) and hoping to finally get one of those once the plushies become available! I'm glad to see you're happy the old art is back, as I always thought it must have been a shame for all the artists when all the artwork disappeared.

I just love that people have spent actual neopoints getting a darigan poogle, especially back in the day when 1.4m np was an unachievable goal for a lot of people.

edit: right, so - any pet that already existed as a UC, the URL has auto-updated to show the new artwork so I don't have to find URLs for all those pets. Phew! See the Faerie Blumaroo for an example of one they have redrawn the lineart for: http://www.neocolours.me.uk/viewpet.php ... e&pose=all

For the pets that didn't previously exist as a UC, e.g the Grey Draik and Faerie Hissi, I will need to obtain URLs for them (without any backgrounds etc). Not sure how straightforward this will be. Might ask around for help from people who have them.

Also, female royalboys still work! That's really interesting - I wonder whether they will still be possible when people create new UCs.

[Ailiel]

It's lovely to see you here again soupfaerie, I actually looked up your old comments on here the other day because you were one of the only artists to give us some insight into the original decision making process behind UCs and with the rerelease a lot of people have been curious about what happened back then. Although I know Snarkie touched on it more on her AMA website. It's just very interesting to have a peak into how these decisions got made, the entire customization experience affected the game so profoundly! It's crazy to think that ALL the pet art is over 16 years old now and will never be updated again most likely (with that many years of UC clothing items now).

It's definitely a different experience browsing the site now with all of the UC art, this has gone off like gangbusters, I've never seen such a rush to buy anything on the site before like this.

I'm still able to enter my formerly UC, now "nostalgic" pets in the NP section of the customization spotlight.

[Jazzy]

I'm happy, I've managed to recreate my old Mara Ixi with the new releases

Working hard on getting the new images up - I've found everything except the maraquan mynci and baby meerca. If anyone has one, please let me know!