Goblins. You love 'em, we love 'em, but nobody woves them more than Mod Wov. In fact, his fondness for these little green troublemakers grew so strong that it sparked an internal goblin movement dedicated to giving them the glow-up they deserve. So today you get a bloggo for the gobbo, to look at what's coming down the line for them.
It's fair to say that Bandos's best bois have certainly seen better days. Over the last three years Mod Wov, with help from other artists such as Mod Damo, has been making great progress behind the scenes, updating their designs and bringing them more in line with the look and feel of modern Gielinor.
Today, we wanted to share a progress update and gather your feedback on how they're shaping up!
Just to help see these work-in-progress buggers in action, here are a couple gifs
including their chathead...!
One of the key goals of the Goblin refresh has been balancing the personality and uniqueness of the current live goblins with a more efficient and sustainable approach to model creation.
Older generations of RuneScape models were lower detail and relatively quick to produce, making it easier to create lots of unique variants. Modern workflows, however, allow for higher-quality results, but also require more time and effort.
As a result, we've been exploring greater use of shared components and modular designs while still preserving the individuality of different goblin types. It's a balance we're keen to get right, and we'd love to hear what you think, especially with the following examples.
As you cast your eyes over the next few comparisons, keep the following in mind: Do the goblins still feel distinct? Has anything been lost along the way? Is there anything you'd like to see pushed further?
As you'll be able to note, we are trying to keep the important small details seen on the OG gobbos... including Grubfoot's black eye that he obtains along our adventures.
As a bit of context for the next two - Nostrillia and Wagchin: According to lore, "male and female goblins are indistinguishable to non-goblins". With that in mind, we've changed their body posture to bring them more in line with other goblins. We do of course want to retain some unique elements so as to not make them entirely generic.
To keep this project manageable, we're looking at changing the following goblins armour to be wearing either normal goblin armour, or adapted versions of it - rather than have out-right unique designs for each of them.
Goblin Raiders and Hollowtoof won't have their entirely unique Raider Set anymore, though the set that players wear will remain untouched.
Similar to the above Hollowtoof changes, we're also spending some time looking at and simplifying the more bespoke God Wars Dungeon goblins, Yelp's Henchmen, Snotgut and General Graardor's Bodyguards. The approach here is, like above, a more regular but modified goblin armour set instead of entirely unique sets.
Are there are gobbos in these last groups that you feel especially strongly about that should not be simplified?
Finally, a question on Goblin Emotes and Animations, such as the Goblin Mob Teleport and or the Crowd Serf Rest animation - do you find yourself using these very often and would you argue that they are in urgent need of a remaster or can we take our time with those?
If you haven't yet had enough of Gobbos (AND WHY WOULD YOU!?), keep reading to find out how the Big High War-God/Jagex Art Team (delete as appropriate) will be putting the new gobbos together, piece by piece.
The baseline goblin kit will consist of four unique heads on a body kit. That keeps their body mechanics and rigging sensibly controlled, while providing us with the freedom to have a good variety of personality via their heads.
That's also where we can have some fun adding things like hair, hats and other accessories.
Goblins being natural scavengers, their base gear is made from the kinds of materials usually acquired that way: cloth, leather, and lots of random bits of metal.
By putting these pieces together in different configurations, we'll be able to create a similar level of variation to the goblins currently found throughout the game. We'll also be giving them a fresh arsenal of weapons...!
Goblin mail will change to a more breastplate-like design, although various colours will still be available (Green is best).
Goblins manage to get where dirt can't, and the above Goblins are just the spear-head.
We have many other Goblin elements such as Skoblins...
...the Goblin Cook...
and Goblin Clergy!
Many of these irregular goblin models are still in an earlier stage of being worked upon which is why the above is a mixture of in engine, in modelling tool and concept art!
While we don't currently have a launch date for this refresh, development has continued steadily through GameJams, when Mod Wov is not otherwise focusing on the bigger content updates you can look forward to.
Let us know your thoughts on Discord and Reddit! For now, we're specifically looking for feedback on the visual direction of the goblins rather than gameplay changes or quest-related topics.
And no, this isn't a discussion about whether Zanik needs another model update. Although...now that we mention it...