Changing faces of the Kilrathi

Flying Target

Swabbie
Banned
I've seen it written a few times that Chris Roberts was never happy with how the Kilrathi translated to the computer and movie screen. We've seen human-sized lion- and tiger-like creatures; clumsy, hulking, furry, ape-ish digitigrades; six-breasted (I think) humanoid Kilrathettes on Firekka versus the slender priestesses (with two hooters) on the walls of the temple of Sivar in Prophecy; even hairless dog-like monsters in the movie I watched tonight... there have been so many widely varying interpretations of our old adversaries over the years.

Does anyone know what Chris Roberts really wanted the Kilrathi to look like? Has he ever shared his actual vision in words or sketches?
 
It wasn't entirely how they looked. The problem was that the animatronics were too clunky and the bodies just didn't move right. Interestingly, there's a poster on the wall in the mess hall in the movie with a head that is very female-tiger-looking. I think in general, what he means by never quite getting the Kilrathi right is that he was never happy with the full motion video Kilrathi.

I do know that give the time and money, Chris would like to go back and redo the Kilrathi, probably with CG... I'm not entirely sure if that would be mostly to replace to movement, and make them more organic and fearsome, or to alter the look completely.
 
CGI for furry stuff is an arse - remember the monkeys in Jumanji?

Yep, the WC3 Cats were helluva clumsy things - particularly with the bizarre decision to crowbar Hobbes into those size medium blues. It worked a bit better when they weren't walking at least. The movie didn't exactly pull it off either, ending up with the Kitties looking kinda 80s sci-fi retro.

I always figured the Cats would work better if portrayed like the Starfire Orions: graceful, prowling creatures. Similar to the WC1 and 2 Cats.

Were they always meant to be much larger than us? They weren't to start with.
 
For me, the WC3 puppets and voices were a world better than the cartoon-cats from WC2.

The Kilrathi are aliens, they resemble felines in a way but are not connected to any life on Earth, and the WC2 'Kelloggs tigers' (complete with in-flight American accents) were just far too Earth-like, the cats in WC3 looked just as I'd hoped, alien.
 
I have to say, I really think the WC1 Claw Marks Kilrathi were the best presented, even if they were just headshots. But I have to agree on the voices; I've just played through WC2 with the speech pack and boy did I wish I'd avoided that installation option! Much better done in WC3 onwards. No doubt.

You could see the progression in the thinking as the games moved on, most noticibly the attempt to give them "dog legs" as opposed to the very humanoid (aside from their heads) appearance in the first two games. I get the feeling the Cult of Sivar Temple priestess illustration in Prophecy may have been the closest they got to really capturing what a Kilrathi would look like. Big, feral, yet strangely graceful.

No idea what Chris Roberts was thinking in the movie with those puppets, although the look of the cap ships and the opening montage were really cool - again the Kilrathi warrior briefly seen in said montage did have similar proportions to the Prophecy illustration, indicating that maybe was where he was trying to go.
 
Are you kidding me? the Khasra Thrakhath conversation at the beginning of WC2 shows just how great the wc2 animation style and especially the voices were. Far better than a giant animatronic fluff-ball (and the less said about the mangy thing they found in a cupboard for wc4 the better)
 
Are you kidding me? the Khasra Thrakhath conversation at the beginning of WC2 shows just how great the wc2 animation style and especially the voices were. Far better than a giant animatronic fluff-ball (and the less said about the mangy thing they found in a cupboard for wc4 the better)

Yeah, I have to admit - I'm really partial to the style used for Kilrathi in WC2. I like all the emphasis on color, wardrobe and ornamentation - it seems to fit with their culture.

WC3 Kilrathi were fine, but they seemed to be simple in appearence - almost like they lost some of their identity.
 
Yep, the Khasra Thrakhath conversation in WC2 showed imo how Kilrathis should look like. Given to the circumstances, the WC3 Kilrathis worked for me. But the "cats" in the movie... I just thought "WTF?!"

I think, I expected something like the apes in the later "Planet of the Apes 2001", just with a cat-look. Remember how the apes went to war? How fast they could walk on all fours, how far they could jump - and all without looking stupid. Imagine that with the Kilrathis in a ground-fight with marines! At first they use laser rivels for range combat and then they jump into melee with blades and claws... would have bin a hell of a movie-scene!
 
Think I mis-represented myself earlier with the comment about the Kilrathi being better from WC3 onwards - I was referring just to the voices, rather than the appearance.

Of all the versions of the Cats, I prefer the earlier work to look at. Not that there was anything wrong with what they tried to do in WC3 and 4, just that the technology wasn't there. On anything less that a Grand Theft Auto IV budget, I suspect it still isn't.

Caveman's suggestion was pretty cool. Would have made for some awesome scenes!
 
On anything less that a Grand Theft Auto IV budget

I would love to see Kilrathi in CGI to the standard of GTA IV, complete with fluid movement and the physics that Rockstar pulled off so flawlessly.

Caveman's thoughts on Kilrathi ground fighting are very similar to mine, I've always seen the cats as an advanced race, more socially complex and politically advanced than they may first appear, yet still able to use their natural combat tools, claws and teeth, to brutal effect.
 
I'll tell you what could work well on a budget: have many of you seen the opening sequence to Sins of a Solar Empire? I found that to be quite compelling.

I reckon it would work pretty well as a means of interspersing a Wing Commander game if you didn't want to break the bank; by using the same type of sparsely animated sequences, you could pretty much have the Cats looking like anything you wanted, just so long as you could find someone good enough at artwork.

Throw in some effective voice work...
 
I liked the WC3 ones best, especially the emperor.

Lions, tigers, and even housecats are fluffy, Kilrathi are supposed to be feline, since they are based on cats.

For comparison, try to make a panda look like an evil space alien while still being a panda. And for a fact you'd yourself could be considered laughable looking through the eyes of geiger's Alien.
 
For comparison, try to make a panda look like an evil space alien while still being a panda.

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I dunno, LOAF. I think you just found your next avatar.

Especially considering our contest to find one for you was such a smashing success...
 
Soon you'll be facing the evil Pandari, who conquered their planet and became a spacefaring warrior-race in search of bamboo.
 
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