Closing up the After Midnight series, we have the Jin version in this week's post. For a comparison with its other two sisters, the Jin version is more similar to the Yun's than to the Gon's. Both Jin and Yun version sports a pair of stockings and an armguard on the left arm, while the Gon version has full sleeves and tight pants.
However, there are some differences on the armguards and stockings. For example, the Jin version's armguard is a full piece of cloth as compared to the netting type of the Yun, and the Jin's stockings has much more blue circles than that of the Yun. We can also notice that all three races has slight design differences on their front torso, but the most noticeable would be the tail cloth. You can view the images below to see the original Jin After Midnight outfit.
The images and video are captured at the Yehara's Mirage, based in the Scorching Sands, on the Cinderlands map. I chose the location because it is the other place that has a day and night version, like the Skypetal Plains versus Midnight Skypetal Plains.
Yehara's Mirage is an inn run by the gracious hostess Yehara, aunt to Yunwa - the last of Mushin's bloodline. Yehara established the Mirage right in the middle of the desert so she can more easily obtain information and learn the secrets left behind by the Naryu (with regards to Mushin), in order to find her missing niece. Yehara is also part of the "Ashes in the Fall" storyline which rewards the outfit with the same name.
The day version of Yehara Mirage is actually an enclosed dungeon in itself. But it can be simultaneously accessed by all players, after their initial visit (where the player witness Soha and Juwol making a mess in the inn π ), and act very much like any other town. The night version, though, is a questing dungeon where only a party of maximum six players are allowed to enter. The party has to defend the Mirage against a corrupted division of the "Shadowless" which is out to forcibly acquire Yehara's collection of Naryu relics, in her absence.
Getting into the night dungeon is a little confusing at first, especially for players who breeze through contents or bypass all dialogues without reading them thoroughly. π
To get into this night version Mirage, the player has to enter another dungeon (Yehara's room) within the day version of Yehara's Mirage dungeon, to start the quest by talking to a NPC. When the player exits the room, they will be automatically sent to the night version Mirage. As you can see, this is where it gets confusing if player does not pay attention to the dialogue or know what they are doing. π It is like going into a room and then exiting the same room to be greeted by a changed surrounding.
If the player gets into this night version Mirage and does not procced with the quest (by wind striding to somewhere else), they will always get into the night version Mirage every time they return to the Yehara's Mirage. π°
I guess that's all for the dual version of Yehara's Mirage. π
Front View - Original Outfit
The same black-blue color theme applies to the Jin outfit.
Front Close-up View - Original Outfit
The cutting at the bottom of the blouse is slightly different for the three races.
Rear View - Original Outfit
Though the upper back portion looks similar for Gon, Jin and Yun...
Rear Close-up View - Original Outfit
The tail cloth is unique to each race.
Side View - Original Outfit
Side Close-up View - Original Outfit
In the Jin mod, I tried give it the shoulderless and no panty feel design like in the Gon and Yun mods. That includes modifying the bra, the stockings and the tail cloth.
However, the Jin 3D model has a huge hole right in the center of each breast and the entire abdomen region is missing. As such, I cannot trim any of the cloth on the abdomen and the Yun's modified bra cannot be applied to the Jin version without revealing the hole. π°
Instead, I used the Gon's modified bra without the shoulder portion. Even with that, I still need to extend the top portion of the bra to fully cover the hole. π₯
Let's compare the modified outfit below.
Front View - Modified Outfit
As seen in the first picture, the lower part of the stockings has been repainted to skin layer.
Although the thigh bands don't look that good, I really like those tiny moon-lit decors. π Maybe I should make them similar to the Yun mod? Hmm...
Front Close-up View - Modified Outfit
The bra has been modified to a strapless bikini top with the shoulder part removed.
Rear View - Modified Outfit
The tail cloth has been trimmed to give a no-panty feel. π
Rear Close-up View - Modified Outfit
If you look carefully, the shoulder part isn't totally removed. The collar has to be retained to hide a hole at the back of the neck. π₯
Side View - Modified Outfit
Side Close-up View - Modified Outfit
Eagle-eyed viewers may also notice the tan-lines on the thighs. They are actually the artefact of some color matching that I had done. But since they look fine, I left them as they are. π
With this I will wrap up the After Midnight series. Catch the video to get a better view of the outfit in the day and night version of Yehara's Mirage.
In order to wrap up the Wraith Hunter and Beast Hunter request, we will proceed with the Wraith Hunter mod this week. Although the mod includes both outfits, I will only focus on the Wraith Hunter in this post since the mod is mostly similar. The general information about the two outfits had already been discussed in the Gon Wraith Hunter post so I will not go into the same details again. Let's instead head straight into the discussion on the Yun outfit below.
As seen in the comparison image in the previous post, we can observe that the Yun version is closely similar to the Gon version, with the exception of the cleavage area. While the Gon version proudly displays their cleavage (as usual π ), the Yun version is tightly covered.
Take a look at the images below for the original Yun Wraith Hunter.
Front View - Original Outfit
From far, the Yun Wraith Hunter looks almost like the Gon version.
Front Close-up View - Original Outfit
Upon closer inspection, we can notice the difference at the cleavage area.
Rear View - Original Outfit
The base design is the same black-grey camouflage suit.
Rear Close-up View - Original Outfit
The Yun version has two decors on the "scroll box" instead of one for the Gon version.
Side View - Original Outfit
Side Close-up View - Original Outfit
Since both Gon and Yun version look so similar, I tried to duplicate the Gon mod directly for the Yun outfit. However, it isn't as easy as it seems due to the difference in body mesh structure. The only thing that can be directly copied and paste is the fur at the end of the shorts. But that also requires a little adjustment.
Let us look at the modified outfit below.
Front View - Modified Outfit
Front Close-up View - Modified Outfit
As seen in the two images above, the waist region and both legs had been repainted to skin layer just as in the case of the Gon mod.
Rear View - Modified Outfit
Rear Close-up View - Modified Outfit
I gave the Yun mod a similar hot pants like the one in the Gon mod.
Side View - Modified Outfit
Side Close-up View - Modified Outfit
Unfortunately, I cannot reveal the cleavage region because there is totally no structure below the jacket. And the area cannot be simply painted to skin layer because it just does not follow the skin layer (i.e. no curvatures). π₯
For the Beast Hunter, I had recolored the entire leg to skin layer, up to the shoes, because the top part of the boots are painted on the skin layer, instead of a secondary layer like in the case of the Wraith Hunter.
Well, that's all for this short post. Watch the video to have a better look at the outfit.
With a buffer of the Jin's Varsity outfit, we can now proceed with the Gon's After Midnight in this week's post, as requested by a viewer. Most of the information about this outfit has already been discussed in the Yun's After Midnight post, so I will proceed straight to the outfit itself.
When we compare "After Midnight" between the Yun and Gon, we can see some differences. The color theme remains the same blue/dark blue/black, represention of the night sky. But instead of a pair of stockings, the Gon's version sports a pair of tight yoga pants and long sleeves that fully covers both arms. The tail cloth is also noticed to have a different design. The torso portion, however, remains largely similar.
Seeing how Gon always get the wilder and more revealing outfits, out of the three races, this is one outfit that is made to be more conservative than the other two races. π
Check out the original Gon outfit below and see whether you can spot the differences.
Front View - Original Outfit
Front Close-up View - Original Outfit
Looking from the front, the Gon After Midnight looks similar to the Yun's version, other than the tight pants and long sleeves.
Rear View - Original Outfit
Rear Close-up View - Original Outfit
The tail cloth looks a little like a swallow tail design as compared to the Yun's version which does not has a split.
Right Side View - Original Outfit
Both Gon and Yun outfit has a little pouch that is hung around the waist level.
Left Side View - Original Outfit
You may also noticed the blue-glowing circles forming a circle on the outer thighs instead of encircling the thighs in the Yun's version.
I tried to duplicate the Yun's mod on the Gon's version but due to difference in 3D model structure, some parts had to be altered. For example, although the same bra design can be used on the Gon's version, it exposed a serious problem. If you carefully examine the Gon's model structure, you may find that the breasts are vertically stretched into an unnatural shape (warning: This cannot be unseen π° ). This also exists in the original outfit but it is not obvious because most of the breasts are covered.
When I first implemented the Yun's bra on the Gon mod, I noticed this issue and thus had to alter the bra to vertically cover more of the breasts to hide the unnatural shape. But if you look carefully at the breasts, you can still notice this (warning: This cannot be unseen π° ).
The other issue that I find on the Gon's version is that when the top portion of the bra top is removed, the arms are dismembered from the torso (i.e. the arms are connected to the torso via the bra top). As such, I cannot give the Gon's version an open-shoulder design like the Yun's. π₯
Fortunately, the side and tail cloth are largely similar so I can trimmed them to give the no-panty feel in the Yun's mod. π
Check out the images below for the mod version.
Front View - Modified Outfit
Both legs and lower arms had been recolored to skin as seen in the image above.
Front Close-up View - Modified Outfit
We can see the retained part of the bra top that connects the arms and shoulders. The bra is noticed to be vertically longer than the Yun's version.
Rear View - Modified Outfit
The tail cloth has been trimmed to give a no-panty feel. π
Rear Close-up View - Modified Outfit
Side View - Modified Outfit
For the Gon's mod, I can repaint the entire leg to skin color since the bottom is a pair of tights, so we can have a good view of those leggy legs. π
Of course, I did not just simply recolored everything to skin and let her go commando style. But I did give her a G-string because the very deep butt line in this 3D model is too good to let up. π
I kept the glowing circles on the thighs because they look nice.
Side Close-up View - Modified Outfit
So, how does the Gon mod compare to the Yun one? Watch the video below for a better comparison.
Right after I posted the Yun After Midnight outfit, a viewer requested for the Varsity outfit while another requested for the Jin and Gon version of After Midnight. Not wanting to have two consecutive posts about the same outfit, I chose to proceed with the Varsity mod first. Also, because the outfit was just recently on sale in the online Hongmoon store.
Similar to Strange Allure outfit, the Varsity is another modern day outfit. Well, given the name, it should not be too surprising anyway. π Since varsity is a team representing an institute of higher learning, such as university or high school, the outfit in itself looks very much like an uniform worn by team members.
The outfit is mostly pink in color, sporting a pink jacket over a white T-shirt and blue jeans shorts, completed with a pair of white boots. A pair of hearts symbol takes the place of where the typical school logo would be, on the T-shirt, jacket and belt.
See whether you agree that it looks like an outfit worn by varsity team members after you check out the original outfit below.
Front View - Original Outfit
Is it a sports team or a cheerleading team? π
Front Close-up View - Original Outfit
Somehow, the color theme of the jacket is a dead give away. Check out the heart logo on the T-shirt.
Rear View - Original Outfit
Rear Close-up View - Original Outfit
We can see the similar pair of hearts on the jacket, although the design is slightly different. The character that was seen on the buckle of the belt is placed on the bottom of the logo.
Side View - Original Outfit
The heart logo also appears on the sleeves of the jacket.
Side Close-up View - Original Outfit
Don't mind those over-turned birds in the background though, they are just drunk. You will get to see more creatures in their drunken stupor in the video. π
I normally find outfits such as the Varsity hard to mod because the mesh structure is normally so tight that nothing can be trimmed. The most possible mod is just a change in color or logo.
Fortunately for me, the Jin Varsity has a little more room to play around with. The crotch region of the body remains intact, which means that I can trimmed the jeans shorts without fear of revealing holes. The jeans shorts can also be totally stripped off and replaced with a skin-tight bottom, such as a pair of yoga pants. The tummy region also allows a little trimming, of the T-shirt, to reveal the belly button.
Ok. Let's see what I did for the mod below.
Front View - Modified Outfit
At first glance, there seems to be no difference.
Front Close-up View - Modified Outfit
But wait... Is that the belly button? And the shorts is now shorter? The shorts is also given torn edges similar to a stressed jeans.
Rear View - Modified Outfit
Rear Close-up View - Modified Outfit
The shorts is trimmed more on the butt area.
Side View - Modified Outfit
Side Close-up View - Modified Outfit
The jacket is also slightly trimmed but it isn't obvious. It used to cover the belt but now hovers just a little over it. I had intended to shortened the jacket more but that would reveal holes or rather disconnection between the tummy and chest region. Take a look at the image below and you may be able to understand better.
Intended Re-design
As seen above, the left side of the image shows the intended mod which looks slightly better than the final mod. Although it looks fine when viewed from the front, rear and side, the disconnection shows up when viewed from under or during gliding, as shown in the right side of the image. π§
With this, I will wrap up this post. Catch the video for better view of the outfit and the beautiful scenery (minus the creatures in their drunken stupor π ) from Taigong Hideaway (check out the side note if you are interested in Taigong) in the Fortune Falls event dungeon, which opens for a short duration for the Harvest festival event.
Taigong is actually a real person in Chinese history and interestingly a tiny bit related to the Longgui topic from the post before this. But how are they related and how did Taigong ended up as a fisherman in the game?
It goes that Taigong (actual name Jiang Ziya or Jiang Shang) was a minister to the corrupted Shang Dynasty (εζ), in the 11th century B.C, who eventually loose faith in his master - King Zhou (ηΊ£η) after witnessing his tyranny and oppression. He faked madness to escape the tyrant's court and chose to hide away to fish at the Wei River. The interesting part is that he uses a fishing pole which has no hook, often telling his fishing mates that the 'fish' will come to him when it is ready (This later become a famous Chinese idiom). Now you know why he ends up being a fisherman in the game and his place being called Taigong Hideaway. π
Words of his strange act eventually reach the then-Duke Jichang 姬ζ (later honored by his son Jifa 姬ε, as King Wen and founder of Zhou ε¨ Dynasty), who is constantly in search of talents. Jichang personally visited Taigong and recruited him to be his advisor and prime minister. Jichang is the 'fish' that Taigong (then 73 years old) has been waiting for this whole time. With Taigong's aid, Jifa (who took over his father's reign after his death) fought and defeated the corrupted Shang Dynasty to establish the Zhou Dynasty, which flourished for eight hundred years.
This is where the connection with Longgui comes in. Jichang happens to be one of those who studied the Eight Trigram (invented by δΌηΎ² after he saw the Longgui) and further extended it into a divinity sutra (ε¨ζ). As recorded, Jichang was rumored to be an expert in the field of divinity and his readings are incredibly accurate. The sutra, which captures the essence of natural changes (states, motions, transitions) and thereby predicting the outcome of an event, is still very much studied by researchers of modern days.
After completing a long queue of mod requests, I finally can sneak in an outfit that I have always wanted to work on. "After Midnight" does not sounds like much of a name for an outfit, but there is a reason for what it is called, just like the story behind the naming of "Ashes in the Fall".
"After Midnight" is an outfit that can be purchased from NPC vendor in the very first raid dungeon that was introduced in Blade & Soul - Midnight Skypetal Plains (MSP). Maybe now you can guess why it is called "After Midnight". π But you may ask why midnight? This has something to do with how NCSoft likes to re-package parts of the virtual world (such as dungeon or world map) and present them as new content. The Midnight Skypetal Plains is actually the night version of Skypetal Plains region in the Silverfrost Mountain map.
The story goes like this. In the day time, the Skypetal Plains is a lively (and competitive) area, where the two biggest factions (Cerulean Order and Crimson Legion) fight each other to mine the valuable soulstones. Comes night time, when human rest for the day, the creatures of Skypetal Plains and Sacred Beast Longgui roam the plains.
To earn the right to purchase the outfit, players need to defeat the stage five Longgui to attain the required achievement. The raid team of twelve players will need to defeat the creatures and giant mushrooms, in surrounding camps, to summon the Longgui each time. This process is repeated five times and the Longgui must be defeated each time to be able to summon the next stage Longgui, which will become more powerful.
The MSP raid used to be an in-thing where players farmed the first set of legendary soulshields and gears. Nowadays, the dungeon is mostly empty and it is difficult to gather enough people willing to go through the tedious process. It is even more so after the MSP legendary soulshields are now given as rewards in the main storyline and the dungeon being taken out of the daily challenge, which requires players to defeat the stage three Longgui. π§
You can check the side notes below for more information on the Longgui, which is a mythical creature from ancient Chinese myth (or maybe actual history?), if you are interested.
Getting back to the outfit, the After Midnight is colored mostly in dark and shiny blue, with gold linings, very much like the blue moon illuminating the dark sky. The base design is oriental style, and the outfit consists of top and bottom pieces, that does not connect.
The Yun version sports an arm band on the left arm and a pair of dark blue stockings. Let's take a closer look below. The screen shots are taken in MSP but are enhanced to be more vibrant and brighter. The video will show a more accurate scene.
Front View - Original Outfit
Does the color theme gives a good representation of the midnight sky?
Front Close-up View - Original Outfit
In the close-up view, we can see that the top part of the outfit is actually separate from the bottom part. The two cloth that extends downwards from the bra-top drapes over the bottom piece, giving an impression that they are one.
Rear View - Original Outfit
We can see blue dragon designs on the dark part of the blouse.
Rear Close-up View - Original Outfit
Side View - Original Outfit
Side Close-up View - Original Outfit
From the side view, we can observe the separation between the top and bottom pieces clearer.
Getting into the mod, I tried to make the separation between the top and bottom pieces more obvious. Noticing that the bra-top covers only the top and middle portion of the breasts, I begin to think what it would look like if it is modified to be like the Nirvana or Dreamcutter outfit. π
The other parts that I worked on are the leggings and tail cloth. I also trimmed the bra top to do away with the shoulder and neck portion. Let's check out the modified outfit below.
Front View - Modified Outfit
From the top image, we can see the leggings have been replaced by a pair of thigh bands and a pair of rings that connect the four blue-glowing buttons, which I kept because they look cool.
Front Close-up View - Modified Outfit
The top piece is now a strapless bra and the front cloth was trimmed. π
Rear View - Modified Outfit
I also trimmed the sides and tail cloth to reveal more of the back.
Rear Close-up View - Modified Outfit
To give a no-panties feel, I trimmed the panties lines to be hidden away behind the cloth. π
Side View - Modified Outfit
Now, we have a clear view of those leggy legs... π
Side Close-up View - Modified Outfit
..and a little extra from the under-boobs, like the Nirvana outfit. π
The mesh structure of the skin layer on the entire tummy region is missing, so I have to keep almost the entire portion of the front and side cloth. π₯ But it is also thanks to this that the outfit did not get reduced to a two-piece bikini. π
Well, that's about it for this mod. Take a look at the video for all round views of the outfit.
Side notes:
Soulstones: Are valuable resource in the virtual world of Blade & Soul. These ore, when processed, can be use to power all sorts of automatons, machines, and upgrading of equipment.
The two warring factions: The Cerulean Order belief that the martial world should be led by top elites while the Crimson Legion belief in power to the people. Both factions' ultimate aim is for the good of the realm but difference in ideology kept them apart and at loggerheads.
Longgui: In Blade & Soul, Longgui is a Sacred Beast that dwells in the Skypetal Plains and has the head of a Chinese dragon and body of a tortoise. The constant soulstones mining by the two warring factions polluted the area and caused distress for the great Sacred Beast.
In Chinese mythology, the Longgui looks exactly what was described above. However, there is more than meets the eye for this creature other than its unique look. In recorded text, it is this creature that brings about the ancient Chinese understanding of Ying and Yang, the two extremes. As many will know Ying is the representation of the minus extreme of the spectrum such as negative charge, cold, moon, female and so forth. Yang is the opposite of Ying, representing positive charge, warm, sun and male.
But how did the Longgui brought about this knowledge? It was recorded that one of the eight most reputable emperors (in Chinese history), Fuxi (δΌηΎ²ζ°) who lives six thousands to eight thousands years ago, saw the Longgui in a river. What captured his attention is not just the appearance of the creature but also a set of strange inscriptions, that forms a circle, on its shell. Having memorized the symbols, he studied them and form the base logic for Ying and Yang, which is eventually used to invent the trigram (ε¦) and eight trigram (ε «ε¦), that can be used for divination. The generations after further studied the inscriptions and trigram to eventually form the Yi Jing (ζη»).
