Zwiebelchen

Add one more for concept art in loading screens. I feel that the area concept artworks that we've seen so far are amazing and it would be sad if no player would be able to see them without doing interwebs research.

Not neccessarily as the human field of view is actually very limited, as you can see in this image: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/mimssbits/files/60687/2-visual-acuity.jpg Everything outside the 'shape' area is practically useless for gaming. Important UI elements have to be within the 5-10° margin. Semi-important UI elements should at least be within the 'shape' area, so that you notice that there is 'something going on' and can then react by focusing that element with your eyes. If you got a bigger screen, naturally, the distance between yourself and the screen has to increase in order to monitor all important UI elements on the fly. But there's only so much detail your eyes can see. Remember that there isn't an infinite number rods and cones in your eye. So practically, the human eye has a naturally built-in "maximum resolution". And this resolution is far less than you think. The only difference between the human and a HD camera is, that this resolution is more of a "soft cap". The human brain uses memory and analytical algorithms to fill in information that can not be physically detected by the human eye. That's why you don't instantly lose your 3d-perception of the environment as soon as you close one eye. The brain extrapolates that information from memory and experience. Focusing temporarily increases the amount of detail the human eye-brain mechanism can track. But it requires concentration and is an exhausting process. Relaxed watching has a much lower resolution than you think. Here's a nice diagram to consider: http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html A 2160p resolution only matters below the purple line. Which means that you need an exceptionally large screen AND a very close distance to your screen to notice the difference. For gaming purposes, this is very impractical, as there's no clear focus point on the action as is with movies. You need to monitor those UI elements after all, so you can't be that close. And you got to read that onscreen text.

I don't know why people think that modelling landscapes is exceptionally difficult. This is not 1999 anymore, folks. 3D modellers have become pretty intuitive to use over the last decade and as time progressed, so did the databases containing complete models and textures ready for use. Seriously, if we take it to the lowest possible level of expertise, it's only about importing models from an existing database and merge them together to a whole landscape via placement gizmo. If you feel like it, you could build entire castles out of a single brick model and do nothing else but just putting them on top of each other one by one. Someone brought the LEGO example. It's pretty much this. The beauty about 2D backgrounds is, that you can give jack-**** about the number of vertices or performance. You can have millions of polys and the only thing that will suffer from it is the final rendering process deriving the image maps. Seriously, the hard thing will not be the actual modelling of the landscapes. The hard thing will be to import them into the game and fill them with life (npcs, scripts, encounters). And I still hope there's gonna be tools for that.

False perception of morale in a nutshell. Seriously, I kill hundreds of people protecting the uber-villian boss and then get an option to spare his life? What kind of messed up logic is that? That being said, I played some NWN modules in the past where your actions had a serious influence on your alignment. Every theft or lie shifted your alignment more towards chaotic and every killing that did not emerge from self-defense shifted towards evil. It was very engaging, though sometimes extremely hard, especially when playing a Paladin, as the situations that allowed shifting alignment towards lawful again were sparse. At the end of the module, I usually always ended up at Chaotic Neutral. Somehow, that's always where the balance between alignment shifts upwards and downwards for my playstyle ended. A real eye-opener.

Isn't that the truth. I can churn out ten landscapes (if I have a decent model library available) in the time it takes me to engineer one working redstone track. Truth hurts. But I feel you. The last time I tried to make heavy use of redstone inverter circuits, I was about to commit suicide.

At some point, the weakest link in the chain are your eyes...

Why would it mean doubled paint-over work? You work with the higher scale image and then just resize the final result. Making an image smaller does not result in a loss of (perceived) quality. Only making it bigger does. With modern games scoring 30+ GB of disc space nowadays, I don't see any issues with filesize by maintaining two image bases.

I guess what the TO suggested was pretty much a modern remake of ultima online. Don't get me wrong; I can see the attraction in this, but the possible audience would be too small to make it financially successful.

which most of us aren't, I imagine Still, given a tutorial, I can usually find the equivalent in whatever software I'm using (if it's possible). The good thing about 2D landscapes based on texture maps is: Any 3D modeller with the appropriate plugins to derive the maps from the 3D model will do. As long as it allows exporting into the correct image file. We just need to tools to dump those maps into the actual game and the tools to create new encounters and scripts to populate these maps.

Nice to get technically details! It basicly confirmed the assumptions made by the community about how the engine works (and which maps are involved). Which is great! Now all we need are the developer tools to convert maps into the game's format and a tool to build and script content and the modding cumminity will thrive. It's also nice to know what modelling software the developers used. This would technically allow everyone that has access to this software (in this case it's Maya, which is available for free as a students licence!) to use the plugins that obsidian used to convert their maya renders without any compatibility issues. Let's just hope the management at obsidian will do the right decision and ship out their home-made tools for free, to support modding. You can't deny the impact modding had on the IE games and it wasn't even officially supported there! Now imagine how big modding could have been WITH the proper tools available! I have never seen a single game where extended modability actually hurted sales. If anything, modability keeps a product alive long after it's expected lifespan. Two of the most mod-heavy games in gaming history, Warcraft III and Neverwinter Nights still have an alive community even 15 years after release! And let's not forget what modding did to gaming in general: Team Fortress, Counterstrike, League of Legends (aka DOTA) ... those games all derived from mods and changed the history of gaming completely!

100% agree. It basicly confirmed the assumptions made by the community. Which is a good thing. Now all we need are the developer tools to convert maps into the game's format and a tool to build and script content and the modding cumminity will thrive. It's also nice to know what modelling software the developers used. This would technically allow everyone that has access to this software (in this case it's Maya, which is available for free as a students licence!) to use the plugins that obsidian used to convert their maya scenes without any compatibility issues. Let's just hope the management at obsidian will do the right decision and ship out their home-made tools for free, to support modding. You can't deny the impact modding had on the IE games and it wasn't even officially supported there! Now imagine how big modding could have been WITH the proper tools available!

As PoE seems to use standard texture maps (height, normal, etc.) for all the relevant information, it's technically possible to hand-paint those maps (like height map and normal map). For simple stuff like rooms, basic geometric objects, etc., this is a viable option. But if you want to create convincing natural terrain or more complicated stuff, you will definitely need to 3D model it. But that isn't really a big problem. There's thousands of great tutorials on the web about creating 3D models and even free 3D modelling tools (like GMax) and entire texture and model databases completely free for use. Creating a 3DSmax landscape isn't hard to do. You just create the ground plane, deform it, UVW map it (you can even skip that part completely if you cut together all the required textures in photoshop before), then just c'n'p rocks, grass and trees (you can find literally hundreds of free models of such basic environmental props already properly wrapped and textured on the interwebs) on top of it and render the scene and use free plugins to calculate the normal/height/specular maps directly from the viewport window. Creating a dungeon or the inside of houses is basicly the same, just that you need to UVW map each wall individually and use different prop models to import. It can be even simpler than that: When using a database of basic construction models (Stones, Bricks, wood planks), you can even LEGO your dungeon if you don't want to deal with texturing and UVW-mapping at all! Building (static, non-animated) landscapes in modern 3D modelling tools isn't more complicated than playing minecraft! Heck, if obsidian decides to give us the tools to setup encounters and script out own events on user-made maps, then I'd be more than happy to write a tutorial on how to make a 3D landscape with 3dsmax and converting the rendered scene to the required texture maps.

I usually take a standard name for all my characters in most single player RPGs. Though I give it a little bit more thought in MMOs, simply because those names are usually taken.* *this is actually a serious matter. Especially on highly populated servers, it's extremely hard to find names that are not taken and still sound like an actual name. That's why you will occasionally see matchups like on an older LAGTV episode between two players called "Colonpounder" and "Dickbruiser", which was extremely comical...

Hmm... is it just me or does PoE expect me to make at least 1-2 additional NPCs in the adventurers hall? 8 companions is extremely limited considering that we can take 5 of them with us. If you need a cleric and a thief, there's basicly no options other than Eder and Cadegund. I mean... it would be okay for the release to just have 8 companions, but I really hope they deliver a good amount of new companions in further patches or addons, just to allow the player to build a full party without lifeless automatons from the adventurers hall. I think it's a safe bet that all the characters the TO listed ARE the final 8 companions that will be in the game. I don't think they would do any more dramatic content changes at this state of game developement (it would be unreasonable to do that). I'll probably do my first run with the PC (Mage), Eder (Rogue), Pallegina (Paladin), Cadegund (Cleric), Forton (Monk) and Sagani (Ranger), assuming that all of them are compatible to each other (and a "good" playthrough). That leaves me only with 3 companions to "discover" for my second playthrough. :/

This.

This. MOBAs, especially League of Legends (or the initial DOTA) are a perfect example of great class design. Every hero feels unique, no hero feels just like a carbon copy of another one with some changed visuals. Every hero has a completely different playstyle and strategy. Even if LoL might not be perfectly balanced in general (there's always a flavour-of-the-month class), it's perfectly balanced within its scope. FOTM heroes always cause anti-FOTM heroes to skyrocket in popularity. It's like an ever-changing game of cause-and-effect. Which is interesting. Extra Creditz made a good video on this effect, explaining it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e31OSVZF77w I think there's a lot to be learned in terms of class and hero design both from MOBAs and MMORPGs. Yes, I said it. The most popular western MMORPGs, Rift and WoW really nailed that class design to a point where those games were basicly ONLY about the replayability of the game by re-rolling a different class. WoW with a little bit more focus on totally different mechanics, Rift with more freedom to build interesting hybrids and more choices for RPers.

How little self-control do you have? And what's stopping you from just turning it back on when your addiction to getting more party members finally overwhelms you? You might as well have a toggle to turn off merchants, rest areas and the mouse cursor while you're at it. 1) They don't have furries or bronies in Japan (except for foreign tourists, mostly,) lucky them. 2) There is absolutely no way that any sane person would have difficulty distinguishing characters in PoE. They have names, portraits and a pause button (conveniently mapped to the biggest key on your keyboard,) to allow you to do this if, for some reason, you've got a party that consists of characters of the same class all wearing identical armor. Facial recognition isn't relevant when the perspective is from 30m up in the sky. 3) The turn off helmets thing is silly. If you don't want to see them, don't wear them. Accept the risk if displeasing fashion is more important than effective protection to you. 1) Surely bronies do exist in japan, but they might be more rare. Then again, I wasn't talking about *that particular kind* of ponygirls related to MLP... more like the fetish of gagging while riding on women with a horsewhip. ... ehh, you obviously haven't seen a lot of fetish stuff coming from japan. ... Tentacle porn is only the softcore entry gates of hell you're gonna see when digging deeper... No furries in asia? Where'd you get that data? If there's just one corner of the world obsessed with cat-girls, then it's asia. 2) Maybe. Maybe not. It really depends on the party selection. I usually had a lot of trouble destinguishing my characters in Icewind Dale games, especially when I had a cleric, paladin and a warrior in my group, all wearing metal armor. Yes, there are portraits, but that only helps me as soon as the selection circle flashes when hovering over the portrait. If I want to have a quick overview where everyone is and how everyone is doing, I need to check the portraits to find out where they are, especially in bigger battles. Also, I liked to play the infinity games with a self-made restriction I called the "Arcade mode". Which means not using the pause button at all and doing everything in real-time. It makes the game much more exciting, as you need to do very quick decisions on what spells to use and where. You should try it. But it requires fast visual feedback where everyone is to do so. It happened a lot that I accidentally selected the plate wearing druid when I actually wanted to select the cleric, as one used a mace and the other a club, but both looked identical as the sprites where the same... 3) Even if it's unrealistic and only a cosmetical thing for people who like to see the heads of their characters; why not? I think this whole "we want realistic armor designs and realistic combat"-demand by the forums got way out of hand lately. There's people that like some fantasy clichés here and there. I'm totally okay with a realistic art style, but there's no need to overdo it. It's a fantasy game, ffs. Even the IE games had some unrealistic designs that were just there because 'why not?'. Like the female thief skin with the short skirt. A toggle for not displaying the helmet on a character doesn't hurt anyone, seriously. I just happen to like the hair of fighter girls floating around, even if it wouldn't be practical in the real world. And no, that doesn't mean that I don't like cRPGs. That's a bull**** asumption. A classic RPG experience for me is about the gameplay, not about the visuals, so don't expect everyone to hate skimpy outfits or unrealistic visuals just because you feel that this is mandatory for liking a cRPG.

In terms of elves, nope. I'll just keep slamming their heads into trees and yell "why do you hug trees? why do you hug trees? why do you hug trees?" I have no prejudice against dwarves, though. Unless they forget to bring beer. You ain't going nowhere without me having some beer, midget!

... Kinda reminds of that scene in Telltale's The Walking Dead Season 1.

Dat ugly chanter... what's with that spike teeth?

I think I will go for the typical H-game toggles: Furries, bondage and Ponygirls. Joke aside, I'd like to be able to disable helmet models. It's a common toggle for MMOs nowadays and I like it alot, as it allows to destinguish characters easier, especially since PoE seems to go for the realistic style of armor, so I expect helmets to look pretty generic.

Considering that all the graphics in the game are very very basic fixed animation procedures and 2.5D environments making advantage of texture mapping processes, I doubt that there will be any significant CPU load at all. The gameplay mechanics with rolling dices certainly won't. RPG games mostly aren't very CPU intense. The most critical thing is - as was mentioned before - the pathfinding. But then just take a look at for example Starcraft II. The pathfinding algorithm is imho a masterpiece and it handles literally hundreds of units at the same time even in multiplayer scenarios. And I have never run into a situation where I could blame the pathfinding for anything yet. A classic RPG like PoE will likely have no more than 10-15 units to handle at the same time. I highly doubt that even as a single thread application, more than what a single core can do would ever be required. As long as they make sure not to introduce a bottleneck by a sloppy design of the combat system, I'm positive that it perfectly doesn't matter if the game supports multi-threading or not. I recently played a F2P MMORPG (Tera Online), which made an extremely bad design decision by making the whole UI flash based. This resulted in a severe CPU bottleneck causing the game to have low FPS even on high performance Graphics cards with loads of RAM. If you disabled the UI temporarily (for example for taking a screenshot), you will notice the FPS going up by 20-30 FPS.

It would be great if there's only a height map, normal map, bump map and specular map involved, just like in the video posted above. As there's a lot of free tools that can automate the creation of such maps directly from the 3D model. So in the end, it all boils down to creating the 3D environment and then using those tools to create the maps. However, you'd probably need to hand-paint the collision map. I just hope the tools used for level editing used by the developers will be available eventually. Placing npcs and light sources by code is a pain in the ass.

There's always passive parts in a conversation. In the end, an NPC will have to provide you at least some background about the topic he is talking about. I'm not saying that we need a cutscene for every dialogue. That would be just wrong; but I'm saying that there could be means taken to make dialogue more interesting and present narrative aside from just plain text. If we take the Baldur's Gate II example again, let's just assume while you talk to the bridge district guard at the northern entry (you still have the ordinary dialogue window open and can do your multiple choice as always), when the guard talks about the murders and the harlot notifying them, you will actually see those scenes visually in the background instead of just having a forced focus on the city guard. It could be as simple as the harlot standing around a corner and a veiled person running away. No full fledged cutscenes; just some representation of what the NPC is currently talking about in isometric view. Think of it as animated "topic images" that change depending on the dialogue branch you're in. It just makes dialogue a lot more interesting if there's at least *something* going on.

We actually have this to a certain extend in BG2. Remember f.ex. the dream sequences. I think the same mechanic could be used in NPC dialogue to make it more interesting (have the ordinary text UI interrupt the cinematic to progress dialogue between cutscene-chops). Reading text is fine for me. But it should still be presented in an interesting way. It's 2014, after all.