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Jajo

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Posts posted by Jajo

  1. To further drive my point home, here is the MALE and FEMALE versions of Plate

     

    Untit46464ed.jpg

     

    The male version has a proper curve, and the female version is completely flat

     

    Is the artist trolling?

     

    Use the same curve on the female, and bob's your uncle.

     

    The male model is rotated slightly, so the front curve is more visible. The female model has a distinctly pinched waist, making it look more feminine.

    It doesn't look like you're really driving your point home; more to the contrary.

  2.  

     

    People really need to stop acting like this is a pre-order where the money is just there to give back. They spent the money and the game is locked. You donated money. How selfish does it sound to want money you donated given back?

     

    Selfish? Donated? Meybe if I would do this via Kickstarter then yes - but I've pledged my money via obsidian.net site and I've done this in exchange for very specific stuff:

     

    1 Digital Download of Pillars of Eternity 35.00 35.00 1 Early Access Beta Key 25.00 25.00

     

    In this case I don't see a reason why not to feel myself cheated if I'm unable to use my Early Access Beta Key or I'm forced to buy Windows for another 100$ to use it. After all from the very begining it was said, that PoE will run on Windows, Mac and Linux and it's using Unity Engine witch is multiplatform. I didn't expected to have delays for other platforms. If I would, I wouldn't make my pledge (not donation).

     

    I do belive it will be resolved in such a way that both me and obsidian are happy. :dancing:

     

    I'm bummed out about the beta for linux delay too (I'm not going to be able to play it till then), but how are you cheated? You will get to participate in beta and have early access to the game months before its release. Is this not all that You've pledged for? Nowhere was it said, that beta will become available for all OS' at the same time - this was Your assumption. One could argue, that it was a reasonable assumption, but on the other hand, it is has not been unreasonable to assume, that beta would first be prepared for the OS, that (whether we like it or not) the majority of players use. In my experience, this is not at all uncommon.

    • Like 1
  3. Just a note about beta access (since this thread is definitely read by the authorities):

     

    There is an option to purchase beta access for $25 on the pledge management site, but one has to also purchase an additional backing tier before having an option to do so. Since I do not intend to buy a third copy of the game, but would still very much like to participate in the beta testing, I'm putting forward a request for this to be fixed.

    As I recall, it has already been said months ago, that inability to purchase addons bound to existing pledges will be fixed.

  4. Yesterday I went and checked, if I could purchase backer beta access on the Eternity's backer site.

    The good news is, that beta access can be bought for $25, but the very bad is, that one still has to purchase a separate backing tier before having an option to do so.

    I thought you've said that this is going to get fixed and you've said that months ago.

    My suggestion would be to fix this before the launch of beta.

    • Like 1
  5. But it should be used as targeting, not the spell effect!

     

    I've never liked that. I liked it better in IE games, where targeting an AoE was something of a judgement call - it made casting such spells more interesting and tense.

    If targeting circles are in, I hope they can be turned off. If they can't be turned off, then I hope that having precise targeting is also calculated into the power balance of spells. Of the two, though, I'd much prefer the first option, since the second would mean watering down spells.

  6. To be honest that fireball really isn't practical. It looks way too much like a Nuke effect from C&C Generals or something. I would have preferred a simple circle of flame like the IE games, with a burn animation on all of the effected characters.

     

    I'm not as adverse to having visual AoEs on the actual spell effects because the AoE will be shown while you're targeting the spell. To have a visual AoE after the spell is cast for something like a buff is superfluous IMO. And even still, I will probably be turning spell AoEs off/playing on Expert mode anyway (in which they are auto off).

     

    I'm ALL for simple but practical and effective spell effects in an RTS style.

     

    Each effect needs to be different and distinctive, the animations do not need to be flashy at all.

    Each effect needs to have a short lingering effect on affected units, to visually represent who was affected for a short time afterwards (which would be overridden by spells cast after it if multiple buffs were landed in quick succession)

     

    I agree; more subtle AoEs for non evocation/conjuration-like spells would, beside being literally easier on the eye, also feel more appropriate. And being distinguishable is certainly the first step to being memorable.

    One graphics design problem with volumetric 3D effects on characters though (one that I wouldn't envy being a solver of), is that it's hard to make them look like at least something, since so may view points are possible. In isometric view this at least maps down to periodical 2D problem, but I still wouldn't envy someone who would need to come up with distinguishable and characteristic effects that also look good.

     

    I tend to avert the eye when it comes to fireball, though, because it's arguably THE iconic spell, so if artists go over the top somewhere, it may as well be there. Yet, if I weren't so lenient, I'd immediately have issues with it - it does not look like a ball of fire, but rather as an explosion, as you've pointed out. As such it would have dealt majority of its damage as bludgeoning and/or sonic damage and the fire after effect would be there only to keep the corpses warm. For something that deals fire damage an artist should think more in line of napalm bombs.

  7. The (after)glow on the characters is a good idea, if not for any other reason than to at least explicitly show which characters have been affected.

     

    I don't think these two very very similar spell effects are really a representative sample of what's in the works. Judging by the initial gameplay teaser (below) the effects will vary and I do find them more memorable and much easier to recognize than NWN2's.

    NWN2's spell effects are unfortunately a really good example of forgettable and visually obstructing effects, but to me it doesn't seem that the prevailing problem is flashiness. Majority of effects produced some flashy circle pattern on the ground which in turn could not result in anything but blending glows everywhere.

     

    In contrast to this, so far the spell effects look quite distinguishable, but I have yet to see some maniacal mass buffing (which Sawyer is luckily against anyway).

    Retrospectively though, for me the most memorable thing about spell casting from IE games has always been the spell school dependent chanting, waving and casting effects, and not the spell effects themselves. They seem to have the chanting spot on, but I do miss the casting effects.

  8.  

    Programming is nearing feature complete. We are tracking to be feature complete in a couple of weeks. This means that we are feature locked and most of the programming team will be diverted into bug fixing, feature polish, demos, etc.

    Did dynamic cloth and hair end up making it in?

     

     

    I second this question.

    There may be another forum like in it for You, mr. Adler, so think carefully about the answer.

    • Like 1
  9. hi welcome

     

    It sure does look like the genre is on a comeback Let's hope it will be successful enough to fuel the future. :)

    Kickstarters may be easy to miss, even the record breaking ones, like PoE's. Since you've missed this one, you may have also missed the one that broke eternity's crowdfunding record a couple of weeks later. It was a kickstarter for another IE game's spiritual successor.

     

    Meanwhile, if you think, that you are not looking forward to this game enough, you have 76 more or less excellent updates to digest in the Announcement and News section.

    • Like 2
  10. The thing that is the most jarring for me most of all is that the piece to me, gives me absolutely no 'vision' of Dyrford itself. Perhaps this is not the 'main' Dyrford piece.

     

    I don't know much about the lore and the story so I have no idea of what the 'vision' of Dyrford is supposed to be, nor would I dare to even presume. I'm not implying, that you are presumptuous - I know that you know a whole lot more about this game than I do, but deriving the whole vision of the settlement from a still image of environment looks really ballsy to me.

    Of course this music wouldn't fit the bill, if there was a town fair going on (banal example, I know), but I don't see how a half ruined settlement could not offer a stage that would fit this piece.

  11.  

     

    That's just the base track with the orchestral library samples yeah and it's not final?

     

    Truthfully, nothings final till the game ships!  It's sort of like going to a job interview...  You always think of the right thing you could've said during the car ride home :)

     

    I can say that I've moved on to writing other music for the time being.  But if past experience is any indication, the more I live with this music, the more I'll want to tweak it.

     

    In the update you talked about timbre and color. The majority of the track is dominated by scarse cold sounding upper midrange strings, which IMO is probably the most lifeless sounding area of library samples. They were all used in the IE games soundtracks, but for the quieter and more atmospheric parts of the IE games, the composers used something more colorful (usually warmer) in the foreground of pieces to make them more memorable. Usually a non-string instrument, sometimes a tuned down violin (or a cello), a contrabass, percussion.

     

    The track sounds fine when something else happens - such as the LOTR sounding orchestral bits and I think I heard a couple of clarinet bits. The lone instrument bit needs to be stronger in some way.

     

    The two primary things I look for in music is atmosphere and emotion. I don't think this track quite gets there on atmosphere. The piece has emotion, but some of the instrumentation doesn't.

     

    But then again this might just be the other influences that I don't perceive coming into play. Both pieces (this and from the gameplay trailer) to me, don't sound very IE-like. But that's okay if you're shooting for something different instead.

     

     

    I disagree about the lone instrument and strings.

    This piece has background music written all over it and works quite well as such, in my opinion. The pauses, that very obviously cut the phrases from one another feel uncomfortable when listening to the music alone, but in a context of other more prominent sound effects coming from the town it should work well.

    What I've tried is this: I listened to the piece on its own and then listened to it several times while typing and focusing on another task - like I would have been while playing a game. The music performed as any background music I'd call good (not excellent) did - was unobtrusive (pauses weren't jarring anymore), conveyed the mood and had some likeable memorable phrases, that stuck with me.

    Looking at how this composition is made, transferring more prominent phrases to a lone instrument would emphasize the pauses and would have felt more intrusive and perhaps even out of place (in my opinion), while strings can manage to peek out of background and blend back in more seamlessly. Perhaps horn could also achieve that?

     

    Talking about atmosphere and emotion is unfortunately as subjective as it can get. I can't really explain this in any way, when I say, that to me the piece conveyed the atmosphere and emotion right from the very first seconds and managed to stay on the same track in both cases.

    I find the comparison with firelink from Dark Souls here quite appropriate.

     

    I do agree, that it does not quite sound like the most memorable IE pieces - the most memorable pieces there all did have a lone prominent lone instrument carrying the main theme (Kuldahar and East Haven are the ones that I still listen to). But even there, not all of the pieces did and I'd still call them good or excellent.

     

    I haven't even thought about, that people wanted the music to imitate the IE games music. My expectations and hopes were (only), that:

    - Music fits the environment and writing.

    - Music is actually good and does not make me turn it off.

    - Music has one or two memorable pieces that will get stuck in my head and will make me replay the game for the music alone in a few years, like IWD and D2 keep on doing.

     

     

    Mr. Bell, I can't wait to hear all of it, to see how You've managed to blend in a common theme.

    • Like 10
  12.  

    You do know all EULA's are like that? Valve, Blizzard, EA all own your soul nowadays already...

     

    And I see the hysterical reaction when Expedition Conquisitor mentioned the same (and possibly other KS'ses, though I didn't back any more) is still present nowadays.

     

    Anyway, my question would be... with this deal, could shipping costs in the EU be lower. I refrained from getting a physical copy during KS because of the shipping costs, despite really wanting it... if the costs could be lowered, I could up my pledge to get an actual box, and that would make me very happy :)

    I don't think the shipping costs will be lowered.

     

     

    Where's the dislike this button when you need one... :cat:

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