Update #55: Vertical Slice Update

[Sensuki]

I am not sure why you compare this with Irenicus's dungeon. It reminds me more of IWD tombs. Remove the mechanical stuff in the big chamber, and it will look even more like it. And that electrical thingie, it doesn't look like BG at all, it would fit better in Arcanum universe. Imagine the surprise of an adventurer, who came through all this ancient looking chambers fighting undead monsters and, suddenly, he sees before him this technological wonder. Yes, Irenicus dungeon had stuff like that, but it looked more magical, I think...

The circular room at the top is BG2

 

The hallways are IWD Cresselack's Tomb

[Archmage Silver]

Nice update, thanks Adam. The dungeon art is looking like classic IE right now, I like it. Hopefully E3 will be good for those of you at team Obsidian who are attending it this year.

[AGX-17]

Why am I getting really strong Temple of Trials vibes from this area, aside from the room with the tesla coils and electrical cables?

[rjshae]

While I like BG feel from concept what I dont like is how 'magic power' starting to be represented by purple/pink color. I hated it on D3 and I hate in in every game which does it. I know magic missile was pink in BG as well but I think in these days everything except elemental magic is 'Arcane pink'. It looks like some source of energy, why its not blue/white electric? yellow/white source of power like heat? black hole? I notice it on mage artwork with snakes - purple. Why?. I dont mind it for some spells but I cant play caster which every second spell is purple (looking at you GW2) I may be alone in this, but I still have to get it out

 

On other note good job Obs, doing fantastic work, hope we will see few seconds from gameplay soon.

 

peace

 

If this were a real world energy generator that is outputting as a black body radiator, I might agree with you. But apparently it's not. Ergo, purple is fine and there's no reason they need to follow real world physics.

[Archmage Silver]

Hell no... never, ever, ever(!) again do I want the hassle of a ring menu.

That is the one (and only) thing I really dislike about PS:T.

+1, the ring menu isn't practical to use for me.

[centurionofprix]

 

While I like BG feel from concept what I dont like is how 'magic power' starting to be represented by purple/pink color. I hated it on D3 and I hate in in every game which does it. I know magic missile was pink in BG as well but I think in these days everything except elemental magic is 'Arcane pink'. It looks like some source of energy, why its not blue/white electric? yellow/white source of power like heat? black hole? I notice it on mage artwork with snakes - purple. Why?. I dont mind it for some spells but I cant play caster which every second spell is purple (looking at you GW2) I may be alone in this, but I still have to get it out

 

On other note good job Obs, doing fantastic work, hope we will see few seconds from gameplay soon.

 

peace

 

If this were a real world energy generator that is outputting as a black body radiator, I might agree with you. But apparently it's not. Ergo, purple is fine and there's no reason they need to follow real world physics.

 

I think chilloutman meant the aesthetic, and the way pink seems to have become the standard colour of magic in newer games.

 

Edited June 5, 2013 by centurionofprix

[Acerbissimus]

I don't like the dungeon concept much. Looks kind of generic and and there's a lot of gray and brown. Granted, I'm sure there isn't a lot you can do with a crypt in a somewhat grounded setting, but it doesn't look as interesting to me as the outside-of-a-temple shot we've seen a couple times now.

[rjshae]

Update by Adam Brennecke, Executive Producer and Lead Programmer

...

Thanks to everyone who provided feedback on our UI mockups that Rob posted last week in Update #54. We loved everyone's proposed mockups and your discussions sparked some great ideas for the next iteration on the interface. We've already mocked up a new version that takes up less vertical space and is more compact overall. Once we feel it's ready to be critiqued, we will post it in a future update for more discussion.

 

When you post this, it would be very nice if you could accompany the image with a few designer notes to explain the benefits of the new layout. Thank you!

[rjshae]

 I think chilloutman meant the aesthetic, and the way pink seems to have become the standard colour of magic in newer games.

 

In level design, there's an art to light placement that is a consideration. The purple (and barely visible pink) sets it apart from the surroundings in a way that red, yellow, or blue probably wouldn't. It successfully communicates something about the activities there, so for me it works.

 

No offense intended here, but should they change things in order to satisfy somebody who evidently has played entirely too many games and has become bored with certain common motifs? For every such player who is bored, there are probably two others that are new to the genre and would enjoy it.

[Acerbissimus]

 

No offense intended here, but should they change things in order to satisfy somebody who evidently has played entirely too many games and has become bored with certain common motifs? For every such player who is bored, there are probably two others that are new to the genre and would enjoy it.

 

 

When we're paying for the development of the game? I hope for the game to succeed with people less familiar with the genre as well, but I think we have more say in this case. Personally, I'm not bothered with the use of purple for magic stuff.

[Scottfree6000]

Nice Update!

 

Are Orlans cat people?

[centurionofprix]

 

No offense intended here, but should they change things in order to satisfy somebody who evidently has played entirely too many games and has become bored with certain common motifs? For every such player who is bored, there are probably two others that are new to the genre and would enjoy it.

 

Absolutely. I love the concept, I just agree with chilloutman on this particular detail, and with his wish that pink/purple not become the universal colour of magic in P:E. It's not that this particular scene has to be changed, but rather that the same motif hopefully won't be used to the point of blandness. The IE aesthetic with separate colours for different kinds of magic was much more entertaining.

[ImRhoven]

The screenshot manages to capture that Baldur's Gate feeling so perfectly. It's beautiful.

 

Also, yey progress.

[khango]

 

 

Looks like it could have been taken right out of that level

 

And that's not a bad thing

 

I thought the exact same thing, except for the really strong purple glow which seems a tad too strong and almost out of place.

 

[Lysen]

Nice Update!

 

Are Orlans cat people?

 

They don't really look like cats http://hydra-images.cursecdn.com/eternity.gamepedia.com/2/27/Orlan.jpg

[Lephys]

A) Vertical Slice totally sounds like something you'd see in a "Basic Moves" list in a fighting game.

 

B) If it's a slice of bread, then it must be... thoroughbread.

 

C) I forgot to mention before that the dungeon concept is splendtastic. The detail is AMAZING!

 

D) Not that you can't make things pink and purple, but I'm fully behind the idea that was expressed regarding not defaulting magical/arcane things to pink and purple glows, and making unique/exciting effects for magic (I thought the "drain the color from the surroundings" suggestion was ESPECIALLY awesome). Basically, I just encourage you guys to be as creative as you can with magical effects, in light of those suggestions.

[milczyciel]

Wow... I thought You've already nailed that "Baldur's Gate" feeling in previous updates when showing outdoors of a crypt. But that... that was like a blow in a head. Seriously, for a glimpse I could be fooled it's a screenshot from one of the classics. Luckily I have all the time I need to study it.

And I must say I love that magic "Tesla coil" thingies, urns, torn banners, jars filled shelf, all that rubble and so on. Because for me, the more details you place in a background, the more stories they tell.

 

I've only recently rediscovered how... featureless... can some instances from Baldur's Gate 1 feel, because of that. Which is totally justified in my biased and nostalgia driven mind, given the age of The Game and being first running on Infinity Engine.

 

Therefore let me say that - because of great work You already did with outdoors transition from artwork to playable area, I'm almost 100% sure that Polina's artwork will become nothing short of a screenshot. And I almost droll when I imagine all those lights flickering, banners moving (IF it's a windy tomb or if an accidental fireball explodes nearby?) combined with all that dust rising because of the ruckus my party is going to cause (there will be some kind of particle effects illusion as we saw in waterfall example right?).

 

PS

Nonetheless I must admit my additional funds that I've gathered with that specific goal of giving You, so I'll be able to upgrade my reward tier, are getting impatient While back, and it was 1th April to be precise (I do not want to hear anything about it ) You've promised to me via email (and supposedly to others that asked) that backer-portal will be up and ready in few weeks. And though I try to explain to them bloody monies that mere two months are not that different than few weeks, some of them insolent bastards decided to go and spent themselves for a headset You imagine?! I'll get another bunch in no time, I promise, so please give me ability to send them straight to You guys. Additional funds won't hurt won't they?

 

Oh right, and my inner "miraculously operated half-ogre" keeps inquiring me about more of those wondrous misadventures of Lady Veronica Whitmore. Yes, we've red last update :>

 

Cheers

Edited June 5, 2013 by milczyciel

[Zan Lynx]

Hell no... never, ever, ever(!) again do I want the hassle of a ring menu.

That is the one (and only) thing I really dislike about PS:T.

I've used some very good ring menus. Actually calling it a ring menu may be a stretch since it was rectangular. But it popped up all around the mouse cursor. Much like a set of context menus in fact.

 

With good keyboard shortcuts all commands can be hit in two to four keystrokes. I'd recommend using asdf, qwer, 1234, etc. The menu is really just for backup when you forget what keys to hit or haven't used that option before.

[J.E. Sawyer]

 

 

Creating Orlan Heads - This includes modeling differences for the Wild and Hearth ethnicities.

What are these differences?

 

 

Physically these differences are where hair grows on them. Wild Orlans are covered with a coat of hair on every inch of their bodies, including the face. On the other hand Hearth Orlans have tufts of hair the ears, but otherwise the face is covered with hair much like a typical human. The Orlan detective concept depicts a Hearth Orlan.

 

 

Dimitri just showed us a render of his Zbrush model for a male wild orlan head and it looks very cool.

 

In early internal polls (and on our message boards) we found a strong divide between people who wanted relatively "normal" looking orlans and people who wanted them to be even more animalistic.  Both hearth and wild orlans have vertical slit pupils, but the hearth orlans look more like the cipher concept that Kaz did.  Wild orlans are more evenly covered with hair to the point where it looks more like fur.

[Lephys]

 

Hell no... never, ever, ever(!) again do I want the hassle of a ring menu.

That is the one (and only) thing I really dislike about PS:T.

I've used some very good ring menus. Actually calling it a ring menu may be a stretch since it was rectangular. But it popped up all around the mouse cursor. Much like a set of context menus in fact.

 

With good keyboard shortcuts all commands can be hit in two to four keystrokes. I'd recommend using asdf, qwer, 1234, etc. The menu is really just for backup when you forget what keys to hit or haven't used that option before.

 

Radial menus are PHENOMENAL at providing easily accessible sets of options in a speedy fashion, then disappearing until you need them again. Spell selection, for example. Especially as common as multi-button mice are nowadays, you could easily bind a "quickspell" menu to a mouse thumb button or something, so as to simply pop up the menu, pick a spell (all within a VERY short distance of the cursor), then have the menu vanish and leave you to pick your target.

 

Granted, these menus get used for some things that they don't really need to be. And/or, they get wayyyy too much stuff put on them. The entirety of the game's UI should not be squished into a radial menu.

 

TL;DR: There's a time and a place for radial menus, but they can be quite awesomely effective.

 

 

Regarding Orlans... Will they get a Racial Talent called "Always Land On Feet" that lessens fall damage?

Edited June 5, 2013 by Lephys

[Nishimoto]

Seeing that scree shot gives me too many bad memories of getting my party killed in IWD.

[Adhin]

Agreed Lephys. Having custom hotkeys per-char for constantly used stuff is good, but when you got an overflow of abilities, some of which you don't use 'that' often, or its something you have to pause to line up/aim properly, using a popup menu - circular or otherwise - is my preferred way to handle it. BG style of clicking the spell thing and button-clicking to cycle one by one is... just bad. I don't know why anyone would prefer that over something as simple as a pop-up radial.

 

But yeah, often times to much crap can get placed into it to the point of them being completely redundant. I liked ToEE setup, but it was also 'completely' turn based. Everything you did was leisurely and you didn't need hotkeys for spells and basic actions. Either way hope they use fade in menus for the excess of abilities that your hotkeys wont handle and I PRAY they don't have hotkey cycling, that ****s awful.

[Woldan]

The sarcophagus and the tomb as a whole totally remind me of the Baldur's Gate 2 graveyard district. All it needs now is a couple of mummies and giant skeletons. Love it. 

Edited June 6, 2013 by Woldan

[Wombat]

As for the map, sci-fi looking objects in a fantasy setting are not my cup of tea.  I like other catacomb-looking areas, though.

 

 

Both hearth and wild orlans have vertical slit pupils, but the hearth orlans look more like the cipher concept that Kaz did.  Wild orlans are more evenly covered with hair to the point where it looks more like fur.

Guess that's the reason why Chris found them catty.  I'm sucker to small animals and, somehow, I began to imagine wild orlans similar to characters in the Wind in the Willows, which should be totally wrong considering the info revealed so far.

[Karkarov]

Very excited to hear what the new updated UI will look like and very hyped to learn how far along development is.  Cant wait to get a hold of this game!