Game looks great, but...

[Lychnidos]

In contrast to the Barbarian who does have hide armor that needs a bit more work and uses colors that don't look right, the Ixamitl Plains Brigandine armored guy looked freaking sweet.

 

Looking at it I have to wonder whats the catch with wearing that fur-leather shirt that covers only the upper half of the torso.

[Mannock]

 

In contrast to the Barbarian who does have hide armor that needs a bit more work and uses colors that don't look right, the Ixamitl Plains Brigandine armored guy looked freaking sweet.

 

Looking at it I have to wonder whats the catch with wearing that fur-leather shirt that covers only the upper half of the torso.

 

 

The catch is you're a savage beast who don't give a ****. Intimidation and all.

[Gfted1]

Isnt this where we are supposed to whine that the Barb armor wont protect his bare midriff and its only exposed for titillation purposes? Which way is the wind blowing today?

[hulahoptereyaglıballıekmek]

Graphical complaints regarding a game trying to hit the feel of the IE-games? Give me a break. 

 

The graphics are more than good enough.

 

Suggestions, not complaints. Game is still in beta.

 

BG2 animations somehow manage to "feel" more alive then PoE.

 

Furthermore, it's 2014 not 2000. 

[Amentep]

Isnt this where we are supposed to whine that the Barb armor wont protect his bare midriff and its only exposed for titillation purposes? Which way is the wind blowing today?

 

It is blatant barbarian exploitation.  Won't someone think of the barbarians?

[Quadrone]

To OP i kind of agree with you. The graphics looks really dated. The sole reason they mentioned why they went 2D was the visuals can look visually stunning on lower end machines. I've seen Wasteland2 and Divinity Original Sins which were 3D looks far more beautiful.

 

Wha...? Wasteland 2? Better looking then PoE? I backed W2 and have seen all screenshots to date, so I can say with certainty that this is ridiculously false.

I will stop myself from comparing DOS and PoE next right here, suffice to say that imo DOS is getting quite a bit overhyped.

[Doppelschwert]

 

Isnt this where we are supposed to whine that the Barb armor wont protect his bare midriff and its only exposed for titillation purposes? Which way is the wind blowing today?

 

It is blatant barbarian exploitation.  Won't someone think of the barbarians?

 

 

You can always interpret it as a consolation prize for the promancers. I'm sure some romance mod will find good use for this kind of armor

[Amentep]

"I love you!"

 

"We must make passionate love!"

 

"Let me...slip into something more comfortable"

 

...

 

"Barbarian armor is more comfortable?"

 

"Let me Wild Sprint to you and Frenzy!"

 

 

LATER

 

"Yeah, I dumped him.  Turns out he was using 'One Stands Alone' on the other two party members.  Skanks."

 

etc.

[Doppelschwert]

Someone should definitely make a romance mod where half of the conversation features class abilities. Monk is then probably going to be reserved for the SM folks though.

 

But to stay on topic, I'd also be interested in wether the starting gear is actually different mechanical wise or only has a different look. I also like the Ixamitl Plains Brigandine, but I wonder if it has the same stats as the fur clothing.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Doppelschwert

[Hiro Protagonist II]

The biggest problem for me is that the backgrounds are so dead. Walk over grass, nothing happens. Walk through bushes, nothing happens. It's like watching a movie on top of static cartoon backgrounds.

 

The years of getting used to 3D graphics will do that to you.

[Lephys]

Isnt this where we are supposed to whine that the Barb armor wont protect his bare midriff and its only exposed for titillation purposes? Which way is the wind blowing today?

So, what you're saying is... the stitchwork on that outfit is... barbaric? 6_u

 

The years of getting used to 3D graphics will do that to you.

Indeed. Nothing a few days of getting re-used to 2D backgrounds shouldn't fix.

[AGX-17]

After watching some of the gameplay videos, I have mixed feelings about the graphical presentation.

 

First: The UI looks awesome! And it catches that Infinity engine vibe just fine. I also love how big the letters on the dialogue box are. The handful of tweaks (like the character select buttons in the looting window) that had been done over the IWD UI are well thought-out. Trade window is a little aged in terms of user comfort, but it catches the classic feel just fine.

 

However, I have a lot of concerns about the general game graphics, especially the textures. The backgrounds vary from being extremely detailed (I love some of the floor tiles on the temple), to totally blurry (the earth parts in the first area). I guess the paintover job is already done on the starting area? I feel that the IWD 2 backgrounds looked a lot more crisp and sharp compared to the first videos of PoE... I hope it's just the movie resolution fooling me.

 

And then, there's the character models. They look great in the isometric perspective, but in the inventory and character creation, they just don't match the graphical quality of the UI. I don't think the 3D models should be shown in both menues. Why not just show a sketch-like drawing of an adventurer in the background with icons of the equipments in the specific positions?

 

In the character creation screen, I guess such a preview is unavoidable if we want to select colors, but at least a little downscaling couldn't hurt... you could possibly make the windows a bit larger (like the description window) and reduce the space for the preview picture. It's not the perfect solution, but having the character that big in the character creation menu really reveals the low texture resolution of characters in PoE.

Obviously they're sitting on the Gold product for another year, right? I mean, they wouldn't release a complete game when it's complete when they could just hemorrhage money into the pockets of employees with no work to do. Right? You're right. Of course you're right. Your logic is impeccable. The game is clearly complete and not subject to change, even though beta access for backers isn't even available. Beta is the same as gold, after all, as you well know. If a 3:4 isometric perspective game doesn't have 4096x4096 textures they're obviously cutting corners and cheating people like you who... didn't back the game.

[wolfstriked]

 

In contrast to the Barbarian who does have hide armor that needs a bit more work and uses colors that don't look right, the Ixamitl Plains Brigandine armored guy looked freaking sweet.

I felt the paladin and fighter looked pretty solid too in their chainmail and breastplate.

Sorry but Is your avatar a pic from NWN2?

 

 

 

 

In contrast to the Barbarian who does have hide armor that needs a bit more work and uses colors that don't look right, the Ixamitl Plains Brigandine armored guy looked freaking sweet.

 

Looking at it I have to wonder whats the catch with wearing that fur-leather shirt that covers only the upper half of the torso.

 

 

The catch is you're a savage beast who don't give a ****. Intimidation and all.

 

 

Hopefully there is full body hide armors available.

 

[nipsen]

 

I think a lot of people would like 2D Paperdolls, but they would require a massive amount of 2D art time, this project only has 2 x 2D artists that I am aware of.

 

..I guess they could probably use some sort of emboss filter, or something like that? Take the 3d model, let it be movable, etc. But blow the model up and make it look more like the scene transition pages.

 

..or not. I hope they don't spend huge amounts of time on this. And I don't want a character creation screen that has hundreds of animations you never see in the game, better effects, and blades and weapons with detail that never will be there afterwards. And so on. Pretty please.

[Karkarov]

 

I felt the paladin and fighter looked pretty solid too in their chainmail and breastplate.

 

Sorry but Is your avatar a pic from NWN2?

My avatar?

 

No.  It is a screen capture of my character from a game called Dragon's Dogma.  It is an action RPG that released on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2012.

[Zwiebelchen]

Obviously they're sitting on the Gold product for another year, right? I mean, they wouldn't release a complete game when it's complete when they could just hemorrhage money into the pockets of employees with no work to do. Right? You're right. Of course you're right. Your logic is impeccable. The game is clearly complete and not subject to change, even though beta access for backers isn't even available. Beta is the same as gold, after all, as you well know. If a 3:4 isometric perspective game doesn't have 4096x4096 textures they're obviously cutting corners and cheating people like you who... didn't back the game.

 

 

1) why do you get offensive over constructive criticism?

2) I criticise BECAUSE it's not a gold product. They can still do something about it.

3) so basicly criticism is invalid, if you aren't a backer? I intend to buy this game, I just don't want to pay money for an unfinished product.

4) I offered valid ideas how to fix the problem without remaking any models or textures. What exactly is your problem?

[Sensuki]

He always does that. Just use the ignore function to make his posts collapsed.

[Zwiebelchen]

 

..or not. I hope they don't spend huge amounts of time on this. And I don't want a character creation screen that has hundreds of animations you never see in the game, better effects, and blades and weapons with detail that never will be there afterwards. And so on. Pretty please.

 

 

I totally understand your reasoning. That's why I suggested that they just used sketches like in the scripted choose-your-adventure events.

 

The preview window doesn't really make sense anyway with the structure of the current character selection.

 

You chose gender, race, subrace, class, background and then you are able to select portrait and appearance. So basicly the preview picture shows a character that isn't even an actual representation of what you will look like until you reach the appearance tab at the end of the character creation.

 

 

They could basicly use sketches for all the selectable choices up until the point where you actually have control over the ingame appearance of the character.

No need for a 2D paperdoll (I agree that this would probably need too much work). Just a generalized sketch that matches the selected option (i.e. when you select races, have a picture of a typical specimen of that race in its natural habitat).

 

I mean, we already have hundreds of sketches for all the scripted events in the game. I'm pretty sure several more for the character creation won't be a big thing.

 

 

It's the same reason Obsidian went for those scripted events in the first place: If we don't have the resources to do it 3D in acceptable quality, we go for stylized 2D because that never ages. You can find this reasoning all over the game. Why not incorporate it into the character creation aswell?

Edited July 31, 2014 by Zwiebelchen

[Sensuki]

The order they are in is very similar to the IE games, with the appearance and voice set right at the end.

 

Kaz and Polina are maxxed to the maxx. They've got area paint overs, 2D icons and portraits still to do (among other things).

[Zwiebelchen]

The order they are in is very similar to the IE games, with the appearance and voice set right at the end.

 

Kaz and Polina are maxxed to the maxx. They've got area paint overs, 2D icons and portraits still to do (among other things).

 

With btw one exception: portrait in IE games comes right after the gender selection. And the IE games use the portrait as the preview image during the character selection, not the paperdoll. The paperdoll is only shown at the appearance tab.

Imho, that approach works great! As the biggest optical characteristic for a character is the portrait anyway, why not just use that instead of the previewed model?

Edited July 31, 2014 by Zwiebelchen

[Hiro Protagonist II]

No need to change to sketches. It's looks good as it is.

[WorstUsernameEver]

To visualize all the character creation choices you'd need a huge number of sketch combinations. Comparatively, the character models looking a bit weird there is something you're focusing now only because so much time was spent on character creation in the videos: spent one or two hours in the game and you're probably going to stop caring (I don't think the inventory is an issue, the model is smaller there).

 

Of all the problems listed in the demo so far, this one ranks pretty low imho.

[salo]

Let's be frank here, if they had gone with character sketches for the character creation and inventory screens, a bunch of forumites would be up in arms over that decision instead. "They've gone to the trouble of creating all these character models and equipment in 3d but wont let us take a proper look at it. Why not use a model instead of a paper doll so that you could see what you character looks like in all his new gear!"

[Zwiebelchen]

To visualize all the character creation choices you'd need a huge number of sketch combinations. Comparatively, the character models looking a bit weird there is something you're focusing now only because so much time was spent on character creation in the videos: spent one or two hours in the game and you're probably going to stop caring (I don't think the inventory is an issue, the model is smaller there).

 

Of all the problems listed in the demo so far, this one ranks pretty low imho.

 

Combinations aren't really needed, if we take it more as a support picture to the descriptional text that appears on the right, not as an actual preview of your character. Said preview could instead just be the portrait (like in the IE games).

 

The thing about the larger-scale 3D character display is: it kind of reveals the graphical weaknesses of the game, leaving an immediate impression on anyone playing the game for the first time (and probably reviewing it), whereas the rest of the game pretty much hides all its weaknesses through clever gameplay decisions (scripted events) and art design (semi-painted 2D backgrounds).

 

Also, I feel that the character creation is one of the most important aspects of the appeal of classic RPGs - especially as you first impression of a game has a strong impact on your later perception of the game. So I wouldn't say it's that low priority.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Zwiebelchen

[Sonntam]

 

To visualize all the character creation choices you'd need a huge number of sketch combinations. Comparatively, the character models looking a bit weird there is something you're focusing now only because so much time was spent on character creation in the videos: spent one or two hours in the game and you're probably going to stop caring (I don't think the inventory is an issue, the model is smaller there).

 

Of all the problems listed in the demo so far, this one ranks pretty low imho.

 

Combinations aren't really needed, if we take it more as a support picture to the descriptional text that appears on the right, not as an actual preview of your character. Said preview could instead just be the portrait (like in the IE games).

 

The thing about the larger-scale 3D character display is: it kind of reveals the graphical weaknesses of the game, leaving an immediate impression on anyone playing the game for the first time (and probably reviewing it), whereas the rest of the game pretty much hides all its weaknesses through clever gameplay decisions (scripted events) and art design (semi-painted 2D backgrounds).

 

Also, I feel that the character creation is one of the most important aspects of the appeal of classic RPGs - especially as you first impression of a game has a strong impact on your later perception of the game. So I wouldn't say it's that low priority.

 

And yet one has to realize that for some people portraits may be a bigger letdown than current models.

 

For example, I was pretty happy when I saw the models and actually was even impressed by the Godlike model. 

 

I also am not someone who has played many old school RPGs and portraits are still a pretty foreign concept to me. Actually, I heavily dislike them, because I feel there is even less customization option through them, while even low rez models allow you to change hair color/eye color/skin color etc.

 

To allow the same level of different looking character you would need to go an extra mile of drawing many more portraits. And I personally know that even then I would not be satisfied.