Please bring back the pencil drawings of items

[Immortalis]

I really miss the simple pencil drawings of items & weapons in their description windows.

It would greatly increase the feel of a Infinity Engine RPG game.

 

Those drawings gave items personality because the artist was introducing graphical elements and details to the item that was impossible to reproduce in the engine.

 

              

 

Maybe items would not have the extensive lore backgrounds they have in the past games but at least Pillars of Eternity would preserve this exquisite and simple pencil  presentation of them.

 

 

EDIT: If you agree and feel the same in this regard, please like this post to send the message across to anyone from the dev team that maybe is reading it.

Thank you.

 

Oh my god that Carsomyr is so sexy.. I love how you used Boo to tug our nostalgia strings

Edited August 29, 2014 by Immortalis

[Sarex]

**** me but is almost making me install bg2 again, almost. Maybe I should give BG2EE a try.

[Grotesque]

I know it seems nit-picky, but having pencil sketches for items is really important to me. It really helps the items feel unique and "alive" so to speak.

 

Considering how many things there are to work on before release, I don't realistically see OE getting this done, as it's probably a back-burner issue (If they even consider it an issue).

 

I don't know if the bureaucracy of game development would get in the way of this idea, but I think it would be cool to let the community here donate their own sketches for different items in the game. Just have us submit a bunch of random sketches of bows, swords, hammers, armor, gems, keys, etc... If OE receives enough good ones, I wouldn't think it would take too many resources to implement them, would it? 

 

Obviously the style of drawings would vary from person to person, but I think if the standard rule was "pencil sketches only", that that would keep the visual look between drawings similar enough for consistency.

 

Bad idea? Good idea? Naive idea?

 

I am glad someone else invested time to write a post regarding this issue

 

Here is a link with my post on this matter and please like the post and join the hivemind,

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/67163-please-bring-back-the-pencil-drawings-of-items/

[Grotesque]

**** me but is almost making me install bg2 again, almost. Maybe I should give BG2EE a try.

 

 

For me the, the new intro of the Enhanced Edition was a total turnoff. Not because I have something against animated images used for creating an intro for a game (exquisite intro for Homeworld pops to mind) but because it was ammateurish. I did not understood why they had to change it with something subpar.

So I exited the game and never looked back.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Grotesque

[Linkamus]

Already a thread for this, use the search function.

 

Sorry. I actually have seen that thread, but did not know that this idea had been brought up inside the thread. Had I known that, I wouldn't have made this one. But not knowing that, I thought the idea deserved its own thread. Call me a narcissist . 

[Sedrefilos]

Didn't liked the item sketches tbh. Looked like they took the sketches from their concepts and put them there 'cause the graphics weren;t so good back then to make the items looks pretty good themselves. If they're gonna put drawn items at examine screen (if there is any) I'd prefer to be full drawings not just scetches.

[Grotesque]

 

Already a thread for this, use the search function.

 

Sorry. I actually have seen that thread, but did not know that this idea had been brought up inside the thread. Had I known that, I wouldn't have made this one. But not knowing that, I thought the idea deserved its own thread. Call me a narcissist . 

 

 

I brought the idea of outsourcing the sketches on that thread.

I don't know about the idea of fans making them because it needs peoples with skills and dedication.

Outsourcing sketches needs money though and I doubt Obsidian has money left. I even consider they went over budget but will never hear about it. 

[Shadenuat]

I understand the desire to help but I think artists are somewhat of a tyrants and lead artist probably wouldn't want to deal with hundred pictures all made by different people.

[Mayama]

Legal issues,, no company would do that.

[Grotesque]

Didn't liked the item sketches tbh. Looked like they took the sketches from their concepts and put them there 'cause the graphics weren;t so good back then to make the items looks pretty good themselves. If they're gonna put drawn items at examine screen (if there is any) I'd prefer to be full drawings not just scetches.

 

Its illogical to make concept drawings for items of such small scale that technical artists will not be able to reproduce ingame. Those sketches were particularly made for item description.

I understand you do not like them but when I first saw them, my mind raced to this,

 

   

 

 

They have a Da Vinci vibe into them and to be honest, I was intrigued at first but soon I loved them because those sketches along with their attached lore helped a lot fleshing out the world and really detailing it. Great stuff.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Grotesque

[Linkamus]

Looks my thread got moved into this one. Cool beans.

[Seari]

Didn't liked the item sketches tbh. Looked like they took the sketches from their concepts and put them there 'cause the graphics weren;t so good back then to make the items looks pretty good themselves. If they're gonna put drawn items at examine screen (if there is any) I'd prefer to be full drawings not just scetches.

The sketches were a catalyst for your imagination. Something that would be hard to explain to todays pretty grfx and mmo crowd.

[bonarbill]

The item sketches were nice in BG games, but I don't think it's needed in this game.  Icewind Dale and Planescape Torment got along fine without them, and I rather Obsidian use their 2d art resources on other things (like more 2d portraits and making nice icons for items and spells).

Edited August 29, 2014 by bonarbill

[Night Stalker]

I never really found the sketches to be that important for the IE feel - then again PS:T is my favorite IE game, and BG2 seems to be the game most people here hold as the gold-standard for what an IE-like game should be like.

[Malekith]

I never really found the sketches to be that important for the IE feel - then again PS:T is my favorite IE game, and BG2 seems to be the game most people here hold as the gold-standard for what an IE-like game should be like.

PS:T is half the people's favorite game, but it had some very obvious flaws. PS:T's story, characters and writing were the game's strenghts, and are the things PoE seems to nail already as no one complained about that.

But.... PST UI was attrocious, PS:T system was bad, and the item's presentation was memorable for the most part because of how wacky-grotesque-unusual the items and their icons were.

BG2 had way better UI, item presentation and combat mechanics, and that are the part's PoE is also worse than BG2.

 

So, PoE will propably be a great game even if only for the narrative, but most people are hoping for something more. We don't want a PST/Fallout 1 (great content with subpar gameplay/systems/UI) when we could have a PST/Fallout 1 mixed with BG2 (great content with great gameplay/systems/UI)

Edited August 29, 2014 by Malekith

[Wintersong]

 

Didn't liked the item sketches tbh. Looked like they took the sketches from their concepts and put them there 'cause the graphics weren;t so good back then to make the items looks pretty good themselves. If they're gonna put drawn items at examine screen (if there is any) I'd prefer to be full drawings not just scetches.

The sketches were a catalyst for your imagination. Something that would be hard to explain to todays pretty grfx and mmo crowd.

 

The item description would have done the trick too.

 

The only thing that sketches had was to blend well with the partchment background/theme.

[Kronos]

I personally would extend the 2D assets requirement beyond just item sketches. IMO the overall density of 2 D art assets is lighter than I'd lie, by a long shot. Ie: character faces, npc faces, character screens, etc...

 

Fortunately it's not beta, so loads of time available to sort it out...

[Seari]

I personally would extend the 2D assets requirement beyond just item sketches. IMO the overall density of 2 D art assets is lighter than I'd lie, by a long shot. Ie: character faces, npc faces, character screens, etc...

 

Fortunately it's not beta, so loads of time available to sort it out...

One can dream. Maybe in an expansion they will see the error of their ways.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Seari

[Sedrefilos]

 

Didn't liked the item sketches tbh. Looked like they took the sketches from their concepts and put them there 'cause the graphics weren;t so good back then to make the items looks pretty good themselves. If they're gonna put drawn items at examine screen (if there is any) I'd prefer to be full drawings not just scetches.

The sketches were a catalyst for your imagination. Something that would be hard to explain to todays pretty grfx and mmo crowd.

 

You mean *your* imagination, I believe.

[Seari]

 

 

Didn't liked the item sketches tbh. Looked like they took the sketches from their concepts and put them there 'cause the graphics weren;t so good back then to make the items looks pretty good themselves. If they're gonna put drawn items at examine screen (if there is any) I'd prefer to be full drawings not just scetches.

The sketches were a catalyst for your imagination. Something that would be hard to explain to todays pretty grfx and mmo crowd.

 

You mean *your* imagination, I believe.

 

Well it's a shame if you're lacking one.

[Grotesque]

The thread that asks for pirate style pistols to be in the game has with one "vote" more than item sketches...

Oh, the tragedy!

[agris]

I hope that the game's item files allow for a separate art item in place of the icon in the description window. That at least means that artistic members of the mod community could introduce them (or we just rip them from the IE games).

 

If the item files are hardcoded so that item_icon == description_icon, well, uh, can it not be like that. please?

[Gromnir]

am not certain we care about the pencil drawings in the descriptions, but the actual icons were, in our estimation at their best in iwd... though we honest don't recall iwd2. bathed in blood armour and black swan armour icons were fantastic.  yeah, the icons were tiny, but the iwd versions looked so much better than the bg or bg2 varieties.

 

http://noctalis.com/dis/icewind/arm-plat.shtml

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Grotesque]

am not certain we care about the pencil drawings in the descriptions

 

 All proof lead to the contrary

[Gromnir]

 

am not certain we care about the pencil drawings in the descriptions

 

 All proof lead to the contrary

 

clarification for those new to the fora: Gromnir is ambivalent about pencil drawings in the descriptions. 

 

HA! Good Fun!