Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
BUT. @SaintJ kinda hit the nail on the head regarding my concern about graphics. Younger generations are terribly critical/have high demands in this regard. And seeing as AOC is not launching until 2020 there will be a larger youth demographic with money to spend on games by then and they will have higher graphical standards.
While I Agree with you that combat mechanics is #1, Graphics is definitely in the top 5 and it is important enough to the younger demographics to the point where it might be #2 or #3 on their list.
Now it's possible they could launch with lower fidelity graphics then have a "remastered" version come out with much higher graphic fidelity much like BDO did but I feel they should make improving the graphics a high priority in the near future or at the very least improving the quality of the slower, blockier, cartoonish or ESO esque style animations in favor of more realistic/stylish ones depicted in BDO's animations.
It looks like it is from 2006.
You mentioned WoW. It's a shit game with shit graphics, but it was popular well past any other MMO. Yet even when it was released it's graphics were considered years behind other games. EQ2 - that released in the same quarter - had graphics that far exceeded WoW's.
My point is, cutting edge graphics are not a make or break factor in games. This is easily demonstrated simply by looking at these four games.
There *are* people out there that look at graphics and little else in games. However, these gamers are the type of people that are always bouncing to the newest game (always in search of better graphics), and as such are not the type of gamer an MMO with long term aspirations should be focusing on attracting.
Once again, still not saying that graphics are something that should be totally ignored over other aspects, just that there is a point of diminishing returns, past which any improvements are unnecessary.
The graphics of of games like Overwatch are a result of a deliberate decision by the developers to not focus on graphics as much as the average FPS game. Particle effects are lower quality, only basic lighting effects are used, solid colors are favored over textures.
This results in a cartoony graphic style. Even if cartoon graphics aren't the aim, they are the only possible result of the above decisions.
In every objectively measurable metric, Overwatch has lower quality graphics than most other AAA games of the last few years. You may like the graphic style, but that is subjective.
Yet, even with this lack of focus on graphics, resulting in objectively poorer graphics, we both agree that an Overwatch MMO would sell.
Not a shining example of why Ashes needs to focus excessively on graphics in order to be successful.
Character animations should be fluid and not stiff. I don't have to be able to see the weave pattern in cloth items. The elves in LOTRO always ran like they had a corn cob stuck up their butt.
For instance there is often times what I like to call "shoulder lock" where the person's shoulders are locked mostly in place yet the character's legs and sometimes their arms are moving in separate directions from their torso. The biggest place I saw this was using the crossbow or the bow and running left or right while aiming. The upper body/torso is as still as a statue while the legs and arms are moving all over in separate directions. It looks very robotic as Humans literally can't move their body in this manner because unlike robots which can have separate swivel points for their limbs our musculature is all interwoven. If you tried running or side stepping to the left or right it would completely affect the positioning of your upper body. You would lean in the direction you are moving while firing etc.
In Black Desert for instance if you are running to the left or right your whole body is moving and leaning to the left or right. It looks and feels realistic and that is one of the aspects of black desert and modern AAA titles which has raised the bar as far as animation quality goes.
I'll try to get a couple of screenshots to illustrate what I'm saying and drop it in here.
Here are some screenshots depicting the issue.
If you look at the above picture the player is rapidly moving in one direction while power attacking in the opposite direction... just try and do this in real life you'll wrench your back out or fall over.
Shoulder lock is much harder to depict while not in motion..
in the above shot the player is strafing fairly rapidly from side to side yet the camera is "locked" on the character's shoulders and of course he's so upright he looks like he has a rod up is bum.
BDO solved this by not trying to lock the camera on the character's shoulders but to rather create separate strafing attack and dodge animations. (which could also be modified)
(appologies on the poor quality of the pics below had to pull them from a heavily compressed screen capture vid)
Here is an example of The ranger's standard side moving attack:
Notice how her whole body is facing the direction of movement the animation.
Here is a picture of a mage doing a side projectile attack:
additionally here is an example of a side evade from the witch:
Now for Melee here is an example of a side attack with a two handed sword. The warrior steps sideways with and swings with his hips using his entire body which is what you actually have to do IRL. I'm sure you've all heard "swing from your hips" before when it comes to sports like baseball and boxing.
Here is an example of a dual blade weilding class doing 3 different moves. Side attack, Side dash, general sideways movement.
Basic sideways movement.
So here you see the animations being more realistic while a also stylish/high fantasy and being very fluid and functional at the same time. While some of the feats the player's character pull off might be slightly unrealistic/fantasy they never look robotic or stiff.
Another excellent example of how combat like this can be done well is Horizon zero dawn... HZD still has over the shoulder combat with great bow aiming mechanics and dodge rolls very similar to what's in AOC already while not having the player's camera "shoulder locked" on a stiff robotic turret torso.