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Visual Effects and a Rant
Rhaelah
Member
I watched the recent AoC stream and just had my hopes sink after hearing the most recent AMA which rekindled my hopes for MMOs.
That being said, any one else disappointed at the over-exaggerated spell effects? When you have a whole slew of people on your screen, these spell/ability effects will get to the point where I wont be able to see what the heck is going on. Or the fact that one swing of the sword hits as many enemies as you want as long as they are bunched up? Like come on. Can we get a game where I feel like an adventurer and not a Captain America where his shield takes out 5 guys in one swing? It's NOT a superhero game. Im NOT the chosen one. It's fantasy, medieval to small degree. At least make it somewhat realistic/believable. The world should be dangerous, I shouldnt be taking on 4-15 enemies at once.
I'll give them that their mini-map is vague, which is good. However, I would argue for no mini-map or map at all. Does no one understand how to make games anymore??? Please, someone reassure me im not the only one who feels this way.
That being said, any one else disappointed at the over-exaggerated spell effects? When you have a whole slew of people on your screen, these spell/ability effects will get to the point where I wont be able to see what the heck is going on. Or the fact that one swing of the sword hits as many enemies as you want as long as they are bunched up? Like come on. Can we get a game where I feel like an adventurer and not a Captain America where his shield takes out 5 guys in one swing? It's NOT a superhero game. Im NOT the chosen one. It's fantasy, medieval to small degree. At least make it somewhat realistic/believable. The world should be dangerous, I shouldnt be taking on 4-15 enemies at once.
I'll give them that their mini-map is vague, which is good. However, I would argue for no mini-map or map at all. Does no one understand how to make games anymore??? Please, someone reassure me im not the only one who feels this way.
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Additionally the could have the option to turn of effects for non-party members like ff14 does
In other words it’s still early in development so don’t lose hope just yet
We have to play it first to know how it feels
What if it's very fun? Would you care about realism as much?
On the other hand it sounds like a game where you’re gonna be doing some grinding to level, the arcs will help alleviate some of that.
And lastly I disagree with you on the mini map and map in general thing, it’d it didn’t have one that would be terrible the game is too big and dungeons and points of interest are in the open world. It would absolutely suck if you had no reference point to find theses
No, the sky is not falling. We are pre alpha 1; there are many placeholder graphics right now. Relax and know that things will continue to improve as we go through the alpha phases.
Imagine the fireworks during a seige. Oh the pixilizations! Hope I have enough memory.
In regards to the particle effects, it's been stated before that there will be a way to adjust the intensity of particle effects so that you can clearly see what's going on but for now they showcase it to the max so people can see what they look like maxed and then they can tune it down from there.
As for the mini-map, I don't agree that there should not be any mini-map or map at all. I also think that having a mini-map or map can somewhat take away from a game. What I mean by that is not that it will literally take away content but rather it takes away from the opportunity of having the mini-map being part of the content.
I think a good idea would be to start people off with basically no map at all but as they do their first quest or something they get a map that will fill in as they explore and as the land changes, in order for the map to change for them they must visit those places. It'd be good to have a general map available at all time though where it doesn't show any detailed information, kinda as if the world was empty.
The mini-map thing is just an idea but I don't think many people would care much how they handle their map.
@Sangramoire
There is a fog of war. You only see where you've been, on the big map. This encourages exploring, and possibly cartography.
I just feel as if this is the closest MMO in YEARS to come close to what needs to be done, and it might fall to some unfortunate end due to small bad decisions that pile up. Whether that be it being too flashy, giving away too much information to the player via UI, huge 3rd person cameras, maps, player:mob difficulty ratios, etc. Its not easy to get all those right, but it is easy to get them fundamentally correct.
Edit: have faith.
And from what I can tell so far is that the development team is doing a wonderful job keeping in touch with the community and being very transparent about the interaction.
So I have my hopes, fears and reservations but ultimately I'm still a card-carrying member of the Ashes of Creation hype train.
One of the worst thing about some MMOs is that the spells don't feel powerful, largely due to the fact that there is no visual effects to back the spells up. WoW is a prime example of this, my Mage never feels powerful because spells feel incredibly lackluster.
I disagree with the minimap point. I understand not having too much information on them, but I feel like they're a vital part to MMORPGs, at least for me.
Also, in the lore we technically are heroes/champions. We're basically the champions and heroes of our former world, Sanctus, who have come through the portals in order to take back Verra which we were driven out of thousands of years ago.
I enjoy seeing more spell effects. However, you will be able to tone it down so just do it in the settings and boom, problem solved. I don't know why this is something that you're disappointed over.
I think they are trying to make the abilities look cool but have an obvious tell for pvp.
Doesn't help most the footage they've shown is two clerics and a tank. That's a lotta gold.
That turtle mount tho...
I think we're going to be ok.
And the AOE with every atack is terrible... I like to target a single mob.
Action combat is ugh.......
Steven and the team has gone out of their way to explain over and over that all animations are just the first pass, and they will be improved, as well as toned down.
I feel like there are a lot of people who hasn't fully realized that the game hasn't even gone into alpha yet. Most people are comparing to finished games or when the games were in beta phases.
Beta is very far away, and most developers don't show this much so early on.
Compare this to Crowfall where it's very low fidelity visually, yet the game struggles to run above 40 FPS.
Say your just in a raid and one of ya boys lands a huge fireball, would it not be awesome if you could see that coming like "damn this dude gonna die!"
Just noticed people are taking the spell flashys thing kinda serious. I honestly don't care much either way. just wanted somewhere to post my idea.
They seem to think that they can create an experience where any player can play how they want. However, that creates a disadvantage to those who will want to play tab target, be in first person, have toned down spell effects, or not use a map/minimap. When I listen to what they say and watch their videos I cant help but see it flip flop every so often. It reminds me about the discussion of damage meters, but for some reason people think damage meters are more important than these key features.
That's something I didn't know and I think that's an awesome feature as I like that feeling of exploration and discovering new things and possibly having knowledge that others don't simply because they haven't explored as much.
I would bet that YOU dont know how to make games either...
The minimap is still in works and will be more like a standard minimap i believe.
I also stand behind the idea that maps should be something to equip. A Scribe (One of the professions in game) would be able to produce consumable map upgrades for the territory thats surrounding the node, while also making special upgrades that show where certain mineral deposits spawn etc.
A player would start out with a very roughly scetched map of their surroundings (rivers, mountains etc) and could then use these upgradepacks to improve their map.
This.. lol. This is such a horrible argument. I'd be willing to bet that both of us have played games/mmos enough to understand them enough to give critical thinking on them. It's not rocket science.
I hope to god it doesnt become a standard minimap. Those give away WAY too much free information to the player in-game all the time. It's a crutch that was forced upon us.
I agree with most of this, the only thing I disagree with is being able to upgrade. More free information to the player is more detrimental to the player.
its not free information. A player had to create it first and then sells it to you. The upgraded map will also not show everything, only the most important roads, level range of adds in a region, and already opened dungeon entrances etc.
Not free as in it took no work to map the map, but free as in when I have the map I can always look at it and get information for free and quickly. I would argue the only thing a map/minimap should should are major roads/landmarks. Everything else should be memorized or I would compromise with upgrades to maps for only dungeon entraces or something else maybe. Knowing the level range of mobs is not a great idea at all, imo. I want a stylish map thats not covered in icons and colored areas, that goes for the minimap too.
In fact, if I could have it my way I would only have a direction compass. I might make a post on this.