World Building / Landscape
Terfin
Member
So i have no access to the Alpha and base this impression/opinion on what i could watch. I am also aware that these points of critic might be void with future planned changes i have no insight into.
While villages/major Buildings and Hubs look amazing, my critic refers to the in-between.
Due to what the teams has in mind for travel - we as players should have to travel a lot more overland compared to other games.
The far sight in the game is amazing and reminded me of Skyrim immediately. Big thumb up.
But now for the problematic parts:
It is all very generic and same same. Trees do not have enough variation in their placing, spacing, girth and models of the trees. Up to a point where simple variation of angle of the trees would make a huge difference, most trees give me an impression of being placed carefully, too carefully – or exactly the opposite placed by a procedural engine.
Tree bases need to connect to the ground more, have more undergrowth elements, have fallen tree logs, have monster dens of the species that inhabits the area, small assets not huge stuff.
A certain individual streamed him climbing a top of the mountains, and it was the same, blank texture for the most part. No mobs anymore at all, no vegetation that should be there even at greater heights.
Why is he talking about this like its so important when its all just empty landscape anyway and not concerning the major hub areas/dungeons?
Well exactly why make it empty spaces? Why not make it more compelling? I understand that we will likely see changes to node advancement in certain areas, but correct me if I'm wrong, most of these places will be done now, finished at hardly changed for the first one or two years after release.
Make it count. If you do look at games like WoW, usually universally praised for the art team, they managed to evolve their landscape design significantly by bringing in details with small graphical assets and lighting(AoC does this well already).
Overall thanks for the great first impression and for reading up to this point.
While villages/major Buildings and Hubs look amazing, my critic refers to the in-between.
Due to what the teams has in mind for travel - we as players should have to travel a lot more overland compared to other games.
The far sight in the game is amazing and reminded me of Skyrim immediately. Big thumb up.
But now for the problematic parts:
It is all very generic and same same. Trees do not have enough variation in their placing, spacing, girth and models of the trees. Up to a point where simple variation of angle of the trees would make a huge difference, most trees give me an impression of being placed carefully, too carefully – or exactly the opposite placed by a procedural engine.
Tree bases need to connect to the ground more, have more undergrowth elements, have fallen tree logs, have monster dens of the species that inhabits the area, small assets not huge stuff.
A certain individual streamed him climbing a top of the mountains, and it was the same, blank texture for the most part. No mobs anymore at all, no vegetation that should be there even at greater heights.
Why is he talking about this like its so important when its all just empty landscape anyway and not concerning the major hub areas/dungeons?
Well exactly why make it empty spaces? Why not make it more compelling? I understand that we will likely see changes to node advancement in certain areas, but correct me if I'm wrong, most of these places will be done now, finished at hardly changed for the first one or two years after release.
Make it count. If you do look at games like WoW, usually universally praised for the art team, they managed to evolve their landscape design significantly by bringing in details with small graphical assets and lighting(AoC does this well already).
Overall thanks for the great first impression and for reading up to this point.
4
Comments
of course if alpha = everything is a placeholder, but there has to be some point of discussion or the whole thing is pointless.
Things will flesh out down the line for sure - but I do encourage you to keep engaged in the forums but with a measured opinion on what to expect in each level of test I.e. A1/2 and B1/2.
I know this is alpha 1 but as you said, the alpha is for bringing stuff up like this before it's to far along to change, the graphics looked nice but the reason you dont notice the 15 year old graphics in wow classic is because every zone is unique and has it's own emersive feel to it
That's right, @Terfin ... but in terms of the game's development, Alpha-1 isn't the best time for detailed discussion on the immersive details of world building.
That comes later.
Though I do agree that the finalised landscape should be more lush with more immersive details - I think New World did forest environments (e.g. 1 & 2) quite well - the individual trees have a lot of detail and variation both on and around them. The current tropical beach and autumn birch biome in alpha 1 do look sparser than the concepts and renders they have shown us in their dev streams.
Edit: see here and here for a comparison of alpha 1 and the world maps.
Places are just good enough to be somewhat OK to allow outside testers to run through part of the rudimentary world.
This !
A MMORPG is a heavy game with a lot of thing to do. too much thing to do (i speak on dev side)
But feedback during earlier part of tests, even if not the thing that is tested yet, helps devs to know where the most work is needed with what people was able to see.
I dont know what map we will have in alpha 2. but when we reach beta1 this topic will clearly be too late if there is real problem, because we will be too late to do big changes on the landscape
We are all looking for a new mmo to play and community feedback is super Important in these early stages!
It's the layout that is ready for Alpha One with just enough content to allow outside testers in.
Same for races and classes and skills and everything else in the Alpha.
This thread is not going to make any more of difference than voicing concern that Nodes cannot reach the Metro Stage in the Alpha One.
Edit: fixed an error.
Love that idea! And i def know what you mean with walking over a mountain, i saw that yesterday. That shouldn't be possible. In ESO they have slaughterfish in the ocean that prevents players from swimming too far out. Maybe something to consider!
Im sure you've heard him say too "This is not a content alpha", and what are you asking for? content. I mean I get you are worried but it's stricktly a "No content" alpha and you are asking for a dragon on a mountain. Everybody wants that we can just wait and see, and if you choose so, believe.