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Is it me, or the characters are a little out of proportion to the rest of the world?
Raizox
Member
From what I've seen, I feel like the characters in this game are smaller in terms of proportion to the rest of the world (buildings, houses, trees, etc.).
Is it just me, or does someone else feel it that way too?
Is it just me, or does someone else feel it that way too?
4
Comments
More seriously, as I can obviously only speak for myself, I don't feel it.
I know it was discussed that the Creative Director prefers to play MMOs fully zoomed out, which might have led to the 'default' camera distance from the player being further out. Most streamers aren't likely to change this, I haven't seen any who have adjusted it.
(Group Lock Disabled)
Can of worms just opened! I'm running for cover!
Several streamers also said it.
I know it was discussed that the Creative Director prefers to play MMOs fully zoomed out, which might have led to the 'default' camera distance from the player being further out. Most streamers aren't likely to change this, I haven't seen any who have adjusted it.
But this has nothing to do with that.
A door on a house doesn't seem to be the wrong size, to me. And my character doesn't seem to be the wrong size relative to the door...
The palm trees are usually the size of the ones I've seen in my life, and the shorter trees have branches that annoy me because they have collision and my character can't run under them.
The dungeons, however, are vertically huge, which they've said is by design, so I see the feeling there as intentional.
As for scale, looks about right to me.
I get a sense they want the ruins and dungeons to have a rather epic scale. Supposed to represent a sort of paradise lost. Also makes more space for big monsters.
Third-person games have some unique design constraints which necessitate a larger scale than is strictly "realistic", since characters need a lot of room to move around comfortably, and the camera needs to be able to zoom out without getting stuck on anything. This is a larger problem in MMOs, where dozens of characters might need to occupy the same room for an event like a siege or raid, while still having enough room to reposition freely.
At a "normal" scale, environments would feel cramped and awkward to navigate. Therefore, buildings in MMOs are designed to accommodate this, and are often built with high ceilings and large floorplans.
From what I've seen in the alpha, props like market stalls, wagons, and tents are in-proportion with characters, but buildings are scaled up a bit, and trees are tall enough that the camera won't clip through branches if it's fully zoomed out. However, in practice, I don't find this to be that noticeable, especially with the camera zoomed in for a closer over-the-shoulder view.
But then again lately I've been testing with a dwarf mage so I think that should be expected.
Relative to the character they feel like they were made by and for an average human. As a dwarf player, they feel slightly too big to me, however, I think Dunir dwarves will be built a bit taller than the base test model on average.
Barrels? Wagons? Tents? They all feel slightly too small honestly, but close enough to correct that it doesn't bother me. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that things are in third person and the zoom is kinda far like Azherae said.
As for natural landscapes? No, those are about to scale. If anything the landscapes feel a bit smaller than I'd expect. I've been to many mountains and sweeping hilly areas on multiple continents and can say that things do tend to make you feel that small irl. It's working as expected given the areas Intrepid has chosen to 'show off' the most by making the starter area, even a little on the smaller side I'd say. Maybe in the full build this will be increased relative to natural landscapes since this is only a low laying tropical area for the most part. The truly mountainous areas are close to the world border (I tried) so I couldn't get a good sense of the more extreme terrain. Admittedly I haven't been up to the northest north.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Yhr9WpjaDzw
The final game is supposed to have an extremely robust customization system, I believe it was said that it should be on par with what you see in Black Desert Online. So it's possible that the characters we make now are on the low end of the height scale but we will have the option to make them much larger in later testing stages and then release. Just a guess.
So the play spaces being bigger is a design feature.
The thing that has been taking me out of the environment is how many streams have had to turn down their graphics settings - especially around crowds of players. Even "beast" machines have been putting out low FPS around groups. Some streamers remember to turn it back up later, but a good number do not.
The most un-real element to me so far has been character movement; There's something a little off, about it. There are plenty of custom animations so far, but the running seems too "default", or too much like the un-decorated avatar moves, in Unreal Engine. Dwarves don't seem to have this problem, as their movement animations are all custom - but Humans definitely seem to have it.
Don't go into the long grass!!!
No it's not just the OP. Something with the characters does feel off, as if they are a bit too small for their surroundings or maybe it is the lighting. All I can say is it looked better in the livestream for June, probably because better lighting? The player characters do look a bit out of place in the world at the moment.
They seem to me, as someone who has played, within proportion of irl objects relative to the characters. What seems off to you?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Yhr9WpjaDzw
I assume that characters in games like these are quite short, particularly when they aren't of the 'tall race' in the game, whatever that is.
I also expect ceilings to be high, for camera movement related reasons, and the Empyrean Architecture (I wouldn't spend too long in a Kaelar house) makes that even moreso.
Maybe that's why? We're playing non-customizable characters, as someone pointed out. Those of us who normally play tall characters might notice it faster? (so far that seems to be how it goes for everyone I know)
Of course, the devs know how to adjust the camera to get the best images for their videos.
If you go to Stormwind, in World of Warcraft, you will notice that the designers used a technique that Disney started using in their parks: the buildings have wrong proportions ON PURPOSE, having towers get "smaller" as they get higher so that when players look at them from afar, they look taller. Disney used this in their parks to make things look bigger and more exciting.
But that is easier to do in a cartoonish design like wow.
I did notice the default zoom out though and liked it. I like to play as zoomed out as is possible/practical in all my MMORPGs and strategy games and actually everything. I imagine that's going to be adjustable and remain adjustable though, to suit different tastes.