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Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest news on Alpha Two.
Check out general Announcements here to see the latest news on Ashes of Creation & Intrepid Studios.
To get the quickest updates regarding Alpha Two, connect your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
Dungeon cutscenes are terrible though. If I'm doing a dungeon for the first time and I have other people in the dungeon who are helping me with it I am then holding everyone else back while I watch the cutscene.
Thus for group content it's imperative to use other means than a cutscene to tell the story.
-Different cutscenes based on dialogue with NPC or choices in the game.
Its kinda like a surprise-I wanna know what I got.
-Option to interfere mid scene for different outcome.
-Scenes that include players and sometimes only players. Soulsborne games usually have them when you are triggering something ( putting sacred items on pedestals, triggering boss fights, falling through a ground and so on)
-Boss introductions.
-Emotionally charged up scenes. Don't be afraid to kill of NPCs we love.
-Good acting in general
-No forced lines with overwhelming information about something that is not related to your current situation. (especially humor). Although, even that rule can be broken at times.
-Scenes are not good if there are not believable characters with own wants, needs and flaws to carry them.
-Vista shoots from high vintage points for introduction of an area. Zooming in from the front of your character with the fast rotation to the back of your character and zooming out, showing both of your character and environment.
Guild Wars 2 has something like that.
-If its an action scene:
1. Mayhem, debris flying around, rain of arrows flying above you, people dying in the background in various ways, craters forming from rock impact fired from catapults or ballista bolt, Torn banners flying in the wind or burning...
Fantasy D-day if you want.
2. very dynamic camera angles that flow naturally one into another. For example, Low angle shot following character running into a over-the-shoulder shot when it suddenly stops.
3. If its a combat scene- a very visceral and impactful strikes while fighting. I dont like to see NPCs swinging into the air, not parrying, stabbing etc. It's immersion breaking.
4. When a gameplay seamlessly turns into a scene ( with combat) and vice versa.
God of War games are pretty much known for this. It MAKES you pay attention to a scene because gameplay is within them.
5.Suspense. Examples:
-After you defeat the boss cutscene plays, music slowly stops and right when you turn away, boss turns into something monstrous and second phase begins.
-Character fights that seem to be on equal footing with dramatic conclusion. Like a burst of blood.
( I suggest watching a lots of samurai movies)
Some games use cutscenes for player executions, but I don't know how you would incorporate that...
Like For Honor, Mortal Kombat etc.
Keep in mind, majority of things I mentioned works in single player game, but some may be altered to fit MMO.
With that said, the game Throne and Liberty has a really nice way to handle it. They have their normal lore related cutscenes which you may skip, but when/if you do skip they have a voice over giving a quick summary of cutscene or quest objectives, a narrator almost detailing quest relevant information.
We all know cutscene skippers end up missing quest relevant information and our non-skipping friends laugh at us when they finish the quest before. With TnL's system I did not miss those small details and I was able to be proficient with leveling and not be stuck listening to cutscenes about lore I do not care about.
I'll watch every cutscene at least once, all the way through. The epic ones I'll watch every time. I agree with other commenters saying that today, they should generally be shortened to hold attention spans.
You could even consider narrators who speak while your character is still able to continue on. Examples are the DM narration in Dungeons & Dragons Online or the reading of lore books. Crackling laughter when entering the lair of a lich. Growls when you enter a wolf den.
Server-wide story where other players can see my involvement with the world and the NPCs.
Make the world lore worth listening to, for finding out secret doors and secret legendary bosses that rarely spawn at specific time & specific place & must meet specific lore conditions.
I saw this in an anime p:
I think Star Wars: The Old Republic is one of the only MMOs to have done cutscenes well. Here, your character was actually replying to events (voiced) and just not some random mute there to watch others interact. Your character - that you spent a LONG time creating and leveling up - was PART of the conversations. That made cutscenes mean something and allowed you participate in the story rather than just put you in a sidekick role, tasking you with twiddling your thumbs while others do the talking in front of you.
Another game to do so very well with cutscenes, though not an MMO, is actually Cyberpunk - primarily because you are allowed to move around (within in a predetermined area), while the npcs talk and gives you option to reply while not looking at the npc, so you are not locked into being forced to sit and watch. That freedom allow you study the room, enjoy the vista or stay and look the npc talking to you as you want.
A cutscene may be cool, and I will probably watch it (at least the first time it plays) but if I am locked out of my own controls, it can't help but remove from the joy of gaming. No matter how cool the cutscene may be.
- I haven't seen them before, or someone in the party/raid hasn't.
- They aren't replayable or reviewable later.
- They contain a one-time clue for how to approach the encounter.
- They are different every time or have important details that are easy to forget about by just walking in the front door for the 10th time.
- It acts as a temporary respite period where everyone gets a quick rest and recovery while we're unable to be attacked.
- The alternative is a boring loading screen that would take just as long anyhow.
- They don't interrupt gameplay in a bad or unsafe way, like a node upgrade cutscene putting players in the PvP-allowed area when they had been in a safe place before.
I think I like active cutscenes where UI is muted, camera is fixed to a target, but movement is still free. This would need to prevent combat and other interactions during the cutscene, but not in such a way where it allows enemies to flood out into tactical positions while the players have to stand there and watch it happen.
They have to be important to the story, look good, sound good, and at times feature cool fight scenes. If the cutscenes don't mean anything to the story, or if they at least aren't hype with some cool looking fight scene, why would I watch them?
I'll tend to the flame, you can worship the ashes.
The more an Online RPG can make me feel like I'm in a movie, the happier I am.
But... any group I'm in would probably be Casual-Challenge enough to want that, too.
So, what makes a cutscene engaging? The characters and the story that's being told. Everything else is fundamentally secondary.
However, there is one thing that every MMO needs to learn cutscene-wise: Do not place them in the middle of battle content, or in dungeons, raids etc. People shouldn't be taken out of combat, into a cutscene, and then back into combat. People shouldn't be waiting to progress a dungeon or raid because someone's in a cutscene (or what actually happens in MMOs where this is a thing - the dungeon or raid moves ahead without the player in a cutscene, diminishing their experience). I think if you want to pull something like this off, you have the player run through the cutscene when they first unlock the dungeon, not when they enter it.
Of course, those are the rules - exceptions are allowed when they make sense.
People have brought up the player character being involved in the cutscene and I'm of two minds about it. I don't want Ashes to be a game where I'm the Warrior of Light or the Chosen One or the Hero or the Champion of Azeroth etc. Other games have that and it's fine, I love FFXIV and being the Warrior of Light there. But the game is built around that. That said, I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with a player character being in a cutscene where it makes sense to do so.
Note that I didn't say the PC or my PC - where most MMOs fall flat in the cutscene department is basically making it seem like you're the first person to ever trigger it. That might work in some games but it's hardly making me feel like I'm part of a multitude of tens or hundreds of thousands of people. If I'm in a party with other people doing a quest, they should be pulled into the cutscene and be a part of it. If it's a cutscene that's the outcome of a node-wide quest or event or whatever, it can be some rando I didn't even know was there, so long as they've done something to earn being in that cutscene.
I'll also second (or third, fourth etc.) that CS needs voice acting. Makes them more costly but at the same time it means Intrepid will have to think about where they're placing them as opposed to slapping them on every other interaction.
And obviously they should all be skippable.
Wednesday's at PM Cst
https://www.youtube.com/@TheHiddenDaggerInn/featured
TLDR: Just to many games, instances, movies ... (media in general) that capitalizes your time for their ad revenue.
Actually would be funny if inside a game you had a something like a BAT token (brave browser basic attention token) where players accumulate these attention tokens by playing the game and use them on things like cut-scenes to tell the developers if what they are trying to showcase, explain, unfold lore background is actually coming across the medium where players appreciate and understand what is being presented to them.
*why keep developing a storyline no one cares about, when you can get in real time what story tweaks that resonate with the largest audience.
1. If there is no voice acting or bad voice acting I'm going to skip.
2. There needs to be meaningful choices that effects the outcome or a reason for the dialog in the first place.
3. If the dialog/story is interesting.
Best cutscenes by FAR are from Knights of the Old Republic. The sheer amount of meaningful dialog options given to the player and having multiple ways to complete them was outstanding. This all tied into your alignment too so if you screwed the quest giver over by siding with their enemy or taking a more selfish path, you would get dark alignment points.
When they are paced/positioned at appropriate times. Sometimes killing a big boss into an instant cut scene feels bad, as the loot has dropped, there are rolls. I'm torn between watching cutscene, vs seeing/rolling on loot to ensure I don't miss my roll. Also you want to celebrate and chat with your guild, not kind of go silent/mute whilst you watch the cut scene. Essentially your torn between choices of socializing0, looting, watching cut scenes
My favorite cut scenes are ones that inspire and motivate you to overcome the challenge/big bad, etc. I generally like action scenes, though appreciate good story/narrative scenes too where appropriate.
I would much rather have fantastic cutscenes that I care about!
My favorite cutscene ever was the one from the last quest of Final Fantasy 14 - A Realm Reborn in Thanalan at the party. It had everything, great story, action and atmosphere.
I would appreciate it if you could watch them on a minimized window, so that i can keep on playing
If they're used in place of a Loading Screen, that's an acceptable use of a cut scene.
If it drives forward the storyline in a way that couldn't be done otherwise, fine.
If it's to move you to a different section of a dungeon so you don't have to run there for five minutes, then ok I guess.
If it's to show off something that I could have seen or witnessed anyway, then I'd rather not.
If it's anything that slows me down or just generally gets in the way, then absolutely not.
Regarding the Skipping, I can see it from both sides. I like seeing them the first time, just cos it's something new. But after four or five times, you don't really care any more.
But, I've also been in groups where new players are harassed into skipping cut scenes so that the players who've seen them the five+ times don't have to see them again. And that's just not an enjoyable experience either for the new player or for me that has to watch it unfold and then shut down the toxic guy that's being the dick.
Personally, if you can do the game without any cut scenes at all, then I'd much prefer that.
First, is my character safe? Only show us cutscenes when we know we won't get attacked during or right after, unless the cutscene is specifically about the coming fight. So for story quest lines inside instances, for example.
Secondly, have I seen it before, and is the quality good? I might see them several times if the quality is good.
Cyberpunk 2077 have some great cutscenes. If you can reach that level of acting and quality, I'll be super happy.
I don't rush people through them, I don't even press through the intros to fighting game rounds most of the time.
But I don't think I'm good data because I'm abstractor-type. I don't need voice acting. If your story is bad I'll watch it to study why it's bad and discuss it with people, etc.
If I want to skip the cutscenes, I want to skip the game.
I'll sometimes mute them or change the game's base language though, just because I find English character voice acting for games (or maybe just non-NIS RPGs?) to generally be too 'theatric' (to be clear, this is fine, basically required for sounding clear or real or match the expectations of people, since the more 'natural' mumbles of English don't always work well in a non-proclamation style presentation).
The thing that makes me want to skip is cringey characterization + that 'theatric' vocalization, because now I am getting nothing out of it at all.
I generally watch cutscenes in Spanish if that's available, Japanese if no Spanish, voice muted if I don't like the voice acting. So I guess my input/request is to make it so that the text is still something I can always turn on, to read it, but since Ashes isn't planning on voice acting to begin with, I'd assume this must be the case.
Note that if you have the proclamation/recap type that TL uses now, or want to use an AI one, I don't mind this either, but at that point it's closer to 'Steven or Margaret reading an audiobook'. I'd absolutely take that, it's just not really 'voice acting' in the same way, in my mind.
Example (but I'd want it as a recap of defeating the area instead of as the intro to it):
because all players are the hero of the story.
I prefer to be a secondary character who participates in the story.
I would like to see cutscenes where random players become secondary characters
this could increase immersion and the social side.