Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity [BETA RELEASED, GO TO THE NEW THREAD]

[Perkel]

Or even better create tool that would set armor/weapon at right angle on transparent background and with one click and few minutes you would have all items in game in form of 2D to use for paperdolls. Then some rigging and in game scaling and you are done. Same with paper-dolls themselves.

It's not 95 where you had to manualy pain that shit over and over. With todays programmers you could create tool that could create proper 360 2D walking animation without problem (size problem aside)

Leaving that aside i hope they won't go into NWN2 territory of end game weapon/armor design.
NWN2 art started good but ended up with power rangers.

 

[Sensuki]

They also have a limited number of programmers ... doing more engine work than they've already done would mean they'd probably have to cut heaps of features.

The problem is money (= staff) and time. With a $10M budget they could do 2D inventory assets, but even then I'm not sure that they would want to.

I also want knees up portraits like Icewind Dale 2, but apparently that took the two portrait artists 90% of their time on the project to do. While they were literally _AWESOME_ I'm not sure Josh would ever have portrait artists do that again.

Now I'm sad.

 

[Perkel]

I don't think it is that complicated from programmer side of things. Also it would be a tool. Which means it could be used in sequels and so on.
But yeah nothing is free.


edit:

I think plugin to their asset viewer/creator would way faster to do as it would actually need only to set asset at right angle using controls and values already in tool, add transparency to their tool background or set it as transparency (if it is actually in tool) then use and some auto switcher for their assets so after plugin will take photo of asset next one would load and some autonamer with autofolder creation.. Probably day or two work of one skilled programmer + eventual bugfixing then implementation of paperdoll system in game, adding 2D inv icon+paperdoll model part to items via tools (which they probably already have (items have both 2D and 3D art).

 

[PrimeJunta]

There's certainly no point wasting resources to change it now. It gets the job done fine and I'm sure I won't even notice after fifteen minutes of faffing about with it.

I just would've rather seen it done differently, 'sall.

 

[Sensuki]

Same

 

[Grotesque]

I would lose any 3D character rendition in the interface and go with a stylized beautifully done 2D paperdoll.

 

[Rake]

Just change the viewing angle ffs. IWD2 used the ingame sprite and looked just fine. The models look great ingame, it's only when they shove them in your face in close up that they look bad.

 

[Infinitron]

Am I the only one who thinks they don't look bad even up close? Ffs graphics whores

 

[Athelas]

It's not that they look bad, it's that such a close view is typically used in AAA RPG's, and so for most people it (subconsciously) invites the same graphical scrutiny. The whole point of going for 2d isometric is to get away from that scrutiny.

 

[Sensuki]

Am I the only one who thinks they don't look bad even up close? Ffs graphics whores

Nope. I reckon they're fine too. I play a bit of Titan Quest and the models are better than Titan Quest which also has a similar close up view when you pick a character. They're also better than Neverwinter Nights 2, which was another 2006 game.

 

[Grunker]

better than Neverwinter Nights 2, which was another 2006 game.

I actually sortta liked NWN2's models, they're one of the more redeeming qualities of the game, IMO. Their main problem like most graphics objects in NWN2 was that they felt floaty and non-solid when they interacted and stuff.

 

[Sensuki]

The NWN2 NPC models were pretty good, I didn't really like the PC ones though.

 

[Roguey]

Rope kid can I rp a vegan In PoE

all of tim's dishes have either meat or cheese in them BUT there are vegan-friendly base ingredients so yes.

I like cheese but you have disappointed me, Tim.

Keep in mind that all battles shown in the demo feature 2-3 party members vs. 1-3 enemies. You eventually have up to 6 party members and many more enemies, so the pace picks up quite a bit.

Yeah that goes without saying.

Some people still needed telling.

Am I the only one who thinks they don't look bad even up close? Ffs graphics whores

Looks better'n Wasteland 2. D:OS PC models look better but of course they would considering they only had to make a human man and woman plus cartoony stylization. Shadowrun Returns's models also hold up better despite being technically worse because of similar stylization.

 

[Sensuki]

Agreed about the Shadowrun models.

 

[eremita]

Come one, he can backstab sure, too bad his THAC0 is the second lowest in the game (I'll admit it might be sufficient against mages). Traps are good, I completely forgot about them...

Provided you are high enough you can use any item in the game with no prerequisites.

That's cool but balance is hardly about gear restrictions. Any warrior calss/cleric would own thief's ass in a fight... It's like MMO approach where every single class at least has to have a shot at killing the other one. I'm not biased against one or another concept, I just think that balanced classes make sense in a very combat centered game...

 

[Grunker]

Agreed about the Shadowrun models.

Has Roguey responded to that attack animation debate you guys had going on?

 

[eremita]

Am I the only one who thinks they don't look bad even up close? Ffs graphics whores

They're great - simple yet detailed. Like it a lot, expected worse...

 

[Sensuki]

Has Roguey responded to that attack animation debate you guys had going on?

Not exactly. Semi-cop out Excidium style answer, one page back.

The tech/time/money isn't there. I'm fine with it since floatiness is a spectrum.

 

[Grunker]

Yeah, I meant after that. Carry on.

 

[Roguey]

I'm far less concerned with attack animations and more concerned with hit reactions though, as in Bethesda games, those are far less frequent in this thing by design. I think my first character will end up being an extraordinarily perceptive person, probably godlike.

 

[Sensuki]

That's fine but the question I asked you specifically was can you give me an example of a non-floaty attack animation. It's easy to say all attack animations are floaty and just not give an answer.

Even easier - name an RPG that has weapon attack animations that you like, or name the RPG you think does them the best. That's all I asked really.

edit: I do agree that hit reactions are very important to give combat a visceral feeling. A Priest who goes for Interrupts is something I want to try as well, as that's the class that's the least likely to benefit from it.

 

[Roguey]

I enjoyed the attack animations in ToEE (especially for crits) but that was turn based, and wouldn't work for rtwp.

 

[Sensuki]

I liked them too, and in the way that the animations have been designed for PE they wouldn't work, but I think if they split the animation into some discrete parts they could get something similar I think. They'd be a bit slow though.

 

[Rake]

That's fine but the question I asked you specifically was can you give me an example of a non-floaty attack animation. It's easy to say all attack animations are floaty and just not give an answer.

Even easier - name an RPG that has weapon attack animations that you like, or name the RPG you think does them the best. That's all I asked really.

edit: I do agree that hit reactions are very important to give combat a visceral feeling. A Priest who goes for Interrupts is something I want to try as well, as that's the class that's the least likely to benefit from it.

Not exactly an RPG, but i always liked Warcraft 3 attack animations. (and animations in general and spell effects) They didn't feel floaty and had a nice weight to them. I would be more than happy if PoE moved in that direction.

 

[Sensuki]

Yeah I said the same thing earlier in the thread. Heroes like the Tauren Chieftain, Death Knight, Paladin all had pretty weighty hits.