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New fly-by trailer!
Dowie
Member Posts: 280
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Dowie
Member Posts: 280
Comments
Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood. -Nietzsche
Zone looks extremely linear. And there was ZERO NPC variety. There were 2 models. Some half-naked girls and a few soldiers.
Town felt very empty, and the NPCs just seemed like they were walking aimlessly around. Felt very far from "alive"
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I live to fight, and fight to live.
Dude, they are still making the game .......its not even beta yet if I'm not mistaken, you wanna see an empty world that is days away from release load up vanguard and wonder outside the starter areas. Those NPCs are probably just spaceholders at this point.
They usually don't start really adding that stuff in for awhile, generally you just throw a few in to show it off. LoL.
Have you ever tried making a NWN custom module? I strongly suggest to anyone who wants a fraction of a taste of what goes into a game, build a playable module from the ground up. Then you can see how long this crap takes and how much longer its gotta take from scratch.
No you just don't build the entire thing then test if to see how it goes, you test it and add a little bit, pull stuff out, try something new....
Its just silly to making judgements about any game in beta or even worse alpha unless you are one of the testers, then you can't say anything lol.
EDIT
Something that seems to evade many "beta testers" on this site is just that...its a test, not a free trial. The whole point of having individuals test a game is to get feedback and do fixes based on that. Not provide 4 months of free playtime to bitch about as we commonly see here on mmorpg.com. You are suppose to provide FEEDBACK and REPORT problems not go to the nearest outside forum and review it. (that edit is not directed at you checkthis500, its just a general observation)
I love the way this game looks. It is not nearly as good as the absolute best of the newest technology, i.e. Crytek 2, but for a MMORPG it is stunning. The art department did a great job making the world not only attractive but giving it atmosphere and character. Every time I see a video I want to jump in and start exploring.
The problem is that in every single video, there is a good amount of lag. And these are company produced videos which you would assume are optimized for best results. I have no idea how this game is going to perform when you have thousands of people taxing each server with greatly varying pings. Add to that a large siege battle with dozens of people in close proximity trying to manually aim their spells and weapon swings. Yikes!
I hope they take the time to optimize the performance before going live. Even if it means delaying the game many months. Even if they have to bring in specialized talent. Optimize. Optimize. Optimize.
Yeah, performance is always a concern. Again I would wait until at least open beta before getting to excited about that. Generally you don't really "optimize" until you are about done.
I'm more worried about the design ideas behind the content TBH. Prettier pictures are fine and DX10 is great but if all they have planned is "kill 10 rats" or a Conan version of "mission terminals" (AO) then its all for nothing IMHO. I simply don't trust this genre to do anything different anymore, hopefully I'm wrong.
Yeah, performance is always a concern. Again I would wait until at least open beta before getting to excited about that. Generally you don't really "optimize" until you are about done.
I'm more worried about the design ideas behind the content TBH. Prettier pictures are fine and DX10 is great but if all they have planned is "kill 10 rats" or a Conan version of "mission terminals" (AO) then its all for nothing IMHO. I simply don't trust this genre to do anything different anymore, hopefully I'm wrong.
apparently, the developers agree with you
"I think its a good thing to have quests of different length and scope. The long, epic adventures are always important, but so is the shorter quests. A small and simple quest is great when you log in for one hour, and really want to accomplish something in such a short amount of time. Still, there's no reason to make shorter quests boring. They should just be compact adventures."
Attila
"Quests will be special because of:
the well known, deep and story driven universe they are placed within.a focus on a life-spanning ‘destiny quest’ involving the main story and your characters.
more focus on diversity, story and quality than pumping out a massive quantity of similar (slay ‘N’ ‘monsters’)."
Gaute
"The dialogs in Age of Conan are branched, so that you often can choose how you want to approach an NPC - do you want to be nice, rude or try to trick him? NPC's won't treat you differently if you've been rude to someone else, but they might change their attitude towards you if you have failed a task given by someone they care about. We'll have all sorts of quests in Conan. A big chunk of our time has been spent on deep, immersive and epic quests that tell the tales of the world, putting the players in the focus of the storyline and the action. At the moment we're ramping up the production of smaller quests. But we put a lot of effort into these small adventures as well, because our goal is that all our quests should have well written, interesting stories and exciting gameplay. However, that doesn't mean that everything must be epic or very dramatic."
Atilla
They [editor: players] pick up quests by talking to NPCs, finding areas, killing monsters, solving puzzles and in many other ways.
Gaute
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway
apparently, the developers agree with you
"I think its a good thing to have quests of different length and scope. The long, epic adventures are always important, but so is the shorter quests. A small and simple quest is great when you log in for one hour, and really want to accomplish something in such a short amount of time. Still, there's no reason to make shorter quests boring. They should just be compact adventures."
Attila
"Quests will be special because of:
the well known, deep and story driven universe they are placed within.a focus on a life-spanning ‘destiny quest’ involving the main story and your characters.
more focus on diversity, story and quality than pumping out a massive quantity of similar (slay ‘N’ ‘monsters’)."
Gaute
"The dialogs in Age of Conan are branched, so that you often can choose how you want to approach an NPC - do you want to be nice, rude or try to trick him? NPC's won't treat you differently if you've been rude to someone else, but they might change their attitude towards you if you have failed a task given by someone they care about. We'll have all sorts of quests in Conan. A big chunk of our time has been spent on deep, immersive and epic quests that tell the tales of the world, putting the players in the focus of the storyline and the action. At the moment we're ramping up the production of smaller quests. But we put a lot of effort into these small adventures as well, because our goal is that all our quests should have well written, interesting stories and exciting gameplay. However, that doesn't mean that everything must be epic or very dramatic."
Atilla
They [editor: players] pick up quests by talking to NPCs, finding areas, killing monsters, solving puzzles and in many other ways.
Gaute
Lets hope, you probably know more then me (wink, wink)
Anyway, I'm reading "Conan - People of the Black Circle" this afternoon. Lets just say theres no rat killing going on there.
Well, one of the first things devs promised us was that while small semi harmless creatures such as rats and rabbits are in the game, we won't be fighting them. They are there for scenery and as food for wolves and other creatures that just might be dangerous to you. ( and yes, rats were specifically mentioned.)
And, unfortunately, while I would love for it to be so, I don't have more information I can't tell you about... yet
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway
Dude, they are still making the game .......its not even beta yet if I'm not mistaken, you wanna see an empty world that is days away from release load up vanguard and wonder outside the starter areas. Those NPCs are probably just spaceholders at this point.
They usually don't start really adding that stuff in for awhile, generally you just throw a few in to show it off. LoL.
Have you ever tried making a NWN custom module? I strongly suggest to anyone who wants a fraction of a taste of what goes into a game, build a playable module from the ground up. Then you can see how long this crap takes and how much longer its gotta take from scratch.
No you just don't build the entire thing then test if to see how it goes, you test it and add a little bit, pull stuff out, try something new....
Its just silly to making judgements about any game in beta or even worse alpha unless you are one of the testers, then you can't say anything lol.
EDIT
Something that seems to evade many "beta testers" on this site is just that...its a test, not a free trial. The whole point of having individuals test a game is to get feedback and do fixes based on that. Not provide 4 months of free playtime to bitch about as we commonly see here on mmorpg.com. You are suppose to provide FEEDBACK and REPORT problems not go to the nearest outside forum and review it. (that edit is not directed at you checkthis500, its just a general observation)
They've been in production since before E3 of 2005. To me it would make since that in almost 2 years of production you'd have more than 2 NPC models roaming around the towns. The trailer they showed last May looked better than this fly-by.
Just a little skeptical about their release date compared to what they've been showing. And graphical lag at this point on the super computers they show these fly-by's on is also a concern, considering there are zero players and there's still jumpiness. Just a little worried about how it'll be when they have these huge battles they're raving about. Probably have to cut the graphics down to "stick people only" to be able to view it.
I just think they're spending too much time on the scenery and not enough on the player models. I thought for sure there would have been some variety to the models in that last trailer they released, but during that huge fight with 20 or so people, there are like 3 or 4 different models repeated over and over.
Then I see they can't even have a variety of whores walking the streets, and the towns look empty when they claimed they would look "very alive." When you're 4 months away from relese you should at least show people an idea of what a town will look like. I mean they're NPCs with paths.
And yes I've almost completely made a game in NWN and it didn't take long to input a variety of NPCs that said a variety of things in a town and had a variety of paths to walk.
Just being skeptical, and showing dissapointment where dissapointment is due. I still have a sliver of hope for this game, but if they release one more video that makes the game look like it's been in development for 6 months instead of 2 years, I'm going to cry.
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I live to fight, and fight to live.
One of the very first vids released 9 or so months ago showed a hell of a lot more diversity in NPCs during the time shown in town.
Perhaps thats a newly created zone, thats still in progress as far as the town population goes. I don't know what is up with this particular video, but they are certainly capable of more.
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Hemingway
They've been in production since before E3 of 2005. To me it would make since that in almost 2 years of production you'd have more than 2 NPC models roaming around the towns. The trailer they showed last May looked better than this fly-by.
Just a little skeptical about their release date compared to what they've been showing. And graphical lag at this point on the super computers they show these fly-by's on is also a concern, considering there are zero players and there's still jumpiness. Just a little worried about how it'll be when they have these huge battles they're raving about. Probably have to cut the graphics down to "stick people only" to be able to view it.
I just think they're spending too much time on the scenery and not enough on the player models. I thought for sure there would have been some variety to the models in that last trailer they released, but during that huge fight with 20 or so people, there are like 3 or 4 different models repeated over and over.
Then I see they can't even have a variety of whores walking the streets, and the towns look empty when they claimed they would look "very alive." When you're 4 months away from relese you should at least show people an idea of what a town will look like. I mean they're NPCs with paths.
And yes I've almost completely made a game in NWN and it didn't take long to input a variety of NPCs that said a variety of things in a town and had a variety of paths to walk.
Just being skeptical, and showing dissapointment where dissapointment is due. I still have a sliver of hope for this game, but if they release one more video that makes the game look like it's been in development for 6 months instead of 2 years, I'm going to cry.
LoL, I'm skeptical of anything with MMORPG written on it.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me....(how many crappy MMO's have I played....10 or 11?) nevermind, I'm an idiot I guess.
Do a search on youtube, there are a bunch of movies there. Also on Gamespot there are a few lengthy dev interviews.
I'd say that the poor performance is due to the fact that this is a DX10 video, and they only *just* got through the DX10 work. They finished it very soon before CES, so I'd say it isn't optimised yet.
I'd also hope for better variety on NPCs, thats pretty much the only thing in this game I am spectical about, but we'll see.
That's one thing you have to sacrifice for better graphics. Open Areas.
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I live to fight, and fight to live.
That's one thing you have to sacrifice for better graphics. Open Areas.
I assumed it was DX10. I've seen all the videos of the area and I'd say this looks fairly comparable to the other DX10 ones. The swaying lighting under the canopy particularly makes me think this.
Also, it is linear because it is the single player portion right at the beginning. Its a tutorial, in some ways. They've shown several very wide open areas, such as Stygian areas and a few un-named mountainous provinces (you can see two in the November 2005 trailer).