Are the graphics placeholder?

Unknown

Lord British has made some of my favourite games, but whenever I look at Shroud of the Avatar the soulless lack of an art style just puts me off. I don't mind that the graphics are very dated, but other games such as StarCraft 2, Divinity: Original Sin' World of WarCraft and Elder Scrolls Online have managed to make beautiful environment and character graphics with low-polygon models and low resolution textures.

Is this basically what the game is going to look like or are the current graphics just placeholder stuff from the Unity engine? I would love to experience the type of gameplay this title offers, but I don't want to play a character who looks like that or be exploring such dreary environments.

Maybe they could get in touch with the artists they used for Ultima 7 or 8? Despite their age the art style was pretty solid.

Sovrath

Originally posted by Axxar

Lord British has made some of my favourite games, but whenever I look at Shroud of the Avatar the soulless lack of an art style just puts me off. I don't mind that the graphics are very dated, but other games such as StarCraft 2, Divinity: Original Sin' World of WarCraft and Elder Scrolls Online have managed to make beautiful environment and character graphics with low-polygon models and low resolution textures.

Is this basically what the game is going to look like or are the current graphics just placeholder stuff from the Unity engine? I would love to experience the type of gameplay this title offers, but I don't want to play a character who looks like that or be exploring such dreary environments.

Maybe they could get in touch with the artists they used for Ultima 7 or 8? Despite their age the art style was pretty solid.

Even on low settings I think Elder Scrolls Online's "low polygon models/textures" are still way above Shroud of the Avatar.

World of Warcraft is stylized, apples to oranges.

And actually, I think the world in shroud of the avatar is rather nice looking. Maybe you are looking at the avatars and making a blanket statement?

 

jtripper

What you see is what you get, unless someone complains about it on the official forums.  It might look marginally better if they take advantage of the new Unity 5 features.

Colt47

The graphics are a bit on the low side for a game being developed right now, but the gameplay still looks pretty strong in contrast.  Looking on the bright side, at least the game will run on a lot of PC configurations (unlike star citizen).

keldon

Graphics are no way finalised as yet and they are in process of upgrading to unity 5.

Wizardry

It looks exactly how i would expect on the Unity which can be not too bad,actually far better than Wow or any of those grid map games like Starcraft.The main drawback i see on Unity games is the animations but that would be the weak animation team OR they were told by Mr.Garriot to just speed it up and make them quickly,they definitely lack animation and look stiff/blocky.

What mostly makes graphics are the textures,imo that is exactly what makes graphics.In Wow for example their textures look awful,it really turned me off looking at Tree and Rock textures that looked like something a little kid could make fooling around with graphic programs.You have heard the story about how the main graphic guy for Wow was hired right?He doodled something on a piece of toilet paper that one of the bosses liked ,so hired him,not very good credentials if you ask me.

Personally,i definitely could accept the graphics in Shroud,no problem there at all,most of the game design,no thanks.

What i expected was pretty much exactly what i see,he was going for a profit making scheme  cashing in on his name.This was a BUDGET game design from the start,which means it never had a chance to be GRAND and EPIC gaming is what i am looking for,especially if you want money up front to play your game without allowing free trials.

Lord.Bachus

When will people finally learn that graphics and annimations are two entirely different things..

 

the graphics are for me acceptable and remind me somwhat of Vanguard

 

annimations however require some work, which still is possible at this phase of design... It just depends on the budget and where they are going to spend it on.

Etheom

The team is primarily programmers at this moment. Once the game reaches the late alpha and early beta stages we can bet Portalarium will hire many artists to complete the game. Once the framework (engine) is complete with all the mechanics functioning, it only takes one moment to change the textures over to fresh art.

Jonrobin

Originally posted by keldon
Graphics are no way finalised as yet and they are in process of upgrading to unity 5.

Yeah, I think we often rate games without considering where they are in their development. This game isn't scheduled to be released for many months. Who knows, it may even be longer than that. However, for pre-alpha, I am very happy with it. They fix things a couple times a week, which is a good sign. I read (somewhere, sorry I can't recall where) that they were bringing on some famous artist guy to help improve the look of the game. I realize that's a lame statement, but at my age it's all I could remember. I just recall being impressed when I read it. I know nothing about polygons and such, but honestly I like the look of the game already. Of course this is only my opinion, and you know what they say about those!

 

jr

snoocky

@OP, stopped reading when you mentioned WoW..lol

Etheom

All current graphics and sounds are placeholders. Once the features are complete and we enter Alpha, the content will begin rolling out and replacing the placeholders.

mangar

Originally posted by Etheom
All current graphics and sounds are placeholders. Once the features are complete and we enter Alpha, the content will begin rolling out and replacing the placeholders.

Sounds! Sounds!  You mean to tell me that they might remove the "super sonic chickens" that have their audio settings at least three levels higher than any and all surrounding sound settings?!?!?!  Say it aint so, say it aint so!!!

 

Do not even get me started on the spider death audio file... it is just wrong...