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[Closed] Which 1 of the 3 would you like to See?
Emergence
Member Posts: 888
Yes, it rhymes.
I am lead developer for Emergence Online, and although decisions tend to be easy for me, this one is not! I absolutely love all 3 so much, I cannot decide which to include in the game first. All will EVENTUALLY be in the game, but we must only begin prototyping with only 1. This means the other two may or may not make it to release.
For playable characters, there are common, uncommon, and rare races. These (rare races) are not any more powerful than the other races, but have more linear progression tracks. Well, they are but they aren't. They trade Stats & Racial Abilities for less skill points and well-known weaknesses as well as restrictions. There are Four Realms. We're starting small, which means only some common, a few uncommon, and only one rare race. This first Poll is about the Realm of Man, led by King Arthur.
These are the game's graphics. The following races have a Paperdoll (in-game paperdoll like Ultima Online), a Sprite (in-game graphics), and are paired beside a Skeleton (average height creature) to show their in-game size difference, as rare races tend to be larger in stature. Here is the "base" of normal. Average height. Average stats. (Although highest skill points).The skeleton (for example). The stats are just a generic sum to explain stats. Weakest / Weak / Average / Strong / Strongest.
If you could only play as ONE of the followng, which would you play as?
The Realm of Man's Rare Races are as follows:
Minotaurs are birthed of Hercules, from the belly of Hell itself, and are therefore the Strongest of all Races.
Minotaurs must focus their first 3 Focus Levels in being a Berserker. Minotaurs cannot wear armor (Berserking allows for a form of armor through ignoring damage). Because of their Strength, Minotaurs may Dual Wield 2-handed weapons.
Favored for their offensive prowess, but disliked for being the most fragile of Rare Races, Minotaurs were among the most beloved choice of players, from the beginning of our research until the end.
Angels are the most balanced Rare Race of all the Realms. Upon character creation, the player picks one Angelic Ability. Lay on Hands (Support), Wrath of God (Fire Spell), Word of Power (Paralyze)
Angels are required to spend 3 Focus Levels in Holy Magic (50% of their role choice) which means they cannot be pure roles except Cleric. Their warrior archetypes always form various Paladin-types, not pure warriors. Their Damage spells that of a Smite Cleric (healing ranged lighting attacks, although they can be any archetype such as other magic spells).
Angels cannot take any skill involved in Stealth. Angels want to be seen and heard.
In addition to picking this Race, you also pick the Element of your Giant. Each provide different racial abilities, each focusing on different roles. There are Fire Giants (Damage), Frost Giants (Crowd Control), Rock Giants (Tank), and Air Genies (Stealth). Yes, that's right, Giants CAN stealth... but only if they're made of Air :P
This Element consumes 3 Focus Levels (50% of their archetype/role choice) leaving little room to pick up other skills.
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
Comments
It's taking a lot longer to put up our website than we had originally planned, so I thought I'd start community involvement here.
Thank you everyone for your interest, and I can't wait to get the community involved in the creation of this MMORPG!
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
In my opionion you should stick with giants because they look bad ass
)
I always thought the Minotaur looked badass :P
lol
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
I also like that the giants appear to be elemental in 'flavor'. That sets you up with a theme that can be expanded upon. They are all pretty solid models, but I agree that the giants are in there with the 'cool factor'.
Giants look awesome and the variety is a plus. Minotaurs are a close second though.
I like the graphics style a lot too.
Personally, I like the Angel the best and will probably play one myself :P
The Minotaur, imo, is the most badass, but not really my thing (but still one of my favorites).
However, I was leaning towards the Giant as the first choice... because they fit the best in the game, they're the most unique (Angels and Minotaurs are unique too but... Giants are never seen before at a GIANT size).
I really just love the idea of players being able to be HUGE avatars compared to others. Being a REAL giant, not just in stats, but in size and height.
It also fits the original theme of the realm, and you guys are right--- they are simply badass, through and through!
I'll have to wait and see, but I think we have a clear winner :P
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
I'd go with the giants. Like others have said giving them elements attributes give the players more options. Your models look good when you get a web site up and going let us know.
Ironic, because...actually...the Giants have the LEAST options of all races, lol.
For total end (might include expansions) we have 4 Common races, 3 Uncommon, and 3 Rare. One rare race for each realm is based on a certain vibe (Dragon-winged Humanoids called Drakes, Angels, Demons, and Elementals).
One rare race is based on transformations or sheer strength (Minotaurs & Giant Trolls, and Vampires which morph like a druid and Shapeshifters who have various animal forms). And the final rare race was what we originally called a "Legendary" race, which are the giant giants. (Giant, Dinosaur (wingless dragon), Giant Abomination, and Treant)
These giant giants have the LEAST skill points and the LEAST focus variety of any of the races. This means that they stick to pretty much just ONE archetype, stretching very thin at a TWO role hybrid. The other rare races stretch thin at THREE role hybrid. Common races can hybrid FIVE roles without being spread thrin at all (Such as a Everquest 1 Bard or a Str/Dex/Int Warrior Mage in UO). Uncommon races spread thin at FOUR roles.
This means that a Giant can be the most powerful Tank in the game...BUT...their other choice is limited to Tank + Fire Giant (DPS), Tank + Frost Giant (Support Crowd Control), Tank + Earth Giant (Pure Tank- best in the game), or Tank + Air Genie (Stealth & Mobility).
Yes, Giants CAN pick a variety of weapons, but they are restricted from A LOT of skills. More than any other race. No crossbows. No archery. They have a ranged weapon, but it's equal to a catapult (which if you don't like, you're out of luck unless you pick Fire Giant). Two handed weapons only, worn as a one-handed weapon. (The other hand uses their racial abilities such as to pick up an enemy and toss him, or pound the ground.).
The Angel/Minotaur are freely allowed to pick any role/skills, except Minotaurs != Armor, Angels != Stealth. Giants can be 3 Focus of any role + 3 Focus Tank, but that's it, and in only one way. Every other race can be any role in a variety of ways. There are more than 5 major skills in every role, giving different ways to handle roles such as stealth.
For instance, Air Giants can stealth, but only by "sneaking". THis means they cannot be attacked because they're "hidden" while sneaking, but the massive gust of wind makes it VERY obvious there is a giant sneaking around, meaning they cannot hide. They cannot climb (have to break a wall down). They cannot poison or assassinate. They can be ranged/melee DPS, by being a Fire Giant, but they cannot use ranged weapons, specialize in any form of magic (although their fire abilities are fire magic spells), cannot pick their type of weapon (Crossbow, Longbow, Spells, Siege Weapons, etc.)
Don't get me wrong-- there is PLENTY of ways to customize a Giant. Besides the element. They CAN wear all types of armor, tons of weapons, etc. Just mostly melee weapons. Their weapons are also more expensive and have to be specially crafted (consumes more resources) so they're harder to maintain.
They're just customized in a DIFFERENT way than all the rest. But yes, it's less options in the end.
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
I'd go for giant. The angel looks a bit too pompous for me, and the Minotaur: it bugged me that it's lowest stat are reflexes. I imagine a minotaur in such a game as a superior warrior, to which high reflexes belong. And not as something whichs reflexes are those of a giant.
Also, just as a note:
I'd work on those statistic panels. They look plain horrible. Yes, they don't matter because of the game, but they give of an impression anyway. Better invest some minutes or an hour even a few hours for a nice impression, then a minute for a not so nice one.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
The minotaur's face offends the King, and the stat distribution amongst them all seems.. Off.
The angel could have his artwork addressed too. Therefor giant is going to win because art is pretty win.
Good, the angel is suppose to be pompous
Minotaurs are a superior warrior. Their reflexes aren't low, they just aren't high. Also, our stat allocation (what the stats do) might be different than what you have seen.
Honestly, there was little choice in what to lower with the Minotaur. They needed all of the other stats far more to express themselves than reflexes, which is their lowest priority, and thus their average attribute. Afterall, your idea would be for them to have 5 stars in every stat, which is unbalanced :P
I don't think the stat pics look horrible to be honest, I did spend an hour on them. I just copy/pasted them from the website. It really doesn't matter, as it's much prettier than text "Strength: * * * * *"
This was just part of a template of the Race's webpage that I drew up for our web designer, who is doing his own thing. Although if he keeps this style of jewels for stat points, I don't mind because I don't think it looks that bad, lol. Perhaps pasted in this forum, but whatever.
The stat panels don't give off much of an impression that the actual game's graphics don't make up for. I really don't think anyone cares about stat panels ripped off an image of a prototype of a webpage, especially when the character graphics are superb
Also... Giant's don't have good reflexes at all. The rare races have weak attributes, but they are so powerful, even their weak attributes are average at worst. Giants and Minotaurs don't have very good reflexes for a rare race, but they have good reflexes, no doubt.
Try re-reading the explanation, as the 3 stars is average. 2 and 1 are Weak/Weakest. And Minotaurs are MUCH better warriors with reflexes as their weakest, as their Strength/Body matter a lot, and their Intelligence/Dexterity are significant.
I will take it under advisement, possibly switching Dex with Ref, but... minotaurs might not be very good warriors if they are unable to hit anything :P
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
This is probably because you have no idea what the stats actually mean. I don't really believe they can be off if the meaning behind the stats are not addressed in the post, sorry :P
As for the angel, I think it's fine for now. After all, people already think he's pompous
which is exactly the vibe he's meant to portray. Hurray!
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
What percentage of reality is perception? A lot of people seem to agree, as a graphice designer I've found that if you have to be cryptic in the defense of your design- then you need to just go back and work on your design.
And pompous isn't the word I'd use, as much as hideous just from an artwork point of view. The wings look more like they belong on a raver than a highly developed arisen sentinel. Possibly bringing the textures up from mid-90s PS1 would help. But that's the obvioius, it's something a little more.
Like the variety of the giants is appealing, and they're all sort of simple, but well proportioned. Most people would agree that's what they should look like. The other two, not so much.
LoL, well most people disagree :P
I wasn't defending my design with cryptic reasoning. I was simply stating that you shouldn't assume that stat distirbution is off when you know nothing about the stats themselves.
That would be like saying "The colors are off..." without looking at the colors, or even the painting at all. Why would anyone's opinion that a painting they haven't seen has inaccurate or "off" colors not be a little off itself? Of course it would be off to assume something is off that you know nothing about. Has nothing to do with perception or cryptic defenses.
You're entitled to your opinion, but most people love the angel's wings, especially since they are very original and a stray away from traditional white. The angel is far from hideous, as even an opinion CAN be wrong, and I'm sorry, but yours is. Hideous is definitely not the word to use. You can have an opinion that the angel's armor is off or ugly, or that the style is something you dislike or hate-- but to say it is hideous would just cause most people to scratch their heads, wondering if something is wrong with your eyes.
I don't need to be cryptic to tell you that your lofty opinion on art is niche at best. I was only trying to help you by stating you simply cannot judge statistic placement when you know nothing about the statistics. You would be the last person to guess that Intelligence is for warriors, tanks, and rogues, and Strength for wizards, cloth casters, and long ranged archers.
I don't need to defend the art, as it speaks for itself with its high quality. I was just trying to enlighten you to think outside the box and not think that Strength is only for warriors, and intelligence only for wizards. Nice try though
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
Depending on resource allocation, I would eventually like to have various types of every race.
Meaning...
White furred Minotaurs, along with brown ones and black ones.
(Elemental Giants already have variety)
The angels have a large variety of wings as well, so I guess they are okay too.
However...there are 40 player races total, and I'd like to have at least 3 variants of each. This way players can choose a very large variety of visuals to wet their apetite, especially when it is easier for me to produce different variants of the same race than it is for me to produce more actual models (such as more armor). Items will be a bit more limited than the races, solely because of resource allocation. I know many won't believe me, but it's easier and cheaper for me to produce 40 races with 3 variants each (40x3 = 120 sprites) than it is to produce additional armor sets for each armor type (6 armor types, 40 races, so one new armor type = 240 sprites) but it goes far beyond that. It's easier to switch out fluffy hair or textures than it is to create unique, race-fitting armor sets which look good on each race.
The most important part of a low budget MMORPG is to be as efficient as possible.
Making 40 races is as easy for me as making 1 because of how I handle things. Items are an entirely different story, with the exception of weapons-- which are even easier for me than races, hehehe.
Of course, this game isn't about item accumulation. This is a game full of item loss and item decay, just like Ultima Online, but with modern features (like a counter-measure to prevent Valorite Plate Syndrome). So the game will have a more limited set of armor (more than UO, since it's 2011, hehe, but still...) but plenty of other ways to compensate.
It really depends. I am currently multi-tasking, but if the team expands, I can stop programming and focus more on the art and graphics, producing more and more. Until then, I have to make sure the game gets off the ground first.
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
lol I'd like to see how the air (steath) gaint would be like. Unfortunately I have no interest in the other two.
hey I voted for the Giants because the look just great especially the guy with the fire look. But to be honest I have never heared of your game. Is there any place where I can read what your game is about, what makes it special.
Somehow i feel like playing some isometric mmorpg. I just played titans quest online and noticed how much I enjoyed seeing the world from above instead of the usual third person view I am used to since I just passed the isometric era due to my age.
Hahaha, nice :P
I actually have him ready, I just didn't have enough room to put him in...lol...
The giants are really big, 2-3x the size of a human.
Their stealth, however, I am going to work on a very elaborate and loud blue wind/myst that blows strongly as the giant stealths across the battlefield.
Fortunately, this actually IS going to be stealth, as letting the enemy see the giant 24/7 via an obvious wind isn't the best idea. Instead, the giant wind storm effect only blows as the giant passes by a player-- so once they've moved, they no longer see or hear the giant gust.
Sneaking is the stealth process of not being seen while the enemy is NOT looking. Meaning if they don't have direct LoS infront of themselves, you are invisible. The mini-map (Radar) is also a huge deal in a 2.5D game, which sneakers are not on.
Hiding is the stealth process of not being seen while the enemy IS looking, but you cannot move.
Although there will be assassins, stealthers are ACTUALLY primarily NOT dps, but instead non-violent mobility experts whose sole job is to distract or incapacitate the enemy, capture objects and steal relics, which tend to provide a zone-wide debuff to the entire enemy army, and to CHEESE IT!!!!!!!!!!! out alive.
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
The game is quite a bit away from even entering Alpha stage. We are currently in the process of prototyping.
However, whenever our website is up, we will have robust community tools to help get everyone involved in the creation of the game.
Currently the only way to read about the game is through my posts, which you can search via my profile.
However, things are changing constantly as we discuss things, and the final decisions on the game design will be part prototyping, and part community involvement, voting, and discussion.
I was hoping for the website to be up by the end of February, but I am not sure about that as our web designer is taking a bit longer than we anticipated, as well as me hitting a stump in creating the screenshots and art for the website. I don't want to launch it until it is polished and ready to go.
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
If I had to choose it would probably be Giant based on looks alone, none of them really appeal too much to me though.
In all honesty the Angel model/textures looks x10 better than the rest, it really stands out from the others, almost to a fault (makes the others look bad) but it is just too fairy/butterfly-ish.
I think the Angel looks fine to me. The Minotaur looks horrible...his body/legs are fine and awesome, but his face in my opinion needs to be reworked.
Awesome minotaurs:
http://orgo.deviantart.com/art/Minotaur-Gladiator-57264763?moodonly=1
http://www.celestialheavens.com/homm5/images/creatures/dun_art/Dun3_minotaur.jpg
http://www.pollsb.com/photos/o/43512-minotaurs.jpg
Warlords Battlecry 2 and 3 had AWESOME looking Minotaurs too, but I can't really find any good screenshot of them.
My vote went to Giants, they look really good. Next would be the Angel.
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I voted angel because they're stats made them seem like the funnest to play IMO
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
True... it definitely gives off a fairy/butterfly feel.
I didn't like that (especially since the other Realm has the Fae...)
I will try a second attempt to redo both the angel and minotaur, as the artist who did the giants is MUCH better than me (who did the face of the minotaur...hahahaha...) and my take on the angel.
These are all WIP, as I will only commit to polishing the ONE that is chosen to be implemented into the game first.
Funny that the last two posters say the angel looks x10 better and great, as the lofty artist and his niche opinion earlier said quite the opposite, hahaha.
Stay tuned though just2duh, as there are 3 other realms, which might appeal to you more than the Realm of Man does. The others are QUITE different, and only 1/4th of players preferred this realm over the others.
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
You should see his face the first time I did it...hahahha....
^ First attempt. The one I have in the OP is my second attempt.
Idk why, but the Minotaur is difficult for me to do. I thought I did good, but I guess not. ANd no, it wasn't what I wanted (although I liked the sprite, but the paperdoll not so much...) so I might end up outsourcing the job to a more experienced artist.
I do agree though. Here is what I was actually going for...
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
Angel. But change the name somewhat, Seraph or something would work better for me.