AoC vs WAR vs ? - Biggest Launch Disappointment 2008

[HRose]

Yes. Many talented artists work on those titles, what ever you think of the game as a whole, the art direction was sound on those titles.

Oh, okay then. ;)

[Mrbloodworth]

Yes. Many talented artists work on those titles, what ever you think of the game as a whole, the art direction was sound on those titles.

Oh, okay then. ;)

 

[Miasma]

So tell me HRose, what MMOs are blessed with your stamp of approval for artwork?  We've already eliminated Aoc, WAR, EQ2 and Vanguard.

[shiznitz]

The boobs on the middle WAR screenie are almost coming out of her shoulders. There is too much belly.

[Venkman]

That's the difference: style preference vs integrity of art.

And Hrose, not sure where you got that AoC character render, though of course I believe it's from AoC. It's just that every character I've seen, both player and NPC, looked a LOT better than that frumpy thing. I'd expect that image from EQ2 (which I found rather bland stylistically, with unfortunately shaped characters). AoC actually has some great models, even if the overall style is not something I like.

[Mrbloodworth]

That's the difference: style preference vs integrity of art.

And Hrose, not sure where you got that AoC character render, though of course I believe it's from AoC. It's just that every character I've seen, both player and NPC, looked a LOT better than that frumpy thing. I'd expect that image from EQ2 (which I found rather bland stylistically, with unfortunately shaped characters). AoC actually has some great models, even if the overall style is not something I like.

Yeah, he decided to skip this part in my post.

Stylistic preference aside.

[Signe]

I haven't seen an AoC character in game that looks at all like that pic.  I guess, since you have sliders and all for facial appearance, you could make something that awful looking.  I did try and make a cute little fatty but they were never fat when I logged them in.  Oh well. 

[Evildrider]

I haven't seen an AoC character in game that looks at all like that pic.  I guess, since you have sliders and all for facial appearance, you could make something that awful looking.  I did try and make a cute little fatty but they were never fat when I logged them in.  Oh well. 

I did the same thing, I tried to make a short, fat lil Tempest of Set... yet he still looks as buff as a pro wrestler.

[tmp]

Of course the game art will be simpler than concept art. But there are in that case arbitrary changes for the worse I don't understand. For example the two vertical black lines on the chest that are ugly and that don't correspond to any technical need. The same for the other slight differences and body proportions.

But what's wrong is especially the face.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but since MMOs allow the player to wear different sets of armour, customize body size/proportions and pick different faces for their characters... it's not really very surprising there's some differences between that concept art and a random character in game? I.e. this screenshot doesn't mean it's not possible to create a character with appearance and armour much closer to the concept art than the one you've found... given choice of another set of gear and different face option.

[Merusk]

Your mixing things. First, i don't think thats the same outfit, at all.

 

Since I don't think hotlinking works from WAR's site. Here's the 'concept art' for that outfit.  Oh noes.

http://mythicmktg.fileburst.com/war/us/home/images/armiesofWAR/darkelves/socc_08.jpg

[HRose]

So tell me HRose, what MMOs are blessed with your stamp of approval for artwork?  We've already eliminated Aoc, WAR, EQ2 and Vanguard.

MMOs simply don't have very good art direction. Nor good production value. It doesn't help that the only MMO companies come out of nowhere and are often vaporware or close to it.

Some solid companies that released MMOs have STRONG art direction.

Final Fantasy XI. World of Warcraft. Guild Wars.

Mythic has some very good artists, also. The problem is that they aren't managed correctly, are limited by a shitty engine, and have been very poor with the level design in general.

Just an example about the screenshots I've seen today, huge castles that have unplayable, impractical layouts. You wonder why artists spent time to do something that will surely be just cardboard scenery.

[bhodikhan]

Goddamn.  Just because you're an Italian doesn't automatically make you the almighty arbiter of artistic purity. It's all about poly counts and texture  space. Learn what real CG artists do and then go ahead and yak. Until then shut the hell up.
 

[Megrim]

My god, the amount of stupid in the last two pages is amazing. There is nothing wrong with the posted WAR renders. Stop crying.

[stray]

I might not have the same rationale as HRose, but WAR does look like shit. The environments do at least. Not even much of a step up from DAoC (also shit).

The character models are OK (the animations, otoh, are not).

[Brogarn]

Delurking just to say that it does really come down to taste. Because, unlike the previous poster, I thought DAoC's graphics were about perfect. For me they were "realistic" without being freakish looking and not completely cartoonish like WoW. Saying that, what I'm seeing from WAR so far looks pretty darn good to me. It's all about taste and opinion. Pollock's paintings look like some jacktard sneezed paint all over canvas. Yet, his paintings sell for millions.

[WayAbvPar]

I might not have the same rationale as HRose, but WAR does look like shit. The environments do at least. Not even much of a step up from DAoC (also shit).

The character models are OK (the animations, otoh, are not).

I will give them the benefit of the doubt until closer to launch. I would rather see low res backgrounds if it means playable FPS rates in a PvP game anyway.

[Draegan]

They are saying a lot of the animations and textures/art are place holders right now.  I hope that's the case because they look like garbage.

As far as the world design...

[schild]

Didn't we confirm HRose was shit for brains like 8 years ago? I don't understand why people are paying attention to what he says.

Edit: I should preface this: He's a fanatic. Much like I'm admittedly irrational about some console stuff (despite playing more and enjoying more games than most, if not all of the people here) - HRose is a fanatic about MMOG design. Even though he has no experience and zero rationale behind most of what he says. He's just blabbering to hear himself speak. He's got zero credentials for 99% of the statements he makes and tries to pass them off like his opinion matters. But really, he's just another forum lurker poking around for whatever attention he can get from devs. He's like that dev from the WH40K studio who posted here, except he hasn't gotten a 'break' yet. Fuck, I can't remember that guys name. He's like Grunk, except he somehow became a developer. Whatever, let's just call him Shortbus.

[Signe]

Didn't we confirm HRose was shit for brains like 8 years ago? I don't understand why people are paying attention to what he says.

Edit: I should preface this: He's a fanatic. Much like I'm admittedly irrational about some console stuff (despite playing more and enjoying more games than most, if not all of the people here) - HRose is a fanatic about MMOG design. Even though he has no experience and zero rationale behind most of what he says. He's just blabbering to hear himself speak. He's got zero credentials for 99% of the statements he makes and tries to pass them off like his opinion matters. But really, he's just another forum lurker poking around for whatever attention he can get from devs. He's like that dev from the WH40K studio who posted here, except he hasn't gotten a 'break' yet. Fuck, I can't remember that guys name. He's like Grunk, except he somehow became a developer. Whatever, let's just call him Shortbus.

This is one of the reasons I decided you were my perfect little soldier!  You made me all misty-eyed.

[Venkman]

Edit: I should preface this: He's a fanatic. Much like I'm admittedly irrational about some console stuff (despite playing more and enjoying more games than most, if not all of the people here) - HRose is a fanatic about his MMOG design

FIFY.

And otherwise, yes. He'd probably be more effective if he didn't act like a stalker.

[lac]

AoC costs $14.99 per month in the US, it costs €14.94 per month in Europe, which at today's exchange rate is over $23

linky

[stray]

They are saying a lot of the animations and textures/art are place holders right now.  I hope that's the case because they look like garbage.

As far as the world design...

Otoh, I shouldn't be talking. My favorite mmo to date is still shadowbane. 

That said, I never liked Mythic's take on PvP either.

[schild]

All in all, 111,000 Collector's Edition units have been sold since January and no less than 700,000 regular units are expected to be sold only in North America on day one. No matter if we're talking about a MMO or an offline game, these numbers are really impressive. And, since they're probably going to grow as soon as people start talking about the game, Funcom has decided to order extra servers in order to facilitate handling more customers.

Well, that's the end of this thread.

[Brogarn]

Even though I missed out on epic fail entertainment, a Funcom success is a really good thing for the industry.

[tazelbain]

Seems like a good omen for WAR to me.  The market is hungry.

[schild]

Seems like a good omen for WAR to me.  The market is hungry.

It also proves a market for Rated-M MMORPGs. Which I suppose was obvious given Second Life and such. Also, 2 entirely different animals. WAR will do well for other reasons, Conan doing well not being one of them.

[waylander]

Seems like a good omen for WAR to me.  The market is hungry.

The market isn't hungry for a clone of what's already out there though. AOC feels and plays differently than the EQ-WoW model games to me. The player city thing gives guilds something to own and care about other than downing the next raid boss, and the grouping has a lackey system (like COH) where you can bring along lower level members.  Gear is a non factor other than looking cool, you can do most quests in groups of 1-4, and it feels like there is a story arch to follow through the whole game.

Yeh it takes a decent rig to run it, but it can still run fine on a 3 year old PC.

[sam, an eggplant]

Seems like a good omen for WAR to me.  The market is hungry.

I dunno. AOC benefited from great release timing. I guess we'll see.

[tazelbain]

The market isn't hungry for a clone of what's already out there though. AOC feels and plays differently than the EQ-WoW model games to me. The player city thing gives guilds something to own and care about other than downing the next raid boss, and the grouping has a lackey system (like COH) where you can bring along lower level members.  Gear is a non factor other than looking cool, you can do most quests in groups of 1-4, and it feels like there is a story arch to follow through the whole game.

Yeh it takes a decent rig to run it, but it can still run fine on a 3 year old PC.

Really can't see outside your niche, can you?

Anyway plenty of room for both games to succeed.  It really is not a horse race.

[shiznitz]

I cannot believe that I just did it, but I bought AoC from Amazon. When schild reported that you can hit any mobs in your weapon arc without having to actually target them, I almost bonered.

[Brogarn]

I cannot believe that I just did it, but I bought AoC from Amazon. When schild reported that you can hit any mobs in your weapon arc without having to actually target them, I almost bonered.

There was a loud thump from under my desk when I read that as well. I might... just might... be stopping by Worst Buy on my way home from work. I haven't decided if I'm ready to get back into another MMO at the moment, though. Tempting... so very damn tempting...

[Mrbloodworth]

I cannot believe that I just did it, but I bought AoC from Amazon. When schild reported that you can hit any mobs in your weapon arc without having to actually target them, I almost bonered.

I cant believe you guys didn't know that.  Did you also know that if you use a LONG (polearms/spears) object, it will hit people rows back too?
The game plays more like a FPS/Action game, with a hint of Diablo if you get enough MOBS around ya.


That was like, the entire point of there combat system...... 

[Kirth]

As far as I can tell healing isn't targeted either. all the bear shaman heals are group or aoe cone. and most of the improve when you melee

[Vanifae]

GUYS I THINK THIS GAME CALLED AGE OF CONAN IS GOOD. 

[Teleku]

I'll be waiting after the smoke clears from the launch to see whats left standing.  Then decide on buying it or not.