Artistic Discussion

[Garthilk]

I am also a gamer and I'm willing to (begrudgingly) admit that gameplay is what makes or breaks a game. However, when good art and good gameplay combine, then you've really got something! What are some things that help immerse you in a game from an artistic standpoint?

[Rayado]

One of the biggest things that gets me in diversity in the citys. If every building looks the same or there is 1 person per every 4 buildings, I lose the feeling of an unique world. I want to see packed citys, I want to see clean citys and dirty citys (gettos), I want to see rich NPCs walking around and I want to see bums. I think WoW has done the best job of this in any game I have played.

Secondly, I want to see glowie weapons and ones that are either always glowing or glow brighter with combat. I hate having a glowy staff only for it never to glow since I have to be in melee combat for it to glow.

[micah]

im really looking forward to how the graphics are done in this game. WH has such an insanely high level of detail in the universe its going to be interesting how it managed. i imagine lots of people are going to be upgrading there systems in order to play this game

[Wraithstorm]

One of the biggest things that gets me in diversity in the citys. If every building looks the same or there is 1 person per every 4 buildings, I lose the feeling of an unique world. I want to see packed citys, I want to see clean citys and dirty citys (gettos), I want to see rich NPCs walking around and I want to see bums. I think WoW has done the best job of this in any game I have played.

Secondly, I want to see glowie weapons and ones that are either always glowing or glow brighter with combat. I hate having a glowy staff only for it never to glow since I have to be in melee combat for it to glow.

If I see a single glowing weapon without a seriously good reason I'm not buying that game.

[Garthilk]

Children,

Don't see them in MMO's hardly. More children NPC's.

[micah]

yeah thats true. they added a few npc kids that run around and chase butterflies or have puppies chasing them in WoW, not many though

[snapmaster]

One of the biggest things that gets me in diversity in the citys. If every building looks the same or there is 1 person per every 4 buildings, I lose the feeling of an unique world.

I agree.

I also think that cities should be big, like how they were going to do WO. The idea of cities themselves being 'mini dungeons' appeals to me greatly. Just think of the fun you could have...

[Gurkhal]

Agreed, I can only speak from my limited experience of WoW but the cities didn't really seem like the huge things they were supposed to be.

[Blakpyre]

Well it doesn't go much to 'art and sound' but when I go into an MMo city - why do ALL of the vendors stnd around like zombies, waiting for yo uto talk to them? Don't they have jobs to do ???
Specifically on Art and sound - make armor ARMOR - not jsut texture changes layerd over the character - bulky leather shoulders, flowing robes etc.
And shouldn't there be some sort of ambient noise when you are in places? Seems to me that the looping music soundtrack just really doesnt give much 'atmosphere' :p

[spirit]

I actually hate looping music...in fact, music in general. Make the noises what would be there if you were there. If I want music ill put my ipod on, don't waste money hiring music more music folk than you need.

As for graphics, they are very important, many people buy games off their graphics alone, and making a unique looknig game gets you recognised.

[micah]

DAoC has tons of ambient sounds

and they pretty much stay turned off lol

especially if you are on vent/ts, all the extra noise gets annoying, it was very cool at first though

[Blakpyre]

As for graphics, they are very important, many people buy games off their graphics alone, and making a unique looknig game gets you recognised.
oooo - yah - in the 'been there done that' - the copy of EQ2 is still sitting on my shelf gathering dust :p
I think it is also (using that game as an example) necessary to have nice graphics that are CODED EFFICIENTLY! - leaks etc that lead to stuttering and lag (.. yes mr tech support guy that I have emailed for the fifth time about lag:my drivers are updated, I am on cable, with a 256mb cutting edge graphics card, a 3ghz dual core processor and 1.5 RAM - it isnt my frigging system ITS YOUR CODE! :p)
sorry - bad flashbacks ------- /shiver

[Khalaiiss]

Secondly, I want to see glowie weapons and ones that are either always glowing or glow brighter with combat. I hate having a glowy staff only for it never to glow since I have to be in melee combat for it to glow.

If I see a single glowing weapon without a seriously good reason I'm not buying that game.

I totally agree.
Warhammer is not Wow, glowy equipements should only be seen in very rare occasions. (and SWG disgust me of blue glowy anyway :skull:)

As for me, a good immersive universe is fill with details all over the place.
Also need to have a very good light engine, to have shadow aeras in slum, bright aeras in Merchants zone etc.
Night and days too, with different sounds for each time period.

Even weather would be nice. not only Weather in specific zone (like snow zone, fog zone etc.), but weather in all regions, based on their locations in the warhammer world. with some kind of dynamic link to each weather type. (sound should be tuned down when there is rain or snow etc.)

[Gamut]

I hate the glowing weapons aswell, although it's often a quick way to make money, to sell the glowing weapons to kids.

[Rabbitman]

Realism of cities visually also extends to the rest of the world, not all roads looks the same, not every hill is the same, and the NPCs should be populting the world in such a way that if not a single PC graced the gameworld, they would all have something to do, and it would be a balanced and realisticly proportioned world.

People of all ages appropriate to life expectancy of races, dead people in gutters of disease ridden areas while snobs passby with noses in the air in the upper crust parts of town.

Children should play in the daytime, but be wary of strangers, and NPCs should interact in such a way that it is actually difficult to discern an NPC from a PC in a busy setting.

If you can tell the difference just at a glance, the designers and artists haven't done the game any favours.

[Gamut]

I'd like logically laid out cities aswell, I don't want to have to search for a cloth merchant in the cellars of the church and so on.

[Hronin]

A lot more moving/interacting NPC to make towns alive even when there are only a few players. I don't like ghost towns, where the trading-crafting district is crowded but other places are similar to a statue park due to the standing NPCs.

[Denkim]

I want to see NPCs like in Matrix Online. There are regular NPCs that you can interact with and talk to, and then there are Background NPCs that are just graphical. The background NPCs are just there for looks and all they do is walk around (there are cars that just drive around also). You can turn them on or off, and you can set the 'density' of them.

It's a completely graphical thing and it in no way effects the gameplay. But if you do turn it on, it really helps the atmosphere of the game.
I'd really like to see the same thing put in WAR. Marketplaces should be busteling with people and trade routes should be filled with traveling wagons.

[Gamut]

In safe zones I agree Denkim, but hopefully in the RvR zones, the NPCs will be there to be attacked and so on. Having client side graphical people wouldn't work for that.

[Ravenmgs]

I'de like to see dynamic NPC controled villages. There of course would be the typical staple towns that stayed static, but wouldn't it just plane kick to be in a town one day, and go there the next and it's a smoldering pile of rubble with bodies everywhere?

I'de like to see a good 50-80% of the land change hands constantly, this really would capture the WarHammer feeling. To start out with the dynamic towns would all be NPC controled, but later could be taken over by guilds or indaviduals ect.. have an attack timer like Len 2

I also agree with the children thinggy, I think the lack of children in MMOs feels really weird, like everyone just pops out of their mom's wazoo fully grown and looking the same, or mabey there is some massive cloneing facility?