It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Current graphics and annimation seem to be quite low, but probably placeholders till graphics get updated later in development..
does anyone know what final graphics and annimation quallity they are shooting for?
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Comments
What you see is what you get. I don't think it will change, and haven't read it will change anytime soon either.
Don't kid yourselves with saying "it's Alpha, it'll be much better at launch". It won't.
Then again, there seems to be a ton of gameplay features I'm fond of and I'm willing to forgive the "dated" graphics.
Oh there is no blind fanboyism here. It's not going to look like a 2014 triple-A title when it's released at the end of this year, that's for sure. But to say it won't be improved any further is incorrect. There will be improvements and it will look better than it does now. Just don't set your expectations too high. ESO's 5-minute CGI trailer cost more than this game's entire current crowd funded budget so far
In that time, they need to build/create/design/implement:
The entire main storyline for online/offline modes.
A balanced/fun/challenging death system (after march only)
A balanced/fun/challenging pvp system. (after march only)
A balanced/fun/challenging combat/combat-ui system. (after march only)
A balanced/fun/challenging travel system. (after march only)
A balanced/fun/challenging economic system. (after march only)
A balanced/fun/challenging gathering, refining, crafting system.
Hundreds and hundreds of crafting recipes
750+ custom NPC's
thousands of custom heraldry/family crests
4000+ wilderness hexes
dozens or hundreds of village/town/city hexes
(and all of the above, in a way different, exciting, new, or "better" than any other similar game in the genre)
I think you'll find, if you do the math, with 25 employees, that adds up to a lot of work and not much time to do it.
And no, the implementation details of all of the above HAVE NOT been divulged, to date, despite other Kickstarter projects with similar budgets (pathfinder online, elite: dangerous, others) doing exactly that.
Even JUST the wilderness hexes means if they had half of them done by now, that's ~10 new, completely finished, wilderness hexes PER working day, from now until launch.
Oh, and don't forget the entire underworld catacombs, which is entirely zone based and spans the area of the overland map.
But I think you're confused about the hexes they need to create in terms of world building. They are not hand designing every single hex on the map. There are only 20-40 points of interest on the overland map that they need to hand design. The rest of the overland hexes will be of several types: forest, desert, snow, whatever, but let's say 5 kinds. With each of those, there will likely be several variations, so let's say 5 variations in landscape design. So 25 different wilderness non-POI hexes they need to design and they'll randomly generate resource nodes on top of that. So anytime you drop into a hex that is non-POI, you will get one of those variations.
The underworld catacombs however is entirely zone based, so they will need to hand design each zone. But that doesn't mean 4000 zones. They'll just also likely create 20-40 zones underneath to match the POIs above ground and connect the zones in that fashion. So one zone connection might be right next to each other while others might be halfway across the map.
In any case, they still have a lot of work to do and certainly won't release it (delay if have to) if it's not looking good
Hope for a release in 2014, but expect 2015.
I agree with the OP. While I am ok with the graphics looking a bit dated. The character animation is horrid. We've posted this on the alpha testing forms. Just to be attacked by rabid fanboys who claim that nobody cares about that kinda stuff. And like magic they will have it all fixed and looking better in a wave of the magic mouse. But it's not that simple, takes a long time to make animations. Along with the huge list of things they still haft to do, it's not looking good.
I'm not a fanboy for anything but I do get sick of people constantly complaining about this is indie and Kickstarter games. What game can you name *with a similar budget* that has way better graphics than this?
It's something you probably will stop noticing after an hour or two if the game is good anyway unless you're a totally graphics whore in which case you shouldn't play small Kickstarter games at all.