Unexpected Surprise

AnOldFart · May 2019

So we don't see much in game, we don't find out much of what is happening...
well not unless we are in the premium forum....

So I was surprised to see a video set in the pre-Elyria style in the semi-arid desert with a sandstorm coming.

It wasn't much but was nice to see something positive.

Here is the post
https://chroniclesofelyria.com/forum/topic/31491/Is-that-a-shiny-I-see-in-the-desert

daarco · May 2019

Looks great for a pre-alpha.
The devs have said that now after 2.5 years of development they will able to show more ingame footage.

Slapshot1188 · May 2019

I suggested this a few times, but I think they should focus on the low poly version for a number of reasons.

AnOldFart · May 2019

Slapshot1188 said:

I suggested this a few times, but I think they should focus on the low poly version for a number of reasons.

If they can make the game they have suggested with these graphics I would still play.

I would be happy for them to release with these graphics and a promise of new improved visuals in a later patch.

But I doubt that will happen

Torrsk · May 2019

I would take more, minute/few minutes clips of them running around in Pre-Elyria. Over any other shiny they do. So was a nice surprise.

Octagon7711 · May 2019

Interesting video, thanks for showing that.

lahnmir · May 2019

IT EXISTS!!!!!

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

Quizzical · May 2019

This surprise was unexpected, in contrast to all of those other surprises that were expected?

AnOldFart · May 2019

Quizzical said:

This surprise was unexpected, in contrast to all of those other surprises that were expected?

Well you can have an expected surprise

"Your know about your surprise party, but it's still a surprise party."

Or more on point.

"Your expecting a development update, in that expected update is a surprise video."

This was unexpected because

1) We were not expecting an update like this.
2) We definately were not expecting a gameplay video (albeit in the Pre-Alpha client)

Amathe · May 2019

What's with the little dot floating over the avatar's head?

Shaigh · May 2019

Looks like the kind of footage you would expect in early development, wake me up after another three years because this is going to take a while.

Gutlard · May 2019

They must've worked on this between sales. Sorry for the cynicism...

Gut ouT!

Tiller · May 2019

That is not at all what I expected this game to look like, art wise.

Nasa · May 2019

The game was too ambitious from the start, and it didn't help telling the devs so as they were too confident in their own skills.

Mendel · May 2019

parrotpholk said:

You know people are starved when a steaming pile of poo looks like a 5 star meal.

I wouldn't go as far as a steaming pile, but the reactions are pretty much overstated as expected. The negative responses are downvoted to around -30, while the positive responses are upvoted to around 10. The video isn't breathtaking, the terrain uninspiring (okay, hard to make a desert look good), and the dust storm had no affect on the avatar's health. Visibility was reduced, but then there was only 1 character visible in the 60 second video. So, how much did this dust storm 'feature' really affect the game?

As for the dust storm itself, it just seemed to start. It didn't appear on the horizon, it didn't build from nothing, it just appeared at full strength. How are the players supposed to react to this bit of weather? Seek shelter? Try to run through the storm? Natural phenomena like storms give all sorts of indicators. There didn't seem to be any signs of an impending storm. Should SBS actually tie some harmful effect to this weather event, there will be a lot of players caught in the storm.

And there were no real signs of direction, either. Wind moves. Dust moves. A dust storm builds, moves and dies. It isn't static. This felt more like a developer flipped the own switch and, presto! The are was enveloped in a dust storm. A direction of wind, dust, debris, etc. would give a player some kind of hint as to which way to try to go -- against the wind to try to go through, with the wind to try to outrun the storm, or tangential to the wind to go to one side or the other.

My guess is that this storm effect doesn't have as much player impact to warrant the development effort it took to install this. At least, in the current state demonstrated in the video.

Gutlard · May 2019

I think the biggest impact it had was to hide what was/wasn't there.

Gut ouT!

Slapshot1188 · May 2019

Mendel said:

parrotpholk said:

You know people are starved when a steaming pile of poo looks like a 5 star meal.

I wouldn't go as far as a steaming pile, but the reactions are pretty much overstated as expected. The negative responses are downvoted to around -30, while the positive responses are upvoted to around 10. The video isn't breathtaking, the terrain uninspiring (okay, hard to make a desert look good), and the dust storm had no affect on the avatar's health. Visibility was reduced, but then there was only 1 character visible in the 60 second video. So, how much did this dust storm 'feature' really affect the game?

As for the dust storm itself, it just seemed to start. It didn't appear on the horizon, it didn't build from nothing, it just appeared at full strength. How are the players supposed to react to this bit of weather? Seek shelter? Try to run through the storm? Natural phenomena like storms give all sorts of indicators. There didn't seem to be any signs of an impending storm. Should SBS actually tie some harmful effect to this weather event, there will be a lot of players caught in the storm.

And there were no real signs of direction, either. Wind moves. Dust moves. A dust storm builds, moves and dies. It isn't static. This felt more like a developer flipped the own switch and, presto! The are was enveloped in a dust storm. A direction of wind, dust, debris, etc. would give a player some kind of hint as to which way to try to go -- against the wind to try to go through, with the wind to try to outrun the storm, or tangential to the wind to go to one side or the other.

My guess is that this storm effect doesn't have as much player impact to warrant the development effort it took to install this. At least, in the current state demonstrated in the video.

I think there are two parts here.

1. The art style. I actually like it and I think there are many advantages to using this art style compared to the full blown high rez stuff they want to use. Not only would this art style save a lot of money on costs, but performance should be a lot better as well. Not everyone likes it... fair enough... but I do.

2. Progress. This doesn't actually demonstrate much. Compare it to the Silver Run mine demo released over 2 years ago which appeared to show a game further along than what is shown in this clip. Now admittedly, this was just a snippet and not something designed to show everything off, but by the same token, nobody should really be looking at this minute-long clip as any sort of major step forward

It was simply a nice little clip. Let's leave it at that.

Gutlard · May 2019

Why show different clips using different art styles over 2 years apart when the previous clip looked farther along? That doesn't seem like a good move on any level to me.

Was this a "here's proof that we've definitely been working on stuff" clip?

I'm not sure if that's what this does...

Gut ouT!

Slapshot1188 · May 2019

Gutlard said:

Why show different clips using different art styles over 2 years apart when the previous clip looked farther along? That doesn't seem like a good move on any level to me.

Was this a "here's proof that we've definitely been working on stuff" clip?

I'm not sure if that's what this does...

Gut ouT!

Careful Son... that's damn near Harbinger talk

Let us not over-analyze the 1 minute clip. Lets just enjoy it for what it is

AnOldFart · May 2019

Slapshot1188 said:

Gutlard said:

Why show different clips using different art styles over 2 years apart when the previous clip looked farther along? That doesn't seem like a good move on any level to me.

Was this a "here's proof that we've definitely been working on stuff" clip?

I'm not sure if that's what this does...

Gut ouT!

Careful Son... that's damn near Harbinger talk

Let us not over-analyze the 1 minute clip. Lets just enjoy it for what it is

Yes a pre alpha video of in development gameplay.

Mendel said:

parrotpholk said:

You know people are starved when a steaming pile of poo looks like a 5 star meal.

I wouldn't go as far as a steaming pile, but the reactions are pretty much overstated as expected. The negative responses are downvoted to around -30, while the positive responses are upvoted to around 10. The video isn't breathtaking, the terrain uninspiring (okay, hard to make a desert look good), and the dust storm had no affect on the avatar's health. Visibility was reduced, but then there was only 1 character visible in the 60 second video. So, how much did this dust storm 'feature' really affect the game?

As for the dust storm itself, it just seemed to start. It didn't appear on the horizon, it didn't build from nothing, it just appeared at full strength. How are the players supposed to react to this bit of weather? Seek shelter? Try to run through the storm? Natural phenomena like storms give all sorts of indicators. There didn't seem to be any signs of an impending storm. Should SBS actually tie some harmful effect to this weather event, there will be a lot of players caught in the storm.

And there were no real signs of direction, either. Wind moves. Dust moves. A dust storm builds, moves and dies. It isn't static. This felt more like a developer flipped the own switch and, presto! The are was enveloped in a dust storm. A direction of wind, dust, debris, etc. would give a player some kind of hint as to which way to try to go -- against the wind to try to go through, with the wind to try to outrun the storm, or tangential to the wind to go to one side or the other.

My guess is that this storm effect doesn't have as much player impact to warrant the development effort it took to install this. At least, in the current state demonstrated in the video.

All of this might be relevant if it wasn't Pre-Alpha.
Your putting fully devoped expectations in a game in development. That there us not the devs fault but an error in your expectations tbh

Gutlard · May 2019

Ok, I'll watch it again to see if I can fake any joy from it!

Like my wife...

Gut ouT!

Mendel · May 2019

Slapshot1188 said:

Mendel said:

parrotpholk said:

You know people are starved when a steaming pile of poo looks like a 5 star meal.

I wouldn't go as far as a steaming pile, but the reactions are pretty much overstated as expected. The negative responses are downvoted to around -30, while the positive responses are upvoted to around 10. The video isn't breathtaking, the terrain uninspiring (okay, hard to make a desert look good), and the dust storm had no affect on the avatar's health. Visibility was reduced, but then there was only 1 character visible in the 60 second video. So, how much did this dust storm 'feature' really affect the game?

As for the dust storm itself, it just seemed to start. It didn't appear on the horizon, it didn't build from nothing, it just appeared at full strength. How are the players supposed to react to this bit of weather? Seek shelter? Try to run through the storm? Natural phenomena like storms give all sorts of indicators. There didn't seem to be any signs of an impending storm. Should SBS actually tie some harmful effect to this weather event, there will be a lot of players caught in the storm.

And there were no real signs of direction, either. Wind moves. Dust moves. A dust storm builds, moves and dies. It isn't static. This felt more like a developer flipped the own switch and, presto! The are was enveloped in a dust storm. A direction of wind, dust, debris, etc. would give a player some kind of hint as to which way to try to go -- against the wind to try to go through, with the wind to try to outrun the storm, or tangential to the wind to go to one side or the other.

My guess is that this storm effect doesn't have as much player impact to warrant the development effort it took to install this. At least, in the current state demonstrated in the video.

I think there are two parts here.

1. The art style. I actually like it and I think there are many advantages to using this art style compared to the full blown high rez stuff they want to use. Not only would this art style save a lot of money on costs, but performance should be a lot better as well. Not everyone likes it... fair enough... but I do.

2. Progress. This doesn't actually demonstrate much. Compare it to the Silver Run mine demo released over 2 years ago which appeared to show a game further along than what is shown in this clip. Now admittedly, this was just a snippet and not something designed to show everything off, but by the same token, nobody should really be looking at this minute-long clip as any sort of major step forward It was simply a nice little clip. Let's leave it at that.

That's my point. How much effort has gone into producing an atmospheric effect? Does this effort represent any kind of major step forward for the game? I think they would be far better off working on the promised mass battles than weather effects.

A nice, insignificant, little clip.

MadFrenchie · May 2019

Quizzical said:

This surprise was unexpected, in contrast to all of those other surprises that were expected?

Bah, humbug!

Mendel · May 2019

AnOldFart said:

<snip>

Mendel said:

parrotpholk said:

You know people are starved when a steaming pile of poo looks like a 5 star meal.

I wouldn't go as far as a steaming pile, but the reactions are pretty much overstated as expected. The negative responses are downvoted to around -30, while the positive responses are upvoted to around 10. The video isn't breathtaking, the terrain uninspiring (okay, hard to make a desert look good), and the dust storm had no affect on the avatar's health. Visibility was reduced, but then there was only 1 character visible in the 60 second video. So, how much did this dust storm 'feature' really affect the game?

As for the dust storm itself, it just seemed to start. It didn't appear on the horizon, it didn't build from nothing, it just appeared at full strength. How are the players supposed to react to this bit of weather? Seek shelter? Try to run through the storm? Natural phenomena like storms give all sorts of indicators. There didn't seem to be any signs of an impending storm. Should SBS actually tie some harmful effect to this weather event, there will be a lot of players caught in the storm.

And there were no real signs of direction, either. Wind moves. Dust moves. A dust storm builds, moves and dies. It isn't static. This felt more like a developer flipped the own switch and, presto! The are was enveloped in a dust storm. A direction of wind, dust, debris, etc. would give a player some kind of hint as to which way to try to go -- against the wind to try to go through, with the wind to try to outrun the storm, or tangential to the wind to go to one side or the other.

My guess is that this storm effect doesn't have as much player impact to warrant the development effort it took to install this. At least, in the current state demonstrated in the video.

All of this might be relevant if it wasn't Pre-Alpha.
Your putting fully devoped expectations in a game in development. That there us not the devs fault but an error in your expectations tbh

How about showing some of the things they promised, and actually collected money for?

Two years since the last public video clip, and it shows inconsequential things that few, if any, people were awaiting. It does not signify any real advances in the game development, only playing around with various environmental/atmospheric controls. Of course, this could be a video of a artistic development tool being passed off as their game. Wouldn't be the first time a developer tried to do that.

I don't have expectations for this game, but this isn't showing any level of design detail for two years worth of work. They could have easily added approaching, impending and raging storm placeholder art in that time frame. That would at least have provided something the player could react to. Given the claims about the detail levels that their world is supposed to have, it is odd to me that a simple storm appears to have an "Off/On" switch. even in an early developmental state.

daarco · May 2019

I watched the video again, now on a big screen, you can actually see the sandstorm in the background in the whole video before it engulfs the character.

And i do not think the sandstorm do any real damage to the character.
But since there is no ingame minimap or compass, it would be impossible to navigate.
Ad since it is an survival game, you could die if you get lost.
Especially if you are only a visitor or invader.

bcbully · May 2019

@Slapshot1188 ;

have you seen any video before? Did you know there is a game world? Are you able to access the paid forums?

From the information I’ve received from you here on these forums, I honestly thought that there was nothing more than concepts on paper.

I really hope you respond. For many on these forums your as close to it gets for an credible official source.

Had to rephrase... guess my first post was too aggressive...

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"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey