Thoughts on Owl's Head and the Pre-Alpha game thus far.

My first impressions;

I love the feel and graphics in SotA so far. The grass, trees and bushes are very detailed with individual leaves swaying in the wind. The lighting is beautiful (loved how the light hit my plate armor) and the clothing and armor looks genuinely real. It felt a bit empty and lonely running around in single player mode, and the NPC's conversations were very limited when I tried talking to them. When towns people greeted me with "Good day" and I replied back with the same greeting, they didn't seem to understand me.... another; "If you say so" moment However, the NPC's felt real to me and very much present in the world despite the conversation needing tweaking.

The different houses look great and felt cozy and homey. I ran into a lot of problems climbing stairs and getting stuck in walls, but I did some successful decorating and got very nostalgic, feeling like I was back in UO in some ways. I didn't know about the Q & E to rotate items, so am looking forward to try that.

Regarding the *Jump button*. I really want one. It makes me feel heavy and stuck, not having the option to jump. I don't care if someone will "abuse" their jumping, I'd say go ahead, jump to your hearts content! lol

This first, pre-alpha sneak peak at the game makes me long to try more content and experience a more polished world where I don't get stuck and have to be careful where I run. I can't wait to try more features like combat and skills like spell casting. There is a lot of work to do but I think they are definitely off to a good start.

 

I'm not worried about the graphics right now. Considering that this could basically be considered an unedited "Prologue" chapter, there are going to be plenty of rough edges. This Release actually looks graphically a LOT better than Path of Exile did as a playable beta when I started it earlier this year, and once everything starts getting polished and video card features start really working, I can see the graphics level being bumped up quite a ways.

I don't think you can take what you see in R1 and consider it to be how it will look when the game is finished. For comparison, look at the old UO Alpha screenshots compared to release, or Third Dawn early shots compared to later, or Early UO compared to KR/EC. The graphics will evolve between now and the final product.

One of the arguments I've had constantly over with UO people on Stratics is the idea that Graphics and Gameplay are somehow mutually exclusive. That if UO ever actually improved graphically that the gameplay would somehow be lost. That simply isn't the case. They are in no way mutually exclusive, nor does the focus on graphics ruin the quality of gameplay. There's no reason to not have a graphically stunning game with amazing gameplay, and I hope that will be the goal here.

One of the things that makes me happiest is the fact that the Team is focusing on adding in the smaller, seemingly un-important touches that add to the immersion of a 3d world with lighting, day/night cycle, the birds and other small effects in the background and so on. It's those little things that make the world seem much more alive even if they don't fall into more important gameplay systems.

 

Game looks good so far. Being a very early build, I wasn't expecting much.

And that destroyed moon? That's no moon.....its the remains of Kilrah, the home planet of the Kilrathi. It was destroyed at the end of Wing Commander 3. You get to see it again near the end of the game Wing Commander: Prophecy.

 

Star Citizen is a Marketing Juggernaut! Then are savvy with their website, you tube use & perk packaging. They are selling dreams and people are buying.
SotA has barely tapped into this and since they started their $ #s have grown.

 

I think they need to add a sprint or in some way allow you to move faster. The current speed is really too low for moving about town. It just seems to take too long to get around.

 

This MONEY excuse is PITIFUL! Either the game is good or it is not good.

Path of Exile is 1 of the best looking games I have played. 2.2 million to make it. Made BY GAMERS not DEVS! Used crowd funding aswell. game has CRAFTING, is a MMO, is a RPG. I played in POE Pre Alpha, Alpha, Beta & still play now.

Grim Dawn: Less then 1 million in funding. Is a MMO, RPG & has CRAFTING. Game is amazing. Character movement is flawless. I am in the ALPHA now. It just released into Alpha from a pre-Alpha state where I played it there aswell.

There are plenty of limited budget good RPG MMOs:

PATH OF EXILE- 2.2 MILLION
Path of Exile began when a small group of RPG enthusiasts became frustrated by the lack of new releases in the genre and decided to develop their own game. It was developed under the radar for three years
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_of_Exile

GRIM DAWN- Less then 1 Million http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grim_Dawn
WASTELAND 2- 2.9 Million http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasteland_2


The list goes on & on.. Either a game is good or it is not! Budget is a excuses SotA cannot use! IMO.

 

Thinking a bit on movement speed, this came to mind:

Obviously things like weight and item limits are not yet in (well other than crashing to Title Screen trying to place X+1 items in a housing plot), my thought was simply this...

UO based being overloaded on Strength setting a Carrying weight, then at a certain amount above that weight (used to be +4 stones or higher), your Stamina dropped until you couldn't move.

For SotA, my thought is this: Carrying weight limit should again be based on Strength, however movement speed should be based on the percentage carried compared to weight limit with less carried = faster movement rate and as you close in to the carrying limit, movement would slow considerably.

Maybe take the current movement rate as 50%, carrying little to nothing would be half again faster, being at the weight limit would be 50% slower. Instead of having a specific Stamina drain, what you would have is a more direct experience as players decide how best to balance what they carry around with them.

That of course could later open up to things such as items that add to movement speed and so forth.

Just a thought on it.

 

To be fair though, Path of Exile has come a long way in the graphics department in the 10 months of this year since I started playing it. When I began, my initial reaction to the graphics and animation in a single word was "Clunky". In fact, at the time I started, Melee was in no way a viable option (it has become so now), and running a Bow-based ranger felt like playing an old 8-bit shoot-em-up like Ikari Warriors and such because of the limited animation. It's gotten WAY better since then because each major Patch has "incrementally upgraded the graphics". It's also had a 3 year development before even being put out on the Market. SotA has had 9 months from the Prototype Demo that announced the Kickstarter to Pre-Alpha Release 1. PoE is also a MUCH narrower game in scope than SotA is going to be.

Again, SotA... NOWHERE close to a finished product and WELL beyond what many games have been at this stage, AND much more transparency and interaction with the custmer base.

 

Indeed, the only way to make a fair comparison is to see how both games look at the same stage in their development cycle

 

You guys are comparing a game of 3 million-ish to

Skyrim (85+ million):
http://www.statisticbrain.com/skyrim-the-elder-scrolls-v-statistics/

Witcher 2 (10+ million):
http://www.dsogaming.com/news/the-w...erpunk-2077-will-cost-282-million-in-h1-2013/

Level of expectations should be readjusted.

 

Joviex, I've been enjoying your posts in this thread, but you can't say that SotA is a 3 mil game. If we're only including public pledge funds, then Skyrim is a 0 mil game.

 

I'd say Chris Roberts is also no slouch in the game world, so, putting their "experience" solely back-to-back pretty much nullifies their contribution. It is how they are marketing.

Completely different marketing engines. You can see which model is winning.

Fair enough, BUT, take a Skyrim, with a starting budget of 50+ (all up front).

SotA has been adding to a budget of zero (at the start).

So the level of growth per dollar spent is going to be a slightly higher cost for SotA because they can't just design the system they really WANT up front, and have to plan to "eventually" get there.

Where as a Skyrim can plan everything up front, and be more efficient per dollar of design/implementation time.

Even if you give SotA the benefit of the doubt and say they got 10ish million (a few at start and a few over the last 9 months), that is not the same dollar to design ratio I see in other games where the starting budget was on-par or higher but all up front.

 

I think RG said he put a few million into the project and there are some City backed funds that have gone into Portalarium, to support this game as they have no others in Production.

 

As an artist/designer with a lot of experience, I think SotA will be just fine if they can just up the character animation quality. Abstraction in a game like this is expected, after all, the core of this game offers more "playing" depth than other games like it- witness how much control you have over housing item placement, and compare it to the rotten housing implemented in "prettier" games like LOTRO or Skyrim. There is no comparison at all. Homes in those games look very pretty, but actually are contentless and shallow shadows of the intricacies we see promise of in SotA.

By focusing on a deep skill system, real and interesting adventures, and homes you can really make unique and your own, along with truly friendly ways for people to play together in character, SotA offers a different experience than the rest of the pack. It will never be as visually breathtaking- but the Ultima games never were state of the art along those lines. They were thinking, interactive worlds that sucked you in in other ways.

I do think there needs to be some animation improvements though. There isn't any good reason to have wanky walking- it's most likely the case they need some talent specifically in that department to get the basic anatomy and physics looking acceptable. Animals and monsters are less important than our player characters, if corners need to be cut.

It's important that there is a certain amount of polish in the way the characters move, and I expect the devs already are aware of it, and it's early days still.

I remember Neverwinter Night's characters movement looking pretty dreadful about 3/4 of the way into development...I expect we just need to be patient.

 

Didn't an exactly the same thread get locked yesterday

 

Yes, it was this thread. I find it rather odd that it's been unlocked now...

 

It appears that its another similar thread. We must bury this thread fast! xD.

I´ll make the first try adding a link that shows a similar budget game in all stages of graphic advancement:

http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/445682

 

Yes; SotA isn't even in alpha yet. Its sort of futile to start judging how you (not speaking specifically to you, just in general) think SotA is as a game, when there's not even a game there yet. R1 was a limited tech test, not a game. So all the comparisons simply aren't valid at this point. They provided R1 as a focused test. If people are judging the end SotA product by this, then they clearly do not understand the process here at all.

 

Those early screenshots of PoE are absolutely hilarious. The game has been in development for over 7 years...wow that's a long time.

 

The game is probably "too" alpha for me, and has left me disinterested. But I'll try to soldier on and find bugs for them.