Graphical Quality and Animations looks dated

You are right @tradyblix, no one has seen a game open up this early. I enjoy seeing the game keep getting better and better, I feel as though I am apart of the process!!

 

that's one of the drawbacks of letting people in early (pre-alpha is very early)... they might judge it for what it is now and not for what it will be... or what it can become... obviously, the upgrade to Unity 5 will further improve the look of the game...

 

Problem is, people see pre alphas of other games and those simply look better... Star Citizen for example. Dragon Age Inquisition just recently went into Alpha and the Pre Alpha screenshots have been gorgeous...

 

Star Citizen : 44 million dollars
SoTA: 4 million dollars.

Get them 40 million.

Yes, the game has detractors. I guarantee if the game ends up fun to play, people will play it, people will "come back". It's not the end of the world people can't handle seeing how the sausage is made after all.

 

Now, I'm not saying I feel we have gameplay up to par either.

But the last Dragon Age game wasn't fun. It has really shiny graphics... but it's not a good game like the first one.

It's worth saying... we haven't seen the main world, we haven't seen what's like with real combat or crafting (no alchemy table use yet !), we haven't seen what real players try to do, we haven't seen the full game loop with the quests, death system, pvp system, we haven't seen the 3d map, persistence, none of that.

I'm not saying not to worry. But I am just saying - there's a lot we haven't seen yet.

I'm not gonna not play this game because it doesn't look like Dragon Age. Hell, I play Ultima V today. I bet most people wouldn't even consider doing that

Look... absolute worst case scenario - we get a really hilarious Spoony video and we backers in for big bucks will have sheepish look on our faces and we'll move on with our lives. Console games that suck will keep coming out, and we'll keep thinking about what could have been with "The Ultimate RPG".

 

Of course, I absolutely agree that gameplay has to come first, but graphics are important, too. Maybe not so much for most of the core community here but for others out there. And I wouldn't mind fancy graphics, too But SotA not looking like a AAA game will not prevent me from playing it.

I believe that more casual gamers will see that SotA doesn't look as good as other games out there, even crowdfunded games and they don't care about the circumstances, they will judge the game by its looks. That may not be fair but I think that is the way many gamers react to games.

 

I think it's perfectly fine to tell them how you feel about the graphics, but the hyperbole doesn't help and likely just weakens your argument or they'll simply ignore what you have to say.

Pointing out specifically what they need to improve, especially with screenshots, is immensely helpful. That way they'll know exactly which model, which texture, etc, that you're looking at.

 

Well, for me it is the overall look of things.

But to pinpoint one thing (as i did in the OP) its that a lot of things looks like they were just laser-cut and placed there. It doesnt look even a tad natural.

And to everyone else who are so nice as to point out that this is "pre-alpha" and things will get better. Yeah i hope so too and i will continue to keep my eyes on the game, after all i did buy it ahead of release because i believe in giving smaller studios a chance to develop games outside of mainstream.
I wont be really worried until end of Alpha, but if the graphical fidelity and overall feel of the game doesnt improve much by then, then i guess we know what we are gonna get.

I can only speak for myself, but i dont expect to get a triple A game out of this, although i can still be vocal about things i dont like or like for that matter.

Im sorry you feel my post was "trash talking" the game.

Exactly. All new games are mainly judged by its looks. If its a game from a renowned studio or in a well-known series then that alone will of course count for some of the sales, but looks ARE important, regardless of what others say. I doubt this game would have gotten $4Million from KS if it was made by some unknown people.

Well, i think they both want the positive AND the negative feedback. If we hold back on the negative then they might think they are on some golden path and the game ends up with 20 people playing it because everyone else hates it..
The upgrade to Unity 5 is interesting, i will keep my eyes open for more news about that in the newsletter.

 

Well.. I'm not a walk on eggshells person nor do I have the fanboy gene.. While I never deliberately trash talk the game or people, I would have at least 'thought' the game looked like ****.. if I thought it did xD

..And I have to say, that when I finally logged into the game for the first time in R6, I was very positively surprised about the graphics! Judging by the budget and quantity of workforce I had expected much worse.

Of course some aspects are a bit clunky and unpolished due to the early stage of development.

I'd much rather have a 7/10 graphics and a 10/10 gameplay/content than the other way around!

 

Welcome nem

 

The graphics remind me of Darkfall: Unholy Wars at the moment. Although that game is a buggy mess, I don't think it looks bad. My main complaint with a lot of games is a lack of constant art direction in where half the game doesn't look like it fits together. That's kind of the state SoTA is in at the moment using generic models but I've also seen through the developer posts that they aren't really happy with them either and will be changing them out and improving them.
Everybody likes to pick on WoW these days but they definitely have a creative, original and constant art style throughout their game. Two styles really if you count Alliance and Horde separately. I don't need high res super graphics to be happy but I'm sure I wouldn't complain to having them. lol

 

Nem, can you direct me where in the newsletter it says they will be upgrading to unity 5?
I cant find that info.
Unity 5 brings with it some major improvements I understand from reading some info on the web.

 

To me the Graphics and overall feel of the game do not look like a winner.

Yes they are not the main thing in an Ultima game were the strong story is the main ingredient, but with this game a clone between Solo offline & MMO unless the offline world is completely different to the online one it will fail. Uninhabited village's the towns have a small central base an a few NPC's and many unoccupied player housing lots you then follow the story through lots of different instanced scenes not a good choice.

RG should have made the offline Solo RPG as a completely separate game with a large world to explore with Companions. 3D isometric is used in most indie RPG's and with 5 episode's how will the graphic's compete in the gaming world in 5 years time for the release of the last episode. With a separate game Unity could have been dropped later for a better engine (maybe the Cry engine).

The MMO game as 40 hours (approx) of storyline each episode so the graphics and the overland map have got to be able to hold the players for a year I can't see it being strong enough to do that plus as a sandbox how long will the Unity graphics be good enough to keep it viable when they are already dated now.

Just my opinion.

 

The devs have not committed to Unity 5 on any specific timeframe, but it's pretty much a given in the future. Whether that means during Episode 1 or afterwards remains to be seen. Read this post from Chris.

 

Just a quick note: smack's link is a "Dev+ required" thread.

 

OK, I havent pledged yet so cant I cant read that post.

Other then that i think for being pre Alpha the graphics looks fine
and im sure they will improve as developmment continues.
Its a non stop process that doesnt end when the game its released.

I dont know how others feel but this is not a game where graphics play a huge importance to me.

Edit: to check the graphic development i looked at gameplay from R1 and then switched to a R6 video gameplay. Clearly huge improvements have been made and will keep on improving so if anybody is questioning the graphics i would advice them to do likewise.

 

I just played a bit of The Dark Eye Drakensang and it still looks really good. Maybe Portalarium should take a look a the game in terms of color palette and lighting. By the way, the game had a budget of 2.5 million Euros.

 

^ That looks really good, but I don't think that is the type of "look" they are going for. That game looks a bit more toward the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning type of graphics, which is a bit more on the cartoonish side than the more rustic medieval type vibe. Granted I thought KoA looked great, it's just a totally different style.