Art, Areas, and Effects Feedback Forum

First of all, I'd like to state that some places have a really great atmosphere. The prison level complex comes to mind. It was a really uncanny atmosphere especially the last level. Very good work!


Personally, I'd like more waypoints or smaller areas since it forces me to play larger chunks in one session (at least add one waypoint to all the Act 1 areas like The Prison etc).

Also at the beginning I think a bit more 'guidance' might be nice. Like when you start at the beach you have no idea where to go. Maybe add some footprints in the sand or sth. (a road wouldn't quite fit in) that lead the way to the beach camp. And the same goes for the first few quests. I didn't get lost but I think it would be more newbie friendly that way.

The Prison renovation is really good. My first time in there since the update, Upper Prison felt un-nerving, because I didn't know where he was and I was just following this awful trail through. I liked the way the additions to the environment began to tell me the story of what might have gone on there!

Also, I really appreciated the relighting and transformation on the lower floors of that map. Before it was a bit drab. It was a dark place and there were monsters roaming. Now, the change has invigorated it to be more than "the bit leading up to Brutus".

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incinerate wrote:

Personally, I'd like more waypoints or smaller areas since it forces me to play larger chunks in one session (at least add one waypoint to all the Act 1 areas like The Prison etc).

This simply can not happen, or it will break the game so badly, if you think the reason its not that hard to see.

Well, having played the game a couple nights now, I decided to throw in a bit of feedback on the subject I can evaluate at the moment - the look.

I would suggest a bolder use of colour and contrast. I understand that the art style is intented to be something else than the popular, cartoony stylised one, but I think there's a possibility to use colour without giving the cartoony impression.

As of now, many outdoor areas seem washed out, like my monitor isn't displaying the full range of brightness. Some shadows and highlights are needed across the board. Perhaps post process effects could help with this?

Opposite to this, I do not enjoy the complete black prominent in dungeon areas. I understand that complete lack of vision may be a gameplay element, but I would rather have the open surroundings dark, not completely black.

I would also use dark textures inside the "walls", stone textures in underground areas for example. I find the complete black a bit too claustrophobic, and it also makes the dungeon areas seem more detatched. I think my suggestion would give the areas more presence and immersion.

I would also suggest adding variation to ground textures, a wider range of grass for example. Grass is grass, of course, but just grass of different height can add to the liveliness and immersion of an area.

EDIT: Noticed that there was in fact different heights of grass, at least in the Crossroads area.

Additionally, especially outdoor areas need more art resources, props. A greater variety of trees, stones and such.

I enjoy the effects I've seen so far, I think they provide the needed visual feedback and match the effect they should have on mobs.

However, there seems to be a very fast stun effect sometimes when mobs hit you, I would suggest adding some visual feedback to this effect, so that the player is immediately aware it occured, and that lag was not the culprit. Perhaps a quick little flash on the center of the player character or something similar?

I would also add an visual effect to attempting to cast a spell while out of mana. Possibly a fizzle of a failed spell on the character, or a flash on the mana ball.

That's it for now.

The shock sound effect sounds like water hitting a hot frying pan.



Some electricity sounds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQtCQPDuRjE&feature=related

Looks to me like it could be marijuana. Is that why I'm getting attacked by bandits in the forest/jungles? They're just protecting their weed grow ops?

I hope you guys don't give drug tests at GGG. I think there might be someone in your group who would definitely fail.

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FaceLicker wrote:

Looks to me like it could be marijuana. Is that why I'm getting attacked by bandits in the forest/jungles? They're just protecting their weed grow ops?

I hope you guys don't give drug tests at GGG. I think there might be someone in your group who would definitely fail.

Hahahaha... i lol'ed that when i first read it, and still do that can't stop myself. The symbol on that shield marvellously pawnz.

I would like to see effects on the weapons when there is added elemental damage. I have a giant mace, with +fire damage, but it still looks like a plain mace. It would be nice if there were a fire effect on the head of the mace. Same for lightning, cold, and chaos. Add an overlay to the "business" end/edge of weapons that shows the effects that are applied to your damage. I know a lot of things like this could/should be added with bloom, but even with existing sprites/animations they could be linked to the models/rigging of weapons. It would make a huge difference, visually, if the end of my mace was flaming with lightning crackling around it.

I've only just started, so have just one thing to report so far. The skeletons on The Ledge are blending in with the scenery pretty badly. Not sure how to make them stand out a little bit more from the yellowie background..perhaps make the colour of the bones slightly whiter or give weapons distinct colours?

After we passed to 0.9.5, when i got to Upper Prison for the first time, the blood pool was not there. So i'm asking this why a bloody awesome thing like this is removed for the sake of ??

I got really dissapointed with this i must say.