ToV Weapon Graphics

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Triconix, Nov 11, 2019.

  1. Triconix Augur

    I'm just curious what the decision making was for these. All this time was spent creating these fantastic new shaders for ice and yet we are stuck with weapons that look like they would be found laying around in Plane of Earth or Growth. Why wasn't this design taken advantage of? These weapons are more appropriate for the non-existent Earth section of TBL rather than Velious 3.0.

    I know some will try to point out that the particle effects are snowflakes, but why are they green? I don't think I've seen the color green the entire expansion (hyperbolic to emphasize a point) and yet we have these weapons. They just make no sense from a design perspective. We have blue ice everywhere, the zones are blue, the mobs are blue and the weapons are... an ugly shade of green?!

    I know it's a bit late, but please consider changing these. Heck, you have some of the best weapon graphics in the game sitting in your back pocket and you're not implementing them. It's like watching Mariano Rivera deciding not to use his cutter in game 7 of the World Series. It just doesn't make sense! Resurrect the Frostcrypt/Valdeholm graphics back from the dead and stick those back in here. They make perfect sense. You had undead ice giants there, you have undead ice giants called "icebound" here. Heck, you can even bring back some PoP weapons because they look more Velious-like than these abominations.

    And if you don't know what I'm referring to, here's a nice list of weapons graphics to implement:

    Slashing Weapons
    Warweaver/Warsorrow - These are even wielded by the Giants in Kael!
    Sekv - The cream of the crop. One of the best designs in the game, hands down. I would even continue using this next expansion regardless of stats because of the sheer awesomeness that is this weapon. It's a blade of pure ice, what more do you need from a Velious weapon?!
    FRBotW - Great design
    JBHIR - A giant blade of ice. Do I even need to say more?

    Blunted Weapons
    Fjorlask and RCIW - It's like Velious had a baby with Thor!
    LFW - Not the best, but still an improvement
    Timeweaver (POP) - It's a blue sparkly weapon and still one of my favorite old school weapons.
    Crystallized Quarreler - This is a crystallos weapon, but the graphic originated from TSS. It's a maul of ice.

    H2H
    Brumal Fists - Literally a fist of ice.

    Piercing
    Icedancer - It's in the name.
    Veinsplitter - It's the piercing version of Sekv.
    IDoM - Also a Crystallos weapon, but the base design is clearly TSS. A mini Sekv.

    Shields
    RKBS
    HH - It's like Coldain graphics upgraded.

    There are probably more that I'm missing, but these weapons are way better looking and fit more appropriately to this expansion. I should not be running around in a continent of ice with a weapon resembling fused lawn cuttings. Everything about Velium was blue. Liquid Velium is a blue icon. Items from Velious are called "Velium Blue," the tint of Velium armor is historically blue. Why am I going green suddenly??

    EDIT:

    How did I forget these?! Scimatar of the Damned, Venomous Fang, and Orb of Striking from Solteris. These are perfect due to their blacker, more corrupt looking natural ice graphics. Matches the theme of this expansion spot on. Also some of my favorite end game graphics.
  2. Nniki Augur

    Although I happen to like the green color :p, I agree with the rest.

    The weapon graphics for this expansion don't quite fit. They're also a bit too bulky looking imo... works for the giants though, I guess. Doubt they'd do anything about it at this point though.

    TSS really did have some great weapon designs.

    I'd love to see a nice fire and ice particle weapon ornament combo one day. (CotF raid ornaments are okay for fire... just didn't quite hit the mark for me)
    Sancus likes this.
  3. Vizier Augur

    I really like the weapon design for in RoS actually so I know that DBG is capable of making cool weaps. The new ToV weaps graphics are pretty meh. I don't hate them but none of them have that "sweet look".
  4. Ngreth Thergn Developer

    They are Dwarf based (Read Coldain), and they were made BEFORE the ice shader was available.
    I_Love_My_Bandwidth and Tucoh like this.
  5. Szilent Augur

    The models that make me sad are when tier1 weapons look awesome but no one ever wields them because they're tier1. That happened in both RoS & TBL, their tier1 weapon graphics were hella fancier than tier2s' & raids'. Things worked out best in Underfoot, I think, where Convorteum raid weapons looked amazing and also the best so everyone wielded them
    Sheex and Syylke_EMarr like this.
  6. Syylke_EMarr Augur

    Example:
    Eight - random rapier from Stratos group named (and Smoke mission chest) with an absolutely beautiful graphic, but not used on anything of decent quality.

    That being said, I don't mind the look of the raid ToV weapons. I kind of like them, but I also like green so that probably helps :p
    bbanz and Szilent like this.
  7. Bardy McFly Augur


    WTB appearance slots!
    Yinla likes this.
  8. Jalelorf Augur

    Stop using that stupid "ice shader". It's crap. Looks like dog poop.
  9. kizant Augur

    I think ice shader is cool. :(
  10. I_Love_My_Bandwidth Mercslayer

    You represent the fringe minority on this. I vehemently disagree with your assessment of the ice shader.
  11. Zvenn Just an old monk

    i think the ice shader is cool, and would love to see some new ice weapons...especially since my preferred illusion is gelidran and i have been using the same iced 2hb ornament for oh i dunno some 5 years (completes the icy look hehe) i think it would be really cool to get some new updated ice weapons :)
  12. Triconix Augur

    We talking something similar to items made with Coldain Velium Temper, for example Royal Velium Field Armor. I may wear glasses, but an RGB of 10,20,100 is a pretty lovely shade of dark blue. As a dwarf, I have a hard time believing my Coldain brethren would create anything this ugly, especially after the weapon designs found in UF.

    Well, that's just unfortunate.

    That happens with just about every single expansion except recently. The major reasoning lately is because gear itemization doesn't make any sense right now. You have T2, which for some reason is TS-only, and yet it drops in all tiers. That instantly makes 90% of the gear absolutely useless and undesirable. What's the point of getting T1 gear when T2 gear is exponentially better and drops in the same raids? Now you're left with doing raids for 1-2 items that are useful from a chest and everything else is either given away, rots, or goes to alts. First, TS armor should be an alternative, not a hand's down replacement over raid-dropping loot. It should be similar to what we saw with Cultural armor. Second, if it's going to be BoS, don't make it drop in the lowest of tiers. You instantly wasted hours and hours of itemization development, graphic design, etc on T1 armor. Like a giant booger with a hilt.

    I have no problem with green, but it has to be done right. These are just dull, boring green. There is no intricate detail, sharp lines, contrast, or anything memorable on these weapons. They look blurry and badly rendered to me. From any distance, they just resemble different shaped grayish-green blobs that someone is holding.
  13. Zippie Journeyman

    I've always wondered why they have to be mutually exclusive.

    Why can't the tradeskill weapons be the base weapon of the expansion, and the raid drops items that you add to the tradeskill weapon to improve it?

    If I was designing a MMO, that's exactly what I would do.

    1. Tier 1 solo/group content drops required crafting items for current expansion's gear
    2. Craftsman uses crafting items gathered from step 1 to make base gear for current expansion
    3. Solo/Group/Raid content drops items that can be slotted in to the tier 1 crafted gear to improve it
    4. Visual Aug slot: Visual augment drops from top group-based content for expansion
    5. Particle Aug slot: Particle augment drops from top raid-based content for expansion
  14. Vizier Augur

    As other's have said, those green RoS Tier 1 weapons looked amazing, then the Tier 2 looked meh.

    I think DBG should sell Hero Forge cosmetics for each expansion. You could bundle them even I bet they would sell like crazy.