Since the servers have been down for an eternity, I started browsing around at different MMO's other than Pantheon. Seems like there is tons of good feedback about Project Gorgon, this is the first I've ever heard about it, but everyone is saying it has that old school EQ, AC, UO type of feel. Anyone playing this game at all? It's in early access but I just bought it on Steam and I'm downloading it now.
Been playing PG off and on for several years now through the various alpha stages. It definitely has an old school feel, but isn't exactly like EQ. They drop you in the world and you're basically left to figure out what to do on your own by exploring the world and experimenting on your own. PG is quite a bit more solo oriented, but grouping is possible and does happen a bit if you put effort into trying to form groups. Tons to do and a fantastic game, just not quite the same as an EQ or Pantheon type game where grouping is the focus.
And there is zero hand holding in PG as well. So be ready to either read the wiki that was made, or hope anyone who answers your questions are reliable and not trolling you. Because alot of things, especially portals, are near impossible to find unless you are on top of them. Meh.
If I'm going to play a game similar to EQ1, it has to at least have similar or better graphics than EQ. Neither this game or Pantheon have good graphics. The animations in both are actually worse than EQ1 imo.
Animations is not an iterative process. Either your animator knows how to rig and animate a character or they don't. Graphics, ok maybe they will improve, maybe they will not. But Pantheon seems to be in an eternal state of beta.
Under the assumption that it won't turn out well, is there anything releasing soon or already released that's an alternative? Preferably not early access either -
I just can't get over the horrible animations in games like Pantheon. For some people graphics don't matter, they matter to me. And it has nothing to do with the engine or specs. Some animators are just good at their job and some are not. The animator from Vindictus is great at his job, the animator from Pantheon probably should not be allowed to animate.
Someone who plays EQ1 yet bases their future gameplay decisions on animations alone. Mind = blown. Project Gorgon is a blast. I wouldn't call it like EQ necessarily, it reminds me more of an old-school RPG that you can play with others.
So you are comparing animations from an early dev alpha stream to a released game and say they aren't as good. Just so you know; for future reference, at such an early dev alpha stage that the Pantheon stream you are showing was taken from, animation is not a priority, and is later improved upon in later sweeps of the game. Bet if you were to find footage of Vindictus taken at the same stage of development as Pantheon the animations would have been just as bad.
3D animation is very much so iterative. A weapon swing starts by throwing forward the forearm and then adjusting the shoulder, then the torso, then the hips then the knees. If you don't finish the animation all the way through then you have very stiff animations like in this gif. And this is just on the art team side of things...doesn't even get into how the animations are triggered on the technical side, which can also result in clunky feeling animations if they are triggered too often or not enough. What should an NPC display when it's attacking and taking damage at the same time? Anyway, this gif is super old. Newer streams show vast improvements on the animations. It's still not the most slick, but it still has potential to get better. Here's a newer stream.
Not to mention in that specific video the quality of the actual game is not represented lol. He turned the graphics WAY down to record and the posted video is not even high quality. Looks like a JPEG gif tbh.
well thats just not true at all. Animations are actually one of the most iterative things in game design. They purposefully will use temporary animations just to get the game running. Anyone remember in LOTRO's Alpha test that there were 0 animations and you T-Posed even while fighting? It wasnt until Beta1 that it got ANY animations and it wasnt till late beta that the final animations were added. Even WoW had placeholder Animations when new classes were introduced in beta (Remember how the Hunter only had the shoot animations for a little while?) So no, placeholder animations are used in almost EVERY alpha and most dont get final animations till late beta. They have to test the game before animators are done. Now Pantheon may end up being crap and I am a huge skeptic of that game, but to say its crap cause of alpha placeholder animations is just ignorance.
Final artwork, to include animations is *always* done in the production phase, not pre-alpha development, as several have mentioned. On a game of this scale (MMO), it's the lion's share of the development costs as well, so of course you aren't going to do prod level animations and artwork for anything this early except for fundraising.
More likely they are deemed "good enough" and not fine tuned later. This isn't a comment on the Pantheon team but on 90% of software companies out there.
Watching that video, I can't help but wonder if someone like Drakah will bring the defaultold EQ interface over (to the extent that it will fit). Wouldn't that be amazing...
As someone who alpha tested Project Gorgon over 5 years ago i can tell you without a doubt that its 100x better then pantheon, and unlike pantheon it doesn't have to deal with brad spending all the kickstarter money on drugs.
Project Gorgon is a great game, it does a ton of cool things and I'll be playing it for years. It's also doesn't do a ton of things. Unlike Pantheon, it's in a publicly available beta right now, so you can't really compare them (both literally and figuratively). The Pantheon kickstarter was 4 years ago. It also resulted in zero funding because it wasn't successful. Disregarding the "drugs" stupidity in your post, it's also just factually impossible to be true outside of that. Given that they've kept employees on the payroll and have kept progressing on the game for 4 years, it's also unlikely that all the money gets spent on drugs.
