Well, with all this stuff in my mind how our characters might get an improvement in the future and considering the fact that EQ2 runs smoothly under Linux/OpenSuse/Proton I really wished I could get into an AllAccess membership again to support these ideas and the game itself even more. And I just did it! My husband and I are discussing improvements and ideas around EQ2 on a daily base atm and therefore sold some of his consoles (PS Vita and Wii) to enable me to buy one year of membership and let us venture into Vetrovia together. Thanks Sturm <3
Well then, thought you were sleeping downstairs, yet here you are, back in action. Welcome back to Jurassic Park! Now you guys are stuck with us for another year - at the very least. Btw, before I forget this, as it's something important to me and I'm sure it would be a nice touch when playing in water or when it rains. On the first page of this thread, you'll see that I added a little bit of shine to my own characters head, which was swimming in the water. This effect can be seen in a bunch of singleplayer games, such as Tomb Raider Underworld and Resident Evil 2, but also in mmos like Black Desert Online. Example: Side note: Love both games and I absolutely adore their character graphics, visual style, animation, you name it. Characters that get dirty, sweaty, oily, wet etc. depending on the environment. I used TR Underworld vs. RE2R for this example, because the effect hasn't changed all that much in modern games, even after all these years. Seeing how EQ2 supports an entire arsenal of shaders, among other super interesting effects from an era of special effects, I guess adding a few of these enhancements would be a nice enhancement too, if our diabolical plans in this thread get greenlighted one day. Another thing that I'd really like to see are better swimming and a bit better climbing animations, like in TRU: And last but not least, a few idle animations would be great too. What I mean by that are animations that the char performs automatically, when idling in a certain environment without user input for too long. For example, the characteristics in the zone "Sinking Sands" would mean that the char gets hot and sweaty, as seen above, and starts wiping the sweat from its forehead. The complete opposite would be the case, when the desert gets dark and the temps start sinking as night falls in. Standing in a cold environment for too long = the char starts freezing a bit and rubs its hands against both of its arms in order to combat the cold etc. This brings back foooond memories of my old N64 games, such as Ocarina of Time:
That is nydelig. As for character models, I wish they didn't have alternative models. Not because I'm against options, but because I know it means more work, and more work means less productivity. If there are 22 classes, all of which have different body types, then one piece of armor like shoulder pads needs to be adjusted to all 22 classes. That's 44 different shoulder pad shapes for each new shoulder pad if there are alternative models. If they ever want to implement new armor with expansions, it then forces them to use models that has already been used, to save time, and slap some barely noticeably new textures on it. I'm all for overriding the older models, and ignoring one of the two, doesn't matter which to be honest. I'm using the alternative models myself, but I'll stop using them if they update the original models to this, definitely. I can't model or even creature textures but I am fairly decent at programming, so if I ever got access to bug fixing or anything I could probably put some time off for that. Programming is a hobby of mine anyway, side from work.
Just make models that look like they belong in a 21st century game. Y'all turned the game into Evercashshop II, anyone who was going to leave already left. They'll moan and groan about "mah models" but they'll still be here because worse crap didn't run them off. Everybody including the devs moan about SOGA models, yet at least the SOGA models look like they had effort applied to their creation and not a bunch of mashed potato heads thrown in because "good 'nuff" like the originals. Then again, that does seem to be the developer mantra in EQ2, it all just has to be "good 'nuff".
Hey there you two! First of all, thanks to both of you for taking the time to comment. I wish more ppl would join the discussion as it seems that we all pretty much agree on certain things. Oh well, no rush, I'm still asking around and trying to gather more feedback on Steam. I'll ask my new buddy Harry on Steam to comment his thoughts on a move like this, because he seemed very "pro upgrade" after seeing the pictures. Ahaaaa, so are you actually offering your service as a form of help here? If so, that's very generous of you! My wife actually said the same thing the other day, but parenting is taking too much time rn, so I doubt she'd be able to be productive in any shape, form or way. Oh well, it's the thought that counts, right? But that just shows how important this topic is to some ppl, both from the devs and playerbase. I have been looking at some artwork from the old days and I really do think an upgrade of this size would go a long way and also fit the overall look and feel of the franchise. Beautiful shading, hair, face, you name it.
Another small update: I wanted to take a break from doing this, but what has been seen can't be unseen anymore. I created a twink on our new Lore & Legend server the other day and started testing a bunch of races, including the dwarven race. You guys already know that I'm bald + beard in both rl and Norrath, thus I created a char that is bald too. I did one with a beard at first, but then I did one without the facial hair in order to see how the face looks beneath the beard: Aging sliders applied to max in game Then I started thinking about some of the EQ1 avatars: And then I tried to apply that older and yet more realistic but powerful / wiser look to our EQ2 chars: Not sure if you can call this a night and day difference, but it should be distinguishable when compared to the 2004 version. What do you guys think? Too realistic / serious or does it suit you better? I mean, I don't expect this type of realism in game, but something that at least tries to mimmick the above could fit better into the original art.
Honestly, I think the current models can still hold up if they were able to retexture them with higher definition textures. New hair would be nice, but that seems like it would be a huge undertaking.
The psychological pleasant aesthetic of a cat's face is 90% those big cat eyes with their built-in eyeliner. Expressive eyes that are deep and colorful. I was a Vah Shir beastlord in EQ1, and I was excited to see them here. I just can't connect to these faces, though. They have a haunted, naked, headlight-eye thing going on. It also looks like their arms are moving in the wrong direction when they run...but that's another story. Frogloks have expressive eyes that shine, so I do see that this was a decision somewhere along the line. Just figured I'd toss Vah Shir eyeballs into the wish list. (Sorry to anyone who made this decision and has Reasons, it's just my personal preference.)
You have extraordinary talent yet stay at DBaG instead of going to any other company where your talent could actually be utilized to the fullest. So yes, "good nuff" does indeed seem to work just fine for you. SOGA models don't look like misshapen pottery mistakes like the originals do. Not liking the truth doesn't make it less true.
That's odd that you think that about the arms. They are pretty much the same as all other player runs. https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/682967697
Wow. dude I have been doing this for 25 years and worked at countless game studios. Maybe Darkpaw is an awesome place to work and I enjoy my job and the team? You rarely get the synergy at a game company that we do here.
Weird. When I see them run they totally look backwards to me. Maybe I'm backwards? Is female the same?
No, they just look like they're made of plastic, with stick limbs and impossible posture. The females look like budget sex dolls from an Akihabara sex shop.
