I agree with you about spell effects not wanting to be 'realistic'. Things like the spell book and shields feel much better being translucent, glowing, ghostly representations than looking like an actual book or shield appearing mid air.
The pet effects for the ranger are way too realistic also, considering they are clearly not 'real' animals materialising and dematerialising in a split second. They should be like the shaman (?) green ghostly snake spell (whatever that is). Like a spirit animal has been summoned and slips back into the ether.
It alsmost looks like a graphical 'glitch' when 'real' things pop into existence and disappear. Not attractive.
I feel like a lot of the spell VFX/animations are a bit off, placement wise. There was some kind of explosion effect that occured, which I thought looked quite nice, but where it originated from seemed to be a bit off. Fully expect something like that to get fixed in a visuals pass before launch tho ^^
The ranger spell effects looked a bit on the weak side, and getting a live panther and live bear to come out of nowwhere and attack the target for 2 secs and then go away looks a bit silly, having it be some sort of spirit/ghost animals and the effect startin from the rager position before the charge would be cooler. Other than that I quite like the spell effects, they look good pretty, but not to flashy to the point of clutering the screen in any riduculous way.
The thing I'm more worried about is the actuall animations, auto-attacks, weapon swings, running and receiving a hit/datking damage, I know they're still mostly placeholder animations, but they need to implement a more finished product, becuase the animations are abysmally bad compared to the amazing graphics the game is getting, and watching combat with these placeholder animations is a bit jarring
jpedrote said:The ranger spell effects looked a bit on the weak side, and getting a live panther and live bear to come out of nowwhere and attack the target for 2 secs and then go away looks a bit silly, having it be some sort of spirit/ghost animals and the effect startin from the rager position before the charge would be cooler. Other than that I quite like the spell effects, they look good pretty, but not to flashy to the point of clutering the screen in any riduculous way.
The thing I'm more worried about is the actuall animations, auto-attacks, weapon swings, running and receiving a hit/datking damage, I know they're still mostly placeholder animations, but they need to implement a more finished product, becuase the animations are abysmally bad compared to the amazing graphics the game is getting, and watching combat with these placeholder animations is a bit jarring
I agree about the last part, unfortunately. Game is starting to look nice with its lighting and shaders and whatnot, and the animations are coming along but I'm still a bit worried. Worried, because in the past I've seen lots of lacklustre animations in pre-release stay largely unchanged and just 'polished'. Dont' get me wrong, polishing isn't bad. It's great. But polishing a fundamentally meh thing isn't great. These aren't the worst I've seen, but they are a bit stiff and unweighted. I really hope these are 'true' placeholders, and that significantly improved/different ones await us later. Animation is a pretty tough gig, though, and often in short supply. That said, I think these placeholders are a bit better than some other games I'm watching in development at the moment, which are supposedly further along.
Personally, I might never be 100% happy with them, as a certain few games with absolutely gorgeous, weighty and fluid/natural animation might have ruined me ._.
I'll start to be concerned about the animations if we're entering Beta and they are still 'clunky'. I do not need super fluid animations, but I do like to see variations on a theme. By that I mean casting animations should not all be the same, swinging that sword should not always be the same overhead strike.
This snippet from Ben in the Newsletter has made me feel better about things like effects and animations:
[Taken from the "What's Coming Up" section of the Under Wraps segment]
"The artists already have a lot of work done for the new zone Faerthale and are adding more assets like models, animations and visual effects."
Not that I had much concern. Graphics have typically meant very little to me as long as it doesn't give me headaches/nausea. Every stream has seen a marked improvement in graphics, animations, particles, etc.
Alexander said: Now, I know animations in streams are by no means final. But we can't know which are sort of settled and which will definitely be changed - and I figure you could use some feedback from "new eyes". I just have some subtle critiques, really.1. The book (int?) caster self-buff. We dont need to see a book appear above a caster's head to denote a buff. A caster might manifest a color above their head for an int buff, or have their head glow a little briefly. If we could keep these spells realistic, it'd add so much to the experience and atmosphere.
2. The actual shields circling around a player after a defense buff. Same reason. Part of EQ's charm were the spell graphics - armors and buffs were color spheres coming into the player - and that, as technically-limited as it was, was actually more realistic. It's just a bit strange to see magic manifest as images of shields, etc. Unless we should think magic is actually being formed into those shapes.
3. The DL's blood graphic atop enemies' heads. I love the blood visual! But why is it floating above heads after their dark strikes? Could the graphic be connected with the DL's blades somehow?
Maybe this is all pointless because VR will update these very animations. But how are we to know? And some input couldnt hurt too much. No matter what though, I loove the game you're making, VR, and am so impressed by everything youre showing. Thank you deeply for your incredibly hard work to bring us this fun MMO! So many hours of fun to be had. We should really be honoring you all daily =P
I personally loved that translucent purple book that was the vfx for a buff. You are talking about "realism" in a fantasy game, there is no "realism" for spell effects except for what the devs choose to do.
Actually have zero complaints on the animations from the last stream. Its looking great. Theyve slowly but surely worked on that part of the presentation and its almost there if not already. VFX are a little bright and flashy but I like them. Theyre unique... sort of... yet reminiscent of what ive seen in EQ. Honestly I feel OP is a tad too picky ... I mean floating spell symbols are a problem? Theyre pretty much MMO tradition.
... I guess its better than overall critiques of the actual character animations.
Its all subjective when it comes to art. What looks good to one person won't look good to another. Artistically speaking its all about balance. Design wise the effect needs to 1. beable to display what is happening to give the player the right amount of visual information they need 2. Have it not obstruct everything around what you need to see while its happening 3. have it be pleasing to the eye.
Minimizing spell effects isn't something I'm a fan of unless totally necessary ( see above reasons ). Information is key and we're visual beings. This is a fantasy world and we buy with our eyes. Cool effects are part of the illusion we're here to purchase.
:D
My two plats
After watching stream and paying complete attention to spell effects. I think they could use some small tweaking. But i feel like they are spot on for a magical effect. My fear is that the ranger pets are coming across as spell effects and not pet assists. BUT i feel that once people get used to the effect they will realize who is casting/doing what. I am retracting any previous issues i had with spells. The alpha even seems at the correct level of transparency.
The biggest issue was Ogre was soooooooo dark. They should be more “not dark faced”
So far many of the animations I think look pretty good.
If I had any feedback is that I think a bit more heft should be put into the two-hander animation. It seems like they lift it up and swing it down without issue. A big 2-hander is heavy and is going to require some heft and grunting to get it over your head. Plus, they are awkward to swing