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New 2D engine visuals?


mercy

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Jeff has stated that he doesn't plan to significantly improve sprites since he will never be able to get it to AAA game level and anything less is always going to be criticized as not good enough. He likes the retro look and will only make small changes. Doing new graphics takes time so don't expect much.

 

He is planning a new game engine, but isn't giving any details.

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The old engines (anything before Avernum 6) are pretty much unplayable for me now. The tiny tiny game area window in the above screenshot that's maybe 300x300 pixels (since most of the rest of the display is the gigantically bloated interface, which already is itself capped at some tiny size like 800x600 or something) out of my 1920x1080 screen.

 

My top requests for interface changes in the new engine would be:

- more bindable spell/action slots (maybe 8-10 instead of 4)

- mousewheel support for scrolling through inventory (junk bag, merchants, items on ground, etc)

- be able to zoom in a few stages in/out in the game window (also using mousewheel)

- fix boat pathing so it works the same as pathing on the ground (intelligently paths around obstacles/outcrops instead of getting stuck)

- more mouseover tooltips on things - it would be nice to be able to mouseover a ground tile and have a list of the items that are on it be shown in a tooltip

- the much-asked-for ability to open/close windows like inventory using the same keyboard button, rather than needing to use escape to close

- the ability to turn off auto-move in combat

- be able to turn on a visible grid for the ground tiles so you can more clearly see how many squares it is over to a target

- have the stat window display aggregate special bonuses like critical hit chance, +% healing, +%magic damage, %melee damage protection, parry, etc

- add a few more sprite versions to show the possibility of carrying 2 swords, a shield and sword, etc

- add a displayed area effect that you can see for large area spells like Slow, Divine Retribution, etc... I never know quite where to position my priest so the DR hits all the targets I want

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Jeff has stated that he doesn't plan to significantly improve sprites since he will never be able to get it to AAA game level and anything less is always going to be criticized as not good enough. He likes the retro look and will only make small changes. Doing new graphics takes time so don't expect much.

 

He is planning a new game engine, but isn't giving any details.

 

Sad as this may sound, I actually prefer the ultra retro graphics of the Exile series (second incarnation) to what followed. At least in terms of the monsters and characters. Geneforge and Avernum's graphics always felt like they lack detail, variety, and above all are overly stiff. And yes, I maintain that judgement even if they are literally more animated. To me it's a case of higher technology not resulting in better art.

 

Yes, the resolution is better, the items, UI, and terrain are better, and hot damn has Jeff found himself one heluva great artist to do the "cinematic" art since those days, but generally the art for the characters really feels inferior to what Exile offered.

 

... but I guess above all else this goes to show how Jeff absolutely cannot win in the graphics department, so why should he invest too hard there?

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Well... are they even really new persay? Not really - that exact graphic's been used before. Really, the general lack of diversity in the later Spiderweb games is another problem - I briefly touched on it, sure, but...

 

Seeing formerly unique and interesting creatures like the Chitrach and Null Bugs reduced to what they were in A2:CS was kinda sad. Leaving the hydras out in favor of yet more recycling was a further letdown.

 

Really, how many legitimately new graphics can the latest Avernum boast? ... I mean, no one's asking for a brand new engine or high budget graphics, but... this? And really, what was done with the Chitrach doesn't even make sense! There's a perfectly fine Chitrach graphic in A6 that works beautifully! What happened?

 

I don't mind the style. Really, I don't. But... I just can't help but get a painful feeling of cut corners on these things. And I hate to say that, but it's the truth.

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Really, how many legitimately new graphics can the latest Avernum boast? ... I mean, no one's asking for a brand new engine or high budget graphics, but... this? And really, what was done with the Chitrach doesn't even make sense! There's a perfectly fine Chitrach graphic in A6 that works beautifully! What happened?

 

Licensing issues happened. That graphic was created by a forum member and Jeff got permission specifically to use it in A6, not a blank cheque to use it in all future games. The artist has since disappeared off the face of the earth so Jeff can't contact them for permission to reuse it.

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Actually, that graphic was created for A4, and was used in A4-A6, so I'm not sure licensing issues are to blame. I suspect it was more that the new graphics are a different size. It was probably easy to resize the scuttler they still had the Poser files (or whatever) for; the chitrach was a custom-made graphic that might have taken a lot more work for a non-expert.

 

http://pied-piper.ermarian.net/topic/20/187/p2 - third post

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I don't mind the new chitrach graphics. At least they don't look like clawbugs, causing me to treat them as such tactically and get myself killed.

 

they also don't parry and riposte basically every single melee attack any more, which is nice

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