Profile: fwhite
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• • New Models (In the hands of someone with aesthetic talent)

  • I live with a digitial and traditional oil-painting artist, so get really dismayed when models and animations are not good.  This does not mean realistic - the biggest problem with most digital models is proportion.   Distortions, especially in more of a body-building way, are great; comic artists have done it for decades with spectacular results.  However, if the head of your vulmane looks like an overlarge  mushroom sprouting from the body, with no neck musculature to support the head, it isn't believable and is therefore bad.  Even really clunky models like the frogloks or Vah Shir of EQ1 were believable because their bodies looked like they bore the weight of the features and were not disproportionate.

    The new orcs in these pictures are an example of it working right.  They are by no means realistic,  with heavy shoulders and arms.  Their legs are also chunky and their heads are small, giving them a big body look that is not realistic, but still believable.  The humans and elves have heads that are proportional with fairly slender bodies, especially the elves.

    The vulmane and kurashasha have large heads and broad shoulder, but thin legs and necks.  A little of this would be fine, but its really over the top.  They look like unbalanced barbie dolls or he-man action figures as result.

  • Posted: 9/12/08 5:23 PM
    Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
• • Trial Island/GU 6 announcement

  • Originally posted by morpin
    

    Originally posted by eugam
    

    Originally posted by Kilrain
    

    Originally posted by SgtFrog
    

    Originally posted by coffee
    

    yay trial island.. played at the end of the open beta and it was simply awful.. lets see what they have done in a year or is it 2.. I forget now =D

     

    even if gameplay is improved.

    the toon models are too ugly for me.

    Correct me if im wrong but aren't the new character models coming with GU6?

     

    They are the same models with revamped bones and a bit more athletic appearance. The biggest win is the reduced lag in crowded (PC and NPC) camps.

     I  think the character customization is a bit more than that.  I think of it as:

    - Bringing back facial customization back to what it was before GU2  I think everyone was satisfied with these options.    I am still waiting on the female facial customization results which I think will be important and where not so hot when the test version first came out.  The net result is that helms now work and there is some FPS imporvement since release.

    - Enhanced body customization. Supposedly better than ever before.

    - Enhanced appearance armor. (not sure how much)

    Could we get some screenshots of the new models as they appear live? The ones from test are not suitable.
    

     

     

  • Posted: 9/12/08 5:01 PM
    Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
• • Gateway Trailer! New Aug 27th 2008!

  • Thanks for posting the video.

    It really didn't go long enough to give me a feel for the game at all though, which is unfortunate.

  • Posted: 9/04/08 1:06 PM
    Stargate Worlds
• • Vanguard: Saga of Heroes: How I Came Back to Vanguard

  • There were only 2 intolerable things about Vanguard that made me stop playing it:

    1) The perfomance was hell - not just bad, hell.  I could not play the game even though I had a top-end machine without several seconds of freezing and delay.  According to the article, the graphics are still glitchy.  So this problem remains, though probably not as severe.

    2) The models looked like poser knockoffs.  Good models with good textures are part of what make a game good.  The artists at blizzard, as the comparison was already made, do this very well (at least before the expansion).  I guess this just didn't get changed either - it is, like so many other things, scheduled.

    I suppose the article was enlightening in that it told me about these two key points.  Vanguard will gather more dust, even though I really want it to be better than it is.

  • Posted: 8/21/08 2:00 PM
    General Discussion
• • Seeking suggestions for stability

  • Awesome!

  • Posted: 8/01/08 12:35 PM
    Requiem: Bloodymare