Mythic employees (WAR specific).
ngon master
just curious, if you can say. or at least confirtm some specs for me?
i'm thinking that most war characters tend to range from 2000-3000 triangles, with a 512 diffuse + spec map? is that about right?
basically, i'm looking to model some WAR spec characters for a project.
i'm thinking that most war characters tend to range from 2000-3000 triangles, with a 512 diffuse + spec map? is that about right?
basically, i'm looking to model some WAR spec characters for a project.
Replies
We actually paint our base/spec/glow/tint textures at 1024, and then the game scales them in half and compresses them into all sorts of fun unreadability(512x512).
The model is all on one sheet, with the exception of head/helm & hair. That is all on another sheet. And then half of another sheet is set aside for any cloaks/back items.
They're all laid out in specific areas as each piece of gear is on a separate layer, and gets composited all together in the game.
mind if i ask whether it was the design team, or management who decided that special characters would use generic meshes, instead of having a unique mesh?
They would have used the same base model to start from, but would be able to have looser restrictions on where things are laid out on the texture pages. Not really sure what you are asking specifically.
:S
basically, me and some friends are disappointed in how some of the special characters are presented (not all, though).
examples would be... Teclis looks like a generic archmage. Eltharion looks like a generic swordmaster, Morathi looks like a generic witch elf etc.
so someone asked if i could make a WAR spec set of special characters... but i didn't know what that spec actually was.
and please don't take this thread as me trying to disrespect any of you guys work, cos i think it's great. i just think some of it could have been better.
You mean, this guy doesn't look like that?
I think these are just ones we haven't had the time to make yet. I think you should be seeing more of these NPCs popping in as more of what their concepts look like. At least we should have time for that after we get these Tomb King shenanigans out the way.
i'm trying to limit this as much as possible, obviously this isn't the mythic forum. and you guys are a constant source of inspiration for me. so i definitely don't want to make it seem like i'm ungrateful for any of the work you're doing.
but at the moment, a lot of players, myself included. couldn't give a crap about the expansion. because the existing content isn't up to scratch.
example: could you tell me what Eltharion is supposed to look like? (not even any concept art up for him yet).
why is karl franz 8 feet tall?
you've already addressed that special characters will be getting a makeover. and in my own mind i have it that EA are pushing buttons to rush new content... but from one polycounter to another, with no malice intended. please, have a word with your superiors about getting their priorities straight... too many customers are leaving, and spreading bad word of mouth, for you to worry about new ones.
now to the pleasing stuff... i love the environment art in WAR, it all looks very much like the imagery GW set down. it's a real credit. Altdorf is fantastic, and Inevitable City is just plain cool. i'm looking forward to seeing the other capitals at some point.
keep it up
gir- No problem. There are still quite a number of polycounters working at Mythic.
http://www.warhammeronline.com/newsletterarchive/2008/August2008.html
Near the bottom is a set of concepts, including Eltharion, but the link to the full-size image goes nowhere. :S
As for the gigantor Karl Franz, I think it had to do with him being a character that the opposing team will fight at some point. So the content designers decided to make him larger so he seems more epic and 'badass'.
I've been so focused lately with the work we're doing now, that I'm not even sure what we'll be making art for after the tomb king stuff goes out. I've started to put in some extra time on the side to fixing up the trophy art. There has been talks about epansion, but like you said it would be foolish to start on that till the core experience is solid.
I'm sure that if they go for making the remaining capital cities, then we should have the time to make the NPCs. We've got tons of them concepted out, there just hasn't been time to make them all yet.
but just for a point of contention... if you're using eltharion as a swordmaster, he has a lot of scarring, no eyes (wears a blindfold as a result), and wears white robes. his injuries are a result of malekiths personal torture.
if he is NOT being made in his swordmaster time period (which would be silly), he uses a single handed sword, wears white + gold robes, wears ithilmar armour, and rides a griffon.
sorry for all the criticism. just a long LONG time fan of the game, and it's a shame to see some of my favorite characters (both good and bad) not reaching their potential =/
Welcome to game development =/
sounds like most design team leaders are retards to me...
There are lots of considerations. Now i dont work at mythic, but i think mmo's all have similar limitations to deal with...
Any character you make that is a significant deviation has a massive hit on workhours. If a character can share the same rig as a swordmaster npc, it will save a ton of time and money.
Say for example they made him true to what you said. If he fights on a gryphon, he needs:
- A new rig most likely, unless they can modify the existing one, which is still work
- new animations, for him and the gyphon. If he's a boss, you need a shitload on anims for attacks, hits casts etc.
- If there isnt mounted fighting already in the game, which i dont believe there is, theres R&D that will have to be done on how to make the rigs work together. Tons of work.
This is all on the backend before you even get to polys and textures.
...or you could give him a texture swap and call him done.
It's not ideal, but in the end it's all about bang for buck.
at the moment, all the bosses share the same animation stack as for the player characters, and other npc's. the mesh would fit an existing rig, for sure. he's just an elf.
they already have griffons in game (i believe karl franz rides stormwing too?) along with mounted dragons.
so to be honest, it's not THAT much of a hit.
@ Xenobond. dude, you have no idea how reassuring it is to hear a member of the dev team say that... so far all we hear on the official forums is "look at the new shiney shineys!!!" and basically "fuck the old content, we're only interested in the new". which i'm sure is marketings fault and not yours. you can only make what you're told to make.
just that the message is getting through, is a reassurance... WAR has the potential to be MASSIVE, but going from an initial 800k subs, to just over 100k ACTIVE subs, is a bad thing... as i pointed out earlier, the sound business plan would be to make your existing customers content, before trying to rope in new ones.
thank bro
however, since i was challenged on this, i'll quote wikipedia:
source
shocking thing is... the community are litterally spoonfeeding answers to problems on the forum. but none of them are being dealt with. in the recent Q+A on irc, anytime anyone raised a concern about the current state of the game, the answers, to paraphrase, were basically "yeah we might get round to fixing that, in the meantime though... LOOK AT THE TOMB KINGS EXPANSION!".
the current census of oppinion on the TK release is "we don't give a shit, we want what's already here to work properly".
sorry to sound so aggressive... but i've literally just rerolled, after hitting tier 4. because i can't actually play anymore... unless things change, there'll be 1 sub less =/.
you may dislike this post as being too negative, but like i said... the community are doing their best to help, but it seems like you're unwilling to help yourselves, and i REALLY don't want this game to fail.
I think you are taking your frustrations out on the wrong person.
however, being members of the devteam, art or otherwise, he and justin are DEFINITELY in a position to bring things up.