Silky Venom - Sigil Developer Tracker

Sigil Developer Tracker

The dev tracker is no longer actively scanning, however you may continue to browse the archives collected over the past several years here. Please remember that these developer posts are taken out of context, so beware of any silky venom being spewed forth.

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vanguard graphics

O F F I C I A L V A N G U A R D F O R U M S
Oct 20, 2005 - 04:53 PM - by Darkness

I think this topic has run it’s course people but I would like to say a few things about it just from a game maker’s standpoint so you guys can perhaps get some insight on how games are developed.

Grundy has a right to say he likes Project Ego’s graphics more than ours. He’s allowed to have that opinion. There is nothing wrong with someone having that opinion. I personally don’t agree, but that is neither here nor there. His opinion is what we call subjective.

sub•jec•tive adj.

Proceeding from or taking place in a person's mind rather than the external world: a subjective decision.

Particular to a given person; personal: subjective experience.

Moodily introspective.

He’s allowed his opinion as much as we allowed ours.

What people are attempting to inform Grundy (and others) is that when you make an MMO you have more things to worry about than if you were making a FPS. Essentially you have to worry about the unknown. Funny thing about MMOs… people often do all the things you don’t want them to do RIGHT AWAY. Right away and over and over as well. That means you have to build for that possibility. When you are making a single player experience you can keep the player from “breaking the game”. Well, at least you can better stop him from doing so.

Ever tried to stop one person from doing something disruptive?

Now try stopping a few hundred thousand… all of a sudden things get a tad more difficult. (See that’s sarcasm) I am not going to define that one because if you have to look it up you will get more insulted.

Back to the whole “breaking” thing.

MMOs spend a lot of time in development thinking about worst cases.

How many people could cast this spell at once?
How many people could he here at one time?
How many monsters can be in this area?
How many people will…. Arrrrgh STARBUCKS TRIP!

And then you spend the rest of your development time coming up with ways not to have everyone’s computer explode. Most of the time this problem is solved by making the client scale down the detail of a particular game asset to accommodate for the sheer amount of objects now in a scene.

MMOs have a hard time being in the same graphic class as FPS games simply because they have to take more into account. You only have finite amounts of power to play with so you have to decide when enough is enough. My personal opinion is that Vanguard is the best looking Fantasy MMO to date. I had that opinion before I came to work at Sigil. I still maintain that point of view as the producer.

I am not trying to sway anyone’s opinions because I think people should be allowed to believe what they want. I thought I would just shed some light on why things are they way they are. But Grundy you might wanna consider not being so brash about your dislikes. Not because you don’t have a right to be that way… it’s just because you are in Vanguard friendly territory.

When I used to live in NY I never walked around with my Dolphins Jersey on…. Why? Well that was a sure fire way to start some drama. But maybe you like drama. I dunno.

Etopia… I wanted to point out a few things.

I smashed a bug today in my laundry room. They do look kinda plastic like. I was kinda grossed out but it’s the truth. I still have the eebie jeebies.

Also those pictures you pointed out (the weapons) it’s actually a by product of lighting. You will see better looking weapons.

Lastly…

Vanguard needs to be seen in motion. Screenshots are nice but they honestly don’t compare to seeing the game moving. When you see trees swaying in the wind sometimes you can just stop what you are doing and be awed by the site (hopefully when nothing is agro on you)

…oh ONE MORE THING

Project Ego doesn’t look better IMO than Gears of War. And Gears is coming out soon.

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Hi-larious !

O F F I C I A L V A N G U A R D F O R U M S
Oct 19, 2005 - 01:51 AM - by Darkness

That sounds like one of my stories... I have at least one "Epic" event a year. I'm glad I already had mine this year.

Don't ask. I won't tell.

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