Post by JustVine on 2023-04-03 16:32:31
Alright, I think we have finally reached a point in the style direction where it's clear that the current graphical style direction and the previous one are just completely out of sync.
The original style direction was made to be viewed much closer up. This was the style that made me fall in love with Ashes' artistic direction. The games assets are lovingly crafted as is the general animations. But there is one singular problem.
Steven likes his games at high levels of zoom. At first I thought that game was taking a bad turn and the assets were just lower quality. But after watching this stream it became a lot more clear to me how much the art direction looking awful is more so the fact that the assets not being made for the zoom level Steven likes, rather than the quality of the assets.
I don't see the appeal of this wide of a viewing angle. I'd rather play an isometric game at this level. It makes you look like a table top miniature and it makes the world feel immensely unimmersive. But hey some people just fell in love with Lineage 2's point and click adventure game style. This show case made me realize that it wasn't that the game was getting more ugly or that the animations were bad. It was that the zoom out ratio is too wide for the artistic direction to be effective.
Now normally I'd argue you should just make the cap for max zoom smaller. But as this game continues to be more and more Ashes of Archcraft I no longer think this is appropriate advice. The art team needs to get on Steven's (zoom) level and rework literally every texture and design to look better at max viewing distance. Stop living in your own idea of beauty and deliver what your customer, Steven, is asking for. Super far zoom.
If you don't animations will continue to look far too fast, the environments empty and monotonously bland feeling, and the amount of effort you put into the texturing will be absolutely wasted because the game will be played from max zoom as the primary experience as it is a pvp game first and a pve immersive experience second.
The original style direction was made to be viewed much closer up. This was the style that made me fall in love with Ashes' artistic direction. The games assets are lovingly crafted as is the general animations. But there is one singular problem.
Steven likes his games at high levels of zoom. At first I thought that game was taking a bad turn and the assets were just lower quality. But after watching this stream it became a lot more clear to me how much the art direction looking awful is more so the fact that the assets not being made for the zoom level Steven likes, rather than the quality of the assets.
I don't see the appeal of this wide of a viewing angle. I'd rather play an isometric game at this level. It makes you look like a table top miniature and it makes the world feel immensely unimmersive. But hey some people just fell in love with Lineage 2's point and click adventure game style. This show case made me realize that it wasn't that the game was getting more ugly or that the animations were bad. It was that the zoom out ratio is too wide for the artistic direction to be effective.
Now normally I'd argue you should just make the cap for max zoom smaller. But as this game continues to be more and more Ashes of Archcraft I no longer think this is appropriate advice. The art team needs to get on Steven's (zoom) level and rework literally every texture and design to look better at max viewing distance. Stop living in your own idea of beauty and deliver what your customer, Steven, is asking for. Super far zoom.
If you don't animations will continue to look far too fast, the environments empty and monotonously bland feeling, and the amount of effort you put into the texturing will be absolutely wasted because the game will be played from max zoom as the primary experience as it is a pvp game first and a pve immersive experience second.