Goblin Squad Member
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For those of you who haven't seen it, the very first demo was just posted on the Goblinworks Kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675907842/pathfinder-online-technology -demo/posts/356601
My thoughts:
I like the character models and movement. I'm immensely relieved to see they haven't fallen prey to that awful shininess we see on TSW, TOR, and Rift toons. They seem to have a slightly more "old school" look, which I thoroughly appreciate. My only dislike there was how statue-still they look when standing idle.
Combat looked slower/clunkier than I was hoping, but I'll hold off more opinions for now, since it's in such an early stage.
I hope the final "chat bubble" text that appears over avatars' heads is something other than pale, thin red. It was very difficult to read.
I would have liked to see more landscape. We all know what dungeons look like, but I think it's the natural environment that ultimately gives a game its sense of "placeness."
A BIG congrats to the whole Goblinworks team. Great, great work so far. I'm very excited to be even a small part of this, and I can't wait to see more!
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Goblin Squad Member
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That was really cool to see them use a catapult to take down the tower. And is this a hint that goblins may be a playable race in the initial release or soon after? I would personally love to see that happen.
I wasn't in love with the way the characters slashed the air and the goblins fell over, but I would say that even if the swords clanging on swords like in TOR is in PFO's future, it should be a low priority. So I'm ok with the cheesy combat animations.
The characters and world looked great. It looked like I world I could jump into and immerse myself in easily. So I'm happy to see that.
Looking forward to hearing and seeing more.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Great Tech Demo! The models looked great. I loved how the goblin ears moved, nice touch. Destruction of the tower by catapult looked great. Great tech proof of concept.
Side note, I REALLY appreciate the informative, transparent and good faith updates.
Side note x2, based on the some of the comments, both on the boards and the Kickstarter page, it seems like a number of people haven't read Update #37, or a number of the other update/blogs with regards to the nature of a Tech Demo. I encourage everyone to read up, as they are especially informative.
Keep up the great work and updates!
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Goblin Squad Member
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I thought this was very well done. Systems appeared to cooperate. Combat actions were taken, results were achieved. And no BSOD during the process.
I eagerly look forward to more videos.
Well, stability etc... would have to be vouched for by the people who have physically played it, rather than the compilation video. This was essentially the highlights real of the best footage made from the tech demo that could be gathered.
Not to scoff at the video itself, it is awesome, and amazing what has been done so early on, with minimal resources, and I cannot wait to see more in action etc... If this can be done in a month, with a fraction of the staff etc... I can only imagine what it will look like when completed.
BTW Ryan (or any of the crew really), in the upcoming footage, can we expect to see forms of the start of the UI etc... (obviously I am more than aware that it is probably a very basic fraction of what is planned to be implimented, but obviously functional enough for some to play the game).
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Goblin Squad Member
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The colors......splendid. I want to explore the donjon. I can pass the animation.
But I'm a little puzzled about the catapult and the tower. How it will works. For conquering occupied hexes, do we need those catapults? I mean, if I kill the resident of tower, it should be mine no?
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CEO, Goblinworks
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@Onishi - what you see in the video is pretty much what is in the tech demo. There is a "UI", but it's all just placeholders to test that we could do a UI, rather than an actually functioning interface.
We are using the Technology Demo as a testbed now so from time to time when we create a feature in it we can extract video to show the community and we'll certainly do that. UI tests are absolutely the kind of thing we hope to get lots of feedback from.
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Goblin Squad Member
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My notes:
It appeared that both Mersiel and Valeros had the exact same combat animations. I'm hoping that gets swapped out eventually (if you swing a rapier like a sword, you deserve the beating you have coming to you).
I think I saw a spell failure from combat damage in there, but I'm not sure.
Was Seoni even doing anything? I saw her raise her hand, but no real effects on the enemy.
The goblins looked *FANTASTIC*. Mad props to the team for that.
Clothing movement: praise Abadar, the clothes actually move properly.
Environments looked amazing, well done!
I'm loving the artistic direction of the game, the whole thing flowed nicely together and didn't look too cartoony (HUGE PLUS).
In short: well done, I'm very pleased!
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Goblin Squad Member
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I liked it quite alot. My only real criticism would be Valeros's face. It seemed "off" to me, maybe too blocky or swollen. It just didn't capture the feel of the character from the art work. Looked almost a little bit what Tolkien would have described as half-orc.
Everything else I was really happy with. The environment was very well done and we saw some cool stuff there. The goblins were absolutely SUPERB, probably the best part of the video. I liked the characters and the way they moved, especialy the stances when they were ready to fight. The fighting animations were very well done, exactly what i would have hoped for and the weapons, gear and armor seemed spot on. So aside from that one rather nagging criticism on my part...overall quite happy with it.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Nihimon - <sigh> it's complicated. More info soon.
No worries. Thanks for the direct reply. It's a long, strange trip, eh?
the magic effects seemed a little strange - just a ball of light...
They mentioned in the update that Seoni's spell effects were the only things that weren't rendered directly; I guess they were added in "post".
I actually thought that was one of the best spell effects I've ever seen. I really can't stand the high-particle effects that are so common. Although I'm already braced for the fact that they'll eventually be included in PFO, too.
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Goblin Squad Member
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*Comes out of hiatus of commenting* I do enjoy the style that you guys are going with, but I'll just throw in my penny for a thought.
-This is still extremely early so I'll just go with what's on my mind, please take it with a grain of salt.
■ The combat doesn't seem to match with the siege weapon (Attacking per turn Vs Quicker and twitch reactive attacking) a good example of combat that I believe would suit this game would be GW2 or Bless, especially Bless (Bless is a Korean MMO, go check it out, it's pretty cool).
■ Art style seems to be going in a good direction, but touch, polish, and improve, the best one-two-three ko moves in the industry.
■ Particle and clothing simulations are always nice to have
■ I'd have to agree with Beacher, the natural world is what inspires me to go out and explore, feed the exploring, ADD, richness inspired, like to have things available to do, the better.
But other than that, this is just what I saw, hope that helps haha.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Alexander_Damocles - none of the animations represent work that will be in the final game. They're all routines built just for the Tech Demo.
There's no actual combat mechanic - we are building and testing a variety of those but what you see in the video are staged fights.
Shweet! Thanks for being so quick and responsive!
Models look crisp. I like the level of detail in both the NPCs and player characters. Tower destruction looked pretty but that's all it was without some kind of meaning and setting. I doubt all it will take will be three or four shots from a couple of catapults to take it down.
Without some kind of frame of reference for the combat, commenting on it is pretty useless. Animations looked good though and the goblin death animation was suitably amusing for our favourite small enemies!
It shows good progress for an early alpha video and I'm looking forward to seeing more. Are video releases going to be ad-hoc or can we look forward to seeing them cropping up regularly in the dev blogs?
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Goblin Squad Member
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Yes, I fully appreciate "technology" demo means just that: And it was phenomenal, to come up with this in a few months. It certainly felt like much of what we have read in the blogs was being born visually for the first time. The art style looks authentic to the world it's trying to capture, which to me is more important than poly counts. :)
The character animations having viewed them on a computer (not my phone) were perfect: I like the "flow + flourish" of them, the arcing of the weapons and the contortion of the body's follow-through - I'm pants at art but that looks like eg a golf-swing or a football striker connecting to a ball with their foot captured in slo-mo. That is really satisfying to see.
I guess middleware is highly complex subject to explain in a simple blog or update? ie reminded me of the chemical pathways of a living cell!
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Goblin Squad Member
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To Ryan and everyone else at Goblinworks a big, "Congratulations and Thank you!". This is definitely a milestone in your journey to making this dream a reality.
The Tech Demo was great and showed just what you wanted it to show. You have the staff and talent to do this. Go get um!
What gets me excited about PFO isn't the demo, but is all the Blog information on how this MMO will run and be different from all the others currently out there. It will be unique. I was excited about this project before ever seeing a screenshot.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I liked what I read about costs and financing, it seems certain this game will be made for real now.
Re: movie. Not indicative of the final product, but what we see is what we comment.
-thin red chat is not very readable (but should be extremely easy to mod)
-i love the way the goblin ears move!
-the rogue seems to be running in slow motion. The fighter looks good though.
-the scale of things seems to be similar to other MMOs, which I think is too big. Personally I hate when trees and building features become oversized (4-lane bridges over small streams, doors and apple trees 10 times higher than the avatars etc) as it just makes the characters seem tiny.
Goblinworks Founder
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Movement and passive animations of the characters and goblins looked great. The 3D artists captured the Wayne Reynolds visual style very well.
I love the cramped, narrow passageways of the dungeons, but the I think they should be much darker. Your crew have done an outstanding job in the time that you have put this together.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Tower destruction looked pretty but that's all it was without some kind of meaning and setting. I doubt all it will take will be three or four shots from a couple of catapults to take it down.
Well that all depends where and what they intend the challenge of the siege to be. the towers could go down in one shot and still be difficult to take down, depending on how soon the defenders know about it, and the speed of the actual catapult itself. IE it could take 3 hours to assemble or transport the catapult, and 3 seconds for it to destroy something, still involves just over 3 hours of defending it.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Got mah goblin showin'.
For the record, though, it's possible to be a Goblin Squad Member even if you didn't contribute to the Kickstarter. One way was to make a video for this thread. I think there was another way too, but I can't remember right now.
Glad you got it figured out, and yeah, I want to play too :)
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Goblin Squad Member
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Got mah goblin showin'.For the record, though, it's possible to be a Goblin Squad Member even if you didn't contribute to the Kickstarter. One way was to make a video for this thread. I think there was another way too, but I can't remember right now.
Glad you got it figured out, and yeah, I want to play too :)
The second was the come up with a name for the type of launch they are doing.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The demo is beyond anything I was expecting. So much has been done in so little time!
The artwork is fantastic, I love the water and all the different looking trees. The dungeon looks good too.
Models are very detailed and from a demo perspective, the animations are totally fine.
Lighting/shadow also look realistic (ok, in some dungeon scenes with more than one light on the walls, you still can see there's only one light source. I do understand that lighting/shadow is very performance hungry for not much added).
Special effects like spells and flames are very basic but hey, they prove that you can support them.
If I were an investor, you'd get my money right away!
Chief Technical Officer
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There will indeed be a higher-resolution version available to backers at some point.
Non-backers can now see some of the content being discussed in the video for the new Kickstarter:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1675907842/pathfinder-online-a-fantasy- sandbox-mmo
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Goblin Squad Member
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Looks good overall.
Thought combat was off, but that isn't a finished product, so not much to say there.
I did think that the guy looked odd.
Maybe it's just the art style, but his posture (and maybe build) seemed strange to me.
I also am not a huge fan of characters appearing to carry all of their worldy possessions with them.
This wasn't so much an issue with what was in the demo (though the guy, again, was carrying more than I would like to), but with the artwork on which the designs are being based.
I just hope that that is kept in mind when the art is being done for the different gear.
Some gear carry some excess, other gear without, and then people can at least mix-and-match to get just the right amount of "clutter" for their characters.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I did think that the guy looked odd.
Maybe it's just the art style, but his posture (and maybe build) seemed strange to me.
I think he was a bit blocky in build and in the face. This is a completely blind impression as I am not familiar with Pathfinder's cast of NNPCs. If he is muscular, he needs to be "looser and well-balanced" - but the sword strikes were wonderful - like a golf follow through.
Think "combat" was choreographed animations by the devs?!
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Goblinworks Founder
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I also am not a huge fan of characters appearing to carry all of their worldy possessions with them.
This wasn't so much an issue with what was in the demo (though the guy, again, was carrying more than I would like to), but with the artwork on which the designs are being based.
Apples and Oranges. I'm on the other side of that preference as I would prefer my adventurer to have a visual backpack with torches, rope, slung bow, shovel and bedroll visible on my character. It makes me feel more connected to my character as an adventurer. GW2 has an awesome looking backpack model on their toolkit engineers.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I did think that the guy looked odd.
Maybe it's just the art style, but his posture (and maybe build) seemed strange to me.I think he was a bit blocky in build and in the face. This is a completely blind impression as I am not familiar with Pathfinder's cast of NNPCs. If he is muscular, he needs to be "looser and well-balanced" - but the sword strikes were wonderful - like a golf follow through.
Think "combat" was choreographed animations by the devs?!
I should have been clearer.... I meant that when someone swung a weapon, that they were sometimes not even particularly close to hitting their enemy.
Sometimes they would swing and the enemy would not react at all in time to the supposed strike.
I wasn't trying to pick apart how they looked swinging their weapons or anything.
But like I said, that wasn't really a focus here.
Grass looked okay. Tower being crushed was okay. Characters looked pretty good (again, except for the guy. Didn't like him).
I'm on the other side of that preference as I would prefer my adventurer to have a visual backpack with torches, rope, slung bow, shovel and bedroll visible on my character.
Which is why I suggested options.
You could equip a belt with 'extras', pants with 'extras', a chest piece with 'extras' and look like you were carrying your whole world around, while others could equip one or more without extras to get just the right amount for each person.
Maybe even have it as a toggle. Every piece of gear would have a version drawn of just the basic gear and a version drawn with extras, and then let players toggle them on or off for each piece.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I was at first very positively surprised by the video, but now I am having second thoughts.
I know that especially animations and special effects related to spells etc. is not ready yet, but I must say I had probably expected more from the 'middleware' than this.
I mean, look at the generator presented here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1473965863/sui-generis?ref=thanks wouldn't PFO be awesome to make in such a setting (especially if we could one day get to make our own modules using such tools).
I just feel that graphics, lightning, detail and physics (the stones thrown from the catapults seem to move too quick) could probably be more polished than they are at the moment.
Anyway - this might change, and we might see more of what can be done once the middleware has been announced. I am still a backer, and still hoping for the best, but seeing what people are putting out these days in terms of awesome quality graphics, and knowing that this game wont be out until 2014-15 I am fearing this will not be enough to break through and get a sustainable population of players. I hope I am wrong though.