Atmosphere and Background Scenery

[Greedalox]

I know character and armor design direction has been answered.

But what about the world we will live in?

Eye-popping color? Sparkley shimers in the air? Cartoony Building?

Or

Gritty, dark, and more realistic?

For example: More like WoW or more like Darkfall?

Or will it be something in between?

It wont really matter to me as long as the gameplay is good, I will still play. Im just more curious than anything else. Though I will admit my preference is something more along the lines of Dark Souls or Demons Souls. Something where you always feel an ominous aura or something.

Though a seperate topic, I do believe background music plays a huge part in this as well.

Thoughts? Opinions? Facts?

[Bluddwolf]

I'm hoping more for realism than cartoony. Not sure what Darkfall looks like, but I know I don;t want WoW. A Skyrimesque medieval, gloomy look would be awesome.

This makes me wonder, would the alignment of a settlement bestow upon it a certain look?

If so, then could a settlement mask its true nature, making it look warm and serene, when really it is a sinister bastion of lawful evil?

[Nikita Diira]

I am hoping for fairly realistic looking, but I need music or some kind of background noise. Also, I would love for the founding group to be able to set the music and atmosphere of PC settlements.

[Greedalox]

Nice one Bluddwolf, didnt even think about customizable settlement atmosphere.

Darkfall isnt quite as gloomy or dark as Skyrim, but it and a few other MMOs are about as close as it gets really. Dark Souls and Demons Souls are imo much darker than Skyrim. The only Darker MMOs I have seen didnt quite pull it off due to the mix of a dark fantasy setting with Anime like characters, namely Wizardy Online and Vindictus. Also Wizardy Online came off as more of a lack of color spectrum then gloomy? I think DAOC was fairly dark too.... But yes something along the lines of Skyrim would be sweet.

[AvenaOats]

Stylised perhaps helps express the art of Wayne Reynolds which I'm ok with, checking this work; which also I think helps with lowering graphical requirements also. Again all good with me.

I'd prefer less cartoony and more sombre colors, which denote a dangerous, mysterious world setting where wars and monsters push civilization onto the back foot - a more washed out world full of woes but hope flickering in the hearts of daring etc. ;)

[Being]

Reference Wayne Reynolds artwork from this website. He has a hardback collection of artwork published by Paizo.

[Being]

Personally I think the atwork used in Skyrim would be perfect, save that it is Skyrim and not the River Kingdoms. Especially since Skyrim eschews absurdly oversized weaponry.