"release" 1.0 and no unique 3d arts?

To the guys bitching about d3... I do think it has some great design and art. In fact if you take the art style away, which is up to taste, you see it is far beyond PoE. I prefer the PoE style too, but I also wish that PoE had some of the elements d3 has. For awhile I've been thinking about finishing/ making this big post:

"

Path of Exile 2.0 or Path of Exile 2?

What would you want to see in the game now asap and what would you like to see different or changed if Path of Exile had a successor in the making.

"

Example of a Path of Exile 2 feature:

The PoE world really does feel squared off, compared to Diablo 3. In diablo 3 outdoor designs have a fixed or slightly randomized lay-out with, fixed features and also random elements across this layout. This allows for a very natural feel to the world, whereas PoE seems to generate everything in limited squares. The squares can be randomly distributed and fitted together, but it lacks the natural flow otherwise created.

An example of this is how the jungle in PoE feels confined and in some scenario's not different at all from caves, even the beaches follow this. Old school players might think of old sim city or red alert games. The two notable areas to break this rule are the stairs leading up to the piety portal and the Piety arena itself. I guess here multiple squares are used for a single feature (corps pile center or a piece of the stairs). A nice break where really multiple squares combine to an unique lay out is the act 3 town. Really only act 3 shows features where design seems to have crossed multiple squares, whereas before that it pretty much feels like 1 design per square which has to fit/ connect to the other ones.

Spoiler

I used my crude paint skills to "visualize" my words. Also don;t forget the background scenery in D3, which is absent in PoE. It is a great tool to add scale to your world or to add depth/ immersion.

More on topic: There is a lot of new textures and art added in the form of monsters and new areas, but I do slightly agree that adding new 3d models in a relative "big" bundle to the PoE 1.0 would feel right and enrich the release version. Just playing with the psyche of the customer... or something like: "all GGG unqiues etc. art finished"?

It is rather limited compared to all other changes, but you could compare it to a sc2 expansion. RTS expansion always sell to me (so for me) because of the new units and tactics that evolve from that. The story/ mission and the reworked bnet which probably took far more work are not the sale points. Hence more unique 3d art, would be a great seller for the PoE market/ community.

"

Ozgwald wrote:

I do think it has some great design and art

"

Snorkle_uk wrote:

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (I suppose).


Taken from a 2000 game:

I dont think everything about D3 is far beyond PoE. There is truth in what Ozgwald says thought. The actual models and textures in PoE are far more detailed, the use of surface maps etc is technically superior to what D3 is doing in terms of fidelity.

But what D3 has is an overall polish where nothing sticks out to the eye at a glance, theres a uniformity in colour, layouts etc that doesnt jar the casual eye, its got that professionalism about it when it all comes together, same with Tl2. Also as said, some of the maps are a little squared off in PoE, theres not a lot of individuality to some places that breaks down the look of a terrain generator and starts to make it feel like distinct, cinematic areas.

But when you scratch D3 a little deeper flaws do start to come up, those character models look awful in the screen shots, low res textures, the light falls horribly on them, awful art style. They obviously got close to release without even designing the orange items, thats why they had to rethink them so early in and theyre mostly just reskinned models from the existing armour progressions for each class. A lot of them are very amateur looking up close, just sloppy and rushed crap. D3 like PoE I think suffers from a lack of expansiveness too, areas didnt feel quite so griddy but they felt small, unnatural and game board like, rather than part of a world, maybe even more so than PoE in a lot of places.


D3 has a uniformity and polish that leaves PoE feeling rough and incomplete, and it is incomplete. But PoE has a lot crisper visuals, with the new helmets we are starting to see a far more sophisticated art style emerging, the way the engine renders the graphics has way more realism and I think by this time next year itll look next gen along side D3, Tl2 etc.

Of course then the new Dragon Age game will drop and make them all look like 90s throwbacks.

Yeah again I am not clapping for the art style and the choice how to portrait the armour is bad, but if you consider that each item will carry a tier art individual to the class, which d3 does that is quite brilliant (which is only possible because pretty much all classes need the same gear, which sucks again). From what I take from Reinhart his reply he didn't read at all what I wrote or fails to comprehend it.

Another thing I could mention is the art of the spells. I am not talking about the grandeur, but how the majority of spells are very stylized and befitting each class in diablo 3. From fire to poison the spells are very witchdoctor like, with elements of voodoo masks and animals through them. Similar the mage has shiny balls and flashy beams to throw around and the melee styles between barbarian and monk are very distinct.

If we take PoE than lightning strike (melee) ice shot (ranger) and fireball (mage) could all originate from the same mage guy if we didn't know better. Not that what PoE has is bad, I like it, but between the two the detail in d3 deserves some credit.

Some melee executions or spells go from 1 sequence into another, thus unlike PoE where you will always swing the same way the 2nd swing will come from a different direction, the follow up hit could go from a punch to the face to an uppercut. In d3 arc would be continuous but the cast speed or hit speed could be just the same. If you release the button it simply stops. In PoE you keep casting arc over and over (btw one of the more nicest poe skills, give it some luv GGG). Making a choice that is like a channeling animation, that you can cut off allows you to make a 10 sec animation which with fast past gaming wouldn't feel repetitive, not compared to the other extreme which is cleave.

If there is to be a path of exile 2 I would love if they could give attention to this sequencing and making sure there is variation in cleaving. (Do note that GGG somewhat has variation between the way some melee skills work (mainly default attack... wtf :'( ) between characters. I guess the fact that each character has its own animations and each item has to be tailored to each character, gives it more detail and things look better, but on the other hand it severely restricts what can be done and items, skills etc. it all takes far more time, which probably means a loss of detail also. From an old dev post I remember that if they would redo it, they would opt to do the characters differently ("WoW/ MMO style in basis" (NOT ART STYLE!!!).

"

Ozgwald wrote:

From what I take from Reinhart his reply he didn't read at all what I wrote or fails to comprehend it.

To be fair you didn't write much. So what is your actual point again? You start by saying:

"

Ozgwald wrote:

In fact if you take the art style away, which is up to taste, you see it is far beyond PoE.

and then nothing ... to clarify your opinion.

"

Snorkle_uk wrote:

D3 like PoE I think suffers from a lack of expansiveness too, areas didnt feel quite so griddy but they felt small, unnatural and game board like, rather than part of a world, maybe even more so than PoE in a lot of places.

A good example for what you are describing is Neverwinter Nights. The game gave the player the possibility to make your own D&D game as a true gamemaster.

Hell even Dragon Age Origins has a bit of the same problem. But then again you expect way too much out of a rpg which is not open world ... Not everything is Elder Scrolls or Fallout.