New Vanguard Screenshots

[Zefah]

The character models look very spooky. Why do they look so soulless?

The armor looks fantastic, but where is the variety? This is the same shit we've been seeing for months. You took a the HUGE sacrifice of going with shitty unibody models so you can have thousands of unique armor graphics, right? Where are they? I see like 5 unique armor graphics in all of those screenshots (not including color variation).

The outdoor environments look good for the most part, but do you have any tree models besides the really tall tree? Are there going to be any forests that actually look like forests with a canopy and such?

[Ham n Cheese]

They preach unibody is to allow more armor options, but it all looks the same except a few color changes and patterns.

[Salizar]

I think the reason they look so damned weird, is the fact that all the heads are all facing the exact same direction, in every shot....
Wow really set the bar on this with their head movements and idol animations.
Sorry can't help compare there...
The armor looks nice... but I can't get over the weird head stuff...

[holymight]

Originally Posted by Ham n Cheese

They preach unibody is to allow more armor options, but it all looks the same except a few color changes and patterns.

More color changes and patterns is what they were always advocating? They never said there will be more armor models, just textures. After all, how many models do you need for a robe or a chest piece? Most of the work is done with textures.

[Kaxmax]

Originally Posted by holymight

More color changes and patterns is what they were always advocating? They never said there will be more armor models, just textures. After all, how many models do you need for a robe or a chest piece? Most of the work is done with textures.

If all they're doing is re-texturing existing models, how exactly is that an advantage of the Unibody system? You could do the exact same thing in a unique model system, hell it's what WoW does for a lot of it's green armor.

[xmod2]

Originally Posted by Kaxmax

If all they're doing is re-texturing existing models, how exactly is that an advantage of the Unibody system? You could do the exact same thing in a unique model system, hell it's what WoW does for a lot of it's green armor.

Have you seen the texturing done in game so far? It's like they're doing a public service giving jobs to people with CP.

Unibody + single armor model + chroma key == MILLIONS OF ARMOR POSSIBILITIES!

[holymight]

Originally Posted by Kaxmax

If all they're doing is re-texturing existing models, how exactly is that an advantage of the Unibody system? You could do the exact same thing in a unique model system, hell it's what WoW does for a lot of it's green armor.

Because with unique models they would have to recreate the textures twice for every race? So in vanguards case a hell of a lot. The only models that would be an issue are things like helms and shoulders. Of course, this does allow them to add models easily to the game but there really doesn't need to be more than a dozen or so models for every armor type.

Edit: Of course with helmets they will have the same problem they avoided with the unibody system in that they will have to create a few models for every helm to fit all the different heads.

[Neric]

Originally Posted by Salizar

I think the reason they look so damned weird, is the fact that all the heads are all facing the exact same direction, in every shot....

As I said before, I think it's the eyes. They are staring into nowhere, actually some are staring right into the sky. On top of that they all got zero facial expressions almost like they were on drugs.

[Digits]

I guess that's a armor texture counting for the 'mass of armor' that was hyped up, but they need need more templates available to the playerbase. With that said there are 'many more armor models in the pipeline' as of...two weeks ago I think.

I personally do like the look of Vanguard models, aside from sharp hair and the majority of elves. I actually want to play a barbarian with their fat heads. If they could introduce a way to make limbs stocky or lithe it would probably solve most of their unibody problems.

[Lourdin]

I can't help but thinking that the characters are posing from some late 80's early 90's album covers. where they are just looking off in the distance trying to look cool but not really making it happen.

[Kaxmax]

Originally Posted by holymight

Because with unique models they would have to recreate the textures twice for every race? So in vanguards case a hell of a lot. The only models that would be an issue are things like helms and shoulders. Of course, this does allow them to add models easily to the game but there really doesn't need to be more than a dozen or so models for every armor type.

Edit: Of course with helmets they will have the same problem they avoided with the unibody system in that they will have to create a few models for every helm to fit all the different heads.

Err, no. For the vast majority of races the textures could be stretched or shrunk. Worst case they would have to create a large/small set of textures for the armor.

Either way, if the whole point of unibody was to create a few armor sets with a lot of textures, I think they made the wrong decision.

[Lenaldo]

The armor looks amazing. Really havn't seen anything like it in any other mmorpg. It feels "3-d" to me and defintely has a good mix between realism and style.

The models dont bother me too much. The eyes defintely look akward, but it could just be the difference between screenshots and live motion.

[Ham n Cheese]

Holymight what the hell are you on? There is no reason (other than being lazy) in the world to go unibody is all you are doing is applying new textures to a same armor graphic. It's so you could make more unique and have different types of armor but have to make minimal changes to get it to fit each race. If everything is going to look the same and just change textures then I would like to hear, hopefuly from Brad.

[Soygen]

Originally Posted by Lourdin

I can't help but thinking that the characters are posing from some late 80's early 90's album covers. where they are just looking off in the distance trying to look cool but not really making it happen.

Hah, it really does look like that.

I don't know. I don't really like the models, but I just don't care nearly as much as a lot of you guys do. The game looks "ok". Not great, not horrible. I doubt I'll play it, but I don't really see the "this is the worst texture in the history of textures" point of view.

[holymight]

Originally Posted by Ham n Cheese

here is no reason (other than being lazy) in the world to go unibody is all you are doing is applying new textures to a same armor graphic.

You cannot just apply textures to models and expect them to look good. I am sure they would have had much more variety in EQ2 if that was the case. Wouldn't have taken Blizzard so damn long to catch up with the armor graphics either if they could just pump out a texture.

Frankly, I would rather they rely on textures and not geometry to define armor. Better performance that way. And really, how many different robe shapes do you want? There are just so many you can make before they start to look the same. I can see having more models for shoulders, helms, boots, and bracers, but robes, legs, chests, arms, etc. don't need many models at all. Textures do just fine.