Decloaking, some comments and congratulaions

[Spaceman Spiff]

"Bill Watterson"

BWAAAAAAHAA.

Ok. You now owe me a new keyboard. or at least clean this one up.

[quasimodo]

Again I am glad to hear someone on the inside talking about this. I have certainly not seen any the 3D games that live up the examples of say Fallout, PST or Jagged Alliance 2. Its a bit much to expect this quality of game the first time out from a small indie developer, but if they could stay in business maybe they could work up to it.

[cubgrace]

There is a thread over at rpg codex that is the example of the mentality of the gamers today. It’s a sad example of the way we are heading. Go at own risk…


http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=21274

[Saxon1974]

I think that article was intended as a joke (At least I hope).

I was thinking about the state of 3D rpg's today as far as sacrificing scope of the world and details to facilitate 3D. Im thinking that as technology continues to improve it will become easier and faster to create 3D environments. Thus, once 3D gaming gets to the point where they can create pretty much realistic looking worlds (If not already there), but cut down on the development and resource costs, where do they go from there? I would think that the next thing would turn to story content and gameplay, hopefully become something of an art again.

I hope this change is coming soon and I am not way off base, because I really need my hardcore RPG's to fill my free time

Thoughts?

[RezoApio]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the thread. Not that much of it is very new to me but I am form outside the gaming world so it is good to hear it from firsthand experience.

I think it never fully realize how I managed to leave CRPG gaming for so long after so many years enjoying it until I read all in Eschalon forum the day I stumble upon this site: there was no good RPG game coming in.

I think it is very nice to have some praise to Tom's work here because I really think it will make a new standard of game.

So let's wait for the 19th (or maybe the 20th as I am GMT+1) and I will buy the CD version and spread the word as I wish Eschalon to be also both a critics and commercial success.

And thanks again for the effort you have managed to put in this (I had also my dreams of developing my own game... but I do not even consider myself a developer )

Kisses from Paris

[Spaceman Spiff]

Again I am glad to hear someone on the inside talking about this. I have certainly not seen any the 3D games that live up the examples of say Fallout, PST or Jagged Alliance 2. Its a bit much to expect this quality of game the first time out from a small indie developer, but if they could stay in business maybe they could work up to it.

and

I was thinking about the state of 3D rpg's today as far as sacrificing scope of the world and details to facilitate 3D. Im thinking that as technology continues to improve it will become easier and faster to create 3D environments. Thus, once 3D gaming gets to the point where they can create pretty much realistic looking worlds (If not already there), but cut down on the development and resource costs, where do they go from there? I would think that the next thing would turn to story content and gameplay, hopefully become something of an art again.

Look at something like Oblivion or Fallout 3 - major "AAA" next-gen RPG productions to get an idea. Yes, the technology to produce 3D content will improve some, but I doubt it will improve to the level that is possible 2D Tile-based in terms of man-months per volume of game world/amount of gameplay time. And what improvements are made will have to counter even greater increases in detail (meaning more content to be created).

Also, because of the current economics of next-gen development, you are going to most "AAA" RPGs will appear on the Xbox 360 or PS3 or both in addition to the PC or Mac. And as a result, many of the game mechanics and controls will lean towards those which are console friendly.

So what I am hoping for are some "A" or even "B+" RPGs in terms of content and rendering tech, so that the economics of making them can better allow for things like PC-centric game mechanics, risker story telling or more cerebral game play.

Am I hopeful that will happen? yeah, hopeful. Between indies like Thomas, and developers in places like Eastern Europe (for whom the $$$ equations are very different), I hope to see the resulting games prove the traditional RPG market is viable without "AAA" content detail.

It's a funny thing how the horizon keeps moving in this business. I look back at the games that I did that are my favorites (the 2D engine games) and how when they were released the magazine reviewers were gushing about the graphics being top-notch. But just a couple years later those same magazines were saying how the graphics were 'dated' and other bad things. Did that mean the visuals displayed got worse as time went on? Of course not, they were the same - it's just that newer and shiner models had come along and that's the default reaction to change -- even though by many measures the "new" 3d visuals were *worse* that the previous 2d visuals (if you chose to look at how each pixel was utilized, and how each object or unit was displayed) -- but it doesn't matter when you're focus is on the new.

ok, enough ranting for now... I've gone off-topic