This pic is for you Blizzard

by Mr_bartuc | 02/09/2009 06:16:36

Mr_bartuc

A member named player.1 created this image for your team:

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/5341/spellfxf.jpg

I don't like good ideas going to waste. Over this past week quite a few members have been discussing this only to be rejected by a lot of "supporters to brightness". I am getting this growing suspicious they are employees of yours.

The reasons we would like a tone down of spell effects / lighting is because they are unnaturally bright and don't blend into the game world. They don't have that "diablo touch" or feel, yet. They dominate the battle by flowing over the enemies and they are just plain too bright.

These images may also be useful to you and your team:
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/cyberg0d/1.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/cyberg0d/2.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/cyberg0d/3.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/cyberg0d/4.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/cyberg0d/5.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/cyberg0d/6.jpg

I only buy blizzard games

by Bashiok | 02/09/2009 22:19:44

Bashiok


Q u o t e:
A member named player.1 created this image for your team:

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/5341/spellfxf.jpg


Yeah, and that's cool. It was said I don't know how many times at this BlizzCon alone that we're always working against the issue of having too many effects that are too crazy and over the top going off at the same time. So yeah, it's always a potential problem. I just don't think our artists need to be drawn a schematic of how to fix it. They're paid professionals, they do this for a living.


Q u o t e:
I don't like good ideas going to waste. Over this past week quite a few members have been discussing this only to be rejected by a lot of "supporters to brightness". I am getting this growing suspicious they are employees of yours.

The reasons we would like a tone down of spell effects / lighting is because they are unnaturally bright and don't blend into the game world. They don't have that "diablo touch" or feel, yet. They dominate the battle by flowing over the enemies and they are just plain too bright.

These images may also be useful to you and your team:
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/cyberg0d/1.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/cyberg0d/2.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/cyberg0d/3.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/cyberg0d/4.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/cyberg0d/5.jpg
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd300/cyberg0d/6.jpg


They seem to indicate, in an unnecessarily blurry way, that spell effects should change depending on the environment. Which is a really odd and unnecessary direction. They also seem to indicate that Diablo games do not have bright/flashy/glowing weapons, armor, enemies, or spell effects to help differentiate things on-screen, that each environment should be a brown mess and spells are indistinguishable from the background. I can only assume they did not play Diablo II.

Truthfully whoever created those images has an entirely distorted perception of what Diablo is. Really.

But hey, thanks for the feedback. It was delivered in a very hostile way.

by Bashiok | 03/09/2009 00:01:55

Bashiok


Q u o t e:
Huh? In other words, I think Bashiok just said that "Diablo II did, in fact, have glowing weapons"... well that's just untrue. Diablo II didn't have any glowing weapons O_o Bashiok, did YOU play Diablo II? Because I did, and still do, and it barely has any flashy stuff (if you compare it to diablo 3).

I know, there were a few "unnecessary" flashy indications in Diablo II, like the poison effect that took over the entire screen.


Ah ok, fair enough, maybe not so much on weapons. A mistake. Screenshot it. ;)

There were more than a few.
http://img299.imageshack.us/i/appimagephpzr5.jpg/#q=diablo%202%20glowing%20weapons
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/Diablo-II-1.jpg
http://file043b.bebo.com/5/large/2008/07/19/19/3703920010a8371730567l.jpg

Do any of those blend in? Diablo II always used very bright garish colors to help give indicators to the players to serve the gameplay. There was nothing wrong with it, but condemning what's in one hand while hiding the other is just untruthful.


Q u o t e:
But in general it was much less flashy and noisy. Maybe that's the reason that Diablo II can have 8 players before things start to get messy, and DIablo 3 only needs 4 to make that happen.


I wholly disagree. And we limit to 4 because we recognize that even in Diablo II 8 was way too many people, that anything above 4, even in Diablo II, made a terrible mess of the game.


Q u o t e:
I'm sure that Blizzard have a bunch of awesome talented artists and animators working on that stuff. It just that things still look a little bit over the top / unnecessary and simple people like me would like to know why...


We want the game to look awesome. Skills should feel awesome. And more importantly you should be able to tell what each skill is. But I would disagree that most people are actually curious, as you are. The OP and others want to tell us that they know how to make a game better than we do, and I find that insulting.

PLEASE, be curious, ask why, give some reasoned feedback. But marking up a screenshot with red marker like it's a test and we're being graded by a teacher, it's a hostile approach as far as I'm concerned.

The skills are absolutely not final, we understand the issues with skills being too noisy, as I said, and it's something we're aware of and will keep on top of.

by Bashiok | 03/09/2009 01:32:54

Bashiok


Q u o t e:
Yes, but the garish green color for poisoned enemies was rather unnecessary. Also, saying "Well Diablo 2 had some garish colors so, therefore, any garish and/or over-the-top colors we put in D3 is justified" is not a good argument.


Quote from the OP:

"They don't have that "diablo touch" or feel, yet."

He was drawing direct comparisons to previous games, and to that, I say that we're not straying.


Q u o t e:
Plus, In none of those screen shots you linked did the effects so completely overpower the scene as we've been seeing in Diablo 2.


Ok fine, I'll go find better examples. :P Bottom line is that we all know Diablo II is commonly bright, colorful, and messy with effects. It's insincere to propose otherwise.


Q u o t e:
And, is it really good design to make every spell and effect over-the-top to convey "power" or give it an "epic" feel? Aren't there other ways to go about that than simply making very bright and garish animations?


Yes it is good design, because it's easy to then build variations, less powerful versions, or tone it back. Make everything as awesome and amazing as possible, then you work your way back if necessary to a point where it all works together. There's no real way to be completely precise with it on the first shot, so why not make things awesome?

But overall, yes IT IS awesome design to make everything feel epic. Do you want to put points into a skill and think it feels weak?


Q u o t e:
Arguing about whether or not "most" people are "curious" is pointless. Neither you nor the OP has any real statistics for how much of the D3 audience is concerned about it. What you do know for sure is that there are some people who are concerned about it.


And I think I'm just tired of stating over and over that it's a known concern. Everyone has a bad day, just give me this one as a mulligan.

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