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Pretty?

MetalCraze

Arcane
Joined
Jul 3, 2007
Messages
21,104
Location
Urkanistan
Kinda looks like diablo 2, only in 3d.

hopefully it won't be played like diablo 2
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Naked Ninja said:
Fair enough. But everyone playing the game is viewing it from todays modern (distorted) viewpoint, and that's just the mental impression it creates for me. Gothic. It doesn't seem to fit. Just my opinion, and not really a deal breaker.
Your point is valid, but it's one of the choices a game developer could be facing. Should we let common knowledge, no matter how incorrect, affect our design or should we do whatever the fuck we want and let [the smart] people sort it out? Considering that this is the Codex, we'll stick with latter.

We are having the same problem with the temple, btw. Whenever we post it, people say "awesome/not awesome, it's a Mayan/Aztec pyramid." It's a fucking Sumerian ziggurat.

Also fair enough. But, and again it's just my person opinion, I'd still prefer beams of light bouncing through lenses or something. Wires and plugs just say conducting electricity to me.
That's what they are for. Again, references to electricity could be found in ancient Sumer (Baghdad battery), ancient Egypt (Dendera light), and ancient Rome (can't find links but there are accounts of an early king who matched natural lightning with artificial lightning).
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Koby said:
Vault Dweller said:
Pentagram is as old as the mankind. It was found in Sumer writings dating back to 3000 BC. It was used in ancient Greece and Rome, and it was known as Solomon's (who was known for his interest in "magic", for the lack of a better word) seal in Judea.

Yeah but still... just 10 seconds in google gave me these:

http://www.ancient-symbols.com/roman_symbols.html
http://altreligion.about.com/library/gl ... ymbols.htm

Besides, if everybody else uses it doesnt mean you have to too. [/nitpicking]
We aren't using it because everyone else does (although I can think of only few recent (last 10 years) games that featured pentagrams), we are using it because it fits the setting.

Monolith said:
Looks great. But get rid of the pentagram. Don't blame us, blame the satanists and goth tards. You can't use the swastika nowadays despite it being used some thousands of years ago in a different context than Nazis used it.
If I ever make a game based on Ramayana, it will have more swastika than a neo-Nazi demonstration.
 

Vault Dweller

Commissar, Red Star Studio
Developer
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
Messages
28,024
Kingston said:
So where does one gather this magic? What is the magic anyway? Can it be stored like batteries hold energy, how does one produce it etc.
Yes, it can be stored.

m3.jpg


fastpunk said:
Pretty indeed. Love the lighting though the walls could have been a bit taller.
It's the basement of a tower. The energy feeds machines on the upper floors and the control room. Here is an old (a year old?) shot of one of the floors. The recent versions look much better, but I don't have access to them right now (I'm at work).

broken4au0.jpg
 
Joined
Nov 7, 2006
Messages
1,246
I must say I'd prefer a different kind of bulb and and something else instead of cables (like Naked Ninja said), but it's not a problem. Just do it as you like. I would like to get my hands on the AoD box soon, but keep polishing the game as long as you need it. Remember, we aren't going to tolerate aything less than awesome.
 

Naked Ninja

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 31, 2006
Messages
1,664
Location
South Africa
Your point is valid, but it's one of the choices a game developer could be facing. Should we let common knowledge, no matter how incorrect, affect our design or should we do whatever the fuck we want and let [the smart] people sort it out? Considering that this is the Codex, we'll stick with latter.

It's not a question of intelligence or common knowledge. It's emotional resonance. It doesn't matter that I know that the pentagram was used in ancient history or had a different meaning back then. When I see it, subconsciously it draws connections to every other pentagram I've ever seen, which have all been in a gothic context. So it "feels" off from the rest of the setting to me. That might be too nebulous a reason for you, but there it is.

That's what they are for. Again, references to electricity could be found in ancient Sumer (Baghdad battery), ancient Egypt (Dendera light), and ancient Rome (can't find links but there are accounts of an early king who matched natural lightning with artificial lightning).

Are they? I thought you said it was technomagic, magic powered technology. Are the wires conducting magic, or electricity? Why would magic act in exactly the same manner as electricity? Heck, even if it acted the same, why would more primative tech look the same? Look at your ancient egyptian battery. Functionally it is a battery, sure, but it doesn't look like a modern battery. It "fits". I like your battery concept there much more. Looking at it I see magical elements and elements inspired by modern technology. The wires don't do the same for me, they look only like wires.

Again, all just my opinion though. Not necessarily game breaking.
 

Elhoim

Iron Tower Studio
Developer
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
2,878
Location
San Isidro, Argentina
Personally I see the "wires" as tubes were the Magic Energy is transported. It would be nice if we could make it "flow" through them.

About the pentagram, I like how it looks. I agree with the emotional resonance gothic thing, and that at first sight it looks "off". It might be desconcerting at first, but in time the player will assimilate it, and see it as part of the game world, no matter what gothic it may seemed to be.

It's a good challenge to mix different emotional resonances, like greek, roman, gothic, modern, and try to come up with something new and original. Because on the other side, if you go to the full emotional resonance (ER) side, you get uninspired and uninteresting worlds like Titan Quest (Classical ER) or Oblivion (Medieval ER).
 

Sovard

Sovereign of CDS
Joined
Sep 2, 2004
Messages
920
Actually, if you're looking for the Seal of Solomon, it would be the Hexagram, not the Pentagram.

Anyway, if you wanted an esoteric consultant for your stuff you should have asked...
 

Naked Ninja

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 31, 2006
Messages
1,664
Location
South Africa
@ Elhoim : Well, I suppose you could look at it like that. Might I suggest making the pentagram glow blue rather than red then? Just to kind of offset the whole "you're summoning diablo!" feel?

Also, if you plan to go with the pentagram, I suggest foreshadowing it. Introduce it as a powerful mystic symbol in a fragment of documentation or talk about it in some dialogue perhaps. If you're 90% of the way into the game and all you have seen so far is artistic elements consistent with a roman/sumerian feel (from the modern viewpoint), when suddenly with no warning, bam, pentagram, it could be a bit jarring. Whereas if the player has seen or heard reference to it before it is more "ah ha!"


(Btw, if you are looking to make the magical energy flow through the pipes, I believe torque supports texture animation, but I haven't really looked at it myself.)
 

cardtrick

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,456
Location
Maine
Can you do transparency for things like this? I really like the image and I'm kind of digging the "controlled chaos" look of the huge wires, but I guess I agree that it would be better if they were clearly tubes rather than wires. Maybe you could have windows in the side of them . . . it would be really cool if you could show glowy blue stuff moving through them when activated, but even if that's not possible just having a window would indicate that something is supposed to flow within (rather than electricty being conducted through a solid wire). I did a quick Google search and couldn't really find anything like what I'm picturing in my head. The closest was this X-ray tube:

biggesttube.jpg


I'm not picturing the tubes being completely transparent like that, but only segments (or maybe just where they "plug in."

Oh, and I also agree that blue is a good idea for the pentagram (or green, or yellow, or anything but red/orange).
 

Ratatosk

Educated
Joined
Sep 2, 2007
Messages
58
Location
Finland
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Naked Ninja said:
... glow blue rather than red then? ...
Blue is nice

Also included few ideas about making the power source a perhaps more reactor-like. Placed in a recess surrounded with metal.

The way you designed juice flowing through fibreoptic cables idea seems bit far fetched. Rigid glass tubes tubes seem better idea imho...
Then again we are talking about magic here, so anything goes...
 

Elhoim

Iron Tower Studio
Developer
Joined
Oct 27, 2006
Messages
2,878
Location
San Isidro, Argentina
Yeah, I like it too. Too bad we are limited in the kind of effects we are able to use...

You seem to have good experience with 3DS, right?
 

Lumpy

Arcane
Joined
Sep 11, 2005
Messages
8,525
Doesn't the player have to pass through the room?
Anyway, is Ratatosk on the project or did he do that from scratch? In which case, wow.
 

Ratatosk

Educated
Joined
Sep 2, 2007
Messages
58
Location
Finland
Divinity: Original Sin 2
Elhoim said:
Yeah, I like it too. Too bad we are limited in the kind of effects we are able to use...
Glow is a big no-no for TGE? We are using the TGEA version of the game-engine and it holds all the eye-candy you could ever need. I thought there was somekind of free FX-upgrade pack available for TGE...

Elhoim said:
You seem to have good experience with 3DS, right?
Who, me? I´d like to think so ;) Started using 3DStudio back in the DOS-era... Those were the days...
 

Claw

Erudite
Patron
Joined
Aug 7, 2004
Messages
3,777
Location
The center of my world.
Project: Eternity Divinity: Original Sin 2
As someone who's just come back home and seen the last image first, I like the original orange one better.

Also, to me a pentagram in a game means magic, just that. I feel sufficiently detached from any "real" meaning to not care about it.
 

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