Common Complaint

[Coldin]

I've seen this one pop up a few times whenever I've reading other people's comments about DDO from other gaming sites, and it's frankly one I just don't understand. That the game has poor animations, clunky movement, bad character models, ect. Overall saying the game doesn't look as good, say compared to LOTRO, GW, or even WoW.

And from my experience, DDO has more than enough eye candy to rival any of those games. Sure...the number of animations in the game could leave a lot to be desired (more emotes please!) and some of the armor skins are pretty god-awful looking...but they're still modeled with a fair amount of detail.

So I'm wondering, does anyone understand this complaint? Could it be because just the basic graphic settings are set down too low? I think it's a valid concern when other players are walking away saying things like that.

[Yurtrus]

jealousy at its worst.. they are just ****ed off cause they spent their time and money on the wrong game ;)

[Belwaar]

jealousy at its worst.. they are just ****ed off cause they spent their time and money on the wrong game ;)

Yup. I have my computer running on the highest quality graphics and good God the game is gorgeous! :eek::D:p:D:eek:

[Kalari]

Awhile ago I did a pic vs pic comparison in the muskateer thread on my ddo girls vs my lotro girls and hands down ddo's aesthetics look far better to me. I hate the way the elves look in lotro though their hobbits have our halflings faces beat its give and take. Landscape wise id say lotros feel is a little better but not by that much. They also have waaay more landscape then we do so its easy to think more is better and better looking when its not. I dont get the clunky look though I think that characters in this game actually look more fluid. Guess its just down to personal tastes.

[lad9669]

They probably have not down loaded the High rez version or only have the Korthos part on the downloader complete both which are low rez. No one in the right mind can say wow has better graphics and LOTRO like has been said is give and take.
It was the same way on beta until the got the full download.

[Borror0]

So I'm wondering, does anyone understand this complaint?
I think I do. I have even complained about it before on these forums.

Let's be honest, the animation at low levels are just painful to watch. While the ones for 1 BAB is pretty ugly, unnatural and clunky, the one for 0 BAB is a total joke. Even a neophyte would have more class when fighting with a sword than our characters do. It's ridiculous. No one in their right mind would fighting like that, except our characters.

Other games get away with it by inserting special attacks between animations and having various animations to switch between but DDO does not do that at lower levels.

However, that might be addressed if Eladrin does implement my suggestion (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?p=2304773#post2304773) like he seemed inclined to (http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?p=2305779#post2305779) as, even at 0 BAB, a round will be of round swings which look far more natural than the current 1/2 attacks per round.

[dv8maker123]

To be honest, I think the game looks...ok, and thats it. The character models and armor skins are not all that good. And there is way to much washed out brown. It could use a bit of polish. Some of the dungeons look great, as do some of the outdoor zones, but overall, it doesn't knock the ball out of the park. And before you say its my settings, I run at full graphics on an HDMI 26 inch monitor (I run Conan on full gfx and that game looks amazing, too bad the game play is horrible).

For me the thing that differentiates this game is the play style, fast interactive dungeon crawls and a lot of different spells to use. The graphics are not the selling point. Conan, Vangaurd and EQ2 have it beat in most areas, but this game still has better combat and hey, its D&D.

[sirgog]

To be honest, I think the game looks...ok, and thats it. The character models and armor skins are not all that good. And there is way to much washed out brown. It could use a bit of polish. Some of the dungeons look great, as do some of the outdoor zones, but overall, it doesn't knock the ball out of the park. And before you say its my settings, I run at full graphics on an HDMI 26 inch monitor (I run Conan on full gfx and that game looks amazing, too bad the game play is horrible).

For me the thing that differentiates this game is the play style, fast interactive dungeon crawls and a lot of different spells to use. The graphics are not the selling point. Conan, Vangaurd and EQ2 have it beat in most areas, but this game still has better combat and hey, its D&D.

The graphics don't really start to shine, IMO, until you get to certain quests. The Harbour stuff in particular all looks the same (run thru sewer that's got a set design, run to next part of sewer, etc) except for Irestone Inlet.

Cerulean Hills and Searing Heights, on the other hand, are spectacular areas.

[Coldin]

To be honest, I think the game looks...ok, and thats it. The character models and armor skins are not all that good. And there is way to much washed out brown. It could use a bit of polish. Some of the dungeons look great, as do some of the outdoor zones, but overall, it doesn't knock the ball out of the park. And before you say its my settings, I run at full graphics on an HDMI 26 inch monitor (I run Conan on full gfx and that game looks amazing, too bad the game play is horrible).

For me the thing that differentiates this game is the play style, fast interactive dungeon crawls and a lot of different spells to use. The graphics are not the selling point. Conan, Vangaurd and EQ2 have it beat in most areas, but this game still has better combat and hey, its D&D.

See...that's where I'm just confused. I couldn't disagree more with this opinion...especially about EQ2.

[Elcardil]

See...that's where I'm just confused. I couldn't disagree more with this opinion...especially about EQ2.

I have EQ2 on near maxed out settings and it leaves this game for dead, although you need a bit of a monster rig to do that. The art direction of some of the gear in EQ2 gets very cloned though, everything seems to look too similar but with different colours, even though there are slight variations to the texture patterns and bump mapping.

This game is still quite good though, environment is good, model details are good, colours and textures are clear but subdued. Thankfully they aren't ridiculously vibrant and low detailed textures like WoW. Actually, it's more the art direction of the WoW textures than the fidelity, too cartoony for me. "It's the size of the shoulder pads that defines a man!"

With all the DX10 effects and max settings going I think DDO runs fine and I like the design of the out door areas I've seen so far. The animations are quite good with a very large variety covering each weapon type and a number of fighting styles. The only odd animation I've seen so far was a Halfling female I created, she looked like she was going to have some serious back problems when she gets older if she stays hunched over like that. :)

Having played both AoC and DDO now I'd put them on par with each other.

[Magnyr_Delorn]

Tried to get a friend hooked on DDO about 3 months ago. After running around for about 20 minutes with my level 12 monk in the Threnal 'explorer' area, his biggest contention was this:

He said he hated the fact that when you hit the enemy all that happened was that you saw a splotch of blood and damage appeared over their head. As far as the enemy was concerned, there was no discernible affect of your attack. Similarly, he disliked how my character rarely showed signs of taking damage, except for the gasp on the occasional critical hit.

[bellack]

See...that's where I'm just confused. I couldn't disagree more with this opinion...especially about EQ2.


Well I have to disagree with your disagreement :) Here is how I would list the games grapics wise (set on highest settings) 1. being the best.

1. Conan
2. Vanguard
3. EQ2
4. DDO/LOTR - Now here LOTR has better looking wilderness (well lets just face it they have an world to explore.) While the 'toons' in DDO look better for the most part. Now if you could combine the DDO Cobat with the LOTR world that would be an awsome game.
5. Fallen Earth
6. Wow

[Borror0]

Aion should be in your list, IMO. It's beautiful.

[Captain_Wizbang]

I guess it's your computer!

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos/Tandy_Model1_BootScreen_s1.jpg


I use the above PC(?) with no problems! And my Dial-up works great also! Who needs DX-10!?
All kidding aside; it would be cool to actually SEE a vorpal, or a ham-string, or being "slimed" by a cube, etc...
I guess that's next years mod!

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm299/chefricochet/5dfbe8e5.jpg?t=1252590245