Can we get some new art?

[G_Lich]

Bastion is using a 6 year old model completely unchanged - major Boooo. Really shows where priorities are and it isn't on making the game look cool.

I'm not talking about turning DDO into WOW, please don't. Just maybe get one or two more artists on staff devoted to improving the looks of the gear we so desperately want.

I could gripe all day about the pros and cons of art in game but i'll let the forum junkies leave examples on this discussion.

I'll start:

There are only 3 Heavy Repeater Model types in the game, one of which is a Great Crossbow, and to "mix it up" a crossbow was simply slapdashed with flat black and neon yellow for variety, looks unprofessional.

The new U14 armor types came with nice looks on them, a step in the right direction, but they still all look kitbashed from the same old junk.

Any other complaints about art style remaining bland?

[Zorth]

This game needs more new ideas and more fluff. This game needs to stop relying on the DDO store and give more power to the Character to earn. Easy buttons do not keep players playing, it just makes a quick buck and then the player is no longer interested, quick satisfaction holds nothing to earning something. I would rather earn the right to have something rather than beg for it. ( The DDO store is for beggars and reduces the fun of the game over all).

Fluff meaning, show more gear, instead of armor, and helmets/goggles.

Armor kits are self defeating. Worked then, not now. Status quo of Armor kits is yuck and we feal the need for more so get rid of them.
Show everything, gloves, cloak, boots, belt, necklace, etc. ( This gets rid of Armor kits ).

Give us a reason to buy hair cuts. All of them are stupid looking in the first place, Purge the current hair cuts ( we hate them), and make new ones and let us see them before we buy them.

Stuff like this is needed before the game can continue.

When this game went Ftp years ago and adopted the, "DDO Store", it was to save the game from being shelved. (It is my opinion that this game was not making enough money to keep itself worth a game so the DDO store was introduced and it worked. It worked because it was a GOLDEN AGE FOR this type of gaming, but now that Age is over and so now that the game is saved. I think it needs to go back to its roots and stop concentrating on the, "DDO Store", and concentrate more on getting rid of BUGS and keeping the game full of EARNED rewards and such and stop with the easy buttons.

p.s. How come the DDO Store has less bugs then the rest of the game, If I held a feather in my left hand for comparison to DDO store bugs and a 5 ton boulder in my Right hand for comparison to Game bugs, I would show the Dev's this is what is going on right now! The Feather in my left hand for some reason gets more attention and is not allowed to be a boulder, while the Boulder in my Right hand was once a Feather when the game was first made and is left to grow into a Mountain, (Starved), While the Feather is (fead) left to just be a Feather.



Just my Thoughts, thanks.

[Fefnir_2011]

The new U14 armor types came with nice looks on them, a step in the right direction, but they still all look kitbashed from the same old junk.

A guildie pulled the Whisperchain(that or the Shadowmail) today and immediately cringed. The thing looks awful, as it's 1/2 Deneith Heavy Chain and 1/2 some lootgen half plate I've seen before. Seriously? You couldn't reuse something else that's seen less and is way cooler, like Full Plate of the Defender, Frozen Plate, Vambraces of Inner Light, or Scales of Surety?

Also, some textures really look dated next to newer areas like House Cannith or even Carnival. The difference between the Orchard of the Macabre and House Cannith Manufactury is particularly startling. I really hope when we re-visit Gianthold they remodel some of it, just because it's clear how much better the art team has become since the beginning of the game.

[Memnir]

How a game that has had amazing environments since day one has continued to have such fecal-splashed gear for just as long has always puzzled me. True, there are a sprinkling of good looking items... but those are the exception when they should very much be the rule. Even if they don't want to admit it - all gamers are Fashion Hos... and DDO is a poor John.

[countfitz]

/signed.

Especially to cosmetic gear. While I'm okay with crappy lootgen and even named stuff, the cosmetics should be unique and AWESOME, but they're just the same stuff with some spikes added, or taken off, or colors changed. Each should be unique and amazing, especially if we're paying for it (or expected to want to buy it).

[G_Lich]

I'll say this, some of the new art looks great, Terrorweb Chitin (K'eye-tin, bug exoskeleton), Drow weapons (that was an easy free pass considering they're flat black in lore), Some but not all of the new CITW weapons. The problem is we're expecting new basic stuff not just named stuff. Almost every single male hairstyle looks like a throwback to the 80's fitness tapes and there's only something like 10, why not 20? Armor kits mostly look horrible with a few nice examples (which is why you only see the same armor kit over and over again). Neon Yellow and red? Good call there... All the 1 versions of armor kits are boring, if I wanted to see a texture only skin and not some armor I'd time travel back to 1997 and play some Quake.

If on the off chance a Dev is reading this - Please PM me when Turbine is hiring an artist for this position and I'll be first in line with my FiendFolio - Day 1 Project 1 will be doubling the number of and models for each type of base lootgen item.

I know there has to be client size restrictions and technical limitations but this, for me at least, would be worth it - visual variety is a good thing in a purposefully brown world (yes DDO doesn't beat us over the head with a rainbow bat, just sprinkles some rainbows in there).

And YES to showing more gear, like gloves, boots. I'm surprised we can't show cloaks but that may be a design decision (guildwars is a good example of everyone running around with capes, looked kinda silly)

Don't get me started on the main hall in partycrashers - DDO has an odd fascination with throwing a basic photoshop bevel on something and calling it done. EDIT: (Partycrashers leading up to the main hall is still very fun - Just needed to clarify that the end room makes me cringe, bad lighting, bad texture repetition, borders, waaay overdone bump maps)

I'll be adding more rant later. I might organize this into a list at some point if there isn't something already out there. There is an official "Known Issues" list, but it'd be nice to view an unofficial "Known Ugly" list.

[Ginarrbrik]

/signed

[G_Lich]

Also,

Eberron shrines need a major update - Bad UV Map, bad bump map - yes they're old and giantish but art style =/= poor craftsmanship, don't try to sell it that way. Shrines are a major icon of DDO.

Speaking of shrines - get them off the toilet rolls - and don't kitbash up a toilet - It wasn't even cute for some cheap laughs, they are so cheap it ruins the laugh. The roleplayer in me feels offended that shrines are being defiled as a TP roll. Just block up some roman toilets with holes in them and go for realism, the bathroom joke will still work. Rushmore's mansion doesn't have giants so why is there a giant furnace/sealsocket toilet there, it's just dumb, not clever. I'm sorry I can't put that any more intelligently.

[Galeria]

Agree with Mem. Environments are beautiful, armor and weapons are seriously weak.

I'd buy cosmetic kits if there were any I liked. I seriously would. But I play female characters and I'm not a butt-staring dude. But we won't go there again...

[Zorth]

How a game that has had amazing environments since day one has continued to have such fecal-splashed gear for just as long has always puzzled me. True, there are a sprinkling of good looking items... but those are the exception when they should very much be the rule. Even if they don't want to admit it - all gamers are Fashion Hos... and DDO is a poor John.

Spot on!

Yes this game does have amazing environemntals effects and affects, but the gear that we can see is mainly, just armor ( The game has us by the BALLS on this because it is just armor) and has a conflict of interest. I think I speak for all of us that The Dev's make good armor look stupid on purpose to help the DDO store and its agenda.

We are not in control of how we look at the moment and to have one thing set our Entire look for the most part, being armor, is in need of reform to help the game get more players and more money flowing.

There is a method here that could work, VIPs* get all gear Graphics. Premiums get X amount and must buy the rest and First Timers to the game get just one.

*What I was refering to in my main post,but VIPs get full access to be able to customize a look based on gear and such, etc, etc.

This way the Store wins and so do the Players,

I cannot Deny it that the Store is our god!

[gphysalis]

The Underdark is really nice!

The character models are old, plz update

[Zorth]

Right it is just Templates from previous artwork, just that it is tweaked a bit and we are not amused.

We want to see fresh Graphics that are not rehashed to try and trick us into thinking it is new stuff, when really we know.

Ya we know,

Right that is what I said, We are not buying into same old looking Graphics that The Game just puts a BiG Red bow on to make us think it is new, when really it is the same looking, but cool, stuff

It is cool looking, but old looking at the same time.

[G_Lich]

Along the same line of taking old and making new... The hag is great and reskin for names are also as great, but those woodwoads aren't fooling anyone, it's a giant with bark skin. I c wut you did ther.

Really items are still my priority 1, shrines 2, all else later.