Why all the nerd rage against Vanguard

No idea, you"d have to ask Brad. I do think they did a nice job on his robe though. As for the stupid look, that"s what you get when you use one base model for all the non-furry races and then deform it to suit your needs. Sometimes it comes out looking fairly good (goblins, wood elves, Mordebi) other times, not (gnomes and dwarves).

Taantric said:

That is the stupidest most ridiculous looking gnome/halfling I have ever seen.

God those textures are ugly. Just curious - did any of the original EQ art/animation team work on VG?

Click to expand...

Does anyone else think the face has a hint of Will Ferrell?

Err, it"s a Gnome, I think it looks like it"s supposed to look. What game you all think did them correctly?

xmod2 said:

xregg, can you post that shit in screenshots please.

That or link them or something.

Enough of the fucking screenshots already. jfc.

Click to expand...

Sadly, I have to agree. Every time a tiny smolder of interest forms for VG, xregg posts SS"s and that flame is quickly snuffed out. Gameplay is king and all, no doubt, but does anyone seriously think those look good? What I really don"t get is how LotRO looks far better (IMO!) and still manages to run better.

Yes, that Gnome looks ridiculous. The armor looks great, but honestly I don"t think you"ll find anyone who is going to diss work Sigil did on armor. They look top notch. This doesn"t excuse Unibody though!

Pulling out the Eve screenshot was bullshit and totally unfair. In my short stints into the Eve universe I was always in awe of how awesome the game looked.

I still think everything looks "too clean". I"m no "graphical techie", but it looks very odd to me. Very artificial. Even the ground looks clean. And it detracts from the world immensely.

The gnomes robe does look quite nice. Very detailed. But a bit too nice actually. It makes it seem as though hes never been in any sort of battle ever in his life. Its just not "believable".

Dashal said:

Err, it"s a Gnome, I think it looks like it"s supposed to look. What game you all think did them correctly?

Click to expand...

World of Warcraft and Horizons both did a good job, imo. The VG Gnome has 3 problems: too long and skinny a body, head"s a bit too big, and the eyes are too small (makes them look piggish). EQ2"s gnomes aren"t bad either, although they also suffer from the small eyes problem (although without such a huge head, it kinda works on them).

I really hope that gnome is intentionally misproportioned for comedic value. If that is a serious attempt or representative of the average gnome, then cripes...

Of all things to bitch about, pick something worth bitching about please. You realize the gnome can be customized to whatever deranged fantasy one has? Surely you know this.

Malakie Torsade said:

Sadly, I have to agree. Every time a tiny smolder of interest forms for VG, xregg posts SS"s and that flame is quickly snuffed out. Gameplay is king and all, no doubt, but does anyone seriously think those look good? What I really don"t get is how LotRO looks far better (IMO!) and still manages to run better.

Click to expand...

I"ll tell you how. It has to do with texture quality, bump mapping and design. Sure, Vanguard uses more polys on average, but most of their races are based on a single mesh, which is then deformed into various shapes, producing the various races. This well never look better than pre-made race models in my opinion, and many people with a sharp eye can even spot how each race has been changed (look at a human, then take a close look at dwarves, especially the nose and cheekbone area).

Second of all, the textures used in Vanguard are inconsistent. Some, like the armor, are excellent, and stand up to anything in LOTRO. Others, such as skin textures and many of the ones used outdoors, are either lower resolution, or have been stretched in certain areas when wrapped around an object, resulting in a less than attractive look. Also, the VG brick and stone textures used in many (not all) buildings and floors are way out of scale, and on top of that use bump mapping which makes them stand out far more than they ought to.

Which brings me to bump mapping...oh God, someone ought to shoot whoever came up with this idea. Like many games that use bump-mapping, Vanguard overdoes it and has textures popping out (many kinds of tree bark) when they ought to be fading into the background (stone walls have a tendency to do this too). Couple this with the plastic sheen on everything by default, and you have a truly horrid looking game. I might add the sheen is only a result of settings, and can be tweaked out, making the game look 3 times better with very little effort...why is it the damn default setting?!

Last but not least, design. Some things just look silly. Gnomes" heads are too big (and you can"t shrink them enough to make them look decent), dwarven beards look bizarre in motion, certain buildings don"t really fade into the area around them, but look as if they"ve been artificially placed there, with no changes in the surrounding landscape. Compare all these errors to LOTRO, which despite its lower poly count has better design, textures and use thereof, and you"ll see why many people preferring its style is no surprise.

woqqqa said:

World of Warcraft and Horizons both did a good job, imo. The VG Gnome has 3 problems: too long and skinny a body, head"s a bit too big, and the eyes are too small (makes them look piggish). EQ2"s gnomes aren"t bad either, although they also suffer from the small eyes problem (although without such a huge head, it kinda works on them).

Click to expand...

Really? Meh I hate the WoW ones, they look like kids. bald kids no less heh. Havent played Horizons though.

These Gnomes have huge heads, big ears and funky facial hair. I dont like that particular model much but overall they look good. Or well... good as in how they should look heh.

By the way, many have said it but, none of the SS"s I"ve seen really do this game justice. They"re not as bad as WoW"s but not good.

In all honesty, I"d play WoW if people would actually talk. I"ve been playing the demo on Blood Legion, and in all the time I"ve been there (7 level, I know, not long) I"ve not had ONE person talk to me.

It"d be nice if they had some mobs for groups, that way people would have a reason to group up and interact.

Sithro said:

In all honesty, I"d play WoW if people would actually talk. I"ve been playing the demo on Blood Legion, and in all the time I"ve been there (7 level, I know, not long) I"ve not had ONE person talk to me.

It"d be nice if they had some mobs for groups, that way people would have a reason to group up and interact.

Click to expand...

Have you, I don"t know, tried taking the initiative and talking to others? Level 7 you say? So in 2 hours of playing you haven"t made a new best friend? Sounds definitive.

Twobit Whore said:

Have you, I don"t know, tried taking the initiative and talking to others? Level 7 you say? So in 2 hours of playing you haven"t made a new best friend? Sounds definitive.

Click to expand...

Been playing quite a bit longer than two hours, but I"ve been mostly doing quests.

And yes, I have tried to talk to people already. For some reason, they usually run off or something. I did join a guild, but they don"t say much either. I say something, and it"s usually quiet...

It"s almost erie.

Does the game get more interactive later on? And if so, when? I"m really curious, here.

Were you grouping and chatting up with your guild at level 3 in VG? That"s about the same as being level 7 in WoW. You"d be surprised how many people talk back if you actually talk to them first.

Another thing is that you are playing the free trial. There is a limit to the number of tells you can send and recieve so as to stiffle the goldspammers who abuse the trial. That doesn"t explain the guild thing, but god, if you just joined the first random guild spam invite that you recieved.. yeah.

Yeah, I noticed I couldn"t use the /yell command. I can send and recieve tells, though.

I might buy it, though. $19 is hard to pass up.

It"s certainly worth 19.99 and a month or so of sub time to get a character to 60. You may find you like it more than you expected, or you may hate it.. but 20+15 (worst case) for 2 months of a game is a decent deal, compared to single player titles that can cost 50-60 and last you 2 weeks.

Sithro said:

Been playing quite a bit longer than two hours, but I"ve been mostly doing quests.

And yes, I have tried to talk to people already.For some reason, they usually run off or something.I did join a guild, but they don"t say much either. I say something, and it"s usually quiet...

It"s almost erie.

Does the game get more interactive later on? And if so, when? I"m really curious, here.

Click to expand...

BECAUSE THEY"VE SEEN ALL YOUR TERRIBLE FUCKING POSTS ON THIS BOARD!!

Sorry, I couldn"t resist. To me this kid is the most annoying poster I"ve seen here since noows.

Guzrog said:

BECAUSE THEY"VE SEEN ALL YOUR TERRIBLE FUCKING POSTS ON THIS BOARD!!

Sorry, I couldn"t resist. To me this kid is the most annoying poster I"ve seen here since noows.

Click to expand...

At least I"m talking about a subject, instead of mindlessly bashing people.

Sithro said:

At least I"m talking about a subject, instead of mindlessly bashing people.

Click to expand...

Everytime I see your name in a thread it just irritates me a little more each time.