2/16/2004 the-dark-one asks…
That large spinning thing over the new valley on Caul … could something be done about it? It causes MASSIVE screen lag, and my computer, while maybe not being the best, isn’t anything to laugh at.I’ve tried it on a p4 2.6 w/ 512 ddr and a nVidia 5200 128ddr AND on a 2.8 HT w/ 1g ddr w/ a nVidia 5600 256 card… AND on a dual p3 1ghz with a nVidia 4600 128ddr
On all machines as soon as I reach the valley, and look towards (which is hard not to do) that large spinning thing, massive screen latency is the result. I /fps and saw my framerate plummet.. oddly enough, the p3 held out better than the other two.
And no, I’m not playing with anti-alaising or any other eye candy on…
I mean, its a really cool piece of art and all guys, but dear god.. its unplayable out there!
Scenario, Lead Artist answers…
We are currently looking for ways to improve performance in the central region of the Singularity Caul.One of those ways may very well indeed result in the removal of the Virindi Construct, but there are a few other options we are exploring before we have to consider removing a point of interest (such as reducing the amount of particle effects that appear in the central region).
No promises on what will happen, or when it will happen, but we are looking into it
2/16/2004 DirtySyko asks… Hats and Hair
You know when your character has long hair, and you put a hat on, how it makes your hair look short? Even on girls it makes them look like they have butch hair cuts. I think it looks pretty stupid.Well I think they should just make it so your hair sticks out of the hat, so you can tell the char has long hair even with a helmet or hat on. It would look so much better. I have long hair in real life and I always wearing a stocking cap… but I don’t bunch my hair up inside of my stocking cap so it looks like I don’t have any 😛
Any thoughts about this, just post
Scenario , Lead Artist answers…
While ideally, something like this would be the best option, it is not currently something we can do.As it is now, when you equip a piece of headwear, it takes the object you are using for your head, and replaces it with a new object. This rule applies to all our armors. We have no way of knowing if you are running around with the short cut hair style object, or a long ponytail object.
2/17/2004 Trai asks… Hats and Hair, pt 2
How is it possible that you can reveal the face of the characters through or between armor but not the head/hair? I think that’s the quibble which everyone is getting hung on. It’s obviously possible for you to do semi-transparent to tranparent overlays in some sections of the avatar.. yet not others?Scenario , Lead Artist answers…
Facial features are built in as part of the model. There is a strip for the eyes, nose and mouth.
Scenario , Lead Artist answers…
As I said before, we could do that, but we have no way of knowing what head type you are using, since the head type you select at character creation is itself an object replacement.
2/17/2004 Raylin asks… Hats and Hair, pt 4
If the system has no way of knowing which head you chose, then how does it keep the color correct on what hair it does show? Why, when I wear a hooded robe, is my face still the same face? Wasn;t the head object replaced with one with a hood on it?Scenario , Lead Artist answers…
Textures and colors are recorded in your avatar’s clothing file. It knows what textures and palettes are supposed to stay the same. Doing stuff with the objects that compose your body post creation is difficult.
Your clothing file knows what to go back to when a piece of armor or clothing is unequipped and that is about it, it doesn’t know how to change that base to something new. Likewise, it doesn’t know to think “Oh! Hey! She just put on a crown, and she has long hair, so I better use the long hair version”.
It just knows that a change is occuring from one object to another.
And there is currently no system in place to let your avatar know what head type you are using and determine what head object to use for headware.
That way everyone would have the same bald head underneath but when they select (or selected in the past) a certain hair type, they selected hair texture. Same as they selected the skin texture when they selected skin color.
Not that it’s very important to me, just one of those little oddities of AC that never made sense.
Scenario , Lead Artist answers…
The hair would need a 3d representation. A texture cannot create polygons, or sculpt a buzz cut. And in order to make that representation, we would ned to make a new object.
2/18/2004 [url=http://forums.ac.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?&postid=27500#post27500]ttusher asks… Hats and Hair, pt 6
How about adding wigs to the game? Make them like helms AC 0 – but you could make different hairstyles, lengths, etc. The could also be dyable…hehe dye failure on hair would be a hoot!
[url=http://forums.ac.turbinegames.com/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=3]Scenario , Lead Artist answers…
Wigs are the quickest and easiest solution for those who want to be able to style their hair. They do not accomplish the hopes, dreams and desires of many of those who have voiced opinions and ideas in this thread, but they are feasible, providing the content calls for it
2/17/2004 Tribal-Bob asks…
Question about the engine update and how it affects avatar appearenceI had a quick question. At char. creation for AC1 you all know that we can choose hair colour, hair style, and then the coup de grace, eyes, a nose and a mouth, in any combo.
Well in AC2, char creation is select a face… skin colour, hair colour, etc.
When the upgrade comes to AC1, will our faces be replaced by generic faces, or will we keep our unique features. I mean, are you modifying the new engine to support the detailed char creation that AC1’s engine had, or what?
Scenario , Lead Artist answers…
You don’t need to worry. With the updates to the visuals of AC1, you will still have the same character creation options that you have currently.
2/17/2004 phitch asks…
I’m not saying that Knorr will be open…So the new expansion will indeed have new land mass…
Okay I’m working on a supposition here but, after going over everything this patch, it seems like Turbine is leaking expansion pack hints into the game. So, why do I say this, well the easiest is that Asheron himself is clearing up the lands and making them free of the Olthoi.
“Feeling he was no longer needed here, Asheron returned to his ancestral home on the island of Knorr in the hopes of finding some way to free it-and the rest of Auberean-from the plague of the Olthoi.”
Go go Asheron, make the land free for us.
Scenario , Lead Artist answers…
I doubt there is much in the line of green pastures outside of Ireth LasselOlthoi-ridden fields of decay, sure, but green pastures?
2/17/2004 Komaru asks…
What’s with the dot?There is a dot on the back of all amuli the color of what I believe is the arms and belt. Please remove this dot.
Scenario , Lead Artist answers…
That one pixel is likely assigned to a different region than the rest of the rivets. I cannot say for certain without looking into the palettes (unfortunately, I am at home right now).Fixing it would require redoing the palettes for every single color amuli can appear in.
If I do that, I might as well just upgrade the textures while I am at it. And, that is actually something I am looking to get done when I have time to do so
2/18/2004 Jaramar asks…
Heaumes (and sorta armets)
Well, I’ve heard lots of people complaining about the current look of the armet (even if it does look like an armet should) and I personally can understand this as I have the same feeling heaume wise. (Love my old cheese grater.) Now, at least for the heaume the old looks are still in there so I was wondering if there could be an option like this client side (forgive my cheap radio button attempt)Heaume:
O – Default Looks (Like now, new ones look like the new type, old ones look like the old type.)
O – New Looks
* – Old LooksThe same thing could be done with armets as well. I am not suggesting we do this with all clothing as it would be a pain, just the stuff that there are a good amount of people unhappy with.
(Note it should default to default and not old. Just showing what my option would look like.)
Scenario , Lead Artist answers…
That kind of option is not currently feasible considering the way our system works.It is an interesting suggestion, but I would imagine implementing something like it would make our engineers cry, heh.
2/21/2004Televangelist asks…
Why is ultra-rare Gikar’s Dream not as good as Staff of Coercion? The one that’s a relatively easy high-level quest is 24-32 Bludgeoning. The other, super-rare one is 12.55 – 25, Bludgeoning.First, it kinda bothers me that the Caul trophies using the same elements as already-created quest weapons — since they’re trophies in the same level-range, why be redundant when there are already quests for nearly identical items? Why not make Gikar’s Dream a cold staff, or something like that, an element that staff doesn’t have a quest weapon for yet?
The big thing, though… why is Gikar’s Dream not as good as Staff of Coercion? Gikar’s Dream is infinitely harder to get.
Scenario , Lead Artist answers…
Compare the two in combat. You may find Gikar’s Dream has a few tricks up its sleeve.
2/21/2004 AlphaSwift asks…
Feb Patch delay means March is delayed?If I remember correctly, the January patch was late so the February patch was going to be happening early. Now , for a number of reasons, February is late.
So…..is Turbine going to try and bring the March patch early?
srand, Producer answers…
At this point, the AC Live team is on schedule for the March update. It may be that we will need to push the March update back for one reason or another — delays can and do happen — but the delay in February was primarily caused by a scheduling conflict with the Zone and did not significantly affect our development cycle for March.
