Bring KR Client Graphics back

[spitfire12]

This SA client sucks ass. **** ass pixelated client. yes the UI is better, legacy art container and art. great. just keep the KR graphic base. it was awesome looking. this heavy pixled **** is fugly. no way can go back to 2d.... having 500 spells lined up for click... the UI spoils you.

 

[Pinco]

the KR art were really bad to me... at least the 2d client arts has a realistic form...

for the pixelated question I suggest you to fix your zoom...

 

[Fink]

KR graphics please. Maybe an option?

At least give us high resolution back.

 

[Madrid]

I'm with Spitefire12 and Fink all the way. There is nothing more I would like to see happen in the game than some improvment and forward progress as far as higher resolution graphics are concerned.

 

[Dermott of LS]

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At the very least the option to use them if we desire. It'd be a LOT easier to do that than updating (again) the graphics from scratch.

I've been asking for it since the EC was in closed Beta

 

[spitfire12]

why the hell did they make SA client low res graphics? they're total ****.

 

[Dermott of LS]

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They tried to appeal to the Legacy Client users both in terms of aesthetics (style) and in terms of technology (lower system specs).

In the end, they ended up with what you always end up with compromise, the attempt to make two opposing sides happy and only making them both UNHAPPY.

Still spitfire, the language isn't necessary to get your point across, and I doubt you'll have many people argue with you on the general quality of the EC artwork (especially here).

Quite frankly, the 2d artwork as it is was not meant to go beyond the 640x480 native resolution. The current way of having done things was simply the quickest way for them to "solve the problem". At the very least, they should have kept in KR graphics as an option and swapped the default to Legacy with the toggle to go to KR graphics (and higher resolution).

 

[lucitus]

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They tried to appeal to the Legacy Client users both in terms of aesthetics (style) and in terms of technology (lower system specs).

In the end, they ended up with what you always end up with compromise, the attempt to make two opposing sides happy and only making them both UNHAPPY.

Still spitfire, the language isn't necessary to get your point across, and I doubt you'll have many people argue with you on the general quality of the EC artwork (especially here).

Quite frankly, the 2d artwork as it is was not meant to go beyond the 640x480 native resolution. The current way of having done things was simply the quickest way for them to "solve the problem". At the very least, they should have kept in KR graphics as an option and swapped the default to Legacy with the toggle to go to KR graphics (and higher resolution).

You are absolutly right! Introducing this old art also in the KR client was a epic fail!

The problem is nobody will switch because of that, but if you have different graphics you can say yes i switch and say i like the KR graphics or not, but not both. We old KR players dindt like it and are unhappy also new players dont want this crap and old 2d players are asking correctly why are the characters art different and why i have to bought a new pc for that?

I hope they will bring high res art in the future, maybe also as a booster pack

 

[Madrid]

I hope they will bring high res art in the future, maybe also as a booster pack

Now that I would fork over some money for! It's really #1 on my list...the game could look so much better than it currently does!

 

[lucitus]

My heart cries every day if i see this wonderfull promo screenies.

But they tried it! This could be the future, sad that it is not. This would be a real nice game, and then pirates ohh dreams

 

[Hildebrand]

What did they do again? I forgot. They outsourced the 2d art to someone that didn't understand the style of the 2d (or the Ultima universe for that matter), therefore we got some totally different art? Paperdoll as an example, dragons as another.
Would it be safe to say that if the KR art looked just like the 2d art but hi-res (or whatever), then people would not have criticized KR as badly?

 

[lucitus]

What did they do again? I forgot. They outsourced the 2d art to someone that didn't understand the style of the 2d (or the Ultima universe for that matter), therefore we got some totally different art? Paperdoll as an example, dragons as another.
Would it be safe to say that if the KR art looked just like the 2d art but hi-res (or whatever), then people would not have criticized KR as badly?

Ahh noo i would say ppl are not critizing KR because of its graphics, also in the earlier states, people critize KR because of its bugs, especially stability and functionality.

When i first logged in with KR open beta, i was very suprised it looked and feeled nice the art of the heats, the clothes, the colors, the world and the enviroment fantastic. But the stability was bad and the performance not the best.

I think many of you can't remeber there was a small timeframe between the holidays and before they changed the performance short after KR offical release, when KR had its best state, the performance wasnt soo good, but it was stable and looks very nice and sharp, with weather effects, sun and snow. After that the Dev team was fired and they brougth out the last unfinished not tested patch which destroyed the whole game feeling

 

[Dermott of LS]

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we got some totally different art?

Somewhat, yes. a LOT of equipment artwork (armor, weapons, etc) was quite different than the original versions (Like war hammers, mauls, etc) , and in some cases had pieces that looked to be switched (ringmail leggings and either studded or leather leggings for a pair that was swapped).

After (at the time) 9+ years of familiaroty, people were annoyed at the new items.

Secondly several items had their perspective FIXED (fountains, dye tubs, etc), but again, familiarity trumped correctness.

Finally a lot of KR artwork, all that was really needed was a "cleanup" pass. Much of it got a LOT clearer as the Patchurdays came in KR so that in the end, there wasn't really all that much left that needed to be retweaked.

Of course was also post after post after post of outdated information, misinformation, and outright lies on the boards about the KR client.

Finally, the move and the change in dev teams delayed any further work on the KR client and ultimately led to the EC.

 

[lucitus]

But i would say the EC is only a placeholder.

And yes with the change of the dev team i would say the politics regarding this client is the same, ignoring until it is over.

I have never seen this in anyother game, a 1 years public beta and a development stop in the middle of that? No this is UO !

 

[Fink]

But i would say the EC is only a placeholder.

Placeholder art all too often makes its way into production.

This decision is made by people outside the art department, who consider it "good enough" not to pay for the finished job. It's a financial decision, which always overrides any artistic assessment. Any decent art department will know this and contribute unpaid hours on particular pieces they wish to see included in their best form. And in turn any good accounts department knows this and banks on it to get the job done cheaply.

The general rule is it takes 10% of the time to get a job 90% done, and 90% of the time to finish that last 10%. Of course, the graphics as an overall task isn't 90% done. Every art asset is at least 10% incomplete. Unfortunately that last ten percent is what separates professional quality from amateur.

In the case of the EC, the decisions seem to be made in some arbitrary fashion completely removed from this dichotomy of quality vs money. They seemed to have sacrificed both, burning lots of money on decent art only to throw it away. The upshot is the EC isn't nearly as successful as it needs to be to save the game or warrant their attention for ongoing development.

 

[Dermott of LS]

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Hey Fink, a little off topic, but with the upcoming booster, any thoughts of revamping and rereleasing your Nautical UI for the EC?

 

[Storm]

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Hey Fink, a little off topic, but with the upcoming booster, any thoughts of revamping and rereleasing your Nautical UI for the EC?

That is a awesome idea!!

 

[Fink]

I'd like to make skins for the more popular mods, if it's okay with the people who did them. I don't want people to have to choose between a skin they like and the functions they need.

I did a skin of the default template, a conversion of my KR nautical skin, for my own testing purposes. That would probably fit over Lucis with a few updates, and any other that use the standard layout.

I'd like to try is re-skinning Copper Enhanced as it's the one I use most of the time. I use Lucis on my mount seller for the extended naming function.

Otherwise, I'm open to suggestions. I gather my ship's wheel icons won't be needed with mouse piloting, although I'd like to issue them in the style of the various icon packs at some point.

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My main concern at the moment is I'm shooting two feature films simultaneously, so I'm a bit short of time. How soon do we get the booster pack?

 

[Dermott of LS]

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I'm going to guess at least a couple of months, and by all means feel free to use Copper Enhanced as your base if needs be.

 

[lucitus]

I'd like to make skins for the more popular mods, if it's okay with the people who did them. I don't want people to have to choose between a skin they like and the functions they need.

I did a skin of the default template, a conversion of my KR nautical skin, for my own testing purposes. That would probably fit over Lucis with a few updates, and any other that use the standard layout.

I'd like to try is re-skinning Copper Enhanced as it's the one I use most of the time. I use Lucis on my mount seller for the extended naming function.

Otherwise, I'm open to suggestions. I gather my ship's wheel icons won't be needed with mouse piloting, although I'd like to issue them in the style of the various icon packs at some point.

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My main concern at the moment is I'm shooting two feature films simultaneously, so I'm a bit short of time. How soon do we get the booster pack?

This is the problem with the skins, it is really hard to give the players the choice of each skin because you need for each skin a new interface.

Iam working on a solution here, but this only works if other skins are compatible with each other. I also like to see all modders together on a big project, but this is future music

What i try to intigrate more in my Interface in the next release is the personal freeness, making an option available to select different runebook styles is only the beginning of my ideas in mind.

 

[Fink]

At the risk of unraveling this thread further, here are the old KR screenshots of my Nautical_Enhanced and Clockwork_Enhanced skins..

Both had their issues but were shaping up well in the months before EA pulled the plug.

I'm not sure I have all the original assets as I had a backup failure around that period from which I'm still recovering. I could work from the existing .dds files if need be.

 

[Dermott of LS]

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If you have SVN access to the Exchange (download Tortoise and get the connection running at least for dwonload), the old KR skins are archived there including both Clockwork and Nautical to download. Of course you'd have to redo the texture files to work with the EC, tweak the EC code, etc etc etc.

I also have them on my system and could package them up and email them if you want.

 

[Dermott of LS]

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Iam working on a solution here, but this only works if other skins are compatible with each other. I also like to see all modders together on a big project,

I have a small project for you if you're interested Lucitus... it's one I believe you did before for KR.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

At the risk of unraveling this thread further, here are the old KR screenshots of my Nautical_Enhanced and Clockwork_Enhanced skins..

Fink, those are very pretty skins. Nice work!