T
Trebr Drab
Guest
Here's my thinking on how UO should have done this, or how they should proceed.
Understand, I don't know if this works quite this way, but it makes sense to me. I've mentioned this before, but I wanted to put it together as a whole view point.
Create a new, fully 3D client, locked into the same over the shoulder view. With top level graphics. The client should function very much like the classic UO client, but modified with some things from more modern 3D games. The idea that UO needs to make an interface just like other games doesn't sit well with me. I think UO's system works better for a view like what we have. But some things are better in newer interfaces, such as hitting 'Enter' first to chat, with an 'Escape' out of it or an 'Enter' to post the chat.
One of the great things about UO has always been the way our cursor acts like our hands and eyes. It's immersive. You feel more like you are "there". You touch things and use them if they are in range. You "look closely" at things. It brings your senses into the game world. This seems to me the be a very important "worldly" aspect of UO.
With "items on the ground" and all the art and all, only high end computers are going to be able to run such a 3D game. But hanging onto the old 2D client has major problems.
Bugs and abuses and cheats are at the top of the list. Another major issue is that the old client would need all new art to add new things to the game, and avatars are stuck as far as new animations if old ones can't be used.
So adding new things requires double the effort along with the new client.
So, once the new 3D client is made, with fantastic artwork, that art should be used to create all new 2D art. It's snapshots, then put into a 2D animation.
Offering these 2 clients only and doing away with the old 2D client offers these things.
-New stuff would be far easier to take off of the new 3D art and plug into the new 2D client. No barriers.
-Both clients would look exactly the same, only the animations would look somewhat different.
-The new look would bring UO into the present, instead of looking like a 12 year old game, or in the case of the recent efforts at an enhanced client it would look far better.
-And, I think, but this is where I may not know enough, wouldn't this give UO more like 1.5 clients, rather than 2, and make working on the game as a whole that much easier as well as better?
-Finally, at some distant point in the future (whether the art has been reworked yet again or not), if newer computers are being used by all the players and technology allows, maybe UO could simply switch to a full 3D game, with full 3D view options, and with minor modifications to the game (such as to ranged attacks).
That's my thinking on how UO should proceed. I'm not sure if it can work, since I'm not in the field. Just wanted to lay it out and see if anyone has any solid reasons why it wouldn't work, or wouldn't be the way to go.
Understand, I don't know if this works quite this way, but it makes sense to me. I've mentioned this before, but I wanted to put it together as a whole view point.
Create a new, fully 3D client, locked into the same over the shoulder view. With top level graphics. The client should function very much like the classic UO client, but modified with some things from more modern 3D games. The idea that UO needs to make an interface just like other games doesn't sit well with me. I think UO's system works better for a view like what we have. But some things are better in newer interfaces, such as hitting 'Enter' first to chat, with an 'Escape' out of it or an 'Enter' to post the chat.
One of the great things about UO has always been the way our cursor acts like our hands and eyes. It's immersive. You feel more like you are "there". You touch things and use them if they are in range. You "look closely" at things. It brings your senses into the game world. This seems to me the be a very important "worldly" aspect of UO.
With "items on the ground" and all the art and all, only high end computers are going to be able to run such a 3D game. But hanging onto the old 2D client has major problems.
Bugs and abuses and cheats are at the top of the list. Another major issue is that the old client would need all new art to add new things to the game, and avatars are stuck as far as new animations if old ones can't be used.
So adding new things requires double the effort along with the new client.
So, once the new 3D client is made, with fantastic artwork, that art should be used to create all new 2D art. It's snapshots, then put into a 2D animation.
Offering these 2 clients only and doing away with the old 2D client offers these things.
-New stuff would be far easier to take off of the new 3D art and plug into the new 2D client. No barriers.
-Both clients would look exactly the same, only the animations would look somewhat different.
-The new look would bring UO into the present, instead of looking like a 12 year old game, or in the case of the recent efforts at an enhanced client it would look far better.
-And, I think, but this is where I may not know enough, wouldn't this give UO more like 1.5 clients, rather than 2, and make working on the game as a whole that much easier as well as better?
-Finally, at some distant point in the future (whether the art has been reworked yet again or not), if newer computers are being used by all the players and technology allows, maybe UO could simply switch to a full 3D game, with full 3D view options, and with minor modifications to the game (such as to ranged attacks).
That's my thinking on how UO should proceed. I'm not sure if it can work, since I'm not in the field. Just wanted to lay it out and see if anyone has any solid reasons why it wouldn't work, or wouldn't be the way to go.
all joking aside, I never cared about graphics when it came to UO, it was always about the immersion and the community for me.
