Downloading the newest 2D client?

[UODevTracker]

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[Supreem]

Petra, can you mail your patch log to [email protected]. It's located here:

[INSTALLED FOLDER]\logs\patch.[DATE].Log

"C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\Ultima Online Stygian Abyss" is the default install location.

Thanks

 

[Mark_Mythic]

They really should make the 2d patching system like EC, About 15mb to install initially but then it only patches what it needs, Instead of patching, then overwriting files with the next patch... and the next patch.

Err... the advanced patching feature is part of what makes the Enhanced Client... enhanced.

The main reason we made the EC was to overcome long standing limitations of the old client. It's pretty obvious we didn't make many graphical changes. The old file types are not compatible with incremental patching. The EC patcher is actually the same patcher that was designed for Warhammer Online, which is so advanced that they are using it in the upcoming Star Wars game. I realize this isn't appearant to the player at home, but the EC is totally different under the hood... which is why some 3rd party apps don't work.

My personal dream is that we can get the EC good enough that everyone gets on board with it because (as a person working on the game) the old client is a real pain. If you noticed that the world building is more advanced and... I don't know... artistic in the Stygian Abyss expansion, it is a direct result of the tools that were given to us through the EC. I'm also able to prototype way easier in the new client. I can make a new thing and test it within minutes, where before the EC I had to wait a full day to see if it worked or if it broke something. So, what ends up happening these days is that I design and develop content in the new client and test it, then port it to the old client for the next day and then test it again.

I have seen other posts where people have said they don't like the fact that some of the monsters have been reimagined in the new client. In many cases I agree with them. I also understand that most artists worth having are not going to be content with just photocopying 100000000 monsters, they want to flex their own artistic ability. I really like the monsters our current art peeps made for the Stygian Abyss though.

 

[Mark_Mythic]

On the other hand, while in the process of improving the UO client, and going 2.5d, someone has gone to the effort of taking arguably some of the best creature art in the genre, and gone to something beyond even cartoon land. Anyone that thinks the EC dragons are even in the same game as the CC, let alone the same ballpark, is smoking something far from legal, and far from healthy. That wasn't artistic license - that was artistic butchery. Whoever flexed their artistic muscle in that situation was obviously in spasmodic mode...

Not arguing. Also, I will say that all of the people who did that are long gone. I do not doubt they were WOW fans. The problem for us on the team now is getting EA to sign off on paying people to redo work that they paid people to redo 4 years ago.

As I've said before in other threads, the current team is in a "play the ball where it lies" scenereo. The priority is to move forward. If we ever get enough art support from EA, we will re-examine the KR art. Some of them are pretty cool. I personally prefer the elementals in the EC. I don't like the new Dreadnaught. I do like the new gargoyles compared to the old gargoyles, but that is changed in both clients. I like the new wisps which are a particle effect. I like the new plant creatures, though I also liked the old plant creatures. As far as the dragons go, I always thought the old dragons looked too heavy to fly... they looked kind of like a brontosaurus with wings. The new ones look like they might actually be able to fly. I really like the art for the newest super dragons like Platinum, Crimson, and Stygian.

 

[Mark_Mythic]

Mark:

This may not be your field specifically, and I may be asking a question far out of my league, but here it goes:

What is so difficult about manipulating individual art assets in the pipeline? If this new patcher is that advanced, why is it so difficult to make individual changes?

Take for example, a simple 2D flat sprite in classic. Saphireena has done marvels with simple 2D tiles. If we were to take one of her static objects, like a ground tile, is it impossible to simply swap out that one particular asset, allowing it to be redone one piece at a time with this very advanced patcher? Maybe even by community volunteers who give you the image, they sign some legal form, the team makes a decision weather to use the asset or not, and bam, you have an outsourced FREE art team?

Well, it was a conscious choice to make them a little lower rez than KR. We were trying to get the download size down and trying to hit a "minimum spec".

We make a lot of decissions assuming a lot of our players have old computers.

So, to answer your question, there isn't anything keeping us from increasing resolution except that we want it to be a certain download size and playable on a certain level of computer. That and time, of course. I mean, it's a computer right... you can make it do pretty much anything with graphics if you spend enough time on it. You could build an engine that took a high resolution file and turned it into a low resolution file based on the limitations of the hardware it was loaded on, if you spent enough time on it.

 

[Mark_Mythic]

I'll talk to the art guys about the dragon. It seems to me that changing a specific few mobs will be an easier sell than saying "when you get a chance, can you redo them all?"