Amazing stream and update with all of the graphical updates and worldbuilding.
One thing that stuck out for me were the kits for the human dwellings though, while I realise they are fantasy they appear to be mainly based off Tudor style housing from England, these houses were built with support beams for both structural need and pleasant design in mind. They were artistic, aesthetic and often symmetrical, rather than almost totally random like seen in the stream.
(https://tinyurl.com/tudorhouses1)
I assume these are all fluff. Things to look at and flesh out an area. Not designs for player housing in any way.
That is not a criticism - fluff is critically important and these do look very good.
If we ever get to player housing designs I hope we will have a somewhat greater variety of styles - ideally race-related. A dwarf and an ogre are likely to have very different looking houses. Ideally with significant areas outdoors to place decorations. Ideally with the indoor design being consistant with the outdoor design so if a house looks as if it obviously has 11 rooms on three floors it actually does.
Housing is a big plus though I would rather have release 6 months earlier with no housing at all. Some of my fondest memories of games I am not currently playing are the houses in SWTOR matched to the different planets, the huge EQ2 houses with flexible decorating, the Rohan houses on LOTRO with a highly limiting hook decoration system, the planar housing in Rift and so on.
While I get Counterfleche's point about the Tudor inspired structures, they are just 'inspired' and not exact copies. The lack of symmetry is not bothering me mostly because these are, as Dorotea said above, fluff. It's just a building. While you might take a few moments to look at a building the first time you come across it, much much sooner than later you'll never really look at it again. You'll never notice the odd non-symmetrical aspects, the tiny details, etc. Your brain will just ignore it.
So while I'm glad the buildings are looking better, they don't need to get any better. Visuals help attract players to a game, but they do not keep players playing as long as solid, challenging, exciting, interesting and complex gameplay.
"Visuals help attract players to a game, but they do not keep players playing as long as solid, challenging, exciting, interesting and complex gameplay."
Very true. Below a certain level of graphics we would get a very limited number of players. So hitting that minimum is essential. Above that point improvement is nice but improvements in gameplay tend to give more bang for the buck (or euro) than limited improvement in looks.
Vandraad said:While I get Counterfleche's point about the Tudor inspired structures, they are just 'inspired' and not exact copies. The lack of symmetry is not bothering me mostly because these are, as Dorotea said above, fluff. It's just a building. While you might take a few moments to look at a building the first time you come across it, much much sooner than later you'll never really look at it again. You'll never notice the odd non-symmetrical aspects, the tiny details, etc. Your brain will just ignore it.
So while I'm glad the buildings are looking better, they don't need to get any better. Visuals help attract players to a game, but they do not keep players playing as long as solid, challenging, exciting, interesting and complex gameplay.
I mostly agree with you (Ezreal is OP who commented on the architecture). The buildings look great to me, and certainly are good enough for launch). I will add that, without some variation in architectural style and general condition, it feels too copy/paste same-y. Unless the lore is that this area had all its structures built at the same time recently and is managed by some pedantic H.O.A., it feels a bit too mass produced. In reality, the home of a widowed cat lady will look different than the home of the town's tinkerer.
This is a minor point and I'm still very pleased with the results, but future builds could add some dilapidated buildings and show more architectural variety. Maybe have more basic designs in the center and more advanced structures further out, showing improvements in design as the city expanded.
One further point is that I would expect 'showcase areas' to receive more attention since it makes the game look better.
I don't mind the style so long as the layout makes sense. Too often you see games/shows where there is just a clump of houses in the middle of nowhere. Where do they get their food? Where do they go to the bathroom? Where do they park their vehicles/horses? Do they walk everywhere? Where are they getting their fuel to feed their fires? What do they do for work? No trees cut down in the area, no pasture land, no farm land, no stables, no trade routes to the city to buy the stuff they are clearly not producing. It is rare for homes in games to feel lived in rather than feel like a movie set.