Pictomancer's effects need some more work

[MisterNublet]

I think another thing people need to realize is many of the initial job trailers don’t really show the flashiest skills.

The sage trailer in particular was really boring from what we actually got. We saw their basic heal, and a few other skills.

Nah, Sage trailer didn't lie, Sage is boring as hell.

[LynxDubh]

I think another thing people need to realize is many of the initial job trailers don’t really show the flashiest skills.

The sage trailer in particular was really boring from what we actually got. We saw their basic heal, and a few other skills.

So what you're saying is, the opaque effects can get bigger.

[Jojoya]

So what you're saying is, the opaque effects can get bigger.

The truth is we really don't know what to expect. We'll have to wait until the media tour when they do the job showcases. Until then all we have to discuss is what we saw in the short job trailer, which is likely still a work in progress.

[LynxDubh]

The truth is we really don't know what to expect. We'll have to wait until the media tour when they do the job showcases. Until then all we have to discuss is what we saw in the short job trailer, which is likely still a work in progress.

I know, I just wanted to make a bit of a quip.

[ty_taurus]

I think another thing people need to realize is many of the initial job trailers don’t really show the flashiest skills.

The sage trailer in particular was really boring from what we actually got. We saw their basic heal, and a few other skills.

This is true, and I'll throw in my own perspective here about PIC as a whole:

I like the concept, I like that it's a more whimsical job which is very on brand for Relm, and I'm curious to learn more about the unique aspects to how the whole "landscapes" thing will come into play. They dropped the word "Landscape" multiple times as well as showcased one action of painting a shooting star over a mountain, but there was no revealed effect. I wonder if that will play into the job's gauge, and I think there's a lot of potential.

On the flipside, I think I agree with some of the criticism that the actual spell effects themselves are underwhelming when comparing them to Krile's display from the trailer. Obviously the in-game visual effects are very different from the full CGI trailer effects, but Krile looked like she was painting with Aether. The paint from the teaser is very literal--as if they are painting with actual paints. The idea of conjuring strands of aetheric paint that transform into a wave of butterflies is very elaborate, interesting, and compliments this idea of whimsy. It further tells the story of PIC being this mage who's magic is built on their imagination and creativity, but the Stone and Blizzard effects we see in the teaser feel very disconnected from that identity. There's nothing particularly imaginative about them. They're very basic, and while they're no doubt very basic aspects to PIC's kit (like their general filler spells) I can't help but feel they could've done more to communicate this identity of creativity even with basic attacks. Additionally, the moogle that gets conjured just looks like an ordinary moogle, but the spriggan that Krile painted was made with her aetheric paint. Shouldn't the moogle also be made out of that sort of watercolor-y texture? Shouldn't it be dripping paint as a being born of magic paint?

It's entirely possible that these effects are a work in progress, but that's never been the case before, to my knowledge. So I can't help but feel like the execution of this idea is not nearly as strong as it could've been.

[Ryvick]

I was sort of in the same camp as the OP at first glance of the class, not too impressed with the color scheme/pondering possible placeholder graphics, HOWEVER after a few more watches of both the Picto in game vid and the Full trailer vid I have an oddly sneaking suspicion that possibly, just possibly, the particular paint style used is due to an interesting effect that MIGHT occur in the dark/at night.

Since we only have full day in game footage to observe and Krile's display is at night, I am wondering if the paint in fact does glow brightly in the dark similar to Krile's nighttime display. I posit that as a theory due to the end of Krile's display in the Full trailer when Night becomes Day and it appears the paint stops glowing. The coding might need to be a paler paint to pull off a change to a bright glow at night. If you observe the paint in the in game play footage the paint is singular colored with a lighter/white contrasting paint. They may not be using Deeper/Darker hues due to the change from matte to glow during a change of Day to Night or Lit to Darkness.

Just a random thought.

[Sequora]

Nah, Sage trailer didn't lie, Sage is boring as hell.

Literally said nothing about sage being boring. We’re talking about the job aesthetic. Visually sage was pretty unimpressive outside their weapon in their announcement trailer.

[SchwarzwaelderTorte]

Red Mage debuted in game in patch 3.4 (Sept 2016) but wasn't officially announced as a new job until December that year.

A lot of advance planning goes into creating a new job. When it gets officially announced really doesn't matter. They're already committed to it. They'll listen to player feedback for small changes they can make but it's too late at this point to give it a complete overhaul and have it ready in time for expansion launch.

You're talking about the solo duty against the Warriors of Darkness where Alisaie creates a blade of light, right? If so there was absolutely no mention of Red Mage, and it looked completely different, both in terms of VFX, animation, and aesthetic. Even the auto-attack animations are just the PLD ones. Obviously it's understandable how people immediately assumed sword + magic = Red Mage confirmed, but since your argument is about production itself, Red Mage as we know it was only properly debuted on Stormblood's release, when you get access to the job and Alisaie gets an actual Red Mage weapon in MSQ, if my memory serves right.

So that was... 6 months after it was officially announced? Plenty of time to gather feedback if it needed it. But Red Mage was a lot less ambitious and daring with its visuals than Pictomancer, which is doing something completely new visually, so I doubt the players' reaction was as divisive at the time.

I'm honestly still scratching my head over this. Obviously, the department who worked on the CGI trailer are not the same people who worked on the VFX themselves. Obviously, the CGI trailers are never accurately depicting jobs (or characters, or even when the lines in the trailer are said in MSQ... unless Emet-Selch is secretly a Gremlin).

But surely, surely someone in production must have looked at both and thought "These do not look the same at all. Players will have things to say about this." (especially when it takes so much screen time in the full trailer). That's why I'm a bit startled that they're rushing the Pictomancer debut, when I don't think it would have been an issue to wait until 7.0 for Krile to get her paintbrush.

Then again, we don't know what the schedules of each department look like, so it could very well be that it was simply just not possible to delay the debut, either because 6.55 MSQ was already set in stone, or because the full trailer was only shown to the production team very, very late.

[Sequora]

My guess is our LB3 will be the Krile spell, and that it’ll sort of look like Sea Shanty. It’s such a pretty animation I could see them recreating that with paint.

It might also show up as a higher level spell.

[Khryseis_Astra]

But surely, surely someone in production must have looked at both and thought "These do not look the same at all. Players will have things to say about this." (especially when it takes so much screen time in the full trailer). That's why I'm a bit startled that they're rushing the Pictomancer debut, when I don't think it would have been an issue to wait until 7.0 for Krile to get her paintbrush.

Then again, we don't know what the schedules of each department look like, so it could very well be that it was simply just not possible to delay the debut, either because 6.55 MSQ was already set in stone, or because the full trailer was only shown to the production team very, very late.

The more I think about it, the more I think that the screenshot of Krile with her new brush is going to be one of those closing cutscenes at the end of the patch. I think we’ll see very little, if any, of her actually using the job until DT. Unless they really do rush her into her Trust role for the last dungeon, but I don’t think they will.

My wish is that when the job is done and I pick it up in DT, the paint looks more magical: full of glow, light and sparkly particle effects, and not so flat and chalky. I’m painting with aether not gouache! lol

Also, side note, I wonder what the chances are of getting an actual guild house, aka artists studio, for this job. There’s a lot of those little round buildings sitting empty in Gridania! That would be my second wish: an actual guild hall with new artsy furnishings added to the game.

Third wish: Star Prism LB3, big, bright and sparkly! LOL