Alpha First Look: Video 2 - Gridania

[Tiberious]

I couldn't be a developer for this game, you do what folk ask and start showing stuff, so what happens - they pick issues and complain, complain, complain even though what is shown is of an incredibly high standard, particularly for an Alpha. I'd have shoved my head through an iron spike a while back as one of them.

Also, I don't know what MMOs you have been playing but in SW:TOR and WoW your character shuffle turns when you hold right-click to turn. Seriously though, my good mood about this video has been fried by the community and the posts that appear - the music, the animation, Jesus, why do they bother?

Hahaha simma down now. I wrote an entire blog praising this video. I think it's fantastic in many many ways. The static character rotating around an axis point is a very bizaare looking move. Plain and simple. And so far it's really my only concern. However, I believe that switching to the gamepad as I will be using will reconfigure the character movements so I'm not overly concerned about this.

[Jynx]

I'd have shoved my head through an iron spike a while back as one of them.

Yeah because it's like so totally uncool to give criticism of a product you are currently help fund with a subscription.

Although seriously if you think we are criticising the product just be a bunch of entitled clowns you are wrong. We all want the game to be amazing and when the developers ask us to.

Be sure to let us know what you think!

It's downright inconsiderate to not point out what you think could use some more polish, or you are uncertain about the direction of a certain aspect. Now if your just saying it sucks and will never be good that's one thing but I don't see alot of people saying that, I see alot of people saying they don't feel like cutting out animations or whatever else is a good thing.

Is it so wrong for us to tell them what we think?

[Jmeat]

Loving the direction this is taking. Music, graphics. Looks great for an Alpha!

[Sabaku_Usagi]

My biggest irritation with the video is that the NPC animations which are extremely active (The kid at Carpenters Guild as an example) is stuck in that one position. The fact that the kid is balancing there so unsteadily is just weird after 10 seconds of looking at him because he doesn't move to another log or step down. I just hate that kind of thing... Standing in place is one thing but just about to fall over? That's a really silly position to have the kid in forever.

The other thing I noticed, but wasn't sure if it's the video or how it was captured but there seems to be a blur effect when you turn your camera. Everything that was crystal clear gets really fuzzy as soon as you adjust your camera slightly.

The least of my problems would be the gates. Obviously, the gates are big enough that they should open away from you. If they were smaller, it would make more sense to have them go one way. But they are just too big to swing at you like that it's like they are going to hit you. Maybe just make that animation client side based on the character's approach?

[Neasa]

So now Gridania is... Two zones. x.x I was hoping it'd be smaller...
Still, very pretty.

[Sakasa]

So now Gridania is... Two zones. x.x I was hoping it'd be smaller...
Still, very pretty.

Well the original grid was 7 seamless zones i think. But i guess if they stacked some guilds in the same building, but they need space to add npc for events and quests though so Some size is important

[Kona4me]

Looks good i love it~ but i would like to give few notices:
1- Please give us a choice to change camera settings, some times i don't want my character to follow camera movements.

2- Character movements is not so good~ in ver.1 when i try to move left or right it looks real but in ARR-alpha it doesn't feel real .

3- Make NPCs move around & talk with each other to make it lively :3, hearing their voices when i move around town will be cool as well .

^ w ^/ .

[Katella_Avenlea]

"Be sure to let us know what you think!" - Triairy

Since you asked! XD For the most part I think you guys have done an excellent job, and I know this is just Alpha and still being tweaked, so its possible the things I mention are already in the works.

That said, my only real thoughts are:

#1 I'm sincerely hoping that the final version of Gridania will look a little less like its experiencing a drought. In the current version I really appreciated how healthy the flora looked with its moisture rich environment. I'm guessing its just a matter of color choice? Sprinkle in some darker greens or maybe it could even be a simple matter of mixing in some other colored flowers because so much orange tends to make you think of arid climates... least it does for me. Just a thought, but I wouldn't think it would take much to make plants look more like what you'd find in a lush forest rather than what you'd find out in a dry field, seriously I think its just a matter of sprinkling in some deeper colors. Don't get me wrong, its beautiful, its only because it happens to be Gridania that I even make this statement.

#2 The aforementioned character/camera lock is odd... though I'm not sure this is actually even an issue because I kinda think I remember seeing the camera be able to move around the character in one of the earlier videos... I'll have to go look for it now.. If it is an issue, a setting to disable the lock would be grand.. if its not an actual forced feature of the game.. disregard this comment. ^^

#3 Praise over how the zone lines are only noticeable when you get near them. I really like that its not ever present!

[Phen]

Some thoughts/praise:
Being a delivery moogle is suffering
The little hints of the old music in the new- SOKEN WHY YOU SO GOOD AT THE MUSICS!
The simplicity of the load screen is really nice.
The functional titles under npcs is really nice- no more "which one was the guild master i did this like 3 months ago..."

questions/comments:
When people say "i assume x will be better by beta"- can you tell us which of these are in mostly finished form. If people assume the animation/texture are getting tweaks but that is not currently planned those expectations will be let down on top of the initial criticism.
I keep getting distortion at 720p on youtube. The type of movement blurring makes me think the encode is strange or youtube isn't done with it yet. This isn't an issue on the 720 and 1080 limit break trailers.

[Nabiri]

Gridania looked very beautiful and alive but the character seems artificial like a mannequin. The spinning without moving made me .___.

The water looked pretty cool. :3