Yes I absolutely hated in SWTOR that you could hear companion and NPC conversations half way across the map as though you were standing right next to where the conversation was taking place. .
I am a fan of Bioware and I was deeply disappointed by SWTOR. I love Bioware games and I think their sound design is usually fantastic.
In their defense I will say this:
MMOs are big. Really... really big. Audio teams are small. 3 to 4 years is a very short amount of time to create a world as big as SWTOR and it is easy for things to fall through the cracks. As an audio design team there are so many things you have to take into consideration. Environments for multiple maps, Music, Player Powers, Critter powers, Player VO, Critter VO, NPC VO, Interactables, UI, etc. This means vast data trees and structures to organize each of the specific audio events that make up these categories.
So in the above case, it sounds like that particular voice file had a radius setting that was off. In FMOD, which is the software we use to talk with the cryptic engine, each audio file has a radius setting which determines the min/max distances at which sounds can be heard in the 3D world. I know there have been plenty of times in NW where I have screwed that up and had things being heard across maps that shouldn't be. It sounds like the Bioware guys may have just missed an easily forgotten parameter in the mountain of parameters that need managing.
...I will try and bring up the idea of making tracks available as we near launch. However, please realize I have no say over pricing or whether or not PWE will decide to sell them or make them free. Or if they'll even go for the idea..
Unfortunately I haven't spent enough time in LotRO to be familiar with what you're talking about. It sounds like an interesting concept and one we might explore in the future. However this feature will not be in the game at launch.
If I recall right all it was is you used your numbpad or number keys to key in notes that would enable one to essentialy play an instrument.
LotRO has numerous intruments like here, it's painful to listen at first but at 0:33 is when they player started playing some real tunes but ends with some abilities that's not part of the player created music. I beleive that this was class specific ability in LotRO in that only minstrels could play musical instruments. Perhaps this is something to tag onto the Bard project or at least throw it out there to the devs.
nice devs in my whole gammin life only 4 comapnys treat players like cryptic (ofc i dont say u are best)
in many games devs dont even speak with community... its shamefull cuz beta test is time where u NEED our help and how devs can get our advice if they dont even read what we post...
good job i hope PWE wont make this game P2W like almost all old PWE games (pwi where ppl can buy r9 gear JD BOI WOI)
remember that we are people not living wallets and the game will bring you a lot more then u want
(much more people donate game when they see that they pay for good costumer support and fair chances between paying and free players)
Unfortunately I haven't spent enough time in LotRO to be familiar with what you're talking about. It sounds like an interesting concept and one we might explore in the future. However this feature will not be in the game at launch.
You might like to check out this video on YouTube to see a band of players in LotRO preforming a song, its so awesome its sick! All they are doing is all playing the same .abc file/song and there is a command in game for them to sync up.
You might like to check out this video on YouTube to see a band of players in LotRO preforming a song, its so awesome its sick! All they are doing is all playing the same .abc file/song and there is a command in game for them to sync up.
Watching the vid reminded me of something...VOICE BOXES!!!! I know your in the audio dept Spirals999 but maybe you can answer whether or not voice boxes are in, having a little text bubble over your head when you type something in /say but should extend to party also at a min and perhaps more channels. This is a great tool for RPing which I reckon will be a major part in Neverwinter, more than other MMOs. Or at least throw this out to the devs.
That's pretty cool. The whole playable musical instrument thing got me thinking: I'd love to see a bard type class where you actually have to play the correct notes in order to pull the spell off. Kind of like a mini game every time you cast. Bigger spells or songs feature longer or faster or more complex melodies. Then I start seeing guitar hero like interfaces popping up and... well... I'll stop there.
Anyways, this is possible to do especially considering the functionality of the mini games in STO, I just don't know if we'll see a mechanic this complex in NW in the near future.
I know your in the audio dept Spirals999 but maybe you can answer whether or not voice boxes are in.
Well.. I don't think there's any harm in telling you that Neverwinter does have chat boxes as of Alpha. So you can probably bet on seeing them at launch.
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ambisinisterrMember, Neverwinter ModeratorPosts: 10,462Community Moderator
That's pretty cool. The whole playable musical instrument thing got me thinking: I'd love to see a bard type class where you actually have to play the correct notes in order to pull the spell off. Kind of like a mini game every time you cast. Bigger spells or songs feature longer or faster or more complex melodies. Then I start seeing guitar hero like interfaces popping up and... well... I'll stop there.
Anyways, this is possible to do especially considering the functionality of the mini games in STO, I just don't know if we'll see a mechanic this complex in NW in the near future.
Yes please, yes please!
It doesn't even have to be as complex as Guitar Hero, although that would be awesome, but I'd love to see the Bard class be kind of unique. Instead of getting "powers" they could get notes which could be used in different ways.
I think it would be really interesting to have the bard as a button masher class which has different powers depending on the sequence of notes you use. Basically instead of simply having a power as Q E R 1 2 bard powers would be reliant on how many and which order Q E R 1 2 were pressed.
Mapolis here, Senior Environment Artist on the Neverwinter Foundry team, Cryptic employee since 2005. I've been playing D&D since early childhood, and I'm sort of a sick fanboy of the game already (since I can play it 24/7, nah nah . I'll do my best to answer what I know about the game's final design (which isn't everything unfortunately).
Your simple presence here is an answer allready. Thank you that finaly you guys decided to interact with the comunity.
You took your time but better late then never.
So thank you for this step foward
Your simple presence here is an answer allready. Thank you that finaly you guys decided to interact with the comunity.
You took your time but better late then never.
So thank you for this step foward
Nice. Live in short timed Euphoria.
Soon the planetary positions will change and the forums will be forgotten ...
Hey guys I just wanted to update you all with some news.
I talked to our leads about increasing dev presence on the forums, and they are taking that request to heart. Starting next week we will be sending weekly reports of threads and questions that need attention to the team, and then selecting individual devs to tackle the questions that match their expertise.
To ensure your questions are heard, please start new threads (if appropriate) to increase visibility. This thread has sort of become a monster.
I'll keep an eye on this process internally to make sure it keeps its momentum.
The bard class you talk about sounds really unique and very cool indeed, it would also be nice to be able to play as a band in the game like that video shows. Back when I played LotRO I used to stand outside the Prancing Pony playing songs on my lute and some players would even flip me a few coins via the trade window it is a very cool feature indeed. Also if in PvP areas you may have mounts disabled and if the bard has some sort of speed song this makes them highly desirable in those situations as they can nearly double the travel speed of your group. My Bard in Dark Age of Camelot was always wanted in the Realm vs Realm conflict for his motivational song even though the speed from the song would be stopped as soon as we entered combat to make it more fair.
Thanks for taking a look and I am glad you liked it!
I am a fan of Bioware and I was deeply disappointed by SWTOR. I love Bioware games and I think their sound design is usually fantastic.
In their defense I will say this:
MMOs are big. Really... really big. Audio teams are small. 3 to 4 years is a very short amount of time to create a world as big as SWTOR and it is easy for things to fall through the cracks. As an audio design team there are so many things you have to take into consideration. Environments for multiple maps, Music, Player Powers, Critter powers, Player VO, Critter VO, NPC VO, Interactables, UI, etc. This means vast data trees and structures to organize each of the specific audio events that make up these categories.
So in the above case, it sounds like that particular voice file had a radius setting that was off. In FMOD, which is the software we use to talk with the cryptic engine, each audio file has a radius setting which determines the min/max distances at which sounds can be heard in the 3D world. I know there have been plenty of times in NW where I have screwed that up and had things being heard across maps that shouldn't be. It sounds like the Bioware guys may have just missed an easily forgotten parameter in the mountain of parameters that need managing.
Actually no it was just that all NPC random conversations worked that way, they did not get louder as you moved towards the source or quieter as you moved away. I am also a huge Bioware fan I have played just about every single game they made going back to the beloved Baldur's Gate, however audio in SWTOR was not done well at all, the voice overs for quests were awesome but other areas of the game like sound increasing as you move towards the source and decreasing as you move away was not in that game at all.
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ranncoreMember, Moderators, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 2,508
edited January 2013
You're a hero, Mapolis, and you did something really awesome and brave by being the first one to pop in here and talk to us, and it's resulted in a very, very pleasant and unprecedented level of communication between you guys and your fans. It's very exciting and I'm very happy about the amount of attention we've received from you guys recently. Thanks so much... and I hope you're having fun playing Neverwinter without me, ye basterd
Hey guys I just wanted to update you all with some news.
I talked to our leads about increasing dev presence on the forums, and they are taking that request to heart. Starting next week we will be sending weekly reports of threads and questions that need attention to the team, and then selecting individual devs to tackle the questions that match their expertise.
To ensure your questions are heard, please start new threads (if appropriate) to increase visibility. This thread has sort of become a monster.
I'll keep an eye on this process internally to make sure it keeps its momentum.
Oh! The train is finally found! Hope it finds the station to leave now....
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bitterwinterMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero UsersPosts: 0Arc User
Hey guys I just wanted to update you all with some news.
I talked to our leads about increasing dev presence on the forums, and they are taking that request to heart. Starting next week we will be sending weekly reports of threads and questions that need attention to the team, and then selecting individual devs to tackle the questions that match their expertise.
To ensure your questions are heard, please start new threads (if appropriate) to increase visibility. This thread has sort of become a monster.
I'll keep an eye on this process internally to make sure it keeps its momentum.
Omg this is fantastic! Thanks mapolis maybe we should collect donations so we can get a statue build for you in Neverwinter:)
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ambisinisterrMember, Neverwinter ModeratorPosts: 10,462Community Moderator
That's pretty cool. The whole playable musical instrument thing got me thinking: I'd love to see a bard type class where you actually have to play the correct notes in order to pull the spell off. Kind of like a mini game every time you cast. Bigger spells or songs feature longer or faster or more complex melodies. Then I start seeing guitar hero like interfaces popping up and... well... I'll stop there.
Anyways, this is possible to do especially considering the functionality of the mini games in STO, I just don't know if we'll see a mechanic this complex in NW in the near future.
Even if this is just implemented to play music like LotRO *goes down on knees and begs like a sniveling lackey* Please please PLEASE implement this! Even if the bard class is delayed because it's done like this, I'm BEGGING you do something like this! We can't only have ONE MMO that lets you compose music!
Hey guys I just wanted to update you all with some news.
I talked to our leads about increasing dev presence on the forums, and they are taking that request to heart. Starting next week we will be sending weekly reports of threads and questions that need attention to the team, and then selecting individual devs to tackle the questions that match their expertise.
To ensure your questions are heard, please start new threads (if appropriate) to increase visibility. This thread has sort of become a monster.
I'll keep an eye on this process internally to make sure it keeps its momentum.
*Does snoopy dance...wait, we need music! See above reply*
Yeah, however the users want to do forum postings to consolidate collections for devs to answer and display devs answers is fine. We already have "Ask Cryptic/PWE About Neverwinter" and "Neverwinter Online Q&A (for everybody)" with the Dev responses (and only the responses) consolidated by Gillrmn in the first posts in "Answers from the Developers" (all currently Stickied on the Public Neverwinter Discussion section,) but if the users want another consolidated thread instead or multiple threads that can all be agreed on and scanned, that's fine.
Even if this is just implemented to play music like LotRO *goes down on knees and begs like a sniveling lackey* Please please PLEASE implement this! Even if the bard class is delayed because it's done like this, I'm BEGGING you do something like this! We can't only have ONE MMO that lets you compose music!
....
*Joins*
/emote On_Knees
/emote Puppy_Eyes
/emote Beg
Even if this is just implemented to play music like LotRO *goes down on knees and begs like a sniveling lackey* Please please PLEASE implement this! Even if the bard class is delayed because it's done like this, I'm BEGGING you do something like this! We can't only have ONE MMO that lets you compose music!
Yes, like I said in Lotro I used to spend hours searching for appropriate .abc songs to have on my play list that I could then play in the game and many players who understood the .abc music system better then I did composed their own songs and provided them to others to be able to download and play in the game. There used to be a website called Thefatlute.com that held tons of songs, recently for some reason it closed though and was a huge loss to the community.
There was absolutely nothing more fun then watching a band preform songs and recently I started to play lotro again in Turbine's free to play option and after all those years I was still able to recover my old account even though it had gone from the original developer, Codemasters to Turbine.
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iamtruthseekerMember, Moonstars, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
Developers, if you're there, feel free to introduce yourselves and tell us what you do!
Christopher Bruce here, Senior Animator on Neverwinter.
Do a lot of our rigs, 3DS Max tools, technical stuff and occasionally make things run around and do stuff.
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ranncoreMember, Moderators, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 2,508
edited January 2013
Hey Bruce whatsup? Animator sounds like a super cool job, you probably get to do all the powers eh? The Trickster Rogue daily looks freakin sweet. You have a favorite so far? Maybe even an NPC or enemy ability?
ranncoreMember, Moderators, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 2,508
edited January 2013
Something else that seems pretty harmless to talk about, can you tell us what kinds of character animations we'll have like /dance, /drool, /beg, stuff like that?
Thanks so much for dropping in to say hi, this thread has been a blast for everyone involved methinks
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marenorMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited January 2013
Welcome ruffiana,
Thank you for visiting. It is nice to see developers posting on the forums. What are the trade-offs that you consider the most difficult to come to terms with when you begin a new animation?
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ruffianaMember, NW_CrypticDev, Neverwinter Beta Users, Cryptic Developers, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 24Cryptic Developers ›Arc User
Hey Bruce whatsup? Animator sounds like a super cool job, you probably get to do all the powers eh? The Trickster Rogue daily looks freakin sweet. You have a favorite so far? Maybe even an NPC or enemy ability?
I've done some power animations in the past, but we've spent so much time tweaking, fine-tuning, and revamping powers that I'm not sure how much of what I've done is in the game anymore.
More recently I've been working on rigs for our non-human critters, mounts, and companions. D&D has a huge beastiary of creatures, and we're trying to get as many of them into Neverwinter that we can.
I've done some power animations in the past, but we've spent so much time tweaking, fine-tuning, and revamping powers that I'm not sure how much of what I've done is in the game anymore.
More recently I've been working on rigs for our non-human critters, mounts, and companions. D&D has a huge beastiary of creatures, and we're trying to get as many of them into Neverwinter that we can.
One word:
FREAKING AWESOME
Ok thats 2 so sue me.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Character is what a man is in the dark
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ranncoreMember, Moderators, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 2,508
More recently I've been working on rigs for our non-human critters, mounts, and companions. D&D has a huge beastiary of creatures, and we're trying to get as many of them into Neverwinter that we can.
Yeah that's pretty hardcore I would love the opportunity to bring the Monster Manual to life!
Do you guys have physical copies of the books laying around? I know that's kind of a random question heh.
Comments
I am a fan of Bioware and I was deeply disappointed by SWTOR. I love Bioware games and I think their sound design is usually fantastic.
In their defense I will say this:
MMOs are big. Really... really big. Audio teams are small. 3 to 4 years is a very short amount of time to create a world as big as SWTOR and it is easy for things to fall through the cracks. As an audio design team there are so many things you have to take into consideration. Environments for multiple maps, Music, Player Powers, Critter powers, Player VO, Critter VO, NPC VO, Interactables, UI, etc. This means vast data trees and structures to organize each of the specific audio events that make up these categories.
So in the above case, it sounds like that particular voice file had a radius setting that was off. In FMOD, which is the software we use to talk with the cryptic engine, each audio file has a radius setting which determines the min/max distances at which sounds can be heard in the 3D world. I know there have been plenty of times in NW where I have screwed that up and had things being heard across maps that shouldn't be. It sounds like the Bioware guys may have just missed an easily forgotten parameter in the mountain of parameters that need managing.
Oh great Acoustic lord, Thank you!
If I recall right all it was is you used your numbpad or number keys to key in notes that would enable one to essentialy play an instrument.
LotRO has numerous intruments like here, it's painful to listen at first but at 0:33 is when they player started playing some real tunes but ends with some abilities that's not part of the player created music. I beleive that this was class specific ability in LotRO in that only minstrels could play musical instruments. Perhaps this is something to tag onto the Bard project or at least throw it out there to the devs.
in many games devs dont even speak with community... its shamefull cuz beta test is time where u NEED our help and how devs can get our advice if they dont even read what we post...
good job i hope PWE wont make this game P2W like almost all old PWE games (pwi where ppl can buy r9 gear JD BOI WOI)
remember that we are people not living wallets and the game will bring you a lot more then u want
(much more people donate game when they see that they pay for good costumer support and fair chances between paying and free players)
You might like to check out this video on YouTube to see a band of players in LotRO preforming a song, its so awesome its sick!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20njlNOlRt0
Watching the vid reminded me of something...VOICE BOXES!!!! I know your in the audio dept Spirals999 but maybe you can answer whether or not voice boxes are in, having a little text bubble over your head when you type something in /say but should extend to party also at a min and perhaps more channels. This is a great tool for RPing which I reckon will be a major part in Neverwinter, more than other MMOs. Or at least throw this out to the devs.
Anyways, this is possible to do especially considering the functionality of the mini games in STO, I just don't know if we'll see a mechanic this complex in NW in the near future.
Well.. I don't think there's any harm in telling you that Neverwinter does have chat boxes as of Alpha. So you can probably bet on seeing them at launch.
Yes please, yes please!
It doesn't even have to be as complex as Guitar Hero, although that would be awesome, but I'd love to see the Bard class be kind of unique. Instead of getting "powers" they could get notes which could be used in different ways.
I think it would be really interesting to have the bard as a button masher class which has different powers depending on the sequence of notes you use. Basically instead of simply having a power as Q E R 1 2 bard powers would be reliant on how many and which order Q E R 1 2 were pressed.
Make it happen!
Your simple presence here is an answer allready. Thank you that finaly you guys decided to interact with the comunity.
You took your time but better late then never.
So thank you for this step foward
Nice. Live in short timed Euphoria.
Soon the planetary positions will change and the forums will be forgotten ...
You make Boo sad. Boo cry now in dark corner so no one see Boo cry
I talked to our leads about increasing dev presence on the forums, and they are taking that request to heart. Starting next week we will be sending weekly reports of threads and questions that need attention to the team, and then selecting individual devs to tackle the questions that match their expertise.
To ensure your questions are heard, please start new threads (if appropriate) to increase visibility. This thread has sort of become a monster.
I'll keep an eye on this process internally to make sure it keeps its momentum.
Thanks for taking a look and I am glad you liked it!
Actually no it was just that all NPC random conversations worked that way, they did not get louder as you moved towards the source or quieter as you moved away. I am also a huge Bioware fan I have played just about every single game they made going back to the beloved Baldur's Gate, however audio in SWTOR was not done well at all, the voice overs for quests were awesome but other areas of the game like sound increasing as you move towards the source and decreasing as you move away was not in that game at all.
Oh! The train is finally found! Hope it finds the station to leave now....
Omg this is fantastic! Thanks mapolis maybe we should collect donations so we can get a statue build for you in Neverwinter:)
Even if this is just implemented to play music like LotRO *goes down on knees and begs like a sniveling lackey* Please please PLEASE implement this! Even if the bard class is delayed because it's done like this, I'm BEGGING you do something like this! We can't only have ONE MMO that lets you compose music!
*Does snoopy dance...wait, we need music! See above reply*
Yeah, however the users want to do forum postings to consolidate collections for devs to answer and display devs answers is fine. We already have "Ask Cryptic/PWE About Neverwinter" and "Neverwinter Online Q&A (for everybody)" with the Dev responses (and only the responses) consolidated by Gillrmn in the first posts in "Answers from the Developers" (all currently Stickied on the Public Neverwinter Discussion section,) but if the users want another consolidated thread instead or multiple threads that can all be agreed on and scanned, that's fine.
*Joins*
/emote On_Knees
/emote Puppy_Eyes
/emote Beg
Yes, like I said in Lotro I used to spend hours searching for appropriate .abc songs to have on my play list that I could then play in the game and many players who understood the .abc music system better then I did composed their own songs and provided them to others to be able to download and play in the game. There used to be a website called Thefatlute.com that held tons of songs, recently for some reason it closed though and was a huge loss to the community.
There was absolutely nothing more fun then watching a band preform songs and recently I started to play lotro again in Turbine's free to play option and after all those years I was still able to recover my old account even though it had gone from the original developer, Codemasters to Turbine.
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Christopher Bruce here, Senior Animator on Neverwinter.
Do a lot of our rigs, 3DS Max tools, technical stuff and occasionally make things run around and do stuff.
Thanks so much for dropping in to say hi, this thread has been a blast for everyone involved methinks
Thank you for visiting. It is nice to see developers posting on the forums. What are the trade-offs that you consider the most difficult to come to terms with when you begin a new animation?
I've done some power animations in the past, but we've spent so much time tweaking, fine-tuning, and revamping powers that I'm not sure how much of what I've done is in the game anymore.
More recently I've been working on rigs for our non-human critters, mounts, and companions. D&D has a huge beastiary of creatures, and we're trying to get as many of them into Neverwinter that we can.
One word:
FREAKING AWESOME
Ok thats 2 so sue me.
Character is what a man is in the dark
Yeah that's pretty hardcore
Do you guys have physical copies of the books laying around? I know that's kind of a random question heh.