I think this is due to this game still using the base models from that one super hero game most of the emotes are from as well. STO is not an original game, it's basically a port of another game (albeit heavily modified) and you can still tell. My personal hate moment is everytime a NPC does that awful comical heel-click-salute emote which looks like a parody of a German WW2 soldier. This works for superhero goons wearing colourful and comical "mook" costumes. But in STO it looks out of place. !Especially since Starfleet personnel ***does not*** salute! :mad:
I'm glad i'm not the only one noticing this.
Yeah, you're right some liitle things really feel (still) cheap here and there. Instead of kicking out Exploration the devs should have put more work in things like that. Animations and Character models are thing a players sees constantly while playing, even the slightest hint of them looking cheap or bad makes the whole game appear the same IMO.
EDIT:
I think it's a strange phenomena that Cryptics devs saw (still see?) and display Star Trek in a very cartoonish way.
Starting from their Uniform design over rediculusly Battlestar-like Starfleet ship designs and extreme ship roles to their storyline which basicly only consists of war related stuff. All this makes me feel that they not really interested in Star Trek and they obviously have no real respect before the IP.
They rather should have made something else but not a Star Trek game.
(hopefully this thread doesn't get closed since the critics toward Cryptic. If so, i apologize in advance)
"...'With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.' ... The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. I fear that today--"
- (TNG) Picard, quoting Judge Aaron Satie
I think it was fair in the beginning due to the rushed deadline to use existing assets from other Cryptic games to get the game out on time in the first place but I think LOR was a good opportunity to remake the models in an up to date fashion more suited to an ST game, the next expansion is another such opportunity.
I take the same position on the trinity system the game is slowly moving away from, it was fine and dandy in the beginning when you have barely enough time to sort out some basic content and systems before launch and then you spend the rest of the game's existence patching up the holes you left in it. You obviously go for a system you know works rather than trying to implement a whole new system that would require time you don't have to design, code and implement.
Again, an expansion update is an ideal time to change this system in terms of base stats and how things work in general to make it more true to the IP but that's another thread.
I don't expect it to happen for the same reason they didn't want to make major changes when they played with female legs (which thoroughly annoyed me because I was unable to get the realistic look I had before) which was that people had sent hours sometimes year (like me) on their characters making them just the way they wanted and the devs didn't want to take that away, which is fair enough.
One (or several) additions I'd like to see is the ability to adjust upper and lower Leg sizes and Upper and Lower Arm sizes.
As it currently stands, the calves and knees grow to much on some outfits, and your toon ends up looking like they are wearing Ski boots or have 'Popeye' forearms.
Unfortunately I think many of the issues stem from the type of model and/or skeleton that's used in the game engine.
Many costume parts aren't "solid" so you get severe clipping in certain circumstances, though this can be somewhat alleviated by spending a bit more time on bone weighting, I'm also not sure that all models use the same skeleton, which would make armor customization a nightmare.
Many costume parts aren't "solid" so you get severe clipping in certain circumstances, though this can be somewhat alleviated by spending a bit more time on bone weighting, I'm also not sure that all models use the same skeleton, which would make armor customization a nightmare.
One idea I had today was that maybe they could make a base model at middle all sliders, a model at bottom all sliders and a model at max all sliders which though time consuming and it would require three sizes be made for all clothing assets they could set something up to use those models to extrapolate the model at any given set of slider positions.
Redrawing the models would also allow for a greater level of detail adding to the feel of the game as a trek game as oppose to a superhero game.
Ultimately it would allow for more customisation while reducing clipping.
One idea I had today was that maybe they could make a base model at middle all sliders, a model at bottom all sliders and a model at max all sliders which though time consuming and it would require three sizes be made for all clothing assets they could set something up to use those models to extrapolate the model at any given set of slider positions.
Redrawing the models would also allow for a greater level of detail adding to the feel of the game as a trek game as oppose to a superhero game.
Ultimately it would allow for more customization while reducing clipping.
The trouble is, we don't know what type of model Cryptic uses ... In a game such as Skyrim for instance, all humanoid models use the same skeleton, with one "minimum" body mesh and one 'maximum" body mesh wrapped over it. The weighting is the same for both, and the game simply "morphs" between the two, when you use the sliders. This offer less "customizability" in individual body parts, but give more freedom and more ease in creating different outfits.
A 'broken' or separate piece body mesh, allows for any number of sliders, depending on how many 'pieces' the body is broken into, but it makes "wrapping' the mesh a nightmare, and you can end up with clipping errors and texture alignment errors.
But it all comes down to what the game engine will support ... If you look at a game such as Black Desert for instance, the Character Creator in that is astounding, but it requires nearly a full 3D modelling programe, built into the game engine.
Comments
I'm glad i'm not the only one noticing this.
Yeah, you're right some liitle things really feel (still) cheap here and there. Instead of kicking out Exploration the devs should have put more work in things like that. Animations and Character models are thing a players sees constantly while playing, even the slightest hint of them looking cheap or bad makes the whole game appear the same IMO.
EDIT:
I think it's a strange phenomena that Cryptics devs saw (still see?) and display Star Trek in a very cartoonish way.
Starting from their Uniform design over rediculusly Battlestar-like Starfleet ship designs and extreme ship roles to their storyline which basicly only consists of war related stuff. All this makes me feel that they not really interested in Star Trek and they obviously have no real respect before the IP.
They rather should have made something else but not a Star Trek game.
(hopefully this thread doesn't get closed since the critics toward Cryptic. If so, i apologize in advance)
I take the same position on the trinity system the game is slowly moving away from, it was fine and dandy in the beginning when you have barely enough time to sort out some basic content and systems before launch and then you spend the rest of the game's existence patching up the holes you left in it. You obviously go for a system you know works rather than trying to implement a whole new system that would require time you don't have to design, code and implement.
Again, an expansion update is an ideal time to change this system in terms of base stats and how things work in general to make it more true to the IP but that's another thread.
I don't expect it to happen for the same reason they didn't want to make major changes when they played with female legs (which thoroughly annoyed me because I was unable to get the realistic look I had before) which was that people had sent hours sometimes year (like me) on their characters making them just the way they wanted and the devs didn't want to take that away, which is fair enough.
As it currently stands, the calves and knees grow to much on some outfits, and your toon ends up looking like they are wearing Ski boots or have 'Popeye' forearms.
Unfortunately I think many of the issues stem from the type of model and/or skeleton that's used in the game engine.
Many costume parts aren't "solid" so you get severe clipping in certain circumstances, though this can be somewhat alleviated by spending a bit more time on bone weighting, I'm also not sure that all models use the same skeleton, which would make armor customization a nightmare.
One idea I had today was that maybe they could make a base model at middle all sliders, a model at bottom all sliders and a model at max all sliders which though time consuming and it would require three sizes be made for all clothing assets they could set something up to use those models to extrapolate the model at any given set of slider positions.
Redrawing the models would also allow for a greater level of detail adding to the feel of the game as a trek game as oppose to a superhero game.
Ultimately it would allow for more customisation while reducing clipping.
The trouble is, we don't know what type of model Cryptic uses ... In a game such as Skyrim for instance, all humanoid models use the same skeleton, with one "minimum" body mesh and one 'maximum" body mesh wrapped over it. The weighting is the same for both, and the game simply "morphs" between the two, when you use the sliders. This offer less "customizability" in individual body parts, but give more freedom and more ease in creating different outfits.
A 'broken' or separate piece body mesh, allows for any number of sliders, depending on how many 'pieces' the body is broken into, but it makes "wrapping' the mesh a nightmare, and you can end up with clipping errors and texture alignment errors.
But it all comes down to what the game engine will support ... If you look at a game such as Black Desert for instance, the Character Creator in that is astounding, but it requires nearly a full 3D modelling programe, built into the game engine.