Shrouded Isles: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

[Sigurd]

Overall, I am impressed. The graphics have improved quite a bit on the landscapes, the new classes are quite imaginitive and very fun to play (Animist is just hilarious, pulling 10 mobs at a time) but there are a few bugs and not so good things about it.

The bugs then: I have noticed, when you see someone on the horizon, they are just sprites in default costumes/their own equipment but undyed (hard to tell which) but when you draw closer you see them to be how they actually look.
Water effects are great, but sometimes the game gets a bit confused and they go wrong (much like before but more noticable this time) then right themselves soon after.
The first Reaver style (maybe more, not seen the others) has no animation.
There's a few more I can't quite remember right now, some are rather funny...

Things I don't like about Shrouded Isles....
Older characters seem a bit more blurry than before - and older armour... like they toned down the detail to make the new classes more noticable.
The new scenary is less interactive - for example, you can't walk along the ropes on the bridge in the new midgard newbie zone.
Lack of lower level dungeons - a new Mithra level dungeon for each realm would have been nice (forgive me if there is one, according to the people I've asked there aren't)
The noises inconnu make... and the inconnu animations.
The border forts in Avalon Isle... all pretty much the same, nothing of interest in them.
Epic armour being used on NPCs... kind of takes away their uniqueness I feel
Lack of a new staff for Animists... a twisted tree branch would have been nice...


That's about all I can think of for now... overall a very good addition to Dark Age of Camelot - and I just wish we had a third english server so I could roll a Valkyn Savage... Camlann just doesn't cut it
So... your thoughts on Shrouded Isles?

 

[Sarum TheBlack]

Originally posted by the_chimera

The bugs then: I have noticed, when you see someone on the horizon, they are just sprites in default costumes/their own equipment but undyed (hard to tell which) but when you draw closer you see them to be how they actually look.

I believe this is deliberate detail reduction to reduce the load on the engine in busy situations (eg emain zergs) it's a lot of wasted effort to fully render and texture a charcter, then light it properly (which is how dyes are done), if you're then going to scale it down to 4 pixels high. There is a detail setting (in the config performance menu) that allows you to set how close detail reduction is done at.

I think the water problem is likely to be a speedhack too.. its easier to generate a "mirror" texture every few seconds and apply the ripple distortions to that, than fully compute the reflections in real time, but this does mean you get some funny effects when you're running about.

I've noticed a few graphics bugs that appear to be missaligned textures or badly drawn polygons (for example the guild banner at Benowyc is a bit buggy) but other than that everything seems pretty ok.

 

[CliffyG]

I've fallen through floors quite a lot in the new Alb zone. In avalon city and a few other places the route a mob takes to get to you after being pulled is sometimes laughable, especialyl in avalon city, i think just past the flamethrowers. They run all the way past you, carry on till they are just at the end of castable range then come back. About the reaver, the whip just seems to flail about on styles without the arm moving . Definately woud have been nice to have a new lower level dungeon or 2 though. Overall though im very happy with it, the new mobs and area's are great, full graphics settings makes it all look very nice too .

 

[SFXman]

Afaik the reaver animations are bugged (really... ), wonder when they are fixed
Only thing I don't like about SI for now.
I must I love the fact that SI works better than classic DAoC with my 1ghz t-bird, 64mb GF2 GTS, 256mb ram.

 

[old.Velo]

Some mobs in cear Sidi run through walls and act... strange... dont know if its a bug or not... but they could sure fix the pathfinding for mobs... and some mobs just p00f (thx again kemor )

The ground in the new areas are to blurry, it looks like you are flying above the ground.

but thats the only things i found wrong with SI... i think its great...
gfx looks nice and the new areas are amazing.

 

[DocWolfe]

I like the new AI we were in avalon city and we entered this big hall under ground, we got aggroed by some fighter mobs, and at the same time the archers on the other side of the room started firing also there are some nice pack animals v fun.

 

[Sigurd]

I've not really explored the new lands too much as I'm in the middle of trying to get Gawain to level 50, and also I promised a friend I'd wait until he can get his account activated before fully exploring the new zone, but what I've seen is nice

 

[old.job]

Duh, the detail pop on characters is a setting in in-game options, you can set in to near or far for slower machines.

It's called LOD

 

[kan-]

yer they sorted that problem at the top of the thread

 

[acron]

Oh oh, let me comment on the features of SI

/me loads up SI...

Oh hang on, I *still* dont seem to be able to register the retarded thing. Thanks GOA Your game r0x!

 

[Pinvan]

The first Reaver style (maybe more, not seen the others) has no animation.

more like non of the reaver styles have a working animation. hit with a style and your arm doesnt move, making whips look like live snakes in ya hand, deliberate or not i dunno but hit unstyled and u see the whip flick out and crack (without any sound i might add)

also the new SI shields dont make sounds when you block, at least the medium and large block shields dont, and sometimes dont give blocking animations. also flex parry animations are just like an unstyled attack, maybe a placeholder...?

oh and the new engine = slower than old for me....prolly a problem with my comp tho been bitchy for the past week

thats all i noticed so far...

 

[Brannor McThife]

Um...just about the border keeps that you're talking about...

There's a nice battle quest that takes place in them...
With Nice mid 30's items.

-G