Arachnos Base Maps and Lighting/Draw Distance

[UnionizePokemart]

Has there been any discussion about Arachnos base maps and their terrible lighting with an intent on improving them? Does this issue bug anyone else? I personally dislike playing on the poorly lit Arachnos base maps so much that it hampers my enthusiasm for creating villians, knowing I will have to play those maps so frequently on Redside. I don't know if the terrible lighting/draw distance was done purely for gfx limitations, but obviously by todays standards any PC should be able to render a properly lit Arachnos base with ease.

 

Anyways, I bring this up because I would love if in a future issue a rework on Arachnos base maps was made to improve their lighting and visibility. It's just painful to me how decidedly worse missions on those maps are as a result of what I personally think is terrible design. So much annoyance could be relieved with more lighting and draw distance.

 

Do others agree, or is this mostly a me issue?

[cranebump]

Lord Recluse welcomes your feedback. Our customer support team will be in touch. REAL soon...*

 

 

(*obviously, I have nothing worthwhile to offer):-)

[GuardianSaint]

I enjoy the writing Redside, I think it is a step above a lot of the Blueside content.  That being said I tend to avoid playing on Reside for the reason you mention.  I hate Arachnos bases, and I prefer to spend my spare time enjoying myself, not suffering through something.

[Techwright]

2 hours ago, UnionizePokemart said:

Anyways, I bring this up because I would love if in a future issue a rework on Arachnos base maps was made to improve their lighting and visibility. It's just painful to me how decidedly worse missions on those maps are as a result of what I personally think is terrible design. So much annoyance could be relieved with more lighting and draw distance.

 

Do others agree, or is this mostly a me issue?

 

Oh, I agree.  It's a hard decision as to which I hate worse:  dark Arachnos bases or blue caves.  The bases have some vertical room to move around, and the blue caves are better lit.  I see these positives as cancelling each other in the comparison.

[Oubliette_Red]

I think it depends on which Arachnos base type it is, the chain-link fence walled bases I'm sure use the limited visibility to hide the big-empty space around the base.

 

A view from the outside:

Edited July 30 by Oubliette_Red

[Snarky]

Arachnos bases are dark.  ....  I got nothing.  You want them to be redesigned as cheerful munchkin land in Wizard of Oz?

 

Wait until you have to hunt the Arachnos "reactor room" for a mission objective with no travel power.  Your poor little head will explode.   

[MoonSheep]

18 hours ago, GuardianSaint said:

I enjoy the writing Redside, I think it is a step above a lot of the Blueside content.  That being said I tend to avoid playing on Reside for the reason you mention.  I hate Arachnos bases, and I prefer to spend my spare time enjoying myself, not suffering through something.

 

i agree with you completely

 

the missions, content and enemies in CoV are fantastic.

 

the maps and overall atmosphere lets it down though. everything is far too drab and gloomy, all the zones feel pretty much the same - dark, things run down, things destroyed

 

CoV also lacks a ‘third place’ like atlas park has. mercy island is overly large, hard to navigate and doesn’t have a place where it feels worth hanging out - i think this has contributed to CoV being heavily underplayed as you always feel on your own

Edited July 30 by MoonSheep

[Snarky]

To sum up thread: “ I love villain side.  Why so dark?”

[srmalloy]

2 hours ago, Snarky said:

You want them to be redesigned as cheerful munchkin land in Wizard of Oz?

Now I'm contemplating the horror of Photoshopping the Lollipop Guild into a screenshot of an Arachnos base with the evil laugh threatening to come out...

[Techwright]

3 hours ago, Snarky said:

Arachnos bases are dark.  ....  I got nothing.  You want them to be redesigned as cheerful munchkin land in Wizard of Oz?

 

Look at you, understanding bright and cheerful! You go, ghoul!

 

I get the humor in that, but that's trading one extreme for another.  

 

I'd not say that an Arachnos base needs to be as bright as, say, Fort Trident (though it does make sense for effective operation, no matter how much your army likes black uniforms), but the current design seems to have a misunderstanding of good use of low-light environments.  It needs to take a page from other games with darkened or low-light corridors and make better use of atmospheric lighting.  I find that would raise the creepiness level, and thereby the interest.  We even have a later-designed, in-game example: the ghoul tunnels of Praetoria:

 

Borrowing a few internet examples:

 

 

Edited July 30 by Techwright

[Ukase]

On 7/29/2024 at 10:54 AM, UnionizePokemart said:

Do others agree, or is this mostly a me issue?

I don't know if I find those maps too dark - but there is definitely something off about them on my side. I have a tough time telling what's floor, and what's air. When you get to the end of a hallway, often there's a recessed bit of floor, a small bowl if you will, and I can never tell it's like that until I drop to the floor. 

 

[Triumphant]

I have a little bit of this issue in the Arachnos bases, but I love the aesthetic, so I don't mind it so much as the rest of you, I suppose.

 

Where this is actually more of an problem for me is in standard cave maps (not the Cimmerora ones- or even the 5th column tunnels.  Those are mostly fine), which have such poor lighting, shading and texturing that it's actually hard to tell where the walls/floors/and ceilings bend and turn.  The standard cave map is the worst modelled map in the game, in my opinion. 

 

I apologize for this not being completely on topic.  I don't want to derail your topic here; honestly, I don't.  I just feel that the Arachnos bases are a minor issue compared to the cave map problem.

[gameboy1234]

On 7/29/2024 at 8:54 AM, UnionizePokemart said:

I would love if in a future issue a rework on Arachnos base maps was made to improve their lighting and visibility. It's just painful to me how decidedly worse missions on those maps are as a result of what I personally think is terrible design.

 

I'm not sure *what* CoH maps are missing, but it's definitely something.  Many maps seem low contrast, either too dark or too mid-level grey.  (Lot's of design videos on YT talk about how to design computer game maps and make sure the Values work -- as in Hue, Saturation, Value.  It's an art thing.)  Possibly the current devs could do something about it but I think it could also soak up a lot of resources for little gain.  Art, esp. good art, takes a ton of time and resources.  Anyway I'd support someone taking a look at changing stuff like draw distance, lighting and texture values but I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope that something useful could be done.  At best I think a few incremental changes could be made.

 

(P.S. a lot of point light sources in game are *insane* and need to be looked at too.  Vanguard Base and Icon stores are guilty of this.  They are much too strong when you're close and seem to also blow out any nearby textures.)

 

 

On 7/30/2024 at 4:47 AM, MoonSheep said:

CoV also lacks a ‘third place’ like atlas park has. mercy island is overly large, hard to navigate and doesn’t have a place where it feels worth hanging out - i think this has contributed to CoV being heavily underplayed as you always feel on your own

 

CoH in general lacks "hubs," central places where playesr can hang out.  Atlas Park works because it's largely a big open space with no enemies, and the big Atlas statue acts as a Point of Interest that players can easily see, orient on, and move back to.  Villain side lacks any such hub area.

 

Aeon City almost works, but it's too high level, the central area is physically isolated by the high ground it sits on and the lack of travel options directly to the central area.  The area itself has too much vertical and the high walls in the center around the globe break the space up too much so players can't really use it.  Again it would be kind of a PITA and a fair amount of work to try to change that.  And I think any other zone would require at least as much work, if not more.

 

The only thing I can think of would be something like remove all or most of the enemies from Aeon City, add a bunch of services and vendors to hang out there, add a base portal too, then add a direct portal to Aeon City from Mercy and a new low level quest to send new players there and have them talk to all the new vendors so they know where to go and hang out.  Also move the "hospital" (the respawn location, the building can stay where it is) so that if anyone gets lost and dies they don't respawn in an area that they're too low level to deal with.

 

[gameboy1234]

On 7/30/2024 at 3:19 AM, Snarky said:

You want them to be redesigned as cheerful munchkin land in Wizard of Oz?

 

On 7/30/2024 at 6:13 AM, srmalloy said:

Now I'm contemplating the horror of Photoshopping the Lollipop Guild into a screenshot of an Arachnos base with the evil laugh threatening to come out...

 

 

New enemy group: Dr. Aeon decides to combine his cloning machine with a device that distills his evil genius down to its most concentrated essence (i.e., "genius" = not much).  This does not go wrong at all, and does not produce about a zillion three foot high big headed jerks who seem to delight in nothing more than purposely making everyone's life miserable.  Said jerks like dressing in flamboyant colors and adopt a clown and candy theme for their costumes, attacks and weaponry.