Hail Elyrians!
It is time to shine! And let me tell you, after missing out on last week’s shiny, I’m ready to SHINE! It has been a jam-packed week at the studio this week! As Caspian mentioned in the discord chat earlier today, we’ve been interviewing potential new teammates and the process has been going terribly! Terribly well, that is!
Of course, the development teams, both the game team and our online experiences group, have been hard at work, too! On the game team side, we’ve been working on two important elements. The first, as you’ve seen from a few of the past shiny, is that we’re working on enhancements and tuning of our traversal mechanics (the methods a character uses to move through the world). This week we were looking at how characters interact with ropes, and refining some of the basic rope climbing, swinging, zip-lining, and balancing mechanics. This week our focus has specifically been on controls, and so a lot of that time was spent doing internal tests, watching how folks were using the controls both on keyboard + mouse and the gamepad interfaces, with an eye towards smoothing out the interactions that aren’t as intuitive or smooth as we want them yet. As a tangible example, we spent some amount of the week looking at the task of redirecting a rope while it’s swinging. There’s a very simply and logical control scheme for that sort of interaction, but the truth is, logical and “feels right” aren’t on the same page in a lot of cases, and this turned out to be the case here. A similar friction point – where the logic of the control scheme didn’t necessarily match the visceral feel of working the controls – exists when a character’s balance is unsteady, and so we took some time to look at that too. As we move into a new week, we’ll be implementing some of the changes that resulted from watching that testing play out.
But, enough about my week! Let’s talk about the shiny! In Earth’s calendar, we’re moving into the holiday season, and in the period of Elyria’s course in the sky we are at the start of the three-year eclipse known as Longest Night, that strikes every 52 years in Elyria. It is the custom of many Elyrians to exchange gifts, reconnect with friends and family, or help their neighbors prepare for the coming cold. In that spirit I have a few shiny gifts!
First is a collection of blade profiles that Heat, our primary concept artist, knocked out… sheesh, awhile ago at this point. In fact, I honestly don’t remember if we’ve shared this image or not yet; it’s definitely old enough that we could have. Still, it’s a cool image and not the only thing I’m showing today, so bear with me if you’ve seen it before, and please revel in it, if it’s new to you! :)
At the time Heat made this, we were looking at what sorts of changes can be made to a weapon in the course of crafting and considering strategies for making sure that those changes were visible to a keen-eyed player. This specific set of sketches was looking at how different blade shapes themselves might indicate different techniques or styles that could indicate performance differences. E.g. “This sword is a chopper,” or “this one is for stabbing,” or “this is like an arming sword” – the sorts of things that might inform what martial arts or combat techniques an opponent is likely to use.
Next is an image that seeks to answer a question that has been asked here on Earth a few times over the millennia: What exactly does a soul look like? When it comes to souls in Elyria, we have a few requirements, which means this isn’t a pure art task. In Elyria, a soul should help convey to you all what sort of affinities it has, be that the light/dark affinity spectrum or some more abstract affinity like “this soul has had experience and expertise in soldiering” or, even, both types of affinities at once. So, as we get closer to implementing the permadeath mechanics as part of our current push to complete adventuring, we look to things like these treatments that Heat put together to explore how that sort of information might be conveyed. I’ll let you try to guess for yourself what each treatment is meant to convey. :)
And finally, my last piece for today’s shiny comes, not from me per se, but rather in the form of a traditional well-wishing sentiment among the Brudvir:
Here’s to hoping your shiny day was safe, fun, and full of family and/or friends to make it great!
Until next week,
Stay shiny my friends!
Posted By Azmodeth at 5:57 PM - Thu Dec 12 2019
oooh the souls look nice. Thanks for sharing. Wish we knew more about them. Like a DJ on them specifically.
DJ2 - Soul Selection, Achievements, and Soul Mates
These are rather old so some things have changed (i.e.: Talents are bound to characters now, not souls)
Posted By Snipehunter at
Hail Elyrians!
It is time to shine! And let me tell you, after missing out on last week’s shiny, I’m ready to SHINE! It has been a jam-packed week at the studio this week! As Caspian mentioned in the discord chat earlier today, we’ve been interviewing potential new teammates and the process has been going terribly! Terribly well, that is!
Of course, the development teams, both the game team and our online experiences group, have been hard at work, too! On the game team side, we’ve been working on two important elements. The first, as you’ve seen from a few of the past shiny, is that we’re working on enhancements and tuning of our traversal mechanics (the methods a character uses to move through the world). This week we were looking at how characters interact with ropes, and refining some of the basic rope climbing, swinging, zip-lining, and balancing mechanics. This week our focus has specifically been on controls, and so a lot of that time was spent doing internal tests, watching how folks were using the controls both on keyboard + mouse and the gamepad interfaces, with an eye towards smoothing out the interactions that aren’t as intuitive or smooth as we want them yet. As a tangible example, we spent some amount of the week looking at the task of redirecting a rope while it’s swinging. There’s a very simply and logical control scheme for that sort of interaction, but the truth is, logical and “feels right” aren’t on the same page in a lot of cases, and this turned out to be the case here. A similar friction point – where the logic of the control scheme didn’t necessarily match the visceral feel of working the controls – exists when a character’s balance is unsteady, and so we took some time to look at that too. As we move into a new week, we’ll be implementing some of the changes that resulted from watching that testing play out.
But, enough about my week! Let’s talk about the shiny! In Earth’s calendar, we’re moving into the holiday season, and in the period of Elyria’s course in the sky we are at the start of the three-year eclipse known as Longest Night, that strikes every 52 years in Elyria. It is the custom of many Elyrians to exchange gifts, reconnect with friends and family, or help their neighbors prepare for the coming cold. In that spirit I have a few shiny gifts!
First is a collection of blade profiles that Heat, our primary concept artist, knocked out… sheesh, awhile ago at this point. In fact, I honestly don’t remember if we’ve shared this image or not yet; it’s definitely old enough that we could have. Still, it’s a cool image and not the only thing I’m showing today, so bear with me if you’ve seen it before, and please revel in it, if it’s new to you! :)
At the time Heat made this, we were looking at what sorts of changes can be made to a weapon in the course of crafting and considering strategies for making sure that those changes were visible to a keen-eyed player. This specific set of sketches was looking at how different blade shapes themselves might indicate different techniques or styles that could indicate performance differences. E.g. “This sword is a chopper,” or “this one is for stabbing,” or “this is like an arming sword” – the sorts of things that might inform what martial arts or combat techniques an opponent is likely to use.
Next is an image that seeks to answer a question that has been asked here on Earth a few times over the millennia: What exactly does a soul look like? When it comes to souls in Elyria, we have a few requirements, which means this isn’t a pure art task. In Elyria, a soul should help convey to you all what sort of affinities it has, be that the light/dark affinity spectrum or some more abstract affinity like “this soul has had experience and expertise in soldiering” or, even, both types of affinities at once. So, as we get closer to implementing the permadeath mechanics as part of our current push to complete adventuring, we look to things like these treatments that Heat put together to explore how that sort of information might be conveyed. I’ll let you try to guess for yourself what each treatment is meant to convey. :)
And finally, my last piece for today’s shiny comes, not from me per se, but rather in the form of a traditional well-wishing sentiment among the Brudvir:
Here’s to hoping your shiny day was safe, fun, and full of family and/or friends to make it great!
Until next week,
Stay shiny my friends!
the yellow one looks like a candy wrapper lol. I do like the souls though .
Count Weylyn of Vit Kanin. Friend code B7D0EF
Wow what a shiny. My soul needs those weapons. Yum
Divide et Impera
And may your webs hold you warm until the dawn!
Shiny indeed :)
Nice of you to share, especially the soul part.
May your pack give you warmth and comfort during these cold nights :)
Shroud to The Covenant of the Veil
The souls are beautiful!
To me it looks like each pair of souls has one light and one dark affinity.
The wiki has a list of what skills are associated with each color. That may have changed with the skill overhaul, but probably at least a few are the same.
Blue - Art and Lore
Violet - Guile
Orange - Survival
Red - Combat
Yellow - Gathering
Green - Crafting
I'm not sure what the shapes might mean, perhaps the are decided by the specific skills a character invests time in.
Very shiny!
im curious if the length of the flames on the soul was relevant in any way some of the dark souls had long flames others did not, is the length perhaps an indicator of the strength of the soul- ie how vital it is?
It looks like ya got a good assortment of weapons there but tell dont forget the odd varieties of weapons.. I always love seeing the Scythe, Katars, Crow bills, Naginatas, Lances, Morning stars, Ball and Chain weapons.. I wouldnt be upset if they were left out, but I would be a little disappointed.
LOVELY IDEA!!! (SOULS ARE DIFFERENT)
I NEVER IMAGINED THAT... wonderful !!!
/animal souls are like "ORBS" and human and any other race looks like race itself is but ORBS looks GREAT!!!
ALSO IF you travel inside ORB both can exist
Semper Fidelis
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