Hello, friends. My name is Kith and I like videogames, so much that I work on them in my spare time and one day hope to make a living doing so. As I am sometimes wont to do, I examine facets of various games to pick out what works and what doesn’t in an attempt to make sense of these factors and hopefully understand them better so I can utilize the basic fundamentals of the idea rather than just copy them. Today’s writeup is on the subject of aesthetics, and how they impact a game. I will be giving examples of good and bad aesthetics, suggestions to avoid the aesthetic pitfalls that other games have fallen into, and some suggestions on how to handle player customization in Eternal Crusade. Please note that all concepts discussed in this thread are free to use and I seek no compensation for these suggestions should they be implemented by anyone. Silhouettes, Poses, and Emissives:Making everything identifiable Silhouettes are extremely important, because they convey the most information in the least amount of time. Many games take full advantage of the psychology behind this, and design their characters accordingly. Perhaps the most notable example is the class roster of Team Fortress 2, whose classes possess unique shapes and stances, allowing the viewer to identify them in short order. However, Eternal Crusade has a problem: two of the four factions, Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines, have borderline identical silhouettes when standing in a neutral pose due to the fact that they use much of the same equipment with minor variations, and simply redesigning them is not an option. The problem worsens if objects have similar (or identical) coloring, leading to them being impossible to distinguish at range or at a glance. Surprise! Haha, you thought I was on your team and now I've shot you in the face. The above example I have personally used to ambush Loyalist players in Space Marine many times, and often I’ve used the brief confusion to score kills against the entire enemy team (with the Melta Gun, natch). Unfortunately, redesigning the Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines to give them more unique silhouettes is not an option, so how does one fix this problem? While Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines have nearly identical equipment, radically different silhouettes can be obtained by posing them differently. Not only does this convey an immediately identifiable different shape, but the posture and body language also conveys information about the character’s personality and behavior. Examples of how pose manipulation can radically alter a silhouette. Space Marine posing being relegated to a straighter posture with a higher emphasis on boldness communicates their fearless nature and noble demeanor. By contrast, the Chaos Space Marine posing leaves them hunched over, conveying their readiness to move and get to killing. Despite having the characters having the same basic shape, the different poses immediately identify them without having to rely on colors or detail to do so. But what do we do with characters that don’t move often and have large, bulky weapons that can easily get lost within the silhouette, such as a Plasma Cannon, Multi-Melta, Lascannon, or Heavy Bolter? For this, we turn to emissives. An emissive is something that glows on a texture – for instance, the eyes of a Chaos Space Marine, or the coiling of a Plasma Gun. Emissives are especially good for quickly identifying objects at range. When something is far away and detail is scarce, the lights that adorn it can be an enormous help in properly assessing what you’re dealing with. Considering that Devastators and Havocs are the go-to long range support, emissive markers on their backpacks are perfect for informing players what they’re looking at, regardless of silhouette or armor paint. Assuming these weapons are in the game (and a solution has not already been conceived for these issues), my suggestions for identifying markers for the Devastator/Havoc weapons are as follows: Plasma Cannon: Blue (Loyalist) or Purple (Chaos) gun coil (Considering that the Plasma Gun has such an enormous light on it already, I feel it’s not necessary to add one to the backpack) Heavy Bolter: Orange (Loyalist) or Red (Chaos) circular lights on the ammunition backpack Multi Melta: Yellow (Loyalist) or Cyan (Chaos) triangular lights on the ammunition backpack Missile Launcher: None (the lack of an extended backpack and shoulder mount should suffice) Lascannon: White (Loyalist) or Green (Chaos) rectangular lights on the ammunition backpack Blastmaster: Pink (Chaos only, because of course they’re the only ones with them) That’s it for my feedback/suggestions on basic aesthetic concepts. Now, I’m going to move on to the Cash Shop, which has a great deal of potential – for both good and bad.
Cut into a second post because I hit the character limit.Cash Shop Customization:Why too much freedom can lead to troubleAlthough, an Ork disguised as a Space Marine would be hilarious. Customizing your character through the cash shop needs to be limited to lore-compliant colors and effects, because otherwise problems will start showing up as people abuse the customizer to deceive others (or generally look out of place, which is clearly the worst crime of all). One of the more notable complaints with Planetside 2 is that it was not always immediately obvious who you were supposed to be fighting due to the similar visuals of the multiple factions being predominantly gray or black with colored trim. While Eternal Crusade should be able to neatly avoid this by making players restricted to certain colors based on the chapter/warband/what have you they're aligned to, I feel it bears mentioning because Space Marine allowed unfettered customization and that led to some disasters. Cash Shop Customization:Why skins should be armor onlyBecause memorizing a bunch of identical weapons is dumb. Remember all of that business I brought up about the importance of being able to quickly identify enemies? It’s also important to be able to quickly identify what weapon they’re bearing so you can properly assess their threat ranges and their damage output. Weapon skins cause a problem in this respect, especially in the Warhammer 40k universe where a single Purity Seal or a minor gold filigree can make a world of difference in terms of weapon performance. Weapon skins also cause the player to memorize useless information, as multiple versions of the same weapon force the player to memorize the appearances of multiple weapons that all function identically. This information would not be useless if the different appearances actually meant something, however, which is why I’m staunchly against varying weapon appearances being strictly cosmetic. Armor is less of an issue because once it’s designated as “artificer,” standardization goes right out the window, but as a PvP endeavor, players of Eternal Crusade need to be able to immediately and easily identify weapons being wielded by their enemies. This is even more important if variant weapons are introduced (Bolter, Kraken Bolter, Dragonfire Bolter, ect), as the alternate appearances can often signal a change in tactics being required. I feel that accessories (Iron Halos, Chapter Banners, ect) should also be non-customizable for this same reason, as an Iron Halo disguised as a Banner or vice versa can be strictly unfair. Cash Shop Customization:Buying a Face, an alternative to helmetsBecause who WANTS to be subjected to a centuries old rebreather? There has been some amount of discussion on what should be done in regards to helmets and faces and the like, and I believe I have come up with a profitable and reasonable solution. Considering that heads and faces are more intensive to render than helmets because they are far more complex than a static helmet, and that only the brave enter battle without head protection, I feel that being able to go helmet-less should be limited to a Cash Shop privilege. In this way, players that want to further customize their character without resorting to armor paint or armor bits can do so, and players that do not care about going helmetless can neatly opt out by simply not purchasing it.
In my opinion, it's the most appropriate way to do things. In Warhammer 40k, helmetless individuals are usually either incredibly low rank (Imperial Guard) or incredibly high rank (Space Marine Captain), with everything in between involving a mask or a helmet of some kind. Low rank individuals do it because of a lack of resources whereas the high ranking individuals do it as a means of inspiration. The players of Eternal Crusade are just regular members of the various armies to start, so I don't really see an issue with making facial definition a Cash Shop option. My opinion is even further reinforced by the various Veterans and Elites that wear a helmet anyways regardless of their status (for instance, Kayvaan Shrike). I wouldn't mind a "face coupon" being some sort of rare drop, or purchasable with experience/requisition/the in-game currency.
I agree with most of what OP has said. I'm skeptical of glowing weapons, though. Glowing bits will make for easy targets, especially at night time. I also don't think that what weapon a person is using should be so easily given away. Knowing what weapon your enemy is using should come with experience and not what color of glowstick they are. I also don't think faces should be microtransactions. Two of the four factions don't have the same helmet restrictions as loyalist Marines, being Chaos and Orkz, and I'm uncertain what the Eldar say on the issue. Seems lame to say that all factions should have to pay for their faces because one has restrictions on it.
Just do it like most mmo out there, give an option to turn off the helmet and its solved. Dont have to involve cash shop and stuff.
Why? Whether the enemy player is wielding a Heavy Bolter or a Lascannon is incredibly important information. One is less effective at long range due to scatter but a borderline instant kill at close range due to the sheer amount of projectiles it produces, whereas the other one is essentially an enormous sniper rifle making it deadly and accurate at long range but unwieldy and unreliable in close combat due to its rate of fire. There's nothing wrong with making reading these weapons more intuitive, especially considering that the amount of firepower offered by these weapons is enormous. To use Space Marine for an example, instant (or near instant) kill weapons are most common with Devastators and Havocs - each one of their weapons affords the player the potential to kill an enemy instantly or near instantly. Tacs and Salts only have one weapon of this kind each (the Melta and the Hammer/Maul, respectively) and the rest of their quick kill loadouts require specific perk setups. Also, adding emissive indicators to normal weapons opens up a venue for "stealth" versions of weapons that are silent (or quieter) and do not make as much as a visual impact by being equipped at the cost of a lower damage output, meaning more weapon options for players. Eldar tend to be unanimously masked unless they're a Farseer (and even then they often wear helmets), and Chaos tend to be masked in some way as well unless they're important or they're a Heretic. About the only faction that doesn't commonly wear helmets of some kind are the Orks, in which case they can get pimped out Teef or nose rings or Hair Squigs for their facial customization options. I just don't like the idea of a bunch of supposedly rank and file soldiers getting the option to dress up like veterans and elites "just because". I feel that sort of thing has to be earned.
