Does SOE only have one art team that shifts from game to game after each launch?

[Miffy]

I'm just curious because I've played SOE games since Everquest, though I haven't really played one since 2005 apart from DCUO but I literally completed it in a weekend and haven't returned since.

Note to SOE, first impressions are important!


What I always find is their production values are in a game while it is in development and then once it is released everything after sucks. It is like programmers decide to create the art and the paid artists move onto their next project or expansion. The exception though is the SWG UI because that was obviously programmer art from the start, I still don't understand how they launched with that.... though with final sound effects just being put to some guns in PS2 now, I kinda do lol.

I'm not going to comment on EQ because that is subjective but I hate the direction that game has gone in general and that is why my EQ fix comes from project 1999 because SOE couldn't even do progression servers right.

However their other games like SWG we basically saw all the art being made for in in development and then any other thing added into the game after launch was rehashed. It really got worse with the NGE and those Legacy quests though because all they did was copy and paste bunker and cave over and over again. Then they copied and pasted terminals that were so out of place and just put random NPCs everywhere. The funny thing is also they obviously just used a random generator instead of crafting them for the quest.

I think in fact the only interesting pieces of art put into SWG since launch came in the form of The Trading Card game. I looked at some of those items and they had time and care put into them.......... shame nothing as a quest reward or anything for crafters wasn't another bit of junk from somewhere else in the game.

SOE doesn't like to pay attention to the details and improve a game slowly like say CCP, Blizzard or Valve do. I mean these are great examples who look after their games and take years to evolve them. CCP especially I find amazing how they have never forgotten the vision of their MMO EVE Online, it stays as hardcore as ever and the players trust them as stick around. Where as SOE haven't gotten any trust because they butcher their games, piss their players off and I'm sorry but the only people who go to their Fan Faire are the stereotypical geeks from the 80s who have now all grown up and are in their 40s.

Has SOEs mindset changed? I really though so in beta, I honestly though that maybe I could trust SOE again. I thought that they were finally pulling out all the stops to making Planetside 2 be a success. Then however they decided to announce a launch date for November and only giving themselves a month to fix the issues. It was pretty obvious that the issues were not going ot be fixed in a month and knowing SOE they wont ever be fixed. Instead SOE usually try to fix something by breaking 5 more things and then doing some major overhaul and scaring everyone off.

Remember Planetside? The game never had the greatest art but at least everything in the game at launch looked reasonably well for what the engine could do. I have to ask apart from the Lodestar and Skyguard do any of you remember anything added after launch that you liked? The Caverns looked like shit, seriously I could have shit out better designs than that. That isn't even insulting to the developers as they obviously feel the same, 3 months to make an expansion........ I wouldn't feel proud of that mess.

Who remembers that amazing map added for The Bending which was another event that was obviously put together in 5 mins? It was like a draft done in a meeting by John Smedley himself and they took it literally and copied it. What about those 4 islands no one ever went to? I don't remember them either, though to be fair Oshur wasn't exactly amazing, other than being the first cont I landed on when I did Instant Action lol. BFRS? They looked as retarded as anything, I had friends who never played the game before but saw me playing and laughed at how bad they looked. I returned later on to see the FlameThrower and I just quit lol, I mean seriously is that the best you could come up with for a new weapon? I spose no one is to blame for that though as PS must of had only 1 developer at that point.

Planetside surely suffered largely to SWG and EQ2 draining resources away from it, those games obviously were far more important than this small time experiment. Then what is EQ2's excuse? People hated the character models from day one, then for some reason in beta you decided to make Human Females look like crack heads and give everyone this weird granny skin effect later on. It has been like 8 years since the launch and you still haven't redone what is easily one of the worst things about the game. I have friends who saw the character models and just quit the game before even playing. I don't care how many people say those Asian models are there to fix it, they look so stupid to the rest of EQ2s art style I don't count them.

EQ2 hasn't been so bad art wise really but what pissed me off is how you've made no effort to update it. All that really has been done is it changed from a more high realistic fantasy to WoW. People can argue that all they want but it is plain to see and Smedley wouldn't even deny it. I personally loved the art style that was been going for in the alpha but it all changed for the beta and then changed again down the line to compete with WoW. I just hate the world now, it feels all cheap and cartoony, the textures look so pixelated and weird like Bump mapping gone wrong or something. It took years and years to get new Armour designs and even now I still see that same Death Knight mask because there is nothing better. I remember having a Death Knight Horse for that matter and it was a complete joke, didn't even get a new model for like a year and I floated above it for ages.


I really could go on about SOE's post art but with Planetside 2 it gets no better. I cannot believe how all the weapons look, sound, animate and have the same effects and yet you're still bringing out "new" weapons that are the same thing. How did any of you think the new MCG model as a good idea? Do you even know what a MCG is? People who like to use it want to run and gun and not take cover. All you have done with it SOE is made it like every other gun in the game, well done. The Lasher looks no different, the JH looks like a Rifle, sounds like a rifle (to me as a TR)... in fact what is up with the bullet effects? I constantly get killed by Libs without knowing because their gun fire looks like a pistol hitting my tank but taking a third health per shot away.

I'm embarrassed for the person who has to clone the same bases over and over again on the future conts because you cannot be bothered to create something new. I mean I have an idea, what about that concept art city? I would love to have an infantry cont, you know something new. Though I bet every cont from now on will use the same bases, will look the same, very square but just have a different colored texture. What is the next one going to be, your Lava Cont? Like we're playing Mario 64 or something. Why are they called conts where they're clearly planets? There are 2 other planets in the sky which look so similar, it's a bit dumb to have Planets so close together for a start, will you keep adding them in as the game progresses?

It really isn't hard to make weapon models, in fact I've seen lots of them being made by people on the forums, rip those off if you have to, they look a lot better than the same old thing.


I just don't get what is going on, has everyone moved to EQ3 already? If not then when this game has no one playing like the rest of SOEs games after 6 months, they'll all be there lol. I really don't get how SOE doesn't get the player....

I'd rather see SOE do a TF2 and let players make and sell weapons on the store at this point, that or get whoever designed SWGs TCG items to make some.