Originally posted by azzamasin
So we are talking about games featuring many unbelievable and fantastical things that make absolutely no sense.  Such as magic, elves, dragons, jumping/running like a boss, and being able to instantly materialize horses out of thin air.  Then you want to complain about somethign that is aboviously used to show of art style of the weapons.  Using a sheath is silly in the context of of a game because it hides the weapon models.

You are clearly missing the point.

However, you did bring up something interesting about the horses. You are right. They shouldn't just appear out of thin air. Instead, my character should whistle. After whistling, my horse should run to me from off the screen. That's much more realistic :) Seriously.

Originally posted by Quizzical

Originally posted by BadSpock

Because take every weapon in the game and add +1 for every.single.one to create a model/texture for the sheathed version.

Well, you "could" cheat and have every 1H sword look the same when sheathed for example and reduce the workload by a whole hell of a lot, but people would complain about that too.

Would it be unrealistic to create maybe 3-4 sheathed models/textures for each weapon type?

I don't think so.

But when so many weapons have different handles as well as shaped blades.... you see the problem.

Damned if you do - damned if you don't.

It works in the Zelda example because EVERY player of Zelda has the same sword...

^^^^^ this, basically.

Making characters visibly sheathe and unsheathe their weapons is very doable, but it's a lot of work.  It's a question of priorities and where you want to put the work in developing a game.  Would a game be better if it only had 2/3 as many armor and weapon options, but had an animation to properly sheathe every single weapon in the game?  Would it be better if you had just as many armor and weapon options, but the options are just different textures on a few basic shapes, and in exchange, there are animations created to sheathe and unsheathe those few shapes?

That's a matter of opinion, and you could reasonably argue that yes, it would be better.  But my guess is that most players would disagree and want more varied weapons and armors.

It's not really a performance issue, as the performance hit is pretty minor.  The performance hit of drawing a sheathe or holster on every fighting character is probably in the low single-digit percentages.  The performance hit of having a separate animation to sheathe and unsheathe weapons basically consists of using a little bit of extra memory (both system memory and video memory), plus maybe a slight performance hit for switching vertex data an extra time or two per frame, but that's so small that it would be unmeasurable unless you put code into the game engine for the specific purpose of measuring it.

It can be done without much work.

Aion, although they don't have weapon sheaths, completely removed the complex character animations that are used to "holster" weapons.

Instead of having a series of holstering character animations, they instead used a few squiggly flashes of light when transferring the weapon from your hands to your back. It worked.

They can simply have two models for each weapon: 1 weapon and 1 sheathed version of the weapon. When you click "holster weapon", it will simply show the holstered version of the weapon on your back.

More 3D modeling? Not really. After the sheath is made, it can be used to fit a variety of swords. Just copy the hilt from any sword and place it on top of the sheath. Just copy the back of any gun and place it on top of a holster.

Originally posted by colddog04

Originally posted by mmoDAD

Originally posted by Hedeon

hope you know 2 of the games are from 2004, while talking about post 2011 games...

either way am all for details, this topic just havent really been something that have bothered me so far though....and looking at the replies so far, I guess there is your answer to why developers doesnt do it

I thought the same thing until I experienced it in the AoC beta. Since then, I've been yearning for it. It's like the first time you taste chocolate or something...

 

Moreover, most of the replies here are from people who do nothing but complain. The forum is a game for them - a port to vent.

To me, it looks like you have nothing better to do than complain. You are complaining about something that seems so extremely trivial to me, it feels almost cartoonish. You may think you have some kind of higher ground on complaining about ridiculous features, but I assure you, your complaints are absolutely bargain basement complaints.

If this means nothing to you, then why do you linger like a fart to stink up the discussion? If you aren't concerned with such add-ons, then move along and stop bumping the thread.

My goodness. lol.

For me, the weapon sheath is another great way to customize more of my character, e.g., changing the color of it or adding an emblem (like capes in some games). More is better. Stop acting like I'm asking to replace the importance of PvE / PvP with the development of weapon sheaths.

A great game will have it all.

I've played MMOs since the launch of SWG. I've used xfire maybe one or two times...  years and years ago.

Come to think of it, I don't know anyone that uses xfire...  and I have numerous gaming pals.

Originally posted by Hedeon

hope you know 2 of the games are from 2004, while talking about post 2011 games...

either way am all for details, this topic just havent really been something that have bothered me so far though....and looking at the replies so far, I guess there is your answer to why developers doesnt do it

I thought the same thing until I experienced it in the AoC beta. Since then, I've been yearning for it. It's like the first time you taste chocolate or something...

Moreover, most of the replies here are from people who do nothing but complain. The forum is a game for them - a port to vent.

Originally posted by colddog04
2X more time spent on the sheath portion of weapon development time please. Other issues are of less importance!

This type of response is just sassy. With this logic, why bother spending time to add different hair styles, facial details, or deeper character customization options?

Originally posted by BadSpock

Because take every weapon in the game and add +1 for every.single.one to create a model/texture for the sheathed version.

Well, you "could" cheat and have every 1H sword look the same when sheathed for example and reduce the workload by a whole hell of a lot, but people would complain about that too.

Would it be unrealistic to create maybe 3-4 sheathed models/textures for each weapon type?

I don't think so.

But when so many weapons have different handles as well as shaped blades.... you see the problem.

Damned if you do - damned if you don't.

It works in the Zelda example because EVERY player of Zelda has the same sword...

It shouldn't be hard to copy the hilt from a sword and place on a sheath. I don't care if there is only 1 sheath model, so long as there is at least something.

Originally posted by Quirhid

You could use your imagination. Say the character's backs or the weapons themselves are sticky. That is why they can be carried around like that.

EDIT: In any case, not even close to a game breaking or making feature.

All I know is this:

When I was playing the first AoC Beta (when sheaths were in), I was impressed with my character. It made my character look 100% richer and 1000% more realistic.

Your character is on your screen nearly the entire time. Why should this be void?

Why are we still dealing with the primitive way weapons are holstered? While graphics and detail continue to increase, we still seem to be stuck with this "floating sword" laziness. What's really amusing is the fact that an old game like Nintendo 64's Zelda (late 90s) can do it just fine, whereas a post-2011 MMO title cannot.

The first MMORPG that I've really seen a holstered weapon work was in the Age of Conan Beta: AoC Beta Sword Sheath Video - It looked and worked great. However, it was scrapped because of clipping issues via character sizes etc.

I understand the concern for graphical clipping. However, there are other ways to make this work. For instance, having two 3D models of each weapon (one that is shealthed or holstered and one that is not). Moreover, it's not completely necessary to have a character animation that holsters the weapon. Aion had a unique way that transferred a soldier's weapon to his back without any character animations at all. It worked.

I think that it's time to get rid of "floating weapons".

STUPID

COOL

STUPID

COOL

STUPID

FRICKEN' COOL

Story, for me, ends up feeling like I'm watching some movie...but with the ability to left-click on everything. Not fun. I don't feel like me. I feel like some kid playing a pre-made character.

Story (not lore) is a single-player element.

"experience honor, sacrifice, friendship or burning vengeance"

This is all just fluff text. How can a game offer honor, sacrifice, and vengeance? lol

I think the developers don't understand it when MMO fans say "social". We want in-game social tools, e.g., incentives to use cantinas (real player gambling, social professions / skills, etc). I don't want facebook or any type of that social bacteria.

I'll avoid this one.

The op is spot on.

Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games

Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games

What does "Massive" mean to you?

"Massive PvP" = 10 Vs 10 (20 people).

Instances. Instances. Instances. Even the main world zones are instanced. If more than 30-50 people are in a zone, you will be tossed into a clone of that zone, e.g., Antonica 1, Antonica 2, etc...

The only thing "massive" is the amount of people standing in front of the Auction House. Other than that, it's pretty intimate and small, e.g., no need to really group, constant instances, arenas, warzones, battlegrounds, etc....

The "massive" of today is quite pathetic.

No. Tablets are no threat. The only other threat that will plague our terrible MMOs with more terrible MMOs are console systems. Once MMOs get big on console systems, everyone will do it. I'm sure that they will release for PC, too... but most console to PC ports suck and feel so dumbed down.

It will most likely happen.

Tablet gaming...

I'd honestly rather bust out the old NES / SNES.

Tablet gaming / Twitter / facebook = Social Bacteria.

Too much sandbox sucks.

Too much Theme Park sucks.

I have an idea....   how about a SandPark?!?

Originally posted by MMOExposed

Originally posted by Xobdnas

Title says it all. SWTOR killed 8 years of memories because it was greedy, and it couldn't last more than 8 months, just sad. If they made the themepark/sandbox hybrid we all asked for instead of VO without gameplay we would all be talking about how WOW is going FTP.

I voted No.

 

Why?

 

because SWTOR was overhyped by the community, not developers. And many people got this game for the wrong reasons (nothing gameplay related)

 

This is why this game seem like fail to the masses.

SWTOR had more ads than than player spacebar hits.

People were hyped because SWTOr marketed the heck out of it.