Upgrading Visuals

[Amethyst]

So I mentioned in the news topic that I want to release this 9.5 to fix lag, but since I'm going to have to remap a lot of things anyway I also want to take some time and do a little bit of a visual upgrade on some of the more visually 'flat' areas of the game.

Before I outline what all of those are though, I want to open up the floor to feedback from all of you because my perspective will obviously be different.

My sense of it is- some locations in this game really pop. They're vibrant, full of life, colour and depth. I put a lot of work into things like the Wasteland, Apophyll, and even the Tanzan Depths- And I really feel like that shows. I'm proud of those areas, and I want to bring the others up to speed.

In particular, my focus is going to be on the indoor-dungeons and main city. Although I'm talking about 'colour' here, it's true that Reborn city itself is supposed to be a rather colourless, dark, industrial city. Nonetheless, I feel like I can at least distinguish the wards from each other a little better.

In regards to the indoor things, I dunno about you guys, but I'm getting tired of trudging through Meteor Base number X that looks exactly the same as every other one. I also feel like the Orphanage and the Slums could use some work. I want to bring these areas up to par with the other ones.

Here are some areas that I feel confident in- that I think are pretty solidly developed:

• The Grand Stairway
• Shade's Gym
• Apophyll Beach
• Azurine Island
• Byxbysion Wasteland
• Spinel Town and the Voclain Estate
• The Tanzan Depths

So here's my current working list of things that need improvement:

• Differentiate meteor base interiors
• Differentiate wards
• Visual overhaul of Obsidia Slums
• Overhaul of the Orphanage
• Make Rhodochrine feel a little more "jungle"ish.

Questions for you guys:

1. What other areas do you feel might need attention?
2. Do you disagree with anything on my list of things that are 'good'? If so, why?
3. Do you have any ideas for stuff to separate the wards/bases from each other?
4. Is there anything that you feel like was missing from any certain area? Things you may have expected to see, or thought would be cool
5. Any other ideas?

[Manes]

I haven't gone far enough, but I think that having colored sidewalks for the Wards might help. It wouldn't bring too much color into it, at least.

[Amethyst]

...Sidewalks, you say...

[Delhezi]

I really like how you did underneath the grand stairway, I don't think that needs to change.

-The Estate could have a dock on the lake in front of it.

-How bout roof color to differentiate the areas.

-For Apophyll Beach is there any way for you to create a color gradient for the sand? Like the beaches we have here in the south are white at the dunes but theres a distinct color change at the high tide mark where all the dissolved matter from the water settles and makes it darker and then down at the water it's the same "dirty" color but even darker because it is wet.

On our beaches we also have things called Groynes which are lines of rocks that run perpendicular to the beach to prevent erosion.

A lighthouse would be a cool addition (also could be where you introduce an encounter with a Flaafy/Ampharos: similar to how you had a numel encounter along with wild numel)

-For the meteor bases I think that the equipment would all be the same but the lighting should be different. For example: the factory would be dim yellow because the lights would be older. The building where you fight Sigmund/Sirius would be brighter because it is fully on the city power grid. The Cave base could have an overall dimness (maybe flickering on/off when the earthquakes happen) because the power would be coming from generators. You could make circular areas that were slightly brighter than the surrounding from the lights hanging on the cave ceiling.

[Bruce]

Hey Ame if you can get to do it, do you think you fix the ability Moxie?

[Joyrich]

Hey Ame if you can get to do it, do you think you fix the ability Moxie?

Wrong Thread Bro. Go here:http://www.pokemonreborn.com/forum/index.php?showforum=37

[Manes]

Now that I took a better look at Reborn City, I realized that the buildings have colored strips at the bases, but they're all faded green. Those could probably be colored the same as the wards' respective colors instead. (Also noticed that the doors are the same color.)

Thinking about it more, it strikes me as odd that Reborn City has no transit system. Cars exist in the Pokémon games, so why aren't they in Reborn? A transit system would liven up the place visually.

Edited July 27, 2013 by RisingManes

[Amethyst]

Once upon a time, that's part of what the Underground Railnet was for, but you can see how that ended up. xP

[Lunaethetic]

I really like Delhezi's points about the lighting, I feel it would really liven the places up.

To further his idea, you could have lamps on chains from the ceiling that would illuminate a certain area of space, leaving other places dark. This would create a better atmosphere for a cave base, in my opinion, and would also open up certain rooms to surprise trainer battles that would catch the person offguard.

Just an idea though!

[Delhezi]

To bounce off Lunaethetic the lit up areas could be moving back and fourth (because the earthquakes causing the lights hanging from the ceiling to swing)

[Manes]

Once upon a time, that's part of what the Underground Railnet was for, but you can see how that ended up. xP

Could be that the transit system was built before the rail system, and it's in disrepair now.

Alternately: flat areas for biking? That floor is largely ornamental, so...

...man, I feel sorry for whomever drove a carriage through that.

Edited July 28, 2013 by RisingManes

[Lunaethetic]

To bounce off Lunaethetic the lit up areas could be moving back and fourth (because the earthquakes causing the lights hanging from the ceiling to swing)

Tag, your it.

These ideas could also be worth using in Underground Tunnels as well. Alternatively, since Meteor seems to be pretty futuristic, you could have lights framing the base of the walls on the floors, which could lead for some dimmer lighting effects.

[RazeArmada]

i dont really see Meteor to be that futuristic. just advance in the tech side but futuristic doesnt quite suite them that much. the railnet area should be a little dimmer since its old, cold, and covered in mold (but yeah seriously). and i like Delhezi's suggestion on the Apophyll Beach area. needs more stuff you see in the beach. although i can understand that the sand is kinda dark since the place is just located near a volcano. for differentiating between wards, maybe something like a sort of border line thingy a marker.

[Delhezi]

I didn't even think about Pyrous Mountain...So realistically the beach would be a dark gray (pumice color) or black like in hawaii. Now with that in mind, you could always do the beach like hawaii. Make it black and make it different height gradients because it could be lava flows.

Kinda like this image. It could be black sand beach down by the academy but north and south of that I think it would be really cool to have lava flows, and you could make it steamy* from the lava hitting the water. This could follow the story-line as in the lava would be flowing in rivers while team meteor is messing with the volcano and then when the pulse machine is destroyed it stops and all of it on the beach cools down (at least at the south end of the beach, the north could just be continuous).

*opportunity for the use of defog. As in, you could not cross the steam because it would be scalding hot so you have to use defog to clear it so you can get by.

[Amethyst]

Although some of these things, such as the lightning and the steam stuff, are really cool I am still somewhat limited in what I can do. The extent of my lighting abilities for now are pretty much equivallent to what you see from the street lights, although I can make different shapes with them. I can't make total darkness in places where they aren't, and having them swining, while creative, would probably look terrible on the grid I'm forced on. The smoke would require a lot of transparent, animated tiles, which would actually 'cause a huge amount of lag and obscure event usage below them.

As I said before, Apophyll is somewhere that I'm actually pretty content with anyway. I wanted it to feel much more open compared to the city.

What I do have access to as far as lighting in indoor areas is-- little overlay fogs. They did a thing like this in 4th gen and I really liked its atmosphere so I might bring that back.

Sidewalks are good, little strip at building bottoms are good. Mold in the railnet sounds snazzy. Roof color is solid. I like the dock idea, especially since Laura talks about boating at some point I think if I'm not crazy.

Transit system does sound nifty but I feel like there is literally not room for it on the overworld. I mean... I think I know what you mean >>;

[Cowtao]

Some idea for visuals I guess.

1. The Cracks. I know this seems a bit weird but...Every time I look at some of the cracks on Reborn, I feel it's more like an inconvenience of editing black lines than an actual Crack. It just seems like a black line that zigzags and that's it. Maybe add some depth or shading into it to make it stick out as actual damage instead of just random black lines. Like maybe some detail of that poor old Policeman that never could.

2. Ideas for improving some areas. You could add vines onto some of the trees or add in some fruit like adding dashes of red, blue, or purple berries. You could also add other variants of trees. Like some of the more tropical trees you can find in Fortree City in the Hoenn region. Orphanage, add a dash of something mischievous. Like maybe a little "accidental" blood print, a kid that is unconscious and giving a vague reason why, or a needled doll. Something that really brings an essence that Sigmund is an evil man and should be locked up the Orphanage isn't a safe heaven. The place feels too..."Kidish." The Orphanage should be kidish but having a dash of something that makes you want to leave the Orphanage right away. To differentiate the wards it's kinda simple. Opal should be fine the way it is, Peridot should include some cigarettes on the floor or a few toxic waste barrels hanging loose, Beryl maybe adding random grass patches in places of clear cement showing the infection of the grass from Tangrowth, Coral Ward adding in some thick mist giving it it's own background and basically copying every single cheap generic oldies Scary movie genre pier possible, Lapis is fine the way it is, Onyx Ward should somehow show more prissyness in their standing in Reborn City, and Jasper to show some first signs of real peril of what's to become if the PULSE project Team Meteor is doing. The other ideas I think the others have covered so i'm not gonna touch on that.

If it seems like I am forcing this down sorry. You are the creator of the game and i'm just a baka that has some neat ideas. Hope some of these ideas work!

[Amethyst]

Don't you dare apologise for a post like that.

[Khayoz]

I do like the idea of colour-coding the Wards. Makes each one look more unique

[Cowtao]

Uhm...Did I do something wrong? ;w; Wahhh~

Also, for a Visual Overhaul of the Slums. I wouldn't exactly go overboard on it. Make it more of a crazed up area for vagrants and thieves to hide in with broken glass and bottles, stolen needles, and other needs. The style you have with the slums right now is just fine but it could be a little more but not to the point that it's gonna scare you away. You already have enough cracks, scattered objects, and talking boxes as is. To add a lot more seems a bit of overkill. It seems more of a hideout or a place to get stoned or wasted rather than a place to find many wired trainers. Y'know, just a recommendation. ;~;

Edited July 28, 2013 by Cowtao

[Joyrich]

Uhm...Did I do something wrong? ;w; Wahhh~

Also, for a Visual Overhaul of the Slums. I wouldn't exactly go overboard on it. Make it more of a crazed up area for vagrants and thieves to hide in with broken glass and bottles, stolen needles, and other needs. The style you have with the slums right now is just fine but it could be a little more but not to the point that it's gonna scare you away. You already have enough cracks, scattered objects, and talking boxes as is. To add a lot more seems a bit of overkill. It seems more of a hideout or a place to get stoned or wasted rather than a place to find many wired trainers. Y'know, just a recommendation. ;~;

Dude your suggestions are amazing. I hope I see some of your ideas in-game within a update.

[Soysauce]

^ Tons of amazing suggestions above!

If I may suggest some minor things. In the cities alleyways maybe you can add some writings/drawings on the walls. Sometimes you have to battle people to access those alleyways so it would make sense that people mark their territory or put something funny (no i'm not asking to put TSM in the Regi-X Special area xD).

In the Lapis Ward i guess you can add some fancy stuff/decorations/portraits in well-off people houses because they live better than in Obsidia or Peridot wards. Not too much because there are gangs who steal things sometimes... *whistle*

Oh and off topic, an alleyway/little area where everybody lies could be pretty funny, with a code or password to guess. We can distinguish different areas by their craziness or originality. I'm refering to Zozo city for those who have played FF VI.

[Ussi]

I like the wards being the same color.. It makes me feel like this is one city. I'd say keep the generic buildings the same design and color.

[Delhezi]

2. Ideas for improving some areas. You could add vines onto some of the trees or add in some fruit like adding dashes of red, blue, or purple berries. You could also add other variants of trees. Like some of the more tropical trees you can find in Fortree City in the Hoenn region.

I really like the fruit idea. It would also go along with Tropius being there.

Also since you cannot do all that much with the lighting could you just recreate the flickering that happened in Shades gym in the Tanzan Mountain Meteor Base?

Edited July 29, 2013 by Delhezi