RPGWatch Feature: Eschalon Impressions

Sounds like a cool game. I'll have to keep an eye on this one. I like solo RPGs myself, party based ones always made me feel less connected to my characters, especially with my focus being split among them.
 
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Looking at the screenshots it looks 3d with a fixed, isometric camera like Arcanum not 2d isometric like BG or Ultima Online. You mentioned both 2d and Arcanum in this article Dhruin so I'm confused. Comparing the graphics to Arcanum may not be a compliment as there were so many criticisms about it (although I liked it in their game. Troika's choice for a demo was a mistake IMO).

Arcanum was the first game I thought of when I saw screenshots, and the demo confirmed that impression. It does look quite similar to Arcanum but more detailed although with smaller sized models.

I'm disappointed on the limited choice of a male profile but indy development can be like that. UFO:ET was like that in there was only voiceset, a man dying, even when there were female characters.

Basilisk has said they went with the human male protagonist because it fit the story they wanted to tell in Book One. Books Two and Three will apparently have a wider range of character options.

It sounds like you play a single character and not a party. Are there any Fallout like companions you can pick up instead then?

It's a single character game. Parties are being looked at for future Eschalon games, apparently.
 
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Mmm, I recall Arcanum as a 2D tiled engine - exactly the same as this. Anyway, this is a 2d, tiled, iso game -- no 3D.

Yes, I can appreciate some people thought Arcanum's graphics were a let down (I'm not one of them) but even so, I think it's a compliment for an indie project. I didn't fire up Arcanum to check the comparison but that was my gut reaction. Undoubtedly some people will play the demo, look at my compliments about the interface and so on and think "this is the minimum I expect" but when you place it in the context of the market (which is basically just Spiderweb), the presentation is so far ahead it's ridiculous. Fantastic use of colour in this GUI, by the way.

That said, Jeff's content still stands up. I think the gameplay I've seen is not dissimilar to a singleton Avernum, although Eschalon's skills are better in my opinion - particularly for rogue/sneaky characters.

On the resolution thing, I really, really wish it had gone to 1024x768 - I think they have underestimated the number of larger monitors out there and this really suits a laptop (not one of them is going to be 800x600) - I run it windowed as I did Nethergate and I can live with that.

@dte, the Might & Magic thing is probably a bit lazy on my part. It's not very similar really apart from that sort of highly-interactive not-holding-your-hand-too-much kinda classic CRPG gameplay.
 
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I'll check out the interpolation quality of the demo but I'm not expecting much. This is pretty much a show stopper for me. Blurry graphics are a huge turnoff for me :(
Yes, now that nearly everyone is using fixed-resolution monitors (ie LCDs) it's an extremely bad idea to only offer one resolution. Could have been worse, though. A lot of people have 20" 1600x1200 LCDs, so 800x600 scales into that perfectly by just quadrupling everything. If he'd picked 1024x768, it would have looked bad for just about everyone.
 
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Maybe one of our tech geniuses could create a resolution patch!! :) I don't like 800x600 on my 22" widescreen!!
 
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800x600 resolution seems odd to me. The last time I sold a monitor with this as the max was a 15" in 1995. Otherwise, I've only recently seen projectors with this. I think even HDTV's do better. I wasn't aware that some LCD's have fixed resolutions that can't do this low so is Windowed going to be the only option or will they have big black edges on the side?

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I found the definitive answer on Arcanum on terra-nova's Uber FAQ

Part 5: General Information

The Game Engine

17) How different is the art creation process than in Fallout?

Sharon Shellman 3/12/2001

All of our art was created using Maya, a 3D program. A character is modeled, textured, animated and then rendered out into sprites (the full animation, for each of the 8 rotations available in the game). The sprites are then palleted and turned into a .art file using our own custom program. Then we use a different custom program to set the speed and "action" frame on the .art file, name it appropriately, edit a .mes file to tell the game its there and then its done.

So its pre-rendered 3D models converted to 2D sprites. That explains why I thought it was 3D then. Other comments highly recommend playing it with a "3D accelerator" as its "much faster". :) Intel's website posted a bug with it with one of their old card's and advises playing it in safe mode with 3d acceleration turned off.
I am now recalling the game was designed with Directx7 but shipped with Directx8 untested. The real bug there not being the video acceleration but the way MS rendered sound in it. A feature in the DiretX Control Panel could turn this off and I think this was fixed in a patch.

A couple of other questions answered that for this reason they designed the inventory in rectangles that couldn't rotate. There is no inventory tetris in the game because they would have had to make multiple screen grabs with different lighting.

We had a recent topic on Pac Man and 2d/3d here.

---

Relevant to this thread then, perhaps Basilisk can tell us if Eschalon was rendered the same way. Were 3D graphics converted to sprites to give a more realistic appearance than standard oldskool fair?

And where did you come up with the funny name Eschalon?
 
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@dte, the Might & Magic thing is probably a bit lazy on my part. It's not very similar really apart from that sort of highly-interactive not-holding-your-hand-too-much kinda classic CRPG gameplay.
No harm done, as you're far from the first one to mention M&M with this game. Heck, Basilisk trots out the reference as well. I was curious whether the reference was due to M&M being a pillar of "old skool RPG" like Wizardry and Ultima (2 other series that keep getting mentioned) or if there were significant similarities. Thanks for clarifying.

I'm still looking at making the purchase.
 
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Good work, Dhruin, looking forward to read the full review. :)
 
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800x600 resolution seems odd to me. The last time I sold a monitor with this as the max was a 15" in 1995. Otherwise, I've only recently seen projectors with this. I think even HDTV's do better.

Arcanum came out in 2001 and it used a fixed 800x600 resolution as I recall, so we're not talking quite 1995 levels, but yeah. Besides, when Arcanum came out, most everyone was using CRTs still, which could look good in any resoution, so it wasn't as big of an issue as it is today.
I wasn't aware that some LCD's have fixed resolutions that can't do this low so is Windowed going to be the only option or will they have big black edges on the side?

It's not that they can't, it's just that whenever an LCD is used in a resolution lower than its native (maximum) resolution, the display looks a bit trashy, because what has to happen is the circuitry in the LCD converts the image up to the native resolution of the LCD, then displays it. (It's the process that ToddMcF called "interpolation" earlier...) If you're on an LCD, try some lower resolutions and then check out the quality of your text fonts to quickly see what I'm talking about.

That's in contrast to CRT displays, which can display any resolution (within the range of what's supported) natively.
 
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Interesting article Dhruin. Thanks for the preview. I agree with the Arcanum analogy, I was thinking it before your comparison came up in the text--speaking of which, I also like the idea of text-based introductions and descriptions as part of the game. They are one of the (few) things I liked about Nethergate, and they can really involve you in the story. I'm going to have to fit the demo into my Witcher crowded schedule. :)
 
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Arcanum - think BG2 in scope with choices and branching. It has an extremely flexible character development with no classes. Also, extremely unbalanced combat with guns nerfed and swords overpowered. The art direction is terrific with a Victorian feel - you can practically wipe the coal saturated sweat of the walls. But its not pretty. Its something that you ahve to get used to.

--

no demo yet - one more day
 
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I'll second Lucky's Arcanum review. There are user mods out there to remove the level cap as well as alter some annoying spell sounds in the game. For me, it was a good game that could have been great. Push on, Melvil.
 
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I've never been able to finish Arcanum, nor actually get all that far, mainly because of the sheer diversity of character development options. I get to a certain point, and want to try something else. And the cycle repeats.
Now it's a good thing that such options are there, but the kicker for me is that the game (for me) rarely makes me feel glad I made certain choices, but rather regret that I didn't do something else. On the one hand it's a superb cRPG, fully requiring the player to get into the mindset of their character but on the other it's a meta-gaming nightmare. I cannot help but find something I cannot use or find myself in a situation where I wish I had chosen a different development path.

It's infuriating! But it is a spectacularly unique and rich game.
 
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