Re: Loew's Ambient Pack for EE2 1.5 (Final)
Posted: 19 Apr 2019, 16:11
OK first things first:
@Loewenherz, I believe you don't quite realise how incredibly important this Ambient Pack is potentially to me! The community is small so feedback will come in slowly but I just wanted to say - I only just installed the 1.5 normal version and have been checking out your pack in the editor - THANK YOU for doing what seems to be nothing short of a FANTASTIC job!
Now for some quick feedback (hopefully constructive criticism):
- new animals are welcome but it is a shame that the new models do not live up to the standards of the official models: the bear is too low poly (it would fit in the original Empire Earth), so I won't be using it; the crocodile and rhinoceros fair better, until you notice how they animate in-game (only the rhinoceros is OK, but even then, the tail always inexplicably goes between its legs), with the crocodile literally never opening its mouth and letting out a dog's howl when dying... not usable in current state. The rabbit however is totally fine BUT not animated - only usable in a cinematic I guess.
- HOWEVER, the ability to give animal units to the player - most notably cows and goats - is GREAT, and they even make appropriate sounds when selected, so for my scenario ideas this would be perfect... just a shame that the livestock don't give food in this form (like sheep or turkey would - even when controlled by the player - in Age of Empires 2 and its expansion), so for example in a given setup I would need to have the cattle be controllable by the player in a scenario where you need to migrate, and then upon arriving at the new settlement, I would have to "replace" (delete and spawn immediately) the cattle with normal cattle (under the Animals category) that is non-controllable but can be used as a food source!
- "upgrading" the wolf unit to be lethal is good (and the wolf 1.5 unit animates better when running compared to the default wolf, so an overall improvement there), why not the same with tigers and lions? N.B.: one thing which definitely feels half-assed in Empire Earth 2 is how they made predators overall, with barely acceptable animations, and no sound when attacking! This would be nice to improve (and it's possible in light of what you did with the elephant - see below)
- the elephant 1.5 unit is also a much appreciated upgrade which feels logical: the attack animation is still weak but at least the creature emits an appropriate crying sound when attacking!
- if anything, while the totally new creatures as they currently stand are not usable for me, this pack still allows me to do a few more things with existing animals (very important for my first campaign idea, where prehistory plays a role), so thanks for that!
- as for all the rest: no complaints, it's usually great and systematically usable!!! I love the new ambient elements whether they are ruins of ancient civilisations or just rocks with tropical plants on them - and bridges too! And icebergs! (I could nitpick about the stone textures for Stonehenge which could have been higher resolution, but that's a detail) Great work, I think the only thing that is probably not very usable is the attempt at making an asset for waterfalls - I haven't tested the sheets in-game, but in the editor they seem completely static and without particle effects the water falling would probably seem artificial.
I hope this feedback is of some use! Note: I am not a modeler or animator (though I wanted to start using Blender), so I could not do what you did, and while I still hold out hope for more assets in the future (including better animals and animations/sounds), if I start looking into this I would probably be limited to acquiring existing assets from elsewhere (like free for non-commercial use, stuff like that), and trying to import them into the game.
Now onto something else:
- is there no way for this pack to work in the Developers version of 1.5?
- is there a way to play a scenario/campaign in AoS (with Normal 1.5 version) which has these new assets when selecting "No" for the Unlock UP1.5 units etc. option? This is because I want to play without the new camera, which IMHO shows that the game was not really designed with that ground camera ability in mind (the sky can look good in a well-made cinematic, but in-game the new camera allows to see the sky through the interior of buildings etc.)
Cheers and thanks again for sharing your awesome work with the community!!
@Loewenherz, I believe you don't quite realise how incredibly important this Ambient Pack is potentially to me! The community is small so feedback will come in slowly but I just wanted to say - I only just installed the 1.5 normal version and have been checking out your pack in the editor - THANK YOU for doing what seems to be nothing short of a FANTASTIC job!
Now for some quick feedback (hopefully constructive criticism):
- new animals are welcome but it is a shame that the new models do not live up to the standards of the official models: the bear is too low poly (it would fit in the original Empire Earth), so I won't be using it; the crocodile and rhinoceros fair better, until you notice how they animate in-game (only the rhinoceros is OK, but even then, the tail always inexplicably goes between its legs), with the crocodile literally never opening its mouth and letting out a dog's howl when dying... not usable in current state. The rabbit however is totally fine BUT not animated - only usable in a cinematic I guess.
- HOWEVER, the ability to give animal units to the player - most notably cows and goats - is GREAT, and they even make appropriate sounds when selected, so for my scenario ideas this would be perfect... just a shame that the livestock don't give food in this form (like sheep or turkey would - even when controlled by the player - in Age of Empires 2 and its expansion), so for example in a given setup I would need to have the cattle be controllable by the player in a scenario where you need to migrate, and then upon arriving at the new settlement, I would have to "replace" (delete and spawn immediately) the cattle with normal cattle (under the Animals category) that is non-controllable but can be used as a food source!
- "upgrading" the wolf unit to be lethal is good (and the wolf 1.5 unit animates better when running compared to the default wolf, so an overall improvement there), why not the same with tigers and lions? N.B.: one thing which definitely feels half-assed in Empire Earth 2 is how they made predators overall, with barely acceptable animations, and no sound when attacking! This would be nice to improve (and it's possible in light of what you did with the elephant - see below)
- the elephant 1.5 unit is also a much appreciated upgrade which feels logical: the attack animation is still weak but at least the creature emits an appropriate crying sound when attacking!
- if anything, while the totally new creatures as they currently stand are not usable for me, this pack still allows me to do a few more things with existing animals (very important for my first campaign idea, where prehistory plays a role), so thanks for that!
- as for all the rest: no complaints, it's usually great and systematically usable!!! I love the new ambient elements whether they are ruins of ancient civilisations or just rocks with tropical plants on them - and bridges too! And icebergs! (I could nitpick about the stone textures for Stonehenge which could have been higher resolution, but that's a detail) Great work, I think the only thing that is probably not very usable is the attempt at making an asset for waterfalls - I haven't tested the sheets in-game, but in the editor they seem completely static and without particle effects the water falling would probably seem artificial.
I hope this feedback is of some use! Note: I am not a modeler or animator (though I wanted to start using Blender), so I could not do what you did, and while I still hold out hope for more assets in the future (including better animals and animations/sounds), if I start looking into this I would probably be limited to acquiring existing assets from elsewhere (like free for non-commercial use, stuff like that), and trying to import them into the game.
Now onto something else:
- is there no way for this pack to work in the Developers version of 1.5?
- is there a way to play a scenario/campaign in AoS (with Normal 1.5 version) which has these new assets when selecting "No" for the Unlock UP1.5 units etc. option? This is because I want to play without the new camera, which IMHO shows that the game was not really designed with that ground camera ability in mind (the sky can look good in a well-made cinematic, but in-game the new camera allows to see the sky through the interior of buildings etc.)
Cheers and thanks again for sharing your awesome work with the community!!