About them Graphics

[Patriarch of Bub]

To sum it up for me:

- UI look bland, uninspired and minimalist
- Characters look cartoonish
- Map looks empty and lacking color

So, if I have few concerns regarding the mechanics - as CK3 is being built on the shoulders of a giant by the same designer - I am not sold in the least at the graphics in their present state.

I feel kind of bad, considering some people clearly worked hard on the looks, but currently I'm not sold either.

I think that graphics have been proven as really important in ck2, with many graphical updates release over the years and people pretty much demanding every original face replaced by better ones.

Updating these won't be as simple as making a portrait pack :/

 

[Kadayi]

I'm ok with the character appearance tbh. It's an inevitability that they are going to have to looks cartoonish to a degree (ala Sims serries) simply in order for the game to be able to generate, maintain and adapt the appearance of 1000s of characters, especially given there's the matter of bloodlines and pre-existing dynasties to handle also. I think the main issue is more the sort of resting bitch face dead stare they seem to have in the screenshots.

Personally I'd like to see if not animations, then maybe some expressions/tableaus based on focuses, temperament, current health etc to add a bit more life and personality to things. Like say you buy your wife new jewellery or clothes, let's see that reflected in her appearance for instance.

Also what I'm hoping for is that with the inherited appearance aspect is it's not a simple 50/50 transfer between the parents but one with some wild variation. We've all met those kids before which are basically mini-me versions of one parent versus an amalgam where the egg or sperm just turned up to get the cloning process rolling. I want to see that in effect.

 

[Patriarch of Bub]

I think the main issue is more the sort of resting bitch face dead stare they seem to have in the screenshots.

You got me laughing


I also want to bring attention to this detail we can see in the second screenshot.

Glitterhoof? That you?
One can only speculate what it's going through right now.

 

[Wenceslaus II.]

Glitterhoof? That you?
One can only speculate what it's going through right now.

That looks more like a donkey, than a horse.
I'd imagine that's the stubborn trait.

 

[Dmitrius]

Not sure I like the traits mechanic being reduced to 3 or so traits. I just hope traits aren't so easy to lose.

Stewardship bouncing all over the place was always a bit of a pain.

 

[Fulbert]

Actually I quite like the terrain. The interface does indeed look a bit dark and drab but the map itself is much better than what we used to have in CK2. The vegetation there was so brightly toxic green that I felt like it was giving me superpowers every time I accidentally opened the terrain map mode. The darker green looks more realistic and aesthetically pleasing to me. Hopefully the boreal forests of Northern and Eastern Europe will look different from the Mediterranean landscapes and Indian jungles and it's not all the same hue everywhere there isn't sand.
I do hope they tweak the interface before the game is released though.

 

[Dmitrius]

Why is there no farmlands and roads? The map looks sterile...

I was hoping for something more tbh. Would be nice if the map could become more exploited with farmlands and roads etc when development is increased.

Yeah, say what you want about imperator the map is nothing short of gorgeous.

 

[Akbar The Great]

I absolutely love what I've seen visually from CKIII, anyone would think CKII was a graphical masterpiece - it isn't.

 

[solamyas]

I feel kind of bad, considering some people clearly worked hard on the looks, but currently I'm not sold either.

I think that graphics have been proven as really important in ck2, with many graphical updates release over the years and people pretty much demanding every original face replaced by better ones.

Updating these won't be as simple as making a portrait pack :/

In fact updating these would be easier and simpler than making a portrait pack for CK2 since most tedious part of CK2 portrait workflow wouldn't needed for CK3 portraits. CK2 portraits were sculpted in 3D and then rendered to create slices of different parts of a face. But CK3 portraits would just rigged with bones without prerendering on 3rd party render engines or slicing a rendered image on Photoshop.

 

[Bearnest]

I think a major culprit in the "cartooney" feel the 3D characters give is the skin texture used for, and the lighting applied to them.
I was recently playing Dark Souls II, and for a game in which you look at your character from behind and with a helmet on for like 98% of the time, it has an amazing character creation system, with very realistic skin texture, and on top of that is a game released in 2014; that is at least a year before Pdox starting to work on CK3.

 

[Cardolam]

I think a major culprit in the "cartooney" feel the 3D characters give is the skin texture used for and the lighting applied to them.

Absolutely.

I play Elite Dangerous and in that game we have full 3D models of our characters. Those are not childish or "cartooney" but instead realistic. If they want to go 3D, it should be the path trodden by CK3.

 

[Patriarch of Bub]

Having read the bigger thread where graphics are discussed i want to clarify my position.

I understand that the 3d models are used for the new implementation of characters.

I like the civ6 graphics because they are coherent and (for me) civilization isn't a game that provides immersion, so i don't mind, it's like having a boardgame or a toy.

I could buy the new ck3 art style, character, events, map, UI, but only if the current state is revamped to have more colour, offering more immersion, and being able to stand out. It's just too bland, generic, and even forgettable.

Does anyone remember the UI of Heroes of Might and Magic 2?
It always stood out to me and really fit the theme of the game.