Even in its early days, Althas has been a land shaken by conflicts. In the early days, these conflicts pitted the Anointed Kingdoms of Men against the dark and demonic forces that threatened them. However, with the passage of time the world has changed. With the Anointed order eroding away and new powers rising, another war looms on the horizon, a war brought on by Man's own actions. Thenodar, a burgeoning new kingdom in the North, and Anorthile, one of the last of the three remaining Anointed Kingdoms, now prepare for a war that will shake all of Althas. Old demons and new enemies gather in the shadows of both lands as each sets their sights on the ruined wilderness known as the Feralands.
UI design for the Player's inventory, showing item comparison.
Design: Daniel Condaxis
So judging from those images armor will always come in full body sets, with only helmets being separate and clothes can be worn underneath?
Yep, we debated long and hard about whether to separate the pieces of armour but in the end we settled for this way. It of course limits the player's combustibility, but it gives us a lot more artistic freedom so we can hopefully make every piece of armour realistic and interesting without having to worry about technical issues.
There will be plenty of armour to choose from though, so you'll still have plenty of choice :)
I like the UI design! About the armor system I would prefer Oblivion style armor system where each piece is separate.It gives a huge amount of freedom and fewer models and the technical issues is something that can be easily overcomed if some basic principles are set (programming and modeling).
Also I assume the inventory size will be bigger than in the picture (with a scrollbar)?
We've found this way gives us much more artistic flexibility when it comes to joining areas which will enable us to better use cloth physics and such. This way also reduces the number of separate models significantly and allows us to focus on quality rather than quantity.
It certainly will be, the exact number of slots comes with balancing, but it'll be expandable for sure.
As Dan was saying, its easier for modelers. There's a reason why the Elder Scrolls games have less and less Equipment slots (Morrowind and Daggerfall had even then Oblivion in case you forgot).
However, we do have a Back slot, and the Rucksack and Bag slots (while they may not be visible on the character) gives a nice progression of Inventory space (much like DayZ).
Yeah, I remember back in Morrowind even shoulders were separate. Then it got less and less, with Fallout 3 only having full body sets, until they kind of went back a step in Fallout 4 again.
But don't get me wrong, there are benefits to both systems and I can completely understand why you chose to have full body sets. I fully agree that this way, it's way easier to create good looking armor sets with a consistent design.
Way too often in certain games I have found myself not equipping a superior item because it just looked stupid together with my other gear.
Agreed. Also I can certainly say though, with the provided upsides of what we're currently trying to do with the body set armors. We're aiming to provide the best of that.
We hope it won't be too long before we get to show you what we're working on in that department. Thanks for the feedback!
I agree with pkyrkos. It's nice being able to mix and match differing armor sets even if I just end up wearing matching armor from a single set. Also I can see why you would rather go with armor sets instead of a modular system.
As for the backpack system I really like it. Especially the idea of dropping them before combat to get ride of their debuffs. A while back I was in a discussion dealing with a pretty similar concept so it's nice to see this level of immersion is also being sought after by you guys.
Still not too sure whether I prefer "grid" inventory systems like what you guys are planning on using or the "list" inventory systems like Oblivion uses. On one hand I like being able to see how much "space" an item takes up but on the other hand I find lists easier to navigate and I consider them to be easier to develop since you don't need custom icons for them.