RavenX

Join Date 10/2008

+194

movies, Movies, and MORE MOVIES!

Flavor movies, don't leave them out

One thing I like in these types of games are event movies. Little three to four second movies that pop up when you have a semi unique event happen. Like a new born to the family, or a child's death, or a storm at sea sinks a ship, or a dragon raids a town, or an undead army rises from the site of a great battle of the past. There are all kinds of things in Elemental that could trigger events and as such trigger event movies. These little cut scene movies add a Ton of Flavor to any game. There's always a few guidelines some Devs forget though when adding these flavor movies.

1) There should be LOTS of different Movies.

2) The player should be able to "click" or otherwise skip the Movie if they so chose.

3) Always include a option in the "Settings" to turn the Movies off entirely. After 50 or 60 times the player can get tired of watching even the coolest 4 second Movie. Also these Movies can slow performance on some machines.

Again I can't stress enough how much FLAVOR these types of little touches add to 4X games or games in general. Empire Total War has a movie when two of your Spies duel. Sadly though none of the other events have movies. This is a bad thing to do. Either have a bunch of event movies, or don't have any at all. Don't get Lazy and only have one like Empire Total War. If time is a factor then only do a few event Movies and add more later in a patch or expansion.

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Wintersong

Join Date 07/2006

+235

From a non modding point of view and of someone who doesn't have to care about the effort they take and the money they cost, I totally agree.

From a modding point of view, pop-ups for me, thanks. They don't need to be animated (altough that's always nice) but would make easier to have custom ones.

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Or the ability to "play" several picture in order, like a slideshow. So you would be able to create "events" that could tell stories or things like that .. that would let mod-maker the ability to customize even more the games.

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Wintersong

Join Date 07/2006

+235

Quoting vieuxchat,

reply 2

Or the ability to "play" several picture in order, like a slideshow. So you would be able to create "events" that could telle stories or things like that .. that would let mod-maker the ability to customize even more the games.

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Really? I don't really care about event movies usually, but ah well.

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Normally I don't give a stuff about event movies: they get old and I turn them off. The crusade videos from Medieval 2 Total War get my history sense tingling though - very atmospheric.

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2422

We actually plan to have a ton of little event movies in this.

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Quoting Frogboy,

reply 6

We actually plan to have a ton of little event movies in this.

Thank you Frogboy. Stardock rocks!!!

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Quoting Frogboy,

reply 6

We actually plan to have a ton of little event movies in this.

I'm curious how many movies will actually 'make the cut'. Surely there will be some movies which simply aren't up to whatever standards are set out

Would it be possible to include movies (and other assets) that don't make the final version of the game so that modders can utilize them?

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I'm not opposed in principle, but I'd prefer the same amount of money that went into making all these movies, went in to making content instead. Movie fluff is worth a "gee whiz" the first time you see it, and skipped evey time thereafter ( which the game hopefully lets you do...otherwise movies become a curse). Content is forever, and pays dividends in every single game.

I'm not saying "no movies". I'm just saying in the end, theyre not that important.

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Denryu

Join Date 07/2006

+93

Quoting Frogboy,

reply 6

We actually plan to have a ton of little event movies in this.

/clap! I really like the little Galciv2 movies, and I still watch them after many games-and I bet they are probably a lot of fun for you guys to make! I am definitely a gameplay b4 eye candy gamer, BUT there is nothing wrong with some sizzle as long as the steak is good!

And one thing that will make these awesome is if you don't see every one every single game. How awesome will it be if you are on your 20th game and find one of these "easter eggs" that you have never seen before! Not that I am disagreeing with Bingjack's sentiment at all - gameplay > all.

One thing that was awesome about MoM was every spell that you researched and every major spell that you cast you got a little "movie" like when you summoned a creature there was the little animation of your character and the creature coming out of the flames - a far cry from a movie it was just a little animation, but it made it so that without taking a lot of programming resources you could get these little accomplishment animations. So I would like some cutscenes but also some non resource intensive ways of giving the player a little "attaboy" for his achievements.

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Wintersong

Join Date 07/2006

+235

Quoting Raven X,

reply 7

Quoting Frogboy,
reply 6
We actually plan to have a ton of little event movies in this.

Thank you Frogboy. Stardock rocks!!!

Hey! That sounds like if Stardock didn't rock if they were not to use little event movies!!!

I totally agree with Strand but not just for the movies. Add icons, pics... whatever. We cannot allow the efforts of the art team to go waste, right?

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Quoting Wintersong,

reply 11

Hey! That sounds like if Stardock didn't rock if they were not to use little event movies!!!

Ahh, no m'lady. Stardock would Rock no matter what!!!

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Wintersong

Join Date 07/2006

+235

Quoting Raven X,

reply 12

Ahh, no m'lady.

m'what?

It's the boobs, right?

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Quoting Wintersong,

reply 13

Quoting Raven X,
reply 12

Ahh, no m'lady.

m'what?

It's the boobs, right?

You're not a lady? lol, my bad. Actually it was the name "Wintersong". That coupled with the "boobs" made me think you were a girl. Sorry about that.

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Wintersong

Join Date 07/2006

+235

No worries, just tought I should mention it.

Wintersong is girlish? Hehehe My fault for not considering those details when chosing nickname.

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You're not a lady? lol, my bad. Actually it was the name "Wintersong". That coupled with the "boobs" made me think you were a girl. Sorry about that.

No, no, Winter is (as far as I know) male. He does, how ever, have a little bit of a fascination with certain areas of female anatomy....... especially as avatars.....

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Quoting Scoutdog,

reply 16

have a little bit of a fascination with certain areas of female anatomy

Ahh but don't we all?

It's often said we spend 9 months coming out....and the rest of our lives trying to get back in...LoL

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Ahh but don't we all?

It's often said we spend 9 months coming out....and the rest of our lives trying to get back in...LoL

To each his (or her?) own, I guess.... I have more important things to do with my time than try and most likely fail to procreate........

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When you're married some times it seems like all your spouse wants to do is "procreate"..lol. It's usually a good thing.

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Wintersong

Join Date 07/2006

+235

Quoting Scoutdog,

reply 16

You're not a lady? lol, my bad. Actually it was the name "Wintersong". That coupled with the "boobs" made me think you were a girl. Sorry about that.No, no, Winter is (as far as I know) male. He does, how ever, have a little bit of a fascination with certain areas of female anatomy....... especially as avatars.....

I could be a female using a (familar) male's account (and credit card for the games!!!).

It wouldn't be the first time someone find difficult to belive that I'm actually a man (which shouldn't be so difficult considering that there are no women in internet

About that "fascination" there is really none. Female avatars would be different tough (and certain story with a certain female charcter had its reason... but could never develop it properly for the joke to blossom) and if we are talking real women, then I would have fascination for the whole package (yes, even for that part inside of the body part known as head, go figure).

But I take evil joy, when selecting avatars, in mocking myself and the prediction of certain seer that I'd be born a girl. At least in avatars because I don't take "girlish" nicknames on purpose. The current "boobs" of my avatar are responsability of Luckmann.

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It wouldn't be the first time someone find difficult to belive that I'm actually a man (which shouldn't be so difficult considering that there are no women in internet ).

Offcourse there are women on the internet, I know both of them...

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