As you'll see in the newsletter today we are asking if you prefer us to spend the remaining development time on improving graphics or adding new animations?

New animations please!!!

I would have to say animation...I think the art done so far for this project is great so animation should be the main focus up until the first release. Great work by the way...

You wanna keep it accessible to as many people as possible so forget about art for now and concentrate on moves. Besides, as the artwork gets more complex you are gonna limit the amount of characters on screen at once.

sorry about another post but as far as CAW goes, take a look at firepro, its better for being less intricate. You will never have complaints about original edits being of better quality than created edits.

I understand those who feel better graphics will make the game more accessable to the masses, but I will point out Fire Pro Returns is currently 25 on Amazon's best selling games list. It had climbed as high as 18th during the week, and was outselling Guitar Hero to be #1 on the PS2 for most of the week.

With that in mind... more moves please. :D

Yeah, this one's a no brainer. More moves please.

That's the issue that needs to be determined though. Do the complaints about the character models represent the way most people feel or are they simply a vocal minority? Is the early feedback correct and is our time better spent on more moves or do the characters really look like they desperately need work?

Yeah but we all know the people on this board are likely hardcore wrestling game fans so we should expct a huge majority who post here to ask for gameplay.

But the majority here I would bet is the minority of preorders. This is a sample of what, 50 posters? I highly doubt we reflect the market.

I say time and money in graphics will sell things more. I prefer gameplay and animation but pretty and shiny things have a way of selling themselves.

I guess it is a tough call.

On the one hand, if your screenshots look poor, you might not get the "casual" crowd that I assume Indie developers [and wrestling promoters] truly need.
On the other hand, if your characters look great, but the animation is of a lesser quality I guess people will be less likely to keep playing the game - which is probably more important. I think. Maybe.

I assume that, by now, you've built up at least a few contact in the indie production scene? This would definitely be something worth discussing with them.

Realistically, although both options do relate to graphics, it still seems like more of a "style vs substance" question.

Let's face it: the early Smackdown games had quite good looking character models, but the main thing that killed me [aside from the fact that it was on a non-Nintendo console] was that the animations were just poor. Stupid things like the way strikes were sold, the way that wrestlers hit the ground, and general collision detection were absolutely horrible and made me not want to play the game. This is something that really got in the way of me getting any enjoyment at all from playing the game.

Oh, and of course - If there's more than 2 people in the ring, and I suplex "Dude A", and his legs connect with "Dude B", Dude B SHOULD NOT TAKE DAMAGE. That was the absolute worst part of the Smackdown games. How many times in an actual wrestling match do you actually see someone use one wrestler to hurt another in that way? The amount of times that my friends and I would have a four-way match that resulted in barely any moves being pulled off was horrendous. I'd grapple someone, start to perform a move, then my friend (and, often Tag-Team Partner!) would Powerbomb another guy in our general vacinity, but because his arm barely clipped me, myself and the guy I was attempting to bust a move on would simply fall over. You'd get up and attempt your move again only to have something similar happen.

Don't let it happen to e in this game, Dave. Please.

[quote][cite] PWX_Dave:[/cite]That's the issue that needs to be determined though. Do the complaints about the character models represent the way most people feel or are they simply a vocal minority? Is the early feedback correct and is our time better spent on more moves or do the characters really look like they desperately need work?[/quote]

A couple of people I telling about said "What they need to crank those graphics up" I repied "your a dumbass"

PWX_Dave, here's my choice and reasoning.

If people want the shiniest of wrestler models, they'll tend to buy the Smackdown vs Raw's on Playstation or XBox consoles. If people want the depth of gameplay and moves - which seems to be the biggest selling point of PWX to the audience who want this, and are sick of shiny wrestler models replacing this fundamental need - then they'll try and get their hands on PWX.

PWX's calling card thus far hasn't been shiny wrestler models - not that they're poor, either - it's calling card has been gameplay and depth. To improve this depth, I give my vote to new move animations.

To add on to my earlier post. I would definitely want more animations but like to offer some constructive criticism on the wrestler models. I love everything about the models except for the faces. The body skins, Hammerlock, and lucha masks all look awesome but the faces could use a little bit of work. I believe that if they were improved the overall presentation of the wrestler would be a lot better. I hope you guys don't take that the wrong way.

[quote][cite] esteel20:[/cite]To add on to my earlier post. I would definitely want more animations but I would like to offer some constructive criticism on the wrestler models. I love everything about the models except for the faces. The body skins, Hammerlock, and lucha masks all look awesome but the faces could use a little bit of work. I believe that if they were improved the overall presentation of the wrestler would be a lot better. I hope you guys don't take that the wrong way.[/quote]

I'd say work on the animations for more moves as well. Take No Mercy for example their graghics weren't great but people loved playing the game because of the game play. Besides somtimes I prefer the the "not so perfect people models" I like the human models that Free Radical uses in their Time Spillter series.

I agree. I don't know why people flip out so much for halo. The only complaint I ever had for Time splitters is how the AI opponents could use an "evasion" manuver but you couldn't. the animations are already in there so why don't they just set a button to it?

[quote][cite] Tonzophunn:[/cite]Do the animations. Odds are that if there are problems graphically, we'll retexture them ourselves as a community *Hand linking gesture*[/quote]

No, that's a lazy idea, the developers shouldn't just say "ohh well, the fans can fix that". That's not a good idea if they want to make money.

Heres the thing, would working on the characters just set an unrealistic standard for CAW parts. We don't want eight wrestlers that will look better than any CAW once we get to that point. I think the characters look great and I think doing anything to improve them will just make it so you have to do more work when you make thousands of CAW parts. Work on moves.

[quote][cite] PunkDraco:[/cite]Heres the thing, would working on the characters just set an unrealistic standard for CAW parts. We don't want eight wrestlers that will look better than any CAW once we get to that point. I think the characters look great and I think doing anything to improve them will just make it so you have to do more work when you make thousands of CAW parts. Work on moves.[/quote]

Very true, nice thinking. That's another point for focusing on moves before graphics.

I'll add my voice to the more moves crowd.

Graphics are nice, but moves make the game.

If I want pretty graphics I'll buy a Smackdown game.

moves.

Some of those faces and hair look like ass. You should fix those so people don't laugh at you.

I think as it still stands though, faces need to be fixed first, it shouldn't be a big deal, and then focus on animations.

[quote][cite] Lj.:[/cite]Obviously, your graphics are good now as they are, so you really don't have to worry about competing, except with WWE. But they have a set style of moves, if you offer variety, substance, and a flat out alternative when it comes to moves, why not go for it?

I vote moves all the way! No matter how good a game looks, the actual gameplay/re-play value is what drives myself and most gamers to a game, so...there we are.[/quote]

And that last point is a crucial one. I know of many, many people who bought the latest Smackdown!, only to return it in a matter of days. Seems no matter how pretty the wrestler models look, it's that depth and replay value - like Lj said - which could quite convievably see those that turned off of Smackdown!, turning onto PWX in future.

I definitely feel that animations/moves are more important for Uprising. I think all that is needed is enough moves to give each of the characters enough of a different feel. Get the planned moves for each character in Uprising finished and then spend the time polishing those animations and all of the transition animations to get them looking as perfect as possible.

Characters that move in a realistic and fluid manner will serve the game far better at this point than better looking (graphically) character models that move around like robots.

I don't think it's necessary to go overboard on moves at this point. Most of the characters in Uprising can share a good chunk of basic moves depending on their style. Characters with similar styles could have largely the same basic moveset with about 8 to 10 signature moves to better define and separate them. There's no CAW in Uprising so I don't see a need to animate as many moves possible at this point, just enough to give the characters each their own feel and style.