Broccoli just sent me a link to the 1.08 trailer he's been working on for showing off 1.08. My initial reaction is negative. Please watch the trailer and post your comments. In a nutshell, I'd say it has too much focus on text regarding the story and not enough focus on 1.08 and everything new. http://web.omnidrive.com/APIServer/public/7EnewbcrPo1NJtPIEAh8ImeP/empires_108_trailer.avi Update: Here's version 2 of the trailer: http://www.empiresmod.com/1_08_was_here_the_whole_time/empires_108_trailer2.avi
The video had beautiful effects and good music, but that's about it. 1.) 1.08 features aren't shown at all, nor many central features like commanding, vehicle configuring, or classes. The average person will get the picture that this is merely a BF game with a new look. 2.) The style of the video is too typical. So much fading to/from black, displaying text between clips, and the casual dramatic music. This style has gotten old and boring by now. It also feels overly dramatic for a game like Empires. Some militaristic music and different transitions could be more suitable. Make people focus on the gameplay, not the explosions, tracers, and the drama (which atm. is reinforced by the music). It looks like a movie trailer, not a game trailer. 3.) The editing could've been better. Basically there's just clips of infantry/vehicle combat from various maps, and we see recognize the same maps over and over again, in a random order. I suggest you accurately demonstrate the features of the game, not the story. Demonstrate one feature at a time, don't make the clips jump to a different map so quickly (actually, footage from one map per one feature would be perfect), and make the clips way longer. 4.) The storytelling was a bit weak. The average watcher also has no idea what "Brenodi" means. 5.) It needs a long clip of a massive tank battle in the desert or somewhere open, that would win.
Whether or not the focus is not on the 1.08 new bits and is too much on other bits probably depends on who its targeted at. If its aimed at people who've already played empires then you may only want the new bits, for attracting new people to the mod then who gives a monkey's whats new and whats been around for a while? I thought it was good, it had some weird ironsight stuff in I think, which is the new stuff isnt it? Apart from the flashy bits for engineers, which it also had. It didn't have anything on the commander mode though (the bit at the end doesnt count as it could be the mini-map and anyway goes on to non-game stuff)? A good lot of vehicular combat there though. The text stuff takes up the first minute and a bit at the end, leaving around 2 min of people driving around shooting - which seems fair to me. The first minute still shows some of the maps and builds atmosphere/expectation etc for the fighty bit. I assume it was all meant to be black and white rather than my computer being weird?
The beginning was some film grain but the rest was in colour for me Oh right, the video. Yeah it was nice, for the average nub that hasn't played, rather inviting
Well, then I don't see why this video was made, as there are already several similiar trailers like this, that attract the average Joe. If it's called 1.08 trailer, it should show 1.08 features.
what are the 1.08 features anyway? I cant think of many obvious ones: new animations/textures for a few bits 'iron sights' prone (after the trailer was made) sabotage (in the trailer, although you had no idea what it was doing there, more like building at a decent speed. wth is the symbol anyway? It looks like a "danger the floor is slippery for pedestrians" sign if such a thing would exist) nifty bars for the engineer to see what he'd built (was that in tfc before anyway?) I've probably been offensive and missed bits but I can't think of any and showing them could be a pain. But should it nec. show only 1.08 features? Isnt the point to say "look, the mod isnt dead, and its isnt total rubbish either. Come play this, there may be planes by chirstmas"?
I dont get the ancient refference thats something more suited for fantasy, id pick desolated or devastated I got the impression the Brenodi are the supressed ones The entire trailer could be set with the grainy camera effects, more immersive imo Text in the middle dosent really work out that well and could be better explained trough gamefootage. seeing the text from spectator detracts from the trailer, aswell seeing the hud The zooming out at the end works really well, needs some tuneups but deffinatley good
ok, i tried downloading with firefox and i get video but no audio. also, instead of "a hopeless fight, or something bigger" how about "a hopeless war (cant remember that first part), or a(n) uprising/revolt
I concur with the HUD issue. do cl_drawhud 0 and some random map command (type find map in console to get a list) should clear it completely. Hope you've got demos!
I think it is quite well done. It just needs to highlight the (new) features a bit more, maybe by displaying the name of the feature while showing it.
I liked it very much, but i understand what most of you are saying and i agree. This is a very beautifull trailer, which will impress a lot of people, but maybe we could use a second trailer, which focuses on the empires features (like the first one, but now with improved models, animations, maps,... ). As i see it: This trailer is awesome as a story, and could be used to get people go watch 'Empires the Movie' in the cinema. But to get people start playing empires, we really need to show them all the empires features. This one could be used as a secondary trailer which gives an awesome Extra insight, and impresses the people even more.
Story wise, the trailer is correct. For the rest, kind of boring. Lots of classic empires action. Most notably lacking are the new Brenodi voice commands, the squad menu, Streets of Fire, and Urban Chaos. It looks like he tried to spread the focus over all the maps a little too much. Overall though I like what Broccoli's done with the trailer, but as a showcase it's lacking.
Okay, well, here I go. I must say that I am proud of what I've done with the trailer, and although I'm willing to take some of your criticism on board, I don't think any of you realise just how much effort has been put into this thing. Working with the source demo tools is incredibly frustrating. As an example, I can't even alter the pitch of any keyframes I place myself (they all have to be looking straight forwards, not up or down). None of the HUD elements like vehicle customisation are visible at all, and it's impossible to record the commander. The only way I can get these shots is if I use fraps on myself, and my system just isn't powerful enough to render these things in real time, at 30fps, whilst fraps is running. If you want HDR off I can do it, but then again I thought I should be showing off new features. Oh, and thanks for the advice, but I know how to turn the HUD off. I left it on so that it reflected the appearance of actually playing the game. Next time I'll know. As for things in 1.08 it shows, how about this: - Vehicle explosion effects - New weapon models - New weapon animations - New maps - Updates to existing maps - HDR - Ironsights - Sabotage - Engineers tool effects And the only reason that prone wasn't in there is because this was completed just hours after the release of RC15, before I had even realised that it had been implemented. At Krenzo's request, I have every intention of getting some prone shots in at the first opportunity. This is NOT supposed to read like a changelog, or a list of features. This is supposed to be engaging, interesting, and easy to watch. If it is this, then it will draw people towards the mod. To be honest, most people couldn't give two shits if Empires has prone, or ironsights, or any other number of 'features', because there are hundreds of other games that have them too. I can't afford to keep all of the demos, already I have nearly 250GB of uncompressed footage filling up my main PC and an external HDD. I have to delete things as I go. As a result, there's no going back. Which brings me to my final point: I will not be producing another trailer, or making any overhauls to this one. I will attempt to include more features where I can, but at the moment I'm not in any rush to do anything about it at all. this all feels like a complete waste of time to me at the moment, so when I have more time to waste, I'll let you know.
I think this trailer is exactly what empires needs. People don't want to just play a game with two teams fighting each other for no apparent reason. They want a good backstory, they want drama, and they definately want high production values to go along with that. This trailer delivers on all of that. True, it might not show everything that empires is made of, but it shows all the basic stuff that someone that hasn't played empires in a long time or haven't played at all would be attracted to. I think this trailer makes empires take on a very sexy appearence and for that i give it two thumbs up. Bravo Broccoli!
Only 1.08 features? Whenever did I say that? That would make it an extremely poor trailer. While I appreciate your dedication, the amount of work doesn't really change the end result. Like I said, it's beautiful and dramatic, but the editing is confusing; the clips switch a tad too quickly, and since the map/location changes every time, you can't catch up on what's actually happening. Empires' features aren't demonstrated well enough, it feels that we only see them because some of them HAPPEN to be on the clips, instead of the trailer wanting to specifically show them to us. Even if you notice some of the new features, most of them pass by so quickly that you didn't really understand there's a new feature at all. Here's a list of features I think we should see in the trailer (preferably in this order too): - players capturing a flag, some close quarters infantry combat, a machinegunner firing, iron sights, Brenodi voice commands - a scout spawning, selecting the hide skill, and sniping some people while proning - turrets being placed, built, upgraded, and firing - a turret shooting at friendlies, who hide behind a corner, after which a scout sabotages the turret, and we see the turret not firing when the friendlies come out from behind the corner, and run past the turret - a grenadier laying mines, a bunch of enemies stepping into them and blowing up - a player walking into the comm vehicle and going into command mode, giving orders to people, placing buildings, engineers building them - a player walking into a VF and building a tank - a grenadier blowing up a tank with his mortar - brief shots of the commander starting various researches, then we see a player going into the VF and configuring a vehicle to use the newly researched technology - vehicles driving over infantry - artillery being researched, artillerists firing with feedback skill, artillery shells killing enemy infantry - artillery shells killing the commander, ending the game I think the clip's length should be about 4-6 minutes. Please don't think that you've wasted your time, though. I'm sure it's making has been a great learning experience, and the constructive criticism you're receiving now, will help you right the wrongs.
