"Jefferson" Project Forum News

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(Originally posted by Astin X)

Here are today's "Jefferson" project forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

J.E. Sawyer, Lead Designer

Quote: What sort of animation will "Jefferson" have for the avatars?

The PC models have over 300 animations each. They include things like:
* Regular ol' attacks
* Combination (multiple) attacks
* Attacks against helpless foes
* Charge attacks
* Knockback/prone animations from multiple directions
* Lying on the ground dying in agony animations
* Limping
* Multiple talking gestures
* Salutes/bows
* "Use" animations (standing and kneeling)
* Pointing animations (standing and kneeling)
* Armor equipping animations
* Weapon equipping animations
* Jumping animations
* Acrobatic animations
* Climbing animations
* Reloading "launcher" weapon animations
* Unarmed punches, kicks, double kicks, jumping kicks, spinning hook kicks followed by twin punches, "Bolo Yeung"-style foot stomp on helpless victims, and a charge attack terminating with the attacker running up the target's body, kicking off, and flipping over.

The creature/character avatars in Jefferson are all ~1,000 polys. They all have about the same amount of detail, but individual creatures/characters might look more or less detailed based on a number of factors.

Quote: What sort of graphics card will be sufficient to run Jefferson with full details in 1024x768?.

The performance difference between a GeForce 2 and a GeForce 3+ is significant. That I can say with certainty. Some of the things we do in Jefferson will kill the fill rate of a GeForce 2, and most players will have to disable those effects for solid performance.
That said, the most important hardware requirement after a GeForce 3+ video card is having plenty o' RAM. Some of these levels are big.

Besides, if you want to live large, you have to go 1600x1200x32, volumetric shadows, and dynamic per-pixel lighting.

Quote: So what would be a good system spec for playing Jefferson with all options on at a 1024X768X32 resolution?

I can't say with any certainty until more testing is done with heavily populated areas. Sorry.

Quote: Will armors in Jefferson be a complete set, or can one combine pieces like a breastplate, bracers, boots, gloves, helmets and so on?

It depends on the armor. Ultimately, though, armor comes in "suits", though the player is often free to replace/add cosmetic/special pieces.

Quote: I really want hand crossbows in a CRPG.

I think that if enough people like hand crossbows that we would include them in a D&D game. However, I can't say I understand the reasoning for their classification as an "exotic weapon" in terms of proficiency. They really aren't very good weapons. Now, if drawing a hand crossbow were always a free action, that might make it a little more worthwhile.

People like their crossbows, and I'd like to have hand, light, heavy, and repeating crossbows in. Dual-wielding any missile weapons gets a little weird for animation and other reasons, so I probably wouldn't push too hard for that.