In response to Vrocaan
I would go pure if I could, but we simply can't afford the screen space. Especially with the limitations that stephen has described above. If you want to have a full graphical HUD and interface, you have to have higher resolution text, or everything becomes a huge mess. I am also considering the GUI at a different ratio but have refrained from such due to fear that time and money would be wasted towards an even less pure interface.
In response to FIREking
FIREking wrote:
For the record, I don't like comparing 2D to 3D, its just wrong. They're completely different.

It's fair for the comparison I'm making in terms of view distance. As for pixel distortion, you have no argument from me there. I think it looks ugly and ruins perfectly good pixel art.
In response to SuperAntx
I didn't really offer a solution, but one small solution is to have a minimum window size, the bare minimum you wish to support. For games like Eternia that allows client.view changes, I'd say make a window maximum cap, or intelligently try to detect next size up (if you size up your window, can we fit 2x pixel in there at normal view size? if so, change icon-size to draw everything 2x bigger). Just an idea. I still don't think Eternia should try to fix their problem, because none of its players will like it. Eternia is the only game that does the weird view thing, and I personally think it's unfair (I can see more than you can, I know where to go, I know what's coming before you do, etc.) and odd.

But hey, minecraft was odd and "blocky", a few hundred million dollars later...
In response to FIREking
I believe the minimum resolution for Eternia is 640x480. You can't set it any lower without HUD elements starting to overlap. If you try to stretch the window any lower it will just pop back up the the minimum resolution when you stop adjusting the window size. It would be nice to have a built-in way to account for window resizing, but that was the best I could do.

As for the 2x zoom, that is a setting players can toggle on and off on their own. If they want to play at a smaller resolution with the icons at double size, they can. It's their choice. In a game focused primarily on roleplaying, user choice and taking in player feedback is crucial; something I think you might have overlooked in your assessment.
The problem with constraining Eternia's viewport to a maximum size is a combination of both player unpopularity, and simple lack of need.

The game doesn't have any features that would give anyone with better hardware an upper advantage beyond someone with a laggy computer or connection fighting against someone with decent hardware and broadband connection.

The reason I switched the viewport back to the default, however, was simply because the amount of people complaining about the game being unplayable (though personally I don't see how) was enough to not be able to simply shrug it off without damaging the relationship between players / devs that we have. Which is to say, we're pretty transparent and at least try to listen to what they have to say.
In response to FIREking
FIREking wrote:
Eternia is the only game that does the weird view thing, and I personally think it's unfair (I can see more than you can, I know where to go, I know what's coming before you do, etc.) and odd.

I agree that in an ORPG it's usually not a good idea for view size to be dependant on the player's resolution, but in Eternia's RP server there isn't a benefit to having a broader view at the moment. All spells have a range limit and there aren't any quests/dungeons where being able to see farther is an advantage.
Can we all just agree that using statpanels at all is poor game design? I honestly can't stand them. Just an excuse to cram a shitload of commands that could otherwise be easily conformed into a set selection of macros.
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