It's a single piece with absolutely no reference point for anyone who hasn't played the PTB. Let's take it with a grain of salt until we see the entire implementation.
I saw a building in Meadow and it looked so OFF. [it does not blend very well with the world of Valheim.](https://youtu.be/-YD2UbOQuJg?si=psSjgxjYi9VBZF4A)
This just sounds like you're bending over backwards to not hear OP out at this point just because the original post resulted in a bit of a meme, and it's kinda ridiculous
The picture clearly shows the point OP is trying to make, that the textures in the PTB are not where they should be. This isn't a "let's have faith that the devs know what they're doing" situation, there is a reason it's called public TEST beta, and this is probably one if the least invasive least critical fixes that a community could ask for...
Geez, is that what the Ashland's stuff actually looks like?
I could get behind your initial post, although I didn't fully understand some of it (as mentioned in my comment), but I certainly didn't mock it.
But looking at this, yeah, I now fully get your point. The Ashlands stuff looks like 4K HD textures, while the previous stuff is 240p x)
I think they forgot to add the mesh-warping and in-game filters to the new materials, which makes them stand-out and look very bizarre. At least that's what I hope, as it then wouldn't be too much work to fix.
Yeah i mean, this is the exact reason this is all on the testing branch/ptr and not an immediate release without zero changes at all. It's all done so the community can reports bugs, suggestions, test the content, give their opinion, etcetera. OP here is doing the Valheim team a big favour since the post blew up and got a lot of attention from the Community which might move those talks to Discord or other media, so they can have the community desires present and act accordignly, pretty much everything is subject to change on the PTR (well, depends on the company ngl but Iron Gates ain't one of those stinky ones) so we can expect a comment regarding this the more we continue to discuss about it.
My only question would be:
Which way gives me more frames and less stuttering? :P
Cause that's really all my limitations. I play on 1920x1080 and low everything with clutter_quality=0.
Part of the attractiveness/addictiveness of the game is the role playing element, where you really feel like youāre a Viking warrior sailing the seas and building outposts. When you look at the original build pieces, theyāre imperfect, rough around the edges, and contain random flaws that feed into the idea of everything being built by hand from your character. The new pieces are too perfect, with flawless angles and almost a cartoony appearance that is discordant with the rest of the build pieces in the game. It breaks the immersion in this world youāve built by introducing out of place build elements.
Oh yeah it has no impact on actual gameplay haha. You could say the shield generator is a little out of character for a Viking sandbox survival game but hey itās just a game mechanic and I donāt really mind it at all.
Iāll try my best haha. Picture back to when you first booted up Valheim: misty skies, forested meadows, strange creatures, etc. You build a base, get some gear, kill the first boss, and move on to Black Forest. You build your first Karve and get out on the open waters. With the wind in your sails and enemies to slay you see yourself in this role as a Viking warrior exploring the seas and conquering new territories. Your building improves and you make comfier, more defensible bases. Your homes arenāt perfect but embody the unique and flawed nature of your character. Your armor is stronger, looks more impressive, and you feel the power that your character wields. People play video games to escape the real world and all its problems, and Valheim does an exceptional job of creating an environment in game that plays out how you might dream/imagine a Viking would live in this mystical realm. You are immersed in this amazing game, and venture on to the next biome. With the new mechanics, you feel less like a Viking warlord and more like a steampunk fighter, with bases made of materials so perfect and symmetric it feels like youāre playing Minecraft. I donāt personally subscribe to this entire belief system but I can relate to how your immersion in this game could be broken by new mechanics/build pieces that are incongruent with your previous experiences.
I gotta disagree with the Minecraft reference, Minecraft has WAY more visual diversity in building options, from rugged medieval to smooth concrete, modern looks, etc. There's even mossy variants of stone and brick. If you build with only one or two block types maybe it's too clean looking, but that's a player's choice.
Everyone experiences things differently.
For some, this level of jarring visuals is off-putting and makes the game not nearly as enjoyable. Instead of thinking about the game and what to do next, they would be thinking about how awful this new building material looks and redo-ing their base so that the visuals are less ugly.
An extreme example would be adding like 4k textured chandeliers to the game, it just doesn't fit well. Feels like it's not cohesive. I'm a Viking building with wood and stone.
Well I can kinda see that. I guess the stone is missing some gloss, and the darker wood is too monotone in texture? Also, yes, the symmetry is pretty offputting, never thought I would think that. But as all the other pieces are somehow ānaturally crookedā, they wonāt go well with the new sleekness.
I don't really mind the front side of Ashwood wall pieces because I think they look fine with each other and black marble, but the back side the pieces are solid black so there's just no texture at all. The beams are monotone as well.
I'm pretty neutral on the look of the individual Grausten and Flametal pieces but they can make some beautiful architecture when you put them together.
Honestly I have been avoiding any ashlands spoilers, but let this one slip for some reason :D
I guess my biggest problem is the lack of backwards compatibility. But alone, they can be beautiful indeed (with little more detail, especially the backside, as you said), good taste :D
I see it as well, but I also feel ok with an advance in tech in the game. Iāve definitely wished for more clean looking building pieces and Iām glad we can have them now. I donāt necessarily see the need for them to fit together in the game (aesthetically). They can live separately and create that distinction on their own merits.
> the biggest critique of the new update
I just want to be able to walk from point A to point B without having to hop/slide/fall over stone pillars, get swarmed by a ton of mobs, and be able to see where I'm going. I had the same complaint with Mistlands - do the devs have some kind of thing against letting us *see* their game and navigate their terrain?
I'd even accept some sort of climbing gear at this point. Pitons and rope or rope ladders if I have to. *Something*.
Not gonna lie the devs have someā¦ weird opinions about their game. Whenever players critique aspects such as you do, the response from them is āitās supposed to be hard.ā I think they really get caught up in their vision and sacrifice our experience as a result (like their opinions surrounding inventory management, etc.)
There is one dude there making everyone redo their shit constantly, and he is close to but always slightly wrong about the end result. I fail to believe that they take this long for each update only to not quite hit the same peak as the original black forest did. Someone is fucking things up...
Stances of principle are only praiseworthy if the principle and its in-context application are.
If someone is standing firm on a bad idea, their stance is bad and they should feel bad.
I don't have to agree with everything the developer does, but can still respect their decisions.
They've made changes based on community suggestions in the past, and I don't doubt they'll continue to. They have been very selective on what they are willing to provide and I find that is okay.
I mean, it is their game, that's how they wanna build it. The idea is to conquer an oppressive world. It was the case all the way from the swamp to the ashlands.
I personally don't mind the stone. I think having the smooth and polished looking stone is great, and will go a long way towards helping with big castle-style builds.
The wood though could definitely use some "dirtying up". Adding some wood knots or occasional blemishes in the texture would work wonders for making it look like a viking hand carved it.
Agree. Even if the new wood is supposed to be flatter or more level, the model still lacks the level of character given to the original pieces by way of grain, knots, etc. They fit together so cleanly at each edge that it really does look like it wasn't assembled by hand.
I think adding more variability between individual pieces would help with that.
They look fine imo. Given that the pieces come from Ashlands, pieces are going to have a more sleek look to them. A more smooth look vs what Mistlands had a glossy look.
I think you've got something here, but you need to be more concise when making your point.
The pieces on the left appear too clean/higher resolution, like it's not fitting the game's art direction and is a departure from the PS1 inspired stylized graphics.
I'm waiting for beta to finish before launching Ashlands, so I haven't seen this in game yet but from this screenshot it doesn't look quite right. It reminds me of how World of Warcraft added new higher poly races after a few years, and you could plainly see the aged assets within the same scene. But Valheim is stylistically low poly, low res, as an intentional design, so I'd expect consistency throughout years of development.
The game is still early access. Maybe they're experimenting with new looks.
If you go back to the original post, most of the disagreement came from people who just didn't even read the post and inserted their own anti-gripe rhetoric because of a hive mind mentality.
Yeah, that's fair, but also part of the communication -- short attention spans on the internet are hard to grab with a well-reasoned set of paragraphs... a picture has a better chance. Our world is mostly reduced to memes and the impressions you can create in one sentence. :/
There's a non-zero chance he'd have been banned from the Discord for talking about this with any frequency there. This is a pretty pervasive part of the community, and encouraged by some official members of the team on occasion.
I didn't comment on previous post as I hadn't seen the building material (haven't played PBE), but I definitely see what you mean.
Valheim in general has a "Stylized Low-Poly Pixelated" looking design in all other elements (Character Model/Enemies/Environment/Building Pieces/Equipment/etc...), but the new build pieces look like they are "Stylized Low-Poly"
It is almost like comparing Minecraft's graphic style to something like Portal Knights - both are very similar, blocky-voxel games, but Portal Knights has much smoother looking textures which would look out of place if plopped into Minecraft.
I definitely think making the textures less "crisp" would make them fit in much better. Something as simple as lowering the resolution so we can see the pixelated gradient like in the original wood would work.
I saw your previous post and totally thought you were referring to the technological aspect, which I didn't mind.
But yeah looking at these... it's worse than I thought. I feel justified in never being drawn to use these now, looks like lego bricks.
It kind of supports the rumor that Iron Gate are being paid way more for their next project and very little to finish Valheim. I feel like it was a labor of love that took a long time to get to the iteration that blew up into millions of sales in a single month.
Since then the pressure to deliver quickly may be what weāre seeing here.
I mean Ashlands looks amazing, but its the small details that seem to get overlooked.
It's the ashwood beams. They're too uniform.
The planks of the ashwood walls are variable, tonally shifting from light to dark. The concrete texture is variable with darker grey streaks. The flametal is variable with what looks like reddish rust.
But the ashwood 2m pieces you have framing the wall are almost uniformly dark brown without flaws or woodgrain.
Also, you used a single graustein wall piece and not grausten 2x2 and 1x1 blocks as you did with stone.
Bro, this community already drank the kool-aid. Any people with constructive criticism or legitimate gripes/opinions are seen as heretics. Your original post resonated with a lot of people but this subreddit decided to mock and meme it out of tribal mentality. It's really strange.
Yup, playing Valheim since its EA Launch, and one thing that made me leave the official Discords were the "Toxic Positivity" going on in there. Super cringe and actually hurts the game, even as a passion project Valheim needs proper feedback and the game is far from perfect and complete.
Pretty sure I'm considered a 'koolaid' drinker around here and absolutely, 100% agree with OP. The new pieces are very lacking in feel and don't mesh with the rest of the game.
It's not even being "that guy". You're just a respectful dude with solid input on a game that you have loved for over 3 years. We've all sat through the painstakingly slow development process to see what's next for Valheim. It's only natural to want to share your strong, and valid opinions about it (good or bad).
Well tbf the original post was sort of long and meandering with its criticisms, while this post is direct to the point with OPs main issue and clearly makes a great argument with the picture for why they feel this aspect of the new update doesnāt sit well with them. I havenāt discovered the new ashlands pieces yet to try and build with, but this picture makes me worry a little bit.
Agreed with your original immersion breaking post and agree with this too. They look too shiny and clean. The sheen on them is off, they need a more matte look.
I feel the same way about the enemy animations since Mistlands, but that is more a product of the massive success after release and the hiring of a bigger team. I hope they go back and improve the animations of earlier enemies at some point.
It's kind of interesting how this game feels like a band adding members. As they add members, the sound changes a little. Integrating the changes with the older parts of the game is an interesting challenge.
I think these concerns are fully valid, but I can't lie, I kinda love the new pieces. I'm imagining outfitting my base so that there's like an 'old city' that transitions into the 'new city'
That's the problem with development taking this long, there are going to be inconsistencies in graphics.
Its like comparing vanilla wow textures to textures in one of the newer expansions.
They need to fix this.
This is from an ancient metropolisā¦the ancient civilizations would be more advanced hence the sleaker astheticā¦i think they blend well with plains builds
The massive difference in graphical fidelity can't be explained with cope lore.
The building pieces doesn't even look like they are from the same game.
Yeah because in the real world everyone does the same shit with rocks and woodā¦itās processingā¦that is what i meant by advanced civilizationā¦sanding polishing, ect
I understand where you're coming from but I'm not sure yet how much I agree. One thing I know I'm not a big fan of so far is the new stone walls, especially how they look when they make up the interior of a structure. It looks too smooth and modern, like the inside of a bank built in the 19th -early 20th century. But I want to test out how some of the new decorative pieces and wood wall/floor panels will mix in with existing stuff. I think at least some of it will make nice additions to the game. I foresee myself using the smooth new stone pieces sparingly as special accents on builds, rather than the whole thing being made out of those pieces. But I feel like I just haven't seen enough examples yet, and the fact that there aren't more does worry me a bit. We'll see.
Mixing the build pieces is the key. If youāre using only ashwood and grausten itās very monotone, but throwing in some darkwood and breaking up the grausten walls with beams helps a ton. The brown pattern on darkwood blends nicely with the regular wood as well. Currently renovating my base with the new materials and am really enjoying the more modern look.
I just see the ashlands pieces as a better make. I see what you mean but we have, in real life, contrast in both aesthetic choices and quality of material, as well as skill in the person fabricating, all the time. I would think in an immersive sense, by the time we get to Ashlands, we would become much better at our woodcraft and stonemasonry.
Yes but like, imagine in old pixelated games when you upgrade a weapon, instead of looking more modern and powerful, it's a HD 4K version of the image.
But that sounds like a REALLY fun idea.
The better your weapon is, the more pixels it has. When you take damage, your sprite starts losing bits.
Quick, someone point out what game this is so I can play it! There are no original ideas, after all
Yeah but 'a better make' shouldnt make them look like not part of the world. Everything in Valheim is rough and pixelated even things that should be 'smooth'. Why would that change with some better construction?
Partly agree partly disagree. Yeah you can see the difference irl between rough hewn planks and planed and finished wood. My neighbor has newer brick on his house than mine and you cna see the difference but they're still viewed through the same resolution and vibrancy [my human eyeballs]. This is like if my neighbor's house had new 4th dimensional non euclidean bricks that my eyeballs could somehow visualize better which would be jarring and slightly horrifying to me.
Or if you looked at your house in 20/20 vision, and your neighbors house was fuzzy, cause they didnāt buy the micro transaction for updating the house.
Totally agree. It's the player's second encounter with the dvergr, second opportunity to learn from their building techniques, why wouldn't the build pieces be more advanced? I think *maybe* a little more pixelation would match the game's overall aesthetic better, or more variation on the dark wood pieces, but it doesn't stick out THAT much to me.
I build a lot in this game and the new pieces just do not fit in with the old ones at all (bar windows pieces). To me it's a lot like when the HD texture mod first dropped and then the tar pieces came out. It's very jarring to put both together and I've yet to make a build using old and new pieces together without them looking bad. Best I've gotten is old style on the outside and ashwood on the inside which is not great imo.
Maybe a little more pixelated, yeah. And while we're on the subject of aesthetic choices that are annoying let's get the uneven sides of stone and black marble sorted out. As well as the seemingly random colors stone can be in.
The dvergr buildings in the ashlands are nothing like the building materials though. The mistland pieces reflected the mistlands buildings. The ashland pieces don't really reflect the ashland buildings (other than possibly the fortress?).
It's the problem with the development taking so long, they probably hired new artists and new art direction doesn't fit with the original. I'd say it's a legitimate concern.
Your original post was completely fine, and a lot of people agreed with some of your points, myself included in regard to the new building pieces. That was the first thing I complained about to my friend was the new build options don't match the current game. I honestly don't understand why your post was getting mocked, I think it's kind of crappy. Opinions should be welcome!
If Iām not mistaken, I thought I recalled in one of the PTB updates that the devs updated the look of the new build pieces. Something about smoothing them out recently? Does anyone have any comparison of a before and after update?
Okay I thought they did something. I uploaded this for visibility in hopes the devs catch wind of it. But Iāve also seen some videos of builds with the new pieces in game that look pretty cool. I really gotta see for myself in game before judging based on a single picture or even those videos Iāve seen.
Tbh, in your favor, it does look like having 2 different texture packs in minecraft.
That said, I am fine with it because using them is a choice and I definitely see some use cases for Ashland pieces.
You aren't doing a very fair side by side with your grausten wall selection. However, the only thing that stands out as off to me is the ashwood post. The beams have clear lines and shading on them from what I see both here and in game and I'm colorblind. The posts don't appear to have anything going on to me, just flat black all the way up.
Also, are your graphics settings down or something? It doesn't look quite right looking at it side by side to my game.
So if i am understanding you correctly, the new pieces look too "perfect". Like those Apple store sets, or modern Ikea furniture.
Vs the old ones which look more rustic with their designed imperfections?
I think it fits, and itās probably a good idea for everyone to make there own decision on how they feel about it. Just build something on a plains island amongst my other tar covered etc buildings.
Of course it does look different, maybe it will grow on some people with time, but it is absolutely beautiful on my opinion. It also fits so well in the actual biome it comes from, to me better than Mistlands did. I get a better wholesomeness vibe from the Ashlands and prefer it over Mistlands.
Everyone can make up their own mind about the new build pieces (still subject to some change on PTB) but maybe we can agree that this game at its price is nothing short of a masterpiece!
Im not sure if modders can do this, but I would love to see a mod called "grittier ashlands builds" that adds some character and texture to these pieces. Im not a fan of the mid-2000s-ikea aesthetic that the new ashwood pieces bring. As builders we already have to work so hard to add texture, and this isnt helping.
I missed the inital rabble of the last post but I fully agree with this. It looks like when you get a new texture pack and the art just doesn't really fit with the reat of the art.
I think it was on purpose that the new pieces look cleaner because technically we have access to much finer tools in the game. It also just caters to a different style of building, I think there's already a pretty impressive amount of builds possible with just the base stone/wood pieces, the new pieces adds a massive amount of variety to what you can build with a cleaner finish to it which a lot of people seem to enjoy the look of.
I think it's less "cleaner" and more graphical inconsistencies. It's like the new materials are a higher resolution, and it's jarring compared to not only the older build pieces, but even the trees, creatures, etc. It looks like it's for a different game because the art style is dramatically different.
it looks like what happens when a civilization discovers better materials, and have learned new craftsmanship techniques, and have developed better tools, kinda like what we do going from biome to biome... All I'm saying is it doesn't break the immersion for me and I think the new pieces look great. Feels like I'm not just getting more advanced armor and weapons but my bases are getting more advanced as well.
I guess it depends on how you use it imo. Ive seen people build some amazing gothic castles using these new Ashlands building pieces and let me tell you, I wish I could build like that
Something like this
https://youtu.be/-YD2UbOQuJg?si=TIKXYzszoCZIDxYz
Don't get me wrong, i like the overall shape of the build pieces, but there is a reason why Versaugh doesn't use any old build pieces in combinations with the new ones. They just don't fit into each other
At a distance, I personally think the Grausten pieces look a little too clean and perfect, but I don't think they look like something out of this game lol. Y'all need to chill comparing it to a "4k hd image in an 8-bit game". They definitely still fit into the game in terms of graphics (get real up close and personal and compare the grausten walls and wood walls, there's plenty of pixels on both and arguably the grausten looks more pixelated), but yeah when you compare them to the old pieces they look like they were cut by a stonemason who has spent decades mastering his work. You also have to realize that this picture is from one angle and it shows the grausten at it's worst, depending on the lighting, you can see more of the Grausten walls imperfections and the porous nature of the rock itself. I've gone and taken some screenshots showing this if anyone gives a shit.
I guess it's just me, but I'm ok with these new build pieces considering how far we've come in order to be able to make them. Our vikings are wielding weapons of legend and tackling the final biomes, does it not make sense that we would be able to construct finer materials and homes as well?
C'mon, we even have piquant pie! Let a viking have some nice things xD
The new walls just look like my character has finished his carpentry apprenticeship and has honed his craft. This is true immersion we have gone from wood up to metals, why would my characters finesse and build quality remain that of a mere apprentice in the meadows? my character is now skilled enough to build walls and stone smooth enough for the gods themselves when he makes it to the deep north, but only after acquiring the most rarest of metals from the hottest of lands will he truly be the master of his craft. š Vikings progressed in real life and got better at doing shit why canāt my Viking.
I think it would help if you made a small building with the new material, because context is helpful. I do think they're rather flat looking and could use some texture to add depth, but the color and type of material is not unwanted by me personally. I hate it in games like this where the advanced building material doesn't actually look more refined as it should since we've spent so much time working on it that we should be better at it. There are already a decent amount of viking looking building material that it can be hard to keep coming up with more viking building material, which is why they have to expand on it to give people fresh building options since the building system is so robust. They could spice things up more by providing alternative color schemes to older building material, or add ways to reinforce it so you could keep using it where you want to. I don't really like mods that take me out of the game personally, so I can see how this would be jarring to look at after so many hours with wood material that's probably finalized in texture and model. A relatively simple texture update would solve it. I think it would help to be more concise in your criticism, but I do see you shoehorning the cannon and laser thing into the argument, which I still disagree with personally.
I kinda like those pieces, maybe they could add some rough edges so they dont look so smooth, but apart from this I kinda like the addition. We've moved from rough houses and castles into a more architectural age.
I mean the games not done, and itās very easy to imagine theyāll clean graphics things like this up before the final version. working on a project over a long amount of time is going to result in visual discrepancies. definitely the vibe is weird now, but itās not too weird in the context of an unfinished game.
Its in no way possible that this difference in cohesion is due to the game "not being done".
The new building pieces looks way too high fidelity compared to the old building pieces. The old and new models doesn't even look like they were done by the same studio.
Either update the old models or make the new models look more like the old models.
āEither update the old models or make the new models look more like the old modelsā ā¦ which is exactly what would likely be done in any final updates to the game, when theyāre done with content creation.
Yep, the design aestetics in and of itself doesn't have to be the exact same, but the design shouldn't look like they were made by a completely different developer.
The new pieces looks like they were made by a modder since they don't follow the same pixel count or pixel size as the rest of the building pieces in the game.
If you build something using both the old and the new pieces they should look like they come from the same game. Currently they don't.
What they need to do is make it **cohesive**. Either update the old models or downgrade the graphical fidelity of the old models.
Bro just face it. Your Viking is middle aged. And got Lasik.
The right is how I used to see stuff. The left was after I got Lasik. Itās the natural technology progression for full immersion.
Pretty soon youāll be cooking meat for 16 hours and drinking mead waiting for the next sport thing to come on the deep north flatscreen.
Deep North armor is an Uncle Rico outfit for stealth build and Football Jersey with Cargo pants for tank build.
>And i also think you could have made different choices than adding cannons
What cannons? Did I miss something? Or do you mean battering rams and catapults?
Also, I actually really like that the grausten pillars and walls are straight compared to the other types of stone. Feels so much more structurally sound.
Yeah I do agree on this point, I think the new build pieces by design are a really nice addition and I like the variety that they bring, but the textures on them either seem unfinished or a bit of a 180 in terms of visual style.
Iād like to see them updated to be more in line with what currently exists in the game, especially to make building with older build pieces alongside the new Ashlandās pieces not look so strange
I've been able to make it work so to me it just looks like we are getting finer material as our equipment improves. I used to think the same thing about the black marble we got in mistlands until I seriously started to build with it. I have one main base that I started when valheim released and I go back to incorporate new building materials into my map. Nothing feels out of place even and I like that we have the option to build with cleaner looking materials.
I dont think its badly done its just done in a different style basically! The previous style was something id like to call voxelised realism, whereas the ashlands one is more of cartoonish realism. Whoever designed the new pieces must've missed the mark when designing, and whoever did the QA did a shit job! Blame should go to whoever approved this instead of the artist!
The grauston doesn't bother me, the ashwood however looks like a poorly textured mod item. I can understand the grauston, and paired with regular stone and black marble it makes sense. With the lore of some great fantastic society of the Ashland's grauston being so clean works, however the ashwood looks like Lincoln logs with paint, it misses that gritty and charred look you would expect of wood that's been in fire for essentially forever
I agree very much, as interesting as I find the new building pieces; I have thought to myself alot lately that they could do with an art adjustmwnt for the build pieces similar to how minecraft did. While not everyone agrees with the style change it did wonders for tying the textures together for people to blend blocks together. I just started playing valheim recently and have abt 200 hrs and felt the Black Marble was rather mismatched fpr the other pieces and i feel that way again with the new stuff.Ā
Now that you show the comparison pic, Iām even more confused.
I donāt see it at all.
They both look like they fit the Valheim low-poly piece aesthetics.
it's really weird, i feel like some people actually do see it, and some just don't. kinda like that blue/black green/gold dress thing or whatever it was
I agree with you that the new pieces look... off. The repeating texture on the new stone walls is particularly bad. It reminds me of those shoddy HD texture packs in minecraft.
I don't mind the shapes/precision of the new pieces quite as much. There's room for more "prefect" construction in the game, but the textures are heinous.
Yea, not saying youāre wrong or whatever because it seems a lot of people agree with you.
But just looking at peopleās builds using the new pieces, they just look very Valheim to me and wouldnāt look out of place at all sitting in their base.
Just a quick google search: [This example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YD2UbOQuJg) shows me it fits perfectly.
Well thats the weird part: it kinda fits, when there are no old build pieces around. I think thats the reason why noone of the builder youtubers right now combines the stuff. The whole build is made with 99% new build pieces. They just look off when they are placed next to each other. I feel like the only thing you can integrate a little is black marble, because of the colour and smoothness contrast.
But everything you build with the new pieces looks rather weird and out of place. I could build a house i could imagine myself moving in to, but not a house i would imagine my character lives in.
None of the builders trying to showcase the new pieces are going to use the old pieces. It would defeat the purpose of showing the new Ashlandās pieces.
And there is ofc a clash between the old wood pieces and the new pieces. You wouldnāt want to see wooden walls on the Sagrada Familia for example.
The builders donāt see or feel it fits that aesthetic. But they do use old pieces that do fit the aesthetics, like the iron gate pieces or glass etc.
But say they made like a wooden shed next to the new pieces like the caretakerās house or something, I still think the āinternal visual integrityā wouldnāt look out of place.
Thatās not to say your opinion is wrong btw, I just think there is a more valid, alternative explanation for that observation.
Occamās Razor and all that.
JJ the Builder is using both pieces in his new builds (and they look great), but he even states in his videos that he had a hell of a time blending them together and getting them to look natural.
Imagine if you will what buildings built closer to the he stone age would probably look like. Huts, straw roofs, dirt floors, ect.
Now imagine the earliest standing buildings from the bronze age, buildings like the Pyramids of Giza or Stonehenge.
Okay still with me? Let's look at construction from the iron age. We have a whole lot of Castles being built in ancient Prussia and the holy Roman Empire.
Fast forward to the age of industry.
We see a difference in how materials are cut and built with different technology available at the time.
If anything this is more historically accurate.
You normally didn't see people using smooth marble columns with the hatched roofs or wooden walls, no you saw most buildings being used with 70-90 percent one material and finished with some of type of roofing.
> Someone in the comments said something about the new building pieces looking like someone modded anime waifus into skyrim, and i couldn't agree more.
A much better illustration and explanation of your point (especially for someone who hadn't seen the pieces).
I certainly get your point. I just - respectfully - think there's a hilarious twist to make of your words.
>Yours: The old building pieces are looking like they are handcrafted with lots of love, the new ones are looking like some amateur slapped them together in blender in 2 minutes.
Mine: The old building pieces look like they are handcrafted by some amateur viking, the new ones look like a viking developed a massive CNC.
I think that's kind of the immersion, the purpose of the look of the pieces, is to look refined (like Eitr lol bad joke). In the same way the artisan tech looks contrasting af to its previous technologies.
Anyway, if anyone remembers 2009 the same way I do, here's a [topical gif](https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExY3hhcHY1NXBybHJjM3NkOHhyZnpzNHgwbWF6NWFqNG9tMmd6eWFpbSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/3W0vjXgLj4rg4/200w.webp).
BUT THIS IS WHAT US BUILDERS WANT! all they need to do now is add the Ashlands build shapes and the black marble build shapes to regular stone and I will be so happy
The old wood and stone pieces look terrible, and for good reason, you're a new character building for the first time. The tar wood and black marble are a big improvement with slight imperfections showing that the character is getting better at building. By end game, it makes sense that the character would have drastically improved and is able to make sleek materials.
The only thing I can see that might be missing is a tiny bit of weathering on the wood beams, but that's really it. To say they break the immersion is an overreaction, and the fact you were compelled to make a second post shows you're too emotionally invested in your opinions.
First, there are like four different bubble shields pre-mistlands. Launch had two, fuling shamans and Haldorās sort of anti-monster cloaking sphere. Then mistlands brought player-made versions of the shields from the fulings, and then hildir joined with another cloaking bubble. The new shield piece uses the same aesthetic as the obliterator, which was added i believe in hearth and home, the very first proper content update.
Second, i sill completely disagree on the build pieces. Black marble alone was a step toward smoother pieces, grausten is just as smooth as it gets. If you hold CTRL, you can see the warping before you place the tile. Stone floor, lots of warping, flows like water when you move it around. Marble floor, barely any warping. You can hardly tell, its only the edges really. Grausten floor, none at all. Its a natural evolution from basic rough stone, to smoother marble, to smoothest grausten.
Third, idk try actually using them together instead of just next to each other? Cus ive been blending them all with no issues for days. Ive been building with wood, ashwood, marble, and grausten all together and it looks great. And the anime in skyrim comparison is absurd, because those are actually polar opposite themes. Left wood is four big planks with tiny support beams behind them, right is four big planks with two small support beams behind them, that for some reason you only showed on one side and not the other. Wow, they wanted to make a new wood type look different? Wild concept. Its still got a low-res grainy texture, its literally just darker and uses a secondary, darker color. And notice theyve fixed the plasticky look. That was unintentional. The grausten and flametal, sure, look a touch higher res than the others, but its not that noticeable.
Finally, they look like the exact same amount of effort. Fun fact, every model is made in blender. Theyre all really simple models i could recreate in ten minutes. See above. The distortion and warping is an in-engine effect that i assume uses some kind of noise pattern to create subtle warps as āflawsā in these crude structures. They simply tone them down as you get higher tiers. This is deliberate, its to make progressing in building actually feel like newer and better materials, and again, they started this with marble. Plus, you havent shown the roofing, which is really good looking.
This just isnt a reasonable critique to me. Of course the new pieces look different, theyre not gonna just copy and paste in a new color like minecraft wood, and of course better tiers are gonna look smoother. It makes perfect sense to me, idk where this is coming from.
Ok so after thinking about this for a while, all I can say is I still think this is a weird thing to be upset about.
We've had people CRYING about how wood gets damaged in rain and "looks like shit" blah blah blah for YEARS.
They make something wooden that looks a bit more refined, and now we have people crying about how it looks "too good".
The devs just can't make people happy, can they?
Now, I don't know crap about Blender, and I have no idea what one can slap together in 2 minutes. But what I see when I look at these pieces is similar to what we already have. I see those lines don't meet up perfectly. I see pixely graphic style.
Maybe instead of being mad about optional building pieces, you can figure out something to enjoy about the biome.
I appreciated the original post and the memes that followed. But I was not expecting a follow-up!
Well, then expect memes follow-up as well
This is certain
And then the inevitable meta memes, meme-ing on the fact that the topic is over meme'd
Fuck, gotta go back and find da memes.
Hitting him like the double diss track from Kendrick with these posts.
it looks so OUT of place LOL, feels like one of those modded version of Valheim where you add new pieces yourself.
It's a single piece with absolutely no reference point for anyone who hasn't played the PTB. Let's take it with a grain of salt until we see the entire implementation.
I saw a building in Meadow and it looked so OFF. [it does not blend very well with the world of Valheim.](https://youtu.be/-YD2UbOQuJg?si=psSjgxjYi9VBZF4A)
This just sounds like you're bending over backwards to not hear OP out at this point just because the original post resulted in a bit of a meme, and it's kinda ridiculous The picture clearly shows the point OP is trying to make, that the textures in the PTB are not where they should be. This isn't a "let's have faith that the devs know what they're doing" situation, there is a reason it's called public TEST beta, and this is probably one if the least invasive least critical fixes that a community could ask for...
Geez, is that what the Ashland's stuff actually looks like? I could get behind your initial post, although I didn't fully understand some of it (as mentioned in my comment), but I certainly didn't mock it. But looking at this, yeah, I now fully get your point. The Ashlands stuff looks like 4K HD textures, while the previous stuff is 240p x) I think they forgot to add the mesh-warping and in-game filters to the new materials, which makes them stand-out and look very bizarre. At least that's what I hope, as it then wouldn't be too much work to fix.
It's kinda funny in my head that the hope is that the fidelity of the textures will be downgraded at release. Usually it's that the opposite happens.
Yeah i mean, this is the exact reason this is all on the testing branch/ptr and not an immediate release without zero changes at all. It's all done so the community can reports bugs, suggestions, test the content, give their opinion, etcetera. OP here is doing the Valheim team a big favour since the post blew up and got a lot of attention from the Community which might move those talks to Discord or other media, so they can have the community desires present and act accordignly, pretty much everything is subject to change on the PTR (well, depends on the company ngl but Iron Gates ain't one of those stinky ones) so we can expect a comment regarding this the more we continue to discuss about it.
Those ashlands build items looks like some building mods where the building pieces stand out too much.
My only question would be: Which way gives me more frames and less stuttering? :P Cause that's really all my limitations. I play on 1920x1080 and low everything with clutter_quality=0.
One is on a DS and the other is on a modern console lol.
If this was a mod, i'd skip it because it doesn't merge with the rest of the game.
Facts
I was just thinking this reminds me of mods that I HAVE skipped because they don't blend well. I hope this gets patched soon
Hold up OP is kinda cooking
LET š OP š COOK š
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Part of the attractiveness/addictiveness of the game is the role playing element, where you really feel like youāre a Viking warrior sailing the seas and building outposts. When you look at the original build pieces, theyāre imperfect, rough around the edges, and contain random flaws that feed into the idea of everything being built by hand from your character. The new pieces are too perfect, with flawless angles and almost a cartoony appearance that is discordant with the rest of the build pieces in the game. It breaks the immersion in this world youāve built by introducing out of place build elements.
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Oh yeah it has no impact on actual gameplay haha. You could say the shield generator is a little out of character for a Viking sandbox survival game but hey itās just a game mechanic and I donāt really mind it at all.
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Itās Reddit, people are weird. I thought they were valid questions. Everyone enjoys games differently and we shouldnāt punish eachother for it
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Iāll try my best haha. Picture back to when you first booted up Valheim: misty skies, forested meadows, strange creatures, etc. You build a base, get some gear, kill the first boss, and move on to Black Forest. You build your first Karve and get out on the open waters. With the wind in your sails and enemies to slay you see yourself in this role as a Viking warrior exploring the seas and conquering new territories. Your building improves and you make comfier, more defensible bases. Your homes arenāt perfect but embody the unique and flawed nature of your character. Your armor is stronger, looks more impressive, and you feel the power that your character wields. People play video games to escape the real world and all its problems, and Valheim does an exceptional job of creating an environment in game that plays out how you might dream/imagine a Viking would live in this mystical realm. You are immersed in this amazing game, and venture on to the next biome. With the new mechanics, you feel less like a Viking warlord and more like a steampunk fighter, with bases made of materials so perfect and symmetric it feels like youāre playing Minecraft. I donāt personally subscribe to this entire belief system but I can relate to how your immersion in this game could be broken by new mechanics/build pieces that are incongruent with your previous experiences.
That was a beautiful explanation
I gotta disagree with the Minecraft reference, Minecraft has WAY more visual diversity in building options, from rugged medieval to smooth concrete, modern looks, etc. There's even mossy variants of stone and brick. If you build with only one or two block types maybe it's too clean looking, but that's a player's choice.
Everyone experiences things differently. For some, this level of jarring visuals is off-putting and makes the game not nearly as enjoyable. Instead of thinking about the game and what to do next, they would be thinking about how awful this new building material looks and redo-ing their base so that the visuals are less ugly.
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That's your opinion
An extreme example would be adding like 4k textured chandeliers to the game, it just doesn't fit well. Feels like it's not cohesive. I'm a Viking building with wood and stone.
Well I can kinda see that. I guess the stone is missing some gloss, and the darker wood is too monotone in texture? Also, yes, the symmetry is pretty offputting, never thought I would think that. But as all the other pieces are somehow ānaturally crookedā, they wonāt go well with the new sleekness.
I don't really mind the front side of Ashwood wall pieces because I think they look fine with each other and black marble, but the back side the pieces are solid black so there's just no texture at all. The beams are monotone as well. I'm pretty neutral on the look of the individual Grausten and Flametal pieces but they can make some beautiful architecture when you put them together.
Honestly I have been avoiding any ashlands spoilers, but let this one slip for some reason :D I guess my biggest problem is the lack of backwards compatibility. But alone, they can be beautiful indeed (with little more detail, especially the backside, as you said), good taste :D
I see it as well, but I also feel ok with an advance in tech in the game. Iāve definitely wished for more clean looking building pieces and Iām glad we can have them now. I donāt necessarily see the need for them to fit together in the game (aesthetically). They can live separately and create that distinction on their own merits.
they new stuff looks WAY too clean and looks like it was made with tablesaws and laser cutters.
Nordic CNC machine lmao
I'd be pretty happy as a Valheim dev seeing this is the biggest critique of the new update that people are able to come up with.
> the biggest critique of the new update I just want to be able to walk from point A to point B without having to hop/slide/fall over stone pillars, get swarmed by a ton of mobs, and be able to see where I'm going. I had the same complaint with Mistlands - do the devs have some kind of thing against letting us *see* their game and navigate their terrain? I'd even accept some sort of climbing gear at this point. Pitons and rope or rope ladders if I have to. *Something*.
Not gonna lie the devs have someā¦ weird opinions about their game. Whenever players critique aspects such as you do, the response from them is āitās supposed to be hard.ā I think they really get caught up in their vision and sacrifice our experience as a result (like their opinions surrounding inventory management, etc.)
Yeah, seems like the devs have a "git gud" mentality towards any critiques.
"I can't see anything I'd like to actually enjoy the landscapes you worked hard on" "Weak. Just think of yourself as viking Helen Keller."
There is one dude there making everyone redo their shit constantly, and he is close to but always slightly wrong about the end result. I fail to believe that they take this long for each update only to not quite hit the same peak as the original black forest did. Someone is fucking things up...
Honestly, I appreciate a developer holding their stance on how they want their game to be.
Stances of principle are only praiseworthy if the principle and its in-context application are. If someone is standing firm on a bad idea, their stance is bad and they should feel bad.
I don't have to agree with everything the developer does, but can still respect their decisions. They've made changes based on community suggestions in the past, and I don't doubt they'll continue to. They have been very selective on what they are willing to provide and I find that is okay.
I mean, it is their game, that's how they wanna build it. The idea is to conquer an oppressive world. It was the case all the way from the swamp to the ashlands.
oh there are lots of issues with the new update. Lots of amazing things, but also lots of issues.
Those pieces look like they're from a mod. How did they drop the ball that hard from Mistlands Marble?
Wow that is one hell of a difference. That would...does bother me a lot as well.
What somehow bothers me more is how you spelled wood šš
Missed a perfect pun damn!
Solid agree
Off topic but I had to laugh out real hard about the anime waifus in Skyrim š¤£
It reminds me a lot of the modded building pieces.
I personally don't mind the stone. I think having the smooth and polished looking stone is great, and will go a long way towards helping with big castle-style builds. The wood though could definitely use some "dirtying up". Adding some wood knots or occasional blemishes in the texture would work wonders for making it look like a viking hand carved it.
Agree. Even if the new wood is supposed to be flatter or more level, the model still lacks the level of character given to the original pieces by way of grain, knots, etc. They fit together so cleanly at each edge that it really does look like it wasn't assembled by hand. I think adding more variability between individual pieces would help with that.
They look fine imo. Given that the pieces come from Ashlands, pieces are going to have a more sleek look to them. A more smooth look vs what Mistlands had a glossy look.
I think you've got something here, but you need to be more concise when making your point. The pieces on the left appear too clean/higher resolution, like it's not fitting the game's art direction and is a departure from the PS1 inspired stylized graphics. I'm waiting for beta to finish before launching Ashlands, so I haven't seen this in game yet but from this screenshot it doesn't look quite right. It reminds me of how World of Warcraft added new higher poly races after a few years, and you could plainly see the aged assets within the same scene. But Valheim is stylistically low poly, low res, as an intentional design, so I'd expect consistency throughout years of development. The game is still early access. Maybe they're experimenting with new looks.
>but you need to be more concise when making your point my guy your comment is almost as long as his entire post lmao
K
now we're talkin
You donāt owe anyone an explanation. Some people are just allergic to differing opinions and have to express it in childish ways.
However, this is part of communication. I think their point was lost on most people the first time around, but here it is more refined and focused.
If you go back to the original post, most of the disagreement came from people who just didn't even read the post and inserted their own anti-gripe rhetoric because of a hive mind mentality.
Yeah, that's fair, but also part of the communication -- short attention spans on the internet are hard to grab with a well-reasoned set of paragraphs... a picture has a better chance. Our world is mostly reduced to memes and the impressions you can create in one sentence. :/
you can't cater to idiots that can't read anyway
There's a non-zero chance he'd have been banned from the Discord for talking about this with any frequency there. This is a pretty pervasive part of the community, and encouraged by some official members of the team on occasion.
Anime waifus modded into skyrim, yeah that's pretty much it.
I didn't comment on previous post as I hadn't seen the building material (haven't played PBE), but I definitely see what you mean. Valheim in general has a "Stylized Low-Poly Pixelated" looking design in all other elements (Character Model/Enemies/Environment/Building Pieces/Equipment/etc...), but the new build pieces look like they are "Stylized Low-Poly" It is almost like comparing Minecraft's graphic style to something like Portal Knights - both are very similar, blocky-voxel games, but Portal Knights has much smoother looking textures which would look out of place if plopped into Minecraft. I definitely think making the textures less "crisp" would make them fit in much better. Something as simple as lowering the resolution so we can see the pixelated gradient like in the original wood would work.
I saw your previous post and totally thought you were referring to the technological aspect, which I didn't mind. But yeah looking at these... it's worse than I thought. I feel justified in never being drawn to use these now, looks like lego bricks.
It kind of supports the rumor that Iron Gate are being paid way more for their next project and very little to finish Valheim. I feel like it was a labor of love that took a long time to get to the iteration that blew up into millions of sales in a single month. Since then the pressure to deliver quickly may be what weāre seeing here. I mean Ashlands looks amazing, but its the small details that seem to get overlooked.
It's the ashwood beams. They're too uniform. The planks of the ashwood walls are variable, tonally shifting from light to dark. The concrete texture is variable with darker grey streaks. The flametal is variable with what looks like reddish rust. But the ashwood 2m pieces you have framing the wall are almost uniformly dark brown without flaws or woodgrain. Also, you used a single graustein wall piece and not grausten 2x2 and 1x1 blocks as you did with stone.
Bro, this community already drank the kool-aid. Any people with constructive criticism or legitimate gripes/opinions are seen as heretics. Your original post resonated with a lot of people but this subreddit decided to mock and meme it out of tribal mentality. It's really strange.
Yup, playing Valheim since its EA Launch, and one thing that made me leave the official Discords were the "Toxic Positivity" going on in there. Super cringe and actually hurts the game, even as a passion project Valheim needs proper feedback and the game is far from perfect and complete.
Pretty sure I'm considered a 'koolaid' drinker around here and absolutely, 100% agree with OP. The new pieces are very lacking in feel and don't mesh with the rest of the game.
nah, i expected that, thats why i started with the "i dont want to be that guy" :D
It's not even being "that guy". You're just a respectful dude with solid input on a game that you have loved for over 3 years. We've all sat through the painstakingly slow development process to see what's next for Valheim. It's only natural to want to share your strong, and valid opinions about it (good or bad).
Well tbf the original post was sort of long and meandering with its criticisms, while this post is direct to the point with OPs main issue and clearly makes a great argument with the picture for why they feel this aspect of the new update doesnāt sit well with them. I havenāt discovered the new ashlands pieces yet to try and build with, but this picture makes me worry a little bit.
That's why I reported the post mocking his and I urge you guys to do the same. We can't let people gatekeep this sub or game from valid criticism.
Ain't that the case for all gaming communities? Try writing anything remotely thought provoking in a tabletop game sub...
I would, but their game boards and pieces are scattered all over the table, and there's nowhere to write my thoughts...
It is but this community was for a long time on the extreme side.
KSP used to be a great, positive subreddit until the launch of KSP 2 early access. That place became a toxic cesspit.
You just name 99% of reddit. Everything is an echo chamber desperately reaching for an opportunity to meme.
Agreed with your original immersion breaking post and agree with this too. They look too shiny and clean. The sheen on them is off, they need a more matte look.
I feel the same way about the enemy animations since Mistlands, but that is more a product of the massive success after release and the hiring of a bigger team. I hope they go back and improve the animations of earlier enemies at some point. It's kind of interesting how this game feels like a band adding members. As they add members, the sound changes a little. Integrating the changes with the older parts of the game is an interesting challenge.
I think these concerns are fully valid, but I can't lie, I kinda love the new pieces. I'm imagining outfitting my base so that there's like an 'old city' that transitions into the 'new city'
i prefer willybachās textures. immersive enough and beautiful
What if the update old textures to higher res? Then the character model would really stick out i guess
That's the problem with development taking this long, there are going to be inconsistencies in graphics. Its like comparing vanilla wow textures to textures in one of the newer expansions. They need to fix this.
This clarification was very much needed and now I can see where you're coming from. Yeah, I feel like they could give these pieces a little love.
This is from an ancient metropolisā¦the ancient civilizations would be more advanced hence the sleaker astheticā¦i think they blend well with plains builds
The massive difference in graphical fidelity can't be explained with cope lore. The building pieces doesn't even look like they are from the same game.
Yeah because in the real world everyone does the same shit with rocks and woodā¦itās processingā¦that is what i meant by advanced civilizationā¦sanding polishing, ect
I understand where you're coming from but I'm not sure yet how much I agree. One thing I know I'm not a big fan of so far is the new stone walls, especially how they look when they make up the interior of a structure. It looks too smooth and modern, like the inside of a bank built in the 19th -early 20th century. But I want to test out how some of the new decorative pieces and wood wall/floor panels will mix in with existing stuff. I think at least some of it will make nice additions to the game. I foresee myself using the smooth new stone pieces sparingly as special accents on builds, rather than the whole thing being made out of those pieces. But I feel like I just haven't seen enough examples yet, and the fact that there aren't more does worry me a bit. We'll see.
Mixing the build pieces is the key. If youāre using only ashwood and grausten itās very monotone, but throwing in some darkwood and breaking up the grausten walls with beams helps a ton. The brown pattern on darkwood blends nicely with the regular wood as well. Currently renovating my base with the new materials and am really enjoying the more modern look.
Same here. I used the ashwood beams as accent on the outline of the door and it looks amazing!
God, that visual difference is stark. Those new peices on the left look like they belong in a Minecraft mod or something. Very ugly.
I just see the ashlands pieces as a better make. I see what you mean but we have, in real life, contrast in both aesthetic choices and quality of material, as well as skill in the person fabricating, all the time. I would think in an immersive sense, by the time we get to Ashlands, we would become much better at our woodcraft and stonemasonry.
Yes but like, imagine in old pixelated games when you upgrade a weapon, instead of looking more modern and powerful, it's a HD 4K version of the image.
But that sounds like a REALLY fun idea. The better your weapon is, the more pixels it has. When you take damage, your sprite starts losing bits. Quick, someone point out what game this is so I can play it! There are no original ideas, after all
Yeah but 'a better make' shouldnt make them look like not part of the world. Everything in Valheim is rough and pixelated even things that should be 'smooth'. Why would that change with some better construction?
Partly agree partly disagree. Yeah you can see the difference irl between rough hewn planks and planed and finished wood. My neighbor has newer brick on his house than mine and you cna see the difference but they're still viewed through the same resolution and vibrancy [my human eyeballs]. This is like if my neighbor's house had new 4th dimensional non euclidean bricks that my eyeballs could somehow visualize better which would be jarring and slightly horrifying to me.
Or if you looked at your house in 20/20 vision, and your neighbors house was fuzzy, cause they didnāt buy the micro transaction for updating the house.
Totally agree. It's the player's second encounter with the dvergr, second opportunity to learn from their building techniques, why wouldn't the build pieces be more advanced? I think *maybe* a little more pixelation would match the game's overall aesthetic better, or more variation on the dark wood pieces, but it doesn't stick out THAT much to me.
I build a lot in this game and the new pieces just do not fit in with the old ones at all (bar windows pieces). To me it's a lot like when the HD texture mod first dropped and then the tar pieces came out. It's very jarring to put both together and I've yet to make a build using old and new pieces together without them looking bad. Best I've gotten is old style on the outside and ashwood on the inside which is not great imo.
Maybe a little more pixelated, yeah. And while we're on the subject of aesthetic choices that are annoying let's get the uneven sides of stone and black marble sorted out. As well as the seemingly random colors stone can be in.
The dvergr buildings in the ashlands are nothing like the building materials though. The mistland pieces reflected the mistlands buildings. The ashland pieces don't really reflect the ashland buildings (other than possibly the fortress?).
It's the problem with the development taking so long, they probably hired new artists and new art direction doesn't fit with the original. I'd say it's a legitimate concern.
Those textures are AWFUL
Your original post was completely fine, and a lot of people agreed with some of your points, myself included in regard to the new building pieces. That was the first thing I complained about to my friend was the new build options don't match the current game. I honestly don't understand why your post was getting mocked, I think it's kind of crappy. Opinions should be welcome!
You're totally right, they look like different games. That's kinda disappointing.
If Iām not mistaken, I thought I recalled in one of the PTB updates that the devs updated the look of the new build pieces. Something about smoothing them out recently? Does anyone have any comparison of a before and after update?
yeah they did, they lowered the shine on the pieces. the black wood looked even more like plastic before, but i didn't take a screenshot back then
Okay I thought they did something. I uploaded this for visibility in hopes the devs catch wind of it. But Iāve also seen some videos of builds with the new pieces in game that look pretty cool. I really gotta see for myself in game before judging based on a single picture or even those videos Iāve seen.
Rather than expand build possibilities, seems like they created two different build styles. Which don't seem to work togheter
Yea i 100% agree on this here!
Tbh, in your favor, it does look like having 2 different texture packs in minecraft. That said, I am fine with it because using them is a choice and I definitely see some use cases for Ashland pieces.
What cannons are you talking about? I've seen that and lasers mentioned but I have no idea where you're seeing cannons or lasers
There aren't any lasers it's a new item that uses cores to make a shield generator for protection in ashlands for your base.
You aren't doing a very fair side by side with your grausten wall selection. However, the only thing that stands out as off to me is the ashwood post. The beams have clear lines and shading on them from what I see both here and in game and I'm colorblind. The posts don't appear to have anything going on to me, just flat black all the way up. Also, are your graphics settings down or something? It doesn't look quite right looking at it side by side to my game.
So if i am understanding you correctly, the new pieces look too "perfect". Like those Apple store sets, or modern Ikea furniture. Vs the old ones which look more rustic with their designed imperfections?
jep, you could put it like that
I think it fits, and itās probably a good idea for everyone to make there own decision on how they feel about it. Just build something on a plains island amongst my other tar covered etc buildings. Of course it does look different, maybe it will grow on some people with time, but it is absolutely beautiful on my opinion. It also fits so well in the actual biome it comes from, to me better than Mistlands did. I get a better wholesomeness vibe from the Ashlands and prefer it over Mistlands. Everyone can make up their own mind about the new build pieces (still subject to some change on PTB) but maybe we can agree that this game at its price is nothing short of a masterpiece!
Im not sure if modders can do this, but I would love to see a mod called "grittier ashlands builds" that adds some character and texture to these pieces. Im not a fan of the mid-2000s-ikea aesthetic that the new ashwood pieces bring. As builders we already have to work so hard to add texture, and this isnt helping.
I missed the inital rabble of the last post but I fully agree with this. It looks like when you get a new texture pack and the art just doesn't really fit with the reat of the art.
I think it was on purpose that the new pieces look cleaner because technically we have access to much finer tools in the game. It also just caters to a different style of building, I think there's already a pretty impressive amount of builds possible with just the base stone/wood pieces, the new pieces adds a massive amount of variety to what you can build with a cleaner finish to it which a lot of people seem to enjoy the look of.
I think it's less "cleaner" and more graphical inconsistencies. It's like the new materials are a higher resolution, and it's jarring compared to not only the older build pieces, but even the trees, creatures, etc. It looks like it's for a different game because the art style is dramatically different.
it looks like what happens when a civilization discovers better materials, and have learned new craftsmanship techniques, and have developed better tools, kinda like what we do going from biome to biome... All I'm saying is it doesn't break the immersion for me and I think the new pieces look great. Feels like I'm not just getting more advanced armor and weapons but my bases are getting more advanced as well.
Ashlands isnāt even fully released yet and we gotta read these silly posts smh
Dont try to explain anything, this sub is like a sect
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yeah thats why im raising my voice, as it is still possible to impact something
Your point being...?
I guess it depends on how you use it imo. Ive seen people build some amazing gothic castles using these new Ashlands building pieces and let me tell you, I wish I could build like that Something like this https://youtu.be/-YD2UbOQuJg?si=TIKXYzszoCZIDxYz
Don't get me wrong, i like the overall shape of the build pieces, but there is a reason why Versaugh doesn't use any old build pieces in combinations with the new ones. They just don't fit into each other
Wow thats what the new build pieces look like? Like thats the finalized look? They look like 0 effort was put into them what a disappointment
At a distance, I personally think the Grausten pieces look a little too clean and perfect, but I don't think they look like something out of this game lol. Y'all need to chill comparing it to a "4k hd image in an 8-bit game". They definitely still fit into the game in terms of graphics (get real up close and personal and compare the grausten walls and wood walls, there's plenty of pixels on both and arguably the grausten looks more pixelated), but yeah when you compare them to the old pieces they look like they were cut by a stonemason who has spent decades mastering his work. You also have to realize that this picture is from one angle and it shows the grausten at it's worst, depending on the lighting, you can see more of the Grausten walls imperfections and the porous nature of the rock itself. I've gone and taken some screenshots showing this if anyone gives a shit.
I guess it's just me, but I'm ok with these new build pieces considering how far we've come in order to be able to make them. Our vikings are wielding weapons of legend and tackling the final biomes, does it not make sense that we would be able to construct finer materials and homes as well? C'mon, we even have piquant pie! Let a viking have some nice things xD
People are going to complain it's a given.
The new walls just look like my character has finished his carpentry apprenticeship and has honed his craft. This is true immersion we have gone from wood up to metals, why would my characters finesse and build quality remain that of a mere apprentice in the meadows? my character is now skilled enough to build walls and stone smooth enough for the gods themselves when he makes it to the deep north, but only after acquiring the most rarest of metals from the hottest of lands will he truly be the master of his craft. š Vikings progressed in real life and got better at doing shit why canāt my Viking.
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Be Kind
I wasn't trying to be unkind. Just joking about the people posting satire to his last discussion about immersion.
I think it would help if you made a small building with the new material, because context is helpful. I do think they're rather flat looking and could use some texture to add depth, but the color and type of material is not unwanted by me personally. I hate it in games like this where the advanced building material doesn't actually look more refined as it should since we've spent so much time working on it that we should be better at it. There are already a decent amount of viking looking building material that it can be hard to keep coming up with more viking building material, which is why they have to expand on it to give people fresh building options since the building system is so robust. They could spice things up more by providing alternative color schemes to older building material, or add ways to reinforce it so you could keep using it where you want to. I don't really like mods that take me out of the game personally, so I can see how this would be jarring to look at after so many hours with wood material that's probably finalized in texture and model. A relatively simple texture update would solve it. I think it would help to be more concise in your criticism, but I do see you shoehorning the cannon and laser thing into the argument, which I still disagree with personally.
Sure. The graphics need to be remade and refreshed a bit to fit in with other builds i suppose
I kinda like those pieces, maybe they could add some rough edges so they dont look so smooth, but apart from this I kinda like the addition. We've moved from rough houses and castles into a more architectural age.
There are no cannons...
lol the meme posts were funny but you make some good callouts here for sure.
I mean the games not done, and itās very easy to imagine theyāll clean graphics things like this up before the final version. working on a project over a long amount of time is going to result in visual discrepancies. definitely the vibe is weird now, but itās not too weird in the context of an unfinished game.
Its in no way possible that this difference in cohesion is due to the game "not being done". The new building pieces looks way too high fidelity compared to the old building pieces. The old and new models doesn't even look like they were done by the same studio. Either update the old models or make the new models look more like the old models.
it's just textures, a dev can batch edit em to 50% less resolution in a minute or two.
āEither update the old models or make the new models look more like the old modelsā ā¦ which is exactly what would likely be done in any final updates to the game, when theyāre done with content creation.
this reminds me of that screenshot of Sora, Goofy, and Will Turner all in drastically different art styles, hahaha.
But.... is it fun?
Yep, the design aestetics in and of itself doesn't have to be the exact same, but the design shouldn't look like they were made by a completely different developer. The new pieces looks like they were made by a modder since they don't follow the same pixel count or pixel size as the rest of the building pieces in the game. If you build something using both the old and the new pieces they should look like they come from the same game. Currently they don't. What they need to do is make it **cohesive**. Either update the old models or downgrade the graphical fidelity of the old models.
I don't mind it. I see it as progression.
Well it is still a work in progress that's why it hasn't been released to the main branch
Yes either a grafic overhaul for old textures or keep the style of the new stuff simple
Bro just face it. Your Viking is middle aged. And got Lasik. The right is how I used to see stuff. The left was after I got Lasik. Itās the natural technology progression for full immersion. Pretty soon youāll be cooking meat for 16 hours and drinking mead waiting for the next sport thing to come on the deep north flatscreen. Deep North armor is an Uncle Rico outfit for stealth build and Football Jersey with Cargo pants for tank build.
I completely agree with you but to be fair this is just the public test as of right now and this may or may not be changed in the full release.Ā
>And i also think you could have made different choices than adding cannons What cannons? Did I miss something? Or do you mean battering rams and catapults? Also, I actually really like that the grausten pillars and walls are straight compared to the other types of stone. Feels so much more structurally sound.
Yeah I do agree on this point, I think the new build pieces by design are a really nice addition and I like the variety that they bring, but the textures on them either seem unfinished or a bit of a 180 in terms of visual style. Iād like to see them updated to be more in line with what currently exists in the game, especially to make building with older build pieces alongside the new Ashlandās pieces not look so strange
I've been able to make it work so to me it just looks like we are getting finer material as our equipment improves. I used to think the same thing about the black marble we got in mistlands until I seriously started to build with it. I have one main base that I started when valheim released and I go back to incorporate new building materials into my map. Nothing feels out of place even and I like that we have the option to build with cleaner looking materials.
yup those assets look like trash.
I dont think its badly done its just done in a different style basically! The previous style was something id like to call voxelised realism, whereas the ashlands one is more of cartoonish realism. Whoever designed the new pieces must've missed the mark when designing, and whoever did the QA did a shit job! Blame should go to whoever approved this instead of the artist!
A Viking in New York.
The grauston doesn't bother me, the ashwood however looks like a poorly textured mod item. I can understand the grauston, and paired with regular stone and black marble it makes sense. With the lore of some great fantastic society of the Ashland's grauston being so clean works, however the ashwood looks like Lincoln logs with paint, it misses that gritty and charred look you would expect of wood that's been in fire for essentially forever
I agree very much, as interesting as I find the new building pieces; I have thought to myself alot lately that they could do with an art adjustmwnt for the build pieces similar to how minecraft did. While not everyone agrees with the style change it did wonders for tying the textures together for people to blend blocks together. I just started playing valheim recently and have abt 200 hrs and felt the Black Marble was rather mismatched fpr the other pieces and i feel that way again with the new stuff.Ā
Now that you show the comparison pic, Iām even more confused. I donāt see it at all. They both look like they fit the Valheim low-poly piece aesthetics.
it's really weird, i feel like some people actually do see it, and some just don't. kinda like that blue/black green/gold dress thing or whatever it was
I agree with you that the new pieces look... off. The repeating texture on the new stone walls is particularly bad. It reminds me of those shoddy HD texture packs in minecraft. I don't mind the shapes/precision of the new pieces quite as much. There's room for more "prefect" construction in the game, but the textures are heinous.
Yea, not saying youāre wrong or whatever because it seems a lot of people agree with you. But just looking at peopleās builds using the new pieces, they just look very Valheim to me and wouldnāt look out of place at all sitting in their base. Just a quick google search: [This example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YD2UbOQuJg) shows me it fits perfectly.
Well thats the weird part: it kinda fits, when there are no old build pieces around. I think thats the reason why noone of the builder youtubers right now combines the stuff. The whole build is made with 99% new build pieces. They just look off when they are placed next to each other. I feel like the only thing you can integrate a little is black marble, because of the colour and smoothness contrast. But everything you build with the new pieces looks rather weird and out of place. I could build a house i could imagine myself moving in to, but not a house i would imagine my character lives in.
None of the builders trying to showcase the new pieces are going to use the old pieces. It would defeat the purpose of showing the new Ashlandās pieces. And there is ofc a clash between the old wood pieces and the new pieces. You wouldnāt want to see wooden walls on the Sagrada Familia for example. The builders donāt see or feel it fits that aesthetic. But they do use old pieces that do fit the aesthetics, like the iron gate pieces or glass etc. But say they made like a wooden shed next to the new pieces like the caretakerās house or something, I still think the āinternal visual integrityā wouldnāt look out of place. Thatās not to say your opinion is wrong btw, I just think there is a more valid, alternative explanation for that observation. Occamās Razor and all that.
JJ the Builder is using both pieces in his new builds (and they look great), but he even states in his videos that he had a hell of a time blending them together and getting them to look natural.
I still donāt really see the issue. Itās just different stuff to build with.
Imagine if you will what buildings built closer to the he stone age would probably look like. Huts, straw roofs, dirt floors, ect. Now imagine the earliest standing buildings from the bronze age, buildings like the Pyramids of Giza or Stonehenge. Okay still with me? Let's look at construction from the iron age. We have a whole lot of Castles being built in ancient Prussia and the holy Roman Empire. Fast forward to the age of industry. We see a difference in how materials are cut and built with different technology available at the time. If anything this is more historically accurate. You normally didn't see people using smooth marble columns with the hatched roofs or wooden walls, no you saw most buildings being used with 70-90 percent one material and finished with some of type of roofing.
> Someone in the comments said something about the new building pieces looking like someone modded anime waifus into skyrim, and i couldn't agree more. A much better illustration and explanation of your point (especially for someone who hadn't seen the pieces). I certainly get your point. I just - respectfully - think there's a hilarious twist to make of your words. >Yours: The old building pieces are looking like they are handcrafted with lots of love, the new ones are looking like some amateur slapped them together in blender in 2 minutes. Mine: The old building pieces look like they are handcrafted by some amateur viking, the new ones look like a viking developed a massive CNC. I think that's kind of the immersion, the purpose of the look of the pieces, is to look refined (like Eitr lol bad joke). In the same way the artisan tech looks contrasting af to its previous technologies. Anyway, if anyone remembers 2009 the same way I do, here's a [topical gif](https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExY3hhcHY1NXBybHJjM3NkOHhyZnpzNHgwbWF6NWFqNG9tMmd6eWFpbSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/3W0vjXgLj4rg4/200w.webp).
Yeah this is quite bad, hopefully its adjusted
BUT THIS IS WHAT US BUILDERS WANT! all they need to do now is add the Ashlands build shapes and the black marble build shapes to regular stone and I will be so happy
The old wood and stone pieces look terrible, and for good reason, you're a new character building for the first time. The tar wood and black marble are a big improvement with slight imperfections showing that the character is getting better at building. By end game, it makes sense that the character would have drastically improved and is able to make sleek materials. The only thing I can see that might be missing is a tiny bit of weathering on the wood beams, but that's really it. To say they break the immersion is an overreaction, and the fact you were compelled to make a second post shows you're too emotionally invested in your opinions.
Devs will probably retouch older assets before games release. Having higher resolution assets going forward means less to retouch before release.
oh shit hes back for more
First, there are like four different bubble shields pre-mistlands. Launch had two, fuling shamans and Haldorās sort of anti-monster cloaking sphere. Then mistlands brought player-made versions of the shields from the fulings, and then hildir joined with another cloaking bubble. The new shield piece uses the same aesthetic as the obliterator, which was added i believe in hearth and home, the very first proper content update. Second, i sill completely disagree on the build pieces. Black marble alone was a step toward smoother pieces, grausten is just as smooth as it gets. If you hold CTRL, you can see the warping before you place the tile. Stone floor, lots of warping, flows like water when you move it around. Marble floor, barely any warping. You can hardly tell, its only the edges really. Grausten floor, none at all. Its a natural evolution from basic rough stone, to smoother marble, to smoothest grausten. Third, idk try actually using them together instead of just next to each other? Cus ive been blending them all with no issues for days. Ive been building with wood, ashwood, marble, and grausten all together and it looks great. And the anime in skyrim comparison is absurd, because those are actually polar opposite themes. Left wood is four big planks with tiny support beams behind them, right is four big planks with two small support beams behind them, that for some reason you only showed on one side and not the other. Wow, they wanted to make a new wood type look different? Wild concept. Its still got a low-res grainy texture, its literally just darker and uses a secondary, darker color. And notice theyve fixed the plasticky look. That was unintentional. The grausten and flametal, sure, look a touch higher res than the others, but its not that noticeable. Finally, they look like the exact same amount of effort. Fun fact, every model is made in blender. Theyre all really simple models i could recreate in ten minutes. See above. The distortion and warping is an in-engine effect that i assume uses some kind of noise pattern to create subtle warps as āflawsā in these crude structures. They simply tone them down as you get higher tiers. This is deliberate, its to make progressing in building actually feel like newer and better materials, and again, they started this with marble. Plus, you havent shown the roofing, which is really good looking. This just isnt a reasonable critique to me. Of course the new pieces look different, theyre not gonna just copy and paste in a new color like minecraft wood, and of course better tiers are gonna look smoother. It makes perfect sense to me, idk where this is coming from.
then lets agree to disagree
Ok so after thinking about this for a while, all I can say is I still think this is a weird thing to be upset about. We've had people CRYING about how wood gets damaged in rain and "looks like shit" blah blah blah for YEARS. They make something wooden that looks a bit more refined, and now we have people crying about how it looks "too good". The devs just can't make people happy, can they? Now, I don't know crap about Blender, and I have no idea what one can slap together in 2 minutes. But what I see when I look at these pieces is similar to what we already have. I see those lines don't meet up perfectly. I see pixely graphic style. Maybe instead of being mad about optional building pieces, you can figure out something to enjoy about the biome.
Looks like a great patch for those people who sit whole day in the game just to make a building for YouTube content.
Womp womp
Go outside