Pardon,
I believe that graphics in GD will be one of the main selling point
miss ‘of’ there.
As for TQ loot, I could say it very good, but for loot system, I couldn’t praise much.
Oh I know what you meant…just throwing out the things I am looking forward to most.\ 
What do you mean by the loot/loot system comment? Are you referring to the way items dropped?
Well, in TQ loot system is quite bad though although it actually have many variation of loots. In normal mode, we hardly can stumbled across purple, let alone actually use one. 70% of loots are in epic and legendary which is only a fraction of people actually played it. Trash loot with all the gray and yellow, which is killing the looting fun if nothing better than yellow appear.
Well, GD promise to improve this so it’s one aspect I’m really looking forward to.
Support and Game type have nothing to do with this, you are shifting the goal posts. The point of discussion and contention was that money and popularity does not negate creativity and talant.
Zynga came 2nd in March Madness, losing only to Valve in the final. That says to me there are some pretty dedicated and hardcore Zynga fans, and I have seen people become as obsessed about Farmville much in the same way as I have people become obsessed with Crack the Gathering.
They are amazingly popular and they make a lot… and I mean A LOT of money. So by the very same measuring stick you are using for Blizzard means we should not rule out Zynga’s innovation and creativity. Just because they are purely money driven and make “games” for Facebook, doesn’t mean that the developers behind them arnt amazingly creative and talented.
As for being comparable, they both have a past history for ripping off other peoples work, calling it there own and becoming massively successful from other peoples creativity.
Blizzard took an already existing Warhammer game, replaced some of the names and graphics, called it Warcraft and it became hugely popular.
Zynga took Mob Wars and Restaurant City, changed the names and some of the graphics called them Mafia Wars and Cafe World and they became hugely successful and popular.
They both are giants in their respective fields. Everyone in the MMO business wants to create the next WoW, everyone on Facebook wants to make the next Farmville.
Plus, at this point they are about on par with each other for artistic style.
Anyway, On Topic.
The screenshots look awesome, great to see the new grass with some decent AA on it!
Question about the weather, if there is snow… are you guys planning on doing Mountain/Winter levels?
Yes, definitely… but when? I don’t know. 
I love mountain / winter levels in games. I actually fought an epic battle to get snow into TQ. Lol… long story… I finally won out with the Silk Road.
So we’re planning for it but whether it will be part of the initial release or not I’m not sure. It would probably be a smart move since it would allow us to re-texture a bunch of existing assets, put some snow on them, and create a whole new totally different feeling environment. However, I need to first figure out whether it fits into the opening chapter of the story and this initial area of the world we’re building.
Why not add a seasonal aspect to the game. When the player starts the game, it randomly selects from either hot weather effects or cold / winter weather… too much work! haha.
Ahh… crazy.
Snow levels are amazingly hard to do well, without having an entire map of empty white. I tip my hat to you sir and always welcome seeing them in games!
Oh that is incredible.
You guessed it: ton of work. I have a total hard-on for weather, seasons, and other atmospheric stuff like that in games. Even if it has no effect on combat, I think it adds so much to the atmosphere and immersion of the game. In every game I’ve worked on I’ve pushed for a weather system but its always slipped off the schedule - until now! MuahaHahaaHahaHaha! The benefits of starting your own company. 
Actually having each environment be able to change seasons though in a really convincing way would take a lot of work in terms of both tech and art. Especially for a game like this.
If we get $20m for GD2 maybe I can make it happen.
Here comes a man who know my old words.
Seasonal changes would be awesome. I’d love to see a heavily forested area all bare trees in the Winter and lush green in Summer.
*edited to preserve the crispness of teh magic"
I really enjoyed the snow on the silk road and thought that it was well done. Considering how much you had to condense the 3,500+ miles between Babylon and Chang’an, the transitions into and out of the snow worked as well.
lol…
Act 3 is probably my least favorite area…but the snow part was a nice diversion for the other areas. I really liked the ice caves and the music was very cool too…had a “magical crispness” to it…if that even means anything
Ok I see what you mean. I think purples were meant to only be in later acts so that things continued to progress rather than be recycled…which I really enjoyed.
I do think you have a point though…perhaps things could have been a little more exciting in normal too.
Eating frost flakes while dancing in the snowy palettes of the Silk Road, jamming to the tunes. That’s magical crispness.
I don’t know that Act 3 is my favorite either, but I do like how they implemented the snow. I also liked the cities of Chang’an and Zhidan. The Tsakonian Ruins in Act 5 are my favorite area, though I cannot say it is magically crisp. It is mostly damp and soggy, actually.
If your going to go all rabid fan boy, its a good idea to know a little history about the company you are trying to defend.
The reason that Warhammer and Warcraft share so much in common is that Warcraft was originally slated to be a licensed Warhammer RTS.
Blizzard was hired by Games Workshop to create a Warhammer Fantasy Battle RTS. Games Workshop ended up pulling their license and Blizzard was left with a half finished game, so they changed around some names finished it up, called it “Warcraft: Orcs and Humans” and the rest is gaming history.
As for being original in design and play, Blizzard basically copy and pasted Westwoods design for Dune II: Battle for Arrakis (As has every other modern RTS) and put a fantasy skin over the top of it.
The reason that Warhammer and Warcraft share so much in common is that Warcraft was originally slated to be a licensed Warhammer RTS.
Blizzard was hired by Games Workshop to create a Warhammer Fantasy Battle RTS. Games Workshop ended up pulling their license and Blizzard was left with a half finished game, so they changed around some names finished it up, called it “Warcraft: Orcs and Humans” and the rest is gaming history.
As for being original in design and play, Blizzard basically copy and pasted Westwoods design for Dune II: Battle for Arrakis (As has every other modern RTS) and put a fantasy skin over the top of it.
Back on topic yet again! (so very sorry for adding to the derailment of the thread.)
One thing I really enjoyed about the Sims 2 was the Seasons Expansion. They had really cool snow effects where when it started to snow, they would add a snow texture plane about a foot off the ground that went just beyond the camera view and then as the player walked, they would leave a disturbed snow effect behind them.
Managed to find a video, at 5 minutes and 35 seconds they do a demonstration of the snow effects.