The art direction of maps and ports is seriously depressing

[Teekesselchen]

Greece looks like an ugly dark muddy mess, not at all how we like the Aegean sea. This is in line with recent reworks and other new maps like Shards. Strait went from warm and sunny to dark and depressing:

 

(old Strait - sunny and lovely)

(new Strait - the only thing that isn't brown is the minimap)

 

The announcement screenshots for Greece were not exactly advertisement for the game, I think they actively repulse people with how gloomy they look:

I would have hoped more for a bright map with colours like these:

 

 

I get that glare, shell tracers and the UI can be problematic but surely there are other ways than turning the game this ugly. I used to like the map art, now I hate it. I used to disable my interface and take screenshots of Northern Lights because it was so pretty, then even the Northern Lights themselves got removed.

This trend sadly continues into ports. Summer Zipangu was my favourite by far since it was the only one to look warm and bright and a colourfull palette, but that was removed last winter and replaced with a cold and dark winterscape instead. I still check for the announcement of Zipangu's return every patch log since I don't remember any other permanent ports getting removed like this, but sadly it's still not back.

 

Please do something about this in the future, and please bring back summer Zipangu soon.

 

[Bear__Necessities]

This is a game where there is a map called Northern Lights that most of the time doesn't actually have the Northern Lights.

[Azalgor]

The most depresing part is that they turned 'Islands of ice' from an interesting and original map from CBT into a copy/paste crap one with 2 reworks, and the best historical looking one - 'The ocean' is the rarest in rotation and most hated one.

 

[GarrusBrutus]

@Teekesselchen You're damn right. The game could do with alot more sunny maps instead of depressing chernobyl-themed ones. 

[Panocek]

6 hours ago, Bear_Necessities said:

This is a game where there is a map called Northern Lights that most of the time doesn't actually have the Northern Lights.

Well, it used to have. But then bastards refusing to wear glasses complained about ship camos being effective and whatnot.

 

from Yuro clip about Missouri

[HystericalAccuracy]

8 hours ago, Teekesselchen said:

This trend sadly continues into ports. Summer Zipangu was my favourite by far since it was the only one to look warm and bright

Mine was the "Black Sea" - a regular scenery without explosions in the background, in normal daylight. Now it´s dark, as nearly all the other ports.

The Dorm is cute, but the lighting seems static, something´s off with it. And nearly all the other ports are dark.

 

Also, as OP says, why always this diffuse, sad lighting in battles?

 

Battle of River Plate (Graf Spee vs Brits) was fought in bright daylight and nice weather.

Battle of Helgoland

Battle of Skakerrak

Battle of (insert anything from WWI or most of WWII)

 

Sure, late-war radar made night battles possible (Battle of North Cape), but most were fought in daylight.

[Teekesselchen]

7 hours ago, Bear_Necessities said:

This is a game where there is a map called Northern Lights that most of the time doesn't actually have the Northern Lights.

And it looked so damn good. Actual colour in the game!

 

I really want that back, as well as Zipangu

 

I get that some of those textures on the mountains are pretty outdated but I used that port right until it got replaced with the winter version because it had the best colour palette by far.

[CptBarney]

At this bloody rate necromunda will be in the game lol.

[invicta2012]

3 hours ago, GarrusBrutus said:

@Teekesselchen You're damn right. The game could do with alot more sunny maps instead of depressing chernobyl-themed ones.

I always think that when I see the Solomon Islands map. This is a place so beautiful it can make wreckage look pretty, as the epic fail from WoT below shows:

 

Taken from  https://www.kerimusta.com/pasifik-okyanusu-ve-2-dunya-savasindan-geriye-kalanlar34-fotograf/

 

 

[CptBarney]

Also brighter colours can help with your mood even if it is subtle.

 

im suprised they dont have maps that are mostly open water but with shallow islands that you cant use as cover except from torps occasionally and just add to the scenary.

 

but yeah a mixture of bright and drab maps would be nice, everything is starting to look like a hive city at this point.

[Panocek]

7 minutes ago, CptBarney said:

but yeah a mixture of bright and drab maps would be nice, everything is starting to look like a hive city at this point.

Dark, bleak maps and typical random team cosplaying Death Korps of Krieg... WH40k and WoWs collab when?

[GarrusBrutus]

@Teekesselchen maybe there is a mod that does exactly what you ask for? I dont know...

[Nechrom]

If you're looking for a bright and sunny port and don't mind a bit of fiction, then there's still Sarushima Base from the High School Fleet collab.

[Teekesselchen]

4 hours ago, GarrusBrutus said:

@Teekesselchen maybe there is a mod that does exactly what you ask for? I dont know...

I've been looking for a Zipangu port mod ever since it got removed, sadly no sucess so far. Even Aslain's didn't have it.

[NothingButTheRain]

On 6/8/2019 at 4:42 PM, Teekesselchen said:

I've been looking for a Zipangu port mod ever since it got removed, sadly no sucess so far. Even Aslain's didn't have it.

Darn. And I deleted my 7.10 backup client just yesterday, which may have contained these files.

 

You could probably create this port if you have these files stahsed away somewhere. Yes, it will be a pain in the but but at least you wouldn't have to wait for someone else to do it.

[Miessa3]

On 6/8/2019 at 12:25 PM, CptBarney said:

Also brighter colours can help with your mood even if it is subtle.

 

im suprised they dont have maps that are mostly open water but with shallow islands that you cant use as cover except from torps occasionally and just add to the scenary.

 

but yeah a mixture of bright and drab maps would be nice, everything is starting to look like a hive city at this point.

Well that would be effectively ocean (gameplaywise) and you know how much hate that map gets. (I would like it though)

 

On topic:

Well yes.

Even though my favourite port is Hamburg (as it's my hometown) and what you see there is exactly what you would expect when selecting a "Hamburg" port. I agree the Zipangu port was neat.

I would also like more brighter colors in WoWS (just make the important UI text like the gameclock in bicolor white with black frames or the other way around ffs)

 

I renember the same thing happening in WoT. There once was a map called Ruinberg in a "on fire" and a "thunderstorm" version. Both were friggin awesome and Ruinberg was one of my favourite maps just for that. But it didn't last long sadly because whiny people complained. So what do you expect did we get? Right a snowy version that is an even bigger strain on the eyes, only to then finaly get locked to the old smoky boring version.

(Dunno how it is now with Ruinberg but that was the situation when I left)

 

Edit: I guess part of the reason is also that it wouldn't make sense to have shiny daylight and then suddently a cyclone appears. They may just want to leave the door open to bring cyclone to more maps eventualy.

[Odo_Toothless]

Weather can be easily changed. File is space.ubersettings. Ex. Greece: /spaces/51_Greece/space.ubersettings. Files are in /res_packages and can be unpacked by WG utility.

http://dl-wows-gc.wargaming.net/projects/mods/wowsunpack.exe

http://dl-wows-gc.wargaming.net/projects/mods/wows_unpacker_gui.exe

 

Remove all <weather></weather> from space.ubersettings, so your starting file will be very short. Find Your preffered weather type in other maps -> sunny, morning, cloudy, Day, night, snow, rain, cosmic etc. - it's up to You. And paste to Your file. It can contain many weathers or just only one. Once made that file can be used in all locations. Sometimes (very rarely), on some maps it make some visual problems, but it is correctable. Just pasted another working one with that map. Worrying about too much glare or fog ? Download proper mod, and work on already corrected files. Of course it is good to test changes first in training room.  If You want something - just do it. WG don't have time and resources for fulfill every wish.

 

Here colourful Marseille:

 

And sunny Greece :-)

 

Do you want always perfect vision of You salvos ? Choose cloudy ...

 

[CptBarney]

2 hours ago, Miessa3 said:

Well that would be effectively ocean (gameplaywise) and you know how much hate that map gets. (I would like it though)

 

On topic:

Well yes.

Even though my favourite port is Hamburg (as it's my hometown) and what you see there is exactly what you would expect when selecting a "Hamburg" port. I agree the Zipangu port was neat.

I would also like more brighter colors in WoWS (just make the important UI text like the gameclock in bicolor white with black frames or the other way around ffs)

 

I renember the same thing happening in WoT. There once was a map called Ruinberg in a "on fire" and a "thunderstorm" version. Both were friggin awesome and Ruinberg was one of my favourite maps just for that. But it didn't last long sadly because whiny people complained. So what do you expect did we get? Right a snowy version that is an even bigger strain on the eyes, only to then finaly get locked to the old smoky boring version.

(Dunno how it is now with Ruinberg but that was the situation when I left)

 

Edit: I guess part of the reason is also that it wouldn't make sense to have shiny daylight and then suddently a cyclone appears. They may just want to leave the door open to bring cyclone to more maps eventualy.

Had a game on ocean in my jean bart, the map demonstrates how utterly useless this playerbase is at basic things, such as our carrier not moving (so not paying attention to the map) dd's suiciding and uselessly using smoke to sit in against radar ships. And how the majority of my BB's decided to glue sniff at the A-B lines so im trying to fend of 6+ ships including 2 kremlins.

 

himmelsdofl had the same, both maps are cancerous though and only promote super-heavy and heaviliy armoured tank gameplay. (hull down mediums with good depression as well)

[Smeggo]

Vor 2 Stunden, Odo_Toothless sagte:

Weather can be easily changed. [...]

 

 

Ey, that's really nice. You should make a mod for that in the mod-section. 

[havaduck]

On 6/8/2019 at 12:30 PM, Panocek said:

Dark, bleak maps and typical random team cosplaying Death Korps of Krieg... WH40k and WoWs collab when?

 

 

 

(because I want my share of it too......)

[Odo_Toothless]

On 6/14/2019 at 7:01 PM, Smeggo said:

Ey, that's really nice. You should make a mod for that in the mod-section. 

Doing even the easiest mod take time. Then I don't see too much interest from people, so I just mod for myself. Now I can share the easiest one for testing. Single weather (sunny day or cloudy evening) on all gaming maps, no glare/fog/storm clouds to have perfect vision. Works with every patch and for now I didn't saw any problems. It's boring - I know, but You have always perfect weather for a win ;-). Choose version. Unpack and copy to mods.

 

day.zip

 

evening.zip

 

 

[22cm]

Too much vodka makes them gloomy. 

[Smeggo]

Vor 2 Stunden, Odo_Toothless sagte:

Doing even the easiest mod take time. Then I don't see too much interest from people, so I just mod for myself. Now I can share the easiest one for testing. Single weather on all gaming maps, no glare/fog/storm clouds, evening cloudy to have perfect vision (sky pattern from Solomon islands map). Works with every patch and for now I don't saw any problems. It's boring - I know, but You have always perfect weather for a win ;-). Unpack and copy to mods: spaces.zip

 

 

There are always a handful of people looking for a specific mod.

Also WG rewards green-lighted & updated mods with a "modder"-status, granting access to testships as well as some dubloons. Can only recommend it, for details see the mods-subforum. 

 

PS: I'd like to test it, but forum-attachments are not working - you should upload it somewhere else.

[Odo_Toothless]

10 minutes ago, Smeggo said:

Also WG rewards green-lighted & updated mods with a "modder"-status, granting access to testships as well as some dubloons. Can only recommend it, for details see the mods-subforum. 

 

PS: I'd like to test it, but forum-attachments are not working - you should upload it somewhere else.

Attachments should work. I just changed them a few seconds ago. Anyway thanks for info about modder status.

[Teekesselchen]

Sweet, WG just announced they will turn Greece sunny! (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/441739424?t=23m05s)

 

Now I hope summer Zipangu is going to make a comeback as well.