Yet another fan's thoughts about The Silver Lining

[The Exiled One]

I would first like to congratulate Phoenix Online for reviving an old and somewhat forgotten series.  

I've decided that the easiest way to share my thoughts about what could be done in order to make this game better would be to organize it as a list.

Here's the list of improvements that I made while trying not to repeat what other fans may have already said.

• Better scene transitions.  
• Adding graphical features like Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering.
• Improve loading times when entering new scenes.
• Improve Lip Syncing with dialogue.
• Add Widescreen Support <-- I was disappointed with the lack of this feature.
• And finally change the font size as the player increases his resolution.
• Have the game show up in the windows game explorer folder for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users. (I like to keep my desktop free of game shortcuts.)

Bugs I encountered:

• The in game menu wouldn't hide during the cut scene where Gram talks to the Oracle and the King and Queen at the Winged Ones place.

Some things that I liked and would like to see/hear more of:

• Sneak Peaks on new episodes, but make it so the videos play in game.
• The wonderful soundtrack, this was what I liked most from the Silver Lining. (Make this downloadable in the future please!)  

Keep up the great work Phoenix Online! I can't wait to see episode two!

[daventry]

Make a Previously on KQ Back story of the Series 1-7 for Episode 1 so New Comers can understand what KQ is all about and Not confuse themselves with KQ1VGA KQ2VGA KQ3VGA

I have Forgotton the Orginal KQ1/2/3 and im Confusing myself with the VGA Games.

Not sure if MoE has any mention on TSL, so clarify that aswell please.

[wilco64256]

Make a Previously on KQ Back story of the Series 1-7 for Episode 1 so New Comers can understand what KQ is all about and Not confuse themselves with KQ1VGA KQ2VGA KQ3VGA

I have Forgotton the Orginal KQ1/2/3 and im Confusing myself with the VGA Games.

Not sure if MoE has any mention on TSL, so clarify that aswell please.

http://www.postudios.com/blog/forum/index.php?topic=8572.0

[ThunderChild]

• The wonderful soundtrack, this was what I liked most from the Silver Lining. (Make this downloadable in the future please!)  

The thing I had with the soundtrack, was that it sounds too much computer and not really music. Hopefully that is something that is going to be improved in the next release(s) . . .

[kindofdoon]

Really? I actually loved the music. It was probably my favorite part of the game.

[Lambonius]

• The wonderful soundtrack, this was what I liked most from the Silver Lining. (Make this downloadable in the future please!)  

The thing I had with the soundtrack, was that it sounds too much computer and not really music. Hopefully that is something that is going to be improved in the next release(s) . . .

I'm not sure what this statement even means.  That it sounds like it was composed using instrument samples rather than by a full orchestra?  Because it really doesn't sound that way at all to me, even though I'm sure it probably was done that way.  I mean really, a group of fan spare-time developers is not going to have a real orchestra doing their music.  Could you explain what you mean by that?  (Not trying to fault you for your opinion--I'm just genuinely curious.)   

[kindofdoon]

I think he means that the music sounded like it was sampled or MIDI - not real people playing instruments..

[wilco64256]

•Add Widescreen Support <-- I was disappointed with the lack of this feature.

This must have been added recently or I would have caught it before - the game does have widescreen support, you just have to have a widescreen monitor and choose a widescreen resolution in the options.  I play it in widescreen all the time.

[The Exiled One]

•Add Widescreen Support <-- I was disappointed with the lack of this feature.

This must have been added recently or I would have caught it before - the game does have widescreen support, you just have to have a widescreen monitor and choose a widescreen resolution in the options.  I play it in widescreen all the time.

I probably should have added to my statement. What I mean is that when I ran it on my monitors native resolution at 1920x1200, it had black bars on the sides.

Here's a picture to show what I'm talking about:



I also want to take the time to thank people who replied to my post   

(Posted on: July 29, 2010, 09:17:44 PM)

• The wonderful soundtrack, this was what I liked most from the Silver Lining. (Make this downloadable in the future please!)  

The thing I had with the soundtrack, was that it sounds too much computer and not really music. Hopefully that is something that is going to be improved in the next release(s) . . .

I'm not sure what this statement even means.  That it sounds like it was composed using instrument samples rather than by a full orchestra?  Because it really doesn't sound that way at all to me, even though I'm sure it probably was done that way.  I mean really, a group of fan spare-time developers is not going to have a real orchestra doing their music.  Could you explain what you mean by that?  (Not trying to fault you for your opinion--I'm just genuinely curious.)   

I'm not sure I understand his statement either.

[Fierce Deity]

• The wonderful soundtrack, this was what I liked most from the Silver Lining. (Make this downloadable in the future please!)  

The thing I had with the soundtrack, was that it sounds too much computer and not really music. Hopefully that is something that is going to be improved in the next release(s) . . .

I thought the music was amazing. I would have to disagree with the "computer" comment. Even if the soundtrack had sampled tracks or used MIDI, it sounds more like music than half of the stuff on the radio nowadays. Even Lady Gaga sounds digital, and she doesn't even use any effects on her voice.   

[kindofdoon]

Even Lady Gaga sounds digital, and she doesn't even use any effects on her voice.   

Virtually every modern artist uses digital effects on their voice. I would bet money this includes Gaga as well.

[Fierce Deity]

Even Lady Gaga sounds digital, and she doesn't even use any effects on her voice.   

Virtually every modern artist uses digital effects on their voice. I would bet money this includes Gaga as well.

For the most part, artists use Auto-tune to give themselves the digital sounding voice (T-pain and Little Wayne are infamous for drowning out their voice in Auto-tune), but I actually found out that Lady Gaga makes that funky noise naturally. Which just makes her even weirder than before.

[kindofdoon]

Can't say I agree that it's natural, but at least we can agree that she's weird.

[KatieHal]

I'm sure the affectations are natural, but her songs still definitely incorporate some digital work, too. More for effects than on her voice, though, I would imagine.

[Fierce Deity]

I'm sure the affectations are natural, but her songs still definitely incorporate some digital work, too. More for effects than on her voice, though, I would imagine.

Especially for her genre, it's appropriate to use those effects. Techno, dance mix, or whatever people call it nowadays. It's just when she sings live or acoustic, I have to admit that she can actually sing for reals, but her music is just annoying. So she's technically talented, but not very creative. Or too creative, depending on how you look at it.

But yeah, how about them tracks in TSL. Pretty cool. I was actually playing guitar the other day, and had found a progression that sounded like it belonged in KQ. Somewhat reminiscent of the song playing in the intro of KQVI. 

[kindofdoon]

I'm very excited for when the team releases the soundtrack. For the demo, all the sound files were located in the program files, but for the release of Episode 1, all the data was contained in some file called "data.tsl" or something. Curses!

[wilco64256]

I'm very excited for when the team releases the soundtrack. For the demo, all the sound files were located in the program files, but for the release of Episode 1, all the data was contained in some file called "data.tsl" or something. Curses!

 

[kindofdoon]

Wait, are you saying you have the soundtrack?

[wilco64256]

No I'm just able to play all the music tracks by themselves, one of the benefits of testing.  If we do release an actual soundtrack it won't be until all the episodes are done - wasn't there a soundtrack released for a movie a while back where one of the track titles spoiled part of the movie?

[Fierce Deity]

No I'm just able to play all the music tracks by themselves, one of the benefits of testing.  If we do release an actual soundtrack it won't be until all the episodes are done - wasn't there a soundtrack released for a movie a while back where one of the track titles spoiled part of the movie?

Probably. They do it all the time for games, I don't see why it wouldn't happen for a movie as well. I think it'd be better to name a song something ominous that would make sense once you get to that part in the series, rather than naming it something like, "Death of . . ." It just ruins everything.