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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Combos and biomechanics. My thoughts.
Tacualeon
Member
About me. I aspire to work as a videogame combat designer, yet I haven't made a single dollar from games.
So please, take my comment as it is.
I'm using the body rig, body meshes and animations from people who do make money from videogames; professionals.
I'm just polishing flow and adding power through thought.
I'm playing a game and by default, their weapons start the basic combo with a cross slash from left to right.
Someone got paid to make that call. Or not?
I think is a mistake, so maybe my thoughts might be worth something to Ashes.
Creating power, flow and aesthetic
As a rule of thumbs, humanoids most basic attacks and combos chains should start from the dominant side.
Specially if it is the basic combo you are going to see everytime all day.
Imagine waking up every day with the wrong foot.
I have aligned key poses with the two attacks so you can have an idea about how it looked, and what I think it's better version should look like.
Explanation and thought process
My building blocks: A bit of martial knowledge, biomechanics, human behavior and aesthetic eye.
1) Human behavior
-The first thing human use are reliable things. The most reliable is to use the most power. High power get generated from our dominant side.
-Historically and objetively most people are right handed.
2) Biomechanics and human behavior
-Starting with arms crossed feel intuitively wrong (because of intuitive understanding of biomechanic and how body masses work in a enviroment with gravity, force generation, blah blah blah and so forth)
3) Biomechanics
This chain of attacks doesn't "sell" weight or power.
4) Aesthetic eye (subjective)
Nor does it contribute to the aesthetic of the game (The opposite, actually)
I simply changed order of attacks for flow and aesthetics, and made "decending right slash" animation shine more and sell more power.
I genuinely think this are the small things that build combat flow and weight.
I don't have papers to prove it but I don't have doubts neither
It took me 1 second to notice, 2 minute to set all meshes and animations, 20 minutes for writing it down and making it somehow inteligible.
Add combination from right, left and play around all you want but if it is the most basic combo and the one the player is going to see the most, why would you make the first attack a cross slash from the weak side?
TL;DR: I'm making a huge deal that basic combos should start from the dominant hand side. Not always, but starting strong should be the rule of thumb for combat, in my opinion.
So please, take my comment as it is.
I'm using the body rig, body meshes and animations from people who do make money from videogames; professionals.
I'm just polishing flow and adding power through thought.
I'm playing a game and by default, their weapons start the basic combo with a cross slash from left to right.
Someone got paid to make that call. Or not?
I think is a mistake, so maybe my thoughts might be worth something to Ashes.
Creating power, flow and aesthetic
As a rule of thumbs, humanoids most basic attacks and combos chains should start from the dominant side.
Specially if it is the basic combo you are going to see everytime all day.
Imagine waking up every day with the wrong foot.
I have aligned key poses with the two attacks so you can have an idea about how it looked, and what I think it's better version should look like.
Explanation and thought process
My building blocks: A bit of martial knowledge, biomechanics, human behavior and aesthetic eye.
1) Human behavior
-The first thing human use are reliable things. The most reliable is to use the most power. High power get generated from our dominant side.
-Historically and objetively most people are right handed.
2) Biomechanics and human behavior
-Starting with arms crossed feel intuitively wrong (because of intuitive understanding of biomechanic and how body masses work in a enviroment with gravity, force generation, blah blah blah and so forth)
3) Biomechanics
This chain of attacks doesn't "sell" weight or power.
4) Aesthetic eye (subjective)
Nor does it contribute to the aesthetic of the game (The opposite, actually)
I simply changed order of attacks for flow and aesthetics, and made "decending right slash" animation shine more and sell more power.
I genuinely think this are the small things that build combat flow and weight.
I don't have papers to prove it but I don't have doubts neither
It took me 1 second to notice, 2 minute to set all meshes and animations, 20 minutes for writing it down and making it somehow inteligible.
Add combination from right, left and play around all you want but if it is the most basic combo and the one the player is going to see the most, why would you make the first attack a cross slash from the weak side?
TL;DR: I'm making a huge deal that basic combos should start from the dominant hand side. Not always, but starting strong should be the rule of thumb for combat, in my opinion.
3
Comments
If you physically do what those characters are doing, the "left start using right hand" swing feels really awkward.
Is this a thing you saw in AoC though?
Nice work in UE though! Cool to see your learning progress
Thank you very much.
Jk, this is a good write-up and all of it is true. It's the smallest details that make or break the uncanny valley. There's a reason why good artists learn anatomy and drawing correct people before making purposeful mistakes to create their own style.
I think itll be difficult for them to balance swings between reality and fantasy too. The whole combo is leaving u completely vulnerable.
You're bleeding for salvation, but you can't see that you are the damnation itself." -Norther
I also don't necessarily care as much about the realism as much as I do being able to understand which abilities are being used.
If we always go with the most realistic pose, it may make predicting which ability is which more difficult to ascertain.