Character and Ability Animation Ideas and Suggestions?
Conrad
Member, Alpha One, Adventurer
What are your suggestions about animations for abilities and characters? Body animations while moving, attacking, doing the abilities etc
(This will be pretty much a megathread for animation suggestions)
[Placeholder for suggestions, will update as i finish each point up]
(This will be pretty much a megathread for animation suggestions)
[Placeholder for suggestions, will update as i finish each point up]
0
Comments
But...Ashes is a PvX MMORPG.
It's not a "PvP as much as can be made possible" game.
And I want the Castigation whip to turn Black for Shadow Disciples on one of their augments, perhaps with a blue or purple edge, because I feel like that would look cool.
That's VFX, completely irrelevant to animations
So it is.
And you've made me realize that I don't care about animations because anything that actually animates properly isn't fast enough for me.
I'm saying, if there aren't 'motion blur' levels of stuff happening at some point, what are you even doing?
"Realism" or something I guess. Not my style (no sarc)
Could you specify more to what you refer? so we can have a more clear concept of what's vfx and what are you looking for when you say animations. Do you also mean emotes when you say "for characters"?
Only fools will step into Verra thinking PvP isn't the primary focus to be done as often as possible. Those fools will fill my guild coffers.
It would be ideal if these could vary again by class, but that may be asking for too much. I just think it would be cool if a Rogue held a dagger underhanded (with the blade down) while a Mage might have a mongoloid grip (with the blade up). The combat animation would be different as well. That's a HUGE catalogue of animations to manage, but still - would be cool.
FFXI has clearly spoiled me. I didn't even consider the possibility that this would not be how it was done.
Crow pretty much is on point with animations. Though, I do forget people might not be aware about what is an animation in video games so I probably should clarify xD
THIS! ^
member of Gray Sentinels
Like, if a warrior holds weapons like a warrior, a paladin could wield them with elegance for example
This is all based on the fact that I expect there to be some casting time involved with summoning.
Examples:
I'd like necromancers and shadowmancers summon animation to be outstretched hand palm up in a forward leaning focused manner as if 'pulling things from the ground/underrealm by sheer will'. Finishing by actually raising the hand up.
I'd like good necromancers, conjurers, and maybe spellmancers to do either similar but palm down as if pulling the summon out of the heavens/surrounding essence. Finishing the summon by lowering the hand down. I would also settle for a cool hand gesture type 'prayer' like ffxi's summon animation.
I'd like enchanters, wild blades, and beast master to do some sort of vocal shout head tilted up in a fairly neutral but focused pose both arms stiffly at their sides, arms bent slightly as if they are pulling energy from inside themselves to call fourth their bond or personal will. Then end the animation by pivoting their torso slightly, dominant arm pulling back as they do so with a clenched fist. Then the summon comes out as they snap their pivoting torso the opposite direction, taking a small step forward, and pointing ahead of them as if marking their enemy for their trusty friend/weapon.
The unsummon command if that is even a thing in this game (we still don't know,) for necromancer, shadowmancer, conjurer, and spellmancer to be the same as the summon animation but palm facing the opposite direction. As if willing it back whence it came. I'd find it amusing if they just swapped animations for summon and desummon for these two groups if they want to save time.
For enchanter/wild blade they can make a 'stop' pantomime like a referee. (Probably should be a basic emote anyway.)
Beastmasters can put a foot forward and simply wave good bye (again more easy to borrow animations.)
Focus on target and retreat commands should be generic and be the same as point forward and come here (which are already in alpha if I remember my testing correctly.)
For attack ability commands for summon abilities I would like them to be based similarly on hand motions/pantomime, hopefully having standardized motions based on a combination of which part of the holy trinity (dps, healing, tanking) the move is geared towards and what the intention of the ability is in combat (utility/self buff, single target, multitarget) for a total of 9 different animations. Let vfxs do the heavy lifting for impact, flavor, and more indepth description. They should still be clear enough gestures that if you are watching for them you get a decent idea of what is about to happen, while still being generic enough to allow for the more customized part of the summoners abilities to be diverse.
I won't comment on summon animations at this time. I may have opinions when we have more information about summoner exclusive mobs if that is even going to be a thing (I doubt it.)
No. The 'mongolian grip' is more for archery where your index &/or middle finger overlap the outside of the thumb. I'm more referring to a ham-fisted deathgrip on the hilt..
The image below is an example of a non-rogue grip v. rogue grip on a dagger. Much faster for knife fighting.
Poor behavior?
Fair point. Correcting above.
Yep. Plain ignorance on my part. Sorry about that.
Paying particular attention to the way these people offset their centre of gravity when in motion.
This will help with giving animations weight/momentum - especially for melee classes who need to be agile.
(although, I'm pretty sure combat styles like Kendo are big on maintaining centre of gravity...)
I know it's a lot to ask, but I'd also like the weapon animations to take into account the weight of the weapon.
I wonder if this is getting into the polish side of things though?
Also from a technical perspective, if the animations could be paramaterized to make adjustments easier (assuming they aren't already paramaterized) and potentially reuseable.