Creature animation in the World and in Combat

KolDraco

Hello,

I want to talk about creatures in the world, their presence in the wild, how they react to players and just what we can expect from combat animation and fluidity.

We have seen a lot of creatures coming from the developers in the past year and hopefully a lot more to come our way in the upcoming months of this new year. I love the unique mounts and crazy looking world bosses and magnificent dragons. It makes me want to explore this world right away. Truly something to look forward to when the game finally releases. What I am really curious about when I see these magnificent beasts, is what sort of habitat and presence they have in the areas they inhabit. Do they have a life of their own? or are they stagnant until a character attacks them or taunts them? Will we see natural animations that portrays their life style if uninterrupted by a characters presence? Will we see a unique territorial battle between creatures that want dominance in an area? Is there harmony between certain creatures that live in a certain habitat?

When we go out in nature we tend to find a biome of creatures that can compliment each other and clash with each other. This is what gives life to nature as we know it. I am a huge fan of witnessing an environment that moves as a life force on its own without me being there. Watching as the docile run in herds and react to each other as well as threats. A pack of hunters coordinating an attack or just rushing the prey before them. Showing fear of the presence of characters or defensive and antagonistic reactions. These habitual traits bring the world to life. We had been shown an elder dragon creature that showed more of a forest natural look with moss growing on it. Its movement, said to be slow, and its presence is huge. We ask a few questions about how it will lend itself to its surroundings? Will it use its natural coat to blend itself into the background giving it the perfect cover to hunt its prey? Does it sleep and have a natural cycle of life? I often think of how Studio Gibli performs the creature animations in some of their animated films and how organic they move through the terrain. The best example would be the cinematic film, Princess Mononoke. This showed how a boar god, being infected by hatred, pushed the environment around it and altered it by burning it with a toxic ooze. Just showing us that extra bit of detail of its severity. I also think of Capcom's Monster Hunter series. The animation of the creatures can adapt to player influence and the environment. Climbing on walls and reacting to other enemy creatures whether to hunt for food or to show dominance in power. They made the areas have a sense of life with how the creatures fed and lived within that biome. The animation each creature had was unique to its body language and showed an intense realism in how the body should move. They even had separate animations for each interaction of the larger creatures. Something I can say is a spectacle every time I have to interact with these large beasts.

Combat: Will it be natural? Will they use the terrain to their advantage? Is it reactive or active in how they transition to combat? Will they react to weapons and weapon damage effects? Will they have a sense of weight? (reacting to the environment by destroying boulders, burning trees, making waves in water, pushing objects, creating wind, echoing presence, ground shake, etc..)

Natural combat: Natural combat in my definition would be the flow of attack and defence. naturally you will try to avoid attacks and naturally you will use survival tactics to win depending on your level of intelligence and understanding of combat. Most creatures who are outnumbered will flee or use AoE to disperse their pursuers. Others who don't feel threatened will combat using their natural gifts to either outwit or prevail through sheer force. The creatures instincts or learned hunting routines often use their natural habitat or terrain to guide their prey to vulnerable positions.

Reactive combat transition: an enemy does not attack a party or player until the party or player are within its domain or threatened area, but is not a queued instance. (not planned/not dungeon)

Active combat transition: an enemy is hunting and gets to surprise the party or player without needing a queued instance. (not planned)

Reaction to Weapons/damage effects: having an enemy react to the equal level of power or mass of a weapon or effect. This can be displayed as flinching or moving away from attackers. Body animations for specific regions on a monster that are damaged to an extent.

Sense of weight: in my definition is reacting or affecting the environment by altering it from its original state. This can be seen by destroying boulders, burning trees, making waves in water, pushing objects, creating wind, an echoing presence heard from far away, ground shake, demonstration of power against other creatures, destruction of houses or farms, identifiable tracks unique to that creature, corpses left behind, etc.. The list goes on and on depending on the creature. But it just needs that sense of weight to feel like it is not just an instance.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Cheers,
KolDraco

Azherae

Combat:
Not natural yet

Natural Combat Style:
Not seen yet on most mobs, but Alpha-1 was in no way a content test.

Reactive Combat Transition:
Somewhat active.

Active Combat Transition:
None seen quite yet, maybe there was one.

Flinch Reactions:
None seen yet, maybe once?

Sense of Weight/Environmental effect:
No data, but generally the enemy types that could have this, would have other issues if they easily did in the current design as we know it.

Ace1234

Cool post, I like the ideas and detail, they definitely would add to the immersion.