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Current animations are too much

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Comments

  • GarrtokGarrtok Member, Alpha Two
    Depraved wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Hi,

    is it just me, or are the current animations of spells and weapon attacks just too much?
    I get that some magical spells need some effect, it has to be visible etc. but does some Ranger skill really need some green stream that is of the size of a character, or does a standard hammer attack really need some big cleave animation?

    You could see it in the last live stream, that even with just four people it's super chaotic and everything is flashing and exploding. What should happen with eight people or even while 500vs500? I feel like it's very close to a jrpg, and I have to admit that visually this is just too much for me. I don't say remove it, but pleaaase decrease the size and flashyness alot!
    Ironhope wrote: »
    I literally just made a post stating the exact same thing.

    Yes, they are way too much.

    Way over the top.

    And these were just low level characters.

    Just imagine what a burning christmas tree juggling with electric chainsaws the higher levels characters will be.

    They need to tune the animations and attacks down a lot to make this work with 8, yet alone 300 players on the same battle-field, at the same time.

    The way it is now just looks blinding, overwhelming, visually exhausting and challenging and honestly, silly.
    Sarkgp wrote: »
    I agree, the animations should contain less light effects, I don't want to imagine a war like it would look like with 500 people casting this type of spell. Epilepsy in each player.
    Selo wrote: »
    Still feel the mace/hammer looks a bit to "light"
    There are no resistance when you hit the enemy at all and the hammer just goes from point A to point B. I would like of there to be more "crunch" in the hits.
    Also the animations should be smoother, its very jerky robotic where it starts at point A, accelerates to 200 miles an hour and the stops abruptly at end.

    Dark Souls has good hammer/mace animations but still not "meaty" enough
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd5Ia4h26cU
    and For Honor (still not perfect either)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWO3pgkfWhU

    they literally said probably 5 times or more (and that was just during yesterday's stream) that they know they have to fix the animations, effects, etc. to please provide feedback about other stuff and not that. they arent showing the final product, they are showing the stages of development of the final product. things arent refined yet.

    As you can see the thread is a year old. In the meantime there are NEW spelleffects as bright and flashy as the ones before. So it's a totally valid point
  • DepravedDepraved Member, Alpha Two
    To some the effects are so distracting that they take away from the focus of the showcase. Or the fans of the game see them as not good at all, which is an obvious issue for a fan who may be trying to convince their friends to play at some point.

    Others may like them or want even more intensity. Since they can’t use strobe lights on their cars in real life, they need an escape. Because, after all annoying other players is “winning”.

    Understand testing with the intensity set to 100% (or even higher), but not for a showcase which I hope would be set at an average level. Looks like there’s a gap between the developers and many would be customers on what “average” intensity means.

    On several showcases they’ve had different POVs. Perhaps they could do a showcase where each view shows the different levels of effects/intensity so that everyone can decide which one they like. May not be the focus of a showcase, but it should reduce the distraction effect and yet another month where we are talking about it.

    have you guys considered that maybe that feature isn't added yet because its not important right now?
    steven also explained how many of these things are done later on, so they don't have to do double the work, or undo previous work when they change global lightning etc...
  • FinovFinov Member
    The main thing is that we can continue to understand what skills we are being beaten with . Otherwise, everything will be turned off now and it will be unclear what is worth dodging and what is not.
  • GarrtokGarrtok Member, Alpha Two
    Finov wrote: »
    The main thing is that we can continue to understand what skills we are being beaten with . Otherwise, everything will be turned off now and it will be unclear what is worth dodging and what is not.

    But that's the thing, there is sooo much, that you cannot even see the enemies character model anymore.
  • AszkalonAszkalon Member, Alpha Two
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Current animations are too much

    O . P . T . I . O . N . S


    We need simply - Options.
    We need to be able to got into the Game Settings - and adjust from "SUPER-Low" or so - to "SUPER-High" or so, how detailed and present we want to have all those Particle- and other Effects.


    Problem solved.


    And i won't believe anyone who is going to tell me, that Unreal Engine 5.4. or higher can not do this. ;)
    a50whcz343yn.png
    ✓ Occasional Roleplayer
    ✓ Kinda starting to look for a Guild right now. (German)
  • DiamahtDiamaht Member, Braver of Worlds, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Aszkalon wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Current animations are too much

    O . P . T . I . O . N . S


    We need simply - Options.
    We need to be able to got into the Game Settings - and adjust from "SUPER-Low" or so - to "SUPER-High" or so, how detailed and present we want to have all those Particle- and other Effects.


    Problem solved.


    And i won't believe anyone who is going to tell me, that Unreal Engine 5.4. or higher can not do this. ;)

    The problem with too much variance in options in a pvp game is that one setup will become advantageous over the others. If it's a huge advantage then it pretty much becomes mandatory for everyone in a competitive setting.

    A far too extreme example, but shows the point, is Ark. Having the settings cranked to the bottom is required or you are toast. Better that we settle on a happy medium for everyone and let all of us adjust the usuals, like bloom, ambient etc. That way everyone is on the same playing field.

    For me WoW and SWTOR are happy mediums, or maybe a bit flashier. FFXIV is way too much, Darksouls is way too boring (and slow) for a magic focused MMO.

    Darksouls animations perfectly fit it's slow, heavy combat style. I don't want that combat style in an MMO.

    I think perhaps FromSoftware should make a Darksouls MMO. Everyone seems desperate for it. Although I don't know if people will actually have as much fun with it as they think they will. Your average MMO player definitely wouldn't.
  • GarrtokGarrtok Member, Alpha Two
    Aszkalon wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Current animations are too much

    O . P . T . I . O . N . S


    We need simply - Options.
    We need to be able to got into the Game Settings - and adjust from "SUPER-Low" or so - to "SUPER-High" or so, how detailed and present we want to have all those Particle- and other Effects.


    Problem solved.


    And i won't believe anyone who is going to tell me, that Unreal Engine 5.4. or higher can not do this. ;)

    There should be a good and working standard for a pvp game. It's just not good if everything is full of flashes and explosions. You can't read the battle or the enemy group at all.
  • LaetitianLaetitian Member
    edited June 2
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Aszkalon wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Current animations are too much

    O . P . T . I . O . N . S


    We need simply - Options.
    We need to be able to got into the Game Settings - and adjust from "SUPER-Low" or so - to "SUPER-High" or so, how detailed and present we want to have all those Particle- and other Effects.


    Problem solved.


    And i won't believe anyone who is going to tell me, that Unreal Engine 5.4. or higher can not do this. ;)

    There should be a good and working standard for a pvp game. It's just not good if everything is full of flashes and explosions. You can't read the battle or the enemy group at all.
    You're really pushing your narrative here. The AoEs and laser-like abilities need some more refined colours, and *perhaps* some of the screen flashing effects (meteor) need to be tweaked (though personally, I think they're fine if they are rare enough), but overall the visual feedback is very clearly contrasted and easily legible. It's better than 95% of MMOs where effects either blend with the environment or you can't tell abilities apart because they're all the same vague, unremarkable colour flashes that look like basic attacks.

    Sounds like you've just never played games with more than 8 players on each side, tbh.

    When the battlefield is large, there will be times when a lot of important high-tier abilities will be happening at the same time. That doesn't mean the visual clarity is insufficient, it just means there's a lot happening; and different players are going to have to pay attention to different aspects of it, so all of them are going to have to be visible, and you'll have to mentally filter out the parts relevant to you. (That usually happens automatically after a while, anyway.)
    The only one who can validate you for all the posts you didn't write is you.
  • GarrtokGarrtok Member, Alpha Two
    edited June 2
    Laetitian wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Aszkalon wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Current animations are too much

    O . P . T . I . O . N . S


    We need simply - Options.
    We need to be able to got into the Game Settings - and adjust from "SUPER-Low" or so - to "SUPER-High" or so, how detailed and present we want to have all those Particle- and other Effects.


    Problem solved.


    And i won't believe anyone who is going to tell me, that Unreal Engine 5.4. or higher can not do this. ;)

    There should be a good and working standard for a pvp game. It's just not good if everything is full of flashes and explosions. You can't read the battle or the enemy group at all.
    You're really pushing your narrative here. The AoEs and laser-like abilities need some more refined colours, and *perhaps* some of the screen flashing effects (meteor) need to be tweaked (though personally, I think they're fine if they are rare enough), but overall the visual feedback is very clearly contrasted and easily legible. It's better than 95% of MMOs where effects either blend with the environment or you can't tell abilities apart because they're all the same vague, unremarkable colour flashes that look like basic attacks.

    Sounds like you've just never played games with more than 8 players on each side, tbh.

    When the battlefield is large, there will be times when a lot of important high-tier abilities will be happening at the same time. That doesn't mean the visual clarity is insufficient, it just means there's a lot happening; and different players are going to have to pay attention to different aspects of it, so all of them are going to have to be visible, and you'll have to mentally filter out the parts relevant to you. (That usually happens automatically after a while, anyway.)

    Bs, I played warhammer online, daoc and gw1 and two and in all games it's better. What is your reference? Some Asia game?

    Even assuming you're right and it's better 95% of the mmo (not true), than it's still bad. There are no reasons for fighters having some glowing flashy cleave effect on every hit, there is no reason that a ranger is firering green neon bolts. They're not magicians
  • AszkalonAszkalon Member, Alpha Two
    Garrtok wrote: »
    There should be a good and working standard for a pvp game. It's just not good if everything is full of flashes and explosions. You can't read the battle or the enemy group at all.

    I get it. ^.^;"
    a50whcz343yn.png
    ✓ Occasional Roleplayer
    ✓ Kinda starting to look for a Guild right now. (German)
  • LaetitianLaetitian Member
    edited June 2
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Laetitian wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Aszkalon wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Current animations are too much

    O . P . T . I . O . N . S


    We need simply - Options.
    We need to be able to got into the Game Settings - and adjust from "SUPER-Low" or so - to "SUPER-High" or so, how detailed and present we want to have all those Particle- and other Effects.


    Problem solved.


    And i won't believe anyone who is going to tell me, that Unreal Engine 5.4. or higher can not do this. ;)

    There should be a good and working standard for a pvp game. It's just not good if everything is full of flashes and explosions. You can't read the battle or the enemy group at all.
    You're really pushing your narrative here. The AoEs and laser-like abilities need some more refined colours, and *perhaps* some of the screen flashing effects (meteor) need to be tweaked (though personally, I think they're fine if they are rare enough), but overall the visual feedback is very clearly contrasted and easily legible. It's better than 95% of MMOs where effects either blend with the environment or you can't tell abilities apart because they're all the same vague, unremarkable colour flashes that look like basic attacks.

    Sounds like you've just never played games with more than 8 players on each side, tbh.

    When the battlefield is large, there will be times when a lot of important high-tier abilities will be happening at the same time. That doesn't mean the visual clarity is insufficient, it just means there's a lot happening; and different players are going to have to pay attention to different aspects of it, so all of them are going to have to be visible, and you'll have to mentally filter out the parts relevant to you. (That usually happens automatically after a while, anyway.)

    Bs, I played warhammer online, daoc and gw1 and two and in all games it's better. What is your reference? Some Asia game?

    Even assuming you're right and it's better 95% of the mmo (not true), than it's still bad. There are no reasons for fighters having some glowing flashy cleave effect on every hit, there is no reason that a ranger is firering green neon bolts. They're not magicians

    I mostly played Regnum Online - a DAOC clone; western RvR MMO - when it comes to 3d, and got very quickly bored of most modern titles. The only aspect Rengum had an upper hand on DAOC in was graphics updates. Game looked pretty crisp for a niche title of its time. And still it wasn't much more restrained in graphical fidelity of ability effects than Ashes in its current state. [ 1 | 2 for context from a random channel with high-res gameplay footage.]

    Mentioning DAOC here as an example of a standard that made you reject bright effect animations is...certainly a choice.
    ffe4ap68lxt5.jpg

    Bonus unicorn puke

    The cleaves aren't that big of a deal in games with character collision, and weapon effect trails are super easy to turn off in settings in the vast majority of MMOs that have them; that'll be the first thing that will be customisable.

    As for archers, your argument is just weak. The game isn't meant to look realistic, it's meant to look engaging, fun, enticing to join the battle, and most importantly animations are supposed to communicate clearly when big important cooldowns have been used, and the current AoE animations do that, and their bright colours make sure the abilities are easy to identify.

    Again, I do hope they will refine the colour palette to repalace some brighter colours with more muted/pastel and darker tones, but other than that, the skill design is very clean compared to many modern games where everything blends with the environment, and if you turn down the resolution the slightest bit, everything is just pixels, because the overly detailed shapes, high opacity, and mud colours fail to compute into anything identifiable.
    The only one who can validate you for all the posts you didn't write is you.
  • GarrtokGarrtok Member, Alpha Two
    71pa3x53beak.jpg

    So in your opinion this is fine and my argument "weak"?
  • parley245parley245 Member, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    True want a setting to turn it down a notch or turn off basically.
  • AlpineWAlpineW Member, Alpha Two
    +1 for the ability effects being too much. I know they’ve mentioned this is very much WIP so this post is just another one in that camp.

    IMO the level of flashiness should be at about 50% of where it currently is, if not slightly less. Also do not want a slider on this at all. As others have said, this creates a settings meta where it’s too optimal to run the game with very low settings. They should find a good balance that the majority of players are happy with and run it.
  • DepravedDepraved Member, Alpha Two
    Garrtok wrote: »
    71pa3x53beak.jpg

    So in your opinion this is fine and my argument "weak"?

    just curious, for how long did that last on the screen?
  • LudulluLudullu Member, Alpha Two
    Depraved wrote: »
    just curious, for how long did that last on the screen?
    Like a second. It's super short imo
  • DepravedDepraved Member, Alpha Two
    thought so
  • nanfoodlenanfoodle Member, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    After watching the Node War video my thoughts stands

    Partical effects are to large and colorful. This does need to be scaled. It's way to busy and worst of all, it will be hard to tell what class is doing what in the battle.
  • LaetitianLaetitian Member
    edited June 4
    Garrtok wrote: »
    71pa3x53beak.jpg

    So in your opinion this is fine and my argument "weak"?

    I was pondering not sending the screenshot in order to avoid this type of a response, but I figured I had said so many other things to reply to, and trusted that no one could be disingenuous enough to get distracted from all the other points by a single screenshot.

    Yet you somehow managed not only to ignore all the other points, but also misconstrue the one made by the DaoC example. And the superficial observation you chose to respond with was *also* already addressed in my comment.

    So idk, guess if you don't want to make any effort to have a good faith discussion, I'll stop replying to you.
    The only one who can validate you for all the posts you didn't write is you.
  • GarrtokGarrtok Member, Alpha Two
    Laetitian wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    71pa3x53beak.jpg

    So in your opinion this is fine and my argument "weak"?

    I was pondering not sending the screenshot in order to avoid this type of a response, but I figured I had said so many other things to reply to, and trusted that no one could be disingenuous enough to get distracted from all the other points by a single screenshot.

    Yet you somehow managed not only to ignore all the other points, but also misconstrue the one made by the DaoC example. And the superficial observation you chose to respond with was *also* already addressed in my comment.

    So idk, guess if you don't want to make any effort to have a good faith discussion, I'll stop replying to you.

    But it proves that you have no argument in that. In no game stuff like that should be possible.
  • SolunaSoluna Member, Leader of Men, Kickstarter, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    Heyho :-) I already shared my thoughts to that in the "[Feedback Request] Alpha Two Node Wars Preview Shown in May Livestream" thread but imo the effects are indeed too much! In the feedback thread I shared some images of New World and imo they did a great job with balancing the amount of glow and particles. The glow and the particles that are emitted by the spells are pretty similar to the effects of torches and other VFX in the environment.
    In Ashes however this isn´t the case imo. The environment looks rather desaturated and a bit more realistic but the effects, such as the red wall or the green particles that are shown in the image above look rather cartoonish.
    And even if these particles are just visible for a part of a second how it is with the green ranger ability... Now think of a node war with maybe hundreds of players fighting against each other. You´d probably only see huge blobs of colors here and there! One spell in red, the other one in green, etc...

    Imo the glow AND the amount of particles have to be reduced a lot. And another thing that´s on my mind here:

    Ashes uses UE5 and with the environment AND the characters shown in the last livestreams they seem to aim for a more realistic approach (remember that stream where they recreated Asmongold? :yum: ). So the spells should look like they actually belong in a game like that but in their current state they remind me of games like Blue Protocol that have a completely different style.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0AM5KqiGFc

    Sure, that´s a bit exaggerated but if you compare these spells with the ones in New World for example (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBm8Xip3mCI) you hopefully get what I mean :smile:

    The colors and the color intensity of the spells rather match the spells in Blue Protocol and not the ones in New World imo. And I know that Ashes doesn´t want to be New World but as I said: The spell effects should at least match the environment and the effects of fireplaces, torches, etc.
    Soluna_signature.png
  • DepravedDepraved Member, Alpha Two
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Laetitian wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    71pa3x53beak.jpg

    So in your opinion this is fine and my argument "weak"?

    I was pondering not sending the screenshot in order to avoid this type of a response, but I figured I had said so many other things to reply to, and trusted that no one could be disingenuous enough to get distracted from all the other points by a single screenshot.

    Yet you somehow managed not only to ignore all the other points, but also misconstrue the one made by the DaoC example. And the superficial observation you chose to respond with was *also* already addressed in my comment.

    So idk, guess if you don't want to make any effort to have a good faith discussion, I'll stop replying to you.

    But it proves that you have no argument in that. In no game stuff like that should be possible.

    bruh, the green effect lasts for 0.2 seconds. it disappears faster than blinking lol. you just chose to pause the video at that moment and screenshot it. that's why I asked how long does it last xD it literally doesn't interrupt the fight.
  • SummpwnerSummpwner Member, Alpha Two
    Hey buddy, this is not what most content will look like. This is specifically a BIG TEAM PVP scenario with 40+ on both sides. Yeah there will be lots of shit flying around, assuming each person is doing something once or more per second.

    Its entirely possible that these spell effects are tuned for the Node War and Siege scenarios specifically. Without high contrast color coding in a setting like this, it's impossible to see what circle on the ground is damage from an enemy vs damage from an ally.
  • GarrtokGarrtok Member, Alpha Two
    Depraved wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Laetitian wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    71pa3x53beak.jpg

    So in your opinion this is fine and my argument "weak"?

    I was pondering not sending the screenshot in order to avoid this type of a response, but I figured I had said so many other things to reply to, and trusted that no one could be disingenuous enough to get distracted from all the other points by a single screenshot.

    Yet you somehow managed not only to ignore all the other points, but also misconstrue the one made by the DaoC example. And the superficial observation you chose to respond with was *also* already addressed in my comment.

    So idk, guess if you don't want to make any effort to have a good faith discussion, I'll stop replying to you.

    But it proves that you have no argument in that. In no game stuff like that should be possible.

    bruh, the green effect lasts for 0.2 seconds. it disappears faster than blinking lol. you just chose to pause the video at that moment and screenshot it. that's why I asked how long does it last xD it literally doesn't interrupt the fight.

    Of course, this is just one example. It's always the case that players are covered, the big flashy aoes don't do any damage and you have no idea who casts which spell. This is not a good visualization for a pvp game. This is a very simple truth.
  • DepravedDepraved Member, Alpha Two
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Depraved wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    Laetitian wrote: »
    Garrtok wrote: »
    71pa3x53beak.jpg

    So in your opinion this is fine and my argument "weak"?

    I was pondering not sending the screenshot in order to avoid this type of a response, but I figured I had said so many other things to reply to, and trusted that no one could be disingenuous enough to get distracted from all the other points by a single screenshot.

    Yet you somehow managed not only to ignore all the other points, but also misconstrue the one made by the DaoC example. And the superficial observation you chose to respond with was *also* already addressed in my comment.

    So idk, guess if you don't want to make any effort to have a good faith discussion, I'll stop replying to you.

    But it proves that you have no argument in that. In no game stuff like that should be possible.

    bruh, the green effect lasts for 0.2 seconds. it disappears faster than blinking lol. you just chose to pause the video at that moment and screenshot it. that's why I asked how long does it last xD it literally doesn't interrupt the fight.

    Of course, this is just one example. It's always the case that players are covered, the big flashy aoes don't do any damage and you have no idea who casts which spell. This is not a good visualization for a pvp game. This is a very simple truth.

    1- pretty sure these effects arent final, as steven said so like 10 times lol

    2- even if they were, once you know the archetype skills and all that, its not that hard to know whats going on during a fight.
  • PearforPearfor Member
    I agree with @Hinotori . I like all these whistleblowers too. on the other hand, there are a lot of people who don't like tis kind of thing. reputable developers can just add sliders to the settings menu to reduce the effects of both themselves and other players. although I'm sure the effects in general will be tweaked in the future
  • nanfoodlenanfoodle Member, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    I don't get why this is worth arguing about. Steven said in the latest update. This kind of feedback does not help much as this area of the game will be getting adjusted later. It's coming. How we don't know. Maybe toggles and sliders. Maybe just toned down all together. We will see it scalled in A2 and that will be the time to give heavy feedback.
  • BRZKBRZK Member
    I’d like to see blood coming off enemies during melee attacks not mortal kombat level but just a cool touch
  • nanfoodlenanfoodle Member, Founder, Kickstarter, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
    BRZK wrote: »
    I’d like to see blood coming off enemies during melee attacks not mortal kombat level but just a cool touch

    No ty
  • SolmyrSolmyr Member
    BRZK wrote: »
    I’d like to see blood coming off enemies during melee attacks not mortal kombat level but just a cool touch

    One of the fighter abilities causes a very exaggerated bleeding effect (I think it was called rupture?). It makes Mortal Kombat look realistic by comparison.
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