LOTRO bad character animations?

eccoton

When I entered the beta from LOTRO I was so excited and suddenly let down. At first impression like many have said LOTRO had bad animations and the world looked flat. I played a couple days not to impressed. Then I found I could max graphic setting from the games defaults I had been playing with. The game started to come alive for me. I was suprised the animations were not big and bold like in WoW. They seemed to still be a problem. Then I started noticing things. Maybe I just cleaned my glasses and the dust off my monitor, not sure.

What I noticed was sublte very realistic movement in nature. The fall a bear takes when killed was amazing it fell as if it actually had weight. Then I started looking close at my characters and the npcs. My character as it stood still was breathing, blinking his eyes, moving his mouth and hands. He was alive. Then I discovered emotes and they are a blast. I started to look close at my toon as it pulled back its bow string. I noticed the weight  distribution as he pulled his bow back. Basically I looked with fresh eye. Not the ones that had been trained by WoW and its over the top animations. The physics behind the animations are real life and not fantasy.

What Turbine has tried to do is make realistic looking movements in LOTRO. The animations are consistent to the world, which adds to the feeling it is alive. What I propose is to all off you who say the animations are bad. Try to see them with new eyes. They are not perfect but they are amazing in their detail. Like the landscapes themselves the animations are beautiful but you may need to get use to them. Over time I started to like, appreciation, and understand what Turbine is trying to do with their animation choices. They are on the right track.

 

Deathstrike2

Personally, I like them all except the run animations.  The heals seem to kick too high.  If they'd tone that down, they would be near perfect.

Cereth

The character animations are fine with me...no complaints whatsoever. The landscapes are absolutely amazing....like you are running around in a freaking painting. It took me about a week to get into the game, but now I'm sold. Turbine's done a great job.

eccoton

Originally posted by Deathstrike2

Personally, I like them all except the run animations.  The heals seem to kick too high.  If they'd tone that down, they would be near perfect.

I agree, like I said they are not perfect. Some of the heights you jump are a bit high as well. However, Turbine is trying to create this convincing world experience and they do it pretty well.

eccoton

Originally posted by Cereth

The character animations are fine with me...no complaints whatsoever. The landscapes are absolutely amazing....like you are running around in a freaking painting. It took me about a week to get into the game, but now I'm sold. Turbine's done a great job.

Same thing here took about a week or so then it all came together for me. I have read in a number of post they say "give the game a chance it will grow on you". Hogwash (my first reaction), but in this case it is true.

Jackdog

The game is good but not perfect by any means. I love playing it and think it is probably the best MMORPG out there which is why I plan on the lifetime sub. Still as with anything there are areas that could be improved.

Unknown

The only animation in which I don't agree with is the walk animation. It is the only animation I hope they fix as it creates almost a glide like effect due to the speed not matching up with the movement. Who walks? I have no clue, but its the only real animation thing i've noticed cuz my buddy was making fun of a RPer who was walking to a node and my buddy ran up like a good 20 meters in front of him and got it. The guy proceeded to tell him he stole the node, and I couldn't help but laugh at that statement.



Everything else is absolutely fantastic.

Mars505

Think the animations are done well, they bring that feeling of struggle when your in a battle. I was think about this just now cause when ever my character blocks with his sheild, I can see him do it, then that lets me know "hey I can do a shield swipe" That is how clear and defined some of the animations are. Think some of them could use some  work , but it you know what they say, and mmorpg is always work in progress, muahahahaha that phrase is going to kill sigil ...



Think another thing that throws you off at first , is that the characters look EQ ish , not cartoon ish , but yet they move like counter-strike character lol . That  dynamic it would seem is a new mixture in character development.