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Animations
Reas43
Member Posts: 297
I just have one question someone can answer honestly. During beta testing I remember being appalled by the character animations. I don't want to go into anything else here. There are a billion things but my question is only in this regard:
I heard paraphrased from different players in different sites that the animations were placeholders.
The game is live, of course, and the animations remain unchanged. Can anyone point me in the direction of the origin of that statement? Was it a GM forum post which was then deleted? An interview? Can you link the source material? Changing animation post launch is not trivial, but I want to see if it's a realistic expectation to have in the months to come.
I think the game has a great concept, and a beautifully rendered world populated by awfully looking and animated avatars. So I've been chilling on the sidelines waiting to hear if this might change.
I heard paraphrased from different players in different sites that the animations were placeholders.
The game is live, of course, and the animations remain unchanged. Can anyone point me in the direction of the origin of that statement? Was it a GM forum post which was then deleted? An interview? Can you link the source material? Changing animation post launch is not trivial, but I want to see if it's a realistic expectation to have in the months to come.
I think the game has a great concept, and a beautifully rendered world populated by awfully looking and animated avatars. So I've been chilling on the sidelines waiting to hear if this might change.
Comments
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
Alot of animations changed, and they are still changing as they said they would. There are around 220 Active abilities, and I've only seen one that was a duplicate. Tall order to do with so many skills also while being able to move using all of them.
It seems like every other week (updates are weekly) or so they through a couple changed animations in.
Hammers got a big update along with pistols mentioned before. Blades got a significant update. Elemental and Blood seemed about the same. I saw a few animations in Chaos change about two weeks before release. Rifle got a couple of tweaks - one that pops to mind was tactical retreat (I actually liked the old animation better - ha!) Shotgun got a nice update about a month out as well. Some of the fists stuff was updated, but I didn't use that weapon much early on, so can't speak much about what changed there.
For the torso thing - Their response was that it looked weird because of the fact that you can cast/fire while moving, including channeled effects unlike other games.
I'm not saying if I agree or not, that's just their answer on that point.
I really love the game, but this... Omg... I had such a good laugh when I saw my character sprinting while he answered a phone call on his cell phone. It looks so funny. ^^
Yep this one is still /facepalm. But I read just last week that it's getting fixed, maybe on the test forums.
To the OP, they have fixed some of them. And they have greatly improved the look of characters from early betas. But they've said many times that separating upper and lower torso has mixed results: being able to do everything on the move is great but some things don't look good while moving. Life's a tradeoff.
What I would REALLY like to know what kind of games you have been playing? The running while upper body remains perfectly still is a very common flaw, have seen it in everything from MMO's to FPS to adventure games. Hell, in Final Fantasy games you see yourself wearing different weapons in cutscenes compared to combat. You don't see people throwing a hissy fit over this.
Really, it seems a pretty big no-issue to me and just something trolls have been copy pasting from each other.
It is funny, doesn't exactly tell you that the animator has a good attention to detail (remember a game where snipers from different countries took different sniping positions) but come on, not playing a game like the original complainer because of it just tells me the player is either trolling or is never happy with anything in his entire life.
No MMO passes this check after all: Even remotely realistic jumping. For that matter, in real life, I can CLIMB walls and cliffs and fences. Not hop over 2 meter high walls and land perfectly on the other side and keep on running. Even marines can't do that.
Oh NO! ALL GAMES SUCK (except tomb raider, the original prince of persia).
Patch notes say this will be changed on the 28th
Or maybe it was changed in the last update. I don't run with cell phones often 
Eye-drooling is probably something bad, and should be looked at by a doctor.
I agree with some of the other posters above. I think that the issue with the animations has been WAY overblown, and largely comes down to misguided expectations.
It's a game in a modern setting. The animations should be more understated than the ridiculous ones often found in fantasy games. Only an idiot would do a triple-backflip before shooting a gun (if he/she wanted to hit anything), yet I believe that was the expectation of many players because those are the kind of overblown, unrealistic animations found in other games.
Same thing with effects. BIGGER, LOUDER, MORE FLASH THAN BEFORE has been the trend in video games, just as it has been in action movies. "My fireball doesn't hit with the effects of a tactical nuke, it sucks!!!" Personally, to help maintain immersion in a modern setting, effects should be more understated than in fantasy games like most other current MMOs. Seriously, most fantasy MMOs look more like ridiculous arcade games than they do RPGs.
Of course, once a game gains a "reputation" from the worst community in gaming (i.e. the MMORPG community), it sticks forever. Many MMO players have the ability to hold a grudge that any dwarf would be proud of. They also have a tendency to live perpetually on launch day. If they perceive a game to have a particular problem, then it will ALWAYS have that problem as far as they are concerned, even if you can categorically prove it was fixed years earlier.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
which is why TSW animations stand out more than say a fantasy type game with similar animations
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
The Animations improved a lot in the alst few weeks of beta in my experience and seemed even more improved from beta to the free weekend when I last playd so they are certainly working on it.The running animation no longert makes me tihnk I'm playing the original Max Payne from 2001 for example.
But there's still no flow between animations IMO and are still comparitively stiff compared to most modern games.As mentioned by others you still don't feel liek your actually hitting anything either which is a step backwards as well.Theses things do not have anything to do with being more understated and realistic as someone tried to say above.
Very well written, and absolutely true in every sense.
Hodor!
Again, it's a matter of opinion. The "flow" between animations, and the separation of upper and lower body needed to keep players able to move and shoot (without sliding or spastic animations) actually look pretty good. Similarly, the "impact" animations, as well as the camera shake, give about the same level of impact as you'll find in other games - the actions just don't look as spastic or as unrealistic as in fantasy games.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
try playing a game like max payne 3 and watch the transition between running and shooting and moving and shooting then play TSW its hardly just a matter of opinion.. now whether you like either or not is subjective but for it to look and feel natural is a differn't story.
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
My problem with TSW's animations has nothing at all to do with doing back flips and firing a gun. It's the mundane stuff like running in a straight line, jumping in the air. In combat it's the odd seperation between the upper torso and the lower body that just looks wrong. That, coupled with the FUGLY models.
I know the ideas behind the game design are good, the quest system, the skill wheel etc, I have no arguments there. I just can't get into a game where my character looks and moves so badly. As I've pointed out in previous posts, it's even more disappointing when you look at AoC's models and animations which are so much better. It's not like Funcom lack the skill to do a better job.
Steam: Neph
This thoughRohn is correct,every bit of my post is simply my opinion.I will say the animations aren't what kept me from buying the game(those not being pertinent to this discussion),The animaitons didn't bother me that much and are at least functional,there's plenty to like about TSW.
Cant disagree more. I have seen a handfull of FPS games that do this wrong like TSW, but the vast mayority get it right albeit its easier to do in FPS games and doesn't look as bad when you get it wrong. As far as MMOs go the mayority don't even have to worry about this because you can't cast while moving and from the AAA mmos none looks as bad. Not to mention all the console action games that get this right.
Lets face it, everyone(including TSW fans) know the animations are not great. Its a constant complaint about the game, saying it doesn't exist is like trying to cover the sun with your hand....
I laugh every time this conversation comes up. I've seen nothing in TSW's player animations that is so bad it warrants these posts. The only MMO that had really bad animation for me is LOTRO. This game is on par with every other MMO I have played. Visually it has it's strengths and weaknesses, but it's still one of the best looking MMO games ever made. In fact, I think all things considered, it is the best looking mmo to date running on high settings.
I know some of you prefer the candy cartoon look of games like GW2, but that's actually a negative for me.
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.