Announcements

Join the ongoing conversation on Discord: https://discord.gg/w6Tpkp2

Please read the current update for instructions on downloading the latest update. Players with Mac versions of the game will not be affected, but you will have a slightly longer wait for your version of the new maps. Please make a copy of your character folder before running the new update, just to make sure you don't lose any of your custom work.

It looks like we can give everyone a list of minimum specs for running City of Titans. Please keep in mind that this is 'for now' until we are able to add more graphics and other system refinements. Currently you will need :
Windows 10 or later required; no Intel integrated graphics like UHD, must have AMD or NVIDIA card or discrete chipset with 4Gb or more of VRAM
At least 16GB of main DRAM.
These stats may change as we continue to test.

To purchase your copy of the City of Titans Launcher, visit our store at https://store.missingworldsmedia.com/ A purchase of $50 or more will give you a link to download the Launcher for Windows or Mac based machines.

Animations! How do they stand out to you?

145 posts / 0 new
Last post
Voltknuckle
Offline
Last seen: 10 years 1 month ago
Joined: 12/04/2012 - 12:16
Animations! How do they stand out to you?

hello CoT forums, I'm voltknuckle, I work with the 3D crew, and I have questions to ask you.

Animations...

characters, effects, all that jazz.

which ones stood out to you? Which ones were just fun to see used again and again and again? which ones looked like they could use some love? Which ones looked just plain awkward?

for me, it was these:

-Titan Weapons had a lot of animations I liked, crushing blow in particular had that "finish em" look that I loved to see as that one hit that takes out a foe. Whirling smash was another since it was the signature attack of my villain (dreadcleave). it was so satisfying to truly be a cleaver of legions. (especially in cimerora)

-kinetic melee was a set that had interesting animations to me, the literal-hand-wavyness of them added a mystical nature to the attacks, acting like a magic brawler. (upon looking back, I regret not getting into this more often.)

-brawl was a skill that looked awkward to me, maybe it was because it was so basic, and there were so many other skills that used different animations that I wish could be used for brawl.

so, which animations stood out for you for whatever reason?

[color = green]3D Modeller & animator[/color]

Emancipist
Emancipist's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 months 3 weeks ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/12/2013 - 20:53
I can't comment in a positive

I can't comment in a positive manner about flurry's toHit/accuracy, but I did think it was a hoot to watch. (as well as Sands of Mu)

Overall the best animation for me was from my Katana scrapper's powerset. I think it was called Thunderstrike. He'd hop up in the air and bring the blade down with all his strength and weight behind it.

My */stone tanks all got tremor to assist with AoE damage and control (sort of, with the knockback/knockdown). To me, it was just the most silly animation. I mean, "hey, let me jump up and when I land, every baddie near me will go flying back."

A lot of folks didn't care for the glowing feet from Super-speed, nor the glowing hands from hasten - in case you'd forgotten.

Almost all of the Warshade attacks had better than average animations, in my opinion - except the self-tp. It just doesn't seem like one would need to move in that manner to teleport. Seems like you could either tp self or not. Why have an awkward looking gesture before hand?

Those who have no idea what they are doing have no idea that they don't know what they are doing. - John Cleese

Izzy
Izzy's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/09/2013 - 11:09
Emancipist wrote:
Emancipist wrote:

... one would need to move in that manner to teleport. ...

I want others to see this sort of TP, as i'm walking away. :)

Gradually going up in Translucency (1 second before teleporting) wouldnt hurt either. ;)

Also, we need to work on the Translucent effect itself as well. When you turn and you are semi translicent, i dont like to see the arm or leg or whatever's in the back of the body. We should look at some Unreal Post Process effects to see if we can blend the background with an opaque version of the rendered character and use the opaque (non-translucent version) of the character and apply the translucency to the solid/opaque pixels.

Basically.... have translucency without showing hidden faces/vertices.
Think of it like the Material isnt really getting translucent, but a mirror image of the background is being blended on top to make it seem like the character is dissapearing gradually, essentially blending into the background.
ex:

Very close to a DebthBlend.. but Evenly applied to the whole object.

GhostHack
GhostHack's picture
Offline
Last seen: 9 years 7 months ago
kickstarter
Joined: 10/28/2013 - 11:43
Not precisely a pure

Not precisely a pure animation, but the animation/sound combo of illusion's initial 'blind' power (animation was like forceful concentration with a flash of light and the sound was this livewire fill and hit noise)
the effect was a power without a lot of flamboyant motion, that still had a vicious and viceral effect on screen.

there were lots more, but i'll have to think on them....

___________________________________
....Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars...

Redlynne
Redlynne's picture
Offline
Last seen: 21 hours 59 min ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/28/2013 - 21:15
Not a City of Heroes

Not a City of Heroes animation, certainly, but one of the animations that I always liked to see in Tabula Rasa was the Tuck And Roll Sommersault animation done when you fell "far enough" to warrant that kind of a move. You can see an example of it HERE at the 0:36-0:37 mark (video starts at 0:35). It was just one of MANY little animation touches that Tabula Rasa had.

In fact, on the very DAY that the Tabula Rasa servers went dark, Lin Chiao Feng and I dropped by their offices to say goodbye, in person, to the few Developers who were left. We'd both been there for the War College when the place was bustling with activity, and now the place was stripped bare, with offices cleaned out and the walls empty of all the "stuff" we'd seen on our first visit 6 months earlier. Lilo, who was the Producer, welcomed us into her office and offered us both any and all of the Swag we could carry out of there (so as to save them the trouble of moving it), but we really weren't in the mood for hauling off Swag (although we did take some). During that brief visit, I told Lilo (in glowing terms) that although City of Heroes had Sexy Jay THE LIVING GOD Of Costume Design working for them ... Tabula Rasa had The Animation Guy, who just made so many wonderful "little things" about the game, and that he deserved to be recognized and rewarded for his work. A raise, a bonus, a pat on the back ... SOMETHING!

Lilo then said, "Wait right here" ... left her office, and came back with ... The Animation Guy. Lilo just smirked at me and simply said, "Tell him."

So I did, repeating to him what I had just told her.

Let's just say that that Developer (and I'm sorry I don't know his name) practically lit up and lifted off his feet until he wasn't touching the floor anymore hearing just how much his work had been recognized and appreciated by Players who had stopped by on the last day to pick up some Swag, but were actually more interested in giving him the Kudos he really deserved. The handshaking that followed that brief exchange was some of the most vigorous and heartfelt I've received in a long long time. It's not often that a Developer gets reduced to tears by being praised for his work, and certainly not on his Last Day with a company. When he went back to his desk (and we were allowed to follow him), he was so totally PSYCHED as to be practically ON FIRE ... and we got to see, that very night, just what he'd been working on when Lin and I stopped by to interrupt his last day of work, because he was building the animation model for the Neph THAT DAY ... the Last Day ... when we dropped in to say our goodbyes to the people who remained in the final hours of Tabula Rasa.


Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.
Redlynne
Redlynne's picture
Offline
Last seen: 21 hours 59 min ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/28/2013 - 21:15
Voltknuckle wrote:
Voltknuckle wrote:

-kinetic melee was a set that had interesting animations to me, the literal-hand-wavyness of them added a mystical nature to the attacks, acting like a magic brawler. (upon looking back, I regret not getting into this more often.)

Kinetic Melee was given a truly awesome set of animations because they FLOWED in a Soft rather than Hard style fashion. There was a "circularity" of movement to them that was just beautiful to watch and see animated. I would have preferred it if Tunnel Rat or one of the FX Devs had toned down the "glowy streaks" used on the power by maybe 10-15% or so, and if the Sound Devs hadn't made the sounds for the set quite as loud as they did ... but for animations, the powerset was really top notch.

Martial Arts was another powerset which, despite its age, really held up over time as being a really good set of animations ... with the exception of the fugly Axe Kick. Eagle's Claw was just such a wonderful animation through. I assume you don't need the reference for this, but my main character ... Redlynne ... got to do Eagle's Claw attacks in Samuraiko's Issue 22 Trailer (at 2:00 and 2:05), which I am still extremely proud of, since it is such a cinematic move. Thunder Kick and Storm Kick were just great bread 'n' butter animations, as were Cobra Strike and Dragon's Tail for the leg sweeping spin.

An animation that WASN'T a powerset, but which I always appreciated was the way that the Backpack Legs for the Crab Soldier were animated, and how they would straighten up or curl over depending on what the character was doing, simply when moving around or idle. THAT was a particularly well done set of animations.

And of course, I would be remiss in not mentioning that as a Super Reflexes Scrapper, it was always a trip to have a Crey Paragon Protector go MINUTES Of Glory and make themselves "unhit-able" for like 2 minutes ... Taunt them so that I held their aggro on me ... and pull out the Newspaper emote while they just WHIFFED with most of their attacks against me. That always brought a laugh on teams, that I would break out the newspaper while a Mob (that no one could touch) was trying (and failing while flailing) to hurt me because none of us could land a hit on them.


Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.
Wanders
Wanders's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 years 1 month ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/25/2013 - 20:12
First a couple of comments to

First a couple of comments to add to what you had said...

Voltknuckle wrote:

kinetic melee was a set that had interesting animations to me, the literal-hand-wavyness of them added a mystical nature to the attacks, acting like a magic brawler. (upon looking back, I regret not getting into this more often.)

For a long time, I had been looking to make a Jade-Empire-like character, but CoH just didn't allow that, so eh. When Kinetic Melee came long, though, I went for it. I was really jazzed with how the attack animations flowed as I played it up... it was perfect. I was really looking forward to seeing the Tier 9 attack, but that ended up turning me off to the set entirely. The bending over backwards and flailing your arms around felt like it was just there to fill up the animation time. For whatever reason, it didn't feel like it was part of the attack and was visually annoying enough to me that it kept me from wanting to play the character. So, I think KM was a mix of awesome except when it really counted, for me.

When Staff Fighting came out I rerolled the character and gave it another shot. While I wasn't nuts about that set for various other [more game-practical :) ] reasons, the animations didn't have any feels-breakers for the character, so that was a better deal.

Voltknuckle wrote:

-brawl was a skill that looked awkward to me, maybe it was because it was so basic, and there were so many other skills that used different animations that I wish could be used for brawl.

While I would agree, in general, I think Brawl had a positive aspect that you should definitely keep in mind. In some cases, they replaced the animation with one that related to your primary set (I believe this was just for the weapon sets, to avoid redraws, but maybe I am forgetting some cases). So, if you had your katana out and hit Brawl, you didn't punch, you bonked them with the butt of the handle.

To me, that is an example of making one attack feel like it flows with another, which I think would be an awesome goal to aim for, based on the sets involved. Like, if you have a gunkata-themed set, and a martial arts-themed set, and those can be taken on the same character, they should work together in terms of animation flow. Those same sets should also flow even when they are paired with other sets instead. I don't think it is something you would always have to worry about, but for sets where flow is a thing (either due to genre-beauty or the need for having some pseudo-realistic balance or momentum involved), finding tricks to make it easier to keep the animations from other sets from breaking that flow would be a win.

Other kind of random stuff...

Obviously, having choices in the animations is a good way to make people happy. The power customizations they added in CoH, such as what they did with Superstrength, were a big plus... I really liked the default Footstomp for one of my SS characters but the fist slam worked better for another, etc. I'd like to have had more choices available, especially for the lower-tier punches, which were kind of basic.

There were sets that made you feel like you were doing a lot even when you were being pretty average in effect (Stone Melee was like that for me). Lightning Rod was cool more for the FX than the character animation itself, but they both worked there. Thunderstrike and Bonesmasher has a solid feel to them.

The ponderous nature of Broadsword was fine. I really liked the kerCHUNK of Headsplitter and the popup of Disembowel. Slash felt too swipe-y so I usually skipped it, but the rest of the set worked for me. Avoid having other animations make weapon folks redraw, is all I'd add to that.

When they added the power customization choices for the ranged attacks, I was pretty happy there. More would have been nice. Oh, talking about ranged animations does bring one thing to mind. I hope animations for "not hitting" will be handled differently. You can "not hit" because something is blocked, or dodged, or because you actually missed-missed, and I think the attacker and defender animations you see should reflect that. One thing that bugged me when I was in close (I had a tendency to blap >_>) was how my character would point both arms up at the ceiling to fire a Power Bolt at it.

I liked the "I have you now" animation that was used for a Siphon Life and the end of Teleport Other (among other things).

Global: @Second Chances
SG: Fusion Force
"And it's not what I wanted
Oh no, it's not what I planned
See it's not where I thought I'd be
It's just where I am"

Breviloquent
Offline
Last seen: 6 years 7 months ago
kickstarter
Joined: 10/03/2013 - 10:57
Hasten and Energy Absorption

Hasten and Energy Absorption were great "OH YEAH" animations. I really enjoyed some of the staff fighting moves. The detailing around Hover was subtle but fun.

I really enjoyed Crowd Control in the war mace set. (Hi. I'm Sauron. I'm breaking up your business meeting.)

Empty hand stuff like Kinetic Melee and Psychic blast were super-fun. Sometimes, not having a weapon is the best weapon, and the art of the game was more evident there.

Any jump up and smash down AoE. Any EM-pulse type AoE.

Swimming.

Ninja run.

Mystic Fortune. I think this was an extremely important power for social interaction, and I liked how it had some pretty designs. Reward us (visually and with the underlying power math) for interacting with one another—there are a lot of introverts in this community.

Riptide
Riptide's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 day 13 hours ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/09/2013 - 07:01
Most of the animations felt

Most of the animations felt natural and fluid.
I really liked the standard movement. I didn't realize how much until I played CO. There I feel more like I'm lumbering than running.
I preferred the more subtle animations for powers.
Some of the snipes felt too exaggerated. Blazing Bolt, in the fire blast set for example, always made me think my toon was constipated.
Twilight Grasp in Dark Miasma was a bit much, also. Something simpler like an outstretched hand or even just a flick of the wrist would have felt more powerful by making it look more effortless.
It was a bit gimmicky, but I loved flash arrow. I never got tired of the "boom" of light. I just wish it had done more than a perception debuff...seems like it should have been an aoe stun.

"I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation."

Fireheart
Fireheart's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 months 2 weeks ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/05/2013 - 13:45
Some of the old animations

Some of the old animations for Energy Melee were very good. They weren't just 'throwing hands around', but involved the whole body, right down to the feet. I'd like to see one of the melee animation styles be 'real' Boxing. Granted, a super-hero is probably not going to be boxing 'defensively' and hiding behind his hands, but the actual punching should be fast, powerful, and involve the whole body.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Consultant
Offline
Last seen: 7 years 3 months ago
kickstarter
Joined: 08/22/2013 - 03:14
It is unfortunate that almost

It is unfortunate that almost a year has gone by since I've played COH.since I feel that if i could run through my characters for an hour I could really offer more insights into animations. As it is, I will simply say that the one animation that I remember the best is the effect of launching a fireball from the ranged fire set. I thought this was the coolest attack in the game, bar none (except the incarnate powers). The fact that the fireball leapt from my hand and exploded in a circle at the point of impact always struck me as the coolest thing I saw in the game. So much so in fact that if I gained the option to add fireball to any character, I always did so.

For me, FIREBALL is it.

Second was a an AOE debuff power in the radiation set that my controller could use at higher levels. The first time I used it was in a Rikti invasion on the hill in Talos. I remember asking in chat (I was a new player) "What does this power do?" Without waiting for an answer, I used it, and presumably debuffed the entire Rikti invasion. What the power appeared to do to me as a new player was to get every Rikti to fire at my poor controller simultaneously. LOL, what a hoot! But the animation was cool on that one too.

Shadow Elusive
Shadow Elusive's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 8 months ago
Developerkickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 01/10/2013 - 09:38
Fireheart wrote:
Fireheart wrote:

Some of the old animations for Energy Melee were very good. They weren't just 'throwing hands around', but involved the whole body, right down to the feet. I'd like to see one of the melee animation styles be "real' Boxing. Granted, a super-hero is probably not going to be boxing 'defensively' and hiding behind his hands, but the actual punching should be fast, powerful, and involve the whole body.
Be Well!
Fireheart

Fireheart has summed up part of what I was going to say for me. Ever since learning how to throw a professional punch myself, I've found myself rethinking Super Strength for exactly that reason, it didn't do that at all. Having felt how powerful truly lining up your body behind a punch is, I would really like to see our game's animations convey that same thing.

Ah yes, Super Strength...most of it was actually pretty good, especially the new ones (I liked both Footstomp animations, but there was something excellently fluid about the new one). But...Knockout blow? Didn't like either. The newer ones was somewhat better, but for both I got the impression that the team was struggling to figure out a way to convey 'this is the biggest of punches', and, well, failed. The old animation looked absolutely stupid. I think Fireheart's comments about body language of a blow could be used to do a much better job.

And, for general inspiration on how animating and conveying these things, I'd recommend the anime Hajime no Ippo. The scene in the very first episode where Ippo throws a punch after getting some instructions, illustrates how powerful a simple right straight can be made to look.

I thought Katana's parry animation looked pretty stupid too. I remember commenting, in the early days, that I felt like the bunny foo foo of City of Heroes: scooping up the Hellions and bopping them on the head.

Nothing else is coming to mind for now.

--------------------------

Interior Map Lead and UI Designer
Shadow Elusive
Shadow Elusive's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 8 months ago
Developerkickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 01/10/2013 - 09:38
As a matter of fact... I

As a matter of fact... I believe that Icon can be used to view the power animations. So anyone wanting to study them for duds and gems can do so. Now that I've realized that, I'M going to boot it up and check :D.

--------------------------

Interior Map Lead and UI Designer
jag40
Offline
Last seen: 7 years 8 months ago
Joined: 09/17/2013 - 10:51
The good-

The good-
Titan weapons animations were good.

The dual pistol one was pretty as well.

Super strength especially knockout blow. It's animation with the sound effect made it sound like it was going to hurt.

Walk animation- superb

Crab spider animations- I cant think of a way it could have been done better animation wise.

Staff fighting- Excellent.

Ninja run with shield.

*The meh-

Super jump animation- it was the standard Hulk super jump rip off. It is especially apparent when using huge body set.

Street justice- it was a good set but the animations were very middle of the road. Not quite yawn inducing but not something that stands out much

Running animation- looked goofy.

*The bad-

Kinetic melee- Some of it was straight but what was with all the hand waving. It looked silly. to me. Kind of remind me of trying to fight while wind-milling.

Energy melee energy transfer- I understand they wanted to extend the animation time but the animation it got turned to made the old one better look better.

Some of the snipes and the Stalker's AS- looks more like they are passing a brick instead of about to shoot a powerful move. I didn't know whether to say "That enemy is dead" or pass my toon a roll of toilet paper.

The true AOE buffs (aka the buffs that were AOEs before they made them all AOEs)- seemed to have basically the same animation. Looked like some sort of animation that would be used by some sort of referee.

Whirlwind- I couldn't take that power seriously enough. Too busy laughing at it. Kept thinking spirit fingers.

*the ugly-

Cant think of any that was truly ugly.

Mendicant
Mendicant's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 09/26/2013 - 11:27
Redlynne wrote:
Redlynne wrote:

Voltknuckle wrote:
-kinetic melee was a set that had interesting animations to me, the literal-hand-wavyness of them added a mystical nature to the attacks, acting like a magic brawler. (upon looking back, I regret not getting into this more often.)
Kinetic Melee was given a truly awesome set of animations because they FLOWED in a Soft rather than Hard style fashion. There was a "circularity" of movement to them that was just beautiful to watch and see animated. I would have preferred it if Tunnel Rat or one of the FX Devs had toned down the "glowy streaks" used on the power by maybe 10-15% or so, and if the Sound Devs hadn't made the sounds for the set quite as loud as they did ... but for animations, the powerset was really top notch.

Very much so, I had a scrapper with Kinetic melee whose story was that he was a hand-to-hand combat mage. The animations worked perfectly with this, the smooth motions serving as the casting of the spell.

Fireheart
Fireheart's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 months 2 weeks ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/05/2013 - 13:45
I had one character with the

I had one character with the 'Bat Wings' and I was often amused by the little 'personality' animations they had, when resting. I like that they weren't 'static'.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Brand X
Brand X's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/01/2013 - 00:26
Bullet Ballet, Bullet Ran,

Bullet Ballet, Bullet Ran, basically all of Dual Pistol's animations.

Comicsluvr
Comicsluvr's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 3 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 09/07/2013 - 03:39
The good stuff:

The good stuff:

Most of the weapon animations. Even the Dual Blade stuff looked good to me minus the Spin.

Most of the Dark and/or Shadowy stuff. Once we could color them it was even better.

I agree on Kinetic Melee. Wish I'd 50'd one of those.

The laser light show from the Bot Pets had to be seen to be believed. Try it x8 with a full team of them and listen to your video card cry...

The whole Water set. Loved that set...

Stone Melee. The whole Stone Mallet series flowed SO well when everything hit.

The Bad:

Jump Kick from the Fighting Pool. I literally dropped my jaw when I saw the abortion that was the forward handspring ridiculous kick animation.

The first attack from Spines. I always wanted a Spines/Regen Scrapper and I couldn't get pat the 'wave my hands in a blurry motion towards you' animation of the T1 attack.

Teleport. Nice animation...took too long for a movement power that suffered from 'red circle of death' for too many years.

The breakdance move from Staff Fighting. Oh but I wanted to slap somebody over this one. We waited YEARS for the set and they ruined the AoE.

Granite. I spent 2.5 hours getting my toon to look JUST the way I liked and one toggle made her look just like everyone else running that power. Never...again...

Martial Arts was off somehow. I never got past about 30 or so but I remember that the first 20 levels were painful. Maybe it was the dreadfully slow T3 and not the animations.

Suggestions:

This is a comic book simulation/RPG...not a kid's cartoon show. PLEASE leave out anything patently stupid, seriously out of place or that doesn't fit the name and description of the power. Unless you create a set called Dancing with the Heroes, I don't want to see any dance moves, fake-looking acrobatics or indistinct handwavy gestures. If you can't do the animations right, backburner the set until they're done. We're big kids by now...we can understand stuff takes time.

Aside from the mechanics that make it run, the animations ARE the game IMHO. Without them we're playing with line drawings and 2D figures. Don't listen when we scream 'Faster!'. Take your time...do it right.

I remember when Star Wars was cool...a long, long time ago...

jag40
Offline
Last seen: 7 years 8 months ago
Joined: 09/17/2013 - 10:51
Comicsluvr wrote:
Comicsluvr wrote:

The good stuff:
Most of the weapon animations. Even the Dual Blade stuff looked good to me minus the Spin.
Most of the Dark and/or Shadowy stuff. Once we could color them it was even better.
I agree on Kinetic Melee. Wish I'd 50'd one of those.
The laser light show from the Bot Pets had to be seen to be believed. Try it x8 with a full team of them and listen to your video card cry...
The whole Water set. Loved that set...
Stone Melee. The whole Stone Mallet series flowed SO well when everything hit.
The Bad:
Jump Kick from the Fighting Pool. I literally dropped my jaw when I saw the abortion that was the forward handspring ridiculous kick animation.
The first attack from Spines. I always wanted a Spines/Regen Scrapper and I couldn't get pat the 'wave my hands in a blurry motion towards you' animation of the T1 attack.
Teleport. Nice animation...took too long for a movement power that suffered from 'red circle of death' for too many years.
The breakdance move from Staff Fighting. Oh but I wanted to slap somebody over this one. We waited YEARS for the set and they ruined the AoE.
Granite. I spent 2.5 hours getting my toon to look JUST the way I liked and one toggle made her look just like everyone else running that power. Never...again...
Martial Arts was off somehow. I never got past about 30 or so but I remember that the first 20 levels were painful. Maybe it was the dreadfully slow T3 and not the animations.
Suggestions:
This is a comic book simulation/RPG...not a kid's cartoon show. PLEASE leave out anything patently stupid, seriously out of place or that doesn't fit the name and description of the power. Unless you create a set called Dancing with the Heroes, I don't want to see any dance moves, fake-looking acrobatics or indistinct handwavy gestures. If you can't do the animations right, backburner the set until they're done. We're big kids by now...we can understand stuff takes time.
Aside from the mechanics that make it run, the animations ARE the game IMHO. Without them we're playing with line drawings and 2D figures. Don't listen when we scream 'Faster!'. Take your time...do it right.

oh yeah almost forgot about the pool power jump kick. Seen it way back said WTF is this crap and never touched it again. That was one god wakeful animation that I think is actual qualify for my ugly category.

Anjay
Anjay's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 7 months ago
kickstarter
Joined: 11/05/2013 - 15:43
the toon my avatar there is

the toon my avatar there is chained flurry, sands of mu, and shadow maul, because listen: punch you infinity times per second is how comic book speedsters fight when they wanna let you know up close and personal "you messed with the wrong powerset".

In-game effectiveness was it the best attack chain? No. But it was hard to complain because, man, it had the look and feel of a speedster.

Another + for Kin melee, I whipped up a wuxia-style hero for it.

And yeah, Titan weaps was well done.

I was fond of the weather control ones too, nothing really super flashy there but well meshed with the powers.

I'll also throw out that as a whole the masterminds were well put together.

___________________________________________________
“Cambiar el mundo, amigo Sancho, que no es locura ni utopía, sino Justicia!".― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Cymmetri
Offline
Last seen: 9 years 6 months ago
kickstarter
Joined: 10/08/2013 - 19:56
QR:

QR:

Dark Control was the most beautiful take on Dark powers I ever saw. ANY Dark Set should take notes from what that was.

The plastic tips on the ends of shoelaces are called Aglets; their true purpose is sinister.

Wyvern
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/25/2013 - 12:52
My personal favorites from

My personal favorites from CoH: I forget the name of it, but the overhand two-fisted smash from energy melee, delivered while hovering... that was just awesome. Whirling Hands looked really good, too; it's really too bad it was such a worthless attack. The female running, walking, and jumping animations were great, too. Kinetic Melee, as others have mentioned. Claws was a good set, too.
From CO: Fireball. Just a really awesome charge-up-and-doom animation.

Things I did not like: The way weapons appeared and vanished especially the energy weaponry for fire or ice melee. I always wanted a toggle button there - I wanted to make a fire melee character where the fire sword would just go away as soon as the attack was over; it was fine as a special effect for the attack, but I didn't want to be holding a literal sword until I did something else. Conversely, my ice melee character really worked well with the ice sword, and I would have loved to have that stick around for all of her attacks. I guess this just translates to "optional redraw", given that CoT won't force certain powers to be tied to swords in the first place...
Energy Transfer was just pathetic; the sound was good, but the animation really didn't sell the heavy-hitting nature of the attack.

Phoenix Rising Token Minidragon

Redlynne
Redlynne's picture
Offline
Last seen: 21 hours 59 min ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/28/2013 - 21:15
Wyvern wrote:
Wyvern wrote:

Energy Transfer was just pathetic; the sound was good, but the animation really didn't sell the heavy-hitting nature of the attack.

Was that the "I'm gonna jump up in slow motion because gravity has suddenly gone to 1/4G so I can hang in the air THE WAY BRICKS DON'T letting you sniff my belly button for a while before I eventually get around to attacking you, finally, at some distant point the future" Power?


Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.
Becky Thunder
Becky Thunder's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 3 months ago
Joined: 11/05/2013 - 10:24
One thing I noticed when CoX

One thing I noticed when CoX added the ability to change a power's animation was that sometimes the new animation looked extremely awkward.

For example: (if I'm not mistaken) You could change the Rad X-Ray Vision to dual hand blasts, but when you did that, the character did an awkward repositioning of their feet before doing the animation cycle. From combat stance, one foot forward, one slightly back, to both feet side by side, arms raised, then back to default combat footing.. was just ugly to watch (to me).

I just want each attack to flow 'naturally' to the next, without any 'hiccups' or pauses making it feel unnatural. ^.^

Shazam!

dreamcatcher
dreamcatcher's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 2 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/03/2013 - 17:12
It's been 4 and more years

It's been 4 and more years for me now, so I remember very little, but by that token anything I specifically point out obviously had an impact, whether good or bad.

The good:
- Air Superiority
- Dark Tentacles, and Miasma mist; although tentacles needed to be... more

The bad:
- Stalker AS, especially En/
- All snipes
- Dark Maul/Flurry/Sands of Mu. DM was my bread and butter attack and I wanted to cry every time I used it. The DM set in general wasn't great in this department, but I'd say DM was the only really terrible one. I would prefer to see a Dark Melee set work like the kind of thing you see from Crowley in Supernatural, when he goes hand's-on, or Abaddon. It's less about having a differently coloured theme on punching, and more about attacking the enemies souls; open hand, infusing darkness into hosts, drawing light/ lilfe out of them; it just wasn't evident enough in either the Dark Melee or Dark Blast set, imo
- I didn't like the MA set; it was too karate focused. Martial arts are diverse, and there many different types; if you're going for a generic set then mix up the animations a bit. Otherwise create distinct sets based on actual fighting styles, and give 2 or 3 different types of MA. It might even be worth splitting Martial Arts into groupings; open hand, close fist, sword, throwing, kicking, mixed and I'd use as inspiration the following, respectively: Aikido / Silat / Kungfu; Karate / Chinese Boxing / Boxing; Kendo / Iaido; Judo / Sumo / Wrestling; Kick-boxing / Tae-Kwon-Do; MMA / Muay-Tai / Kungfu. Of course, this ignores laregly most weapon types; staff/ nun-checks, etc. For those, Karate / Kungfu are decenet sources, and there are probably some I don't know about.

of Phoenix Rising
Am I

Cymmetri
Offline
Last seen: 9 years 6 months ago
kickstarter
Joined: 10/08/2013 - 19:56
Time Manipulation: Time Stop

Time Manipulation: Time Stop had the most gorgeous effect.

I suppose that's FX and not animation, though.

The plastic tips on the ends of shoelaces are called Aglets; their true purpose is sinister.

Todd3465
Offline
Last seen: 10 years 4 months ago
kickstarter
Joined: 11/12/2013 - 18:38
As long as the animations are

As long as the animations are rooted or move the character in a predefined, non-free way, the animations will continue to stand out and be awesome for me.

I've seen the games trying to do unrooted, free moving while animating (for things other than typical FPS games). ITS ALL GARBAGE. see The Secret World for a great example of how goofy, pathetic, and stupid it looks when you unhook the body from the lower body so that you get no rooting during animations. Complete and utter epic fail.

Conveying power, skill, and ability realistically for everything, whether its swinging a sword or firing energy blasts from your hands, is only believable when the entire body is acting as it would, and that's only possible when you have the entire body animating.

Please for the love of God and all creation, do not attempt unrooted, free sliding garbage. It may take a little more effort to code making a person not move for *gasp* a second or two, but please make the choice for the quality and believability that kept us playing CoH all those years.

grouchyguy
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/10/2013 - 17:32
I liked the knockback and

I liked the knockback and knockup animations for enemies, made you feel powerful.

My SS/WP brute had a second build just for the ski hill badges, I had lots of slots left over of course so I 6-slotted footstomp with KB and ran around Mercy taunting big crowds to me and then footstomping them, heeeeelarious.

It was so funny I made a second build for my bubbler, 6-slotted whatever the ST KB attack was, and sometimes used Mercy as my personal drivng range. There were a bunch of guys standing around on roofs, if you flew over and positioned yourself somewhat underneath them so you KB'd them up and away they would get a LOT of airtime.

The enemy animation for being stuck in Plant Control vines was good also, struggling impotently while I carved them up.

EDIT - the chestbeating animation of Tough (I think?) was kind of dumb.

Shadow Elusive
Shadow Elusive's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 8 months ago
Developerkickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 01/10/2013 - 09:38
I think that would have to be

I think that would have to be a case by case thing, actually. Some you could get away with it a whole lot more than others. For instance, ranged attacks are inherently easier, though some would still suffer. But I bet you could make the lowest two tier attacks so they looked fine while not moving, and let the rest root so you could convey the more elaborate attacks more effectively.

And thanks to the person who reminded me: Tough animation. Absolutely horrid.

--------------------------

Interior Map Lead and UI Designer
Wanders
Wanders's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 years 1 month ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/25/2013 - 20:12
Shadow Elusive wrote:
Shadow Elusive wrote:

I think that would have to be a case by case thing, actually. Some you could get away with it a whole lot more than others. For instance, ranged attacks are inherently easier, though some would still suffer. But I bet you could make the lowest two tier attacks so they looked fine while not moving, and let the rest root so you could convey the more elaborate attacks more effectively.

Yeah, separating upper and lower body animation just gives you the option to control whether you root or not, which seems like a win since having options to adjust things over time is good. I assume that the reason most games with separate upper and lower animations also choose not to root is that that players generally dislike being rooted. That is especially true when you have content (like the Battle Maiden blue circles, the Keyes trial blast from above, or that Protean battle, in CoH) that expects you to move based on something going on in the environment. (Given that one of my favorite characters was a Broadsword scrapper, I had ample opportunity to notice those situations. ^_^7 )

For my own part, I am okay with rooting if it makes sense for the attack. In cases where CoT decides being rooted makes sense, I would hope that the upper and lower body animations would be coordinated for visual effect.

Global: @Second Chances
SG: Fusion Force
"And it's not what I wanted
Oh no, it's not what I planned
See it's not where I thought I'd be
It's just where I am"

Lin Chiao Feng
Lin Chiao Feng's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 days 19 hours ago
Developerkickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/02/2013 - 09:27
The reason splitting upper

The reason splitting upper and lower body looks stupid is because they're actually not independent. What the upper body does requires at least some level of support from the lower body. (And there have been no end of visual bugs caused by having some kind of emote running for the lower body while something completely incompatible is happening to the upper body.)

Another problem with rooting is that it breaks when flying. When I'd be "dogfighting" Sky Raiders in Terra Volta, flying through the air with my 6-slot Hover running, seeing my character stop in mid-flight, stand on thin air, fire her gun, then kick back to the "hover" emote looked hackneyed. Not to mention it prevented me form controlling the range, which is important for a blaster.

Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...

Shadow Elusive
Shadow Elusive's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 8 months ago
Developerkickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 01/10/2013 - 09:38
Well, with the animation and

Well, with the animation and powers separated, creating an alternate animation for flying would be possible, though possibly inefficient compared to other solutions.

--------------------------

Interior Map Lead and UI Designer
Nos482
Nos482's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 years 11 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 08/25/2013 - 14:50
What I really liked was:

What I really liked was:
- Typhoon`s Edge and One Thousand Cuts from the dual Blades set...the taunt was nice too.
- Kinetic Melee, others have complained about the waviness but I enjoyed it.
- Titan Weapons, those animations made the weapons look really heavy.
- The wind up version of Knockout Blow.
- Assassin's Strike for Spines... had such a nice FATALITY feeling.
- Executioner's Shot and everything with speed shadows from Dual Pistols.
- Ninja Run, especially when holding weapons.
- /em facepalm
- /em teabag

and my favourite
- The ground pound animation for Foot Stomp.

WarBird
WarBird's picture
Offline
Last seen: 5 years 9 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/17/2013 - 19:11
I'm very excited that it

I'm very excited that it sounds like we can pick an individual animation for each attack/power.

Martial Arts strikes as seperate from Boxing or Brawling. Both are important, but a set of punches that look more Wing Chun-y, and some kicks that are more closely drawn from Tae Kwon Do, (wheel, scythe, axe kicks just for instance.)

For bladed weapons, assuming we will have some range of choices on types, it would be nice to have some choices in style, from Japanese katana, European broadsword/longsword, and rapier/fencing. Maybe even some of the less well-known Thai and Phillipino blade styles. Maybe not all at launch, but keep it on the corkboard, please?

JayBezz
JayBezz's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 8 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/08/2013 - 14:54
In my perfect world

In my perfect world animations for casts (powers) would come decoupled from the mechanics..
You picked your role, You picked your frameworks (lets call one framework "burn" for this example), Then you pick two animation sets (which works like an emination point)

Each set has an animation for:

Single Target Melee Click
Single Target Melee Charge
Single Target Melee Maintain
Cone Target Melee
AoE Target Melee
Single Target Range Click
Single Target Range Charge
Single Target Range Maintain
Cone Target Range
etc

Animation sets would include: Head, Palm, Fist, Foot, Staff, Bow, Single "Sword", Dual "Sword", Single Pistol, Double Pistol, Rifle, Heavy "Sword", Flying Companion (like the hawk in the kickstarter photo)

After you've included a basic set of animation sets then you can sell some really cool alternative animation sets that won't change the mechanics of your powers but will add things your players want. This way you're getting directly PAID for the added work for animators.

Whip Animations $5 - The FX are added to the whip and the whip also shoots FX for powers over XX ft away
Ninja Animations $5 - A special set that has a different melee style and funky kung fu shooting animations
Wing Fighter Animations $5 - Yes this means the wings will shoot the FX and you can wingslap your enemies!
Guitar Animation Set $10 - Because its extra awesome to bash people with guitars and play chords of flame!

The above are just ideas, but its a great way to expand your game for different concepts without needing to come back and create new powersets every time.

Again the FX (Fire, Ice, Sound, Light, Poison, etc are determined by the framework you choose)

Crowd Control Enthusiast

SavageFist
SavageFist's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 months 2 weeks ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 08/21/2013 - 22:04
Wyvern wrote:
Wyvern wrote:

Energy Transfer was just pathetic; the sound was good, but the animation really didn't sell the heavy-hitting nature of the attack.

Likes:

I'm on the opposite end probably because I never played the original but I loved using Energy Transfer on my stalker. To me it DID feel like it was going to hit hard. So hard I didn't mind the self damage component. The sound of the energy buildup up as he held up both fists as if inspecting the energy of each hand, then the sudden double pump forward for a great explosion of personified energy. So fun.
Suppression on my crab spider
Rune of Warding temp power
Propel(esp after the animation speed up)
LRM
Cyro Freeze Ray. That sound followed up by a foe in a block of ice. Couldn't get enough.
Fireball. After playing other games and MMOs, City of Heroes had the best animation, particle effects and sound for the generic fireball hands down. It wasn't just the great effects but CoH made it BIG, as in it wasn't just a tiny explosion covering only 1 or 2 ft area, when comparing to other games.
Lightning Storm. I made a character just because I saw someone else using this power I was so impressed. But I'm sure it could be made even better. In hindsight I wanted it to strike more often, not because of damage but the cool effect of knockback and temporarily outlining the foe in electricity. Lightning Storm in CO is really cool imo but that is much different than having a cloud in the sky like a pseudo pet.

Some meh animations:

Force Fields in general. It was hard to 'see' their effect beyond health bars not moving as much. I would like to see different bubble types from CoH classic to the polygon designs you see in many sci fi games if nothing else can be done to spice up animations since they are merely bubbles or shields that are not meant to do more than just exist like an aura.
The same animation tanks used to turn on their shields could use some variety
I don't know what it was about Titan Weapons but unlike others here, I found using the powers yawn inducing. This is a set where I would like to see alternative animations built-in from the start where it randomly uses one of three for each attack. I just never felt the power despite the damage numbers. Sound, animations and effects never matched each other imo. Too whooshy and not enough kerbang.
Storm Summoning. All except O2 Boost, Hurricane and Lightning Storm could without a doubt use a facelift.

Reward tactics as well as damage dealing.

Thunder Glove
Thunder Glove's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 7 months ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 09/20/2013 - 17:09
I'm in the minority, because

I'm in the minority, because I always loved the slow-animating attacks with long windups. That moment of anticipation before the hit was always exciting to me (especially since, as far as the combat code was concerned, the attack had already landed, so now I was just watching the show). So attacks like Thunder Strike (and similar animations in the Enerrgy and Stone sets), Knockout Blow's "twisker punch" animation, and, yes, Energy Transfer were some of my favorites. I was also a fan of Sky Splitter from Staff Fighting, the way it hit on the way up and the way down. (Granted, that wasn't exactly how it worked behind the scenes, but the damage ticks were well-timed to the animation), and I even liked Eye of the Storm. I think Staff Fighting has my favorite animations for a full powerset (but Thunder Strike remains my favorite single power animation).

I never got to try Titan Weapons, Street Justice, or most of the other paid-for sets (Staff Fighting was the exception), but seeing Street Justice animations in Icon, I really like Ribcracker and Crushing Uppercut. I also like Dragon's Tail and Eagle's Claw in Martial Arts, another set I never played (or, at least, never played with for any significant amount of time). They flow nicely.

I second Suppression on Crab Spiders as being a well-animated attack. Most Crab animations were meh (why did most blasts shoot out of the same "leg"?), but that one stood out, and some of the melee attacks were nice (though I primarily played mine at range).

And not an actual attack animation as such, but I loved the way that, when my Bots/Storm Mastermind would select "Attack my target", all six bots would raise their arm simultaneously. (Sadly, none of the other MM sets really had that)

Most animations were merely "all right" instead of actively disliking them, but I definitely didn't like Jump Kick. I actually took it once, and it was not what I was expecting at all. (Though I could actually see it on a Spider-Man-ish agile fighter, but I had it on a Stone/Stone Tanker). I also didn't like the animation where the character would "wobble" around after the attack. For example, Lightning Rod, and I think an attack in Spines had it, too. I liked the build up, but the wobbling afterwards just made it look like he was drunk.

Worse, however, is Champions Online. Every melee set in CO feels like a whirlwind of randomly flailing limbs with no real weight to the hits. I know some players would prefer faster attack animations, but avoid going too far in that direction. It just makes the character look like a goofy and cartoony "ball o' violence".

Vitality
Offline
Last seen: 8 years 4 months ago
Joined: 11/12/2013 - 08:45
Super Strength...was, and

Super Strength...was, and always will be my favorite powerset.

However...in CoH...the animations were off.

The animation changes that they came out with were good...but that's only because they were better than what was there previously.

They were still not correct.

Punch and Haymaker were just very unrealistic versions of punches.

The original Knock out Blow was just comically bad. I personally didn't care for the new 2-fisted animation.

Super Strength could definitely use some realistic looking punching animations.

Footstomp and it's alternate Ground Punch animation, on the other hand, were damn near perfect.

Wyvern
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/25/2013 - 12:52
grouchyguy wrote:
grouchyguy wrote:

EDIT - the chestbeating animation of Tough (I think?) was kind of dumb.

Oh, wow, yes, I'd forgotten about that... I always made sure I was moving when I activated that power, so it wouldn't play the animation. And then they patched the game so toggles stayed on when you logged out, and I never saw it again.

However - the issue I had there wasn't with the quality of the animation, but the characterization; if you had a tarzan clone, or a similar sort of "wild beast" type character, that'd be a great animation to use. If you had... almost anything else, really, it just didn't fit. So, for CoT? I'd like that to be an option, still. Just as long as I can pick some other animation instead.

Heightened Senses, on the other hand, had a really nice animation - I'd actually have found that one useful as an emote, come to think of it...

Phoenix Rising Token Minidragon

summer-heat
summer-heat's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/30/2013 - 12:48
I loved the effect for

I loved the effect for blazing bolt, even if it always felt like it needed something else.
I didn't get to see much of kinetics and staff, but dual pistols was overall well done.
Archery was subtle, but it also fit very well.
I enjoyed some of the approaches made with animations on dual blades. (I liked that even the devs hated the idea of dual katanas but allowed it b/c so many players wanted it)
Rise of the Phoenix. This was perfect. I only wished my own character wings would animate during it.
I appreciated the textures used on thermal radiation and wished they had updated the original sets to use it too, but alas it never happened.
I enjoyed the effects around the eyes that peacebringers and warshades had.

I did not like the "I gotta poop nao!" charge for blaster nukes of inferno blast and nova.

Other game animations that I've enjoyed that fit for fighting games include a lot of the fighting animations in the Soul Calibur series of games. I think they did very well with different weapon fighting styles including those for staff fighting, chinese blade, ton fas...
STO has a very fitting tuck-and-roll animation, and as dirty as it could be, I do enjoy the chain whirlwhind animation on CO.

“The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” -Douglas Adams

Mister Rik
Mister Rik's picture
Offline
Last seen: 9 years 6 months ago
Joined: 11/02/2013 - 21:19
"I can't comment in a

"I can't comment in a positive manner about flurry's toHit/accuracy, but I did think it was a hoot to watch. (as well as Sands of Mu)"

I loved that animation on my main villian. Mainly because of the way it would just keep going even after her opponent was down. It was like, "You're down, now I'mma make sure you DON'T get back up!"

:D

Shadow Elusive
Shadow Elusive's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 8 months ago
Developerkickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 01/10/2013 - 09:38
My feelings exactly. One of

My feelings exactly. One of my favorite toons used it. I was in despair over Knockout blow. Both versions of footstomp, on the other hand...

--------------------------

Interior Map Lead and UI Designer
Izzy
Izzy's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/09/2013 - 11:09
Thunder Glove wrote:
Thunder Glove wrote:

... melee sets in CO feels like a whirlwind of randomly flailing limbs with no real weight to the hits. I know some players would prefer faster attack animations, but avoid going too far in that direction. It just makes the character look like a goofy and cartoony "ball o' violence".

+1

Riptide
Riptide's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 day 13 hours ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/09/2013 - 07:01
I don't know if there's

I don't know if there's anything that can be done about it, but I really didn't like when long-animation attacks led to corpse blasting.
On some (very rare) occasions, like after a particularly difficult battle, a parting "and stay f...ing down" shot wasn't too bad but most of the time it just meant a wasted shot. Most long-animation abilities also had long cooldowns.

"I don't think you understand the gravity of your situation."

FalconStriker
FalconStriker's picture
Offline
Last seen: 5 years 3 months ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/18/2013 - 17:40
My favorite set for both game

My favorite set for both game play and just the way it looked was martial arts and super reflexes, my combo of choice for my main toon (falcon striker), not to mention the many various emotes, coh to this day is un rivaled when it comes to emotes and passive animations, really gave the game life.

One thing I didn't care for too much that comes to mind, I felt some of the blaster animations were a bit too similar at times, which is understandable to some degree. Basically anything that wasn't weapon related, all seemed to use the same or similar arm movements, I think finding ways to make them look a bit different from one another would be a nice touch. Like comparing radiation to energy blasters, just as an example.

Redlynne
Redlynne's picture
Offline
Last seen: 21 hours 59 min ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/28/2013 - 21:15
Here's an animation type that

Here's an animation type that I KNOW will work in the Unreal Engine because of the way it gets used in TERA.

Elin Sorcerer Animations

Specifically, what I want to draw attention to is the casting animation that causes the (Elin) character to "float and hover" in the air as part of the casting animation with the "flip over" on spell casting release at the end of the animation. In TERA this kind of animation is ONLY used for the Elin Sorcerers (every other race's Sorcerer animations keeps them planted on the ground), but it certainly makes for an Awesome Looking Particle Ingathering Effect™ prior to casting that makes you think "there's some seriously arcane power getting channeled here" despite the fact that the avatar is so Cute And Small.

In a City of Heroes/City of Titans styled game where you aren't necessarily channeling arcane energies like an Elin Sorcerer would, I'm thinking that this sort of "hover blasting" animation would be entirely appropriate for a Gravity themed powerset, such as Gravity Control.


Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.
Brand X
Brand X's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/01/2013 - 00:26
Redlynne wrote:
Redlynne wrote:

Wyvern wrote:
Energy Transfer was just pathetic; the sound was good, but the animation really didn't sell the heavy-hitting nature of the attack.
Was that the "I'm gonna jump up in slow motion because gravity has suddenly gone to 1/4G so I can hang in the air THE WAY BRICKS DON'T letting you sniff my belly button for a while before I eventually get around to attacking you, finally, at some distant point the future" Power?

No. That was Total Focus (Thunderstrike had the same animation), and I loved that animation. Energy Transfer was the quick one punch that was turned into a bend at the knees, elbows in, charge up by having a seizure than releasing a punch.

cybermitheral
cybermitheral's picture
Offline
Last seen: 8 months 5 days ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 08/21/2013 - 20:54
Most disliked animation was

Most disliked animation was Jumping on Huge characters. I felt like a Garfield plushy toy with suction cups sliding down a car window.

I liked Shield Charge a lot as well as the Crab backpack movements.

The Phoenix Rising Initiative Rules Lawyer

Northie
Northie's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 years 8 months ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/03/2013 - 07:17
Are we talking about

Are we talking about character animations or can this include any actual effect along with animation?

I liked the teleport "star" and warshade "portal" a lot but that was more gfx than the character pose
Kinetic melee wavy attacks were awesome
Dual blades, broadsword, axe, mace and claws were all good with pretty much all attacks
Build up from weapon sets, especially broadsword
Charged brawl/energy punch/stone fist etc similar simple brawls
Fault/foot stomp/solar flare but again a lot to do with the cracking earth gfx but animation was also nice
Hand clap/lightning clap
Touch of Fear
Fireball throw attack which was rather common but nice animation
Lightning Rod
Hurl/hurl Boulder
Crab spider "tentacle blaster" animation

Never much liked:
Seismic smash/thunder strike jump-into-air-and-smash animation
Life siphon/suphon power/siphon speed character animation
Twilight grasp/electron haze had weird animation

Northie
Northie's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 years 8 months ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/03/2013 - 07:17
For individual powers with

For individual powers with character animation and GFX combining for a whole.. hum quickly thinking following powers:

Telekinetic Thrust
Mind Probe
Blazing Bolt (fiery sniper beam)
Lightning Rod
Crab spider "tentacle blaster" aka Suppression (and channelgun)
Ion Judgement
Cryonic Judgment
Arctic Fog
Plasma Shield (dominator version with those circling fiery orbs)
Irradiate
Static Discharge
Pulse Rifle Blast & Burst
Photon Grenade
Drone Heavy Laser Burst (from MM robotics)
Blind
Lift (gravity troller)
Plasma Cannon (fire tarantula)
Static Overload (PBAoE electric attack from arachnos heavy blaster)
Energy Pulse (arachnobot)
Lash (from demon summoning)

Brand X
Brand X's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/01/2013 - 00:26
For melee attacks I suggest

For melee attacks I suggest looking at fighting games and taking some of those animations ^_^ Even from some of those other MMOs!

Xnarl
Xnarl's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 months 1 week ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/07/2013 - 22:27
I would suggest to base

I would suggest to base fighting animations on the actual use of the weapon as much as possible. In these cases you avoid the phenomenon of knowledge fighting ruining everything, (at least in the best case) without disappointing the laymen.

Brand X
Brand X's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/01/2013 - 00:26
Xnarl wrote:
Xnarl wrote:

I would suggest to base fighting animations on the actual use of the weapon as much as possible. In these cases you avoid the phenomenon of knowledge fighting ruining everything, (at least in the best case) without disappointing the laymen.

Sooo..have normal dual pistol use and not gunfu? o.O I'd rather have nice looking, omg animations, ala Street Fighter, Tekken, Dead or Alive or Mortal Kombat. It's a game, should be fun!

Xnarl
Xnarl's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 months 1 week ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/07/2013 - 22:27
I knew I should have included

I knew I should have included something to the effect of "if you have two animation of similar coolness and different plausibilty".
And to some degree, it is indeed intended to strengthen those who think Eye of The Storm should not have been that breakdance.

jag40
Offline
Last seen: 7 years 8 months ago
Joined: 09/17/2013 - 10:51
Brand X wrote:
Brand X wrote:

Xnarl wrote:
I would suggest to base fighting animations on the actual use of the weapon as much as possible. In these cases you avoid the phenomenon of knowledge fighting ruining everything, (at least in the best case) without disappointing the laymen.

Sooo..have normal dual pistol use and not gunfu? o.O I'd rather have nice looking, omg animations, ala Street Fighter, Tekken, Dead or Alive or Mortal Kombat. It's a game, should be fun!

That last sentence. The main but oft forgotten especially these days, as they chase reality, purpose of games. "should be fun". In real life no one goes around hopping around while firing two pistols at the same time. That is highly frowned upon and viewed as simply wasteful. In game, hell yeah. Of course realism has it's place especially in games where it's reality based like war games, and some spy games. Super hero games, the more they try and chase reality the more goofy it looks because the entire premises of super powers is pure fantasy (make believe).

So yeah the target should definitely be about fun.

Then the larger hard part is fun for who? While many devs especially indie tend to build games that they view as fun in their own taste and basically using the amount of people they gather to simply validate that their version of fun is what the definition of fun is, the reality if that they are hamstringing themselves from reaching full potential. If indie wanted to take over the game market, they could of have long time ago if they simply expanded their mind and realize the bigger picture of the sheer amount of gamers out there. For all of their faults, one thing corporate game companies have been pretty decent at or rather experts at compared to indie gme makers is having something for everyone for a particular group of players. Unlike most industries and the customers, the game industry is probnably the easiest and most friendly towards upstarts. A new unheard of brand of gas show up, people will be skittish of filling their tank up there and rather pay a few more cents at a major brand. In the gaming world, people are waiting to get away from the corporate model they just need someone to build a game that is fun for them in one game instead of, "well I like this game, but no one to play with." "That game have many people and the people that play it like it but it's forced teaming." "That game is a watered down version of WoW." "This game is quirky buggy but friendly community." If anyone should be combining the best of the worlds it should be indie game makers. Corporate have to build basically what ever the graph readers tell them to build. Indie have freedom. Freedom they are not using very well besides to build their own personal playground without a slightest thought of what players actually find fun.

This game, I feel there is something different. Something big is here. I think there is potential to change that. An indie game with what is fun for the people that will play the game is thought of and people can generally find fun that fit their fancy. I hope. If one can solo for what ever reason and that is what they find fun, they can. If they always want to team every time they log on for what ever reason if they find that fun, they can, if they do mixture of both of various degrees they can, if they like crunching numbers and spend great deal of time doing that they can, if they don't like crunching numbers or being an expert in game marketeers, they can, and all without being limited and still get the job done just as effectively, equally, without being gated out of stuff because they don't find a Dev favorite feature fun and end up feeling like third class customers. Indie games can have the freedom and flexibility to do that, they just haven't yet. But I hope and have a feeling that will change soon. It starts with one.

There is no reason why indie games cant be the talk of the town or have people waiting for hours in the cold (physically or virtually) just to get the first copies in the first day like people do with console games. And look at the list of those console games, people will realize they can be enjoyed equally, whether a person want to play solo, with the guy next to them or with a bunch of people over the net. It's called casting a net over wider area. But indie games makers seem content on taking a straw sized version of what they find fun and expect everyone to go into that straw. If they are content with that and low numbers and relatively unknown then well, hey. But at the same time they cant question why people go to the corporate offerings instead even with the risk and "take a number" method.

Many people rather play a good game they find fun for two weeks than a unfun game that is fun only to select few forever.

Xnarl
Xnarl's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 months 1 week ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/07/2013 - 22:27
Maybe it would be better to

Maybe it would be better to say "include animations based on the actual use of the weapon as much as possible. " Also, note that I said "as much as possible" - Dual Guns would probably not be touched by the demand. However, I think if you have the choice of having a cool move that breaks immersion to anyone who knows something about fighting, and an equally cool move from real martial arts (or at least some grounding into reality), you should take the more realistic one, as it will please both those who want cool animations and those who want (semi)realistic animations.
Would someone please think of us simulationists?

PS: I would also comment that the amount of (obvious) exaggeration should be handled careful. I think that most of Staff Fighting is still acceptable as "Heroic Exaggeration" (but note that my actual knowledge on melee combat is very limited). Eye of the Storm, however, is exaggerated to such a degree that it screams "BULLSHIT!":
PPS: Some videos of historical polearm fighting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTVC25hYJaY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBStjSv1NZQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mziWUgzt9I4

Brand X
Brand X's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/01/2013 - 00:26
Xnarl wrote:
Xnarl wrote:

Maybe it would be better to say "include animations based on the actual use of the weapon as much as possible. " Also, note that I said "as much as possible" - Dual Guns would probably not be touched by the demand. However, I think if you have the choice of having a cool move that breaks immersion to anyone who knows something about fighting, and an equally cool move from real martial arts (or at least some grounding into reality), you should take the more realistic one, as it will please both those who want cool animations and those who want (semi)realistic animations.
Would someone please think of us simulationists?
PS: I would also comment that the amount of (obvious) exaggeration should be handled careful. I think that most of Staff Fighting is still acceptable as "Heroic Exaggeration" (but note that my actual knowledge on melee combat is very limited). Eye of the Storm, however, is exaggerated to such a degree that it screams "BULLSHIT!":

Eye of the Storm was my favorite move of Staff Melee >_> I built for Single Target effectiveness in CoH, and I took that attack not for the AOE but the animation!

Thunder Glove
Thunder Glove's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 years 7 months ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 09/20/2013 - 17:09
Staff Melee did have some

Staff Melee did have some polearm customizations available, but it wasn't intended to represent poleaxe, spear, or halbard fighting, it was primarily intended to be specifically staff fighting. And staff fighting has a lot of spinning strikes and defenses:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MeSqT2zXC8

It depends on the exact style, of course. Fighting with a Chinese bo staff is different from fighting with a European quarterstaff.

Granted, Eye of the Storm was an exaggeration, but not any more than, say, Eagle Claw or KO Blow.

majorcornwallace
Offline
Last seen: 10 years 4 months ago
Joined: 11/25/2013 - 14:17
Wanders mentioned Jade Empire

Wanders mentioned Jade Empire combat animations. I really liked how fluid many of them were... and always wished my katana character actually did that.

My favorite character that I kept playing for a long time end-game was my Storm/Illusion Controller (Mini Sleet LOL). Anyway, here's some kind of oddball stuff that I think ties together gameplay:

1) Because of the nature of my character (and a friend who I played with who was Illusion/Something) we'd unleash powers to draw aggro, then commence to jumping all over the place further unleashing AOE and attacks where they were needed. But this > "bouncing all over". I always loved the jump animation after getting that minor passive buff. But it was a little too simple. I would love to see it expanded on -- there was a certain joyful ballet / comedy about destroying an entire room of bad guys with powers while my character bounced through the air. I still have dreams about it.

2) I actually had binds to switch various flying poses. I loved flying (who didn't -- except you super jump junkies?). It'd be cool too see animations change as a character flies -- when they go into a dive, make a banking turn, suddenly stop and hover... some of this already happened by accident / good basic pose/animation design

Sailboat
Sailboat's picture
Offline
Last seen: 8 years 10 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 09/30/2013 - 08:30
Some quick points:

Some quick points:

Loved Force Fields, hated seeing the entire world through a soap bubble. Is it possible to make bubbles like one-way mirrors that one can see OUT of normally, but they are visible from outside the bubble looking IN?

Hated the "dust falling off" from Combat Jumping.

In general, I'd like to see any one-handed animation alternate hands randomly rather than always be the same hand (exception: hand-held items like swords and shields).

Speaking of random, if we're having more than one animation for a power, allowing us to choose which animation OR randomly cycle through them would be nice. Some players might hate Animation A and never want to use it, but some players might like to see the variety.

Banking flight, please. At least as an option. And allow looking down while flying without having some "tap spacebar," kludge, please! Surveying the ground below is absolutely a fundamental use of flight. And would full loops be possible?

Also, while players often dislike long animations, don't go too far in the other direction. In particular, pay no attention to "corpse blasting" complaints -- it only occurs in team play, and a faster animation would merely change which player got the kill, leaving the OTHER one "corpse blasting." It's not an animation problem, it's a perception gap or failure of logic.

Captain of Phoenix Rising

Redlynne
Redlynne's picture
Offline
Last seen: 21 hours 59 min ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/28/2013 - 21:15
Sailboat wrote:
Sailboat wrote:

Loved Force Fields, hated seeing the entire world through a soap bubble. Is it possible to make bubbles like one-way mirrors that one can see OUT of normally, but they are visible from outside the bubble looking IN?

If the Bubbler can't see how far their PBAoE field extends because the soap bubble is invisible to them from the inside then it becomes very hard to tell where to move yourself to get the best area coverage of other people who are moving around. Star Trek Online had this particular problem right now with the new Cruiser Auras (or at least did the last time I played a month ago) in that there's no visible "bubble" telling you where the edge of your aura field is, meaning that the only way to know if someone else is within range of your aura is to "fly the gauges" telling you how far away your teammates are (who are constantly moving too). Trust me, an invisible from the inside bubble is hardly preferable when it comes to situational awareness and tactical positioning.

Sailboat wrote:

Speaking of random, if we're having more than one animation for a power, allowing us to choose which animation OR randomly cycle through them would be nice. Some players might hate Animation A and never want to use it, but some players might like to see the variety.

Simplest way to accomplish this would be by use of a Checkbox UI system, rather than a Pick One styled system like City of Heroes had, allowing you to select multiple animations to randomly play for a specific Power.

Sailboat wrote:

Banking flight, please. At least as an option.

This is best achieved if Flying doesn't follow the same rules as Running for movement controls. Star Trek Online uses a Movement Throttle system, where you can go from -25% to +100% movement speed through use of a throttle. Net result is a return to the Battle of Britain style of movement, where constant thrust equals constant velocity. It's not a terribly complex change to effect, but it IS a different system of moving than just press forward to go forward.

Sailboat wrote:

And allow looking down while flying without having some "tap spacebar," kludge, please! Surveying the ground below is absolutely a fundamental use of flight.

I don't know what you're talking about. In City of Heroes is was perfectly possible to hold down Forward and Up (ie. spacebar) at the same time, yielding a diagonal forward/up vector of motion. Angle your camera down and you could align that up/forward vector to align with horizontal plane movement while looking down towards the street below. Lin Chiao Feng taught me how to do this (using 6-slot Hover) and called it Attack Helicopter Hover Movement. The key was to use the controls available in combinations in parallel, rather than sequentially, one at a time. Didn't take me long at all to get used to flying (Hovering, actually) forward while looking down to see what was below me. It was an easy Player Skill to learn.


Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.
Izzy
Izzy's picture
Offline
Last seen: 6 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/09/2013 - 11:09
Sailboat wrote:
Sailboat wrote:

Loved Force Fields, hated seeing the entire world through a soap bubble. Is it possible to make bubbles like one-way mirrors that one can see OUT of normally, but they are visible from outside the bubble looking IN?

I would do something like this guy did for Forcefields...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VozAvdeY8eA

Fireheart
Fireheart's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 months 2 weeks ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/05/2013 - 13:45
That's fine for Outside of

That's fine for Outside of the bubble, but could get really distracting for Inside. Also not bad for a Personal bubble, but what about the Big one, which represents an effect on everyone within it?

Be Well!
Fireheart

Sailboat
Sailboat's picture
Offline
Last seen: 8 years 10 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 09/30/2013 - 08:30
Redlynne wrote:
Redlynne wrote:

I don't know what you're talking about. In City of Heroes is was perfectly possible to hold down Forward and Up (ie. spacebar) at the same time, yielding a diagonal forward/up vector of motion. Angle your camera down and you could align that up/forward vector to align with horizontal plane movement while looking down towards the street below. Lin Chiao Feng taught me how to do this (using 6-slot Hover) and called it Attack Helicopter Hover Movement. The key was to use the controls available in combinations in parallel, rather than sequentially, one at a time. Didn't take me long at all to get used to flying (Hovering, actually) forward while looking down to see what was below me. It was an easy Player Skill to learn.

I know what you're talking about, I did that for years. The problem is it didn't work worth a damn. It was very fiddly and you could never get it exactly level. I tried over and over, and no one I played with was able to get it to work, either.

If you're going to say COH had that, I'll change to saying "COT should have a version that actually works well."

Captain of Phoenix Rising

Fireheart
Fireheart's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 months 2 weeks ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/05/2013 - 13:45
I'm not sure if that's

I'm not sure if that's practical, unless you de-coupled movement from the Camera.

I also used to use this technique to fly straight, while looking down. And I never did fly perfectly horizontal, I just 'porpoised' up and down as I traveled. Only a mild annoyance.

Be Well!
Fireheart

Lorax
Lorax's picture
Offline
Last seen: 5 years 5 months ago
kickstarter
Joined: 11/30/2013 - 11:00
I liked the creeper vines &

I liked the creeper vines & the various thorns. Tendrils in general are fun.
Overall, I like the plants. I want more plants. Moar plants!

per eruditio, laureola

Brand X
Brand X's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/01/2013 - 00:26
Just thought I'd mention it

Just thought I'd mention it again! Chain and Chained Kunai attack animations please!

JayBezz
JayBezz's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 8 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/08/2013 - 14:54
My ex did Mo-Cap work for a

My ex did Mo-Cap work for a military FPS game. For casts (shooting things out of hands, heads, chests..) I think theres an art to creating something not quite real. However swinging a sword, shooting a gun, having Martial arts.. I always give big props to games that make this feel like a mix of realism and my imagination.. and while I know this studio doesn't have a budget for Motion Capture would suggest using videos of humans for a frame by frame comparison to how you want powers to look/feel.

So Many of my military friends consistently laugh at games that get it so very wrong. Then again.. I like realism. Many people don't so.. its a matter of taste.

Crowd Control Enthusiast

Redlynne
Redlynne's picture
Offline
Last seen: 21 hours 59 min ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/28/2013 - 21:15
JayBezz wrote:
JayBezz wrote:

So Many of my military friends consistently laugh at games that get it so very wrong.

Tabula Rasa had a terrible one of those issues. You had characters running around with rifles in their hands that were aimed "up" slightly above level when when moving. To be fair, City of Heroes did the same thing with Assault Rifle and the garage kitbashed Omnigun. This is basic gun safety STUPID. As anyone who knows gun culture (and this includes military personnel who didn't wash out of Basic Training) knows that when you're moving around you point your gun at the deck/ground instead of up in the air, so that in case of an accidental discharge you stand next to no chance of shooting someone and having to explain afterwards. Now admittedly, in a game with "No Friendly Fire" that's something less of an issue than it is in the real world ... but still ... that's no excuse.


Verbogeny is one of many pleasurettes afforded a creatific thinkerizer.
altoidboi71
altoidboi71's picture
Offline
Last seen: 10 years 1 month ago
Joined: 11/15/2013 - 17:48
Bone crusher

Bone crusher

Abnormal Joe
Abnormal Joe's picture
Offline
Last seen: 9 years 10 months ago
Joined: 10/25/2013 - 22:34
I like the overall flow of

I like the overall flow of both staff and dual pistols animations. But I will agree with something I have seen hinted at all ready.
If time has been spent well on animations by the devs, and you have personally invested time in your costume........the ability to go "minimal fx is most welcome.
I enjoyed coh animations much more when I could select no fx, or only in pvp, or however it was labeled.
I much prefer the look of the motion and the sound fx sell the impact rather than a blinding trail of light and a sparkly impact.
In some cases (like my ss/elec brute) I was almost literally blinded. Rage+Overload=blind player, and totally lost animations.

Repeat Offender
Tank Addict
Homeless.

Sailboat
Sailboat's picture
Offline
Last seen: 8 years 10 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 09/30/2013 - 08:30
Speaking of blinding the

Speaking of blinding the player, would it be feasible to recolor/resize/"jiggle" the mouse pointer somehow so we have a fighting chance of finding it onscreen?

Captain of Phoenix Rising

umbralwarrior
umbralwarrior's picture
Offline
Last seen: 1 year 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/09/2013 - 03:48
Sailboat wrote:
Sailboat wrote:

Speaking of blinding the player, would it be feasible to recolor/resize/"jiggle" the mouse pointer somehow so we have a fighting chance of finding it onscreen?

THIS!!!

/Signed.... :)

We all have it in us to be a hero to someone,
Super powers are optional.....

Part of the Phoenix Rising Initiative.....

Proud to be a hero. Prouder still to be a member of Watchfire

Lin Chiao Feng
Lin Chiao Feng's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 days 19 hours ago
Developerkickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/02/2013 - 09:27
Sailboat wrote:
Sailboat wrote:

Speaking of blinding the player, would it be feasible to recolor/resize/"jiggle" the mouse pointer somehow so we have a fighting chance of finding it onscreen?

Several related suggestions were made in the boresight selection thread.

Has anyone seen my mind? It was right here...

NA-Cardigan
Offline
Last seen: 8 years 6 months ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/20/2013 - 17:36
Mister Rik wrote:
Mister Rik wrote:

"I can't comment in a positive manner about flurry's toHit/accuracy, but I did think it was a hoot to watch. (as well as Sands of Mu)"
I loved that animation on my main villian. Mainly because of the way it would just keep going even after her opponent was down. It was like, "You're down, now I'mma make sure you DON'T get back up!"
:D

My main villian was at the very bottom of the height slider. I picked that power on purpose. It seemed a very evil way to torment anyone with an attack.

Rian_frostdrake
Rian_frostdrake's picture
Offline
Last seen: 5 years 11 months ago
Joined: 12/22/2013 - 22:55
hey all.

hey all.
loved: crane kick- the knee could have been chambered a little better, but the animation conveyed a strong side kick, and the sound effect supported it.

street justice knee attack: forget the name, anyhow, what i liked about it was it had a sense of the character putting their full body behind the strike, the set down, rather than going right into your stance carried you through the target a bit, like you pushed so hard you were off balance, bad form in real life, but for brawling in a game, it felt like it hurt. the spinning kick move looked good too,

most moves from kin melee- these introduced variety into the "martial arts" animations. ma was aways pretty much tae kwon do, alt anims threw some basic punching but kin melee was a point where they reflected a Chinese open handed striking based style(i recall them saying they drew inspiration from tai chi chuan) the take away is that im hoping that there will be a few suites of unarmed combat in game, and will buy them if they come as store options if it helps defer cost.. tae kwon do, capoeria, muai thai, krav maga, drunken style kung fu, variety.

the blaster version of thunder kick. beautiful, a high roundhouse kick with proper extension, enough rotation to look like it would carry momentum and good striking sound effect loved it.

k.o. blow- yea, it was a popeye strike, it blended a visual cue many of us had already associated with a strong hit from the popeye cartoons with a solid sound effect, and the wooshing gave it a sense of build up before the bang. unrealistic, but worked to to its referential nature.

jumping kick...after the re animations. good acrobatic move, the acrobat fighter is a staple of comics, nightcrawler, beast, spidey, it fit the bill visually. mechanically is another story, but making sure to put in moves that fit a class of established comic heroes is absolutely needed.

hated thunder kick. it seems like it was a compromise between a front kick and a roundhouse kick, but the end execution resembled neither. supporting foot was never turned correctly, the hips never adequately moved, the leg was just slung rather than chambered, and even the extension was done in an awkward position that didnt look like one a leg could actually turn while the hips were straight ahead, hated that move.

also, while I didnt hate it, super strength's default animations kind of overused the overhead fist slam, its an iconic hulk thing, but it seemed like when you only have so many attacks, making them visually distinct was a priority.

there will be fancy.

Brand X
Brand X's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/01/2013 - 00:26
Loved Jump Kick! Why I hope

Loved Jump Kick! Why I hope better from CoT version of Power Pool. Not saying such an animation will be in CoT or won't be available to the Primary Sets, but I only ever picked it up on characters I 1) thought would have such a kick and 2) had the spare power pick to grab it for fun (not all builds in CoH had room to pick up flavor attacks).

Fireheart
Fireheart's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 months 2 weeks ago
11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/05/2013 - 13:45
I heard that Jump Kick was

I heard that Jump Kick was Pretty and Strong...

Be Well!
Fireheart

Brand X
Brand X's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 5 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 11/01/2013 - 00:26
Fireheart wrote:
Fireheart wrote:

I heard that Jump Kick was Pretty and Strong...
Be Well!
Fireheart

Wasn't that Mace/EA Brutes?

ThunderCAP
Offline
Last seen: 5 months 2 days ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 09/13/2013 - 01:24
I loved SUPERSTRENGHT, only

LOVE

I loved SUPERSTRENGHT, only the original animations (not the new ones, which were childish and didn't give any appearance of power or weight).

When 2 superstrong characters were fighting in City of Heroes you could see them punching each other like 2 Hulks (on the stomach etc. I loved all the punchs from the first ones to the last ones), explosion and knocking add some power-feeling but the animation for me stood out as the best it could be. I made so many characters with superstr just because of the movements (the movement of the whole body, not just the punching but also the foots on the ground which feels like making gravity on the ground).

Please at least remember it is very important for a superstrong hero to have that slow but poweful feeling (and KNOCKBACK+slightly visible explosion effect and BOOM sound of the air for each punching), maybe also some fast alternative could be added later but the slow+poweful makes the difference between an Hercules and a PowerRanger imho.

HATE

I hated cynetic melee. The reason is very simple, that should be an alternative to superstrenght because the ONLY famous super hero which uses cynetic-melee (not ranged like all the other mind-reality-control guys) is:
SUPERBOY
And that kind of "Hyoga/Cygnus of Saintseiya moves" have nothing to do with Superboy. Those animation could go fine for a WIND power. If you put in game spiderpowers it would be stupid to not take something from Spiderman which is obviously on comics reader minds, for the same reason imho it was very stupid to put cynetic-melee the way they did.
Superboy has one of my favorite character's power sets in comics, and they wasted the chance to give us that powerset like if they didn't know Superboy even existed. Even in the Marvel Universe, the closest thing which is Fenix or Justice (but they're ranged as well, not just melee) use their telekinesis in a more "superstrenght-like" way when approching melee combat, not moving the air to create "currents of air" (which may be appropriate for ranged powers and enemies at distance, not for melee combat, and I would dislike those moves anyway also for ranged telekinesis, as Magneto and similar don't move like that...)...

Hellbender91
Offline
Last seen: 11 months 2 weeks ago
Joined: 12/26/2013 - 09:54
the annimations or things i

(sorry for the lengh of this post)
the annimations or things i would love to see:
1: if your useing a bubble of some kind to protect yourself (or others) then a bullet or bady should not be able to penitrate it. so in other words make them bounce off or even make the bubble slowly begin to crack as it wears down/weakens. something simple but would be cool to see.
2: i love the animation that is used in CO in there might set that they pick up a chunk of ground and throw it at a bady, it would be awsome to see something similar in a super strength build or even earth build.
3: perhaps have a grappling annimation, like the bady comes closer to you and you lock arms/hands/minds in a type of wrestling match as it were and the victor stays standing.
4: teleport is nice but make it so you can teleport great distances as well it is a travel power after all... for example you have to maybe power up for a few seconds but then poof your gone and your now in another city or better yet you are given a map of the world you have discovered/been to and you get to teleport to a location by clicking the map!
5: again with teleport make it useful in a fight, (think night crawler here) make it part of your attacks, ya your not god with it but make it useful!
6: make other travel powers useful other then traveling make flight maybe make you harder to be knocked down or gives you super sonic attacks you can use?... im sure we or you guys can come up with others for the other travel powers as well (DCU did this somewhat)
7: as for story line, i love how star wars old republic(STOR) made ALL of there NPC you interact with speak to you, not pop up a bubble that has junk to read in it but they pretty much read to you or start an animation scene that would be awsome! and would bring you more into the story then ever.
8: also with story when your on a team together STOR did this well also, make each person you are teamed with have options they get to pick from that will afect there faction or roll and/or out come of the mission.
9: something that erks me a lot is that all the new games require way more powerful computers then some people (or even i) have the money for. these games look awsome but i for one dont have the money to go dishing out to upgrade my computer to the latest and greatest tech out there. would be nice to have a option in graphics to simplify them down so even a slower machine can run them with out blowing up. im not talking "oh you dont have shadows now" i mean have the option to have decent graphics still but maybe less pixels for slower machiens to render... kind of a low rez graphic version you can switch too. it wouldnt be that difcult to do im sure. dont get me wrong put the awsome graphics in there that the uber machines can run too but keep a seting for the slow poor people that cant aford the computers from the star trek universe...
10: i was very sad when i got to lvl 50 in COH when i first came out and even at the end. then i was disapointed that the end game was lacking so much that it seemed like the only reason to play anymore is to level another toon. dont make it a farm fest but look at (yes im gona say it) WoW for a great example they have a huge amount of end game content that really once you get to the max lvl then thats when the game really begins you can start doing a ton of stuff more and get more and more powerful .
11: and finely i would like to see the option of traveling to other worlds... or even space.. (please no underwater zones no mater what game it is they have NEVER been good) earth is fun for a short time but it gets a bit old after awhile when your exploring. and keep the world a open world! again WoW did this seemlessly .. yes there are SOME load screens but you can still travel from one end of a continent to another with out loading.. that makes for a much more emersive world for you to get into.
(i know everyone will hate me for refering to WoW but regardless of what everyone thinks of it it dos have its good things they have done and i wish other games would implement SOME of those things.)
hope this helps, im so dang excited that there is finely a replacement to my favorate game COH :)

Moogoth!

Foradain
Foradain's picture
Offline
Last seen: 2 months 2 weeks ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/25/2013 - 21:06
Hellbender91 wrote:
Hellbender91 wrote:

2: i love the animation that is used in CO in there might set that they pick up a chunk of ground and throw it at a bady, it would be awsome to see something similar in a super strength build or even earth build.

One thing I've seen in comic books (don't recall which ones) and tabletop superhero games that I do not recall seeing in computer superhero games, is the manhole cover Frisbee. Much less collateral damage than ripping up a chunk of pavement, at least while there is a manhole cover available ^_^.

Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
Foradain's Character Conclave
.
Avatar courtesy of Satellite9 Irezoomie

Sailboat
Sailboat's picture
Offline
Last seen: 8 years 10 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 09/30/2013 - 08:30
Hellbender91 wrote:
Hellbender91 wrote:

10: i was very sad when i got to lvl 50 in COH when i first came out and even at the end. then i was disapointed that the end game was lacking so much that it seemed like the only reason to play anymore is to level another toon. dont make it a farm fest but look at (yes im gona say it) WoW for a great example they have a huge amount of end game content that really once you get to the max lvl then thats when the game really begins you can start doing a ton of stuff more and get more and more powerful.

Well, once they introduced the Incarnate content, there was tons and tons of endgame content. Did you try to get all the Incarnate stuff?

Frankly I wouldn't want a game to have more emphasis on endgame than COH had with Incarnate. I definitely wouldn't want it to "really begin" at the level cap. To me that's one of the worst features of the "older" style games; hopefully we've moved beyond that simplistic paradigm.

Captain of Phoenix Rising

Hellbender91
Offline
Last seen: 11 months 2 weeks ago
Joined: 12/26/2013 - 09:54
i see your point Sailboat i

i see your point Sailboat i do agree with you, i wouldnt want the game to begin at the max level ... or what is the point of all that leveling aside from a waste of time. what i mean by my statement is that once you go threw all that work to get a toon to the max level then what do you do with them? delete and start over? i just want a reason to play after i get to that max level. dont get me wrong i love leveling other toons im a huge alt-aholic (on CO i have at least 15+ toons only 3-4 of them are max level) but i hate just farming for stuff and doing the same thing over and over and over its very boring. one idea that i thought was very cool was something that Diablo III did, is when you get to the max level then there are paragon levels after that, that simply increase your stats as you level so you can still gain power but still enjoy the game. but that dosnt salve the problem of story line having an end at some point... so bring in the ability to create your own story line or missions. not give the full ablity to say make a farm mission that you just have to kill one type of bady over and over and over. but you maybe have a random story/villian generator that you plug in information to the system and it gives you another set of story/misions to go threw. for example:
lets say im a electic shooten cowboy hero. so the first thing it looks at is your powers and lines up some badys that can counter or at least give you a chalange to fight ... or even use your nemisis would be cool too. next it asks you your orgin is your electric shooten cowboy hero from space, a mutant, a magical being, or even a really really smart tech guy, or were you just in the wrong place at the wrong time. what ever is it is desides what worlds/zones to send you to based on that information. and after it asks maybe a few other questions on your toon or even looks at your toons already made profile then it spits out some story line or missions for you to do to make you stronger, weaker, make you salve a puzzle of some kind (ie. batman was a detective so maybe you have to figure out what the villian is gona do), or even just give you a new fancy cape or boots. my point is that every heros story is diffrent so make the story they go threw a bit diffrent as well. give the higher levelers something more to do then just go back to the drawing board and make a new toon again. (perhaps this mission thing could be put in for lower levels as well) i just hate for a super hero game to just simply end because you got to the max level and finished the last couple missions there ... or have no reason to complete the last few missons anymore.
(sadly a lot of games have done this with implementing other options in the game ie. CO put in Alerts... now no need to go threw the story line missions to level... or at all... COH put in the ability to make missions how ever you like so that also got rid of the reason to go threw normal missions cuz you could just powerlevel in one zone for a few days.) i know every gamer out there is diffrent and a lot of them will complain when something isnt made easy for them or they have to (heaven forbid) work for there levels but most will just want to have a emersive story that dosnt get boring cuz you reached the max level. just a few ideas i know im just a lowly gamer but im not close minded i love hearing any ideas you guys have too on what ive said feel free to coment more :) (sorry if any of my coments are in the wrong area i dont usely post on forums... i just really want to see this game get up and runing and be what we expect for a superhero based game.

Moogoth!

Hellbender91
Offline
Last seen: 11 months 2 weeks ago
Joined: 12/26/2013 - 09:54
well if you rip up a peach of

well if you rip up a peach of ground or eaven take the manhole... maybe if your toon wins the fight you can do some comunity service and repave the street or even make a few manhole covers lol
it would be kind of neet to see some, somewhat perminate damage to ground/buildings when you fight around them and make it slowly repair itself. cuz im sure when superman fights a super villian and send him flying into a building then it dos some kind of damage to it... and superman trys to prevent some damage as much as he can would be another chalange aspect to being a hero... or even fighting in a sewer... dont want to step in the wrong place or being it down on top of you :D

Moogoth!

Amaunir
Amaunir's picture
Offline
Last seen: 3 months 6 days ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 01/05/2014 - 14:06
Animations are important,

Animations are important, because we see them a lot in the game later, many, many times. For example it's one reason why I don't like Champions Online that much. City of Heroes had a lot of them, this Scrapper fighting Set Martial Arts was very cool, it had a lot of great animations.

JayBezz
JayBezz's picture
Offline
Last seen: 4 years 8 months ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/08/2013 - 14:54
MORE HOLOGRAPHIC HONEYCOMB!

MORE HOLOGRAPHIC HONEYCOMB!

(All white? Perhaps light blue? maybe orange.. but not rainbow. Color changable.. maybe)

Crowd Control Enthusiast

Azrael
Offline
Last seen: 10 years 2 months ago
Joined: 01/10/2014 - 16:57
If there's one thing that

If there's one thing that defines the difference in class between Coh and C.O?

It's the main male run animation.

In Coh? Smooth as silk. A real sense of purpose and lovely to control.

C.O? Awkward stooped over frog dance. It's terrible. Absolutely dreadful.

And that was it in a nutshell. Everything Cryptic/Paragon did animation wise on the game was class. Like Victorian lace. C.O was very jerky and cartoony (ironically) by comparison.

Maybe C.O had a cheaper animation budget or was attempting some stylised 'heroic moment' approach but it just seemed cheap. As chips.

Play Energy blaster set primary and 2ndary in Coh? (*oh. We can't. NC Soft killed our game...) and you have a beautiful ballet of silky animation as you fire off each power. It's grace. It's the one set that epitomises the animation values of Coh.

Azrael.

Azrael
Offline
Last seen: 10 years 2 months ago
Joined: 01/10/2014 - 16:57
Izzy wrote:
Izzy wrote:

Sailboat wrote:
Loved Force Fields, hated seeing the entire world through a soap bubble. Is it possible to make bubbles like one-way mirrors that one can see OUT of normally, but they are visible from outside the bubble looking IN?
I would do something like this guy did for Forcefields...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VozAvdeY8eA

That's not a bad idea. Phased effect when hit and ripples with power. Like when the Enterprise gets hit in star trek you only see the FF when hit? It has a phase effect? Maybe a soft hum aura until then?

I didn't mind the detergent effect of bubbles. But from the inside it could be a little unclear at times. From being a bit too subtle or too squiggly somehow. I liked Personal F. Field though. Very attached to my FF/Energy Defender...

Room for some innovation here. But even a jazzed up graphics version of the set in Coh would be fine with me.

Maybe a choice of effects? From clear field bubbles to phase modulation when hit to body auras? A choice perhaps?

Azrael.

Zaran
Offline
Last seen: 6 years 2 weeks ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/24/2013 - 05:50
I loved lots of the power

I loved lots of the power animations, too many to name. However, I think I hated *every* *single* *one* of the mental attack set. They were slow, they were not dynamic and they weren't engaging. I hope we have a mental attack set again, but we've got to be able to do better than that :)

LaughingAlex
Offline
Last seen: 8 years 3 weeks ago
kickstarter11th Anniversary Badge
Joined: 10/08/2013 - 15:55
For running, walking, the

For running, walking, the movement has to be fluid. I'll post some videos I guess if I can get around to it. But I do not enjoy it when males run around hunched over, I hate that, alot. So much in fact it keeps me from playing male characters very often. Even the females in CoX ran far more fluidly. I do not at all enjoy the running animations of either gender in CO, though the female run passes somewhat(it's to bouncy).

As for powers and projectiles, they have to be fast and impactful. If we are going to do hit rolls I wouldn't want a power bolt moving so slow as to cause them to twist and home in on the person through a wall. It should hit before he can move behind the wall to begin with. If hits are going to involve physics(that is, ranged attacks use projectiles that have to actually hit rather than an rng), fast projectiles can still be dodged, likewise. Blasts should have some omph. Melee as well, in fact i'd say impacts should be somewhat visible if possible.

I'm not a fan of anime-ized default running, to. Note the above about males running hunched over, they only do that in anime's. Reality is, running hunched over, is especially taxing, and tiring, and highly inefficient. Breathing is ineffective that way, but running straight actually works well.

I realized something today(5/8/2014) that many MMORPG players, are not like us who enjoyed CoX. They enjoy repetitiveness and predictability, rather then unpredictability. We on the other hand enjoy unpredictability and variety.

Pages