Animations you would change? (and how)
By
Blood_Beret,
Posted on: 2009-04-11 14:37 in Suggestions and Ideas
Rocket Boots and Super Jump
'nuff said
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Ok, here is a thread for everyone to discuss which animations attached to power they would change, and how. Try to keep it simple, yet detailed. As in, make it so that someone can understand it fully. Give reasons why /you/ think it should be changed.
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Multiple jump animations, each of which would blend with others.
I would leave the current jump animation (YMCA) as the default and Sprint jump animation, meaning this is how you would jump without Hurdle, SJ, CJ or any other +Jump Height/Speed power.
If the player adds Hurdle to the character, the jump animation would modify into the streamlined "leaning forward" animation used for the upward swing of Super Jump. This animation would apply to almost the full arc of the jump, altering to extend the feet right at the end of the arc, but leaving the arms tucked in close to the body.
Combat Jumping would add an animation which would adjust to match the incline of whichever plane the character was in contact with when jumping. Hitting a wall and leaping off of it, for example, would display a "hands and feet coming into contact with wall, spring off with body extended and tuck into a roll mid-air" animation, to give a more acrobatic feel. Landing on the ground would end with both knees and one fist down, the character looking straight ahead. Hitting a ceiling would result in the character doing a flip, kicking off of the ceiling with his/her feet, then flipping back to land on his/her feet on the next surface.
I would give Super Jump a choice of animations, which could be "locked" as the default. A Hulk-like leap of massive power and sudden slam to the ground (both feet, arms at sides, chest heaving and character leaning slightly forward, as if to say, "Come get some"), leaving cracks radiating out from the center; a "cannonball"-like animation in which the character tucks into a tight ball and spins wildly, then springs back into landing form at the last second; an animation almost exactly like the one proposed for Combat Jumping, except landing on walls would always be with the feet (no hands) and immediately slide or leap off again in a pose which conveys the sense that the character just launched off of that surface.
Oh, the things I would do with jump animations, if I could. *sigh*
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You know, like a bolt? Take the animation for Power thrust, speed it up and open the hand. Voila, new animation.
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As I understand it, Power Thrust actually uses the same open hand animation as for things like Speed Boost and some lower tier ranged attacks. It's just hidden behind the giant pink pom-poms.
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I would change quite a lot of electric blast. I would ditch the strange pillars of squiggly blue lines we have now in favor of very short, very bright, brilliant arcs that have a bit of a lingering effect.
It should be possible to do with shaders, though who knows if the game's engine would allow you to tie the effect to the power.
I would make this change because electricity is not blue squiggly lines.
Essentially change it to look like actual lightning, right?
Branching Paragon Police Department Epic Archetype, please!
I'd overhaul Super Strength a bit, mainly to make it more aesthetically pleasing and to put power animations more in line with power descriptions. Damage, recharge, animation times, and secondary effects would remain unchanged:
Jab: Change the name to "Body Blow" or something similar, keep the animation.
Punch: Change the name to "Hammer Smash", use a sped-up Haymaker animation.
Haymaker: Keep the name, change the animation to a sped-up Stun (baseball pitch punch) animation.
Rage: Villain-only change -- get rid of the bright gold glow; substitute it with something more appropriate.
That's about it, really. If I had my druthers, I'd forgo speeding up the new animation times en lieu of rebalancing Hammer Blow and Haymaker around the new animations. Sure, it'd make the set feel a touch slower, but it might also help to better convey a sense of power. But since this thread is about animation changes only, the above suggestions are the best I got.
Positron: "There are no bugs [in City of Heroes], just varying degrees of features."
I'd return Energy Transfer to being DETHPOKE. I don't mind the new animation time, but I miss the "poke... ur ded" feel 
The current animation time could be kept by adding some kind of windup period before the poke.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/36641/My-Little-Exalt
I would change all of the Medicine Pool powers to something origin-neutral.
Spines barb swipe is just plain stupid. IMO spines needs a complete makeover getting rid of the death bananas and having more spines/thorn like animations. Like quills on a porcupine maybe.
I would also change the wavy hands hippiegurusecretsquirrel action of mind controls confuse, for MM's TK thrust - it is more dynamic. The wavy hands is way to wussy for my tastes.
Air Superiority, for two reasons:
1) Several powersets have an attack using the same animation, so it's repetitive.
2) Slamming your fists downward doesn't fit with the target's backflip reaction.
I'm not sure what the new animation should be, maybe sort of an exaggerated uppercut- something that fits with the backflip effect.
Not to justify the repetitive animation it uses, bu all of it's effects do make some sort of sense. I have the feeling that it was originally designed to be used from the air to knock foes out of the air, not as some sort of filler move that most people use it for. As such, if you were flying, and someone smacked you really, /really/ hard on the top/back of your head, would you not flip as you fell to the ground? And since it seems that the CoX devs dislike creating new animations (a front flip vs the standard back flip), they likely just used code they already had sitting around.
I'd turn Super Strength into what is shown in Vanden's avatar.
Branching Paragon Police Department Epic Archetype, please!
Ok, here is a thread for everyone to discuss which animations attached to power they would change, and how. Try to keep it simple, yet detailed. As in, make it so that someone can understand it fully. Give reasons why /you/ think it should be changed.
Martial Arts: Eagle's Claw
Honestly, I have no real issues with the animation its self, just how it is executed. The whole drop kick into a flip is actually sort of cool looking. However, the mid air, Matrix-style hang in mid air while everyone else keeps moving, is not. I suggest either slowing down the animation in general (to add the pause into the rest of the animation) or take it out and add it onto the recovery. Perhaps make your character stay in the landing pose for an extra second.
Claws: Eviscerate
Change the name to flip slash or change the animation. These are the only two options imo. Flipping into the air the slashing someone across the chest does not equal eviscerating someone. Not unless they happen to keep their bowels in their chest anyways. If they were to change the animation, I'd have it be a rising, spinning, uppercut that starts in the gut. Have it start out like a faster version of the SS uppercut that flows into the spin from Rising Dragon and ending in the landing from spin. The spin part is to account for the cone.
Energy Blast: Power Bolt
Honestly, this move looks entirely too much like Power Burst and Power Blast. Either make it the "throw" animation or a quick open palm arm thrust that sends a single burst of energy out. You know, like a bolt? Take the animation for Power thrust, speed it up and open the hand. Voila, new animation.
Broad Sword: Slash
This animation just seems so...bleh. It's so lack luster, it's actually hard to watch my hyperactive techno-knight use it. I mean, he just sort of goes "rawr...I'm swinging at you..." and just sort of waves his sword at them. I know that BS is suppose to be the harder hitting, slower version of NB/Katana, but come on. Maybe speed it up a smidge and make it feel more...connective.
Thoughts? Ideas? Comments?