A call for more memorable expirations

(Long)



Let me say out front that I am not suggesting we have more grue in the game, I am not interested in seeing blood splashed all over the screen. What I am looking for is that sensation of delicious dread and horror when I see a Villain or a hero die in a particularly spectacular manner.

The first and last time I saw it in the game was when I first encountered Tarantula Mistresses in an Arachnos base and watched one explode after she had been defeated, showering bodyparts all over the corridor. Horrible! Brilliant!

I've seen few things that memorable since - The encounters with the Leviathan in the Temple of the Waters, seeing the Shadow Shards for the first time and the Chantry. Little else since has really grabbed me.

I think that needs to change, and one way to do that is by adding some more elements of peril, consequence and horror. Certainly plenty of NPCs have an origin and backstory that describes horror, but not really any of them end in a manner that hints at the horror and alien bizarreness of their origin. Tarantula Mistresses in particular are the exception - go into any Arachnos base and see a giant test-tube with the limbless torso of a Tarantula Mistress bobbing in it, and you have a taste of shivery horror right there.

Let me give you an example of a memorable end. In the 1980 movie 'Flash Gordon' the was a female villain clad totally in black who was killed during the movie's climactic action sequence. Timothy Dalton's character shoots her in the back and she collapses on a staircase, and then she proceeds to rapidly deliquesce in a putrid and horrifying black oilslick, leaving an empty set of clothes splayed on the stairs, almost as if she had been a water balloon filled with India Ink. She had seemed like a normal, however wicked woman, but now her ending hinted at an unimaginable origin. Was she ever human? Had she been originally and then altered by chemicals or radiation or surgery? Was she a creation of Ming's? Was she an alien being? A fascinating and disturbing mystery.

I believe we need more of that kind of imagery here to give our villains and heroes more definition, and give the game more profound and stirring connection with our own emotions.

Think about it - when a villain is defeated they shouldn't just slowly become invisible after laying on the ground for a while, but pass in a manner befitting their origin.

A CoT mage should cast off a dark spirit that gives a chilling wail before dissolving away. Or perhaps their robes would collapse to the ground, empty as Obi Wan Kenobi's.

Freakshow tanks should explode in identical manner to Tarantulas, but only after being beaten the second time. Just look at em - they look like something powered by tanks of propane to me.

Vahzilok zombies should slump into a horrid liquefying pile, leaving behind only a pool of toxic muck, a lopsided skeleton and a cloud of buzzing flies.

Cybernetic Crey agents should fall down sparking and twitching spasmodically (not the continuous shudder animation, but a random ,spaced out twitch), giving out occasional puffs of blue smoke from the cuffs of their business suits.

Magical origin mobs like Legacy Chain might exude a mystic glyph or symbol as they expire, showered in rays of light and accompanied by an angelic choir, the magnificence of which would be in proportion to their rank, while an evil counterpart might have their miserable souls dragged into a swirling crimson pit of perdition by a host of inhumanly proportioned clawed hands emerging from the ground.

Even a mob lacking extraordinary abilities or origins could have a memorable passing - A longbow agent carrying a flamethrower could be immolated when their fuel tank explodes.

A cryonics based attacker might freeze upon the destruction of their equipment and then shatter into small peices.

A teleporting Sky Raider could have a malfunction, and slapping frantically at his harness, could end up embedded partially in a wall.

A Jetpack equipped mob could lose control and go spiraling into a building or the ground, or might disappear in a fiery mid-air explosion.

This kind of thing only gives you the willies when it's a human based mob doing the expiring - Clockwork, Hydra, Mollusks, and pumpkin-heads don't count, although they are fairly memorable enemies on their own.

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Mechanista 50 rad/rad Corruptor
Buster Braun 32 SS/Inv Brute
Mortua Manus 41 Bots/Dark MM
December Ashe 30 Ice/Fire Dominator
Umbra Sprite 32 Dark/Super Reflexes Stalker
Mister Large 30 Thugs/Bubbles MM
Dynamaxine 28 Electric/Stone Brute
Three-Alarm 19 Fire/Dark Corruptor

The problem here is, simply put, heroes aren't supposed to kill. While a lot of these deaths would be memorable, heroes ARREST their opponents. It's made reference to multiple times. Certainly, sometimes accidents happen, but if every enemy you fight winds up dead instead of in the zig, the police are going to take away your license.

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NPCs: A Single Method to Greatly Expand Bases

What Geist said. And another thing.

Mission. Spawned for 8. Some 200 Porters in it. Every single one suffers from a malfunction. Fun?

That said, a memorable passing for a rare, already memorable mob is good. I remember a 5th experiment with Fire Powers having a death cry of something like "Tanks ruptured! Can't.. .get... suit... off! NOOOOOOO!" Chilling.

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What shall claim a Sky Kings' Ransom?

PPD & Resistance Epic Archetypes

I could definitely get behind spiffying up the defeat animations of Key mobs, such as Archvillains, Elite Bosses, Giant Monsters, arc specific NPCs, etc.

If however, it was on every mob, or even a large portion of mobs, it would get old fast.

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Agreeing w/ Skarmory and Oathbound here, memorable mobs do deserve more memorable takedowns. Though, to be honest, I wouldn't mind seeing it once in a great while on Boss or even LT rank mobs either. I'm talking 1 in a few hundred though, just for flavor. If it could even be done that way.

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[ QUOTE ]
A teleporting Sky Raider could have a malfunction, and slapping frantically at his harness, could end up embedded partially in a wall.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've seen this one happen, actually. Try landing the killing blow just as he teleports and then go look at the ragdoll at the destination. Usually, they're more twisted than a pretzel.

Also, the Carnival of Shadows do this with their screaming, endurance draining souls. It gets a little old after a while, but it's pretty unique. I wouldn't want everyone to do this, it should be saved for rare random occurrences on standard foes, and, of course, custom ones on signature characters. Like Statesman going down in a brilliant lightning strike, Manticore activating the emergency teleporter, Ghost Widow dissipating, and so on. That would be cool.

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Aegis Rose, Forcefield/Energy Defender - Freedom
"Bubble up for safety!"

I have to agree with McNum. A variaty of defeat animations, maybe even animations based on the type of power used at the point of defeat would bring not only added flavor, but would be a fun reason to try new powers to see how the bad guys react when you use them.

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"Samual_Tow - Be disappointed all you want, people. You just don't appreciate the miracles that are taking place here."

If they could just take out the "ghuuuuh*wheeze*expire**thud*" noise from the things which are not humanoid, I'd be happy. Having a DE swarm go 'thud' is a little weird.

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Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
Repurposed

[ QUOTE ]
Vahzilok zombies should slump into a horrid liquefying pile, leaving behind only a pool of toxic muck, a lopsided skeleton and a cloud of buzzing flies.

[/ QUOTE ]

...Excuse me while I go pop in Evil Dead now.

Anyways, true deaths in CoX are rare and typically memorable, if only for the description. I recall I killed Huntsman Ohanko early in my career, while working for Seer Marino, and I'll never forget that name simply because it was a rare instance of death.

As far as new animations, I don't see why we can't have a few more. Ever fought Carnies? Thier death animation still makes me twitch, mostly for the scream.

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The off-beat space pirate...Capt. Stormrider (50+3 Elec/Storm Science Corruptor)
The mysterious Djinn...Emerald Dervish (50+1 DB/DA Magic Stalker)
The psychotic inventor...Dollmaster (50 Bot/FF Tech Mastermind)

Virtue Forever.

I agree with the random-occurence solution. Hellion Damned being immolated, a Bone Daddy getting pulled underground by the famous "Tenebreous Tentacles", and the Sky Raider Porter having a fatal malfunction.

Stuff like that.

Good thread title, btw. :P

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