I love the new Martial Arts!

After being so negative lately (har har har), I decided it was time to post something positive for a change. Especially since pretty much everything I've heard on the subject has been disappointingly negative. What subject? The new alternate animations for Martial Arts, of course! Sorry if I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I just got to play around with them only now.

A little update - what do we have? Four attacks have new alternate animations, three do not. They are:

Thunder Kick - Nothing.
Storm Kick - A Boxing-looking attack that's rather a bit more "sharp."
Cobra Strike - An uppercut that starts low, almost from where Cobra Strike starts, and strikes upward.
Crane Kick - Nothing.
Crippling Axe Kick - A horizontal haymaker that starts way back and does a full right-to-left swing.
Dragon's Tail - Nothing.
Eagle's Claw - An attack that looks a lot like Stun from Energy Melee.

But I didn't make this thread to just list new animations. Oh, no, I made this thread because I wanted to express how much I just LOVE these new animations. When I didn't know what they were, I was sort of dubious as to what punching martial arts would look like (in this game). When we saw them, a LOT of people complained, claiming the animations were badly made, didn't fit, were ugly and all manner of other dismissals of the powers. And, to be fair, from just looking at them in the editor, I couldn't raise my voice to disagree. Having played with them a lot now, though, I have to say that they completely turned my Martial Arts Scrapper around. They turned her from a barely acceptable second-best impersonation of a concept, into the incredible fighter she was always meant to be. I got a much, MUCH better appreciation of the animations after using them for a while.

Even from the start, I LOVED the new animation for Eagle's Claw. This received by far the most criticism, with people calling it "a baseball pitch" and claiming it doesn't look like it does much damage. Because I don't want to inadvertently offend someone, let's just say that I disagree completely. One of THE biggest things I've wanted to see in this game is exactly what the alternate animation for Eagle's Claw is - a big, heavy single punch. I always envisioned it as a straight punch, but a "Juggernaut Punch" inspired downward strike is just as good. It's currently bugged, unfortunately, not retaining colours and interrupting itself, but when the animation DOES play, it is VERY impressive.

But that's not even the biggest thing, oh no! The punch that really sold the changes to me was the alternative for Eagle's Claw. Once upon a time, Martial Arts had a very specific style of play. You would assume a crazy pose, your leg would glow, and then you would kick with this glow. Of course, this took bloody ages to animate, so the pauses were cut, and the kicks you see today is what we got. Now, attacks just go through all their phases smoothly, and your legs start glowing somewhere mid-way. Not so with the alternative for Crippling Axe Kick. With that, the effect's creation is VERY well synced with the animation. In effect, you draw your fist back, and right at the apex of that draw, it glows. Then with that glow, you do a really wide, sweeping punch. And it looks amazing! I'm a sucker for a little show and a little choreography, and that punch is just perfect in how well it is timed. It's a pity it's a weaker attack, really. With the proper effect and screen shake, something with that choreography could easily make a heavy-hitter.

The Cobra Strike alternative I don't use too much, and I have to say I think I liked the old one better. Still, it fits the concept more closely, and it does look good. It's a sort of crouch-to-uppercut that just looks cool. The alternative for Storm Kick looks pretty good, but it's just a quick jab, and so isn't very remarkable. It should be noted, however, that unlike the overacted Boxing, the alternative for Storm Kick actually looks more natural and cooler. Boxing has a kind of weird body contortion that sort of twists the body and brings the pelvis forward, whereas the new Storm Kick is just a more direct punch. And a very FAST punch, to boot, which is actually pretty impressive.

I gotta' say, when I first switched animations, I was completely lost. I had no idea what anything was, which attack was which, and everything looked frightening and unpleasant. After all, my Scrapper had eight attacks, I switched the animations on four and replaced one attack altogether (Boxing for Flurry), so, essentially, all I had that I could recognise were Thunder Kick, Dragon's Tail and Crane Kick. But you know what? I got used to it. I learned what appearance to expect out of which power and I learned which powers I wanted to see more often. Looking at my little Scrapper now, I have to say she looks so very cool and so much closer to her concept after this change. But the best part of it is that my OTHER Martial Arts Scrapper is going to be almost completely unique, because on her I'm not going to change any attacks. I'll leave them just as they are.

We've had a lot of complaining about the new Martial Arts animations, but I just wanted to say I, personally, really, really like them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I always liked kicking people...

One day soon i'll get around to playing one of my original characters [MA/SR], then i'll be turning him into a streetfighter

I am with you sammy, the alternate animations were the most important thing issue 16 did for me, of a list of several good ones. For one thing, it means the game has another dimension to expand, if each power can be reanimated, then the systems flexibility can allow it to refresh even old content. Also, lets face it, people wanted street fighting, making another unarmed smashing set and keeping it distinct would have been a challenge, this was definitely the best way of handling things.

but now babs got a special little annoying dragon on his (forum)shoulder, because you cant just give me a hit of the good stuff and leave me hanging. My ideal would be fore there to be sets of animations based on several martial arts. my usual suspects are a "movie kung-fu"set, that would consist of several open palmed strikes and circular kicks. a"muai thai" set which includes conventional boxing strikes and the instep using roundhouse kicks that thai kickboxing is known for(for the eagle's claw, i envisoned a flying knee strike, similar to sagat's tiger knee). a capoeria styled set with fast, acrobatic spinning kicks and few hand techniques. and finlly a korean set(the name is a bodge, its based on tae kwon/tang soo/hwarang do) the default animations are close to this already, but as i have made several posts on the subject, they miss key factors, like proper turning of the supporting foot, proper chambering of the knee and hip rotation, and a lack of a real snap-back post strike for crane and storm. so a real tae kwon set would fit my personal preferences strongly.


now i wonder if we will have an option of changing some of the elemental strikes...maybe some kicks...i know a good dramatic kick for thunderous strike would make my dom happy, and once epics are addressed, my defender too. we can color the swooshes of the martial arts effects already, so i hope it is possible.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

What are you guys talking about? I re-colored Ironik's attacks and they all looked the same. Are you saying we can choose the animations now? Can we do that with other powers besides Martial Arts?

Edit: ohhhh.... I see them now. Cool.

And what about other powersets?

Meh. All of the punches are done with the right hand.

I'm still a fan of MA's original attacks.

I am, however, a raging fan of the new SS attacks. I adore the new Jab and Punch attacks. Punch, lets be honest, was never a proper punch. Yet not we get the option. Jab-Punch combo now looks incredibly slick. Haymaker I'm not so keen on, as it isn't quite different enough, and the old one did have a wonderful 'Chew on THIS!' quality to it.
Knockout blows alternate is very nice, but the one that sold it for me was Ground Punch. Oh Gawwwd that move is beautiful! Ceasar, my troll SS/WP Brute, makes use of that every time it recharges. Its just such a wonderful bit of animation.

I can only drool at the thought of what other alternates we may get in future.
BaBs: He da man

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

Eh, I love the new SS animations, but the new MA animations don't work for me since they aren't Martial Art punches.

I'm 'meh' towards the new Martial Arts animations. I always loved the set because its so flashy and the animations are so awesome. The new set of animations don't mean those standards but they're not horrible looking either or worth complaining about (its not forcing anyone to use the new animations).

I think that's the point SS. The new animations make MA enjoyable for people who want a different look to their melee without having to make a whole new set. I just can't wait for SS and MA to swap places so we can pick between slow power melee or faster strikes.

ya the MA is so fun i like how its played

despite the length of animation, I always loved the original Eagles Claw kick. There's just something about the way Ace's silk scarf floats around him during the attack that's really cool.

but I deliberately chose to not get the original crippling axe kick because of the animation. I found it annoying. The new punch, feels better, not spectacular, but comfortably better, so I think I'll be picking that one up on my alternate build.

I like the SS changes more than the MA ones. Partially because MA got the one SS animation I did not like... I think it's the offering for Thunder Kick or something. It's a weird round arc of a punch, and it lacks, well, punch to me. The other punch changes for SS were better (the jab looks sharp and painful, and Punch's new animation is strong/fast enough).

Cobra Strike's new animation might be okay if it did damage... as it is, the original looks better as a stun attack... which is what it is.

I'm not sure about the new Eagle's Claw... the new KO Blow can look great (especially with a shield) and this is in the same vein, but it really doesn't feel right. I'd have to look at it again to really say why.

I guess... the new SS animations really fit the set, but MA's just don't fit the MA feel very much. Someone suggested this earlier, and I would agree with this.

I agree, I like a lot of the new Martial Arts animations, but I should add at least one AT picked up an extra animation, and that's Stalkers. I play an MA/Regen Stalker, and it so happens that they altered the Assassin's Strike animation from the 'I want to do a Kamekameha attack' to a decidedly wicked looking strike (which I forget the name of) that I've chosen. Just looks fabulous. Finally Martial Arts looks like Martial Arts to me.

S.

See, that's what I'm talking about. Reactions generally range from "it's OK" to "meh," but I just can't agree with this. I managed to buy into those reactions back when the alternate animations were first introduced to Test and I didn't have a very good idea what they looked like, but having seen them now, I simply cannot agree with this any more. Of course, I can see where people are coming from - you guys want more things with a specific martial art's (that's possessive, not plural) flair. And while I can't say you are wrong for wanting this, I also have to say that I never really held this game to any standards of realism.

Just like Jab wasn't a jab, Haymaker wasn't a Haymaker and Darkest Night didn't look anything like a night, I never really expected the game to hold itself to what was real in the real world. It's a slightly exaggerated, somewhat stylised world that is filled with absurd things, like people throwing their own bones, encasing themselves in a block of ice or blowing themselves up for kicks and giggles. So the new Martial Arts attacks not exactly look like a refined martial art. I don't mind that. They do what they were intended to do - they gave us the ability to look like someone who used some martial arts and some down-to-earth, unrefined brawling skills. Which, for me, was exactly what I wanted.

Are the new animations better than the old ones? Well, yes and no. Yes, because the old ones had a very specific style that didn't fit one of my characters, whereas the new ones do. No, because the old animations are STILL gorgeous and some of the best all around, and because they fit my other Martial Artist perfectly. Frankly, at this point I'm satisfied with what Martial Arts has to offer, and if I had a choice, I'd probably choose to see other sets for the next pass of extra animations. Broadsword, Battle Axe and War Mace can REALLY use some more variety, being that they use the same animations.

Of course, there is also this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by rian_frostdrake now i wonder if we will have an option of changing some of the elemental strikes...maybe some kicks...i know a good dramatic kick for thunderous strike would make my dom happy, and once epics are addressed, my defender too. we can color the swooshes of the martial arts effects already, so i hope it is possible.

You know, once upon a time I made a point that you can't really make elemental melee sets very interesting. Essentially, it's all just punches with a different element. Well, I was wrong, and I apologise for being foolish. My imagination was simply limited at the time. However, I have since watched Avatar: The Last Airbender, which is an excellent series, by the way. One of the most remarkable visual aspects of the Avatar series is the way in which the different Benders use their elements, and it's something I have never seen even imagined in shows about element users before. Even W.I.T.C.H., which was basically ABOUT element users, was uninspired by contrast.

In Avatar, each elemental user uses a specific style of martial arts as an integral part of summoning up their element. And while I am by far nor an expert of martial arts, or even knowledgeable in any way, I have to say that this particular approach became very evident to me right from the get go. Far removed are these fight scenes from something like Captain Planet and the Planeteers, where element users essentially point their hands and things happen. Fights between elementalists in Avatar actually look like martial arts fights, though exaggerates with floating water, spinning flame kicks, rocks shooting out of the ground and so forth. For anyone who's interested in what alternatives for the different elemental melee (and indeed blast) sets could look like, I strongly suggest watching that show.

So, yeah. Before I didn't know what I would want to see in animation customization for elemental melee sets. Now I actually have a very good idea.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I'm not looking for the new MA animations to be true to life, so to speak, I just want to like how they look. The SS animations (other than the one that ported over to MA as well) look good to me. MA's just feel... off. That one punch shared by the new SS and MA animations just feels like a lazy arc made with a fist, not really capable of damage (whereas the Cross or something from SS feels like a sharp hit). Cobra Strike's animation would be fine if it did damage, but it doesn't.

Really, Boxing and Air Superiority feel more hard hitting to me. My Scrapper already used those, as he's a cyborg... hard punches and fancy kicks fit his needs. I know those two share animations with a lot of things, but I still like their "feel" more. Whereas SS is difficult for me now... I mixed and matched across all my costumes so I could see them all at some point.

I do agree about Battle Axe, Mace, and Broadsword needing new animations. I have a Mace Tanker and don't really touch the other sets as it would feel like too much of the same. I am REALLY glad they decided to expand on animations as well, as that's a hangup I have always had with this game. The Haymaker and Footstomp animations are used in a LOT of powersets, and damages some of the unique feel each set should have. I look forward to what BAB comes up with in the future!

In all the recent hubub I completely forgot they added some punches to martial arts.

I'll have to log in my ma/inv and check them out when I get a chance.