New Animations for Electric Blast

I thought about this a bit. Doesn't electricity "arc" of things on to other things?
It's getting really annoying now that when the bolt lands directly on the target it says "MISS". If an electric arc misses it hits something else like the ground ( or possbily another enemy?)

Now, for the animations. if you were to arc electricity off your hand you wouldn't do it off your fist like in lighting bolt. Think static electricity, if you go to poke someone it'll jump from your finger!

So here is the list of changes for the powers:

• Charged Bolts: points at target and zap target (simple)

• Lightning Bolt: raise both hands FLAT and zap target

• Ball Lightning: doesn't need changing.

• Short Circuit: the animation is pretty good as it is

• Aim: more electricity??

• Zapp: the one that needs the most work (IMO). should be more like hold hands apart from each other in front of character in a cupped sense while charging up a ball of electricity then push the charge away from the body at the target hand flat (think kamehameha)

• Tesla Cage: current animation is ok.

• Voltaic Sentinel: it's a summon. no change needed

• Thunderous Blast: hands should be flat when firing at target.

Electricity doesn't "arc off things on to other things," it follows a usually non-linear path through the air and sinks in the nearest ground. Ignoring the fact that you're shooting a bolt of electricity past metal girders while you yourself are grounded and assuming a miracle excuse as to why it grounds in your target and your target only, if it misses, it will either not flow at all or strike the ground or terrain. Why it misses as it does is a question of game design implementation - the electrical bolt is an effect that's anchored to your hands on one end and to the enemy on the other end. It cannot "miss," because it requires an anchor to even exist in such a way as to look like it hits when it actually hits. If it really bothers you, assume you hit your enemy but the electricity grounded around his body rather than through it. If your enemy is wearing metal armour, it'll want to flow through the metal, rather than through flesh.

As for "one finger," that's an effect of the very small current of a static shock. You do it with one finger because it's just one small, short spark which doesn't need a lot of surface area. For a large, continuous current like what Electrical Blast is, a fist or an open palm is a superior choice, largely to avoid overheating your finger.

As far as animations go, I will agree with you on a couple of points. The electrical attacks we currently have in Electrical Blast do not look good. Electricity does not arc in a straight line, and even though they made it sort of fuzzy within the bolt, it's still a straight-line attack. Electricity works a lot closer to what you have in Electrical Assault for Dominators, which in turn looks like Mu Lightning. Electricity travelling through the air will trace a jagged path and sort of "dance" as its path changes, kind of like this. Keep in mind that "electrical shock" doesn't always have to be an instantaneous bolt like a lightning strike would be. That's more a discharge of a massive build-up of electrical charge. You can just as easily have a FLOW of electricity like you see in that movie which doesn't sound like a thunderous explosion, but rather like a deafening buzz. As such, the spirit of Electrical Blast is true, in that it produces continuous streams of electricity, but they need to arc and dance a lot more and travel in a straight line a lot less.

I'm not sure any of the base animations need a change as such, but I will fully agree with you on Zapp. That power's animation just sucks. It's a continuous beam of electricity that ought to have no recoil effect, yet it uses a recoiling, instant-discharge animation borrowed from Sniper Blast. The result is that you recoil for nothing, then shoot the bulk of your electricity out of the back of your hand. At the very least, this power should use the Blazing Bolt animation, instead.

In general, I'd really want to see a lot of extra sparks and minor electrical arcs occur as you're shooting electricity, kind of like what the Mu Mystics have, as it really doesn't look natural for you to shoot electricity out of your hands yet not get the least bit electrified, yourself, and not shoot at least a few arcs into the ground or off into the air.

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.

probably more info than we needed but i like that video. demonstrates the real physics of it. i was thinking like this. bad quality but oh well explains what i mean. (couldn't be any more of a comic book reference)

great mazinger (which i used as reference) fires it from his finger. note the comic for said reference is actually quite old, some 40 years old.

and also Tesla coil. that's accurate representation of what it should look like!