What i feel would help improve a game we all love.

If the PvP of WoW is any indication; allowing animations on the run for melee can be accomplished by doing two things simultaneously. All animations could be made extremely short (1 sec or less) and involve minimal or zero lower body solutions. It works, but you lose EVERYTHING that is cool about CoX's animations. "whirling hands" anyone ?? That one would be gone, and probably replaced with a "silly hand wave" or something just as unimpressive.

Even IF you went to all the effort of altering animations to "work on the run", Guess What ?
Melee ATs will STILL be at a serious disadvantage against ranged focused toons. Anyone with a Status effect, Root, Hold, etc.. will dominate a melee easily.

There were only TWO melee mechanics that gave anyone a solid shot in 1 on 1. Warriors had a "Charge" power which let them instantly close the gap to an opponent. This allowed them some measure of opportunity because it also "Stunned" the opponent for a short time.

The second mechanic that worked was "Stealth". Big Surprise here. Being able to get the first shot on a "squishy" non-melee AT often turned the tide for Rogues.

(Its been a couple years since I was involved in that, so please forgive me if my memory is not perfect. Additionally, I have not followed (nor care to) any recent changes to that game)

Yeah, that's something to point out. "Charge" attacks, as far as we know, don't work in the engine. Shield Charge was originally supposed to be a "moving cone" from what I remember, but instead had to be changed to a Lightning Rod clone due to difficulties in getting it to function right.

Now, I'll admit, that probably had more to do with its cone effect and how it was put together on the whole. An interesting compromise would be if they could make leap-attacks. Think something like Eagle's Claw, but you jump across the room, as part of the attack's animation/range, to deliver it.

My comment was directed at the line "it's impossible to make melee attacks while running look good". I'd agree that attacking and running like suggested by the OP wouldn't look good at all, but that's far and away from the generalized statement you made.

That said, it's not that melee attacks look bad while running. It's that Haymaker doesn't look right while running or crane kick or storm kick or the plethora of other melee attacks...because they are currently animated in a fashion that doesn't entail movement. In martial arts, a strong knee to the midsection is an overall stationary attack. A flying knee attack would entail movement forward or to the side but not while running (can't run on one leg, of course). But you can make a jab and still move away.

Amending movement to attacking is not how it works in real life either so that is why I suggested attacks specifically designed to be used while moving. It's taking in the thoughts and suggestions of everyone while moving a step closer to some kind of solution. And there have been players asking for added powers or branching powersets so it'd be interesting to add, IMO.

Just curious, how many melee characters do you play that are trying to run *away* from the enemy? Not even my stalkers are in an effort to get away from the enemy. The closest I come in most cases is doing 'the hop' after the interruptible part of AS and even that is primarily to either put myself closer to the next target or so that the bugger only gets 1 hit off me before I placate him.

Yes, I think it could add more dynamic to combat, at least for melee combat. The difficulties and work involved, yes, has already been mentioned and acknowledged. Now I'd kinda want to see discussion on how it *could* work or how balance would affect this.

As I see it, *some* attacks could aesthetically be used while moving. Of course there are exception (you can mention them if you like...like the whirling attacks, footstomp, hurl, lightning rod, etc) but then there are those that could work (Flashing Steel and Sting of the Wasp come to mind...hell, Broadsword might actually not look like crap if you could put some movement in those dull weak-looking attacks).

I can even imagine attacks like Thunder Kick, Storm Kick and Crippling Axe Kick working with movement...but locked into 'Jump only' movement during the animations. Add in a front/back flip during the jump, a la Ninja Run and tweek the animation of the kick a bit...

We've actually been flatly told that "charging" attacks simply do not work with our engine. I don't remember the exact technical reasons, but as I remember it, there's just too much "crap" to get in the way of a decent running attack, especially if you want to activate it from some ways away. Most MMOs tend to have flat, barren, BORING terrains that are essentially either empty moors or great halls. In them, it's fairly easy to be charging across terrain as there's precious little to get in your way. Our instances are littered with crap like overturned chairs, cubicle walls, crates, catwalks, railings, stairs, pillars, narrow doorways, tight corridors, etc., etc.

In fact, as I understand it, they actually tried to make running attacks way back when, but they failed to work well in the slightest. Attacks like Lightning Rod and Shield Charge are about the only alternative we have for "attacks on the move," and even they are down dirty cheats when it comes to how they are rigged.

*edit*
Mind you, I'd LIKE to see it, but I just don't think it's feasible.

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.

Yeah, I've heard some of the talk about charging attacks when they were discussing the Shield Charge issue (and a couple other ideas where such a mechanic was brought up).

What I'm talking about though, is more akin to "Specific power l, m and n do not root and have custom movement animations. Power l lets you move in any direction while powers m and n only let you move in x and y direction".

The problem is, imagining powers that would work thematically and aesthetically.