Question: What powers do you want Alternate animations for?

ok castle, keep in mind, you asked for it well, any of the elemental sets could use some kicking options, and i'd also love to see different weapons being selectable, like an ice axe and fire hammer(not specifically an animation, i know, but if the switch between a single handed slash and a two handed mallet animation can be done without screwing with the time, faster pussycat then.

for aid self, the tricorder is cool for tech/science and maybe even natural, but could we get some spell-like option too? maybe a scroll with those floaty symbols from the ban-pan, or if you really want on my good side, a glowing sutra card(from various anime).

jump kick, as it stands, is ok for spider man type characters, but could we get a different option as well?i am thinking two options to avoid stepping on MA's toes. a pro wrestling-style missle drop kick.(jump, turn sideways, shove both feet out at once) which would be nice on super strengthers, or if you go to david's animation thread, i linked to a capoeria jumping kick that would look cool and not be too similar to storm kick. alternately we could use the muay thai jumping knee strike that i also linked...or you can see in alpha protocol or with sagat in the street fighter series...or any muai thai fighter in a fighting game, they all have it.

ok, next, boxing i wouldnt mind change from just a body-blow to a right cross in correct stance(hands up, feet about a shoulder width apart). Kick, since its more of a brawling move and not a full on martial arts technique, maybe a stomach level knee strike? you could shift the stance to still make the length look right, but it would give it more of a dirty brawler move look.

not sure if this is effects or animations, could we get "jokerish" animations for traps? it seems like it would be a very cool set for an insane clown or heroic trickster, but with some more clownish looks for the traps. (flying pies for seekers, a squirt flower for acid mortar, a duck with a propeller for the shield generator)

ANYTHING more interesting for dark melee, maybe some powers that envelope the players hands and make black claws. you would have to make sure the "mitts" covered all sizes of hands, but shadow maul with massive black claws..that would give the set needed personality.

aaand..hey, could we get that loping run that ember demons have on pc's for super speed? the monster players would thank you.

is there any way we could see a fencing styled animations for broadsword? standing straight up, right side foreward, measured cuts and thrusts...im torn because some of the swords may look odd being held this way, but it woudl look great for others (and you could bring over the rapier from dual blades too)

A final stylistic question i have, could we have more follow through on the attacks from war mace? some of the swings kind of make the mace look light...and id love to see swings(if we could do them without screwing time)where the character follows through and turns their whole body into the blow, kind of like the troll in fellowship of the ring. like i said, the recovery time for the animation might kill this..but it would give wm some personality, and convey that you are swinging a big honkin' piece of metal/bone/bit of rularru, and that when it connects, your medical rates are about to go up.


and of course, all the martial arts animations i asked for in dave's animation thread..tremendously cheesy videos of each technique were supplied.

oh, and to support jk and probably others, could we get emanation points for ranged attacks? I'd love to have rian actually "breath" his ancilliary ranged attack, and wands, rayguns and perhaps different hand/fist/head emination points would kick butt for concepts. yes, i am ripping off you know who palagerism is a long-standing tradition in mmos. oh and could i get the glyph of warding animation selectable on more things. i love that emination like a first cousin.

oh, and that energy hex pattern that the praetorian cops use for their debuffs, that looks amazing...any chance we could get it as an alternate animation for energy aura? i would reroll about 3 high level robotic characters and even take ea if that was a selectable option for it.(i chose ea because the shield is energy...and lets face it, ea could use a special benefit, no?) a different version being a selectable option for force-fields would rock too.

one mroe crazy idea. i know that kinetic melee is just newly out, but given it's kung-fu like appearance, could we get techniques from mantis style kung fu? most of kin is palm heel strikes, mantis is more about holding your hands like a preying mantis' blades.

one last idea, selectable animations for controller/dom powers, most controls are just done by hand waving or raising two fists up in front of you, maybe have a technological(maybe calling up a floating hud keyboard or holographic control widget like the ppd radio animation) and magical animation(similar to demon summonings really cool sigil animations) if you also made a japanese sigil and ku-ji hand symbols while summoning, id send you a pizza.

EDIT: you checked this thread too, right? http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...ight=animation

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

I'd like to drop the suggestion that pretty much all blast and control sets be given two sets of alternate animations, one with a magic wand, another with a tech spin (wrist guns for control possibly? Definitely rifle for blasts. Would love a laser rifle blaster.) and weapon customization for said options.

I know that's a double whammy, but really it seems to me that it could be done via multiple themes (like gem and lava for earth powers) that have one set with a standard wand like Midnighters and a few Circle, and another for an elemental themed wand, and if we're going that route I would absolutely ADORE a traditional black with white tips magic wand, I have a character that would be PERFECT with that. Could possibly add in a second color pallete on the customization screen for the weapon itself, and then the powers so that we don't end up with some kind of ugly wand just because our power colors don't look good on the costume.

Possibly we could get something like this for defender primaries as well? I know Empathy would look pretty cool with a magic wand or a techy gizmo like the medicine pool, and a sonic rifle for Sonic powers would be spiff.

I'm also going to throw in my lot for possible different animations in general for blasts, not just emenation points mind you, but different animations to give the sets more versatility and style. Perhaps a set of animations that would allow you to turn your energy blaster into an all-eyelaser blaster, or maybe a set of energy blast animations that encorporate runes in the air like Demon Summoning to make it look more like magic, same could be done with other blast sets easily (maybe not the eyebeams but certainly the magic). I have a few character concepts that would like to use blast sets but the clenched fist style of attacking kind of breaks the magical concept immersion.

And last but not least I'd like to see more "themes" as the dev team termed them. We got gemstone and lava themes for Earth sets, and Bone/Thorn/Metal/Crystal/Slate for Spines. I'd love to see that branch out a bit to breath life into some older sets and maybe allow them to mesh well with some other sets thematically. Just to name a few ideas that I can think of off the top of my head: Magma style for fire control/blasts (nothing that would make it mistakeable with Earth, but some sort of oozy lava and magma dripping imps would be sweet. could also be set to darker colors and odd shades to make some sort of ooze/slime powers), Thorny varient to plant that makes it more briar/bramble style, Flowering style with tintable flowers, roses would probably be very popular here, also a Tree theme that makes the vines look thicker with more bark to give it more a "Wood control" than "Plant control" feel. A Shadow theme to Dark powers, something akin to Kinetics set to all black dark settings to make it look like you're controlling sleek shadows rather than fluffy darkness. Also would love to see some alternate style themes for various powers like Energy Melee and Energy Blast, like a theme that would make Energy Blast look like the Praetorian Police blasts, and the same for Energy Melee, just a few general themes to various powers that could have alternate particle effects and the like to make them not only tintable but give them a deeper level of customization, it would open doors to all kinds of new ideas and thematic combinations.

Sorry for the wall of text Castle, but it's stuff that seems like it would be fairly easy to implement with not too much work and yet would give you all kinds of fun new character ideas to play with.

EDIT - Forgot to mention as well, I support the notion of alternate animations for weapon sets as there are some I just don't want to play due to clunky looking animations. Perhaps a bit more elegant looking Broadsword set (I know it sounds like an oxymoron) as I have a sleek-looking tech guy that uses a laser sword and force shield and then he stands there and does this clunky looking overhand strike and it just breaks the look altogether. Also, perhaps a bit more elegant Katana stuff as well. While we're at it, perhaps an alternate animation set for Warmace that is tailored specifically for Hammers? I know it fits well enough already, but a set of animations themed to fighting with a warhammer that's flagged so you can't choose it unless you have the hammer or carnival mallet in costume selection (and so you can't select it with other weapons unless they fit well enough) would make those style characters much more believable. And I don't think I have to echo the people in saying a calmer version of Dual Pistols would make life very nice for cowboy and pulp/noir characters.

This also reminds me and leads into the idea of "Can we please have elemental weapons choosable for weapon sets?" We get elemental shields to match up to elemental melee powers, what if I want a Broadsword/Ice tanker and want to give him an ice sword, or a Broadsword/Fire tanker with Greater Fire Sword as his weapon? I know some of these would take new assets (Like a dark sword, or an electric hammer), but such things have already been requested as alternates for elemental attack sets so you could kill two birds with one stone. This could also extend to Energy Melee and Super Strength technically, with themes that allow your melee to resemble fire/electricity/whatever. Anyway, shutting up now. My wall of text is erected and I'm leaving it alone.

Well, least likely to be changed, but I'd love alternate animations for the Vet Powers. I really wish there was non-Weapon/Item versions for Ghost Axe, Black Wand, and Nemesis Staff. They're so effective I have to use them, but they only fit in with a few power sets thematically. Maybe alternate versions like the 4 Sprint Powers...

And Ninja Run...Love what it does - HATE how the run looks. I jump whenever I can so I don't see the run. Maybe just the ability to use the regular run animation (which sometimes happens via a bug anyway)

Other animation redos I'd really really want is an alternate for Incadescent Strike and Solar Flare for Peacebringers. The alt. Eagle's Claw and Footstomp animations would work quite well IMO. Not that I don't wants alts for just about every power, but those two I really want

I'm sure most of these have been said ad nauseam, but hey... Castle brought it up!

Dual Pistols - anyone who has read my comments on these know I hate the gun-fu BS we've been given. I can deal with some gun spinning and posing (I love the look of Executioner's Shot), but having the character spaz out is not appealing.

Martial Arts - I can think of no reason why three powers were left without alternate animations. Finish the job, please.

Firey Melee and Ice Melee - I've never really cared for the sword animations. I would agree with removing the 'weapons' from these sets. Alternatively, I'd also like to see versions that either use all weapons (would be less awkward) or... perhaps even more... something other than Swords. An Ice Axe would be awesome.

The weaponless blast sets - I'd agree with a plan to include alternate animations with alternate points of origin on the caster. I'd especially like X-Ray beam to get something from the hand... but what I really want? Magic Wands. I want to pull out a CoT/Midnighter Club member style stick and throw my attacks through one of them. Maybe even make a few Tech-style "Wands" for those who want a 'weapon' without going to 'magic.'

Back flips and Chest Thumping - anything that involves either of these actions should get something less obnoxious.

The Bland Trio - by this, I mean Broad Sword, Battle Axe, and War Mace. These are not only bland, but painfully monotonous. I know there are only so many ways to swing a weapon, but using the same animations over and over is really annoying. And the worst offender in all these sets is the Head Splitter/Cleave/Shatter. I'm sorry, slowing own a downward swing of the weapon doesn't make it look stronger, it just makes it look ponderous.

Finally, one that isn't so much a request for an alternate animation, as it is for an animation fix. One Thousand Cuts. The final blow of this attack looks so awkward, I'm surprised the user didn't break his/her wrist holding the blade like that. And it looks particularly off with some of the large weapons - the new Bio-armor swords, for example. I don't suppose you could get that fixed, so I'm not wincing in sympathy pains every time I see it.

For the majority of sets, having an alternate "magic" animation would be nice - well, runic, specifically - like the Rune of Warding. For both blasts and other types of sets. If I'm not mistaken, you could make a collection of them (20?) and then tweak each one (if at all) for the different sets (Control sets, buff sets, blasts, etc.)

Please, PLEASE something non-scientific for the medicine pool... any magic type character having to pull out a tricorder to heal wrecks the theme.

More than just that, the idea of being able to change the color of pool powers just like you can your primary and secondaries would bring everything full circle and just be sublime...

Travel Powers
Teleport: Ninja smoke bomb versions of all of the powers, excluding Team Teleport if that's too difficult.

Hasten/Super Speed: No FX versions.

SuperJump: Can we get a version where there's ground "shatter" when we jump and/or land? And again, a No FX version.

Fly: No FX, but with any wings still flapping.

Medicine Pool
Different versions of the powers where new items are pulled out. A wand (wood with green crystal tip), and maybe a Steampunk-looking device of some kind.

Assault Rifle
Snipe: Can we get an animation that has the sniper kneeling as they take aim?

Poison
Versions of the powers that have the person tossing vials and flasks of potions/chemicals. The breath weapon one could be done by having them breathe over the top of an open flask to send the fumes out.

Kinetic Melee
Some people like the current sounds. Some prefered the old sounds. Would it be possible to make it so you can choose the sounds instead of the animation?

differant choices for stone armor....too many stoners....we need some variety

Shadow Maul. Everybody and their brother has Sands of Mu, it would be nice if the original could be different somehow.

Not so much the animation of the eye beam powers, but the sound effect. It's like nails on a chalkboard.

Some of the Traps powers. You know, the ones that all have the same animation?

Maybe some of the AR powers could get a bit of gun-fu going too.

And alternate sounds for Taunt. Or better still, no sound. It's the only power that actually gives your character a voice, and I don't like the voice it gives me.

I haven't read the whole thing, so pardom me if it's been said, but alternate emanation points for some sets. I'm thinking of Energy Blast, which I'd love to see given an option to have the blasts come from the character's eyes instead of his hands.

There's a variety of underused energy rifle models; the Bot Mastermind ones, the Void Hunter Rifle. They'd be neat to reuse in alternate animations for energy or radiation blast attacks.

You've reminded me of one thing I really would like to change - do you have to grunt when you jump? I don't like it in general, and like taunt the voice doesn't fit - some of my male characters are tenors, not basses

Let's see, where to begin...

Broadsword: alternate animations for the entire set, that are less "forceful" looking and more elegant, or at least, have a more swashbuckler style.

Elemental Melee sets (such as Fire Melee, Ice Melee, Stone Melee): alternate animations for each that have a weapon animations for non-weapon powers (scorch, combustion, etc...) and non-weapon animations for powers animated with weapons (fire sword, fire sword circle, etc...).

Along with the elemental melee sets, more weapon choices to choose from would be great. Like a Gladius or Katana instead of a scimitar.

Martial Arts: Crippling Axe Kick - while not necessarily an alternate animation request (since it has one) but a change to the current animation that makes it look more like a regular axe kick and not a leg-lift (or kick-feint I guess) into an axe-kick animation.

Martial Arts: Dragon's Tail - a punch animation such as a spinning back fist.

Dark Melee: Siphon Life - needs an animation that performs an actual attack.
Dark Melee: Kick animations for some of the punches would be great.

Control Powers - I would say many, if not almost all of the control powers (that both controllers and Dominators have access to) should have alternate animations that are more "dynamic" in nature, to make the avatar appear to be fighting via their control powers.

Example: Gravity Control - Lift - instead of the slow, both arms extended, hands up-turned and slowly lifted. Change it to a single hand, raised as a fist - timed with the upward thrust of the lift used on the target.

Many of the single target holds would look really cool using the Siphon Life animation - arm bends upward at the elbow, and the hand clenches into a fist.

Archery / Trick-Arrows: animations that use two-handed crossbows (both modern, high-tech, and medieval crossbows).

Blast Sets: This is where a lot of stuff can be done. I'd say that these sets need something really special for alternating animations: choosing the point of origin for the attack.

The locations should be: Head, Eyes, Hands, and Wrist Mounted Weapons.

Head animations would utilize many from the psychic type attack powers.
Eyes: self explanatory.
Hands: current animations that use hands as an starting point.
Wrist Mounted Weapons: this would tie the animations to attacks that are chosen from wrist mounted weapons that would be selected in the costume creator. Weapon types could be:
Steam Punk, Wrist Mounted Crossbow, Modern Gun, Modern Gun w/ scope, High-Tech.

I'd be up for alternate taunt(s).

I remember reading that assault rifle was originally going to be called "Weapon mastery" or something similar and that each power would actually make use of a different weapon. How about having alternate animations for most of the assault rifle set that feature alternate weapon animations already in the game.

A few examples...

M 30 grenade could pull out the M16 clone or a separate rotary grenade launcher.

Sniper rifle could actually bring out a sniper rifle.

Flame thrower and ignite could use the council flamethrower animation or the fire extinguisher animation.

Shotgun and beanbag could pull out the shotgun model.

Last but not least full auto could use the Council Gatling gun model and animation.


On a different note could there be a random setting for some powers that have alternate animations to give more variety to fights?

I think it would be a very good idea to go through the already existing animations and see which ones could easily be used with other powers. Mixing different animations with different effects has actually been one of the fun things I have done with demo edits.

I want Super Speed to have a riding a motorcycle animation (complete with motorcycle, preferably). Super Jump could too. More flight packs and wings. More teleport effects (this sounds like a fabulous booster pack, vehicles, magic carpets, and other travel gadgetry).

More sword effects for Fire Swords and Ice Swords. They don't even have to be swords, they could be other interesting shapes/effects.

Blaze. While I like the current one, I'd also like something like the KM Body Blow.

The Burst animation would be a great alternative for Fire Sword Circle combining it with the effects from Combustion (or maybe the FSC effects are already the same thing?).

I'm pretty tired of the horseriding stance attack for Assassin's Eclipse (the Dark Melee Assassin's Strike).

All the rain attacks use the same animation, which providing an alternate (perhaps snatching out something out of the air) would be a good value-for-time investment.

Total Focus seems a bit "floaty" and doesn't appear to hit hard for an attack that does so much damage, so an alternate for that would suit me.

I'd like an animation for Carrion Creepers, where the character channels something into the ground that causes the creepers to rise up. Perhaps they could kneel and touch the floor.

The tentacles on Midnight Grasp don't look very scary at all, but I'm unsure if that's outside the scope of the thread.

An alternate animation for One Thousand Cuts would be nice. Maybe something more akin to Luke Skywalker wailing on Darth Vader than a sponsored epileptic fit.