Question: What powers do you want Alternate animations for?

First off, why do I get the feeling BABs lost a bet or something? This just has the feel of a "wait til he gets back on Monday and sees this"-type setup. For the record, if this is the case, I'm loving it. But since the question was asked...

Granite armor. I know there are technical reasons here, but, well, I don't care. Find a way to get us some variety here. The lack of individuality and inability to mesh with anything but a specific concept has been a stated reason for many players not wanting to use the set.

Elemental swords/breath powers. These are very concept-limiting. I have characters that will use ice/fire sword powers (and I agree maybe there could be options to make more of these available), but I also have some that skip the power just because it doesn't fit the concept. Same (even more so) with breath powers. Like Granite Armor, if the look of the power makes it skippable, but the power itself is balanced and viewed as "fine", it makes sense to change the animation. (If we're going pure wishlist, my ice dom Snow Leopard would love to have an icy claw look to his sword attacks, but that's getting pretty specific.)

Medicine pool. I know pool powers haven't really been looked at yet, but why not? These are powers that any character can theoretically pick up, so they affect everyone. As mentioned, magical animations (wand, spell-casting) and natural (syringe?) would help, and just a plain toss-a-glob-of-goo would let us specify whatever we liked it it were colorable.

Travel powers. Lots of options here, and NoFX has been mentioned, but I'd like to go another direction, and suggest elemental-themed particle effects version for most. Superspeed already has a "blazing trail of fire" look, but why couldn't flight have the same? Or lightning trails for both? Or a powerslide-like animation for superspeed coupled with a crumbling-particle effect at the player's feet that (depending on colors chosen) could work for ice-sliding or rock-sliding looks? Both powers should also have a "glowing trail of colored light" option (maybe with and without an aura that encases the character). Or an "afterimage" look similar to the Dimension Shift costume change, just along the player's trajectory. Teleport similar to "puff of smoke", a lightning rod attack, stepping into a portal, or just bursting into flames and reappearing in another conflagration. Superjump... hmm, I have less ideas for, but hope there could be some elemental themes here (geysers? rock/ice projections under the feet? glowing foot trails?). Oh, and actual baked-in choices of flying pose (instead of the /flypose crutch) would be assumed, I hope.

Please note that I go into more detail here because, again, I think these would have a greater effect on a greater range of characters. Nearly every toon has some sort of travel power, and the ability to customize these animations would reach farther than almost any other type of change.

Also on my list: hasten (both NoFX and alternate elemental themes like lightning, crystal particles, sparkles... just not always fire), tarzan-yelling powers, and, dangit, customizable pets for MMs (and to a lesser extent controllers).

Mainly, just a lot of stuff that has already been said, with maybe my own slant on things, but I thought I'd add my voice to the mob. Even if it is somehow just a mean dirty trick for the Powers guy to pull on the animation guys the weekend before the expansion hits.

Another vote for the elemental weapons to be made optional. Either just to remove them from the existing weapon attacks, or if possible, make them optional for all the attacks. My shield/stone tanker wants to use his hammer for everything!

And another vote for more options for the Thunderstrike/Total Focus leap sloooowly into the air animation. I know they're slow attacks but they don't have to look like they're in slow motion.

Crazy left field suggestion: give energy melee some street fighting animations please, lots of stuns fits the theme and you know this is the flavour of Energy Melee that Back Alley Brawler uses. The glowie hands become optional.

But wait! Please don't go! I'm not talking complicated stuff that needs to interact with the enemy, but Energy Transfer as a big ol' headbutt just works!

And you know, Total Focus as tensing and suddenly leaping into knee strike, etc. Stun as a big ol' diagonal judo chop. Barrage, Energy Punch and Whirling Hands still fit the theme as is.

Cheers!

Energy Blast could use some changes, you barely notice the difference between power push and explosive blast. Explosive Blast and Power Blast share the same animation.

Psychic Blast and Mental Manipulation could use some alternates.

Ice Manipulation and pretty much all ice type of buffs sort of mess up the look of someones costume. You spend the time to create what you think is a cool costume and then have it covered with ice cubes 90% of the time.

Pretty much all the powers that share similar animation like blackstar and nova blast.

Similar torrent powers like Energy Power Push and Dark Blast Torrent

Cold Domination as mentioned having the option not have the buffs encase a player in blocks of ice

You know pretty much any power that will change the look of a costume should have the option of not showing the graphic effect..

Fiery Melee to have either no sword or all swords and different weapons

Dual Blades to Dual Weapons, Maces would not look bad though I could see where 1 animation wouldn't fit as it has a stabbing attack at the end ( Blinding Feint and Power slice ).

Force Field it would be nice if you could have the effects of Sonics

Mastermind robot and traps and some Device powers. It would be nice if you could actually have a control pad on your wrist to tap, instead of just tapping your arm, especially if you create a toon with short sleeves or a tank top..

Broadsword should have option to change weapons. The attacks are similar to mace already. Assassin Strike would need a change but otherwise everything else would fit other weapons.

Poison would be nice if it came from some devices

Assault Rifle have the option to make it Dual Pistol. Flamethrower would have 2 flames sweeping and crossing. Burst several rounds both guns. Full auto both guns blazing sweeping across each other. Ignite, dropping some sort of oil slick and setting it a blaze with a gun shot ( Imagine movie style cigarette lighter on gasoline, usually done to kill bad guys )

Crossbow for Archery

Would be nice to see some changes in Kinetics

Sonic Resonance not so many head type effects. Different point of origin would be nice.

Travel powers - Just different looks for flight beyond the flight 1,2 and 3. Flying like hovering offers could be cool and spooky ( I think of salem's lot when I see someone hovering ). Tech type flying - Jet packs, etc..

Definitely the I-beams first I would think

They seem glaringly separate from the rest of the point-and-pew-pew of the sets they belong to.

From there? Total Focus/Thunderstrike style attacks. They're somewhat comical (hur hur pun) looking, and could use some "y so sewious"ing.

Martial Arts, Thunder Kick: Karate chop

Sonic Blast, Fire/Ice Breath: Able to shoot from the hands, alternating between left, right and both?

Elemental melee attacks (Melee, Manipulation and Assault sets) : Kicks instead of punches, with element auras on the legs/feet

Assault Rifle: Shooting from the hand/wrist, like PPD

Dual Blades: More brutal/striking attacks, less dancing, mostly for the Brute (And while off-topic, how about putting the axes in DB too? They're still bladed weapons )

Seconded for elemental melee attacks having weapon/without weapon variations

Archery/TA: Crossbows

Crashing PBAoE nukes: Rapid Boil costume change animation, rather than the squat and roar

Axe/Broadsword/Mace: Two-handed animations

I would love to be able to minimize the graphic effects of Rage, Hasten, Combat Jumping, and Super Jump.

Also, I think the ice shield powers should have alternative, less fugly, graphical options.

Elemental Flight/Super Speed/Teleportation/Super Jumping. Not just in particle effects, but with animation as well.

Hmm...

Additional thought. Take the new Kinetic Melee vortex power up animations and apply them to all the elemental attack sets so that if you cast lightining, you ball up sparking electricity first before sending it on into your opponents, works for fire, shadow, energy...

- Raith

- Minimal FX on Hasten and Superspeed. Or, animations that aren't bright and yellowly.(especially if there is supposed to be stealth element to superspeed)

- Less flashy teleport(would love to have the presto change effect), also, alternate animations so you don't look ridiculous when teleporting.

- Different points where the powers come from. I have this idea for a really cool character concept(well, I find it cool) but for that to work powers need to come out of his mouth.

- And vice versa of course, breath of fire does not work with many of my character concepts.

- I would love for a broadsword to have a fencing style kind of fighting...but I doubt that'll work with attacks called hack.

Dimension Shift Teleporting would be so awesome.

Allow us to choose the DP animations for the three Thugs Mastermind pistol attacks!

I'm not sure about the timings of the animations, but that's just the three - single shot, dual shot, cone shot. Should be doable, no?


ETA: if Pool Powers are an option, see if it's possible to turn the ;flypose emotes into animations for the Flight power, maybe add the ninja jump animation to combat jumping/superjump if you have the Martial Arts booster, redo the prestige sprints as animations to the sprint power in the same way.

As to teleport, that gets trickier. Maybe the ninja vanish smokebomb and the lightning rod animations. Teleporting is tricky to animate because of the speed.

This might be a little premature, but I would like to put in a vote for the T9 Kinetic Melee power, whatever it's called. I love all the other animations, but that windmill arm motion looks kinda goofy. But not picking/using it isn't really an option, which leaves me with an aesthetics problem.

Just about anything else I'd mention has already been covered multiple times, so I'll just finish this post with "I concur".

My top three in order ...
1) I'd like alternate animation for the elemental sword powers. Alternate animations that don't use swords. eg Fire Sword and Fire Sword Circle on Fire Melee.

2) I'd also like alternate animations for Force Field/Repulsion Bomb and Radiation Blast/Neutron Bomb - the beachball throw doesn't work very well with some characters.

3) The chest-beating animation for Tough (and Integration) could do with an alternative.

Some other nice ones...

Alternate animations for Sonic Siphon, Sonic Barrier and Sonic Haven that come from the hands.

A Kick for Arachnos Soldier/Pummel.

Alternate kick for Fighting/Kick, closer to Martial Arts/Thunder Kick

Less intensive elemental armours.

this is especially prominant if I look at dominators epics come i18. I want defence armours, I have 2 choices, one gives me a mace weapon with it's other chocies, which may not fit with my concept, but can possibly be worked around.

And one gives me nice big chunks of ice messing up my costume. Something more subtle, or has been suggeted, an initial big "embracing the element" style activation animation leaving a minimal after animation would be ideal.

Actually, alternative animations for everything would rock pretty much if it was something you could do eventually, but time is limited isnt it.

I do agree with the previously made suggestions of moving psi powers away from the head emination has an alternative, and would like to suggest alternative sonic animations, possibly a combination of claps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VoodooGirl [*]Watching out for the Spinning Disco Portal of D00M!*

Ice Armor & Cold Domination: Something a little more sleek than the huge chunky blocks we get with the toggles/shields. Also, the Quills animation from Spines would be a nice alt for Icicles.

Fire/Ice Melee: Sword or no-sword options.

Poison: my original concept for my first poison character was alchemy. He would mix up concoctions and hurl them at the enemy. It came as a bit of a surprise when he started spitting at them. Spitting works for a snake-themed character, but it would be nice if we could choose to make all the animations one way or the other, rather than be forced into some of each.

In general it would be nice if the point of origin of the power could be consistent. Have all of the powers come from the hands, or the mouth, or mid-chest. For some sets that's not an option now.

Psi blast and Sonic Blast (i'd like to see more attacks using hands instead of your head or mouth... i know i know psi stuff comes from your brain and screaming is sonical, but i don't like it.)

Energy Blast (the energy bolts can come out of the users hands instead of fists, also bolts should travel to the enemy alot faster like pistols bullets. That way the knock back and down would look more fitting)

Maybe add in crossbow animations for Archery (although this is more in the weapons costume parts but i think its interrelated to this thread)

Gravity control (Grav Distortion would be cooler done with one hand, lift as well. Also can we put more "umph!" into Propel might as well since the animation time is still long.)

If the user is not using shields, maybe broad sword users can opt to use two hands to make the sword look more heavy and medieval. Although most of the animations in the melee sets are decent, their are a few that are just "uhhh.... what was that?!?" For example shadow maul could instead be a nifty looking close combat combo. Eviscerate looks unnatural and makes the claws user seem desperate (like a wild kitten), maybe the character's body can move with the arms better. Energy melee has some potential for animation options as well. Thats it for now GL devs.

-Ripper
-Electron Haze
-Neutron Bomb
-Sonic Siphon
-One Thousand Cuts
-Typhoon's Edge
-Shadow Maul
-Impale
-Confuse
-Combustion
-Whirling Hands

1st off, as many others have said, Thank you for asking us Castle. Over the years, the fact that you Devs. do ask and often use our suggestions in the game puts this one above so many other MMOs out there.

1.) I would like to repeat the often repeated request of minimal effects for hasten and superspeed.
2.) A non-tech vervsion of the entire Medician pool.
3.) Being able to select "point of origin" for powers.
4.) Minnimal effects for a lot more of the powers. It is hard to be a "normal" highly trainned fighter, then have a punch like sands of MU kicking out all this smoke.
5.) Im not sure if this is more of a costume comment, but a club/stave (non-leathal version) of weapon powers. I try to avoid a lot of them when creating a hero, for the simple fact its hard to pull off the "hero" image while literally slaughtering the badguys with sharp weapons.
The idea that many have suggested of "random" animations would be nice to.
Again thank you guys for working with us players and our concepts.

How about new animations for Assassin's Claw, Shock, Strike, Blade, and impaler.

They started getting much more deadly-looking with DB/ onward, with the exception of assassin's shock, The crouching is cool but the actual hit doesn't look devastating enough imo. But the oldies could use an update. MA/ got one after all. it looks great.

Probably mentioned before, but I think every blast (ice, fire, psy, energy etc) set in this game needs to have a Wand/Staff/Orb/Gun animation set. Basically you just choose your weapon like a Archery would and your blasts come out of your object.

I think that would be very fitting for magicesque characters or tech characters who shoot ice beams out of their weapons etc.