Revamping Claws
Not a bad idea on its face, but didn't the developers already say they're not going to be doing the alternate animation thing for melee sets any more? Something about it being easier to just make new power sets, I forget exactly.
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound
Does anyone else get the feeling that many on these forums don't want any changes, no matter what is suggested?
But I still want a "Clawed Fingernails And A Few Martial Art Kick Attacks Thrown In" Powerset! They can even call it that!
Oh, and the option to have really HUGE hands to go along with it on the character!
*awaits the day to make that concept*
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
Does anyone else get the feeling that many on these forums don't want any changes, no matter what is suggested?
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Also, the devs have more reason to generate a new set. Consider our newest set, Street Justice. The whole set could have been a set of alternate animations for Martial Arts with a few changes. Instead, they developed a new set that they can put into the market for 800 points. Instantly, a large chunk of the player base runs out to buy the new set and make a new character. Every player drops 800 PP to access the set, which means at a minimum they've thrown out an extra $10 to Paragon Studios, unless they used their VIP points which brought their payment down to, at max, $30. At this point, why exactly would you spend so much time building alternate animations to hand out for free?
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Not really... but most of us would rather see a zone revamp or new content (which we could see with any or all of our characters) than a new animation for a 7-year old powerset. Especially when the devs have stated that it takes as much time to generate a new powerset than to revamp animations for an old one, we're far more likely to go for the whole new experience.
Also, the devs have more reason to generate a new set. Consider our newest set, Street Justice. The whole set could have been a set of alternate animations for Martial Arts with a few changes. Instead, they developed a new set that they can put into the market for 800 points. Instantly, a large chunk of the player base runs out to buy the new set and make a new character. Every player drops 800 PP to access the set, which means at a minimum they've thrown out an extra $10 to Paragon Studios, unless they used their VIP points which brought their payment down to, at max, $30. At this point, why exactly would you spend so much time building alternate animations to hand out for free? |
BrandX Future Staff Fighter
The BrandX Collection
In technical circles, the concept is called "servicing the installed base". Since we don't have power set respecs, the introduction of a new set that's like Claws but with prettier animations does precisely jack for squat to help seven-year-old Claws characters whose players would like to change things up visually.
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It's not just about the money either. They could charge for alternate animations. I'd pay for a pack of alternate animations and the ability to color my PBs powers yesterday.
Does anyone else get the feeling that many on these forums don't want any changes, no matter what is suggested?
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* "Your idea has been suggested before, thanks."
-- "Your idea has been suggested MANY TIMES before, most recently just a few days ago, as you would know if you had read or run a search on this board instead of just boldly plunging in."
* "Your idea is incomplete/too vague/needs more work. Polish it up a bit more and propose it again."
* "Your idea would break the game, and/or the devs have said that they're never ever going to do that. Nice try."
* "You claim that your idea would be easy to add to the game, but in all probability you are not a programmer and you have no idea whether it actually would be." (This is the Standard Code Rant.)
* "Your idea is good. Maybe it'll show up in game someday."
* "Your idea is good. Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that the devs would rather work on newer, shinier and/or more profitable things."
(if you haven't been keeping track, this thread is an example of the last.)
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Faces of the City
Y'know, if I had suggested this a year ago I think the response would have been more positive. It seems that with the new F2P model there's actually going to be less free content and attention to old content. It just seems kind of sad considdering how gung-ho the devs were about customization when it began, now it sounds like they just don't want to be bothered with it.
Of course, that's just the impression I get. Nemesis only knows what the devs are really thinking.
The off-beat space pirate...Capt. Stormrider (50+3 Elec/Storm Science Corruptor)
The mysterious Djinn...Emerald Dervish (50+1 DB/DA Magic Stalker)
The psychotic inventor...Dollmaster (50 Bot/FF Tech Mastermind)
Virtue Forever.
I'm a vet with a couple of claws I enjoy playing and I think the animations could be improved, but most of all, I agree with BrandX. Now that we have animal costumes, I would love to be able to give my lion torso character big savage lion claws instead of metal blades.
They did say it was easier to make new powersets than to make new animations that conform exactly to existing animation times while still looking good. I don't recall them saying that they wouldn't make alternate animations, mind, just that it was easier to do new powersets.
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I wonder what's so much easier about makeing new Powersets
*you have to come up with new animations along with new power stats (likely for more than one AT, thus having to account for AT differences). The new set will have to have some new Schtick (ex: StJ's buildup combo thingy) to differentiate if from similiar thematic sets, then you'll have to run it thru mega-testing to insure balance
vs animations for old powersets
* new animations that you have to time to fit in to an existing, already tested, already balanced set (oh, and update the costume interface to allow them to be selectable)
If the Devs say the latter is harder than the former, then I suppose we must take their word for it (standard code rant). Of course, as a programmer myself, I know it's quite easy to say to people without access to it that a set of code is harder than another set - not that our devs would do such a thing haha
edit: to be fair, I also know from experience that sometimes easier appearing stuff on the surface is in fact harder behind the scenes.
I say that they should do both.
Most time should be spent on new shinies. BUT they can still slowly revamp older sets behind the scenes.
Not to mention that if they do this wisely, the same animation can be used in both the new and the old sets. For example, revamping spin. I WONDER just how many sets use that stock animation. Hmmmm...... I'm sure it's not any. *looks at nearly every friggen weapon melee set*.
In other words, with animation rehash being common, redoing a few animation would give MANY sets alternate options. Also it's possible that new animations could be used for new sets AS WELL AS revamp old sets.
In technical circles, the concept is called "servicing the installed base". Since we don't have power set respecs, the introduction of a new set that's like Claws but with prettier animations does precisely jack for squat to help seven-year-old Claws characters whose players would like to change things up visually.
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Maybe I should explain the idea again? Powerset skin = new powerset but it's *attached* to an old set but you'd have to purchase it. For this example:
New set = Scrapper Fury Nails:
-ST attack
-ST attack
-ST attack w/ -def
-PBAoE
-ST attack w/ +dmg/ToHit
-taunt
-Ranged ST attack w/ KD
-Cone
-Ranged cone
The difference would be, the times (rech/cast), damage, cost and visuals would be different. But they'd still stick with the theme of having some kind of hand slashing tool and a character with Claws can switch between them (either with costumes or builds).
I still don't get why people were so against it yet still suggest wand blast for fire blast and such when my idea does exactly this. Just need to gauge the technical difficulties with such an idea.
Once upon a time I'd have been against this, because I wouldn't want my characters messed with for stuff the OP wanted. But we have power customization now - and quite frankly I think his request is reasonable, if ... ill-formed? Like, okay, you have a clear idea for that one power... what about other options?
I think eviscerate'd be the trickiest one; it's a long, slow animation that has a lot of wind-up and you're going to have a hard time filling in that much time in an alternate animation with something that isn't so acrobatic. Hmmm.
Does anyone else get the feeling that many on these forums don't want any changes, no matter what is suggested?
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It's just difficult to convince people that something is a good idea, because the vast majority of suggestions that show up in this forum section are NOT.
When something crops up that is actually a GOOD idea for an addition or change, it is generally well supported by people. Of course there is the usual dissent, but you'll have that with anything that you discuss.
That said, I have nothing against this idea. If they came up with some new animations for Claws that I liked, I would probably use them on my main.
Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison See, it's gems like these that make me check Claws' post history every once in a while to make sure I haven't missed anything good lately. |
[QUOTE=BrandX;3927185]But I still want a "Clawed Fingernails And A Few Martial Art Kick Attacks Thrown In" Powerset! They can even call it that!
Seconded!
Or with claws on the feet/toes for those of us ruthlessly, yet shamelessley, pillaging the Heck Cat/Tygra/Cheatah/Whyte Tyger type characters.
pressure/
grace
Simply and to the point: The claws animations are outdated and not very impressive, IMO.
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That said, I wouldn't argue with a few alternate animations. It wouldn't even have to be for the full set. I do, however, understand the time (or value for time) constraints. (What would be more time consuming, but nice to see, is what they did for SJ with an occasional "alternate" animation just thrown in.)
On the one hand, I'd like to see more new power animations and a greater variety of available animations more or less across the board, even if that means fewer new powersets.
On the other hand, in the last round of new animations that was done for the various blast sets, most of the animations were frankly pretty underwhelming, so I'm not sure such a thing would be as worthwhile in practice as I'd like it to be in theory..
Not at all.
It's just difficult to convince people that something is a good idea, because the vast majority of suggestions that show up in this forum section are NOT. When something crops up that is actually a GOOD idea for an addition or change, it is generally well supported by people. Of course there is the usual dissent, but you'll have that with anything that you discuss. That said, I have nothing against this idea. If they came up with some new animations for Claws that I liked, I would probably use them on my main. |
I've seen questionable Ideas rightfully called down, but I've also seen many good ideas dealt flaming vitriol as a welcome to their inception on the forums. Many time Ideas that would in reality negatively impact nobody.
There is a core group on these forums that almost seems to take pleasure in attempting to roast any new idea in flames and then when implemented deny ever "REALLY" being against it. Reality is many times it's not even criticism that can be used helpfully but instead just an impediment and/or negative atmosphere to good ideas. I've suggested a few things but I'm not even including my own ideas in this judgement.
It's funny, everybody says build new roads. We need new roads. What happens, the old ones crumble and nobody uses them anymore.
Not sure that analogy works, but, if they keep focusing on new, then the old never gets used, and all that time and effort that went into it in the first place is wasted. If it's because they want money, then develop new animations, ones that took some effort, and release them as alternate animation packages.
Always look forward, agreed. But make sure what you are leaving behind is in good shape too. There has to be balance, and I think that gets lost some times.
It's just difficult to convince people that something is a good idea, because the vast majority of suggestions that show up in this forum section are NOT.
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Simply and to the point: The claws animations are outdated and not very impressive, IMO. Spin is just a jump and shockwave? Lame! When I think "claws" and "spin" I imagine a whirling dervish of bladed death. It just looks...weak.
Now personally I can't think of ways to revamp the other animations, but I'm sure they could be spruced up a bit, maybe making it overal more acrobatic and fancy. And because I know somebody is gonna come in here and fervently defend the old animations, obviously this would be an optional customization just like everything else.
The off-beat space pirate...Capt. Stormrider (50+3 Elec/Storm Science Corruptor)
The mysterious Djinn...Emerald Dervish (50+1 DB/DA Magic Stalker)
The psychotic inventor...Dollmaster (50 Bot/FF Tech Mastermind)
Virtue Forever.