What if we removed faceplanting?

This is an idea I could get behind. I've got a few characters whose concepts would benefit from an alternate defeat animation. I've got Bluebolt Psi a robotic drone who could explode. I've got Armorbound, an animated suit of armor that could fall apart.

I've even got Amorphous Man, a Spines/Regen Scrapper, a T-1000-esque shapeshifter who could be splattered into a puddle on the floor when defeated.

Or even combine several of this thread's suggestions for a powered armor character. The armor shell gets blown to pieces, leaving the character on his/her knees in his/her underwear, ala Arthur of Ghosts n' Goblins or Samus from Metroid.

Although with some of them, you'd also need a matching "get back up" animation (like Armorbound or Amorphous Man reforming himself), which can be a problem, especially for the "blown to pieces" ones.

And come to think of it, a lot of those might be seen as even more embarrasing than a simple faceplant. Especially the powered armor variant, which would also require you to imagine what your character wears under their armor and create a separate costume for it.

I can also easily imagine some overconfident player dismissing them via the same logic they dismiss self-rezzes with. "Why should I use death emotes? I'm never going to die!"

It would need a lot of work, but if they ever do it, I'll definitely use some of them if they fit my characters.

Some years ago CoH had two defeat poses. The one, which is still the current, is to faceplant. The second was to end up lying on your back with arms and legs spread somewhat. It was random which defeat pose would come up when your character was defeated. I like this as it gave a little bit of varity for a group of PCs all defeat in battle at the same time.

Why the Devs removed this alternate defeat animation I do not know, but I'd love to see it returned to this game.

I played a game called the Longest Journey once (same people that are producing the Secret World, I think). The protagonist, April Ryan, could not die - you know that from the beginning. She suffered setbacks and challenging situations but never the immersion break of a death animation, and I think the game was better for it.

/signed

They could add that feature into the custom power section. Would make it easier to chose which one you would like. Also, a few more ideas:

Hissy Fit - you become frustrated that you can't win and you start stomping your feet and waving your arms or you would lay on your stomach and start pounding the floor with your hands while waving your feet

Mid Air (only works if you have a fly power on when you are defeated) - Your body would go limp but you are still floating in the air (when rezzed, you would drop to the floor and land on your feet)

The Spin (only used when defeated with a knockback/up power) - you're whole body does two 360s in the air before you land on your face

Shocking - electricity pulses through your body as you shout into the air before you collapse (best for tech characters who don't want to explode but want to show an overload)

Last words - the same animation as now but once your knees hit, the animation would be extended for a second and you can custom a quote to be spoken in local chat as if you say it before you collapse

That's all I can think of right now.

Ever since the introduction of patrol xp, I haven't minded dying at all unless I'm on a Tank or completely out of a way to rez without hosping out of mission. And even then its only mildly frustrating.

I am ALL for "Death Emotes" but they better not need to be bought with points! Unlocked maybe, on an account-wide basis through some in-game activity... but NOT with Paragon Points.

Maybe add them to a Vet Reward?

I like the idea of the 'kneeling' emote for a defeat pose also, and would like to add my /signed to the idea. Definitely gives a more 'down but not out' feeling (plus I believe a Distinct Competitor uses a similar kind of defeat pose as well).

I'd also be up for adding extra 'death emotes' as long as it wasn't too much trouble for them, but I wouldn't change anything about the mechanics of defeat as it stands. Standard code rant aside, I think that probably would be too much work on their part for too little gain.

Also:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Socorro I played a game called the Longest Journey once (same people that are producing the Secret World, I think). The protagonist, April Ryan, could not die - you know that from the beginning. She suffered setbacks and challenging situations but never the immersion break of a death animation, and I think the game was better for it.

Oh geez, I'm not the only person who's played this!?

Fun game, but my wife and I were so frustrated with it at the end of the game. After digging around about it, we found out it's the middle of a story. We also discovered that the first part of said story is unavailable in any current format, and the end has not been (and probably will not ever be) made. Longest journey indeed...

Only if defeated fliers leave Wile E. Coyote-style impact craters.

You can have my faceplant pose when you pry it from my cold, dead... oh, hmmm.




More seriously i wouldn't mind more defeat poses, but i personally would prefer they still involve being completely prone and immobile, not some sort of kneeling or upright pose. Unless the pose is incredibly silly and ludicrous, but then i'm a sucker for absurdity. Otherwise i think that being incapacitated beyond being able to take action should be indicated by being flat(tish) on the ground.

Also a defeat pose where you lie straight and flat on your back with a lily clutched in your hands over your chest. Yessssss...

What's all this I hear about removing facepainting? Don't you know all the little children that go to fairs and parks love facepainting? If it weren't for facepainting, where would we get such heartwarming antics like a little boy facepainted as a zombie telling he likes turtles! C'mon! Think of the children!

Something my sister said once: "The mark of a bad game is frustration". To this I agree. A game that has a death or failure screen that is too punishing doesn't encourage a player to play the game better to avoid the screen insomuch as it encourages a player to quit playing that game to avoid the screen. The same can also be said of harsh death penalties: there is a game I am playing right now where death = lose pretty much all of your items, and the game is based around spending sometimes weeks to get these items. When someone has all their items on them, dies, and loses everything, they don't start again and try to play the game better. They just leave the game. The term "ragequit" is thrown around a lot, and rightfully so.


As far as death emotes go, I would gladly pay paragon points to get access to a pack that lets you choose how you die with varying emotes (like exploding, catching fire, dissolving away, disappearing in smoke, ect). The defeat of a hero should itself feel like a spectacular feat.