Focused Feedback: Katana Animations (Release Candidates)

[Doc_Scorpion]

After visiting the tailor to double check which katana I was using (the plain katana), I took my katana/ scrapper out for a spin...  On live, he's had an invisible katana in combat, here on beta the katana was visible every time he made a katana attack.  It was only a quick test because I'm avoiding housework...  but it looks good.  (Though I forgot to double check what happens when he uses Brawl or Boxing.)

Folks should probably list which weapon they're using to make sure this isn't tied to any particular model(s).

And if you're still encountering the bug - hit the tailor and reset your weapon and see if that affects things?

[Lazarillo]

I just rolled up a Scrapper to do a quick check, and the most notable issue I've seen so far is that this change apparently did not get applied to Calling the Wolf, and Build Up.  Using those Powers without the weapon drawn instead plays the weapon-draw animation along with the VFX up the power (i.e., the yellow lines on the enemy for CtW, the red powerup FX on the PC for Build Up).  At least on a fresh character, these are the only bugs I've encountered.

 

I'll test some more with the other ATs later, but for now, that's what I've noted.  Appreciate the work on this, as it's much nicer than the not-really-"No Redraw" option currently on the live servers.

[Tater Todd]

1 hour ago, Lazarillo said:

I just rolled up a Scrapper to do a quick check, and the most notable issue I've seen so far is that this change apparently did not get applied to Calling the Wolf, and Build Up.  Using those Powers without the weapon drawn instead plays the weapon-draw animation along with the VFX up the power (i.e., the yellow lines on the enemy for CtW, the red powerup FX on the PC for Build Up).  At least on a fresh character, these are the only bugs I've encountered.

 

I'll test some more with the other ATs later, but for now, that's what I've noted.  Appreciate the work on this, as it's much nicer than the not-really-"No Redraw" option currently on the live servers.

I actually liked the fact that Build Up and Calling of the Wolf activated the Draw animation.  It looked really cool to me but if it's not supposed to behave that way I understand.

[Moka]

6 hours ago, Captain Powerhouse said:

If possible, I would appreciate more testing with other players around to see if the “visible katana only while animating” thing is consistent or random.

It's completely consistent with all katana options.

[Lazarillo]

5 minutes ago, Tater Todd said:

I actually liked the fact that Build Up and Calling of the Wolf activated the Draw animation.  It looked really cool to me but if it's not supposed to behave that way I understand.

It works okay on Build Up, but on CtW it's definitely more of a "the animation is missing" is feel, to me.

[Captain Powerhouse]

Taunt and BU sequencers are just weird. Draw always ends up prioritized over the power's boost up or taunt animation, if the weapon is not drawn. It should not be slowing you down, though, and I kinda liked the result so didn't fight the sequencers too much in fear of breaking more things. I will still look to see if i can get it to do the correct animation.

 

 

[Tater Todd]

On Aeon I made a Dual Pistols/Nin Blaster with the option "No Redraw" selected for my Pistols.  I noticed a small hiccup when I queued up Blinding Powder after a DP attack.  My character played an extremely short animation of him drawing his blade before firing the Blinding Powder ability.  It was as if the redraw animation for the katana played for 0.5 seconds but then the animation for Blinding Powder interrupted the Katana animation and took priority.  When this happened my character played the BP animation while holding the katana in his right hand.  Sadly, I have not been able to replicate this behavior no matter how much I have tried.

[Captain Powerhouse]

@Tater Todd If a power has not finished recharging, or not in range, the draw animation will start to play. If mid way through it the power recharges, or the foe gets closer, that draw animation should be instantly interrupted as the attack activates. Maybe that had something to do with it?

[Tater Todd]

1 minute ago, Captain Powerhouse said:

@Tater Todd If a power has not finished recharging, or not in range, the draw animation will start to play. If mid way through it the power recharges, or the foe gets closer, that draw animation should be instantly interrupted as the attack activates. Maybe that had something to do with it?

That makes sense especially since the animation transition was so smooth and I noticed the "hiccup" when I was fighting chaotically fleeing COT Possessed Scientist in PI.

[Replacement]

Well.  It's the afternoon in the States.  Who wants to compare swords?

 

Minor issue: Ninja Run causes Draw Skip - blade simply appears without pose being adjusted.

 

In motion with Ninja Run: Draw animation is still skipped but at least the pose pretty quickly updates to stream sword behind you instead of sawing your head off.

Edited March 18, 2020 by Replacement

[Bionic_Flea]

Name: Cleric Flea

Server: Brainstorm

Power sets: Dual Pistol/Ninjitsu/Ninja Tools Sentinel

Issue: Weapon draw animation and sound occurs, but he has no visible katana.

 

 

[Myrmidon]

On 3/18/2020 at 8:19 AM, Captain Powerhouse said:

If possible, I would appreciate more testing with other players around to see if the “visible katana only while animating” thing is consistent or random.

While I haven’t tested with other players yet, I have had some testing time with Silent Blade in the “Save Paragon from Council” tip mission that I was lucky to have handy on my level 38 Katana/WP Scrapper (Hero). Her sword is completely random on whether you see it or not, with it being visible during an entire spawn to never appearing the next. Whatever is causing this for players, it appears to be crossing over to the other NPC heroes/villains (or vice versa) at the very least.

Edited March 22, 2020 by Myrmidon

[csr]

I ran a level 30 DP/Nin Blaster through Smoke and Mirrors.  She uses Ninja Blade and Navy Colts.  The only Katana attacks were Sting of the Wasp and Lotus Drops.  The sword always appeared for both of those.  On Live it will generally only render with "No Redraw" if I draw it before entering combat by queuing SotW while out of range.

[Jaguaratron]

On 3/17/2020 at 10:07 PM, Captain Powerhouse said:

Answer to almost all questions is: we need you to test this.

 

Sentinel epic is a bit of a different issue, at least partially. Will have to look at it to see what’s going on there, but just because that is still odd does not mean it won’t fix invisible katana issues with other sets that can actually customize the sword in the costume editor.

Please fix invisible Katana.... likely to be an odd flag in the database depending on your configuration, probably dont need to say but first port of call would be a comparison scan of Katana to Broadsword to identify difference fields.

[naraganeun]

Using Legacy Ninja Blade, and Celestial Mace (for arachnos mace patron pool) on stalker
-non-snipe redrawed weapon attack in stealth to AS, quick AS activated successfully
-AS in stealth into non-snipe drawed weapon, long AS activated and second weapon drawn successfully
-AS from stealth into redrawed snipe (quick snipe activated successfully)
-long snipe from stealth into AS (quick assassin's strike activated successfully)
Build up seems to have no adverse  effect in any of these rotations, nor does using a no-redaw snipe like Moonbeam.

So far, everything seems perfect on the Stalker side considering stealth changes cast times for AS
🙂
 

Blaster

Long snipe into no-redraw rifle attack, katana showed up and animated
Katana attack into Long snipe,katana showed up and animated, no-redraw quick snipe activated
regular no-redraw attack into katana attack, katana shows up and animates fine
katana attack into regular no-redraw attack, katana shows up, regular no-redraw attack animations as well
 

using a drawn rifle produces same results, katana shows up regardless. I can't replicate the invisible 'tana

Edited March 22, 2020 by naraganeun

[Replacement]

Did more testing with my Ninjutsu Blaster.

Reiteration:

From a client perspective, the experience is definitely way better.  I see my katana between attacks all the time, I draw when I'm supposed to (though something about the animation feels off that I can't quite place) and skip the draw when I'm in combat.  More importantly, I see animations firing off correctly.  It's super good, for the client.

 

What others see:

Still nothing.  My katana appears while I animate (Tested with: The Lotus Drops) but it disappears outside of that state.  I see it in my hand; @Bopper saw combat stance but no sword.  Bopper was nice enough to take screenshots of my strangely-empty hands in both combat pose and in ninja run, in case you need to see photo evidence.

 

Misc:

As @Doc_Scorpion mentioned, I did these tests twice: once after copying character to test server, and again after changing my sword at the tailor.

 

First weapon was VK-99 Event Horizon

Second weapon was Chinese Broadsword

 

Neither showed for Bopper (outside of attack animation).

[Bopper]

4 hours ago, Replacement said:

Did more testing with my Ninjutsu Blaster.

Reiteration:

From a client perspective, the experience is definitely way better.  I see my katana between attacks all the time, I draw when I'm supposed to (though something about the animation feels off that I can't quite place) and skip the draw when I'm in combat.  More importantly, I see animations firing off correctly.  It's super good, for the client.

 

What others see:

Still nothing.  My katana appears while I animate (Tested with: The Lotus Drops) but it disappears outside of that state.  I see it in my hand; @Bopper saw combat stance but no sword.  Bopper was nice enough to take screenshots of my strangely-empty hands in both combat pose and in ninja run, in case you need to see photo evidence.

 

Misc:

As @Doc_Scorpion mentioned, I did these tests twice: once after copying character to test server, and again after changing my sword at the tailor.

 

First weapon was VK-99 Event Horizon

Second weapon was Chinese Broadsword

 

Neither showed for Bopper (outside of attack animation).

Spoiler

 

Above are the screenshots I took. Combat Stance and Ninja Run, both not showing the katana.

[Jimmy]

Just as a heads-up: We're going to be pushing the Katana changes back to Page 6 as they needs a little more refinement (and everything else for Page 5 is pretty much ready to go).

 

Thanks for all the testing so far, it'll be back on the beta server soon™!

[Replacement]

35 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

Just as a heads-up: We're going to be pushing the Katana changes back to Page 6 as they needs a little more refinement (and everything else for Page 5 is pretty much ready to go).

 

Thanks for all the testing so far, it'll be back on the beta server soon™!

I respect the desire to polish first, but just want to make sure you know: the beta build is already superior to Live in every way for /nin Blasters (that I could find).

Edited March 23, 2020 by Replacement

[Jimmy]

Another heads-up: We've concluded the remaining issues are already all present on live (meaning there aren't any regressions introduced by this change), so this will be remaining in Page 5.

[siolfir]

1 hour ago, Jimmy said:

Another heads-up: We've concluded the remaining issues are already all present on live (meaning there aren't any regressions introduced by this change), so this will be remaining in Page 5.

[SuperPlyx]

So I am very late to the party here and that will teach me read the patch notes more carefully in the future. But was just wondering if there was any chance of modifying the animation for Divine Avalanche? After activating the power the first part of the animation is to raise the sword above toons head and stop, almost like toon is posing for a split second,and then swiping down and completing attack. This split second "pose" is very annoying and breaks the continuity of the attack chain. 

[Xoza]

What about the idea of presetting all possible weapons for classes via a fully open, extended weapons menu with every weapon in the list? Maybe this will help with invisible weapons?

If the archetype is capable of wielding it, whether your powerset does or not, you can select a weapon to fill it. "If you have the ability to wield a weapon of this type, this is what it will look like." This could also open up opportunities for temporary power looks as well as fix epic power weapons now and in the future.

 

Blaster for Example

( Weapons )

---- ( Beam Rifle ) [Selection]

---- ( Dual Pistols ) [Selection]

---- ( Katana ) [Selection]

---- ( Rifle ) [Selection]

---- ( Titan Weapon ) [Selection]

----... and so on.

 

Not only would this give you the option to select these weapons, it would give you the option to see what all other archtypes/powersets have available to them.