Psionic Melee Animation Proposal

[Solarverse]

Completely optional...of course.

 

I have tried playing Psionic Melee several times and to be honest, I just can't. Those animations are just....blah. Very stiff, very anticlimactic and very boring. I know that not everyone cares about animations and the way a power looks, but I am not one of those people. I have to feel immersed into what I am playing to really feel the character and if the animations are poorly done, I simply can't get into it, no matter how well it performs. So here is my proposal to spice up the set with animations that have roughly the same casting times and would fit the theme. So one thing to keep in mind here, is that within my head, every single attack has a Psi Blade in hand.
 

1. Mental Strike: (Spines) Assassin's Strike Instant Cast animation
2. Psi Blade: (Claws) Shockwave animation
3. Telekinetic Blow: (Street Justice) Crushing Uppercut
4. Psi Blade Sweep: Stays the same
5. Confront: (Katana) Calling of the Wolf
6. Boggle: Stays the same
7. Greater Psi Blade: (Staff Fighting) Sky Splitter
8. Mass Levitate: (Fighting) Tough's secondary animation

 

I think with these changes, the set would have a very appealing visual and would for sure spice it up a bit. Give it some thought, play it in your head a bit or even see the animations in your character creator and tell me what ya think.

Edited April 10, 2020 by Solarverse

[MTeague]

As long as we're talking alternative animations, and people who like what they have can keep it a "No Psi Blade" version, I'm on board.

I personally like the idea of a Psi Blade.  My first thought upon seeing the set named Psionic Melee was "Protoss Zealot".

<img src="https://i.ibb.co/hd8B0Dv/Protoss-Zealot.jpg" alt "zealot">

But I wouldn't want to force anyone to change away from a look that they're already happy with.

 

[EDIT:  Sigh, I fail at image codes.  What am I doing wrong there?]

Edited April 10, 2020 by MTeague

[Solarverse]

1 hour ago, MTeague said:

As long as we're talking alternative animations, and people who like what they have can keep it a "No Psi Blade" version, I'm on board.

I personally like the idea of a Psi Blade.  My first thought upon seeing the set named Psionic Melee was "Protoss Zealot".

<img src="https://i.ibb.co/hd8B0Dv/Protoss-Zealot.jpg" alt "zealot">

But I wouldn't want to force anyone to change away from a look that they're already happy with.

 

[EDIT:  Sigh, I fail at image codes.  What am I doing wrong there?]

No no, every attack has Psi Blade with the exception of the T9 and Boggle.

[Menelruin]

3 hours ago, Solarverse said:

No no, every attack has Psi Blade with the exception of the T9 and Boggle.

I think the idea is to have a variant animation OPTION, so you can choose for the powers to be all or part psi blade if you want.  You'd still be able to do all psi blade, but it wouldn't be FORCED on you.  Like how you can do an MA character and swap the kick animations for punches, in case you were trying for a boxing theme or something. 

[ssbmario]

More psi blades option and WAY better animations pls. There's got to be some way for people to help with animations if we need new ones created. I have offered to help with that myself. I won't use Psi Melee while I'm glow-fisting things because... why would I?

 

Psi Melee was designed around Psylocke

 

Giving it a Green Lantern punching thing is highly questionable

[ArchVileTerror]

Image code?

Just copy and paste the link, or the image itself.

 

Ta-da!

[Coyotedancer]

I'd absolutely love to have a version of Psi Melee that used the blade FX for everything but tossing everybody around and boggling them. The punchy-fist bits work for some characters, but having the option to go all-in on the blades would be a much better fit for others.

[Lines]

I think it's because the set mixes it up between smashing/psi and lethal/psi damage. But yes, I'd rather be able to pick one or the other, damage type be damned.

[Solarverse]

2 hours ago, Lines said:

I think it's because the set mixes it up between smashing/psi and lethal/psi damage. But yes, I'd rather be able to pick one or the other, damage type be damned.

It's not just that for me. It is that, but it's also the very stiff animations. Those animations are similar to the /em Kata emote, formerly known as /em warmup. When I play around with Psi Blades, I feel like not only am I not using Psi Blades sometimes like the set indicates, but I also feel like I am in a fixed stance using Kata emotes instead of actually fighting and it just so happens that NPCs are getting in the way and getting themselves hurt, haha.

[Sable Phoenix]

I agree.  At least giving every power the Psi Blade option (I think the whole set should've been Psionic Blades instead of Psionic Melee from the start) would go a long way to helping the set feel better.  But I also agree that the quality of the animations is poor.  Universally, the newer animations in CoH progressively declined in quality compared to the originals, as new powers and power animations were added in to the game.

 

I used to work as a game animator, I got a Bachelor's in computer animation, so it really grates to see poor animation work.

[SwitchFade]

Have you noticed that most of the animations have no movement from the waste down?

[Solarverse]

48 minutes ago, SwitchFade said:

Have you noticed that most of the animations have no movement from the waste down?

That would absolutely explain the "stiff" feeling of the animations.

[ABlueThingy]

 

3 hours ago, SwitchFade said:

Have you noticed that most of the animations have no movement from the waste down?

Yeah, the animations looks incomplete

 

18 hours ago, ssbmario said:

More psi blades option and WAY better animations pls. There's got to be some way for people to help with animations if we need new ones created. I have offered to help with that myself. I won't use Psi Melee while I'm glow-fisting things because... why would I?

 

Psi Melee was designed around Psylocke

 

Giving it a Green Lantern punching thing is highly questionable

 

I disagree with only psi-blade for all animations though.  There should be alternatives for the "TK melee" they have as half the powers. It gives us way more options thematically. There's a number of ways to use psychic melee conceptually and just having it be "Claws but psi" is kinda limiting.

 

I like the idea of a martial artist who is weak physically but can project his chi out to harm.  Or someone who projects out their Id in semi-material form that can attack others close by.   Or a protective ghost that attacks near by people.  The big issue I see is that if you're focused blades or TK-melee then the other is kind of weird.

 

It's kind of like having MA be half punches/kicks and half DBZ ki blasts.  I mean, both of those fall under super heroic martial arts.  But some people are going to want one and not the other.  That would crush a lot of thematic builds

 

My ideal answer is to have Psi-Blade animations for most/all of the powers. 

Buuut also alt animations for the punches that project a fist(with an option for just the psychedelic waves and no giant fist)

In addition a set of animations where the psi-fist animations go off like normal but you yourself stand still, maybe cross your arms and stare smugly?  Or even just the mind blast/control animations. (It's mind powers, why bother punching)

 

That is a lot of work tho

[Solarverse]

10 minutes ago, ABlueThingy said:

I disagree with only psi-blade for all animations though.  There should be alternatives for the "TK melee" they have as half the powers. It gives us way more options thematically. There's a number of ways to use psychic melee conceptually and just having it be "Claws but psi" is kinda limiting.

I would agree with this if the set wasn't named Psionic Blades.  😉 If it was instead named Psionic Melee I would understand a lot more.

10 minutes ago, ABlueThingy said:

I like the idea of a martial artist who is weak physically but can project his chi out to harm. 

You mean like Kinetic Melee?  😄

10 minutes ago, ABlueThingy said:

Or someone who projects out their Id in semi-material form that can attack others close by.   Or a protective ghost that attacks near by people.  The big issue I see is that if you're focused blades or TK-melee then the other is kind of weird.

I was thinking more along the lines as how Psionic Weaponry was on CO. Granted, CO got many things wrong, but at least they got that right.

10 minutes ago, ABlueThingy said:

 

It's kind of like having MA be half punches/kicks and half DBZ ki blasts.  I mean, both of those fall under super heroic martial arts.  But some people are going to want one and not the other.  That would crush a lot of thematic builds

Which is exactly why I asked for an alternative option instead of asking for a change across the board. Trust me, I know what it's like to have something taken away that I preferred as is...so I make every attempt to not be that guy when I make requests like this one. I also understand that just like some players like it as is, the other half would prefer it something more along the lines of how I requested it...or at least this is my guess, heh.

10 minutes ago, ABlueThingy said:

 

My ideal answer is to have Psi-Blade animations for most/all of the powers. 

Buuut also alt animations for the punches that project a fist(with an option for just the psychedelic waves and no giant fist)

In addition a set of animations where the psi-fist animations go off like normal but you yourself stand still, maybe cross your arms and stare smugly?  Or even just the mind blast/control animations. (It's mind powers, why bother punching)

 

That is a lot of work tho

The more the options the better.  🙂