Weekly Discussion 49: Alternate FX/Animations.

[GM Miss]

Weekly discussion 49 - Week 5/03/20-5/09/20:

⚔️ YOU VOTED: 

This week we are talking about Alternate FX/Animations with the suggestion from @Mainframe | Everlasting. ⚔️

 

❓ Things to think about:

>What are your favorite and least favorite animations in game?

>What additions or alternate animations have been added (Minimal FX, etc) that you couldn't game without now?

>What powersets could use some alternate animations - and what would they be?

>What emotes would you like to see added to the game?

>What about alternate sounds/minimal sounds? I'm looking at you perma-repel.

 

Don't just use these prompts, talk about whatever you want from this weeks prompt!

 

Let's Chat 😄

[ArchVileTerror]

Minimal FX

for

everything.

 

Been one of my longest standing wishes.  

I'm a huge proponent for allowing players the authority to really get in there and define their own characters.  The more tools toward that objective, the better.

 

And to that end, I'd also like to encourage any animations with the same activation time should be shared with any Powers that use said activation time.

 

 

 

But, of course, one of the other big ones, which was more recent . . . some kind of "/ignore" command specific to other player-characters' appearances and/or customization.

 

Now, I understand some folks might find that a little incongruent with my previous statement about giving players more authority over their characters, but some debates over Henchpet Customization opened my eyes to an issue.  While we can ignore the messages of problematic players, we can't ignore their garish powers or emotes.  That's a huge disruption for quite a few players.  I believe that it would be in the best interest of the stability of the community to provide all players with the tools to ignore troublesome players.  Some kind of slash command which would "repaint" a target player-character with a Generic Body and Generic Power Customization, with Generic Emotes.

 

I have no idea how challenging this might be to implement from a technical standpoint, but I believe it's worthwhile.  No one should be forced to endear harassment or even borderline harassment when they're just trying to play the game.  Putting the power to disregard troublesome players in the hands of the user would likely also provide a reduction in the number of petition filed due to problematic conduct.

[Lines]

Medicine pool but without the beep boop whirr machine.

 

For the magicals.

[Lost Deep]

The main thing I can think of, and this isn't quite power customization, is a way to deactivate visibility or turn down the business of some power effects. Some people cannot team up with Force Field heroes because all the field wavy effects give them a headache. Similarly with stacked auras, glowy abilities, etc. It's difficult to say what exactly to do about this? Some change in the graphics settings to turn down the brightness or simplify the patterns of certain things? I'm not sure, but it should be thought about.

 

Apart from that, force field effects in general tend to be invasive. It is important to make the area of the bubble visible for AoE abilities, but the wavy effect tends to be distracting or even disorienting in large enough amounts. With that in mind, I'd like to see two things: bubbles that are smooth or have a more subtle, static  pattern (hexes, maybe) and an FX for individual effects that is not the bubble.

Other than that, while lower priority I'd like to see some additional flexibility for pets. Master Mind customization, of course, but also for things like Control pets, the defense drone from traps, etc. This is obviously a larger undertaking, but broadening the models available would be neat.

[RobotLove]

"No weapon" for fire/ice/stone melee.

[Heraclea]

I have an INTENSE dislike for the Taunt animation and especially the sound effect assigned to my Shield/Axe female tanker.  Instead of the usual 'ah-Ha' given to female tankers, the game gave her a wheeze that sounds like a dying giraffe.  If this can be changed without mucking around in the sound files I don't know how.  I also do not know how often this sound effect turns up. 
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[artemisalpha]

Add me to the chorus calling for more, actual, minimum fx for everything.

 

Similarly, being able to apply some color, and maybe some of the costume patterns, to your granite armor form or your MM minions would be nice as well.

 

 

[Shocktacular]

Music-themed animations for sonic powers.  The Sirens in the Talons of Vengeance already have some.  I'd just like to make a music-themed superhero or -villain, and the discordant screeching that the sonic powers currently have does not fit that theme at all!

 

Also, some of my rad armor characters are more in the "I was irradiated 'til I glowed" category, so having glowballs buzzing around them doesn't make sense.  Can we get alternate animations for those powers, or even just Minimal FX options?

Edited May 4, 2020 by Shocktacular

[Lost Deep]

I should perhaps note that there may be some powers where 'minimum' FX is not the same as no FX. Maybe it just means a slight generic glow instead of a fire aura, depending on the ability.

At the same time, and kind of on the opposite angle, it might be nice to be able to tell what debuffs are active on enemies at a glance. Okay, they have the red shields on them... are those my red shields? Someone else's red shields? A lot of powers have an SFX that persists for a few seconds, but the actual debuff effect lasts for much longer. Whether this would call for a power animation change or a UI change depends on what's possible and efficient.

[Yoru-hime]

Even More Minimal FX for Epic pools. If I wanted my character's body to be wrapped in Ice, that would have been part of the primary or secondary. Confining myself to just those that don't provide an unwanted weapon or costume addition can really limit options. So tired of Body/Force/Power Mastery...

[Lockpick]

I'll chime in to agree with more minimal FX options, especially for Dark Embrace.  I like the musical notes suggestion for sonic as well as the medicine pool suggestion to have alternate options for magic folks.  I'll add a few:

 

Dual Pistols - Piercing Round: Not a fan of this animation and would prefer something a bit more normal.

Blaster - Ninja Tools - Immobilizing Dart: It would be nice if there a Shuriken option here.

An alternative to Ninja Run and Beast Run that is a more normal run / sprint FX.

 

 

Hmm, thought I would have more, but this is all I can think of off top of my head.

Edited May 4, 2020 by Lockpick
Added notes

[Naraka]

Some personal wishes are a "no body spikes" option for Spines/Thorn powers.  You can keep them on the hands or heck, remove those too.  And it's not because I think the spines are ugly or obtrusive, I just want to play the concept of a "knife throwing/slashing" set and I just like the look and feel for those sets' animations.  Somehow de-linking the stance or swapping it with claw's stance perhaps?

 

Another would just be opening up the color palette for some powers.  Again, sets like Spines/Thorns suffer from bland color options.  Other sets too but it's something that could probably be easy to do.

 

As for the minimum FX options people are talking about, I think having a global options menu setting that disables a lot of overall settings of others would help appease a lot of people.  There was someone that was really upset with Shock Therapy's "spasm" animation that one of the buffs triggered so having an option that just disabled soft-animation locks like those...heck, go full out and put an option to just have all character objects just T-pose for everything to cover all your bases.

[Supreme Ballista]

No question about it...Energy Melee energy transfer animation and total focus. 
 

I also remember an animation from Olympian 29 from the Dark Astra mission having a chest beam or something. That would be nice to see more of.

[SwitchFade]

The old taunt mad sound.

 

AaaaaaaaAAAAAAAaaaahhhhhh

 

Keep all current animation, done delete any.

 

Flight alternates!

 

Continue adding low fx options

 

I'll think of more.

[Hexquisite]

38 minutes ago, Lockpick said:

 

Dual Pistols - Piercing Round: Not a fan of this animation and would prefer something a bit more normal.

 

 

Maybe not exactly the topic, but I feel this is in the same vein - laser shots option for pistols, instead of bullets. My retro 50s scifi action lass has dual ray guns. . . that fire bullets. I can pretend, of course (they are very loud, sped up pewpewpew's) but it would be lovely to have a laser option.

[johnnysc]

The three Bio Armor Adaption powers have horrible auras with no minimization options.   I'm somewhat OK with the rest of the minimization options in the power set, but these effects drive me nuts, especially since they obscure other powers/auras.

 

For self-impacting powers, I think the power tray provides enough feedback to inform the user that the powers are active. Your mileage may vary however.

 

For powers cast on you, I'd like to see a brief power impact effect, but nothing too long lasting.  The problem here is that the status icons are too small to read quickly, at least to my eyes, so I think we need a different mechanism for discerning which key buffs are on you.  Perhaps an optional row of larger "armor/buff" icons might work.

 

 

[DougGraves]

I play a lot of tankers.  I like making costumes.  I do not like having my costumes covered by my powers, unless my costume is designed for that.  So I would like minimal fx for defenses.

 

I also like the idea of swapping fx.  Maybe a tanker is smoke and fire.  They could have dark armor but have their damage shield look like fire.  That raises a question - should looks be more or less important than effect - if a damage shield does negative damage should it be allowed to look like it does fire damage?  In my opinion, as a pve player, I don't care what damage type a character does.  I don't care what armor they have up.  So looks not matching damage does not bother me.

 

For attacks and I would like them to fit a style.  I don't want some attacks to be fiery punches and other fiery swords.  I want all to be fiery swords or none to be fiery swords.

[ArchVileTerror]

There is already tech in the game to force Powers to show up a specific way in PvP.  

Granted, this topic has come up in the past before, and there are a few players out there who state that they want/need to see other players' Powers in PvE for tactical reasons.  I don't follow that particular mindset personally, but I understand that it's their preference.  Therefore; another reason to allow users to flag other player-characters with "generic" visuals for the user's benefit.

[johnnysc]

2 minutes ago, ArchVileTerror said:

There is already tech in the game to force Powers to show up a specific way in PvP.  

Granted, this topic has come up in the past before, and there are a few players out there who state that they want/need to see other players' Powers in PvE for tactical reasons.  I don't follow that particular mindset personally, but I understand that it's their preference.  Therefore; another reason to allow users to flag other player-characters with "generic" visuals for the user's benefit.

I think if the targeting window just gave a little more info about the other players powers without having to dig down into menu options then there wouldn't be a need for generic visuals.  That way you get the info quickly and the chance to appreciate the other users design choices.

[drbuzzard]

War mace is sorely in need of a rolling pin option.  (though I'm not sure if that counts)

 

I would also like to see fire melee animations which would allow consistency. Hence having a full set of sword and non sword animations for all the attacks. 

Edited May 4, 2020 by drbuzzard

[Tuft]

I would love some kind of customization for the "built-in" powers, such as when you trigger domination and get that big white flash right in the face. It is a pain to look away whenever you are about to trigger it.

 

It would also be nice to be able to shrink some very large lore pets that tend to block the line of sight for your team-mates.

[Yoru-hime]

Poison options without the spew.

Staff options without the breakdancing.

Ninja/Beast Run options that don't typecast us.

[Virtual Green]

+1 to Minimal FX to everything that can (and should) have it. But more importantly, and if it's relevant at all...

 

No redraw options for VEATs. Pretty please?

[Blastit]

I would like to see auras as FX options for travel powers. Fire or cloud flight, seismic super jump, lightning super speed... It would be a very nice touch.

 

 

 

More kick options would also be good. Not just for the typical punching sets, but for the elemental sets. Kicks instead of hammers for stone melee, or putting a blazing foot to someones face.

[merrypessimist]

I want to see the ;getsome emote turned into a taunt animation.