Curse

Rieselle · Jun 20, 2005, 01:40 PM // 13:40

I killed a Moa bird this morning. I felt very sad. But one thing I noticed was that, upon it's death, it toppled over in a cloud of feathers.

Then I realised one thing GW is missing that I would enjoy very much - special dying effects/animations, for special kills!

For example, finishing someone off with a lightning or fire spell should result in the body toppling over whilst becoming "darker" and a cloud of black ash particles streaming from their body.

Ice spells can have polygon chunks of ice shattering off their body (the actual body model can be left as is (maybe coloured a bit blue/white?)... just have some ice blocks coming off it.)

A necro spell can have the body sinking down with corruption and darkness spewing off them... maybe scale the body so it becomes a little shrunken or flatter.

Finishing off with a sword or axe special attack can have a "slash" graphic (like a shiny line) overlaid on the opponent, and they fall with a spurt of blood (if they're bleed-capable, otherwise maybe some other colour or nothing at all).

A hammer special can have that "heavy impact" pause for a split second, maybe with the screen shake, before the body gets forcefully knocked into the ground.

This is probably inappropriate for GW, but even that good ol' Quake 1 mechanic of, "if you kill them with enough damage to reduce their health to -50, then they gib into pieces" is pretty cool.

etc, etc.

These should apply to humans and monsters. With some careful thought, it shouldn't be hard to come up with nice effects that work on all body models, that don't impact performance too much. (heck, make them an option in the graphics settings)

Fighting makes up a big part of GW - we kill some many things, so many times. I'd really like to visually spice up the combat graphics more. I think it will add a lot to my enjoyment of the game. (and surely many others... but not everyone, of course.)

And it'd sure make going back to post-searing Ascalon with a level 20 character and one-shotting everything worth a couple of hours of fun... at the very least! ;)

Fire storm, Aftershock, Earth shaker - they're all good starts, but there's still a lot of room of skills with room for improvement. At least "death effects" can be applied to all skills with a minimum of work, without needing additional graphics on each individual skill. They probably provide the most visual "bang for buck" for development time. And they provides a visual reward right when you need it most - when you take something out! :)

(ok, I don't know what bone to throw for healers and buffers....any ideas?)

Further reference material may be found in Capcom games such as the Devil May Cry and Onimusha series's, or in fighting games such as the Dead or Alive or Soul Calibur series's.

PS. Oh, and maybe special death animations for bosses? Make it an occasion when you take one down, even though they're not that hard.... (make bosses harder! :)

PPS. The "on fire" effect is nice - but it seems to use a disproportionate amount of graphics resources. See the game bog in the last mission when everyone is on fire fighting the Titans. The "on-fire" effect should be toned down somewhat. Same with the "snow falling" environmental effect.

PPPS. Later on, why not place special effects on critical hits? On a successful interrupt with a Ranger shot or Mesmer spell? On a life-saving heal? Basically rewarding players for doing something nifty. If they're taking videos with FRAPS they can admire it over and over and show it off to their friends :P

Kuku Monk · Jun 20, 2005, 03:51 PM // 15:51

Don't kill Moa Birds

Special effects are a bit lacking in this game, but that's no big deal to me as everything else makes up for it. I'd rather see better looking spell animations and effects than death...but I wouldn't mind having both either.

Rhombus · Jun 20, 2005, 04:09 PM // 16:09

oh my this would be nice, but not only as a death animation but that would cause my pc to go mad, when i hit somebody with my, bow, and it runs away, you can see a trail of blood

that would be nice. death animations would be gr8 tho.

Rieselle · Jun 20, 2005, 10:23 PM // 22:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kuku Monk

Don't kill Moa Birds

Special effects are a bit lacking in this game, but that's no big deal to me as everything else makes up for it. I'd rather see better looking spell animations and effects than death...but I wouldn't mind having both either.

Yes, I'd really like to see better skill/spell animations and effects too. I just kicked off with the death effects because I think it's relatively easy to do and would add a lot of goodness across the board. (Spicing up individual skills only benefits people who use that skill, etc.)

Other ideas include making the combat more visually dynamic in movement. Position and formations are already somewhat important in the game, so more should be done about it. Knockbacks, staggers, etc.

Spells that knock people into the air, so a well timed melee attack from a nearby teammate does extra damage.

Frenzy and flurry slowly forcing people back, so that a group that's surrounded will be slowly forced into a corner, ripe for AOE attacks.

Evade-style stances actually making you "dodge" attacks, moving a quick step in a random direction. This might suck a little, but would differentiate "evade" from "block". Evade - you give ground, Block - you stand your ground. Although Ward Against Melee, etc might have to be changed from "Evade" to something else, like "Deflect" or something.

Blocking animations. For a nice visual game like GW, it's a shame to have a little word popping up over your head be the only indicator of blocks, evades, and misses. Especially since defensive skills are heavily featured in the game.

Staggers - something like this: Certain attacks cause a "stagger" condition, which lasts for 2-3 seconds or so. Opponents will be pushed back when they take damage in "stagger". If they take over a certain amount of damage during their stagger, they enter a new condition, "Open"

Open - a condition that lasts until the next hit, which will knock you down. Certain powerful "finish" -style skills can only be performed on an Open player, usually doing massive damage or killing them instantly or something else. So you can perform "combos", where an starting attack staggers them, you use all your adren skills that you've been saving up, and your friends all attack simultaneously to spike enough cause Open, then you can finish off with a powerful and cool looking attack. (or powerful spell that's instant cast, but only works on Open opponents etc.) Pulling off a team maneuver like that would be pure visual joy

Moving backwards (you move slowly when you move backwards) should provide some benefits, such as increased blocking ability and an improved chance of evade. Otherwise there's no incentive to use moving backwards when you can rotate your screen 90 degrees and strafe away much more quickly. And it makes "giving ground" defensively an option in the game.

The idea is to break out of the MMORPG formula of "let's all stand around and hit each other", giving lots of dynamic, realistic-looking combat movement (as opposed to the silly strafe-fest that is WoW.)
But that will take a lot more work and careful balancing than merely adding Death effects

MrMoo · Dec 11, 2005, 10:18 AM // 10:18

personally i think they are some great suggestions. Maybe we will see them in chapter 2

wolver1ne · Dec 11, 2005, 01:38 PM // 13:38

I would love to see a kill followed by a deep voice saying "fatality". xD

The undead Mesmer · Dec 11, 2005, 01:42 PM // 13:42

Mortal Kombat freak

Gustav Gloomp · Dec 11, 2005, 01:44 PM // 13:44

ah the good ol' mortal kombat.
long live MORTAL KOMBAT.

The undead Mesmer · Dec 11, 2005, 01:57 PM // 13:57

Friendship.

Friendship? Friendship again?

Gustav Gloomp · Dec 11, 2005, 02:01 PM // 14:01

babality sux.
fatality makes shao khan happy.

MORTAL KOMBAAATTT

Ermac · Dec 11, 2005, 02:29 PM // 14:29

Mwhaha Animality

No but seriously some great Suggestions youve got there Rieselle !
Would be so cool to Hit someone and make them fly into the air and then a Hammer wielder Would hit im in the back plummeting him to the ground!