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Concerning Animations

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 Zalbar2007
09-04-2005, 10:21 PM
#1
Their is one thing I really want in KotorIII is for the battles to play out the way they do in the movies. For instance, if I am a jedi in a battle with a sith I want for my character to be constantly moving and jumping and i don't want to just stand still. Or, if I am a ranged fighter I should take cover and not just stand in the open and wait for someone to shoot me.

Another thing I would like to see changed is the animations in dialog. I mean, here we have these characters speaking this powerful dialog and showing very little body language. Everyone stands the same way and has the same loop off facial animations. And I have never seen people stand so long in my life. I guess what I want is for the character animations to match the dialog.

Thats all.

Anyone agree.
 lukeiamyourdad
09-04-2005, 10:26 PM
#2
Well, yeah I agree with most. I don't think it's very possible to have prequel-like (note, prequel) duels though. Bah, it might be done, who knows.
Still, I think that the KotOR saber duels are more realistic then the ones of the prequels.
 DarthLinde
09-04-2005, 10:31 PM
#3
They used the force! that's how they jumped 500 feet!(Makes sense don't it?)
 Zalbar2007
09-04-2005, 10:34 PM
#4
Its those miniclorians they give you a huge vertical.
 stingerhs
09-04-2005, 10:37 PM
#5
oh, i definately agree. but you also have to understand that every animation is either done by hand or by motion capture. by hand takes a ton of trial and error to get things looking good, and thus takes a long time to do. motion capture takes a lot less time (and some would argue that it looks better), but it also requires a lot of equipment that can be quite expensive.

but hey, if they have the time and money, why not? it'll definately add a lot of polish to the game. :)
 Zalbar2007
09-04-2005, 10:42 PM
#6
I understand what I want probobly won't happen, but I at least hope they get rid of the idle stance and have battles be ongoing.
 Achilles
09-05-2005, 2:05 AM
#7
I was just thinking about this tonight. I've been playing GTA:SA on PC pretty regularly since it came out and recently switched back to TSL. After getting used to the motion capture in SA, it's been a little jarring going back to TSL. Watching the cutscene between Vogga and Hanharr on Nar Shaddaa is particularly painful. Walk animation, talk animation, walk animation again, flourish animation, kath hound animation, talk animation again. Bleh...

Could I do better? Never. But I truly hope that LA and the K3 devs do put some more effort into movies and cutscenes (if not combat animations).
 DarkMe
09-05-2005, 3:53 AM
#8
Well, yeah I agree with most. I don't think it's very possible to have prequel-like (note, prequel) duels though. Bah, it might be done, who knows.
Still, I think that the KotOR saber duels are more realistic then the ones of the prequels.

Why do you think the kotor saber duels are more realistic then the prequels?
The prequels show how it is ment to be!! In Kotor is just a bit to difficult for the dev to make it that way.
 dragon2sword
09-05-2005, 7:49 AM
#9
Their is one thing I really want in KotorIII is for the battles to play out the way they do in the movies. For instance, if I am a jedi in a battle with a sith I want for my character to be constantly moving and jumping and i don't want to just stand still. Or, if I am a ranged fighter I should take cover and not just stand in the open and wait for someone to shoot me.

Another thing I would like to see changed is the animations in dialog. I mean, here we have these characters speaking this powerful dialog and showing very little body language. Everyone stands the same way and has the same loop off facial animations. And I have never seen people stand so long in my life. I guess what I want is for the character animations to match the dialog.

Thats all.

Anyone agree.
i totally agree that would be wicked!
 lukeiamyourdad
09-05-2005, 10:16 AM
#10
Why do you think the kotor saber duels are more realistic then the prequels?
The prequels show how it is ment to be!! In Kotor is just a bit to difficult for the dev to make it that way.

You do realize that real sword fighting does not involve the participants jumping around 10 feet in the air right?
In terms of technique and stance, the ANH Obi-Vader duel was most realistic.
 Zalbar2007
09-05-2005, 4:08 PM
#11
lukeiamyourdad you've got a good point sword fighting does not involve jumping around and fliping, and the Obi-Wan and Vader duel was the most realalistic, but that is extremely boring to watch. If I'm going to invest all this time in a game I would like the battles to be cool looking. If the battles played out like the Obi-Vader duel I would kill myself of bordem.
 lukeiamyourdad
09-05-2005, 4:50 PM
#12
Well, I'd rather have the middle thing which are both Luke and Vader duels which had more "spirit" then "cool factor".
But yeah, whatever you kids like...
 nas77
09-05-2005, 5:10 PM
#13
^^^^
"Spirit" belongs in a film, not in a game. In a game it's all about the "cool factor".
 lukeiamyourdad
09-05-2005, 6:36 PM
#14
^^^^
"Spirit" belongs in a film, not in a game. In a game it's all about the "cool factor".

I disagree. Spirit belongs everywhere ;) Or else, KotOR would have never been succesful.
 Zalbar2007
09-05-2005, 7:06 PM
#15
I think the it needs to be a combination of both. I think they should take the spirit and intensity from the origionals and combine it with visual flare of the prequels.
 Det. Bart Lasiter
09-05-2005, 7:12 PM
#16
I've been playing GTA:SA on PC

Coffee anyone? (That was done in motion capture as well)
 nas77
09-05-2005, 7:15 PM
#17
I disagree. Spirit belongs everywhere ;) Or else, KotOR would have never been succesful.
Sure, spirit is needed in a game in terms of characters and story. But its different in terms of action. As far as a film is concerned I'd prefer the tension of the ESB duel to, say, the flashiness of TPM duel, but in a game its the opposite. I want flashy animations for combat. The tension comes in making sure your vitality points don't reach zero.
 lukeiamyourdad
09-05-2005, 9:06 PM
#18
Then we have different preferences then.
 Lord Pickle
09-06-2005, 4:00 AM
#19
I agree that the battles need to look better. By better I mean more fluid. I find it halarious that someone with a repeating blaster would only take a few shots then wait for the enemy to strike. Just because it is a turn based combat system doesn't mean it should look like one. If you got a machine gun, which is what I assume any short of heavy weapon like the repeating blaster is, then it should behave like a machine gun. As for the sword fights can't the dev use some kind of dynamic animation system? Have the game create new animations on the fly as the fight is ongoing or is that too much for the GPU to handle?
 Prime
09-06-2005, 9:05 AM
#20
I think the animations for the duels look great already...
 nas77
09-06-2005, 1:07 PM
#21
I think the animations for the duels look great already...
The animations do look good, but the characters are a little static. It would look better if the duelists circled each other while fighting or flip over each others heads like they almost always seem to do in the prequels.
 fresnosmokey02
09-06-2005, 2:25 PM
#22
The animations look good as far as they go. When K3 comes out, though, it will have to stand up to the games of the time. Which means they will have to have some improvements. More lifelike facial expressions and body language would be nice. Better combat animations would be good also, but don't expect the characters to jump around everywhere like they've had too much caffeine. And what is it with some of these background people who stand around and every so often punch their fists up in the air like they're saying "Yay, rock and roll!"?
 The_Maker
09-06-2005, 8:35 PM
#23
The problem I see with this is it might take away the whole RPG feeling of turn taking, if your character is jumpin round all over its going to feel more like a TPS (Third person Shooter) or an action adventure game =/

KOTOR + Action Adventure = :hang1:
 RedHawke
09-07-2005, 4:15 AM
#24
The animations do look good, but the characters are a little static. It would look better if the duelists circled each other while fighting or flip over each others heads like they almost always seem to do in the prequels.
This is all nice in theory, but the rules system the game is based on has problems with this... movement during combat incurs penalties, and it is generally impossible to fight effectively while moving in the basic D20 rules system... while you can move your hit chances are decreased, and as such a static opponent will pwn you! ;)

They could give us more pretty attack animations yes, but at the end of the round your PC and the opponent would still be saber fighting toe-to-toe, like they do now, as that is where they need to be for the next rounds combat to begin.

Many people don't realise the great visual advances KOTOR has made for the RPG genre, they have taken a PnP RPG system and made a decent visual representation of it, with a ton of bells and whistles the previous pure RPG games do not have, look at NWN same basic engine as KOTOR look at the differences. But at their core RPG's will still be what they are today, they can get prettier yes, but they will never rival TPS or Action games visually.

The problem I see with this is it might take away the whole RPG feeling of turn taking, if your character is jumpin round all over its going to feel more like a TPS (Third person Shooter) or an action adventure game =/

KOTOR + Action Adventure = :hang1:
Well said! :D
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