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Animations are placeholders!

GoldenArrowGoldenArrow Member UncommonPosts: 1,186

Posted by Lead Designer on the TSW forums:

http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=26959

"Making animations for over 500 abilities is quite the task, therefore we have to use some placeholder animations on some of the abilities when showing a game still in production. We are working on it, and it will be amazing "

 

This is good news for those who think that animations are too poor to enjoy the game :>

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Comments

  • ironhelixironhelix Member Posts: 448

    This is ALWAYS stated before a game launches, and then it launches with the exact same animations that were seen in beta. What you see now is likely the finished product. I wouldn't get your hopes up.

  • GoldenArrowGoldenArrow Member UncommonPosts: 1,186

    Originally posted by ironhelix

    This is ALWAYS stated before a game launches, and then it launches with the exact same animations that were seen in beta. What you see now is likely the finished product. I wouldn't get your hopes up.

    I find it plausable since almost every spell in the game is casted with the "thunder clap" animation. Also I don't think devs are blantantly talking BS on the forums.

    Then again animations never were a big thing for me, so I wouldn't care one way or the other :P

  • zevni78zevni78 Member UncommonPosts: 1,146

    Animations are a big deal for me, and there is a lot of footage of casters doing the same motion over a dozen times in a row, it looks horrible. They really should have finished such an elemental component given that they knew a lot of footage would be made from press betas, PAX and the trailers. I hope it's not BS, but they really need to hurry up, launch isn’t far away and they’ve already had it delayed. I remain skeptical, and will be testing a caster in the May beta.

  • VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,882

    Maybe the animations are placeholders, but they are already taking their customer's money. They are asking people to make decisions about the game already. We have to make decisions based on those animations that are in game already, because that's the only verifiable information we have.

     
  • BoatsmateBoatsmate Member Posts: 208

    Whether you like Rift or hate it, if you want to see what spell casting animations should look like,look no further. The Mages in Rift merely summoning their pet is sight to behold.

    Ballerinas are always on their toes. Why don't they just get taller ballerinas?

  • VoiidiinVoiidiin Member Posts: 817

    I really want to buy TSW, but i have been burned by Funcom 2wice now. Sorry i know everyone says its not fair to judge them by those two games but the saying about fool me once. . .  well it holds true.

    Anarchy Online had one of the most godawful releases that i can remember, granted AO was one of the pioneers of MMOs it was not so new that it didn' know what was expected from them at release. 

    Age of Conan was broken promise after broken promise, anyone remember how Funcom spouted over and over how AoC was going to be for mature audiences ? Yet all of that mature content was chopped out and ignored. Frankly the game was a failure for me after you left Tortage, and the PvP was terrible, seriously when i thought of playing in Conan's universe i thought of those things and PvP sure went hand in hand with all of it.

     

    So here we are with TSW, as game i have been following since they first teased us with it, i really want to like this game, but they are charging a sub and they have a cash shop. They have admitted to having placeholder animations, yet they had placeholder boss models in AoC and it took months for them to be patched out.

    Sorry but Funcom has a bad track record, bad enough that while i want to pre-order the game, my standards are keeping me from doing so. 

    I will wait in the rafters and see how its doing a month after release, i pray i am dead wrong and TSW turns out to be fantastic, if that happens i will gladly drop $60.00 for the game.

    Lolipops !

  • XAleX360XAleX360 Member UncommonPosts: 516

    Bah...Placeholders animations less than two months from launch? I don't buy that.

    Executive Editor (Games) http://www.wccftech.com

  • ZefireZefire Member Posts: 676

    Originally posted by Vrika

    Maybe the animations are placeholders, but they are already taking their customer's money. They are asking people to make decisions about the game already. We have to make decisions based on those animations that are in game already, because that's the only verifiable information we have.

    Thats why u should never preorder a game

  • tarestares Member Posts: 381

    500 animations is not that many in an MMO and not even that many for a regular beat them up game, maybe placeholder animations are normal two years befor launch but not two months prior. Animations are important because they impact the feel of combat.

    The last two months were stated to be for polishing but you have to wonder what else is getting rushed last minute.

  • AbangyarudoAbangyarudo Member Posts: 156

    Originally posted by tares

    500 animations is not that many in an MMO and not even that many for a regular beat them up game, maybe placeholder animations are normal two years befor launch but not two months prior. Animations are important because they impact the feel of combat.

    The last two months were stated to be for polishing but you have to wonder what else is getting rushed last minute.

    really and what game has more than 500 abilities they needed to make custom animations for? Lets keep in mind its just forn player characters...

  • stragen001stragen001 Member UncommonPosts: 1,720

    Originally posted by GoldenArrow

    Posted by Lead Designer on the TSW forums:

    http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=26959

    "Making animations for over 500 abilities is quite the task, therefore we have to use some placeholder animations on some of the abilities when showing a game still in production. We are working on it, and it will be amazing "

     

    This is good news for those who think that animations are too poor to enjoy the game :>

    I suspect this is PR spin.

    I reckon that the animations that are currently in the game, that we saw from beta are the ones that they fully intended to be in at release.......... until the feedback from players saying that they are clunky and awkward looking en-masse.

    Now they are changing them.

    Well, at least they are listening.....

    Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom

  • Havok2allHavok2all Member UncommonPosts: 190

    IP I had to wager a guess, I would say many of the 500 animations are done and just haven't been moved over yet for a touch up here and there or simply because they want to move all at once instead of having to do it more than one time.

    Then again, they could be an office of procrastinators :P

  • AbangyarudoAbangyarudo Member Posts: 156

    Originally posted by stragen001

    Originally posted by GoldenArrow

    Posted by Lead Designer on the TSW forums:

    http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=26959

    "Making animations for over 500 abilities is quite the task, therefore we have to use some placeholder animations on some of the abilities when showing a game still in production. We are working on it, and it will be amazing "

     

    This is good news for those who think that animations are too poor to enjoy the game :>

    I suspect this is PR spin.

    I reckon that the animations that are currently in the game, that we saw from beta are the ones that they fully intended to be in at release.......... until the feedback from players saying that they are clunky and awkward looking en-masse.

    Now they are changing them.

    Well, at least they are listening.....

    As a former video game design student. Animations are pretty much the last thing you worry about graphically ... when we budget its for animations to be handled last. There is a couple of reasons for this: 

    1) We want to handle all the animations at once. So it would be redudent and non-cost effective to say do animations in the middle then program more into the game and have to bring back the animation team to complete said animations. Most animators are paid for the length of time they are working. So doing this would mean you'd have to retain the animation team for essentially doing nothing. 

    2) The nature of graphical effects may require changing the animation. 

    3) Programming may interfere with the animation requiring you to change said animation. (this is rare but happens more then people realize) 

     

     

  • gaeanprayergaeanprayer Member UncommonPosts: 2,341

    That does make me happy :( It's standard to use placeholder animations but this close to release they should've tuned up at least the majority of them by now. Animation is a slow and tedious process, it's not something that happens overnight. That I'm seeing recently debuted beta/convention videos with those same stiff, standard animations from years ago was worrisome. Hold arms wide, bring together, various things happen. Unless you're swinging a weapon, they all look the same, and it wasn't a good base animation to begin with ;x

     

    Tis good news. I hope they show off some of those newer animations soon and give people an idea of what they're working on in terms of style.

    "Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."

  • KabaalKabaal Member UncommonPosts: 3,042

    I'm inclined to believe that they're placeholders, Funcom are usually pretty good with animations (excluding bugs).

  • thebarbalagthebarbalag Member Posts: 3

    Here's hoping. I was very excited about the game until I saw some actual gameplay footage. No lighting affects on character models. Sound effects that sound like they were made by (possibly for) deaf people...seriously, the "click, click" of a gun shot in that game is just sad. Terrible, clunky animations. I'd love to chalk it up to "just a beta" but looking at other games on schedule for a similar, or possibly even later release than the Secret World are looking and sounding a lot better in their betas.

  • tarestares Member Posts: 381

    Originally posted by Abangyarudo

    Originally posted by tares

    500 animations is not that many in an MMO and not even that many for a regular beat them up game, maybe placeholder animations are normal two years befor launch but not two months prior. Animations are important because they impact the feel of combat.

    The last two months were stated to be for polishing but you have to wonder what else is getting rushed last minute.

    really and what game has more than 500 abilities they needed to make custom animations for? Lets keep in mind its just forn player characters...

    TSW may have 500 abilities you can buy but many of them are passive so in reality TSW requires fewer animations than stated.  I do know from looking at other MMOs and games alpha builds combat animations usually come first so they can be later adjusted as part of testing.  WoW is popular and has fewer combat animations than other games, I used wow model viewer before to learnin how to design and animate in 3d max for fun.

    Any MMO I have played aside from WoW has that many, WoW may have that many as model viewer neglected spell effects and there are tons of spells with diffrent animations. Any fighting game, tekken, mortal kombat.  a roster of 20 will easily have 20+ animations per member 4-10 + special moves, then 10-20+ normal attacks, fighting games would be the bench mark for collision testing and every move is tuned by reach, recovery, and other effects so moves and hit boxes are fighting games.  Games like ninja gaiden, god of war, and devil may cry have about that many moves due to diffrent weapons normal attacks, fatalities, and combos, what is more is this genre does animations much better than others, which is quite a shame since people spend more times in MMOs.  I played the new batman games they likely have that many in the random combat moves that go off when you attack, take downs, and other things.

    I don't play to many games so are likely other genres and games I missed but pretty much all of them and is still hard to imagine waiting until the last minute to thow them into a game as animations are the biggest factor in how combat feels.  At least test animations and combat before saying a game is ready to be released imo.

     

  • rpgalonrpgalon Member Posts: 430

    Originally posted by thebarbalag

    Here's hoping. I was very excited about the game until I saw some actual gameplay footage. No lighting affects on character models. Sound effects that sound like they were made by (possibly for) deaf people...seriously, the "click, click" of a gun shot in that game is just sad. Terrible, clunky animations. I'd love to chalk it up to "just a beta" but looking at other games on schedule for a similar, or possibly even later release than the Secret World are looking and sounding a lot better in their betas.

    the way TSW is doing things is: they are creating the content first, the game was already finished (content wise) sometime ago, this was their primary goal, to make polished content, that is also why some content was cut, because it would not ready till launch.

    now that the game is finished (again, content wise), they are just working on animations (character and cutscenes), balance of the game builds/skills and bugs.

    you should expect good amount of polished content through the whole game, a little more bugs on launch than SW:TOR, and animations on par with AoC animations.

     

  • AtrusHomeboyAtrusHomeboy Member Posts: 28

    Originally posted by Vrika

    They are asking people to make decisions about the game already.



  • L0C0ManL0C0Man Member UncommonPosts: 1,065

    Originally posted by rpgalon

    Originally posted by thebarbalag

    Here's hoping. I was very excited about the game until I saw some actual gameplay footage. No lighting affects on character models. Sound effects that sound like they were made by (possibly for) deaf people...seriously, the "click, click" of a gun shot in that game is just sad. Terrible, clunky animations. I'd love to chalk it up to "just a beta" but looking at other games on schedule for a similar, or possibly even later release than the Secret World are looking and sounding a lot better in their betas.

    the way TSW is doing things is: they are creating the content first, the game was already finished (content wise) sometime ago, this was their primary goal, to make polished content, that is also why some content was cut, because it would not ready till launch.

    now that the game is finished (again, content wise), they are just working on animations (character and cutscenes), balance of the game builds/skills and bugs.

    you should expect good amount of polished content through the whole game, a little more bugs on launch than SW:TOR, and animations on par with AoC animations.

     

    I can understand why they're doing it that way, specially considering that one of the big complains about AoC was lack of content, and not only on endgame, there were at least two big 5+ level gaps where you had nothing to do but repeat the same repeatable quests over and over before you got high enough level to get new quests.

    What can men do against such reckless hate?

  • ToxiaToxia Member UncommonPosts: 1,308

    Animations having placeholders this close to launch is one thing I dislike and stops me from checking further into the game and playing it from day one.

    Having SO MANY placeholders is the really big one for me. Saying 'oh, we have 100 animations that are still being done' two months before launch is questionable, but this game has many many more than 100 left to do. I just don't see them being done for launch. Seems to me to be damage control before the game launches.

    The Deep Web is sca-ry.

  • ZylaxxZylaxx Member Posts: 2,574

    Originally posted by GoldenArrow

    Originally posted by ironhelix

    This is ALWAYS stated before a game launches, and then it launches with the exact same animations that were seen in beta. What you see now is likely the finished product. I wouldn't get your hopes up.

    I find it plausable since almost every spell in the game is casted with the "thunder clap" animation. Also I don't think devs are blantantly talking BS on the forums.

    Then again animations never were a big thing for me, so I wouldn't care one way or the other :P

    I hope they get this fixed because the current animations are freaking insanely dated and horrible.  I will go ahead and place a little bit of stock in they say they are going to fix them but we are talking about Funcom here.  Still if they were to get the animations to a respectable level I will greatly pleased because for me Animations are a very important gameplay element that must be right for me to like the game as well as feel immersed.

     

    All in all I am cautiously optimistic and this gives me some more hope TSW will become a great innovative game.

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    Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.

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  • AbangyarudoAbangyarudo Member Posts: 156

    Originally posted by tares

    Originally posted by Abangyarudo


    Originally posted by tares

    500 animations is not that many in an MMO and not even that many for a regular beat them up game, maybe placeholder animations are normal two years befor launch but not two months prior. Animations are important because they impact the feel of combat.

    The last two months were stated to be for polishing but you have to wonder what else is getting rushed last minute.

    really and what game has more than 500 abilities they needed to make custom animations for? Lets keep in mind its just forn player characters...

    TSW may have 500 abilities you can buy but many of them are passive so in reality TSW requires fewer animations than stated.  I do know from looking at other MMOs and games alpha builds combat animations usually come first so they can be later adjusted as part of testing.  WoW is popular and has fewer combat animations than other games, I used wow model viewer before to learnin how to design and animate in 3d max for fun.

    Any MMO I have played aside from WoW has that many, WoW may have that many as model viewer neglected spell effects and there are tons of spells with diffrent animations. Any fighting game, tekken, mortal kombat.  a roster of 20 will easily have 20+ animations per member 4-10 + special moves, then 10-20+ normal attacks, fighting games would be the bench mark for collision testing and every move is tuned by reach, recovery, and other effects so moves and hit boxes are fighting games.  Games like ninja gaiden, god of war, and devil may cry have about that many moves due to diffrent weapons normal attacks, fatalities, and combos, what is more is this genre does animations much better than others, which is quite a shame since people spend more times in MMOs.  I played the new batman games they likely have that many in the random combat moves that go off when you attack, take downs, and other things.

    I don't play to many games so are likely other genres and games I missed but pretty much all of them and is still hard to imagine waiting until the last minute to thow them into a game as animations are the biggest factor in how combat feels.  At least test animations and combat before saying a game is ready to be released imo.

     

    Please note everything you consider an animation... I've never played any mmo that had 500 unique animations for the pc (player character) only. So I'm inclined to believe you're talking specifically about other genres. Also going the route of saying of well in mortal kombat theres 20+ animations each between 20 characters is different. Fighting games are inherently different so it reeks of desparation. 

    To further your example: 

    In mortal kombat it is only nesscary to load 1 background, 2 fights and the animations. This allows for alot of leeway because there is still alot of open memory left. In an mmo you're loading your character and everyone around you. So if you took MK animations, backgrounds, etc etc and applied it to an mmo it would run like a snail. So there goes comparing apples and oranges. MK will also show you animations quicker because the game will be finished 6 months to a year before it is released. That is without mentioning how relatively simple a fighting game is to an mmo. When you understand the difference between the genres and why they require different animations you may have a leg to stand on in your criticism. 

  • GeezerGamerGeezerGamer Member EpicPosts: 8,855

    Knowing Funcom, they'll release the animations alright.........But you'll have to buy them from the cash shop.

  • tarestares Member Posts: 381

    Originally posted by Abangyarudo

    Originally posted by tares


    Originally posted by Abangyarudo


    Originally posted by tares

    500 animations is not that many in an MMO and not even that many for a regular beat them up game, maybe placeholder animations are normal two years befor launch but not two months prior. Animations are important because they impact the feel of combat.

    The last two months were stated to be for polishing but you have to wonder what else is getting rushed last minute.

    really and what game has more than 500 abilities they needed to make custom animations for? Lets keep in mind its just forn player characters...

    TSW may have 500 abilities you can buy but many of them are passive so in reality TSW requires fewer animations than stated.  I do know from looking at other MMOs and games alpha builds combat animations usually come first so they can be later adjusted as part of testing.  WoW is popular and has fewer combat animations than other games, I used wow model viewer before to learnin how to design and animate in 3d max for fun.

    Any MMO I have played aside from WoW has that many, WoW may have that many as model viewer neglected spell effects and there are tons of spells with diffrent animations. Any fighting game, tekken, mortal kombat.  a roster of 20 will easily have 20+ animations per member 4-10 + special moves, then 10-20+ normal attacks, fighting games would be the bench mark for collision testing and every move is tuned by reach, recovery, and other effects so moves and hit boxes are fighting games.  Games like ninja gaiden, god of war, and devil may cry have about that many moves due to diffrent weapons normal attacks, fatalities, and combos, what is more is this genre does animations much better than others, which is quite a shame since people spend more times in MMOs.  I played the new batman games they likely have that many in the random combat moves that go off when you attack, take downs, and other things.

    I don't play to many games so are likely other genres and games I missed but pretty much all of them and is still hard to imagine waiting until the last minute to thow them into a game as animations are the biggest factor in how combat feels.  At least test animations and combat before saying a game is ready to be released imo.

     

    Please note everything you consider an animation... I've never played any mmo that had 500 unique animations for the pc (player character) only.

    TSW won't have 500 abilities as many of the total possible skills are passive.

    SWTOR has that many 8 classes x 2 as animations are not mirrored that have three trees and require 20+ action bars for most classes (edit I spam an abilities when tooling around because it looks cool but is so useless I should never have it on my hotbar http://www.torhead.com/ability/aJylyAW/whirling-blow, they just gave me a free month of play time. Rift has tons of class trees, Diablo 3 will have 20 active abilities for 5 classes but then runes will modify the animations of the normal abilities to go way over 500.  Diablo 3 and Tera are TSW's competition,  Dioblo 3 had more development time and likely a similar size staff.  Tera has been released in asia for a while so TSW needs to be awesome by beta weekend and combat animations are a part of that.  It took six months to overhaul the female melee attack animations in AoC and I'm guessing it was by the same two doing this so good luck, I will be playing diablo but TSW premise did look interesting.

    MK 9 had a series of patches directly after launch, to remove infinates, fix, or change things, Funcom should take note of that as due to the post launch polish that game will be at evo again and had a run on MLG so it wasn't finalized at all six months before launch but is now respected in the genre's elite community, which creates post launch hype and sells boxes.

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