Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

• Zorkon

  

  • 1404 posts
   

  December 23, 2021 10:07 PM PST

  From the November Newsletter

  Animations: In Progress UPDATED
  What it is: Develop player and NPC animations to support locomotion, combat, emotes, and other gameplay.

  • Completed review and refinement pass on humanoid hovering animations when wielding weapons.

  Progress...

  From the December Newsletter

  Animations: In Progress UPDATED
  What it is: Develop player and NPC animations to support locomotion, combat, emotes, and other gameplay.

  • Completed review and refinement pass on humanoid hovering animations when wielding weapons.

  First I want to note, from the December Newsletter "Completed review and refinement pass" the key word here is completed this tells me I'm too late to give usable input, I don't expect or want them to backtrack or feature bloat us into a 2030 Release date... BUT with that said I'm going to list what I hope they came up with.

   

  As far as Player animations, I could care less, easy add later after Alpha... nough said.

   

  But NPC's, thats a different story, I think they need a lot of pre planning to not back themselves in a corner where they couldn't improve (if not perfect from the start, which I don't expect)

   

   

  Guards, and others just standing around... I really hope they aren't just standing around, they need to look left, look right, scratch their nose's, yawn, roll their shoulders, shift from left to right foot,... all these could be put in a pool (animation list) and all basic (guard type) NPC's select randomly from this pool. This would bring LIFE to the world (Don't back yourselves in a corner, set it up to be able to ADD more animations to this pool as time permits, like adding images to a screen saver)

  Now the Type of NPC I'm passionate about. Crafting type NPC's, Trainers, Merchant's etc. these I hope not to see just standing around scratching their noses.

  The Blacksmith should be taking the steel from the forge, Beating it into a Blade, Quenching it in a Tank, Grinding it sharp on the stone, putting it in the rack, repeat with an Axe... In between any of these he needs to be interrupted to deal with a customer (us) and then when were done go back to what he was doing.

  The Baker needs to be Baking

  The Spell Merchant needs to be Scribing,

  The Trainer needs to be Training,

  The Tailor needs to be Tailoring.

   

  I don't expect or suggest they slow down Alpha or Release for this, I just hope they have the forward thought not to back themselves in a corner with the possibilities. They're suppose to be multiple starting cities, these types of animations can be used in all of them and the future if it's preplanned well enough.

   

  Blacksmith example again:

  The Forge is always on the left, to the right of it the Anvil, to the right of that the quench tank, to the right of that the grinding stone, to the right of that the rack. This way the animations could be used repeatedly in all starting zones, plus wherever else one might find a Blacksmith. And he wouldn't just be standing there picking his butt, err, I mean scratching his nose all day. Of course this isn't as simple as it sounds, I'm aware of that, it doesn't JUST require a "Grinding the Sword" animation, for each and every step of his process would require an "Engage the customer" and Disengage the Customer" animation.

   

  Standing there picking his butt is a LOT easier, and I think that fine for Alpha, But I sure hope they are looking ahead to add steps to them, I think it would be great to ADD a step of the process for each Merchant with every expansion, Each expansion the world become a little more alive.

   

  BEST if it's all in there at the start, but I'm not going to expect it , I just hope it can evolve with a minimal amount of future work. Is the system flexible?

   

   

   

   

• Dikenzu

  

  • 295 posts
   

  December 25, 2021 7:00 PM PST

  The VR team is very smart about what kind of game they want to create. I believe that everything you're asking for is possible...but it can't be done without additional funds. With more money and a bigger team they would definitely bring more 'life' to the world of Terminus. I just don't see it being done right now, although I could be wrong about this. They may already have plans to implement what you are asking.

  
  This post was edited by Dikenzu at December 25, 2021 7:01 PM PST
• Zorkon

  

  • 1404 posts
   

  December 25, 2021 8:25 PM PST

  Dikenzu said:

  The VR team is very smart about what kind of game they want to create. I believe that everything you're asking for is possible...but it can't be done without additional funds. With more money and a bigger team they would definitely bring more 'life' to the world of Terminus. I just don't see it being done right now, although I could be wrong about this. They may already have plans to implement what you are asking.

  Agreed on all point's!

  I know my post was taken wrong by at least one member from a PM accusing me of "Criticizing the Developers" (and a typo) I assure that was not my intent. 

  My post was, agreeing with you that they don't have the time, funds, or staff to implement the things I mentioned "now" but instead they do have, as there is little cost, to put in the forethought in their planning to allow for such in the future. I'm optimistic that once Pantheon launches it will be such a success they will have the staff and funds to improve on the animation goals I listed.
  
  

  Pre-planning is not real expensive or time consuming. Needing to redo something is.