Those weighty swings

[Garrison72]

Those weighty swings

After watching the vid with the Polish brothers (not going to attempt their last name) they describe combat as one swing = one button press. Fine. But I don't want the gravity-defying nonsense of DMC, Bayonetta, or other hack n' slash games. I hate those animations because it instantly feels like video game land, where normal physics don't apply. Please don't do this CDPR. More responsiveness is good, but realistic animations are equally important. Keep that aspect of TW2, it helped distinguish the game, made combat feel visceral and real.

 

[gibb_geralt]

Watch the dev video for TW3. You can see the actors performing the combat animations, and they're in the same vein of TW1 and 2.

I honestly think we don't have anything to worry about in regards to the combat animations and feel.

 

[goopit]

just wanna say I hate cutscene finishers and it's related don't worry. CDPR should replace with with Dark Souls style sound design. Just go to any point in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hrh94Dc-h0 to see what I mean.

There's only one finishing animation in Dark Souls and it never get's old unlike all the cutscene finishers we get in TW2 beacause 1.It's hard to do 2.Crunchy sound design . I'm not saying copy Dark Souls. Maybe CDPR can do the opposite and silence everything in the finishing blow but the stab or the gurgling sounds of the dead guy.

I also want the soldiers to not be instantly dead but clinging to life after deal a mortal blow and you could give them a mercy kill if you want but he'd die eventually if you don't.

 

[Geralt_of_bsas]

I completely agree.

Although i dont think we have much to worry about in this aspect, even when in the gameinformer article it said "attacks are faster than in TW2" the truth is attacks in TW2 are kind of slow in general even among realistic animations, so there is still plenty of room for attacks that are faster but not like DMC.

The most important thing for me is that the whole body and its weight keeps being somewhat realistic, if its the sword that moves very fast, thats ok, after all witchers are said to move swords faster than anyone else thats human.

 

[dragonbird]

I meant to post this in general discussion...

and why is this in community section?

Moved

 

[Geralt_of_bsas]

just wanna say I hate cutscene finishers and it's related don't worry. CDPR should replace with with Dark Souls style sound design. Just go to any point in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hrh94Dc-h0 to see what I mean.

There's only one finishing animation in Dark Souls and it never get's old unlike all the cutscene finishers we get in TW2 beacause 1.It's hard to do 2.Crunchy sound design . I'm not saying copy Dark Souls. Maybe CDPR can do the opposite and silence everything in the finishing blow but the stab or the gurgling sounds of the dead guy.

I also want the soldiers to not be instantly dead but clinging to life after deal a mortal blow and you could give them a mercy kill if you want but he'd die eventually if you don't.

I really dont like that animation, its just too slow for when there are other enemies around, makes it look absurd and kind off breaks the pace.

Id love to see an extremely quick and simple swing to the throat or something similar for instant kill moments, so quick that it cant be actually considered a finisher per se (those usually being a cinematic kind off kill).

It would be great though if TW3 had a system that detects if you re fighting only one enemy enemy or maybe two and only then perform more complicated or slow finishing moves, but when there is a group all finishers are like normal swings or even faster

 

[cmdr_silverbolt]

After watching the vid with the Polish brothers (not going to attempt their last name) they describe combat as one swing = one button press. Fine. But I don't want the gravity-defying nonsense of DMC, Bayonetta, or other hack n' slash games. I hate those animations because it instantly feels like video game land, where normal physics don't apply. Please don't do this CDPR. More responsiveness is good, but realistic animations are equally important. Keep that aspect of TW2, it helped distinguish the game, made combat feel visceral and real.

I agree with this very much.

just wanna say I hate cutscene finishers and it's related don't worry. CDPR should replace with with Dark Souls style sound design. Just go to any point in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hrh94Dc-h0 to see what I mean.

There's only one finishing animation in Dark Souls and it never get's old unlike all the cutscene finishers we get in TW2 beacause 1.It's hard to do 2.Crunchy sound design . I'm not saying copy Dark Souls. Maybe CDPR can do the opposite and silence everything in the finishing blow but the stab or the gurgling sounds of the dead guy.

I also want the soldiers to not be instantly dead but clinging to life after deal a mortal blow and you could give them a mercy kill if you want but he'd die eventually if you don't.

I've never played Dark Souls, it's next on my next actually, but I don't like their finishing animations at all. They seemed so unnatural and clunky.

But I agree with you, cutscene finishers are awful- they are immersion breaking and ruin the flow of combat.

 

[witchermasterofrolling]

just judging by what info on combat has been released I think they were just trying to fine tune the combat and maybe speed it up.
they are trying to move anyway from the constant rolling that was required in TW2 by giving him a better way to side step his opponents I didn't care for the way parry counter attack system worked it was kinda slow and the timing was to easy most of the time. I did read something on game informer about some AOE spells that sounds like it might be overpowered. I don't want to see Gearalt become a mage hes a witcher they are meant to use swords in the books. I hope they sort of keep it that way, mage builds only being a hybrid option.

 

[volsung]

After watching the vid with the Polish brothers (not going to attempt their last name) they describe combat as one swing = one button press. Fine. But I don't want the gravity-defying nonsense of DMC, Bayonetta, or other hack n' slash games. I hate those animations because it instantly feels like video game land, where normal physics don't apply. Please don't do this CDPR. More responsiveness is good, but realistic animations are equally important. Keep that aspect of TW2, it helped distinguish the game, made combat feel visceral and real.

Isn't this how it is in TW2 already? One click = one sword swing.

But yes, I also hope they keep the motion captured movements and tactical approach to sword combat. I would hate seeing Geralt waiving his sword like a feather duster.*

*Reference intended

 

[gregski]

Isn't this how it is in TW2 already? One click = one sword swing.

Yes, but they said that now every swing animation will have the same duration, so people don't get locked up in animations like in TW2 when animation times varied.

 

[Stiler]

I'm not sure how I feel about that, I liked hte variety of moves in TW2, it made combat look varied and cinematic, rather then say a game like Skyrim, where it's the same moves over and over and over, which gets old quickly, or even diablo.....yawn.

As far as "death" animations,variety is key as well. A good way to keep this is to have it dependent on the move + weapon used and the enemy that's being killed.

 

[Daywalker30]

But I agree with you, cutscene finishers are awful- they are immersion breaking and ruin the flow of combat.

I disagree there, I like cutscene finishers and for me they don't break the immersion or ruin the flow of the combat, on the contrary actually it really makes me feel I'm like a good fighter (instead of games like gothic, two worlds).
But that's only if it doesn't occur too often.

 

[cmdr_silverbolt]

The problem is that it will occur more than necessary, and you'll be waiting for the animation to end after every 30 seconds or so to resume fighting. That's asinine. I like the screams and blood of my enemies to tell me that I am a good fighter. Different folks, different strokes *shrug*.

 

[Agent_Blue]

After watching the vid with the Polish brothers (not going to attempt their last name) they describe combat as one swing = one button press. Fine. But I don't want the gravity-defying nonsense of DMC, Bayonetta, or other hack n' slash games. I hate those animations because it instantly feels like video game land, where normal physics don't apply. Please don't do this CDPR. More responsiveness is good, but realistic animations are equally important. Keep that aspect of TW2, it helped distinguish the game, made combat feel visceral and real.

Yes.
The trend should be more plausibility, not less, simply because implausibility kills immersion. Most of the real progress made by video games in recent years is the product of increased realism. Combat, of all places, should be as plausible as the limited human/computer interaction currently allows for.

 

[Garrison72]

This is the animation style I don't want to see. It's like his sword weighs 3 ounces.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS99zdAkYZg[/media]

 

[AhmadMetallic]

I'm not sure how I feel about that, I liked hte variety of moves in TW2, it made combat look varied and cinematic, rather then say a game like Skyrim, where it's the same moves over and over and over, which gets old quickly, or even diablo.....yawn.

Good point.. Now I'm worried about the same duration swings not having enough variety.

 

[Garrison72]

Good point.. Now I'm worried about the same duration swings not having enough variety.

I have the same concern. It could mean more button mashing and a repetitive feel to melee, like old school hack n' slash games. I liked when Geralt did multiple swipes with one mouse press. It looked fluid and beautiful and did more damage. Once I became familiar with the timing and animation style, I knew how to trigger specific attacks. When they talk responsiveness in the vid I think of Geralt's poor foot speed when turning around or, pressing a command and having nothing happen ( not drawing sword or not blocking).

 

[Geralt_of_bsas]

The problem is that it will occur more than necessary, and you'll be waiting for the animation to end after every 30 seconds or so to resume fighting. That's asinine. I like the screams and blood of my enemies to tell me that I am a good fighter. Different folks, different strokes *shrug*.

This is why i think TW3 should have finishers like in Assassins Creed 2, some of the are extremely fast, one cut and you continue fighting while the guy is still dying.

I have the same concern. It could mean more button mashing and a repetitive feel to melee, like old school hack n' slash games. I liked when Geralt did multiple swipes with one mouse press. It looked fluid and beautiful and did more damage. Once I became familiar with the timing and animation style, I knew how to trigger specific attacks. When they talk responsiveness in the vid I think of Geralt's poor foot speed when turning around or, pressing a command and having nothing happen ( not drawing sword or not blocking).

They did said geralt now has 96 combat animations instead of 20, so i whink we will actually have more variety in general.

 

[Sirnaq]

After watching the vid with the Polish brothers (not going to attempt their last name) they describe combat as one swing = one button press. Fine. But I don't want the gravity-defying nonsense of DMC, Bayonetta, or other hack n' slash games. I hate those animations because it instantly feels like video game land, where normal physics don't apply. Please don't do this CDPR. More responsiveness is good, but realistic animations are equally important. Keep that aspect of TW2, it helped distinguish the game, made combat feel visceral and real.

Weighty swings aren't realistic either.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Zs1xGH4zgE

 

[Stiler]

This is the animation style I don't want to see. It's like his sword weighs 3 ounces.

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS99zdAkYZg[/media]

It's a common misconception that swords weighed a "lot."

Most swords weigh < 5 pounds, with many clocking in under even 3 pounds. Even a two handed sword could easily weigh under 5 pounds or around there.

The idea of swords weighing a lot are more of a modern myth, where people equate "weight" with quality and assume swords that are hefty are good quality.

Swords were something people had to fight with for some periods of times, making them as light as possible while keeping balance and other aspects was key to a good sword, the less tired you got after fighting the better chances you had of staying alive.

A very good article on this can be found here, with good resources and links to learn more:
http://www.thearma.org/essays/weights.htm

Plate armor also has this common misconception that it was "heavy" and made people into a turtle where they couldn't get up after falling down or had to be lifted onto their horse, which in truth plate armored knight's could easily mount their own horse, run in it, even do cartwheels if they wanted. Chainmail is actually more of a burden to wear then plate armor, as the majority of the weight of chainmail rests on your shoulders instead of like plate where the weight of it is more evenly distributed over your entire body.