AoD Spearman Combat Video

[Silellak]

Enjoy! Or not, since this is the Codex and all.

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,1042.0.html

 

[Vault Dweller]

Direct link:
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/video/Spearman_Fight.avi

 

[Silellak]

Direct link:
http://www.irontowerstudio.com/video/Spearman_Fight.avi

Indirect link:
http://tinyurl.com/p654qd

 

[Kingston]

Surprisingly good animation. I've always that good animation will cover for lack of polygons, but billions of polygons will still look lifeless without good animation.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Not bad.

and this:

Surprisingly good animation.

 

[The Vanished One]

Downloading. Also, in before Ogre 2X

 

[Silellak]

Also, in before Ogre 2X

 

[thesheeep]

Those interrupts look kinda weird. Looks like the interrupted soldiers are somehow beamed to their previous location.
Would make a LOT more sense if they would be attacked BEFORE they move.

 

[The Vanished One]

Combat animations look good, the combat itself seems satisfying. Still looking forward to AoD, whenever it comes out.
<nitpick> The audience, on the other hand, looks stiff and bored. The voices of the crowd screaming for blood and more "excited" animations would improve it a lot. A couple of scenes from Fellini's Satyricon could be a good inspiration, but I guess you already have countless other sources. </nitpick>

edit: typo

 

[Vault Dweller]

Would make a LOT more sense if they would be attacked BEFORE they move.

Wouldn't be an interrupt then.

 

[Hory]

The animations look a bit artificial. It's like they're bad actors. They don't put their heart into their actions. They don't dodge as if they're afraid. They don't hit as if they hate the enemy. They don't take damage as if they hurt. The movements are too continuous. Try varying the speeds of the subactions (raising the weapon, hitting, returning to the original position. Make the legs and head move a bit more. Make them break the perfect upright posture for a moment when they're hit. Head jolt, body hunch, something like that. And make all attacks fast. The long duration of that "raise spear before head" move makes it too artificial. Now, it depends on who you're trying to appeal to. They don't really bother me.

 

[Vault Dweller]

You can adjust the speed and make the animations play much faster.

 

[Trash]

Looks surprisingly fluid and good. Especially the animation is very well done but I also like the graphical style of the fighters and their surrounding.

I take it this is from the arena demo? If it is a few more excited animations (like the fighter cheering after winning) and some crowd noises would go a long way in making the arena come alive. Do you plan to include an arena presentator like in the good old Dark Sun game? It did wonders for the atmosphere there and would probably need nothing more than a few lines of written text.

 

[thesheeep]

Would make a LOT more sense if they would be attacked BEFORE they move.

Wouldn't be an interrupt then.

Okay... what about... would be better if they would be attacked DURING walk, before they reach the field?
Right now it's this: Walk to field, be attacked, walk back, walk to the field again. A very robotic and artificial chain. Looks perfectly like "a coder's mind", step after step after step.
It doesn't give the dynamic feeling of a real interruption.
Yeah, I know, it's turn-based, but turn-based doesn't rip you of every possibility to achieve that

Also, I agree with Hory. The animation's speed is much too slow on many animations. Looks like they do every part of the animation with almost the same speed, which results in the characters looking more robot-like.
Of course, other aspects could be improved as well (again, as Hory said, body movement, etc.), but you could improve a lot simply by adjusting speed better.

 

[Vault Dweller]

@ Trash: There is an arena master who introduces your opponents and answers a few questions here and there.

 

[Trash]

Awesome. Was the master from the beginning of Dark Sun 1 an influence? So far he's been the best I ever saw in any game with an arena. Something about the way he taunted you made it personal.

Anyway, demo looks great apart from the little niggles I mentioned. Looking forward to the demo and the final product.

 

[Melcar]

God Lord, more teasing? Fuck this shit (works on so many levels ) . Animation does look nice though.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Looks great.

For some reason there is no sound, probably my codex are bugged

 

[Silellak]

Looks great.

For some reason there is no sound, probably my codex are bugged

There's no sound in the video.

 

[Morkar Left]

There´s no sound for me, too. EDIT: Nevermind...

Looks all good except the walking back if they get an "attack of opportunity". Isn´t it possible to let them just walk to their destination and then stop the animation? Let the attacker hit after the walking and that´s it? It´s still not an attack while they are walking but better than the return to their starting point and doing the same walk again. It looks not believable in this way. More like an animation bug.

That the crowd is animated is a nice thing and more than I would have expected. Together with cheering sounds it will deliver a good atmosphere.

 

[Silellak]

There´s no sound for me, too. EDIT: Nevermind...

Looks all good except the walking back if they get an "attack of opportunity". Isn´t it possible to let them just walk to their destination and then stop the animation? Let the attacker hit after the walking and that´s it? It´s still not an attack while they are walking but better than the return to their starting point and doing the same walk again. It looks not believable in this way. More like an animation bug.

That the crowd is animated is a nice thing and more than I would have expected. Together with cheering sounds it will deliver a good atmosphere.

It's not an AoO and it's not a bug. Spearmen have the ability to hold an approaching enemy at bay, so the approaching NPC is actually getting pushed back and has to use another AP to try and close on the spearman again.

The AoO are actually occuring when the spearman tries to retreat from the enemies next to him. It causes a small bit of damage and prevents the movement from succeeding. As far as I know, there's no AoO for when someone's approaching you besides for spearmen.

It's a bit confusing, because AoO and the spearman's ability are similar (though actually reversed), but the original thread the video was posted in on the AoD forums goes into better detail than I did.

Basically, I think it works like this:

- Trying to flee an opponent who is next to you? They get an AoO on you to prevent you from withdrawing, based on their skill and your dodge skill/block skill/agility. This is to keep spearmen and ranged-weapon users from "kiting".

- Approaching an opponent? If that opponent is a spearman, they get a chance (based on their skill and presumably your dodge/block/agility) to push you back, which requires you use another AP to try and close the gap again.

VD can correct me if I'm wrong here.

Also, one thing that may not be clear from the video - the spearman can ONLY attack with a two-handed spear if he's two squares away, so he HAS to avoid the AoO's and retreat before he can make an attack.

 

[Vault Dweller]

What he said.

 

[Forest Dweller]

The animations look a bit artificial. It's like they're bad actors. They don't put their heart into their actions. They don't dodge as if they're afraid. They don't hit as if they hate the enemy. They don't take damage as if they hurt. The movements are too continuous. Try varying the speeds of the subactions (raising the weapon, hitting, returning to the original position. Make the legs and head move a bit more. Make them break the perfect upright posture for a moment when they're hit. Head jolt, body hunch, something like that. And make all attacks fast. The long duration of that "raise spear before head" move makes it too artificial. Now, it depends on who you're trying to appeal to. They don't really bother me.

Oh for fuck's sake...

 

[Ohlie]

Looks good from here. I was going to ask about the demo's ETA, but I found the answer myself:

Anyway, we're ready to start a third phase of beta-testing (most likely tomorrow). We'll give the demo to a dozen people or so and wait for the feedback. If everything is working fine, the demo will be released in 2-3 weeks. Otherwise, we start tweaking things again.

 

[Double Ogre]

Grimoire or AoD, which is coming first? Place your bets!