Attack Animation

[metadigital]

If you ask me the anwser is dynamic animations.

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I'm hoping the ramifications of SPORE might help this.

I hate to be a downer, but I think the only way RPGs are going to have significantly better combat animations is if the number of base weapon types available are greatly reduced.  That's one reason KOTOR had far superior animations to, say, Neverwinter Nights - there's basically five, maybe six weapons animation sets (One-handed Blade, Double-ended Weapon, Dual-Wielded Blades, Single-handed Blaster, Two-Handed Blaster and Double-Wielded Blasters).  NWN had to support Axes, Clubs, Whips, Exotic weapons and all other kinds of craziness.

 

And, when it comes to animator time, you can either spend time making a lot of different animations for a few base weapon types, or relatively few animations for a lot of different weapons.  Personally, I think the balance will be shifting towards fewer weapons, as the large variety of weapons in a D&D game isn't necissarily that exciting - five different ways to deal 1d6 aren't always necessary, and DR doesn't factor into the equation often enough or in interesting enough ways to make including every single weapon type from the PHB worthwhile.

 

On the other hand, something like Fallout is great because you can have a ton of different weapons that use similar animations.

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If push comes to shove: less weapons, more animations.

[alanschu]

Well, spore will have procedural animations, though I suspect they won't be very diverse for each particular species.

 

Not sure if that would be good enough for this chap.

[metadigital]

One small step for SPORE, one giant leap for animation!

[alanschu]

I think you underestimate how big of a step it is for spore

[metadigital]

Or you are underestimating how big an impact it might have.

[alanschu]

No no, I think it will be huge. Big steps for everyone all around, no small steps here. Looking for small steps? Move along move along, nothing to see here...just big, gigantic, gargantuan steps.