Death animations and finishing moves

[teknoman2]

well all the "finishing moves" on normal enemies in DAO from this video are just a series of 2 or 3 scripted animations for each weapon. i dont see that it would be dificult to add in PE a couple of scripted moves/weapon for the final blow on an enemy if humanoid and 1 for each category of non humanoid (ie the same animation can be used for wolves, tigers, bears and other animals since they look and fight in the same way esentially to save time).

so lets say your attack is a hit and the damage brings the humanoid enemy to 0hp. one of the 2 predetermined animations will play out, showing your character stab the other guy in the chest and he falls forward as the sword is pulled out. if the combat system is anything like BG's or NWN's, then there should be a 2 or 3 second interval between attacks, which is plenty of time to fit an animation like this before the next attack to the next enemy

[Tale]

I don't need it to be brutal. I'm still debating on just how valuable the feature would be, in general. Even in Fallout and Baldur's Gate, they just turn into a different looking pile of gore. Which wasn't impressive.

[Merin]

I went with FO/BG, number 3, random stuff... just because I know there'll be combat animations and, since there will be, some random things happening at different times keeps down the monotony.

 

I'd rather the combat WASN'T animated, at all, maybe a sword swing like in the old Gold Box games... but I fully accept this as a losing battle, so option 3 was my choice.

[sanian]

If they have the money and time to spare for elaborate death animations then okidoki but this really shouldn't be anywhere near the top of the pile of things that needs doing. Unique death animations for bosses would be a much appreciated touch but for everything else? drop dead and leave it at that.

[AwesomeOcelot]

Half of the DA:O death blows are fine, no longer than the regular animation. Perhaps there can be a trait where there's a chance on death blow to do an extravagant death blow that is gruesome enough to make enemies in a radius around it pause, lose confidence, and on critical flee.

[Silver6986]

I voted for option 3, and mentioned in Boretti's thread that I think most people would like to see something along the lines of FO and BG style death animations, looks like the poll is proving my thoughs correct so for. But I still can't understand how people keep harping on about DA:O type animations!

 

It's akin to trying to shove a Rhino's foot into my shoe! It just aint gonna fit, converting 3D animation kill scenes to 2D isometric just sounds like a &^*% tonne of work and won't even be anything like the above posted clip of Dragon Age kill animations, let's be honest: FO and BG deaths will do the trick quite nicely.

 

That's not to say I don't appreciate this type of stuff (The witcher 2 comes to mind), but once again, it's done with 3D animation and multiple camera angles!

[sanian]

Seriously, most of the DA:O deathblow animations are not huge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4uJxXQW-eo

 

(A mod that forces them all the time, apparently)

 

I think something like those shorter ones would be fine, especially if they only happened with last enemy of the group. I wouldn't like enemies just chunking into generic gibs like in BG. Too cartoony.

Dawn of war would have been a better example considering that PE is going to be an eye on the sky game with no first person/close up third person view.

[Badmojo]

No QTE events at ALL. I do think Fallout level boss deaths are cool, and an *optional* perk or setting to have uber death animation. It was fun in fallout having things explode, especially if there is a huge level difference between my character and the character I am fighting.

[teknoman2]

QTE? kill it with fire and make sure there is nothing left

also liquid silver, the game will have 2D backgrounds, but the character models will be in 3D (they already said that since the begining). something like FF7-9 graphics. so it wont be all that much work animating the characters

anyway the most important thing for me, as i said in my first post, is to have character attack animations that

1. coincide with the actual attack (in IE games, you could see your character swing the sword 4 or 5 times, but there was only 1 attack roll made in that time. so your character attacked once and hit, but it looked like he attacked 5 times and missed 4)

2. the attacks look like they connect with the enemy and not just randomly swinging the weapon and get a message "you hit for x damage" or "you miss"

the rest would be nice to be there but its optional

[AW8]

As long as the obscuring blood splatter stays on the screen for at least 1 minute, I'm in.

[Silver6986]

QTE? kill it with fire and make sure there is nothing left

also liquid silver, the game will have 2D backgrounds, but the character models will be in 3D (they already said that since the begining). something like FF7-9 graphics. so it wont be all that much work animating the characters

anyway the most important thing for me, as i said in my first post, is to have character attack animations that

1. coincide with the actual attack (in IE games, you could see your character swing the sword 4 or 5 times, but there was only 1 attack roll made in that time. so your character attacked once and hit, but it looked like he attacked 5 times and missed 4)

2. the attacks look like they connect with the enemy and not just randomly swinging the weapon and get a message "you hit for x damage" or "you miss"

the rest would be nice to be there but its optional

 

Fair enough, maybe I misunderstand when you mention that the character models will be in 3D but wasn't that the case for BG as well? As in the original character resources where in 3D and then transferred into the game as you see them when playing? Which is why Beamdog could have remade BG in HD but Bioware lost the source art, making such a venture null and void...

 

Not sure how to grasp what you are saying regarding FFIX graphics, I did play that game and just remember the characters looking somewhat clunky (nothing like FFVII though!). I figured Project Eternity graphics would be like a HD version of BG.

[Silver6986]

@teknoman2 I don't think PE will have attacks where you say, swing your sword 4 or 5 times and only have one attack roll as the Devs have already stated that combat will be in real time.

[-TK-]

Fallout Tactics had the best sprite deaths I've ever seen, anything like that or surpassing that would be very, very welcome.

[AwesomeOcelot]

Fair enough, maybe I misunderstand when you mention that the character models will be in 3D but wasn't that the case for BG as well? As in the original character resources where in 3D and then transferred into the game as you see them when playing? Which is why Beamdog could have remade BG in HD but Bioware lost the source art, making such a venture null and void...

 

So was Fallout, the characters were 3D rendered to sprites. I doubt the BG 3D models were detailed enough, especially the texture work, to be rendered for HD resolution and still look good, also there's a hell of a lot of 2D assets that would need to be updated anyway.

[Cryticus]

I voted for special death animation only for bosses and special characters , I don't need that much gore just to know that things are dead.

Even for my immature self death scene from Baldurs gate when person hitted with dagger would explode in to pieces, or. dA:O where after killing rat you are completly from head to toe coverd in Blood are little to much

[Infinitron]

I voted for "Random brutal death animations, like FO or BG", but not so random that when you kill a wolf with a critical hit it explodes human legs and arms like it did on later Infinity Engine games. FO was perfect on this aspect, but it was turn-based so it was a lot easier to have the proper animations for each creature back then.

at that time it had to be scripted and turn based to be compatible with the low processing power of the PCs of the time. today's game engines and PCs can do the same thing easily in real time. besides you usually fight 2 or 3 types of enemies in every battle not all types of enemies the game has to offer at the same time, so it doesn't have to load ALL the animations and run out of memory.

 

lol

[Gene3]

Death animations are fine, but finishing moves as I know them are just a tedious time sink and a waste of resources.

[Pixelperfekt]

Personally I don't want to much focus on the deatscenes in this kind of game, I just want a good sense of impact, especially on bosses and bigger enemies when the fall.

[teknoman2]

QTE? kill it with fire and make sure there is nothing left

also liquid silver, the game will have 2D backgrounds, but the character models will be in 3D (they already said that since the begining). something like FF7-9 graphics. so it wont be all that much work animating the characters

anyway the most important thing for me, as i said in my first post, is to have character attack animations that

1. coincide with the actual attack (in IE games, you could see your character swing the sword 4 or 5 times, but there was only 1 attack roll made in that time. so your character attacked once and hit, but it looked like he attacked 5 times and missed 4)

2. the attacks look like they connect with the enemy and not just randomly swinging the weapon and get a message "you hit for x damage" or "you miss"

the rest would be nice to be there but its optional

 

Fair enough, maybe I misunderstand when you mention that the character models will be in 3D but wasn't that the case for BG as well? As in the original character resources where in 3D and then transferred into the game as you see them when playing? Which is why Beamdog could have remade BG in HD but Bioware lost the source art, making such a venture null and void...

 

Not sure how to grasp what you are saying regarding FFIX graphics, I did play that game and just remember the characters looking somewhat clunky (nothing like FFVII though!). I figured Project Eternity graphics would be like a HD version of BG.

i dont mean the art and desing of graphics i mean the way they worked. you had 100% 3D character models (not 3D converted to sprites) that moved around in a 2D enviroment, drawn in a way to look like 3D.

the thing about the attacks is an animation issue of the IE. the characters are animated to swing away non stop, regardless of actually making an attack or not. i just hope that whatever the rules of combat are in PE, the animation will coincide with the actual attack

[HungryHungryOuroboros]

I'm prety sure they weren't "random" in Fallout. Weren't the gorey death animations the result of landing a killing blow with a critical hit? Obviously this means that it was aided by a dice roll, which you could call "random", but that means it would also be weighted by your critical chance.

[Jarmo]

Yeah, I actually forgot the *during normal combat* special death animations in DA:O, that's actually pretty much what I'd like to see here.

Don't interrupt the gameplay, just provide some occasional eye candy.

 

And yeah, the kill animations in FO weren't random as such (even if the criticals causing them were), memory lapse there as well, my bad.

[Aedelric]

Boss death scenes and random enemy death animations are fine.

 

Being taken out of the game to watch a cut scene is immersion breaking and takes valuable time away from planning your tactical combat. I would also not be keen on any animations that wastes your character/companions time in oder to perform.

[Ozida]

Oh, God, I loved setting my enemies on fire or tearing them apart with machine gun back in Fallout. If they can pull something similar in PE without going into full video-scenes, that would be great. Otherwise it’s just a waste of resources to make custom video for each single enemy.

[zlarm]

I remember reading somewhere that just one of DA:Os finishers (probably the ogre one) took 3 weeks to implement.... so I don't think that kind of thing is in the budget for PE.

[Juneau]

When you kill someone - Its a finishing move - You are after all finishing them off. Maybe if time slowed slightly for every kill that was because of a certain type.

 

Crit / Instadeath etc..

 

You don't need new fancy animations, the same animations would work, just slow time a little to show that you are landing a kill - as always you can turn it off in options.

 

I liked the FO style random ones normally because you got a crit or head explosion