The latest on new flight animations

[Alaric]

From the Animation Dept.

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Here's the deal. Originally we wanted to put alternate flight poses in purely as additional flavor. Nothing more really than the alternate idle cycles that are already in game, like crossing your arms, putting your hands on your hips, etc. This is why there were random to begin with. When we put them up on the training room, it became clear very quickly that you guys saw them as more than just random variations. For a lot of you, these poses defined your character's attitude and style in a way that was outside of your control. In reaction to that we tried to make them selectable in the only method that we had, which was to make them sequential rather than random. We weren't really happy with that solution, and a lot of you guys weren't either. So we took a step back and re-examined it from a broader perspective.

Here was the opportunity to give another layer of character customization to everyone. Rather than implement the quick and easy solution, we wanted to hold off on it until we could implement the right solution. It wasn't because of people whining about them on the forums, those people had legitimate concerns. There were issues that we couldn't resolve in time before Issue 8 was going live. Instead of holding back Issue 8 to resolve them or just leaving them in the state they were in and impacting a good number of players in a very negative way, we pulled them out of Issue 8. We haven't completely shelved the idea of a custom animation system, but in lieu of the Inventions system, Task Forces, and other things that we've been working on for Issue 9 and Issue 10, a custom animation system has a much smaller impact on the game as a whole. Because of this, it's gotten pushed back in the list of priorities. I can't say when we'll do it at this point. I can't even say that it's something even possible or feasible to do at this point. I can pretty comfortably say that there are things coming in Issue 9, 10, and beyond that are much more exciting and will impact everyone who plays the game.

However, there is some good news here. We didn't think it would be possible to create these alternate flight animations as an emote. Emote animations have to be limited in what they can interrupt as well as be interruptible by core animations, such as movement or attack powers. I had a flash of insight the other day about this though, and I believe I have figured out a way to set these up so they can be triggered via an emote but still function in the way they need to. I've tested this internally and it seems to work fine, but I can't test all of the permutations. We're treading into somewhat risky waters by allowing an animation to trump a core movement animation. The way this will work is if you turn on flight and start flying forward (using autorun works best in this case), you can enter the emote name and your character will transition in the alternate fly forward animation. I think this resolves all of the issues we had with it originally. It won't interrupt hover, what you see on your system is what everyone will see on their system, and it's completely optional and selectable by the player. You will be able to use the one you like or not use it at all.

We won't be re-adding the banking animations which were basically an attempt to do a flying strafe. We also won't be introducing the no-strafe movement on player characters. This is only the alternate fly forward animations.


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For the original post, see here.

[Bujin]

The possibility of adding alternate flight animations as an emote is pretty cool - folks can just add it as a bind when they activate their fly command.   Nifty!

[BlueBard]

The possibility of adding alternate flight animations as an emote is pretty cool - folks can just add it as a bind when they activate their fly command.   Nifty!

From the way he's describing it, I don't think it's going to work that way...

You have to be flying forward already before you activate the emote.  And the reason that would be the case is that any change in animation will be interruptible.

So when you start flying, you normally transition into the stationary flight (hover) animation.  Then when you start moving, you transition into the normal flight animation.  This is the point at which you would kick off the emote to change your flight animation.  If you kicked it off any sooner, it would be interrupted by the normal flight animation as soon as you started moving.

But as soon as you stop moving forward, you're going to change to the hover animation and then you'd have to do the emote all over again.  THAT would be a huge pain in the... (ahem!)

I can think of one way to do it, though.  If you used an alternate key for forward flight movement, you could possibly set up a bind that would do both.

[Tortuga]

But as soon as you stop moving forward, you're going to change to the hover animation and then you'd have to do the emote all over again.  THAT would be a huge pain in the... (ahem!)

Typing in one word is a huge pain in the you-know-what?  You need Dull Pain!  :P

[Uncle Yuan]

I really hope a sitting crossed-leg pose becomes available!

[Figure Fan]

I really hope a sitting crossed-leg pose becomes available!

They already have that. It's "/e yoga". You can do it when you're hovering too, which looks cool.

Couldn't they just make the flight animations much like they did the Veteran Rewards running effects? They could just make a series of 5 flight powers available to everyone, each with it's own animation. That way you can just choose which you wnat in your tray.

[Verfall]

Why can't they have it as a series of checkmark dealys like tp permission and profanity filter. One for each type. They can just call em flight position 1 through 5 or whatever, then people can check the one they want, and bingo, you fly you do the pose.

Everyones happy and you don't have to do some stupid emote to activate it.

[Uncle Yuan]

I really hope a sitting crossed-leg pose becomes available!

They already have that. It's "/e yoga". You can do it when you're hovering too, which looks cool.

Couldn't they just make the flight animations much like they did the Veteran Rewards running effects? They could just make a series of 5 flight powers available to everyone, each with it's own animation. That way you can just choose which you wnat in your tray.

Unfortunately, while you can hover in one place like that, it interrupts back to the default flight pose as soon as you move.

[Ephemeris]

Simplest way to get them to us would be to have a seperate toggle for each animation.  Let the player decide which animation they want to use, similar to the prestige sprints.

[Tortuga]

Agreed.  You could essentially have a tray of flight powers, if you want to use a variety.  If you prefer one particular style over the others, then don't place the others in your tray.  Although, how would that impact slotting?  Are the veteran sprints slottable?  Or do they just use the slots for normal sprint?

[Alaric]

Agreed.  You could essentially have a tray of flight powers, if you want to use a variety.  If you prefer one particular style over the others, then don't place the others in your tray.  Although, how would that impact slotting?  Are the veteran sprints slottable?  Or do they just use the slots for normal sprint?

The veteran sprints show up as entirely seperate powers from ordinary sprint, seperately slotable- which I find kind of annoying, since a) it crowds up the slotting screen (and you HAVE to take all four if you take any), and b) it means if you have a character you want multiple sprints for, you have to slot them seperately. I hope they DON'T implement flight styles the same way.

I kind of like Verfall's idea, actually.

[Ephemeris]

A slight variation of my other idea...What if it remained one power, but a toggle for each animation that use fly's slotting.  You pick fly, the standard toggle lands in your tray.  Open the powers tab and pick the animation you want.

[BlueBard]

But as soon as you stop moving forward, you're going to change to the hover animation and then you'd have to do the emote all over again.  THAT would be a huge pain in the... (ahem!)

Typing in one word is a huge pain in the you-know-what?  You need Dull Pain!  :P

It would be a pain if you had to do it over and over.  Like you'd have to do if you stop occasionally to get your bearings and look for bad guys like I do.

I'd stick with the default flight animations rather than putz around with firing off an emote manually.  But, like I said, if you were able to turn it into a keybind/macro for forward flight it would be fine.

I like the other options that were mentioned over an emote.