So does anyone feel like the combat is too static?

[Solandris]

      You know, this probably isn't a problem for anyone else, or I don't know at least - but does anyone feel like the combat is just way too static? Look at moves like Flame Charge, Sucker Punch and High-Jump Kick, they're absolutely amazing while many other moves are just an animation on a still frame, makes a lot of sense with things like Dark Pulse or Flash Cannon but what about moves like Crunch, wouldn't it be cool if it had some kind of Pursuit/High-Jump Kick like animation under those teeth too? Just moving on top of the enemy without anything fancy.

 

I feel like most moves that make contact should have at least a basic, generic lunge towards the enemy's spot with the animation on top of it.

Edited June 6, 2018 by Solandris

[TwilightCoda]

I don't mind it, but I do agree with you. The first time I saw the Retaliate animation, my jaw dropped. It seems that some animations may be placeholders for the time being; they're still being worked on.

[Solandris]

6 minutes ago, Chameleon109 said:

I don't mind it, but I do agree with you. The first time I saw the Retaliate animation, my jaw dropped. It seems that some animations may be placeholders for the time being; they're still being worked on.

True, this might be the case on some moves but for example that's how Crunch looks in the original games too, a still frame with an animation of a bite. It would be amazing if they decided to change that tho.

[Samtale]

Depending on the moves gen like say past gen 6 moves had to be improvised as we have to make a 3d move a 2d move along with some other cases if we looked at various gens and took bits and pieces from them at least that's what I did sometimes.

Crunch was a very early gen move so the simplicity is understandable.

Also  over the course of 3 years now at least 4 people have done them so that's something to take into account to every animator has their own way of doing things.

[Solandris]

I do understand what you want to say and you're right about it. I'm not saying they did a bad job by any means! What I was pointing out isn't the technical part but rather the.. philosophy, contact moves should have the sprites on the screen actually make 'contact', even if in the most basic way, if that makes any sort of sense..

[Monochrome_Complex]

At first I was like,  it's a pokemon game so of course but I kind of get what you mean. That said a number of these animations were done by this foruum so they do deserve credit for putting in the work to get those actually in the game. I remember when like half the moves didn't have aniamtions at all.

 

To be fair stuff like crunch and bite are just as static in the actual games too.

[mde2001]

I do understand your point, but there are a couple of reasons why we can't make every move as flashy and amazing. 

Firstly, flashy moves that go across the screen take longer to animate and drag out the process (which has already been going on for years) even further. 

Secondly, in order to make movement smooth, we would need to be adding an extra 1-2 seconds to each animation and we've already received some complaints about our animations causing the game to go too slowly, so if we did it for hundreds of moves, the game's pace would be even slower. 

Finally, we also try to think of a move's power and rarity when animating it. We want to create a clear visual difference between things that are used really regularly that are relatively low power, and things that should be inflicting a lot of damage. This doesn't always correlate with movement across the screen, as for moves like flame charge, it just seemed like the right idea to have it go across as the concept in my head relied on that. 

 

Overall, I do really understand your desire for more movement, and in an ideal world we probably would be able to have it, but I wouldn't get your hopes up, as the animations project has already been going on for several years, and going through the add movement to every contact move would bloat this process even further. 

[Solandris]

Hello and thank you for taking the time to write this, I appreciate such an in depth explanation a lot. For what it's worth I do understand the reasons perfectly and it wouldn't be anything wrong if everything stayed the way it is. Also, as much as I wouldn't mind those 2 extra seconds I'm sure it's better pleasing the majority. 

 

The only thing I'd like to add/ask would be that perhaps there's no need for so many different moves in the first place. It could be just 2-3 different animations, for example anything that would have to do with cutting, from Psycho Cut to Shadow Claw to Scratch would be a sprite animation, which would play under the current effect animation, of course.. same for all the moves that involve hitting and biting and perhaps one for jumping which would include most Flying moves.

 

Ok, I know this is just non-sense but perhaps some - very distant - day this will be a thing. Again, thank you for explaining and all the effort put into everything so far!

Edited June 7, 2018 by Solandris

[Samtale]

4 hours ago, Solandris said:

 

The only thing I'd like to add/ask would be that perhaps there's no need for so many different moves in the first place. It could be just 2-3 different animations

oh that is a nice thought but veriatey is the spice of life  .   One thing I'd like to add is movement gets kinda picky sometimes in certain moves and will result in a separate move being made for the opponent.

 

I'm glad mde was more articulate with his answer going back over mine I understand it didn't really address your concerns

 

4 hours ago, Solandris said:

Ok, I know this is just non-sense but perhaps some - very distant - day this will be a thing. 

thats a possibility I dont know if mods could be made for that. by messing with the  animation editor. If someone does its advised to be once the game is 100% done as it might mess with peoples games every animation has a slot and that could get messy otherwise