Animations

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Alpha-2 work-in-progress combat animations and decals.[1]

The intensity of those weapon trailings; how they scale based on the type of weapon, the level of weapon, that you have; but not just the trailing on the weapon per-se but also the ground decals. Like for this heavy weapon, that first strike you see that decal in the ground is- I love that look- and even on the backswing when I hit the ground behind me, it's causing that decal.[1]Steven Sharif

We really wanted to build the combat system to- like i said earlier- be as physical as possible. So we have it very animation driven. Everything is handled based on a reference of animation as opposed to nebulous timings, which allows it to feel very impactful and very responsive.[2]Keenan Reimer
  • Races will not have unique combat animations, but will have unique non-combat animations.[3][4]
We're not going to be having I think unique combat animations. However we will have unique non-combat animations, such as your idle, your walk, your run cycle: things that the combat attacks do not have to blend back into.[3]Steven Sharif

Idle animations

Idle animations (non-combat idle stances) will be selectible by players in the character creator.[6]

Part of the feedback that we got from the tank demonstration when we were holding that two-handed sword was that people would like to see variants of the types of non-combat idle stances that can be had with certain weapons; and so we decided to introduce a variant of that with having the [sword] rest on the on the shoulder; and that is something that we'll be exploring further to see just how much runway we can get out of custom and/or selective idle stances.[6]Steven Sharif

Animation cancelling

Animation cancelling will not be a combat mechanic in Ashes of Creation.[7][8]

Root motion

Revamped Alpha-1 Mage Fireball ability.[9][10]

The general approach that we're taking based on a lot of feedback and just good combat design in general. You know philosophy is that we want to give more agency in the hands of the player and the antithesis of that is locking the player down for really long amounts of time. The sort of concept behind that is like you could make an animation effects as glorious looking as possible but if it's taking away control of the player, none of that really matters. Especially the 100th or thousandth time you're using the spell you're tired of that happening you don't feel powerful: You feel the opposite of powerful. So we're trying to like give a lot of control back to the player while they're using these abilities so they can still control their movements, they can react simultaneously while they're taking actions; and we just want to get overall more of a fluid flow, I guess, of combat. And that's the general design philosophy we're using to approach the overhaul.[9]Tradd Thompson

A lot of abilities you have the capability of moving while casting. It's going to decrease your movement speed significantly or depending on the type of ability. We do reserve the cost- and that's really what it is when you tie ability usage to mobility- we do reserve the cost of requiring the character to remain stationary on some big effect type abilities.[11]Steven Sharif
  • Most abilities in Ashes of Creation are capable of being cast while moving. Some abilities may slow the caster down during the cast, but only rarely will the player be rooted in place.[11][16]
Most abilities you'll find in Ashes of Creation are capable of being cast while moving. Some of those abilities might slow your movement during the cast, but you can continue to move. Very rarely, and depending on obviously the importance of the ability or the power level of that ability, you might be rooted in place. So, for example, the AoE ability [Chains of Restraint] has a lot going on. It has damage ticking over time, it is an area of effect, it also has a status condition application; and in those instances the player character gets rooted.[16]Steven Sharif
  • Unreal Engine 5 has enabled improved forms of locomotion, such as crouching, tilting and mantling.[19][20]
    • Crouching may or may not be in the game.[21][22]
  • The ability to prone is not be in the game.[21][22]
There's a balance in the game design between your movement speed on attack and the movement speed of your opponent. When you have a game that is both PvE centric as well as PvP centric, you have to make sure that combat is blended for both approaches; and we can always run into problems where, if you're significantly hampered in your movement speed, that has an effect on how we expect player versus player engagements to interact; and we don't want to restrict a player's ability to be mobile if they're the target of an attack. And as a result of that we need to make sure that we don't restrict the movement abilities of the player who is doing the attacking as well. So we want it to be relatively free for you to stay with each other. Your opponents move around the battlefield together and if we're hampering you on the attack action, we have to then implement some type of snare, or slow, or cc effect essentially on your opposing target; and that's not the approach we want to take for for PvP.[24]Steven Sharif
If we're talking about Fighter, they're going to have a lot of heavy gap closers. They can probably be a little bit more liberal in the use of their gap closers because they have so many of them, versus let's say a Ranger that needs to choose when to use their escape abilities, because they have fewer of them. The same would be true for a melee character like a rogue. Their approach vector is going to be more stealth-driven than it would be perhaps let's say from a gap-closer perspective.[25]Steven Sharif
Q: If a ranger is super mobile, what are the melee's options in order to catch them?
A: Different class kits will provide different gap closers. They'll provide different mobility skills. They'll have lockdowns. They'll have chains to pull back. They'll have a lot of different things in the rotation. That's part of what an MMORPG experience is. You're not just restricted to three or six skills, you have a rotational suite; and depending on the type of challenges you face is going to help determine which of those rotations you spec into from your skill tree.[26]Steven Sharif
info-orange.pngThis section contains information from early testing phases. It will be updated as soon as new information is made available.
Skill Icon Base skill
Air Strike Air Strike New.png Leap a great distance forward and into the air while firing three projectiles in a line along the path, each dealing area damage and rooting targets hit for 3 seconds. Rotation control is enabled during cast.[27] The root effect is nature based.[28]
Blink Blink.png Instantly teleport a set distance in the direction you are moving.[29][30]
Call of the Wild Call of the Wild Icon.png Remove all movement impairing effects and increase movement speed by 20% for 8 seconds. Snares and Roots effects applied to the caster are ignored.[31]
Caravan Trail Speed Bonus Trail Speed Bonus.png Minor speed boost for travelling on a simple trail.[32]
Rush rush icon.png Rush toward a target; and upon reaching the target, deal an amount damage with a chance to knock the target down.[33]
Speed Boost Speed Boost.png Gives the caravan a temporary speed boost.[34]
Wings of Salvation Wings of Salvation.png Sprout phoenix-like wings and leap to target ally, then grant a small amount of temporary health to that target on arrival.[35][36] An ally is defined as any non-combatant player or non-mob NPC.[37]

Weapon weights

Weapon weight refers to how the mass of a weapon affects its performance during combat.[12]

There is a balance between player motion and agency as we call it and weapon weightedness- that almost locked-in-place rooted position- the heavier the weapon is, the more restrictions you want to place on that player agency to showcase the rooted effect: That weight- that heavyweight aspect; and so what we've done by presenting you guys with both the dual daggers and the two-handed weapon is we've shown the range between that complete player agency: a player agency in the light weapon attacks that's the dual daggers, and the maximum range of of rootedness or weightedness that's present on the two-handed weapon; and that's the spectrum in which our basic melee combat will exist within. So if there are medium weapon groups that exist in-between there, it's going to be somewhere in between that spectrum.[39]Steven Sharif

Social animations

There are interactive social animations and emotes.[42]

Some animations will be agreed-upon emotes that you can initiate with other characters.[45]

Q: Can we dance on tables?
A: Technically the tables are in world, so yes...[46]Steven Sharif

There may be emotes associated with mounts and pets, such as petting, hugging, or playing with them.[47]

In alpha one you might have seen some of the anims on the rider of a horse that they went down and patted the side of the neck, or they would pet those; but those would be separate actions that you could potentially do as just additional emotes, but interfaces with a mount or pet that you have active.[47]Steven Sharif

Water animations

Underwater content will be accessible, not cumbersome.[50]

Treasures may be obtained through fishing and by exploring naval content.[53][54]

Visuals

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Video, June 30, 2022 (20:29).
  2. 2.0 2.1 Video, June 30, 2022 (21:19).
  3. 3.0 3.1 Livestream, June 30, 2022 (53:33).
  4. Livestream, December 22, 2020 (1:12:56).
  5. Video, March 31, 2023 (5:56).
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Livestream, January 28, 2022 (39:30).
  7. 7.0 7.1 Livestream, November 22, 2019 (1:09:37).
  8. Livestream, May 17, 2017 (1:05:11).
  9. 9.0 9.1 Livestream, February 26, 2021 (27:41).
  10. Video, February 26, 2021 (6:17).
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 Livestream, July 28, 2023 (1:02:23).
  12. 12.0 12.1 12.2 Livestream, June 30, 2022 (46:30).
  13. Livestream, July 30, 2021 (31:22).
  14. Interview, June 13, 2021 (4:12).
  15. Livestream, May 28, 2021 (1:13:05).
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 Livestream, December 2, 2022 (59:47).
  17. Livestream, April 30, 2020 (1:17:13).
  18. Livestream, May 8, 2017 (43:30).
  19. Livestream, December 23, 2021 (55:32).
  20. Video, December 23, 2021 (23:53).
  21. 21.0 21.1 Livestream, October 14, 2022 (48:45).
  22. 22.0 22.1 stevenclarification.png
  23. Livestream, June 26, 2020 (1:30:40).
  24. 24.0 24.1 Livestream, June 30, 2022 (49:42).
  25. 25.0 25.1 Livestream, December 19, 2023 (1:16:19).
  26. 26.0 26.1 Livestream, September 30, 2022 (51:28).
  27. Air Strike New Description.png
  28. Video, September 30, 2022 (15:28).
  29. Video, April 28, 2023 (4:40).
  30. Call of the Wild Description.png
  31. Trail Speed Bonus Description.png
  32. progression.png
  33. Speed Boost Description New.png
  34. Video, July 28, 2023 (24:03).
  35. Wings of Salvation Info Panel.png
  36. Video, July 28, 2023 (24:16).
  37. Livestream, October 28, 2022 (1:29:48).
  38. 39.0 39.1 39.2 39.3 Livestream, June 30, 2022 (42:29).
  39. Video, November 30, 2023 (1:00:24).
  40. Video, September 26, 2019 (0:0).
  41. dance.jpg
  42. 43.0 43.1 Interview, October 20, 2018 (3:30:40).
  43. Ashes of Creation Twitter, April 4,2021.
  44. 45.0 45.1 45.2 Livestream, November 17, 2017 (53:02).
  45. steven-dancing.png
  46. 47.0 47.1 Livestream, April 29, 2022 (1:04:52).
  47. 48.0 48.1 Livestream, July 31, 2020 (1:42:41).
  48. Livestream, January 29, 2021 (1:00:57).
  49. Livestream, May 19, 2017 (38:46).
  50. Livestream, September 30, 2020 (55:39).
  51. Livestream, October 14, 2022 (30:12).
  52. Podcast, April 11, 2021 (36:43).
  53. fishing.jpg