Let The Dead Be A Little Less Lively

[FierceRadiance]

As the game has gotten 'faster' lately (more rushing, and more farming which often means constant sprinting), I decided to comment on something I first noticed a little while back but never mentioned before: the living dead.

 

Frequently, when an enemy is kilt (i.e., the light blue point numbers appear over their head) they sometimes continue to stand there, or even worse, remain standing and slowly wave their arms, for another four or five seconds or so.  If, in the frantic chaos of gameplay, a player happens to miss the point display and just catches sight of a slowly-moving enemy, they might (or often do, in my case) not realize they're dead, and continue to pour bullets into it.

 

Now that I'm using leveling my new Dual Vipers, I can burn through a serious percentage of my total ammo trying to "kill" an enemy that's already dead.

 

DE, would you consider working towards a little less post-death animations? (Or even a LOT less--like NONE!!)  The more frantic the game gets, and in particular with my new guns' ferocious rate of fire, the more annoying this problem has become, at least for me.

[VakarisJ]

I think the answer to your problem are fire mods -- don't use them. For now anyway.

Edited April 21, 2013 by VakarisJ

[SomethingCrazy]

I think you're just referring to lag. I've play a lot of MMOs and this happens with them all.

Edited April 21, 2013 by SomethingCrazy

[Shaftronics]

If anything, this can also refer to the fire and electrical damage mod deaths, in which they flail and wave before falling to the ground and dying, even after getting hit by a melee weapon.

[aliasAnonymous]

Seriously, why are there so many threads on this. You get a fat hp bar at the top of your screen, if you see it go away, its ____

 

Any guesses? Four letters.

 

Dead.

 

Edit:

Fine, less sarcasm and derisive attitudes.

 

Its a skill to check your HUD for relevant information. I'm sorry you don't have it.

 

Oh wait, more sarcasm. I'm in a bad mood.

Edited April 22, 2013 by aliasAnonymous

[Inez]

What aliasanonymous said but nicer:  Don't use fire electricity mods, and if you get a host that lags, just leave the game.  And watch the hp bar.

[Ryjeon]

Relying on feedback from hud details rather than the gamefield is significantly unappealing when there are alternative possibilities. Graphic HUDs are a relic of less powerful gaming platforms which currently detract from the immersive feedback possibilities offered by current technology. I believe I stand with the majority when I pine in anticipation for elemental dispatchment animations as immediate and visceral as the slashing, propelling, and freezing animations.

Edited April 22, 2013 by Ryjeon

[aliasAnonymous]

That crossed my mind after I posted...but that requirement severely limits creativity in death animations

 

It is a trade off, you have to acknowledge that. The more immediate the animation, the less substance that animation can have.

[Woolytop]

That crossed my mind after I posted...but that requirement severely limits creativity in death animations

 

It is a trade off, you have to acknowledge that. The more immediate the animation, the less substance that animation can have.

Nothing should stand in the way of game readability. I would honestly rather have an enemy just fall over than have a pretty, but drawn out death animation that doesn't immediatly communicate that they've been killed, ESPECIALLY in a twitch-based game like this.

They can circumvent this by making the animation from if they die while under the affect of a fire/lightning mod different from the effect of just being stunned by it. For instance, an enemy that's been disabled by fire or lightning will do what they do now. An enemies that's died from these damage types will fall on the ground and roll around in a desperate attempt to extinguish the flames before they expire, or fall on the ground and sieze, respectively

[IcarusNine]

That crossed my mind after I posted...but that requirement severely limits creativity in death animations

 

It is a trade off, you have to acknowledge that. The more immediate the animation, the less substance that animation can have.

If you opt for an exceedingly long and creative animation over one that has actual meaning to the player, the game's playability will suffer and players will resent your exceedingly long and creative animation.  Besides which, just because the animation is long and creative doesn't mean it will complement the rest of the game's aesthetic: If you shoot an enemy with a electric-powered shotgun, the visceral expectation is that the enemy gets splattered into arcing giblets rather than remaining in a standing position doing a very poor rendition of folk dance.

Edited April 23, 2013 by IcarusNine

[neKroMancer]

Relying on feedback from hud details rather than the gamefield is significantly unappealing when there are alternative possibilities. Graphic HUDs are a relic of less powerful gaming platforms which currently detract from the immersive feedback possibilities offered by current technology. I believe I stand with the majority when I pine in anticipation for elemental dispatchment animations as immediate and visceral as the slashing, propelling, and freezing animations.

That, I absolutely agree. 

 

Less HUD means better gaming experience. Dead space did that with a good result.

[IlIlllIO0pallaO0IlIlIlIl]

I agree.

Also, with fire and elect modes: an electrocution resulting in a convulsing dead body? Fine! But they can still convulse after falling down...I just find it immersion breaking to see dead bodies just waving their hands around etc.

[KageNoShini]

for shock, i like the borderlands 1 death animation where their head explodes, for fire, maybe disintegration, frost is badass as is, and poison (if/when they implement) they melt like the borderlands 2 death animation for corrosive.

 

I see these as most likely being faster than current ones, but as of right now, i just stop shooting anything that looks like it's slowly waving its arms, there is also like a half second pause of them standing there if they're still alive, so take advantage of that window if they are still alive.

 

I know ^ is not much, but it helps conserve ammo, especially with vipers.

[Babalenong]

shooting an enemy being burned to death that is already died should just drop them down

like, plop, and have them rolling around

[Dusklite]

Isn't it still in the game that enemies killed with e.g. Mag's Crush will hover about until they just disappear?

Also that the burning death-animation is horribly slow while the enemy is also frozen?

 

My suggestion: the animations are fine when they play normally, mostly, but they are still bugged in that regard. Frozen enemies exploding aren't bothering me, neither do burning ones ... much... but any combination and the field gets extremely clustered with left-overs from the last meal, so to speak.

 

I'm not stupid enough to shoot dead enemies most of the time (unless they are nailed to the wall in a way that they seem to be still alive and kicking) and I do watch the HUD for information but that doesn't change a bit about the issue that it's currently not done very well.