Warframes Weapon Animations From A Martial Arts Perspective.

[Ravihn]

WALL OF TEXT

 

I will start by saying I have not used every melee weapon in warframe. I will also say that the staff animations were rather good as well as most katana and dual wielding techniques. My hat goes off to your animators, and I am not saying this to try to appease. Too many games have this nonsense anime flippy crap that is down right offensive to physics and anyone with real fighting experience with weapons or hand techniques.

 

This being said as you can imagine I got some bones to pick. ( I apologize I like you guys alot but this gets under my skin and I just cant stay cal-094t-gjewvdiofhgejvsfgfs... I feel better.)

 

The Scythe. I am sorry but the spins... Why? What is that 6 rotations at the end of a power attack with no hands applied to any part of the weapon? If the weapon hit anything while doing that it would hardly even scratch them because there is nothing to ground the return force. Basically it would bounce off someone and go flying away. Which for the record would make you look like the worst ninja ever.

 

I get that we are tenno and we have magic suits that have super strength and... personalities? ( I dont know how that part works either. Can we get the different gender suits and go back to calling them suits. I dont know who I am anymore with the whole changing sex all the time and people telling me my suit has personality... ) The point being no amount of super dexterity or strength will change physics, and there are plenty of ways to add flourish and things to techniques that are not as fantastical.

 

My other observation with scythes and staves and really all of the long form weapons in Warframe is that they use techniques for one on one combat and not actual war or battle techniques. To clarify in wars or battles you do not spin your weapon close to the ground because lets face it there's corpses there and its a great way to get your weapon stuck and reveal an opening to your enemies. So in times of war especially among samurai its common to use large sweeping strikes to cleave everyone around you.

 

Which brings me to the pole arm that I just saw today. ( Yes I watched your live stream! Good news, like me you all have some form of ADD! Welcome to the club :D We dont have jackets... we take medicine and wonder why youtube and imgur are open and where our free time went...) Now what I saw was I believe a Chinese style of technique. Not saying this doesn't fit into the martial aspects of your game, but when I think cleaving weapons I think Axes, Staves, and their love child the pole arm. You dont twirl one of these bad boys close to your body, the point of the weapon is the get that axe head, sword point, or scythe blade as far away as you can so you can reach out and ruin someone day!

 

Now I get this is Science Fiction and all that. As well as that I sound fairly critical. To be fair its because you guys have done a great job setting the scene so far that it feels so off that you have some of these new twirly techniques in there.

 

I will end with a little thought I had. I know dancing has come up a lot in forum posts, and I know a lot feel strongly that dances would ruin the serious mood. I agree with them, but there is a possible middle ground. In Bushido its common to engage in short practice forms called katas now in other martial arts these can be quite long but typically its a quick routine of techniques typically utilized for weapon on weapon training, an example would be sword vs spear. It would be cool to have a tenno break into techniques on command or have two tenno do a spar routine amongst themselves. Would make an interesting scene in the dojo to have tenno doing katas with their weapons as apposed to just mucking about.

 

TLDR

YOU GET NOTHING

 

Fixed various errors... I should sleep before posting things... I apologize for things that dont make sense. Also give scythes longer hafts they are too short.

~Ravihn

Edited May 30, 2013 by Ravihn

[Nuko_Miko]

Too Long; Didn't Read :3

[krisp]

Pfah! Next thing you'll say dinosaurs shooting laser beams AREN'T awesome.

[Ravihn]

Pfah! Next thing you'll say dinosaurs shooting laser beams AREN'T awesome.

 

Dinosaurs with lasers that follow the rules of physics are allowable. Carry on.

[Nuko_Miko]

Dinosaurs with lasers that follow the rules of physics are allowable. Carry on.

Ain't nobody got time for physics!

[Xforce]

Hi! I've seen you around a lot, but I'm not sure we've been formally introduced. My name is Rhino and I really like kicking and charging at things with no regard for conservation of momentum! I like cooking, going skating on Grineer asteroid bases and doing a lot of pole vaulting in my spare time. I'm usually not out during the day, though because I have an awful skin condition that makes me look like a stupid statue. I'm a Tenno, not a statue...! Have some sensitivity before you make with the name calling, people!

 

I also get made fun of a lot because of my codpiece and my massive thighs, but I think Tenno who do that are secretly really insecure about their appearance themselves. Frost thinks he's wearing a trenchcoat all the time, Ember's obsessed with burning calories and Trinity has a lobster on her butt... but I don't judge! Still, a lot of the things they say are really hurtful. I still cry myself to sleep sometimes, when I remember them telling jokes about how my thighs are so fat, moas get sucked into orbit around them. It's hard, but when the world is against me, I try to remember that sticks and stones bounce off my bones, but words will always hurt me.

[ra9una]

Okay....okay...yeah, okay. I can, somewhat, relate to what you're feeling, somewhat. But, as someone who's also done martial arts for the majority of my life I like that the game strays from reality. In real life I'm bound to the justifiable, the plausible and the practice, in Warframe I get to just run 3 meters up a wall, back flip off and cleave three dudes with a giant war ax...I love martial arts, I do, but they have very little place in games like this, as far as realism goes.

[Argoms]

There's no effort to stick to realism in any aspect of this game, it operates on the rule of cool. Take someone knowledgable in any subject (physics, firearms, archery, architecture) and they could spend all day pointing out inaccurate features/facts/information. 

[Ravihn]

I understand and general agree with rules of cools, but how can you justify baton twirling a miniature scythe? I am willing to forsake a lot of things for cool. Unless you are making mini pony versions of my favored pole arm. I also said that I understand its a sci fiction plot and there for we all can understand leaps are made for various reasons mainly to be bad &#!. ( I prolly shoulda said more on that topic... I am le tired...)

 

Thing is in this case I believe and I could be totally wrong but having a giant scythe making massive cleaving arcs is cooler than this little twirly thing that should end with a marching band and a color guard.

 

I would argue that at times it IS cool that something in a game is realistic, but this is not the time or place. I mean... Space Ninjas. Thing is I think a quasi realistic approach to insane space ninjas is what makes this cool. I mean tenno could have combat boots and still sneak, but they have SPACE NINJA TABI, and I think its awesome. There are plenty of other more boring in depth things that make the tenno more akin to ye ninjas of old, and I argue thats what makes them cool, because it almost seems plausible at points. Thats all I wanna say. Crazy combat grounded in realism is more entertaining and rather interesting in my opinion than space gundams.

 

Must... sleep...

~Ravihn