Warframe Animation And Combat Disscussion

[CarboniteIV]

Hey guys, I started this thread over in Art & Animation but, I feel it's pertinent to gameplay, so I started it over here as well.  And Mods, if this thread or the other is in any violation, feel free to close it immediately.  I just wanna share the love.  Thanks!

 

 

 

 

I wanted to start a specific type of disscussion here.  We are Tenno.  We are space ninja.  No, we are Space Ninja.  What contributes to the feeling of being a Space Ninja?  The far off places?  The menacing aliens?  The cool weapons and tech?

 

They all represent a large part of what makes Warframe so appealing but, at the end of the day, the core of Warframe's appeal remains the acrobatic and emergent combat and locomotion.  These are the crux of our experience, the actions we come back, day after day, to experience and execute.

 

But, as cool as Warframe is in it's current state, I feel it could do soooo much more.  And, I don't feel that it's all that difficult, I think it's more of a comprehension of what a fictional group of interplanetary ninja should move and fight like, alongside a disscussion about what could be done to move in that direction.

 

I'm just gonna lay out some ideas here, and let the conversation flow from there.

 

 

 

 

Currently, the general look and feel of the running and jumping are decent.  It looks like I'm a space ninja.  But, what else could be done?  Is there a better way of jumping while running forward that would feel more dramatic and operatic, which is the general disposition I'm in when I play, and is an alternative to the heartbreakingly basic "leapcrouch" that the Tenno do?  Below is a video of some freerunning.  Watch this, think about your Warframe, then come back.

 

http://youtu.be/JIhgWGLrcuw

 

In Warframe, does the animation for jumping have to be so simplistic?  Is it a technical issue?  Or is it just a matter of not really seeing what could be done?  How would you change jumping into something not necessarily more realistic, but rather more immersive?

 

 

 

 

Recently, the Kogake were released.  I watched them talk about it on a livestream, and I dreamt of the possibilites.  Needless to say, I was crushed at the end result.  Furax/Ankyros animations with three or four "kick" moves sprinkled about.  They didn't live up to my hopes but, what was I dreaming about when I heard about them?  Below is a video of Martial Arts Tricking.  I'll let it speak for itself.

 

http://youtu.be/A5ux4WokXWo

 

We are Tenno.  We are like fricking Jedi, man!  We should be tumbling through the air like Cirque Du Soleil.  Instead, we kick like fat guys and commit the worse Chuck Norris/Van Damme impression I've probably ever seen in my life.  What should we do?  Could you see a way to incorporate those loopkicks into possible attacks?

 

 

 

 

The melee combat in the game, while really good, still feels like a "move" pasted onto a third-person shooter.  It needs a little more to ground it in as a alternate form of offense.  I think what's missing is takedowns.  Fast, Sam Fisher-Daniel Craig-Liam Neeson-Jason Bourne-style takedowns that take like 1 or 2 seconds to pull off.  They'd need to have some functionality though, in order to give it depth, like positioning enemies, temporarily incapacitating stronger enemies, killing on the move, and so forth.  Below is a video of Grandmaster Remy Presas Jr. showing off some Kali/Arnis forms.

 

http://youtu.be/Pa7LGMPHxFY

 

Allowing the Tenno to interact in a more physical way with enemies will bring with it extraordinary depth on it's own, not to mention more ways to manipulate the battlefield, allowing the devs to increase the A.I.'s intelligence without us feeling like we haven't got a chance.

 

 

 

I'm gonna leave it there for now.  Please, if you feel Warframe could be more, comment and discuss.