What is causing the Animation-update to be 'on Hold'

[Meat Man (Alfons)]

Okay first, this is -not- supposed to spark a war or anything, I am asking a genuine question.

The development for PZ has been a bit split, but still secretly managed, instead of just waiting for one person to work on X, and when X is done, move onto Z, they work on several progresses with the few developers, and that is showing when the animation update has 'been in development' longer than Vehicles, Nutrition system, and some more goodies.

They prioritize in a split manner I think is logical, they will prioritize Animations over NPCs I read somewhere, for instance. But then my question is, what is being prioritized over Animations? Or if it is just something that takes time, or some other issue has arisen.

I havent been eyeing the development spot-on for this game all time, but the animation updates slowness has lead to certain aspects of this game being unpolished for ages because of the prioritization these guys do, like detail to animation(duhh), additional actions, etc. While other mechanics that doesn't even need animations, such as vehicles, food and other features that I havent noted have grown substantially.

I decided to rewatch the animation-teaser videos to realise it has been !2 years! since the teaser video, which isnt even listing the teaser images or when they first announced it. But a smart choice the devs did is not say any ETAs or even 'coming soon' at all, but they showed this little strip of gameplay a little too early which created hype, so one wonders, what is causing the delay on this?

Seriously, if anyone remembers anything being said on a Mondoid on the regards for this to why it is taking long, either if it is put on 'later, first things first' or that it simply takes an akward amount of time.

[sugarskull]

It's not "on hold" they are actively working on it. However, I think they only have one or two developers working on animations right now.

I think it will be the next "big thing" though. In the Thursoid from 3/29 they stated "Mark, meanwhile, has been plugging away at the animation system we intend to switch dev over to once Vehicles are out of the door".

So basically once vehicles hit the stable release, I think they'll be pushing animations on to the beta builds.

https://projectzomboid.com/blog/2018/03/hellgate-muldraugh/

[sugarskull]

Also I just re-watched the animation teaser and OMG I CAN'T WAIT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0jwcqjdELk

[Reece Draygan]

Yeah, for me animations are more important than NPC's. Animations will make this my go to game. Atm its good, but could be so much more awesome with better animations

[The zombie wars]

Originally posted by Reece Draygan:

Yeah, for me animations are more important than NPC's. Animations will make this my go to game. Atm its good, but could be so much more awesome with better animations

If there wasn't an NPC mod, I would play much less. The only thing keeping me is the vehicles. How do you even compare animations to having NPC's? I don't care about animations and it's not going to do anything to change how I play or how often I play. It's just not important.

If you just play multiplayer, then I understand. But I really don't give a flying **** about multiplayer, so no NPC's is a no go for me.

[Nachoman]

If you don't take care of the zombie popultion periodically you'll eventually get huge amounts of zombies (100 to 200+) on screen. I have to disable 3D effects (and change other settings) for everything but my character to prevent massive lag. Imagine what kind of lag/stuttering animations will add. I think animations are just more fluff for gamers with high end systems. IMO, they need to work on adding more core content after vehicles.

[Meat Man (Alfons)]

Originally posted by PPanda421:

If you don't take care of the zombie popultion periodically you'll eventually get huge amounts of zombies (100 to 200+) on screen. I have to disable 3D effects (and change other settings) for everything but my character to prevent massive lag. Imagine what kind of lag/stuttering animations will add. I think animations are just more fluff for gamers with high end systems. IMO, they need to work on adding more core content after vehicles.

No, animations will rework basically how you move, attack and about everything, you can for instance move and eat I believe, run and jump, slam into walls if you're running too fast... I doubt it will be an option that can be toggled off. It is more than just fluff because it makes the game less robotic and more human (unless you get bitten lol)

[Nachoman]

Are you positive animations are player-only? The video looked like the zombies were doing animations as well. Eg The way they fell down after climbing over the fence. They were also somewhat animated when they were killed. So I think there are more to animations than just player-related actions. Making animations unable to be toggled on/off will be a big issue for players that don't have beefy systems. Animation is fluff. Most of the time you're running around and/or looting. Running and jumping and slamming into walls won't prolong gameplay. It might be exciting at first but eventually you'll go back into survival mode which is to explore, collect, build and farm (and kill somoe zombies along the way).

They need to add more things to do in the base game. Perhaps more recipes, husbandry, mining, etc. Vehicles is a much needed addon but with that they'll need to add more maps (especially with MP servers). There are already large custom made maps so perhaps they should incorporate those maps into the base game or at least make sure they work with vanilla.

[Death]

Originally posted by PPanda421:

Are you positive animations are player-only? The video looked like the zombies were doing animations as well. Eg The way they fell down after climbing over the fence. They were also somewhat animated when they were killed. So I think there are more to animations than just player-related actions. Making animations unable to be toggled on/off will be a big issue for players that don't have beefy systems. Animation is fluff. Most of the time you're running around and/or looting. Running and jumping and slamming into walls won't prolong gameplay. It might be exciting at first but eventually you'll go back into survival mode which is to explore, collect, build and farm (and kill somoe zombies along the way).

They need to add more things to do in the base game. Perhaps more recipes, husbandry, mining, etc. Vehicles is a much needed addon but with that they'll need to add more maps (especially with MP servers). There are already large custom made maps so perhaps they should incorporate those maps into the base game or at least make sure they work with vanilla.

Zombies will be getting new animations as well, yes.

[Meat Man (Alfons)]

Originally posted by PPanda421:

Are you positive animations are player-only? The video looked like the zombies were doing animations as well. Eg The way they fell down after climbing over the fence. They were also somewhat animated when they were killed. So I think there are more to animations than just player-related actions. Making animations unable to be toggled on/off will be a big issue for players that don't have beefy systems. Animation is fluff. Most of the time you're running around and/or looting. Running and jumping and slamming into walls won't prolong gameplay. It might be exciting at first but eventually you'll go back into survival mode which is to explore, collect, build and farm (and kill somoe zombies along the way).

They need to add more things to do in the base game. Perhaps more recipes, husbandry, mining, etc. Vehicles is a much needed addon but with that they'll need to add more maps (especially with MP servers). There are already large custom made maps so perhaps they should incorporate those maps into the base game or at least make sure they work with vanilla.

With the more fluid animation-system in place, they can start adding more actions to the player again, such as improving fighting to not be arbitrary unless you get ambushed. Animations will change the game, and zombies.

With this system in place they can for instance add, more and actually unique weapons, such as more varied guns, armor for you and zombies, more 'stagger' and forced reactions to the player, maybe the player can finally pass out from pain-shock or lack of sleep? Because right now, there isn't even a sleeping animation. Maybe zombies can spawn with weapons and swing it around to broaden the amount of injuries the player can suffer? And with it in place, they can perhaps add NPCs as well down the line so you can actually tell what people do when standing still while menacingaly looking at a container. Mining/Husbandry isn't neccessarily something that requires animations really, because as I said, different devs work on different things. That can be side-things while the others work on animations.

[Bigbully]

Hey :D

[losbastardosmas]

Originally posted by A Pale Horse:

Originally posted by Reece Draygan:

Yeah, for me animations are more important than NPC's. Animations will make this my go to game. Atm its good, but could be so much more awesome with better animations

If there wasn't an NPC mod, I would play much less. The only thing keeping me is the vehicles. How do you even compare animations to having NPC's? I don't care about animations and it's not going to do anything to change how I play or how often I play. It's just not important.

If you just play multiplayer, then I understand. But I really don't give a flying **** about multiplayer, so no NPC's is a no go for me.

This, this and only this.
I haven't buyed this game for graphics, haven't buyed for animation that will only require more CPU from my computer. I want to play a more complex game not a better looking one.

[njs]

Originally posted by losbastardosmas:

Originally posted by A Pale Horse:

If there wasn't an NPC mod, I would play much less. The only thing keeping me is the vehicles. How do you even compare animations to having NPC's? I don't care about animations and it's not going to do anything to change how I play or how often I play. It's just not important.

If you just play multiplayer, then I understand. But I really don't give a flying **** about multiplayer, so no NPC's is a no go for me.

This, this and only this.
I haven't buyed this game for graphics, haven't buyed for animation that will only require more CPU from my computer. I want to play a more complex game not a better looking one.

Animation rework will come with gameplay changes, specifically to combat and stealth. Maybe check out the videos and you'll understand that it's more than for making the game "a better looking one".

[sugarskull]

I wish everyone whining about NPCs would realize that having the animation system in place will make NPCs so much better.

[losbastardosmas]

The change of combat is minimum, it look more good with "finish moves" but it's the same, it will be more precise and much less clunky than now? I hope so but again it's not a game changer.

For stealth I do not consider gameplay change crouching instead of standing up moving slowly, again it looks good but it's the same mechanics. Again it will change how stealth works? Does not seems like it.

[Reece Draygan]

Originally posted by sugarskull:

I wish everyone whining about NPCs would realize that having the animation system in place will make NPCs so much better.

This. To be fair there would be little point doing a whole NPC system, with models etc, when its all got to be changed again for animations. Makes more sense to get animations done first