Any Animation Updates for v1.1.5 Patch?

[Conlan]

Hello. Does Crate has any plans for some animation updates for the next patch or future patches? Specifically talking about main character animations.

Older animations looks quite lacking like casting a permanent buff or throwing daggers with Nightblade or Missiles with Arcanist.

Newer animations are better though, could use some improvements always.
Like Oathbreaker summon Guardian animation is much better version than generic cast perma buff animation (they look similar, hence comparison). Or throw Shield animation is much much better than those i stated on previous paragraph (throw things generic animation).

Also please add an option to reduce (not completely disable) camera shake. With it, my head hurts, its too much (Compare it to any other similar game). Without it, attacks feel unimpactful visually.

[ᛁᚢᚱᛃᛗᛖ]

there's camera shake?! lol 500+ hours and I never even notice D:

if you're looking for animations I can't help but recommend this:

Grimdawn Reborn 2.0
https://www.nexusmods.com/grimdawn/mods/71

he's done an amazing job at animations.

[CHAIN BREAKER]

Originally posted by ᛁᚢᚱᛃᛗᛖ:

there's camera shake?! lol 500+ hours and I never even notice D:

Yep, although I don't see much of it. I play Purifier and i see it only when I hit bursting round and crit next. I'm curious how much shaking OP has.

[Conlan]

Hey thanks for sharing that! There are some nice Visual FX in there.

But im specifically talking about character animations, not vfx (the way characters body moves when he/she is doing something). The game, with recent updates, have some nice vfx for almost all skills (some older ones are quite bad tough, like Blade Trap)

Spells and abilities in this game, in my opinion, for the most part has an unsatisfying feedback. This is a combination of lacking animations and sounds. An example for sound is once again, throw dagger skill (forgot the name) for Nightblade. That thing is quite bad.

[KG]

What sounds bad about Phantasmal Blades? I guess the cooldown version could use more impact? But that doesn't seem terribly "phantasmal" - and then you'd need two sound sets because you don't want a big boom with every cast with the no-cooldown version that you can spam many times a second. Maybe I should pay more attention to stuff like that though...

Animation and sound are pretty tough (IE expensive) to get just right from what I understand. We might see more improvements as the game continues to get ready for Xbox release but I'm not sure I would hold my breath for anything in particular.

[Conlan]

Originally posted by KG:

Animation and sound are pretty tough (IE expensive) to get just right from what I understand. We might see more improvements as the game continues to get ready for Xbox release but I'm not sure I would hold my breath for anything in particular.

It seems very small indie studios can achive great animations (look at Killsquad or Battle Rite). However, sound seems more of an issue.

Grim Dawn is lacking many sounds; including some boss spawn animations and many monster special attacks doesnt seem to have a sound at all. (Aether Obelisk transform for instance, doesnt even have a sound) I'm not sure we can see an improvement with this department. But i'm hopeful for animation updates.

[ᛁᚢᚱᛃᛗᛖ]

the engine for grimdawn is ancient. its actually really impressive that it looks as nice as it does. im talking like 2001 if i remember correctly.

[FlamingX21]

Originally posted by ᛁᚢᚱᛃᛗᛖ:

the engine for grimdawn is ancient. its actually really impressive that it looks as nice as it does. im talking like 2001 if i remember correctly.

Pour a million bucks and it will become 2019 engine.

[KG]

Originally posted by Conlan:

It seems very small indie studios can achive great animations (look at Killsquad or Battle Rite). However, sound seems more of an issue.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing but Stunlock (Battlerite) has 3.5 times as many employees as Crate with 3(?) games released and Novarama has more than twice as many employees, 11 games released, had an exclusivity agreement with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe as their publisher for a while, physical goods sold to children with their children's games ($), and a bloody animated series (in 17 languages).

Crate has one released game, 13-employees (was 2 or 3 for many years - and only one animator AFAIK), and is so determined to remain independent that they're telling investors with suitcases of money to get off their lawn.

...not that I expect everyone to hang around long enough to pick this kind of trivia up. :x

Originally posted by Conlan:

Grim Dawn is lacking many sounds; including some boss spawn animations and many monster special attacks doesnt seem to have a sound at all. (Aether Obelisk transform for instance, doesnt even have a sound) I'm not sure we can see an improvement with this department. But i'm hopeful for animation updates.

If not this game, next time around. As implied above, Crate seems determined to make itself a long-term endeavor. I suspect they'll continue to improve steadily as time goes on.

[ᛁᚢᚱᛃᛗᛖ]

Originally posted by FlamingX21:

Originally posted by ᛁᚢᚱᛃᛗᛖ:

the engine for grimdawn is ancient. its actually really impressive that it looks as nice as it does. im talking like 2001 if i remember correctly.

Pour a million bucks and it will become 2019 engine.

man, you're just full of all kinds of fun facts today!

[Conlan]

@KG Hmm, nice analysis and points. However i'm still expecting (hoping) some animation updates because:

There are already some very nice and smooth NON-character animations in game (Malmouth last boss dungeon has some animated terrain elements, suffering souls etc.). Lots of monsters have a few nice animations.

As i already stated, Oathkeeper skill animations are miles better than old generic animations.

So the animator (if she/he is only one person) already did some really good job lately. Since main character is what we see all the time, i would personally focus on make us look cooler. I'm mostly talking about:

-Idle animations (character stands like a robot, sometimes looking right side pointlessly)
-Maybe slight improvement to movement animations (This is mostly ok)
-Mostly spell cast animations (It should just be a few animations, like hands up to sky (summon, cast meteor etc.), throw some projectile animation, and war cry like animation (like in Diablo 3)
-Attack animations are quite ok, altough they seem like lacking a bit weight, especially with heavy looking weapons.

EDIT: OH DEFINITELY THIS: There is NO off-hand item (tomes, orbs) hold pose, not at all! Same with two handed ranged weapons. They are just attached to primary hand. I think they look really ugly and they REALLY need a hold weapon pose for idle.

[caelcyndar5]

Originally posted by ᛁᚢᚱᛃᛗᛖ:

the engine for grimdawn is ancient. its actually really impressive that it looks as nice as it does. im talking like 2001 if i remember correctly.

Iron Lore Engine used for Titan Quest in 2006. They first floated the idea of Grim Dawn around 2009 so the engine wasn't that old yet.

[caelcyndar5]

Originally posted by Conlan:

@KG Hmm, nice analysis and points. However i'm still expecting (hoping) some animation updates because:

There are already some very nice and smooth NON-character animations in game (Malmouth last boss dungeon has some animated terrain elements, suffering souls etc.). Lots of monsters have a few nice animations.

As i already stated, Oathkeeper skill animations are miles better than old generic animations.

So the animator (if she/he is only one person) already did some really good job lately. Since main character is what we see all the time, i would personally focus on make us look cooler. I'm mostly talking about:

-Idle animations (character stands like a robot, sometimes looking right side pointlessly)
-Maybe slight improvement to movement animations (This is mostly ok)
-Mostly spell cast animations (It should just be a few animations, like hands up to sky (summon, cast meteor etc.), throw some projectile animation, and war cry like animation (like in Diablo 3)
-Attack animations are quite ok, altough they seem like lacking a bit weight, especially with heavy looking weapons.

EDIT: OH DEFINITELY THIS: There is NO off-hand item (tomes, orbs) hold pose, not at all! Same with two handed ranged weapons. They are just attached to primary hand. I think they look really ugly and they REALLY need a hold weapon pose for idle.

Crate only has ONE SINGLE animator among its 13 members. Any animation improvements (which there have been for attacks and some skills) takes time.

[Conlan]

Originally posted by caelcyndar5:

Crate only has ONE SINGLE animator among its 13 members. Any animation improvements (which there have been for attacks and some skills) takes time.

I see, however, as i said he/she already achived some very noticable improvements over the years. Most noticably Oathkeeper and expansion creature animations. I'm only talking about single character, which is the main character, the most important of all.

[Keks]

If Crate is following their latest path, massively upgrading outdated parts of the game and the engine, there is a good chance there will be further reworks of older animations / vfx / sounds in the future updates.