Outdated idle animations, physics and skeleton model. It's time to change that.

Inaya1

Dear zos! You did an amazing job of adding a huge amount of different outfits and weapons. Their number is truly amazing. But there is one thing that spoils absolutely everything.

Your character. No matter how you customize it, it will always look terrible due to the extremely outdated animations, weapon stances, la/ha attack animations, and the skeleton model.
You don’t know that most people prefer to take a female character, because they fit better in outfit meshes and generally look more tolerable than male characters?

These animations can really scare off new players. In my memory, this was not the first time that newcomers left the game for this reason alone. Therefore, it should be available to everyone, and not separately in the Crown Store.

My suggestions:
1. Replace stance animations with any weapon. Each weapon should give the feeling that you are holding exactly what you see. If this is a one-handed mace, it will be lowered slightly down from the weight, and if it is a sword, they will keep it ready at chest level. Making a universal stand animation is extremely ugly.
2. Replace idle animations. Here, male characters lose the most, because they run like they have a huge pile in their pants .... you know what. In the case of female characters, they at least shake their hips when walking. No need to unify everyone! If I want to play a female character, then I want to see femininity, if a man, strength and power. If someone wants variety, just add the ability to change the idle animation in collections section.
3. Ha and LA attacks look terrifying. They need to be changed, seriously.
4. Change the skeleton. It already looks outdated.
5. Do dynamic hairstyles. Why does physics work for some of the vanilla hairstyles, but not for the rest (moreover, released much later)? This must be corrected!
6. Add armor visual/sound effects, blood effects. If you run in light armor, then you get savory blows, and if you are in heavy armor, sparks from hitting the cuirass / helmet. It would be even better if it extended to the block with different types of weapons. (thudding strikes on the staff / bow, clanging of metal in the block on the shield / swords

Shagreth

I'm with you with everything, but apparently we're the minority, most people don't care. The game is stuck in 2014 in many ways other than just looks. I was looking at the Treethane costume the other day and noticed the feet stick out, that's some PS2 graphics right there for the foot model, and that's just a minor thing, animations are terrible for the most part, it's one of the reasons combat feels... disconnected, for a lack of a better description.

Hvíthákarl

Inaya1 wrote: »

most people prefer to take a female character, because they fit better in outfit meshes and generally look more tolerable than male characters?

That's a really bold claim lmao

Inaya1 wrote: »

1. Replace stance animations with any weapon. Each weapon should give the feeling that you are holding exactly what you see. If this is a one-handed mace, it will be lowered slightly down from the weight, and if it is a sword, they will keep it ready at chest level. Making a universal stand animation is extremely ugly.

Hard agree here. I would even go as far as to modify some weapon skills (for instance, the dual wield bleeding slash makes absolutely no sense when wielding maces)

Inaya1 wrote: »

2. Replace idle animations. Here, male characters lose the most, because they run like they have a huge pile in their pants .... you know what. In the case of female characters, they at least shake their hips when walking. No need to unify everyone! If I want to play a female character, then I want to see femininity, if a man, strength and power. If someone wants variety, just add the ability to change the idle animation in collections section.

Lots of messed stuff here but tbh I prefer for it to be all unisex by default since it doesn't impose you anything (not everyone looks for or even cares about conventional masculinity or feminity being performed by their characters, others event don't want them), and add free personalities in order to let you be feminine or masculine if you want regardless of your character's body. Heroic and Duchess personalities can serve this purpose, but are a bit exaggerated for those looking for subtler changes.

Inaya1 wrote: »

.4. Change the skeleton. It already looks outdated.
5. Do dynamic hairstyles. Why does physics work for some of the vanilla hairstyles, but not for the rest (moreover, released much later)? This must be corrected!
6. Add armor visual/sound effects, blood effects. If you run in light armor, then you get savory blows, and if you are in heavy armor, sparks from hitting the cuirass / helmet. It would be even better if it extended to the block with different types of weapons. (thudding strikes on the staff / bow, clanging of metal in the block on the shield / swords

Completely on board with everything here, but I think the hair is the biggest offender in this game. If they didn't update the characters models but gave hair better textures, the toon models wouldn't look so dated.

Inaya1

Shagreth wrote: »

I'm with you with everything, but apparently we're the minority, most people don't care. The game is stuck in 2014 in many ways other than just looks. I was looking at the Treethane costume the other day and noticed the feet stick out, that's some PS2 graphics right there for the foot model, and that's just a minor thing, animations are terrible for the most part, it's one of the reasons combat feels... disconnected, for a lack of a better description.

The ability to complain is one of the ways to communicate this to the developers so that they can hear about the players feedback.

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@ZOS_GinaBruno please pass on my message in post to your colleagues if you can. A lot of people from my guild and friends have long been interested in this. Thanks in advance

Inaya1

Hvíthákarl wrote: »

Inaya1 wrote: »

most people prefer to take a female character, because they fit better in outfit meshes and generally look more tolerable than male characters?

That's a really bold claim lmao

Inaya1 wrote: »
2. Replace idle animations. Here, male characters lose the most, because they run like they have a huge pile in their pants .... you know what. In the case of female characters, they at least shake their hips when walking. No need to unify everyone! If I want to play a female character, then I want to see femininity, if a man, strength and power. If someone wants variety, just add the ability to change the idle animation in collections section.

Lots of messed stuff here but tbh I prefer for it to be all unisex by default since it doesn't impose you anything (not everyone looks for or even cares about conventional masculinity or feminity being performed by their characters, others event don't want them), and add free personalities in order to let you be feminine or masculine if you want regardless of your character's body. Heroic and Duchess personalities can serve this purpose, but are a bit exaggerated for those looking for subtler changes.

1. No hints. Only feedback from the game itself and players around. I really like to make knights, powerful swordsmen out of male characters. But almost all outfits stretch and look just disgusting. If you try to make a character with muscles, it gets even worse (and regardless of gender). At the same time, outfits on female characters with medium body settings look beautiful. In my opinion, this is wrong.
2. Walking in women and men some differs due to the structure of the skeletons of the pelvis. This is anatomy. This should be the default. Unisex should not be, but if there is a choice through changes in the settings, it will be good.
(("In women, the acetabulums, the concave surfaces to which the balls of the femurs attach via ligaments, are further apart, which increases the distance between the outermost points of the femurs (their greater trochanters) and thus the width hips . Thus, female femurs have a more general slope (lateral, further from the vertical). This larger angle applies most of the gravitational or vertical load in the form of a valgus torque (knee rotation force). This, combined with weaker tendons and ligaments in women and a narrower intercondylar notch, causes increased susceptibility to anterior cruciate ligament injury in female athletes.

The human-male pelvis is slightly narrower. One hypothesis is that this makes it more walkable and that a wider female pelvis is an evolutionary trade-off between efficient walking and the need for successful delivery. This is called the obstetric dilemma. There is controversy regarding the strength of the hypothesis."))-wikipedia.

TybaltKaine

I agree with a lot of your points, but it's probably not going to happen. The time investment is not worth it, especially if it generates no revenue.

TaSheen

I don't care about animations at all, so if they change them from what they are now, even if they screw them up (as they likely would - look at the outrage over Jabs) I still won't care.

But don't touch my characters' models. That is what made me quit a couple of other games. Though I am with @Hvíthákarl about the hair.

Kesstryl

Inaya1 wrote: »

Hvíthákarl wrote: »

Inaya1 wrote: »

most people prefer to take a female character, because they fit better in outfit meshes and generally look more tolerable than male characters?

That's a really bold claim lmao

Inaya1 wrote: »
2. Replace idle animations. Here, male characters lose the most, because they run like they have a huge pile in their pants .... you know what. In the case of female characters, they at least shake their hips when walking. No need to unify everyone! If I want to play a female character, then I want to see femininity, if a man, strength and power. If someone wants variety, just add the ability to change the idle animation in collections section.

Lots of messed stuff here but tbh I prefer for it to be all unisex by default since it doesn't impose you anything (not everyone looks for or even cares about conventional masculinity or feminity being performed by their characters, others event don't want them), and add free personalities in order to let you be feminine or masculine if you want regardless of your character's body. Heroic and Duchess personalities can serve this purpose, but are a bit exaggerated for those looking for subtler changes.

1. No hints. Only feedback from the game itself and players around. I really like to make knights, powerful swordsmen out of male characters. But almost all outfits stretch and look just disgusting. If you try to make a character with muscles, it gets even worse (and regardless of gender). At the same time, outfits on female characters with medium body settings look beautiful. In my opinion, this is wrong.
2. Walking in women and men some differs due to the structure of the skeletons of the pelvis. This is anatomy. This should be the default. Unisex should not be, but if there is a choice through changes in the settings, it will be good.
(("In women, the acetabulums, the concave surfaces to which the balls of the femurs attach via ligaments, are further apart, which increases the distance between the outermost points of the femurs (their greater trochanters) and thus the width hips . Thus, female femurs have a more general slope (lateral, further from the vertical). This larger angle applies most of the gravitational or vertical load in the form of a valgus torque (knee rotation force). This, combined with weaker tendons and ligaments in women and a narrower intercondylar notch, causes increased susceptibility to anterior cruciate ligament injury in female athletes.

The human-male pelvis is slightly narrower. One hypothesis is that this makes it more walkable and that a wider female pelvis is an evolutionary trade-off between efficient walking and the need for successful delivery. This is called the obstetric dilemma. There is controversy regarding the strength of the hypothesis."))-wikipedia.

Male characters in ESO run way too rigid though, as if they have no hips at all. It looks unnatural. The speed CP helps mitigate it once slotted, but it really put me off making male characters early on. The female run is fine in ESO, but males suffer from not understanding that there is still a tiny bit of sway in male movement, just not as much as in females. Eliminating it altogether really looks terrible.

TaSheen

Male characters run as if they have pokers up their rears. Just tell it like it is.....

And what it is, that the few males I made I either deleted or made into females.

Dark_Lord_Kuro

As long as there is a way for my character to stay exactly as they are now, i see no problem to zos doing what you are asking. If my character must change im against it.

TaSheen

Dark_Lord_Kuro wrote: »

As long as there is a way for my character to stay exactly as they are now, i see no problem to zos doing what you are asking. If my character must change im against it.

Exactly. That's how I feel, in spades.

Braffin

As much as I agree with you in most points, I don't wanna even imagine the broken combat system if zos ever decides to do a rework of LA and HA.

Worst case, well, goodbye fast-paced combat and goodbye eso.