The harvesting animation poll

[Elgoran]

[Danger! High risk of tl;dr. Just click "Yes" above if you don't wanna read it. ]

 

Hello,

 

as some of you might know already, this topic was brought up at least 5 years ago, discussed a bit and abandoned. And yes, i know this rather belongs into the suggestions subforum, but i was unable to create a poll there.

Harvesting and mixing are parts of the game many players spend the majority of their time on. Yet in contrast to fighting, exploring and social activities, these are totally unanimated. There is a column of swirling lights you can activate in the options to see if you are harvesting or stopped, but even with a bigger crowd gathered together in a mine or a flowerpatch still looks like a still life. (in b4 mentioning teh sounds and local chat) Out of 10 people i showed the game, 9 addressed this matter in one of their first comments about it. This made me believe harvesting animations might greatly improve the first glance people have on this game.

 

So, what i'm suggesting is the following: 2 or 4 simple, cyclic animations that represent that you are harvesting. They would start when you start to harvest and stop when you stop due to an event or whatever. They'd be visible for everyone around you too, but would not be affected by the relative position you have to the harvestable. Eventually emotes would have to be suppressed while harvesting to not get the animations mixed up. For conveniance a switch could be added to the options menu to turn off the display of those.

We'd need at least 2 animations. One for harvestables that use a pickaxe as a tool and one for those that use leather gloves or nothing at all. (yew as the only item requiring a saw would be nice too, but is not that urgent). 4 would be needed if a difference has to be made between sitting and standing or if the animation of the torso can't be separated from the state the legs are in. For harvesting with a pickaxe i think everyone's able to imagine what it would look like. For harvesting with your hands, i'd suggest making it look like you were shovelling stuff into your crotch or simply stretching your arms out and drawing them back repeatedly. This might not look too nice, but i imagine animating individual fingers to resemble the act of grabbing as something that's tough and requires a lot of work. People who are especially skilled with animation and have much free time on their hands could step up to refine this later.

 

Criticism against these animations aroused mainly from 2 things. First off people were afraid that they might lead to inappropriate pictures, e.g. a player hitting another with a pickaxe. I say we have those already in the game, e.g. when players sit close together from a certain angle it can look like someone cuts someone else in half with a shield or has his/her hand on a stick protruding from the crotch of the other. Yes, these sort of things happen, but i don't care and i don't think anyone else should care too much either. It's a game after all and funny things can happen with the graphics.

The second thing was that people were afraid the additional traffic might hamper players with low bandwidth connections. I'd like to also enervate this point too. First off, the optional switch could be used to save processing power for those on older computers. The additional traffic would last, but if i'm correct, this is less than what emotes, spellcasting and fighting cause. It's true that the occurence of many players using emotes or fighting simultaneously is much rarer than with harvesting. But then again, if i am correct, the fighting animations are far more complex and differ when displaying hits, critical hits, etc. This is bound to create far more traffic than something only turned on and off once in a while.

 

If you read this far, i appreciate it.

Just let me know what you think of it by voting in the poll above. My own opinion concerning this might have become evident as enthusiastic by now anyway.

Cheers,

 

 

Elgoran.

 

 

#edit: Oh yeah, an animation for mixing too ofc. It's 7 in the morning and i didn't sleep yet, so i almost forgot to mention it. No idea how an universal animation for that might look like though.

Edited September 11, 2010 by Elgoran

[korrode]

You had me at "inappropriate pictures".

[Aislinn]

I do caution you that if Roja and Ent are not able or not willing or not wanting to do this, there is no point to the poll.

It's generally better to get their approval first, which basically means they tell you "Yes I will put this in the game if there is enough interest, make a poll and find out."

Otherwise, it is a waste of people's time, and raises false hopes.

[Roja]

I always thought people wouldn't want this because they like to sit down and not get in others way?

Edit: the animations would be based standing up-not sitting. You dont' act like a lazy ass sitting down using a pickaxe

 

Regardless, I don't care either way-making those animations is easy. But, it requires a *little* bit more programming than just adding animations. Like you need different anims. depending on what you're harvesting..then the question is what happens when your player isn't facing the ore, etc.. So some other programmer would have to step up to the plate as well.

[Aislinn]

I always thought people wouldn't want this because they like to sit down and not get in others way?

Edit: the animations would be based standing up-not sitting. You dont' act like a lazy ass sitting down using a pickaxe

Good point here...people are always getting "yelled at" as it is to sit down at the harvestable or storage so they aren't blocking the resource. This would only make it worse.

 

Edit here: Also keep in mind that it can't be quite as simple as you say Elgoran, for example, it would have to be taken into account WHERE the harvestable is located. How foolish would it look to reach down for fruit when in actuality the fruit would be in a tree? And that would add even more coding, if it would be even possible to distinguish the difference for such a thing.

[ProHibited]

A spot being too crowded might mean that the room size should increase? Instead of the players shrinking down ("sitting").

 

I think the positive effects outweigh any negatives easily. Make the game more appealing to new players is really important, this would help. Also, a less static image of the game world while harvesting is great for all existing players. A bad animation (facing a different direction) is still better then no animation at all? I mean, the silver ore might just as well be in the rock under your feet right?

 

The programming/artwork involved would surely be time well spend.

[dipi]

A lot of animation could cause resyncs with the server, like a crowded place with rangers.

[Elgoran]

Edit: the animations would be based standing up-not sitting. You dont' act like a lazy ass sitting down using a pickaxe

Dunno, when you're mining gold or diamonds for example you might be cautiously scraping the rock away with your pick rather than bashing at it with full speed.

 

But i don't want to discuss which animations would be appropriate and which would be not. That is something i also meant when speaking of inappropriate pictures: I think it doesn't matter if the animation makes sense in all cases. If a player doesn't care to face the harvestable, just let him hit the air then. The animations don't even have to necessarily look good. They're just meant to make the game look more busy, so that when a new player enters a highly populated area he doesn't think "D'uh, in this game everybody's just sitting around."

 

 

#edit: What ProHibited said. He posted while i was still writing.

Edited September 11, 2010 by Elgoran

[Aislinn]

But i don't want to discuss which animations would be appropriate and which would be not. That is something i also meant when speaking of inappropriate pictures: I think it doesn't matter if the animation makes sense in all cases. If a player doesn't care to face the harvestable, just let him hit the air then. The animations don't even have to necessarily look good.

I'm thinking the artist in charge of how everything looks in the game (and who's name is credited with it) WILL care if it looks good or appropriate or not.

Call me silly...

[Samy_Navilian]

But i don't want to discuss which animations would be appropriate and which would be not. That is something i also meant when speaking of inappropriate pictures: I think it doesn't matter if the animation makes sense in all cases. If a player doesn't care to face the harvestable, just let him hit the air then. The animations don't even have to necessarily look good.

I'm thinking the artist in charge of how everything looks in the game (and who's name is credited with it) WILL care if it looks good or appropriate or not.

Call me silly...

 

I agree with Aisy, the person undertaking the animations will certainly want the animation looks good and will not want to waste your time doing something that looks bad.

And in my opinion, should be taken into account, what radu and roja has in mind for the game.

And I believe that many players really do not care about this type of amination, it might be nice for new players arriving in crowded places, but perhaps it is something that goes unnoticed by many players, and I do not know if this is worth doing thing.

And as I've heard before:

"If the game's character was a small square and the monsters were small balls, I would still play hard and have fun as always ..."

That is, many players play the game for the fun that the game delivers, not because of its graphics.

Edited September 11, 2010 by Samy_Navilian

[Wizzy]

I dont want to see harvesting animations.. I like the just sitting there. Animations not required for me

[Silvatica]

The problem of having animations in several directions can be solved with the client always sending a turn around command every time one start to harvest and one turn around facings the harvestable. Its the natural thing to do because the current way where one can face away from the harvestable and harvest it is very different from real life.

 

Also all animations can be handled entirely inside the client without any server interaction since the client today do the harvest animations - this implies that one don't see the harvesting of others as it is today.

 

So this can be solved with the client utilizing a special emot every time it harvest something (with a condition that each emote is started at most one per 10 sec so the client don't use 100% of CPU with trying to emote a harest every 2 sec.)

Edited September 11, 2010 by Silvatica

[Dilly]

[Danger! High risk of tl;dr. Just click "Yes" above if you don't wanna read it. ]

 

 

with that, i voted no. Then i read, and still agree with wizzy, we don't need this 'in my opinion'.

[dom]

This will make the game more appealing to new players and I would also like to see it. Main problemi belive is that it might make older puters lag more, so it would need a on/off switch in settings.

[Sonic]

I dont want to see harvesting animations.. I like the just sitting there. Animations not required for me

 

+1 Its fine how it is.

[forever]

Harvest animations are bleh. I think they are pointless. Getting to into animations makes it feel like we are photo copying other games for the sheer pleasure of the critiques? I mean hell, EL is one of maybe 2 MMO's I play regularly and the new/original feel is what I like more than anything.

 

If anything, I'd like to see the lil' pickaxe that moves back and forth to show you are harvesting back :< epic.

[Roja]

Main problemi belive is that it might make older puters lag more, so it would need a on/off switch in settings.

 

Which is another big reason not to do it, if we spend a lot of time/effort on something only a few end up using.

[Motters]

Main problemi belive is that it might make older puters lag more, so it would need a on/off switch in settings.

 

Which is another big reason not to do it, if we spend a lot of time/effort on something only a few end up using.

 

I personally think these would be quite nice but I think the real reason to add them would be to help give a better 1st impression of the game. Even if a lot of the older players, who are used to not having them, do turn them off if it helps new people stay long enough to enjoy the game that has to be a good thing. I'm speaking from experience as my younger brother tried the game and this was one thing he criticized. Adding them would make the game look more polished.

[Rhapsodist]

I dont want to see harvesting animations.. I like the just sitting there. Animations not required for me

 

+1 Its fine how it is.

 

+2

[korrode]

Main problemi belive is that it might make older puters lag more, so it would need a on/off switch in settings.

 

Which is another big reason not to do it, if we spend a lot of time/effort on something only a few end up using.

I think in the long run a lot of people would use it.

It won't enhance the gaming experience for me personally, but nonetheless I stand by my yes vote. I'd wager that if it was on by default more than half of the future players to come to EL would leave it on. I'm sure those who really enjoy the role-play aspect of MMO's would like it.

 

But just my opinion, maybe i'm wrong.

[Kaddy]

I dont want to see harvesting animations.. I like the just sitting there. Animations not required for me

 

+1 Its fine how it is.

 

+2

 

+3 I always liked sitting

 

-Kaddy

[Maxine]

I think it would make a mine look more interesting, but I have such a low end machine that I would probably turn it off. Being able to see if I am still harvesting/mining would be nice, I do use that feature right now but it is a tad boring. The only thing I am not sure about is how this would play out with resources that have a lot of players in front of it, will they be hard(er) to reach?

[Roja]

Hm, there might be something else we can do. Make a few harvest emotes that loop. So if you want to, you can harvest and play that emote and look cool

[vinoveritas]

I do not care if we have the animation or not. If they are there i might use them, but i do not really miss them right now.

But if there are animations for harvesting we will need animations for all kind of mixing too (how many people are sitting around on storage doing only that) probably need a sleeping person animation for people wo are afk ... As everyone would say if that is animated the other things need to be too.

And if i then would look at the game, there would be a whole set of steady movement in that game, that may make it difficult to play on one screen and work on an other.

[Entris]

Harving animations would be great! I would use em for sure either it is for my eyes only or for all i would have it on all the time Would make the grinding at the ores a bit more fun.