What do you think of jobs having different stances than classes?

[Shurrikhan]

Because it takes weeks to create just one of those animations(not including implementation and testing), they cost a fortune, and To actually think up 10 variations of a single skill 180 times is next to impossible.

You should befriend an 3D animator... It doesn't take that long to make an emote. Even if you include clipping checks, having to restart multiple times, and adding it into the game.

[IveraIvalice]

You should befriend an 3D animator... It doesn't take that long to make an emote. Even if you include clipping checks, having to restart multiple times, and adding it into the game.

i am a 3D animator and i can say that it doesnt take that long to implement an emote which is probably why there going with emotes instead of battle animations. Because what some people dont understand is that making battle animations does take along time and its not as easy as people think.
people keep saying "well ffxi did it" or other mmos have better animations.

When you create a Battle animation thats not just affecting the animation teams work and putting it in the game. your first having it be designed and planned out before hand, then motion capture team does it, animation team cleans up and refines the animation, then it affect the effects team to make either a new effect (which again takes along time) and the battle team which sets up when damage is done and stuff like that.

all just to get one animation in game. Do that for as many animations as your all talking about and it should be clear why emotes is the way to go for right now. Its not a hard process to do but it takes along time.

which is why some people dont know what there talking about when they say, other mmos have done it, or its not that hard to do.

other mmos had alot more time, you guys want this by ARR? lol
just because its not planned for right now doesnt mean they will never do it, give it time.
this guy knows whats up: Kiote
been making the most sense out of everyone i've been reading on here

[Jennestia]

people keep saying "well ffxi did it" or other mmos have better animations.

Considering they weren't working on Wings of the Goddess from the start to my knowledge, the fact they added a full range of Dance battle animations in a relatively short time (same frame as ARR production time) they could easily knock it out, especially with the team they have employed. Not to mention that they use MoCap for animations to begin with, that alone speeds up the process and takes out a lot of clipping errors from manual design.

Considering 'Standard MMORPGs' doesn't pay much attention to detail like SE tends to, it could just simply be because they want people to feel at home when they move from their MMO to FFXIV, rather than completely stand out from the crowd. The engine can support it because even 1.0 using Crystal Tools you can see the differences in FFXIII/FFXIII-2 battle animations between the characters, so it's more than doable.

[IveraIvalice]

The engine can support it because even 1.0 using Crystal Tools you can see the differences in FFXIII/FFXIII-2 battle animations between the characters, so it's more than doable.

i mentioned a few times it IS doable, i didnt say it wasnt. but it takes along time to do. i cant confirm that wings of the goddess was started and completed in that time frame but if it was, then it should still be clear that it was done in a short amount of time because they had a smaller task and was therefor able to focus on the smaller things with a bigger team. making an expansion pack and remaking an entire game is completely different. the team has other priorities right now that range from alot more than just animation which normally a team working on an expansion pack wouldnt have to worry about because its already done.
like i said it IS doable, but with the amount of work that the development team has to do right now its not probable to do it in this time frame.
let them finish the tasks they have, finishing the game engine and optimizing textures and rebuilding maps and all that. and then when there work dies down, then they could have more people to work on giving the game that extra polish.
also, mocap does make animation faster but its not by any means easy. theres tracking that needs to be cleaned up based on lost marker possitions, then transfering that as a baked animation to a program like motion builder to edit the animation. since motion capture data and and skeletal rig sizes on characters are different in size, alot of work needs to be done to fix things like arms going into your body or feet not on the ground. then after its fixed then it can actually be modified to look good.
all doable, but just imagine how much time that takes. if multiple people are working on different animations then it goes by faster. but the teams are also divided alot to work on more tasks

[Yucie]

i mentioned a few times it IS doable, i didnt say it wasnt. but it takes along time to do. i cant confirm that wings of the goddess was started and completed in that time frame but if it was, then it should still be clear that it was done in a short amount of time because they had a smaller task and was therefor able to focus on the smaller things with a bigger team. making an expansion pack and remaking an entire game is completely different. the team has other priorities right now that range from alot more than just animation which normally a team working on an expansion pack wouldnt have to worry about because its already done.
like i said it IS doable, but with the amount of work that the development team has to do right now its not probable to do it in this time frame.
let them finish the tasks they have, finishing the game engine and optimizing textures and rebuilding maps and all that. and then when there work dies down, then they could have more people to work on giving the game that extra polish.
also, mocap does make animation faster but its not by any means easy. theres tracking that needs to be cleaned up based on lost marker possitions, then transfering that as a baked animation to a program like motion builder to edit the animation. since motion capture data and and skeletal rig sizes on characters are different in size, alot of work needs to be done to fix things like arms going into your body or feet not on the ground. then after its fixed then it can actually be modified to look good.
all doable, but just imagine how much time that takes. if multiple people are working on different animations then it goes by faster. but the teams are also divided alot to work on more tasks

Despite how long it might take, that's not an excuse; they can still do it, and I hope they do.

My poor hyur looks like an absolute retard with a sword/shield combo, and I've never been a huge fan of the running animation. A lot of animations in-game are ugly, aside from a few of the emotes we have..

And right now, the game has too many unused emotes anyway. Of the bunch we have, only 7 or 8 are ever used on a regular basis by people. They could cut those out, save the extra memory, and put the effort towards what really needs polish; battle animations, the non-fluidity of auto attack, and making abilities look far more diverse and interesting.

[IveraIvalice]

Despite how long it might take, that's not an excuse; they can still do it, and I hope they do.

My poor hyur looks like an absolute retard with a sword/shield combo, and I've never been a huge fan of the running animation. A lot of animations in-game are ugly, aside from a few of the emotes we have..

And right now, the game has too many unused emotes anyway. Of the bunch we have, only 7 or 8 are ever used on a regular basis by people. They could cut those out, save the extra memory, and put the effort towards what really needs polish; battle animations, the non-fluidity of auto attack, and making abilities look far more diverse and interesting.

i cant explain any clearer. its not an excuse, people say they want more unique animations, im saying on the level of diversity most of you are asking for is not doable by the time ARR is to be released. that doesnt mean they will never do it, if you cant even give them time to do everything they need to and do it RIGHT, then im not even gonna explain anymore. the entire process of making a game and implementing things into a game takes alot of time, just bottom line.
if you want to take that as an excuse then i cant help you.
its amazing how much the dev team has done and still some people wont settle for anything less then "i want it all now" not later, now.

[Kiote]

other mmos had alot more time, you guys want this by ARR? lol
just because its not planned for right now doesnt mean they will never do it, give it time.
this guy knows whats up: Kiote
been making the most sense out of everyone i've been reading on here

I love that guy! ~.^v

But seriously, people who don't work in the industry will never understand. Not trying to belittle people, it just a fact I've learned the hard way. If you ever actually get the chance to work on the development of a AAA video game, especially an MMO, you will be absolutely blow away at sheer amount of people, time, effort and talent go in to the process. A battle animation requires an Art Team, an Animation Team, a Sound Team, a Dev and Design team, Producers, QA and Executive approval. Assuming that every single one of those teams is dedicated to the task, its still up to a week or more in every teams hands, and that is assuming everything works.

I can honestly say, at every company I have ever worked for, those teams are never dedicated to a single task. It's just not possible.

[Vanguard319]

I love that guy! ~.^v

But seriously, people who don't work in the industry will never understand. Not trying to belittle people, it just a fact I've learned the hard way. If you ever actually get the chance to work on the development of a AAA video game, especially an MMO, you will be absolutely blow away at sheer amount of people, time, effort and talent go in to the process. A battle animation requires an Art Team, an Animation Team, a Sound Team, a Dev and Design team, Producers, QA and Executive approval. Assuming that every single one of those teams is dedicated to the task, its still up to a week or more in every teams hands, and that is assuming everything works.

I can honestly say, at every company I have ever worked for, those teams are never dedicated to a single task. It's just not possible.

I can agree with this, I've participated in a beta test before, where the developers set up a TS server for providing feedback in real time. After having the chance to actually talk to (and play with) the people making said game, I have to say I respect game developers more than I used to. There are always those unexpected glitches/bugs/exploits that no one anticipates, and they still have to keep a schedule in regards to what gets added what week, and in what build, since delays in development can be costly. Definitely not as easy as some people seem to think it to be.