Charge animation, something strange in the video

[panzerschreck]

Of course I am like all of us, really impressed by the awesome last trailer we saw. We have fantastics things in that video but one thing is wondering me. The animation for units receiving the charge.


look at 7.15 minutes to 7.31 : ranks from behind don't do anything, they should advance to the melee, push. They just rise their weapons and shout, I don't think this is the good animation to do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0qaj...eature=related

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

At 8.14, we see the same thing for the unit being attacked. If you look also to the animation of the soldier they are too static, robotic with their shield and weapon, they are moving weird: look at 6.10 when the assault tower attacks or at 8.28. Some soldiers are mooving strangely like they were sliding on the ground.
So ranks of the attacked unit should tighten and push also. The animation of the soldier that slides on the ground come from the fact that he is not mooving his legs. I do reenactment and even if you let your shield in front of the ennemy and your gladius behind, you moove your legs...

Please don't say it's a pre-alpha video, because that's not an argument because, in the past we saw bad things at the early beginning of the work of TW games and these things had remained untill the end, the final release. It's why I think that when we see something strange we have to draw attention on it.

[Prof]

Yep, exaclty what I thought. The Romans are charging properly, but the carthaginians are not at all prepared for the clash.

[Irishman]

I know you said not to say it, but It is probably due to the game being pre-alpha. It could remain, but I think it is more likely. Notice these appear to be peasants, so this could be something for lose-formation based units that hasn't been fixed yet.

Alternatively, it could be due to a "hold the line" order or something else that we don't know is going on.

[TheRomanRuler]

PRE-ALPHA

[panzerschreck]

PRE-ALPHA

the all gool is there : don't let pre-alpha things in final release. If CA comes and read our threads it's to have returns on their work and change things that must be changed.

[empr guy]

I agree, the charging mechanics were probably the only thing majorly really wrong with the video that I can remember, I really hope they fix it. I probably would have made a similar thread except that this is a pre alpha battle, so I'm not sure it's really worth pointing out too much yet. I'm sure CA will be releasing lots of these scripted battle videos to promote the game though, so I think we will be able to see if they have fixed it in 2 or 3 months.

The animations being proper for walking is something I wouldnt worry about, CA seem more intrested in graphics then anything else so I doubt they will let that part be so sloppy on release.

[Timotheus]

I agree! I didn't like the animations...

[IGdood]

Either it's pre-alpha or just a sliding that has been in the warscape engine for a long time....

[Kinjo]

I'm sure its just probably lacking some animations, even the charge for the Romans seems a bit dull. I want to see some shield bashes and shield thrust in the mix as the battle lines make contact and not everybody in the unit waving their swords in the air like maniacs.

This video has some nice shield attacks as the 2 battle lines collide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...J5uo9OmA#t=91s

[agent 47]

Itll never be perfect but i thought the unit clashing animations in Shogun 2 were fine, it got rid of most of the sliding in previous warscape engine games.

Theres no reason to think these animations in shogun 2 wont be in rome 2, i remember the early shogun videos had none of these animations either and there was alot more sliding until the near release videos.

[Superghostboy]

They told in their video that Rome 2 take focus on large scale and huge battles and Shogun 2 has elegant sword play ! That means that Rome 2 would be not to take focus to have nice melee animations like in Shogun 2! That means like they told the melee animations would be boring!

EDIT: 7:27 - 7:55 are the important what we see in the finial game! Yeah I heard Fall of the Samurai Sounds!

[Modestus]

They told in their video that Rome 2 take focus on large scale and huge battles and Shogun 2 has elegant sword play ! That means that Rome 2 would be not to take focus to have nice melee animations like in Shogun 2! That means like they told the melee animations would be boring!

EDIT: 7:27 - 7:55 are the important what we see in the finial game! Yeah I heard Fall of the Samurai Sounds!

Not 100% sure what you mean but what CA have said is that they are aiming for a more mechanical method of fighting, you can take that as the unit will fight in a more cohesive manner and rather then having a soldier buggering off to find a dancing partner the unit will attempt to stay and fight together.

Having looked again the Roman charge is not bad and there is a bit of a clash when they hit the enemy unfortunately after that it looks a bit of a disorganised mess, I assume it will get better.

[Prof]

They told in their video that Rome 2 take focus on large scale and huge battles and Shogun 2 has elegant sword play ! That means that Rome 2 would be not to take focus to have nice melee animations like in Shogun 2! That means like they told the melee animations would be boring!

EDIT: 7:27 - 7:55 are the important what we see in the finial game! Yeah I heard Fall of the Samurai Sounds!

They are not saying that they aren't doing nice melee animations. Just look closely at the guys fighting on the wall...that looks awesome.

They are just saying that the Romans are using a different fighting style than the Samurai, which are more or less dueling.

[Lanciarius_90]

Rome 1 and Medieval 2 have a better charge animation. First line crash in to enemy but others wait and pushing forward.

[Úlfhéðinn]

I think it would be neat if we would actually see the soldiers behind brace their comrades in front with their shields, don't believe I saw it in the video though I might be mistaken.
Also I would think it makes sense that not ALL units would be able to brace properly, locking shields and keeping cohesion. In a peasant unit I would expect hesitant soldiers, scared out of their mind. Keeping some distance to the actual fighting and break fast if the loses becomes too great.
Though in a trained unit they should definitely brace better than the video clip.
And keeping cohesion while charging at full speed is very hard. I would like to see a well formed Roman tactical advance at times, rather than the full out charge. It would be nice with a button for that, say when you have formed close ranks and double click instead of charge it would be a tactical advance with a nice cohesion.

[Modestus]

I think it would be neat if we would actually see the soldiers behind brace their comrades in front with their shields, don't believe I saw it in the video though I might be mistaken.
Also I would think it makes sense that not ALL units would be able to brace properly, locking shields and keeping cohesion. In a peasant unit I would expect hesitant soldiers, scared out of their mind. Keeping some distance to the actual fighting and break fast if the loses becomes too great.
Though in a trained unit they should definitely brace better than the video clip.
And keeping cohesion while charging at full speed is very hard. I would like to see a well formed Roman tactical advance at times, rather than the full out charge. It would be nice with a button for that, say when you have formed close ranks and double click instead of charge it would be a tactical advance with a nice cohesion.

Hmm I like that idea, instead of a button for fire and advance you could have a button for steady advance or something like that, should be possible.

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

I thought the chargers animation didn't look so good either, a bit like cotton soldiers without mass, but I guess this is one thing that CA will probably succeed in fixing, they put 80% of the money into visuals nowadays...

[Lord Cornwallis]

What charge animations? Looks like the Romans just run into the enemy formation without swing their sword or shield attacks.

[triptyck]

see also, routing Carthaginians. Looks damn unnatural. The instant they receive a charge, they all simultaneously turn 180 and flee.

i hope that group animations are still something being worked on... it would seem a shame to see the new extent of CA's state of the art motion capture facilities, and not see a qualitative jump in the depth of animation.

Having gone back and played RTW and Roma Surrectum recently, i've gained new appreciation with how far CA have come since then. Shogun 2's 1v1 are amazing, compared to RTW's slash-at-the-air in the direction of the enemy. Very immersive, and apropos for samurai combat.

Hearing CA talk once more about trying to really emphasize the difference in fighting styles between cultures, I am very, very hopeful that they are secretly trying to revolutionize Total War's depiction of group formation movement, contextual animation, and combat.

I want to see phalanxes and cohorts really act like disciplined, cohesive formations. Instead of seeing the front rank fighting, with all ranks behind just standing like statues. I want to see those rear ranks bracing, pushing, and encouraging.

I want to see gallic/germanic warbands in irregular groups and battles lines, not perfect rectangular grids.

When two units rush towards the enemy gates, I want to see men bumping into each other, slowing down to navigating the close proximity, and becoming entangled and disorganized until they reach space, not flowing into each other in perfect sync.

And when there's a breach in the enemy's walls, I want to see the men slow to haul themselves over the rocky ground, not rush through the gap like a wave of ants.

[empr guy]

Having gone back and played RTW and Roma Surrectum recently, i've gained new appreciation with how far CA have come since then. Shogun 2's 1v1 are amazing, compared to RTW's slash-at-the-air in the direction of the enemy. Very immersive, and apropos for samurai combat.

the main problem with the one on one fantasy duels is that even if samurai had fought that way the peseants and everyone else wouldn't have, not japanese peseants, not european line infantry, pretty much no one actually.

What they should do is just make animations for everything, so that when someone tries to stab someone else in the back, his sword bounces off the guys shoulder if he stabbed or glanced off his side if the attacker swung his weapon or something. I realize that could take a while but if they're going to waste so much time on graphics they might as well make it look good.

It would be much better then the utterly ridiculous one on one duels imho. Of course then CA has to fix the problem where two handed units would start their attack animation, get hit but not killed, stumble, and start their animation over again, meaning they never actually attacked. I believe that was never fixed from Medieval II, could be mistaken.