I want my character to: walk/run/jump/climb/crawl/prone/swim.

Walking for when I am in a town/city/marketplace..........I wouldn't mind when entering a town/city/market place to have run auto toggled off, I feel it might even add to performance improvement, especially when market places can become very crowded.

Running for when I am exploring outside the city's/towns........

Jumping for when I need to jump over things/rocks/fences......it can even enhance other aspects like fighting, but only if done well and not like some use jump just to be a annoying target

Climbing when I want to climb a mountain/building..........which also can be used when facing a fence as I find it silly to face a fence that is just as high as my waist, yet I am in no way able to jump or climb over it.

Crawling/prone when I really need to be "invisible" so as close to to ground crawling towards my enemy or that creature I am hunting, it also provides a nice way of cover.

Swimming to feel like a fish in the water.

And most important for me is to feel connected to the ground I am doing these things on, I really dislike the often hoover slightly over the ground, I did feel WOW did come close to one of the best character movement animations I have seen in a MMORPG but it was missing a few I really like to see.

The MMORPG that brings this to perfection will most likely have me playing it as this might seem minor to some, it is a hugh deal for me to get immersed by "feeling" my character really be part of that  "gameworld"

I am aware of some MMORPG providing it but in a more limited way of what I am asking. DDO/AoC have climbing for example, many other MMORPG have swimming, some have crouching/prone, but still seeing for example ladders I can not climb, mountains I can not reach, now I don't need to be able to climb where I want, but if a wall looksI can can climb it as it would look like a mountain from rl I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to climb it. I might slip, rocks might crumble, but atleast give me that change.

Swimming in WoW was  awesome experiance, mainly due to the characters movement/flow of swimming, most other MMO's have it either limited (LotrO) or abit clunky(Vangaurd)

Overall and like I said when a MMORPG comes with these feature's and perfects them in every way it will be that MMORPG I am waiting for as it extends to so much more that can be done in terms of gameplay and playstyle of the gamer.

Of course even thought this is hugh for me, there are things that are even more important to me within this genre, but we have lots of topics about that already and I havn't seen much talk about character movement.

So am asking to share your view about how you feel about character movement.

Character movement in MMOs is trash. Complete rubbish.

Its trash because trash is cheap and easy.  Multiple races, multiple genders, multple heights/sizes of characters.... its too much work for the developers to care to try to "Next Gen' the movement.

So you get a pile of warm garbage for your character's animation.

Aaaand it really sucks.

The closest i've seen to what you're asking for is either Age of Conan or D&D Online. Both have climbing and rather good underwater experiences, DDO especially does a lot with swimming and jumping gaps where your character will grab a ledge so as to not fall to their death.  But unfortunately, DDO has bad character graphics.

Originally posted by Reklaw

Climbing when I want to climb a mountain/building..........which also can be used when facing a fence as I find it silly to face a fence that is just as high as my waist, yet I am in no way able to jump or climb over it.

Crawling/prone when I really need to be "invisible" so as close to to ground crawling towards my enemy or that creature I am hunting, it also provides a nice way of cover.

 

Nice ideas as a whole and would really like to see the others but the above for sure.

Originally posted by CujoSWAoA

Its trash because trash is cheap and easy.  Multiple races, multiple genders, multple heights/sizes of characters.... its too much work for the developers to care to try to "Next Gen' the movement.

"Too much work" is indeed why it isn't done often.  It's easy to demonize this development decision, because you don't know where those manhours went to in games without next gen movement.   But without fail, games that omit climbing and similarly-complex movement mechanics have saved programming and art manhours which were spent elsewhere on the project.

wow did movement perfectly all you have to add is climbing maybe

Originally posted by kakarotrage

wow did movement perfectly all you have to add is climbing maybe

Agreed.  The one thing I love about WoW is the animations and smoothness of the characters in motion and in combat.  Now yea they don't have climbing but still kinda not important in the WoW world.  Jumping and fighting, turning and jumping while fighting, running swimming and sneaking all look and feel very smooth in WoW.  Other games should take note how well Blizzard does art animations for character movements.

To much running in mmo's

Seriously watching a bunch of people run around in a place thats suppose to be a town is just weird. Do you ever see people running to get to their car or go to the convinence store? Yeah its just a game I know, but its still pretty lame if you ask me.

Originally posted by Wolfenpride

To much running in mmo's

Seriously watching a bunch of people run around in a place thats suppose to be a town is just weird. Do you ever see people running to get to their car or go to the convinence store? Yeah its just a game I know, but its still pretty lame if you ask me.

Well if you removed running, level designers would be forced to build cities that don't look like cities (because everythign would be so close together.)

Either that or gameplay would go down the drain, with ridiculously excessive amounts of time wasted in towns just to get anywhere useful.

So yeah, there's things which are a bit "lame" in games, but it's often the result of years of trying to figure out the best solution.  And running everywhere, though awkward, is that solution.

Originally posted by Wolfenpride

To much running in mmo's

Seriously watching a bunch of people run around in a place thats suppose to be a town is just weird. Do you ever see people running to get to their car or go to the convinence store? Yeah its just a game I know, but its still pretty lame if you ask me.

mmos don't try to immitate life , exactly the opposite maybe... but anyhow.. people need the running because playing a character that moves slow would just irritate people and they would be complaining... if you ever played wow think if you would use the walking toggle every time you were in town.. you would go insane.

Originally posted by kakarotrage

wow did movement perfectly all you have to add is climbing maybe

I would have to agree. Movement and animations made up for the graphics in my opinion.

I would love for an mmo to have the movement of Assassins Creed.

FFXI most likely has the best animation of all the MMOs out there. Also, if you look at the FFXIV ALPHA footage, the movement is already incredible.

Originally posted by kakarotrage

Originally posted by Wolfenpride

To much running in mmo's

Seriously watching a bunch of people run around in a place thats suppose to be a town is just weird. Do you ever see people running to get to their car or go to the convinence store? Yeah its just a game I know, but its still pretty lame if you ask me.

 

mmos don't try to immitate life , exactly the opposite maybe... but anyhow.. people need the running because playing a character that moves slow would just irritate people and they would be complaining... if you ever played wow think if you would use the walking toggle every time you were in town.. you would go insane.

I wouldn't mind people running in the streets, but limit the running when entering a building or small town/outpost, for me it would add to the immersion factor. Besides I have no timelimit when playing a MMORPG as that would turn the game into a job where I need to hurry to get somewhere. I truly wish MMORPG would do more to immitate rl if it fits the game. I also want my character to become weaker, perhaps if tech. lets me get skinny when I do not feed him and not just consume food for buff types. There is so much more that can be done with a simple character that could expand and create allot more options to this genre, but some people only see the downside's of things like this. Which is a shame for a genre of games that can be so much more then what we already have in other genre of gaming. Don't understand why some people want this genre to be so limited or seem to be in a rush? I'd say if people have to little time and want things done fast why don't they play other genre's of games, why do many want this genre to be so dumped down that regular multiplayer games already surpassed certain MMORPG's?

Originally posted by kakarotrage

wow did movement perfectly all you have to add is climbing maybe

WOW is ok, but its the annoying getting caught on every little corner I come across that gets on my nerves. Can't Blizzard fix some of the collision detection? This crap happens way too often.

Originally posted by Athkore

FFXI most likely has the best animation of all the MMOs out there. Also, if you look at the FFXIV ALPHA footage, the movement is already incredible.

Yeah I saw the FFXIV pre-alpha footage and the characters move so smoothly... they even have a animation for when they stop moving.

I just saw Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines this is for the PSP.

Seriously what's holding back developers in a genre where tech. definitly exceeds that of a handheld console, regardless that AC:B is a single player game.

i used to love the Iksar swim animation in EQ.  it looked very natural and very appropriate.  always impressed me compared to most of the other graphics/animation in EQ back in those days.

/sigh  sometimes i really miss my ikky monk and the old, old days when LOIO chat was the Barrens chat.  :(

100% agree OP

Hope newer MMOs will pay more attention to animations and movement.

It's not what you ask for, but I've been happy to see different animations in Aion. If you are in a hot place, your char wipes the sweat and tries to bring some air waving hands, in a river catches a fish and returns it to the water (nice touch), when raining produces a big leaf to cover himself (a bit silly this one), well and some others.

Originally posted by Reklaw

I just saw Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines this is for the PSP.

Seriously what's holding back developers in a genre where tech. definitly exceeds that of a handheld console, regardless that AC:B is a single player game.

What's holding them back is exactly what the guy says in the interview: it took them months of development time to get those animations into the game.

Animation quality is that dev team's specialty.  It's what they put a ton of time into, and it's what they've accomplish brilliantly (I say this since I sat next to the animation team on a project who were extremely smart guys but who inevitably couldn't quite hit the same quality bar -- not necessarily because it was impossible, but because it would've detracted from our other features.)

Think of it like RPG progression on a points-based system:

• 2 manhours points: Rudimentary animations
• 4 manhours points: Good animations
• 8 manhours points: Superb animations

So when min-maxing your "game character", developers often opt for the middle choice, because it takes so much more effort to reach that next tier.

And at the same time, those 4 manhours points not spent on superb animations are being spent on other features to make the game fun.

Of course if you manage to get a dev team together which is significantly more talented/skilled, you'll have more manhour points to spend and might be able to do superb animations and other stuff too.

Originally posted by Axehilt

Originally posted by Reklaw

I just saw Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines this is for the PSP.

Seriously what's holding back developers in a genre where tech. definitly exceeds that of a handheld console, regardless that AC:B is a single player game.

 

What's holding them back is exactly what the guy says in the interview: it took them months of development time to get those animations into the game.

Animation quality is that dev team's specialty.  It's what they put a ton of time into, and it's what they've accomplish brilliantly (I say this since I sat next to the animation team on a project who were extremely smart guys but who inevitably couldn't quite hit the same quality bar -- not necessarily because it was impossible, but because it would've detracted from our other features.)

Think of it like RPG progression on a points-based system:

• 2 manhours points: Rudimentary animations
• 4 manhours points: Good animations
• 8 manhours points: Superb animations

So when min-maxing your "game character", developers often opt for the middle choice, because it takes so much more effort to reach that next tier.

And at the same time, those 4 manhours points not spent on superb animations are being spent on other features to make the game fun.

Of course if you manage to get a dev team together which is significantly more talented/skilled, you'll have more manhour points to spend and might be able to do superb animations and other stuff too.

it wasn't really a question, been to long with games to already know the answer, but thanks for providing it anyway. But regardless how long it took them to creat the PSP version of AC, have you noticed how the game looks?, seriously I have seen MMORPG´s not even that old look worse. My main point to bring AC Bloodlines into this is because it´s done on a PSP and like I said the tech availeble to create a PC game is far greater then that of a PSP. Kinda the reason why I asked a retoricle question of what is holding them back.

Besides games in this genre take years to complete so isn´t it obvious that I would like talented devs. to put more soul into a characters movement-animations. Like I said it if devs would perfect this  game can have so much more intresting feature´s then the ones we already have seen tons of times being cloned.

Originally posted by altairzq

100% agree OP

Hope newer MMOs will pay more attention to animations and movement.

It's not what you ask for, but I've been happy to see different animations in Aion. If you are in a hot place, your char wipes the sweat and tries to bring some air waving hands, in a river catches a fish and returns it to the water (nice touch), when raining produces a big leaf to cover himself (a bit silly this one), well and some others.

Yeah I must admit it was those little things that makes me want to explore Aion more then I did briefly in OB, that `catch a fish` when standing in the water indeed looked cool.