Idle animations, will they be more random?

[MehMan 0]

One thing that really bothered me with ArmA is that you had to do a lot of scripting work if you wanted the AI to do more than just scratch his face with his rifle. If you wanted to make a decent base where people are talking or a decent guard at a gate you had to loop an animation and that wasn't perfect. It just sucks to have an enemy AI at some gates and have them standing in the same pose all day long and just lift their hand up to get that fly away.

I believe more random idle anims would really be great.

Also if not by default then at least by using the dismissed waypoint. Currently the dismissed waypoint just makes the AI go into random directions, I've seen some sit down this one time. Random animations of soldiers talking and idle anims would really be great here.

you know, just a rant.

[Litos 10]

You know I bet half the people will start to bash you for posting this and say it doesn't matter.

But I think it does. It's a good sight and adds realism. As I said earlier somewhere, realism isn't only about the gameplay, but the sight and animation of the game (not directly animation, I mean as in the game should be animated like in real life). I agree with your post, although I think from what we've seen in the trailers so far the idle animations aren't so bad... I think soldiers would walk around, kill bugs on their face, scratch themselves, maybe even talk.

I liked Stalker's animations. They'd talk, eat, play guitar... that was cool.

[maddogx 13]

While I don't believe it's sooo important (i.e. not too high priority) I agree that it adds a lot to the atmosphere of a game when people don't just stand around like they have a stick up their ass, but actually to something. Little things like rubbing their eyes, wiping imaginary sweat off their foreheads, scratching themselves etc. It just makes them seem alive.

Of course stuff like this can be scripted, so mission makers who want to add some atmo to their missions still have the possibilities. Having a bunch of random idle anims would still be "nice to have" in my opinion.

[Shadow NX 1]

I have high hopes for a improvement there, BIS made many great motion capture anims especially these hidden on the Queens Gambit expansion looked excellent so why not add a few more of that kind as idle, different weapon resting anims, kneeling down, sitting, check weapon and such stuff.

And most important more for unarmed characters, thats basicly the only thing that bothered me in some reviews, civilians just stood there when you pointed the gun at them not even caring for a bunch of armed americans crossing their way.

Surely not a too important feature but it would add life to the game for sure.

[MehMan 0]

It's definatley not high priority, but if you have a mocap studio why not make good use of it :P.

It'd be a nice added bonus.

[That guy 10]

even in ArmA 1 there were good "idel animations". unfortunately they were script only and not natural. what BIS needs to do is just integrate the current anims to the normal routine.

especially now that the engine can handle more than one anim at a time

[Borg 0]

Yes idle animations are really important to add immersion to the game.

Like if you have your squad in a sitting position in the woods, it would look so great if they would scratch themselves, correct the helmet on their head, and changing sitting position a bit as its uncomfortable, checking the time.

And depending on the situation (Orders like; stealth, or safe/careless), they should be doing different animations.

If you have told your squad to go stealth, they should not do any animations except the normal ones (looking around).

A soldier in careless mode could be smoking, singing or talking. Maybe pick something from the ground. You know what I mean.

Sorry for going OT here but I can't controll myself:

The animations IN COMBAT are REALLY important.

When people get shot they shouldn't just stand there, and then just fall over.

I've noticed that when your teammates get shot they fall to the ground holding the wound now in ArmA2 (this is good, but can be improved)

Make them fall over, SCREAM for help. Make it feel like they really are shot.

Make the player really feel compassion for their mates, so that we will feel like "Damn, I have to save him, he's in a lot of pain!"

A bit of blood wouldn't hurt either, just to make it feel like real war.

It's a simulator right?

And the people who don't like it could turn it off in the options menu.

Also the unarmed people should do something rather than just standing there like a doll.

Just making them crossing their arms sometimes would make them feel more alive.

Also now when the missions are about saving civilians, its important that they make the civilians be more "alive". Saving dolls are not making us feel like we've accomplished something.

[Creation 10]

Indeed, i wouldnt go too indepth on the animations, like noone wants to sneak up on some russian soldiers surrounding a campire singing Kumbayah.

If they just leaned on objects, sat down or at max have a smoke

They could interact with each other, not that hard just get some Russian lines, let two russians heads face each other (if theyre within a certain distance of each other) move the mouths like in direct chat in A1 and play the sound, there ya have it, the feeling of a living person that your watching.