01:19 PM - May 9, 2009 by Ian_Cummings
I think more and more videos are going to be coming out by our marketing department and from preview events...just wanted to let you guys know what's missing from the feature still that we are working on (this also is a bit of a response to apex and co. and their critiques).
The biggest missing feature is probably carrying through velocity from original animations -> PRO-TAK. You can see that on the Lendale White video...meaning that when players transition from a normal mocap tackle into PRO-TAK stuff their velocities get zeroed out (meaning they stop in place). This will definitely be addressed before we ship...our goal is that you don't even notice the transition from one to the other...it should just look like another guy added on seamlessly. This is causing a lot of the feeling of "it needs more umph"...
Second biggest is the "warping" into the PRO-TAK multi-man stuff. This hasn't been tuned really so guys are just 'suction-ing' like magnets to the ballcarrier. Also when the guys add on the goal is that they drastically effect the pile's velocity and positioning and stuff...right now they just attach and that's about it. Again when the feature is actually done you should feel a lot more 'power' when these guys hit the pile.
The "endless chopping" stuff is often turned on for demo purposes...this will really not happen in the game when it ships...you'll see a guy drive forward and they'll then get pushed to fall forward or backward (or sideways or whatever) way quicker than just standing up chopping their feet.
Lastly, we really don't have barely any animation variety in there yet. We're looking to at least add quadruple the amount of stuff to keep it fresh. We've built some new tech this year that basically swaps the animation banks for each PRO-TAK set of animations after they play (moving them to the end of the list after they do), but up until basically today we haven't had the variety to swap. That will be coming very soon as well.
So anyway, I don't want to act like I don't want feedback from you guys as you see the new stuff...all of it is valuable and please keep posting...but I also wanted to let you know what we're currently working on. We definitely aren't going to be spending our whole cycle on this tech to have it not come out looking perfect. We just have to balance the needs of marketing to show stuff early even when it's not done.
- Ian
The biggest missing feature is probably carrying through velocity from original animations -> PRO-TAK. You can see that on the Lendale White video...meaning that when players transition from a normal mocap tackle into PRO-TAK stuff their velocities get zeroed out (meaning they stop in place). This will definitely be addressed before we ship...our goal is that you don't even notice the transition from one to the other...it should just look like another guy added on seamlessly. This is causing a lot of the feeling of "it needs more umph"...
Second biggest is the "warping" into the PRO-TAK multi-man stuff. This hasn't been tuned really so guys are just 'suction-ing' like magnets to the ballcarrier. Also when the guys add on the goal is that they drastically effect the pile's velocity and positioning and stuff...right now they just attach and that's about it. Again when the feature is actually done you should feel a lot more 'power' when these guys hit the pile.
The "endless chopping" stuff is often turned on for demo purposes...this will really not happen in the game when it ships...you'll see a guy drive forward and they'll then get pushed to fall forward or backward (or sideways or whatever) way quicker than just standing up chopping their feet.
Lastly, we really don't have barely any animation variety in there yet. We're looking to at least add quadruple the amount of stuff to keep it fresh. We've built some new tech this year that basically swaps the animation banks for each PRO-TAK set of animations after they play (moving them to the end of the list after they do), but up until basically today we haven't had the variety to swap. That will be coming very soon as well.
So anyway, I don't want to act like I don't want feedback from you guys as you see the new stuff...all of it is valuable and please keep posting...but I also wanted to let you know what we're currently working on. We definitely aren't going to be spending our whole cycle on this tech to have it not come out looking perfect. We just have to balance the needs of marketing to show stuff early even when it's not done.
- Ian
Om Ian now we are waiting on some franchise news now.
PLease give us some in the next few weeks please.
Relax, I was just saying that I appreciate someone else being the bad guy instead of me having to. It was meant as a fun, random comment, not any sort of judgment on the original poster, nor was it a judgment on anybody who has ever made a grammatical error in a post (because I know I have, plenty of times). I'm just a dork, and I notice the little errors. I was just pointing out, I'm happy I'm not the only dork in here 
Different games, different positives and negatives suiting individual preference, so how about NOBODY IS RIGHT OR WRONG? 
Working...