First and foremost, I'd just like to say I'm loving this patch and this game right now. The amount of changes they have made through patches is insane. It feels like a brand new game now, they've added so many new animations and I hope it continues that way. So thank you devs, your work does not go unappreciated believe that.
Okay now onto the good stuff.
There are many things that I believe can be added through future updates that can make a huge impact on this game, whether aesthetically or gameplay wise. A few might be a long stretch to call them "updates" but I can only hope it's possible. Considering some of the things that they have put into this game like, ref interactions and undeniable takedown animations, it gives me hope that these could be possible.
FTF moments/scenarios
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This department needs the most important improvement right now. Currently as it stands, the game feels off when a finish happens the majority of the time. Now I say majority because there are a few instances where you get a beautiful ragdoll KO without an animation and the camera doesn't snap as quick and your fighter walks off without jumping up or down or something awkward like that. Rare to get those, and it shouldn't be that way. In an mma fight, knockouts and knockdowns are supposed to be the "main event", it's usually what people like to see and it's the brutal aspect of it that makes it shine, and this game has not replicated it right to this day... At least not yet.
Changes that should be made to FTF:
1. Have the knockouts happen full ragdoll so no animations.
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Notice the camera moves naturally and doesn't snap to the KO'ed fighter like in the game. Also notice how the fighter just drops, because he got caught clean, hence "ragdoll".
2. Severe and alert knockdown stages should be a mix of animations and ragdoll.
3. Get rid of that camera snap that happens when a fighter gets KO'ed it's too wonky and unrealistic. I don't mind the angle because showing a fighter on the ground after they get dropped happens a lot in mma, but just not like it's portrayed in the game with the quick camera snap. Also have the camera act more natural during the FTF moments. Currently the camera goes all over the place sometimes, and it looks very unnatural, like an amateur is broadcasting the fight. At times we get some cool angles like the up close ones, or above ones. I don't think the jerking and spinning of the camera is necessary at all though. Just have it flow smoothly and natural.
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4. In an active knockdown stage the DOM fighter should be able to follow down their opponent with strikes with the proper animations to go with it. They should also be able to take them to the ground if they like. This should work into a FTF stage just much much more survivable than the severe one, with more movement. To counter this? Speed up the slow animation a tad bit. There's a few that have pretty good speed, others not so much. That way they can start to bridge the gap between the stand up and ground game so we can get one step closer to an actual mma game not just kick boxing. (To go along with this, give us proper defense mechanics like ground sways and blocking for any FTF situation except for knockouts of course.)
Get rid of that super unrealistic gamey mechanic that we have to flick the stick in both directions to get back up.
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5. More FTF animations and moments. Ground rocks, seated cage positions standing TKO's etc. Would make the game feel more like watching an mma fight.
6. Let us follow up after knockouts. This is HUGE imo, we have to have this, it's been long enough. I honestly think the devs will surprise us with this one. After all they did add ref interactions early on, maybe they have something up their sleeve that will wow us hence why they've stayed so quiet? Who knows. I like to remain hopeful though (Back on topic.) After knockouts have the opponent lay there in full ragdoll mode and let us get in a few strikes, 2-3 mayyyybe 4 at most with ref interactions.
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Full mobility on the ground while striking/transitioning
This one could be HUGE. Right now in the game there is no actual movement you can do on the ground, there's no shrimping, crawling, scooting, none of that. It's a big strike if you ask me, especially in an mma game. Now there is ways to move "slightly" on the ground like faking transitioning to scoot up a tad, but this can get denied so easy its not even worth it at the moment. Also transitions can move you but it's just not the same as having full control. Makes the ground game feel stale and boring. If this feature could be implemented somehow before the update cycle ends for UFC 3 this would make the game feel closer to an actual mma game, and a good one.
What are the benefits?
More people would play this game, meaning more sales.
Grapplers would be pleased. As of right now I can tell not many grapplers like the ground game, from reading the forums. They have good reason to. This could change with this.
Strikers would actually want to fight on the ground (I know I would.)
More variety in gameplay/fights = funner to watch and play.
Fights would be more tense. Can you imagine the possibilities if you could actually move freely on the ground?
Scooting to get near the cage would be a possibility, instead of having to fake and go for transitions all the time just to achieve this.
Aesthetically? It would look amazing. I could go on and on why this is a must, but I'll stop right there. Before adding any new positions, besides a seated cage position like I spoke on earlier, this should be the focus on grappling.
Full mobility in the clinch while striking/transitioning
The clinch... what can I say? It's honestly the worst part of the game, it has been ever since. Don't mean to be negative on this subject but it's true.
What needs to happen: The whole clinch needs to be redone realistically. For the sake of an update though all we need is faster mobility, and the ability to strike and transition while on the move in the clinch. EA UFC 4 could focus on the grappling and clinch game fully. More positions, new mo cap, RPM tech all that good stuff.
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Takedowns/struggles and driving against the cage
See we have new beautiful takedown animations now so why not put those as the default with struggle in between the animation? This would look much better than what we currently have. Not to mention, the new undeniable takedowns are pretty hard to pull off and imo they need to remove the ratings cap. Everyone should be able to pull them off, just make it harder for the lower takedown ratings. Ex: 86 to 90 would be, time it right under or away from a strike and you blast. No need for sways, just timing with a larger window to shoot (balanced of course.) 85 and under could do the same but much smaller window to capitalize on so they would have to rely more on sways lunges, etc. This would improve takedowns in general imo. For the undeniable takedown animations, the speed of them should be sped up just a bit to simulate blasting/shooting. For the regular with added struggle the speed could stay the same as they happen now. Add a blast single.
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Ground and pound strike queuing and aesthetics
This is a 50/50 it'd have to be done right to pull this off. GNP irl is brutal and fast. Not slow and tedious with awkward animations like we have in game.
Having this implemented could give us faster striking on the ground making it more satisfying in the long run. In general GNP needs to be faster with either being able to queue your strikes or not, just an idea that I believe could help. Aesthetics wise, we need better striking animations on the ground, majority of the times it seems as if the fighters are pulling their punches, I get it sometimes this does happen irl, but not ALL THE TIME. Maybe give us a power strike modifier? Quick strikes would be kind of what we have now, and powerful strikes would push all the way through like you're actually trying to finish your opponent. Also GNP KO's should be ragdoll NO animations. It kills the immersion.
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Ground sways
I spoke on this, in the FTF moments paragraph above. This is part of mma, we should be able to move our heads to avoid punches on the ground. Makes no sense why we can use head movement on the feet but not on the ground.
"Fun stuff": Make the retreating animation a pawing/faking/measuring while stationary and while moving the fighter slightly. Move your fighter backwards and forward and have the animation we have now play out. This is just for pure aesthetics and I thought this would help with the simulation aspect of it, also could help with range as well.
TV Broadcast Camera
Pure aesthetics, would be awesome to play fights while camera cuts happen would make it super interesting, especially if you want to watch CPU vs CPU fights.
Random camera angles in fighter intros, more variety in general.
Presentation could use a buff I would really like to see it have more variety, for ex when fighters are presented, don't just have the camera stand still and pan to them, have the camera man move around like a human being, much more natural to what we see on tv. Same goes for right before the fight starts, have the camera pan to both fighters, like what we see on tv. I believe both the Undisputed series and EA MMA did this.
If you read this far, I thank you and appreciate you. We're almost done here.
Lastly, re mo cap some animations, and bring more striking animations in the game
I've read how there's not enough strikes in the game and I agree we need more variety, for one we need more leg kicks, didn't UFC 2 have more leg kick animations?
Re mo cap any awkward looking strikes for example the moving regular jab, something about it looks off, same as the moving body jab, it should be more like a poke than anything else. MartialMind spoke on this in one of his videos. Also some of the moving sway animations could use work. Especially the ducking moving slip.
That's all I can think of at the moment, but please let me know if there's any I missed or should be added or not be a priority for the life cycle of this game. Thank you for taking the time to read this if you did, much appreciated.
06-05-2018, 08:05 PM
