I would rather they modify or eliminate the animation. And as for modify, make it more stealthy, and less "flashy"... as flashy attention getting does not fit with a stealth action which for most would be to not gather further attention but to minimize it.
'Flashy attention getting' is actually quite a good description of BG3 as a whole. Haven't seen the animations but a jumping ranged sneak attack sounds patently ridiculous. I just don't understand Larian's apparent obsession with turning things up to 11 when it would often be far better served with some understatement.
Exactly, If Larian wants to keep the stupid animation in, at least give some of us a toggle to turn it off so it does not break immersion for us.
Ok I'm playing a Rogue now and the SA animation is ridiculous.
Red glowing laser eyes and black shadowy mist forming around the Rogue when you prepare a Sneak Attack to add 1d6 damage? The VFX are completely overdone and inappropriate for the ability.
This is a mundane attack that adds 3-4 damage. Why does it look like I turn into a demon from Abyss? Why does it look magical? The appeal of playing a Thief or any other martial class is that you can kick ass without needing magic. Likewise, the appeal of playing an Arcane Trickster is that you can do magic when a Thief can not. Why do these lines need to be blurred so that everyone looks magical and no one is distinctly either magical or mundane?
Also, the jump when firing a bow? Appropriate only for a childrens' cartoon game or anime. Really poor taste for a grown up RPG. The game direction is too loose and stylistic choices are all over the place. You can't be serious photorealistic and supersaiyan anime at the same time.
/facepalm
edit: also trying to play stealthily and it's even more broken than I feared. The tomb robbers simply left combat and instantly healed themselves to full after I ambushed them and then hid behind a wall. Why can enemies just end combat, and why do they have this heal to full ability in the first place?
The spiders queen and her minions do the same thing. It’s annoying that you do all you can to sneak attack and thet fully heal themselves each time.
You don’t even need to be trying to hide for this to happen, and I agree it’s really frustrating. I think that was mentioned in one of the threads about the mechanics of sneak recently.
"You may call it 'nonsense' if you like, but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!"
They... don't? I've not had enemies leave combat after patch 9. Combat ending after the first attack was only possible Patch 8 and earlier. Now, enemies stand around and do fuck all when they can't detect you. (Also sneak attack damage is 2d6 and 3d6 unless at really early level...)
Please, give me your enemies who leave combat and heal...
They... don't? I've not had enemies leave combat after patch 9. Combat ending after the first attack was only possible Patch 8 and earlier. Now, enemies stand around and do fuck all when they can't detect you. (Also sneak attack damage is 2d6 and 3d6 unless at really early level...)
Please, give me your enemies who leave combat and heal...
They don’t leave combat, but (some?) NPCs have the ability to heal back up to 100% when out of combat and sometimes, when enemies are out of normal range (I think), even if you attack them the game doesn’t register that they’re in combat and they’ll use that logic to heal.
Eg, in my last playthrough I shot the far web bridge out from under the spider queen matriarch, she plummeted, lost half her HP, then promptly healed herself back to full health. In this case, combat wasn’t triggered.
Other times, as you say, enemies won’t see you and enter combat, but they don’t heal themselves.
"You may call it 'nonsense' if you like, but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!"
This has not happened to me once in patch 9. And I use a lot of ambush tactics. However, the spider queen was bugged in such a way that she could do unlimited acid attacks without combat starting, or /her technically having detected me/.
The most glaring example, pre patch 9:
3 goblins stand on a cliff. I shot two. One dies, the other is injured. The rest enter combat, but leave it quickly and heal up.
Patch 9: 3 goblins stand on a cliff. I shot one. Combat is triggered for the next 9999... turns while they proceed to do nothing. (Will reapply buffs and poison, though).
It's been rare that enemies were offscreen for most of the party, but they didn't heal even then.
Also, the spider queen detecting even one party member will often lead to her attacking the full party. She's just about broken in every way (and the camera kept getting stuck on the floor 🙄). I had to thunderwave her onto my paladins because she decided to creepily stare at my hidden 3 members for the rest of eternity.
Consequently, I've unfortunately been unable to test shooting the web while hidden. Either she kills Astarion without entering combat, falls as intended but attacks everyone (for some reason the spiders also get a whole free turn in this case, making it extremely unviable). Or... she gets stuck staring at me on stone ground. That only leaves destroying the eggs and then pushing her off the platform through some method.
On a related note, many animations for the tadpole powers are also ridiculously over the top. Like this one where the actual effect is -1 AC to one target. Why such crazy effects for very minor low level abilities?
I agree - range sneak attack animation (jumping up in the air to shoot), does not make sense...and is silly. Standing to take aim = yes, but you don't need to JUMP.
As an animation I love it. As a Sneak Attack animation I hate it. It would be cool to use for the critical hit cinematics (which I'd like to see slowed down to half speed so you can register them better) but for Sneak Attack it doesn't make sense and isn't cool ENOUGH to justify the dissonance, IMO.
As an animation I love it. As a Sneak Attack animation I hate it. It would be cool to use for the critical hit cinematics (which I'd like to see slowed down to half speed so you can register them better) but for Sneak Attack it doesn't make sense and isn't cool ENOUGH to justify the dissonance, IMO.
I agree that the melee version would be pretty good if used for critical hits. I’d even take it for critical hits that included sneak attack, and would handwave it more as an explosive ambush than a stealthy shivving.
I do think the ranged version is beyond redemption though.
"You may call it 'nonsense' if you like, but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary!"
