Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Race-specific animations

Hi everyone.


Today I’d like to adress the race-specific walking and idle animations that have been added for Githyanki and Elves, and might also possibly be added to the coming Dragonborn and Half-orcs.
Before I get started: this topic excludes races that will absolutely need different animations no matter what, because they have different body sizes/shapes, for example Gnomes or Dwarfs.

In general terms, I think the developers are doing a disservice to their game by locking certain animation styles for specific races. At the moment, I might want to create a high Elf Barbarian who I roleplay as a total brute who has no manners whatsoever, yet he walks like he has been taught proper etiquette be the Elven queen herself.
Similarly, I could envision a Githanki Bard or Rogue who, for whatever backstory-related reason, has not enjoyed the regular upbringing of the Githyanki, and is generally less militant in their behaviour. Nonetheless, they will still be locked into using the very strict idle animations that make me think they are some kind of military general.

TLDR; While a great idea in principle, walking and idle animations should be selectable for all races in character creation, rather than being strictly linked to a specific race, since they can be a vital part of how you envision your particular character to behave.

On a side note, a few words about the Elven walking animation, since we are already on topic. While I think it’s a good idea in principle to add a more elegant-style walking animation, I think the animation needs a bit of refinement. Please forgive the statement, but in my opinion the Elves’ walking animation looks like it has been made by someone who has never animated a bipedal creature before; like it’s a placeholder version of a more refined animation, basically. Not trying to be mean, I just wanted to mention it because I think there is much room for improvement here.


So. What do you guys think? Should the walking and idle animations be part of who your specific character is and therefore be selectable in character creation?

Edit: feel free to also leave your general opinion on how the animations look to you; maybe we can compile all the racial animation-specific feedback in one thread.