Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Unnecessary Animations for basic actions

Overview:
Basic actions, like dash and jump, have unnecessary and over the top animations. Which causes a noticeable uptick in the time length of each round as each of these actions take a hand full of seconds to finish. This issue is painfully noticeable in large encounters or when you are trying to move your party through a series of jumping platforms. So, when you have to wait and watch every NPC in a fort spend a few seconds each performing basic action, it can drain the fun out the encounter. Causing you to count the turns as they go by.

Solution:
Every non spell ability should simply have a very short (1 sec or preferably less) animation that just shifts the character's stance. This can be things like squatting for a jump, or leaning forward to dash. The sneak action is a good example. Simply crouching down to sneak with no added special effects. Characters don't need to look like they are performing a ritual or getting ready to power up just because they are about to jump or swing their weapon one more time.

With that being said, this is a minor quality of life improvement that should in no way take precedent over many other more important things. I do hope that this change is made at the latest near the end of EA.

I love the over-the-top animations, actually.

Agreed... not only is that a clear legacy thing from DOS's combat system, which doesn't fit the style of BG at all, it also further slows down an already choppy combat system.

+1, especially for the useless special effects.

I totally agree with OP. It can seem a bit cartoonish at times.

Agreed, jump and dash should not trigger special effects.

I disagree that these animations are unnecessary. They give feedback for what is occurring, what you're about to do, etc. It's especially useful in multiplayer.

I'm all for custom animations for special actions, actually. I'd be all for dashing having a special animation different than normal movement or a a cool "prep" animation about the character getting ready to sprint.

Conversely, I'm also all for tuning down unnecessarily over the top visual effects that are just visual noise, and for keeping these animation as "based on real human anatomy" as possible with no cartoony over the top shit on top.

I also agree that these type of animations need to be snappy, short and quick to execute.

As I mentioned in my post they should have simple and quick animations, but not overtop one that just drags things out.

I believe one reason for this is to make it clear in multiplayer what your party members are doing. Slight shifts in stance could be easily missed.

That's what communication is there for, though... it is a turn based game, there should be plenty of time.

Agreed. My Fighter finds true spiritual enlightenment and then explodes with blue energy every time he regains a couple hitpoints from Second Wind. Gale goes super saiyan casting Firebolt. I'm worried a high level spell or ability would just crash the game. : p

Save the light show and hammy theatrics for the power spells/abilities, the Wonder Twins don't need to activate every time we cast a cantrip.

I don't see why that is necessary. What happens if a party member does not see an ally select the dash, jump action, or if a fighter decides to use action surge. I can't imagine a single instance where a plan would be ruined because someone decided to dash without anyone else noticing. Plus, you could just tell people what your doing in voice chat. And even then, when you look at your screen, you would still be able to see what actions your party members are taking on their turn based on a much more simple animation. Just like with stealth.
A perfect example of this is in the other 5e based RPG, Solasta.

At least nerf those animations down a notch - sound cues are enough for those. no need to be overly dramatic over a simple jump, dash or even helping a downed companion to rise. Those are not magic actions, so no need to treat them as such.

I remember a dev talking about this: Apparently it was kinda hard to tell certain animations apart, so they gave them a little spice

Personally feel they might be a little too much tho

I mentioned that to one of Larian animators. He said he will look into that.
But yeah, things like dash, dodge (if that would be a thing in future) and such, should not have any animation at all. At best text would just popup, saying that certain action been used.

Agree.

+1

It's really jarring. I'd also tone down some low-level spells, especially cantrips. A huge expressive pose and a burst of light when casting True Strike? Way too much imo.

For dash I suggest no animation at all. It is so annoying to have to press a button every time you want to dash. Solve the issue like Pathfinder Kingmaker did in their turn based mode. Have a line between your character and where your mouse is pointing (like we have now) and change the color of the line to red (or some other color) to indicate that going past a certain point would use your dash action. This would speed up turns and make the game flow better.

Exactly, other tactical games like X-com have this feature as well.

Currently I am not sure if dashing will get me to where I need to go and I have to commit to dashing before I find out.

On the other animations - they are cool in the beginning, but do get old. Maybe have an option to speed up/disable them available would be nice.