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The inspect for the claw actually seems passable, but I definitely hate the actual melee animations.
The inspect for the claw actually seems passable, but I definitely hate the actual melee animations.
what about them do you hate?
Isn't it just the default animation? Whenever theres a clearly premium skin line having default animations randomly thrown in always feels bad imo
its pretty rare that we change animations for melee weapons. are you talking about any in particular like equip or the attacks, or just all of them?
the way we think about melee weapons is through what we call archetypes. different weapons follow different preset structures. so while its true this does have the same animation as say Oni or Magepunk claw, the same is true for other Premium skinlines like Reaver, RGX2, or Prelude to Chaos
the hope in these cases is that despite the animations being the same, the addition of things like VFX/SFX can do a good amount of lifting in terms of making the weapon feel unique. Something id say that does this well is Chronovoid, where its quite literally the same animations as Araxys, but it "feels" different.
its pretty rare that we change animations for melee weapons. are you talking about any in particular like equip or the attacks, or just all of them?
the way we think about melee weapons is through what we call archetypes. different weapons follow different preset structures. so while its true this does have the same animation as say Oni or Magepunk claw, the same is true for other Premium skinlines like Reaver, RGX2, or Prelude to Chaos
the hope in these cases is that despite the animations being the same, the addition of things like VFX/SFX can do a good amount of lifting in terms of making the weapon feel unique. Something id say that does this well is Chronovoid, where its quite literally the same animations as Araxys, but it "feels" different.
additionally - we definitely do want to make new archetypes! and we are working on some new exciting ones, its just that we need to pick and choose where that effort goes. Last year we saw the Xenohunter "CQC" set, the Cryostasis "hammer" set, and some dual wielding with Sarmad. There will definitely be more new and exciting sets coming in 2023!!
Is there any chance we get to see another one of the xenohunter type in the near future, with effects etc? It's my favorite animation but the knife itself is a bit too basic.
I think it's a pretty popular type overall and we didn't get any alternative yet (and iirc it was released quite a while ago).
Would love it in a premium bundle like the upcoming one. Would be an instant buy.
Its fairly common for us to release a new archetype in a basic format, and then improve upon it later. Look at the butterfly knife first with Recon and then RGX, or the Karambit with Champions and then Reaver. We like to keep upping the bar when we can and also help things feel fresh so it could be a safe bet that if there's a thing you like and see room for potential, so do we :)
I agree with the other comment about the default claw animation. And for me this is a big deal breaker when buying an expensive premium bundle.
The melee is always a big part of the decision and unique or new animations (pullout, attack etc) are by far the most important factor.
Sadly the really cool new types (butterfly knife on release or xenohunter knife) often released in less premium feeling bundles.
This makes me want to wait for a version with actually cool effects on top (I got the rgx 2.0 bf). Sadly this is often times a long waiting time which might even take the hype away.
If cool new archetypes would release in real premium bundles I would be way more likely to buy the bundle.
Additional effect like on the claw weapon are fine and all, but at this point just boring and not a must-buy factor anymore. A xenohunter type melee with the new bundle would have been an instant cop instead of sadly like the 9th claw type weapon.
For you is there any sort of time or limit when something that was exciting no longer is? Like lets say the reaver karambit was the first, with its effects and all, would another karambit on a skinline that lets pretend is also interesting to you still be interesting, or would you be less interested because you already have a karambit you like?
Having the same archetype already is for sure the biggest factor in the excitement dropping by quite a bit. I am generally trying to purchase 1 melee weapon of a new archetype I like, since I can only buy so many bundles.
Having 2 or more feels like a bit of a waste for me, since usually I would just prefer one over the other, which would result in the other one being a useless purchase. This is only really different for weapon skins (probably because the whole experience feels a lot different from gun to gun due to sound, visuals, variants, finisher etc).
And since I limit myself to basically 1 melee per archetype I try to wait for one that could be the best of that archetype or at least checks all the marks. This includes effects etc, which is why I didn't purchase the recon butterfly knife or the xenohunter knife.
Even though I loved the animations, I wanted to wait for a more premium feeling version (like I did with the RGX 2.0 and hopefully another xenohunter type in the future).
If we take say ion 2.0 or reaver 2.0, I was definitely interested in the bundles, but since I already had the champions karambit I decided against the purchase.
If you would release another butterfly knife or karambit with different animations (pullout, attack, inspect), that would of course count as a new type for me.
interesting to hear your thoughts on this, thanks! for us its all about trying to find out whats the most compelling for people. we've definitely tried to find opportunities to change some things up with animations here and there and we've seen it have the most impact in terms of what excites players. We took the original Reaver "assassin" archetype and gave it a new right click on Ruin, Nunca Olvidados, etc and players loved that so its good for us to find those kinds of wins that allow us to not have to reinvent the wheel every time. We want the impact of the changes to feel meaningful and not forced (not new just for the sake of new but actually interesting and exciting).
We're definitely working on doing this more and more in the future!
I know it's not really an AMA, but the insight is cool.
How do you guys decide whether to introduce a new archetype for a skin line? Is it based around budgeting, the skin itself, or influenced by how it can be made in a way that's re-usable for other designs?
There's not really a formula, it all depends on what we're working on, when its releasing, what else is happening then, etc. lots of things to consider so we just need to pick and choose so we can appropriately deliver exciting things, and actually get it all done in time.