perhaps and for sure it is too late to discuss, but what fight animations would you best expect from ESO?

I got two ideas:

- (simple) Random moves, especially important for dual handed and single handed weapons. Also for daggers, but daggers are easier to make some random swipes. Such random moves would make game look like not repetitive task and would simulate character to do some planned fight. By random moves I mean that sword might go higher or lower, from right to left and reverse.

- (more complicated) Witcher style (just in short for those who did not played: when right time come you need to click attack - not earlier and not later, also character is learning new moves and when right clicked in series then does more impressive combinations). It could make sword glowing shortly in the time when attack must be clicked (only for character player). This is quite interesting option, because you need to watch and not just furiously click on attack.

I think (but I'm not other MMO expert) in many other MMO style of fight animations is not important (so in tab targeting just some random moves is enough and nobody pays much attention to it), but in ESO it becomes very critical factor as direct fight (also in 1st person - it is also effect of adding 1st person) is one of the major elements of game (sorry for my English, hop you got what I mean).

Any other ideas to make fighting style more natural looking? What about mages and healers?

Other topic, but related: depending on body style / race assign different run/walk animations, so when group runs it is not like all move in the same way.

I know both would be extremely demanding to do for developers, but may be worth effort.

I think it would be difficult to implement in a action mmo, far easier when its tab targeting.

I liked how Project Red did the Witcher fighting system in both games 1 and 2. but can't see it working well in a game with other players.

What I would like to see is some splash damage from larger weapons in games so a player with a two handed weapon will always do damage to mobs in a front arc rather than a single target, this splash damage is reduced though.

Also some kind of kill cam in ESO would be nice, I like AoC fatalities and the ones in Skyrim, I know some here don't like them but I thought it added to the game. In AoC you gained a short 30 second buff with increased stamina and mana regen after pulling off a fatality.

btw. do you know that in Witcher animations were taken from Aikido master trainers?

And for large weapos - yes that should work differently, the good idea to make them directed Aoe (dual hand swords and dual hand axes). Single handed swords should be one target only.

Also one more - when get hit by melle and not blocking then character should be moved slightly back by momentum of weapon and have .25 second stun - that could be easily done.

fatalities - yes from my side (it was discussed somewhere already), but time is running in mmo very fast, so even less possible in my opinion. But if you mean hands / legs falling apart or heads - then I'm enthusiastic.

Leaving bloody oblong marks on body/armor after each hit - not random blood splashes. But automatically it is large overhaul because mages would also like to leave magical damage signs (darker burns from fire for example).

Still I think that spam clicking of attack button could be somehow blocked - the hit should be done in exactly right time. This would be what makes game mastering. And Witcher did it perfectly making from this element a good play element. But Wither was mostly dual handed as far as I remember (but using magic also).

I approve
Hm not so much actually, for a single player game the Witcher combat is awesome, (although TW1 combat was a little boring for me). For an MMO it's complicated as all the enemy player would need to do is jump around, step away or walk through the player then the combo is ruined.
I would definitely like to see different styles of swiping and attacks, splash damage for 2 handed weapons ( this would probably have to be a cone effect, given there's no CD).

Pushing a player back in combat when hit would require collision detection to be implemented and the engine ESO uses can not handle that.