Aesthetics and refinement

[DrinkingFood]

So obviously, being a robot who is stiff as a board, ROB's motions can only look so fluid... but geez some of them are just ugly. He could maybe look a little less ridiculous and still keep in theme I think- kind of like how u-air is a pretty fluid looking move that fits his theme (it's a silly position but it's not like, ugly and stiff like the rest of him is). His dash startup and landfallspecial especially, I think, could use some touching up. He appears to have a bendable spine, as iirc, nair bends him over as he spins. So would it be reasonable to request/suggest that his dash startup not lift the back of his booster so far off the ground like he's just falling forward, but actually have him lean forward a little more like he's actually into this dash that he's starting? His run, for example, just looks so much better, but his dash startup just makes me like, not ever want to DD with him (yeah he's got a short one, but I DD a lot with most characters anyways). Not only would it look better but a lower (only slightly) DD might have slight benefits like making high lasers miss. It wouldn't be much, but I mean, I don't think anyone is in the belief that ROB would be broken with a few minor buffs. The same goes landfallspecial. He looks like he lands like a rock, which is fitting in theory for a stiff robot, but you just get this motion when wavedashing that looks like he's practically not even changing posture, which just looks pretty stupid. The only thing I think he does it like, shake a tiny bit and lower one hand to dissipate the impact. I guess it's really up to JCz and/or any of the ROB developers or anyone who does general aethetics developing, but making ROB feel a little smoother would be a nice surprise for the next release, and it seemed to me an appropriate suggestions considering that ROB appears to be in the refinement phase of his development.

Also, discuss potential ROB aethetics/refinements here, I guess.

 

[SpiderMad]

his dash startup just makes me like, not ever want to DD with him (yeah he's got a short one, but I DD a lot with most characters anyways).

 

[DrinkingFood]

Dude... what? Do you even know what that image is supposed to convey? It doesn't even fit there.

 

[Oracle]

He's a toy robot that fights. I don't think it's possible to make him look not ridiculous

 

[DrinkingFood]

Being a toy and a robot have nothing to do with how ridiculous he looks. Although it is a good excuse to keep an air of ridiculousness about him, it's not like he needs it...

 

[JCaesar]

His animations are intentionally stiff and robotic. He also doesn't use a lot of stretching of limbs or enlarging of body parts like many other characters do. Sorry if you don't like it.

 

[DrinkingFood]

I don't have a problem with a lot of his animations being robotic. Or even stiff for the most part. But most of them are just ugly. Nice to know you apparently have no interest in making ROB look a little nicer, though...

 

[JCaesar]

Oooor maybe aesthetics is a highly subjective area, just sayin...

Reminds me of people who think Wario's run looks like a walk even though it's the dictionary definition of a run.

 

[DrinkingFood]

Smooth. That's the word I wanted. ROB's animations do not look smooth. They can be stiff and robotic and still be smooth. But they are not. And it would be an improvement if they were. But I mean, who cares right?

I tend to be of the camp that things are much less subjective than most people would have you believe, because they have an issue with wanting everyone else to just accept what they like. When they can't get acceptance, they settle for tolerance and call the matter subjective and force everyone else to either follow them into a subjective oblivion where nothing is true anymore (just an opinion) or otherwise be categorized as ignorant. You see, I have a problem with subjectivity, preferring to reserve the use of the idea not for things that don't have words, but rather for things that don't have meaning. As far as I'm concerned, if something is subjective, then it can have no true meaning and therefore no real value. So I guess I should just believe that the way things look just isn't important or even worth considering. Not that I'm saying something can't be subjective. But if something is subjective, then it's not really even important. Like character animations. Like who even cares if the game looks good right?

 

[RaphaelRobo]

I like how ROB's animations look. I agree with your points, but I like the animations for the same reasons you dislike them.

 

[DrinkingFood]

Non-smooth animations look good? Why were so many of Wario's non-smooth animations changed, in that case?

Spoiler

also what is the real word to use for non-smooth

I feel the same way about GaW, but I feel he is just a ******** character in general tbqh, his premise is more ridiculous than most characters.

Accepting stupid **** under the premise of "it's just their style" is a pretty weak cop-out for not finding a better way to treat the matter. Like you really like the character's animations or what-have-you because it's their style? What value does having a "style" even have if it's not as good as it could be?

 

[RaphaelRobo]

The real word might be jagged, rough, or something like that?

I was fine with how Wario's old animations looked, and didn't think they needed to be changed. I completely agree with everything you said about G&W, though.

I don't really have anything to say about style, since that's not the reason I like them. I like that all the moves are the same style, but that has nothing to do with whether or not I like the animations.

And yeah, I think the non-smoothness looks good.

 

[DrinkingFood]

I was looking for a word with a less harsh connotation than jagged or rough, because I really don't have that much of a problem with ROB (hence calling it refinement, because they wouldn't need to be big changes), but I guess that's the approximate gist of it. But moves that don't flow into each other look good? At once extreme, you've got a character that looks like they're having a seizure and on the other, a character that moves like *gasp* actual effort was put into animating them? Iirc ROB really has no precedent for his animations so it's not like most of his actual animations can just be justified on the basis of "oh well, we didn't want to change the style, so we didn't". Keeping his animations (not all of them mind you, but most of them just don't look right when used in the melee environment with melee movement abilities) the same is just basically saying that "You know what, we can't do better, so let's not bother". Hell, even if you like it, do you really think you couldn't, idk... like them more? I just don't see "Well I already like them" being an excuse to not try out better ones...

 

[Rᴏb]

I think a better word for what you want ROB's animations to be is fluid.

The way ROB's animations are now are stiff, which fits his character. The only exception I can think of is his uair animation, which I think looks totally out of place tbh.

 

[DrinkingFood]

No fluid isn't the word I want. They don't have the same connotation. I wish I had the vocabulary to properly describe what I'm trying to get across, but I feel like, even if I knew the words, they'd be words that nobody ever uses for how specific they would be. Lots of ROB's moves just look like he jolts into position and then just hovers there for a few frames, and then the move ends. That's the problem I have. With some of them, at least. I'm not even sure that's the problem I have with his dash startup though. His dash start-up just looks like he just falls forward rather than trying to actually dash somewhere. Justifying a character looking clumsy and ridiculous by calling them a stiff robot doesn't really make sense to me. Like why can't a stiff robot still look smooth and/or professional in his actions? They aren't completely opposite concepts...

 

[Oracle]

yeah pmbr screw balance fix the way this plastic robot with rockets for feet moves around bc I don't like it

This thread serves no purpose and should probably be locked

 

[DiSQO_BuNNY]

yeah pmbr screw balance fix the way this plastic robot with rockets for feet moves around bc I don't like it

This thread serves no purpose and should probably be locked

10likes
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[Project M]

Locked by request.