Animations

Alpha-2 work-in-progress combat animations and decals.

The intensity of those weapon trailings; how they scale based on the type of weapon, the level of weapon, that you have; but not just the trailing on the weapon per-se but also the ground decals. Like for this heavy weapon, that first strike you see that decal in the ground is- I love that look- and even on the backswing when I hit the ground behind me, it's causing that decal. – Steven Sharif

• Combat is animation-driven to ensure it is impactful and responsive.
  • Basic attack animations are triggered by the weapon combo system based on weapon type.
  • Skill animations are (generally) not impacted by the type of weapon equipped.

We really wanted to build the combat system to- like i said earlier- be as physical as possible. So we have it very animation driven. Everything is handled based on a reference of animation as opposed to nebulous timings, which allows it to feel very impactful and very responsive. – Keenan Reimer

• Races will not have unique combat animations, but will have unique non-combat animations.

We're not going to be having I think unique combat animations. However we will have unique non-combat animations, such as your idle, your walk, your run cycle: things that the combat attacks do not have to blend back into. – Steven Sharif

• Animations that aren't significant to gameplay may be throttled to improve client performance.

Idle animations

Two-handed sword idle animation by Chris Myers.

Idle animations (non-combat idle stances) will be selectible by players in the character creator.

Part of the feedback that we got from the tank demonstration when we were holding that two-handed sword was that people would like to see variants of the types of non-combat idle stances that can be had with certain weapons; and so we decided to introduce a variant of that with having the [sword] rest on the on the shoulder; and that is something that we'll be exploring further to see just how much runway we can get out of custom and/or selective idle stances. – Steven Sharif

Animation cancelling

Animation cancelling will not be a combat mechanic in Ashes of Creation.

• Players will be able to cancel channeled abilities.

Root motion

Revamped Alpha-1 Mage Fireball ability.

The general approach that we're taking based on a lot of feedback and just good combat design in general. You know philosophy is that we want to give more agency in the hands of the player and the antithesis of that is locking the player down for really long amounts of time. The sort of concept behind that is like you could make an animation effects as glorious looking as possible but if it's taking away control of the player, none of that really matters. Especially the 100th or thousandth time you're using the spell you're tired of that happening you don't feel powerful: You feel the opposite of powerful. So we're trying to like give a lot of control back to the player while they're using these abilities so they can still control their movements, they can react simultaneously while they're taking actions; and we just want to get overall more of a fluid flow, I guess, of combat. And that's the general design philosophy we're using to approach the overhaul. – Tradd Thompson

• The revamped combat system features split-body animations, where the character's upper body can be locked by weapon attack animations while the lower body is free to continue moving.

A lot of abilities you have the capability of moving while casting. It's going to decrease your movement speed significantly or depending on the type of ability. We do reserve the cost- and that's really what it is when you tie ability usage to mobility- we do reserve the cost of requiring the character to remain stationary on some big effect type abilities. – Steven Sharif

• Most abilities in Ashes of Creation are capable of being cast while moving. Some abilities may slow the caster down during the cast, but only rarely will the player be rooted in place.
  • Movement speed can decrease significantly depending on the type of ability.
  • Weapon weight can also affect mobility.
  • Skills with the greatest power may require the caster to remain stationary while channeling them. This is a risk vs. reward mechanic.

Most abilities you'll find in Ashes of Creation are capable of being cast while moving. Some of those abilities might slow your movement during the cast, but you can continue to move. Very rarely, and depending on obviously the importance of the ability or the power level of that ability, you might be rooted in place. So, for example, the AoE ability [Chains of Restraint] has a lot going on. It has damage ticking over time, it is an area of effect, it also has a status condition application; and in those instances the player character gets rooted. – Steven Sharif

• Ranged archetypes will have gap openers to counter gap closers from archetypes like the Fighter.

That's the cat-and-mouse of these abilities. Like we've seen with the Ranger, they have a backflip, they have their Airdrop [sic] ability. The Mage has teleportation. There are going to be abilities that are tit-for-tat; and managing the resource of those abilities and the timing of when you use them to either correlate to your opponent's use of those things, or to save them for yourself when you want to get away, that's part of what makes the engagements dynamic and different each time. – Steven Sharif

• Unreal Engine 5 has enabled improved forms of locomotion, such as crouching, tilting and mantling.
  • Crouching may or may not be in the game.

• The ability to prone is not be in the game.

• Moving backward will likely not affect block and parry.

• Player movement speed during combat is balanced for both PvE and PvP.

There's a balance in the game design between your movement speed on attack and the movement speed of your opponent. When you have a game that is both PvE centric as well as PvP centric, you have to make sure that combat is blended for both approaches; and we can always run into problems where, if you're significantly hampered in your movement speed, that has an effect on how we expect player versus player engagements to interact; and we don't want to restrict a player's ability to be mobile if they're the target of an attack. And as a result of that we need to make sure that we don't restrict the movement abilities of the player who is doing the attacking as well. So we want it to be relatively free for you to stay with each other. Your opponents move around the battlefield together and if we're hampering you on the attack action, we have to then implement some type of snare, or slow, or cc effect essentially on your opposing target; and that's not the approach we want to take for for PvP. – Steven Sharif

• Melee archetypes will offer various mobility and CC counters against ranged archetypes, such as the Ranger.

If we're talking about Fighter, they're going to have a lot of heavy gap closers. They can probably be a little bit more liberal in the use of their gap closers because they have so many of them, versus let's say a Ranger that needs to choose when to use their escape abilities, because they have fewer of them. The same would be true for a melee character like a rogue. Their approach vector is going to be more stealth-driven than it would be perhaps let's say from a gap-closer perspective. – Steven Sharif

Q: If a ranger is super mobile, what are the melee's options in order to catch them?

A: Different class kits will provide different gap closers. They'll provide different mobility skills. They'll have lockdowns. They'll have chains to pull back. They'll have a lot of different things in the rotation. That's part of what an MMORPG experience is. You're not just restricted to three or six skills, you have a rotational suite; and depending on the type of challenges you face is going to help determine which of those rotations you spec into from your skill tree. – Steven Sharif

Skill	Icon	Origin	Description
Air Strike		Ranger	Leap a great distance forward and into the air while firing three projectiles in a line along the path, each dealing (150%🢆) Physical damage to targets hit. Targets hit that are Snared become Rooted, and all Snared stacks on those targets are consumed.
Berserk		Fighter	Consume your Combat Momentum rapidly, gaining 30% more physical power and movement speed and immunity to disabling effects while active. Must have at least 20 Combat Momentum to activate, and the effect ends when all Combat Momentum is fully depleted.
Blink		Mage	Instantly teleport 20 meters in the direction you are moving. Breaks all rooting effects.
Blitz		Fighter	Charge directly toward target enemy, dealing (100%🢆) Physical damage to the target on arrival.
Call of the Wild		Ranger	Remove all Snared and Chilled statuses from the caster, and increase movement speed by 20% while becoming immune to all movement impairing effects for 8 seconds.
Caravan Trail Speed Bonus		Caravan	Minor speed boost for travelling on a simple trail.
Charge		Tank	Channeled Ability: Charge forward in the direction you are facing. Enemies you collide with take (50%🢆) Physical damage damage and become Staggered. Charge will be canceled if another ability is activated or if the Charge key is pressed again.
Disengage		Ranger	Quickly strike enemies in front of you while backflipping in the opposite direction. Targets hit by the strike take Physical damage and acquire 1 stack of Snared for 10 seconds. Targets hit that are Weakened are knocked back.
Epic Melody		Bard	Nearby party members gain Epic Melody Melodies can be played concurrently with other abilities. Multiple instances of the same melody do not stack.
Exert		Fighter	Consume your Combat Momentum rapidly, gaining 30% more physical power and movement speed and immunity to disabling effects while active. Must have at least 20 Combat Momentum to activate, and the effect ends when all Combat Momentum is fully depleted.
Flourish		Bard	Slide forward gracefully in your aimed direction and gain Pep. Can be used concurrently with any other ability. Dance Mastery: EnergyDance Mastery: Power
Form Of Celerity		Fighter	While in this form, the caster receives +2% Movement Speed per 10 Combat Momentum, up to a maximum of +20%. Overpower and Brutal Cleave apply Staggered to targets hit. Shifting form costs 20% of current Combat Momentum and triggers cooldown for all Combat Forms.
Form Of Fluidity		Fighter	While in this form, the caster receives +4% Disable Resistance Chance per 10 Combat Momentum, up to a maximum of +40%. Overpower and Brutal Cleave apply Shaken to targets hit. Shifting form costs 20% of current Combat Momentum and triggers cooldown for all Combat Forms.
Leap Strike		Fighter	Leap to target location and deal (225%🢆) Physical damage around you while applying 1 stacks of Snared to targets hit. Apply 3 stacks of Snared to targets hit that were Shaken.
Lunging Assault		Fighter	Spend 15 Combat Momentum to lunge in a direction a short distance and perform an upward swing upon arrival, dealing (125%🢆) Physical damage and applying Snared to enemies in front of you. You are immune to hard crowd control effects while performing this ability.
Party Stride		Ranger	Applies Strider to all group members within 30 meters. Strider Increases ground movement speed of target by 10%.
Pulverize		Tank	Move to your target and strike them for 225% physical damage. Generates 300% additional threat.
Shield Assault		Tank	Lunge forward and deal 125% physical damage while applying Staggered to enemies in front of you. If a target was hit, gain 25 courage. Generates 300% additional threat.
Shield Slam		Tank	Lunge forward and deal 150% physical damage while applying Staggered to that target. Gain 25 courage on hit. Generates 300% additional threat.
Speed Boost		Caravan	Gives the caravan a temporary speed boost.
Whirlwind		Fighter	Channeled ability: Deal (30%🢆) Physical damage to all enemies around the caster with each spin while channeled, increasing the spin rate the longer it is channeled. The caster is immune to hard disabling effects while spinning. Activate the ability again to end channeling early. Deals 20% additional damage to Weakened targets.
Wings of Salvation		Cleric	Sprout phoenix-like wings and dash to target ally, granting Wings of Salvation to the caster and target on arrival.

Weapon weights

Alpha-2 shield, spear, and mace 3D renders.

Weapon weight refers to how the mass of a weapon affects its performance during combat.

• Light weapons have fewer restrictions on player agency and motion.
• Medium weapons exist on a spectrum between light and heavy weapons.
• Heavy weapons will increasingly lock the player in place during portions of the combat animation.

There is a balance between player motion and agency as we call it and weapon weightedness- that almost locked-in-place rooted position- the heavier the weapon is, the more restrictions you want to place on that player agency to showcase the rooted effect: That weight- that heavyweight aspect; and so what we've done by presenting you guys with both the dual daggers and the two-handed weapon is we've shown the range between that complete player agency: a player agency in the light weapon attacks that's the dual daggers, and the maximum range of of rootedness or weightedness that's present on the two-handed weapon; and that's the spectrum in which our basic melee combat will exist within. So if there are medium weapon groups that exist in-between there, it's going to be somewhere in between that spectrum. – Steven Sharif

Social animations

Alpha-2 cheer animation.

Pre-alpha social animations.

There are interactive social animations and emotes.

• Sitting.
• Leaning.
• Bowing.

Some animations will be agreed-upon emotes that you can initiate with other characters.

• Dancing.
• Hugging.

Q: Can we dance on tables?

A: Technically the tables are in world, so yes... – Steven Sharif

There may be emotes associated with mounts and pets, such as petting, hugging, or playing with them.

In alpha one you might have seen some of the anims on the rider of a horse that they went down and patted the side of the neck, or they would pet those; but those would be separate actions that you could potentially do as just additional emotes, but interfaces with a mount or pet that you have active. – Steven Sharif

Water animations

Alpha-1 swimming.

Tidesnapper early Alpha-1 water animations.

Underwater content will be accessible, not cumbersome.

• Characters are able to utilize their abilities while in the water.
• Stamina does not limit swimming, however breath does.
• Navigational instruments are available to allow ships to detect movement under the water, such as aquatic mounts.

Treasures may be obtained through fishing and by exploring naval content.

Visuals

• 2024-03-18
• 2023-12-04
• 

  2023-12-01
• 

  2023-04-02
• 2022-07-01
• 2021-07-31
• 

  2021-01-30

See also

• Combat
• Roleplay
• Development