How about some Idle animations?

[Officer_Sledge_Hammer]

I have had this idea creeping around the back of my head for a while, and now that Martin the lovely Animation Man is on board, I think the timing couldn't be more accurate.

 

What I am talking about is, as title suggest, Idle Animations. A series of animations that the character would do when left unattended for some time.

 

Like, when you don't move your character for some time, he would pull a map/piece of paper from his backpack/pocket, and start to look at it, while sometimes scratching his head, or turning the map upside down.

 

Or your character would start to beat his leg on the ground onto some tune, or even the background music if the developers are too bored not busy. Or he would scratch his head, like he is annoyed that the player has "forgot" about him.

 

Now, I understand that the developers are busy with reworking/adding some animations and actions and whatnot into the game, and I don't even know how hard/time consuming making animations are, compared to how insignificant this is.

 

But!

 

I think Idle Animations would be cool, as they have been seen in numerous games, like C&C series, Donkey Kong Country, Sonic the Hedgehog, Many FPS, and many more. And they always have served as an "easter egg" in these games, as player rarely leaves the character unattended in these titles. It also brings some liveliness into the game, as the character would do some actions without the player giving them any commands to do so.

 

And as for coding this in, it sounds fairly easy in THEORY, as the animation would trigger if the player isn't doing anything for, let's say, for 10 seconds. And it wouldn't do it during any actions, like reading a book or rummaging your backpack, as I believe these actions will have their own animations in time. And for the "It would look stupid if my character would look his map during sneaking in the middle of a horde." this can be limited by the panic meter.

 

Talk, suggest, argue and share.

 

[Deadend]

sounds neat. First thing that came to mind were the sims from EA. Though considering how tight up the developers are with the resources at their disposal, something like this will most likely (if at all) be added when the game is in beta or close to a final release (1.0) as a part of a final touch-up. 

It would be pretty dissapointing to see them put effort into making something like this this early on without more enticing animations/graphics first (e.g. seeing backpack on character, more customization (hats, bandanas, jackets, t-shirts), sneaking, animations for all weapon types; animations for looking through inventory, construction, crafting, cooking, foraging, looting, fridges(cabinets/drawers/closets/desks) opening animations).

[robban279]

Love this idea!!!