Now that Stance Cards and Dance of Death are in the game, I'm updating
my old suggestion with this new information, and will take the chance to bring back
Nilrem's suggestion as well.
Animations: An Introduction
Animations are not always the most immersive, and in a game priding itself on customizations, I believe this to be an area in dire need of an overhaul. You see, as the game evolves, some ideas are added (like outfits giving idles), then more are added afterwards (like William's Glasses overriding outfit idles, and Stance Cards overwriting everything), and it will all eventually lead to a whole lot of incompatibilities.
Moreover, not everyone wants the same animations, especially when that animation doesn't work well with your character's general vibe. Other times, you just want to get an old resting animation back. As such, I'm suggesting a streamlined menu for animations.
My Suggestion
Include a new tab to the Dressing Room, under the "Clothing" and "Appearance" sections. In this tab, you would have tabs with icons for every weapon type, plus an additional icon for bare-handed and one for unique skills, with a design similar to the "Skills" window. By selecting a weapon tab, you get four drop-down menus (Idle/Combat Stance, Walking/Running Animations). Each menu allows you to select an animation, with a preview window at the bottom to view the selected animations. As mentionned before, there would also be a tab for unique skill animations, where you can manage Dance of Death (instead of through the Skills window) and select your favorite animation for Rest. And finally, there'd be a checkbox that allows outfit idles to overwrite your current animation. And finally, new animations would be unlocked through tradeable coupons, as is the case for gestures.
Suggestion by Nilrem of Tarlach
Nilrem suggested another approach, which would use the Style Tab instead of the Dressing Room. They suggested having three slots for "Animation Cards," one for Idle, one for Walking/Running, and one for Rest. However, with the new Stance Cards, I believe we could add another slot for those, and the current "totem" Stance Cards would be converted into the new Animation Cards.
Of course, regardless of the suggestion used, all previous "totem" stance cards would be turned into a functional equivalent, and new animations/animation cards would be obtainable from various sources (achieving a skill rank or talent rank, completing a questline, cash shop, VIP service exclusives, etc.)
Here's a rough draft of what my version might look like.
Comments
On a related note, I once suggested adding player-made 'animations', which would include idles, poses, gestures, dances, etc. It would pair well with our player-made music system.