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Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 8:08 am — Post subject: Grabbie Hand(s) and Sandbags!
No, this isn't a cursor topic, believe it or not 
.
What I'd like to see in Uru is a level of interaction with the environment more along the lines of Shadows of the Colossus than "Myst with a Crash Test Dummy". All of these suggestions pretty much come from watching the avatar's movements in Shadows and going "y'know, it'd be really handy if I could do that in Uru".
First, walking up to a low enough wall (like the one the Relto page is on in Kemo) and jumping (perhaps while pressing a button?) would cause the avatar to grab the ledge at the top, and when goaded by a "move forward" input, he/she would climb up onto the ledge and stand up, rather than having to go through the rather absurd rock-jumping maneuver we have to deal with now. A "move backwards" input or just releasing the special "grabbie hand" button would cause the avvie to let go and drop back down to the ground. By extension, I'd also like to see this applied to situations where you could potentially fall off of a ledge (Ae'Gura, Ghreesen, Kadish, Gira, the list goes on...) without meaning to. If you stop moving forward and haven't jumped by the time you reach the edge of the cliff you're wandering off of, the avatar would, rather than sliding off and panic-linking, turn and grab the ledge behind him, enabling you to climb back up and either try again or keep your distance. Perhaps require aforementioned grabbie hand button to activate this, lest we annoy those who like wandering off of ledges with no regard for personal safety .
It would also be nice to have the ability to grab a ledge in the event a jump falls slightly short of its target, or leap up and grab onto a ladder hanging from the ceiling without needing a custom "click the ladder to activate the 'grab ladder' action" animation (though perhaps for the sake of our sanity, suspended ladders and the like should have a "leap up there" clickable region so we don't have to mess with aligning ourselves. I don't know if creating clickable regions for the other ledge-related actions would be as intuitive or useful, though, especially if it becomes a general-purpose "any ledge within reach is grab-able" thing rather than a special "run into all the walls to see if you can climb up them by hovering your cursor over them" thing.
Additionally, I'd like to see the avatars be a bit more aware of and responsive to objects on the ground under a foot in height. Sometimes you can glide over (or through) these objects as you scuttle about the City, but other times (like the sandbags holding up the DRC tent, or the slightly larger lumps of rubble at Ferry Terminal) these things stop you dead in your tracks. An avvie more aware of elevation changes in all of its movements would be great (because run-gliding up stairs does look a little weird). Maybe even a little "oops, almost tripped!" action if you land a step in the wrong spot while running. I realize the tripping thing is a bit over the top, and the height awareness thing may require a lot of re-tooling of the avatar's rig, but the grabbing ledges thing (and maybe climbing ropes or walls of ivy, since we've got a wall-climb animation already, while I'm at it) would be a welcome addition to the soccer-freak avvies we have at the moment (look ma, no hands!).
.
What I'd like to see in Uru is a level of interaction with the environment more along the lines of Shadows of the Colossus than "Myst with a Crash Test Dummy"
. All of these suggestions pretty much come from watching the avatar's movements in Shadows and going "y'know, it'd be really handy if I could do that in Uru".
First, walking up to a low enough wall (like the one the Relto page is on in Kemo) and jumping (perhaps while pressing a button?) would cause the avatar to grab the ledge at the top, and when goaded by a "move forward" input, he/she would climb up onto the ledge and stand up, rather than having to go through the rather absurd rock-jumping maneuver we have to deal with now. A "move backwards" input or just releasing the special "grabbie hand" button would cause the avvie to let go and drop back down to the ground. By extension, I'd also like to see this applied to situations where you could potentially fall off of a ledge (Ae'Gura, Ghreesen, Kadish, Gira, the list goes on...) without meaning to. If you stop moving forward and haven't jumped by the time you reach the edge of the cliff you're wandering off of, the avatar would, rather than sliding off and panic-linking, turn and grab the ledge behind him, enabling you to climb back up and either try again or keep your distance
. Perhaps require aforementioned grabbie hand button to activate this, lest we annoy those who like wandering off of ledges with no regard for personal safety .
It would also be nice to have the ability to grab a ledge in the event a jump falls slightly short of its target, or leap up and grab onto a ladder hanging from the ceiling without needing a custom "click the ladder to activate the 'grab ladder' action" animation (though perhaps for the sake of our sanity, suspended ladders and the like should have a "leap up there" clickable region so we don't have to mess with aligning ourselves
. I don't know if creating clickable regions for the other ledge-related actions would be as intuitive or useful, though, especially if it becomes a general-purpose "any ledge within reach is grab-able" thing rather than a special "run into all the walls to see if you can climb up them by hovering your cursor over them" thing.
Additionally, I'd like to see the avatars be a bit more aware of and responsive to objects on the ground under a foot in height. Sometimes you can glide over (or through) these objects as you scuttle about the City, but other times (like the sandbags holding up the DRC tent, or the slightly larger lumps of rubble at Ferry Terminal) these things stop you dead in your tracks. An avvie more aware of elevation changes in all of its movements would be great (because run-gliding up stairs does look a little weird). Maybe even a little "oops, almost tripped!" action if you land a step in the wrong spot while running. I realize the tripping thing is a bit over the top, and the height awareness thing may require a lot of re-tooling of the avatar's rig, but the grabbing ledges thing (and maybe climbing ropes or walls of ivy, since we've got a wall-climb animation already, while I'm at it) would be a welcome addition to the soccer-freak avvies we have at the moment (look ma, no hands!)
.
I do agree that if Cyan is going to put more platforming in, ledge-grabbing would be a very welcome addition.
plus the non-action loving
. You don't need an inventory, just that the avi can pick things up an carry them about until they put them down. I suppose they would have to put them down automaticly when linking or you'd be able to carry the baskets to Relto and drop them over the side (although that does sound tempting 
)
The lack of ability to pick up objects and the platform aspects have been some of the most criticized aspects of Uru when it was released. I agree it would be a good selling point, so to speak, to see some changes on those for the new release.
