QOL Feature(s)
General quality-of-life features for realistic players; adding more variables of sketchy landings or variating flick style of tricks so that two different kickflips rarely look the same --> turns to automatic higher replay value.
Adding a half dozen or so sketchy-landing animations and similar small fill-in animations would have high impact on optics and not only cater toward the realistic crowd of players, but be an entertaining and even addictive addition to the game. If this idea is too far, find an optimistic dev who isn't a brick wall. I spoke about this with some homies before while playing in the pre-alpha and all that everyone was saying is that the game would be so sick if there were just more fluidity and reactivity, both in the player animations & clothing physics like shown in the first actual gameplay trailer.
Small but tricky things for devs, such as the board-wear and board-snapping features that a lot of people want. Flatspots, board flex when landing. Playing Games of S.K.A.T.E. I strongly recommend a lot of the suggestions from others in this forum regarding realistic features and physics improvements as I'm almost certain that the animation and physics-based details are what many people are interested in, with the online and multiplayer aspect being an afterthought.
Lots of people simply just wanted a freeskating game where you can be offline, have a story to follow, maybe have some pros to skate as, etc. Back about 2-3 years ago that was a pretty non-negotiable wish that a lot of players had. I don't get how we prioritized always-online servers but didn't even get the game of s.k.a.t.e feature implemented near the beginning.
My overall solution for the actual on-board animations would be to return a similar option or "slider" of sorts - a "Loose/Aggressive/OG" slider to further customize your movement and arm/leg steez. People might get tired of the exact same IG edit tre flips, or having the exact same looking tricks as all other players for that matter, when it is emphasized in the blog posts about how San Van is about 'You' the player and what 'You' are doing; so let's build upon that, and give players a much deeper and polished customization. Let's be real, is adding customizable variations of existing animations too difficult and spooky? We have all these emotes that can be used mid-trick, but I can't do things like make my hardflips go more vertical between the player's legs?
If this game does not need to be restricted to being a "skate 4" and living up to the exact same mechanics as previous Skate series games, it would be reasonable to believe that adding animation-level customization features that did not exist before would be a groundbreaking aspect of the game, and would be more than enough to "modernize" and give a new-gen feel to the Skate series.
A lot of people are transitioning from Skate 3, Session, Skater XL, even THPS. When you think of taking the aspects of each game that makes it both challenging and fun, you often come across the same types of improvements that many people desire overall, and most of the time, these features lean toward realism.
Just pls, for the sake of skateboarding, we may not get another legitimate and in-depth skating game for another few years alone outside of EA, but if we can just do this right and make this THE skateboarding game that everyone wants to play and customize to play with precisely the style they choose, that would be ideal.
