Gameplay Feedback: Footplant Nitpicks and Suggestions
I attached a video that explains some of what I've written but raised some other things I wish footplants would have (or not have) - I summarize the video in the nitpicks section. I've noticed the footplant update this season is mostly just making the character stop their motion for a fraction of a second then continue moving after the foot leaves the ground. With medium-fast speed air footplants, this looks jarring. I would prefer that the leg would follow the ground coming up to the point of ground-contact then jump past the point of ground-contact -- without it affecting how footplants look if done at a slow speed. *It's very important it doesnt affect slow or stationary air footplants because that's the speed where some footplants are used (ramp apexes, onto coping) - if my character did a big kick motion backward while I'm just doing a stationary footplant that wouldn't look good. Aside the jump speed, the current air footplants look good stationary, Just not while moving at a moderate speed. and even then at a slow speed I would like if there was a more elaborate leap motion or tweak, or anything cool. Basically the jump animation when the foot is on the ground should be elongated and should kick out depending on the direction of travel. here's a drawing with exaggeration to make my point: The game currently has the leg below the knee move forward a bit before the footplant, which I think helps - but the jump animation is vertical regardless of speed and direction. If moving and facing forward, the leap of the leg should happen behind the character a bit. if this was how the animation system worked you probably wouldn't need to have the entire character stop their motion as hard to fix the feet sliding. I implied it already but It would be nice if the leg can move side to side (or in reverse) so you can do the footplant mid-spin without the leg kicking in the wrong direction. --------------------------------------------------------------- Footplant nitpicks summary: I attached a video that explains mostly what I've just written but raised some other things I wish footplants would have (or not have) - I summarize and elaborate on it more below. -- 1 - Footplant Height (air and ground) There's no height control of the footplant, it's this very fixed strange unnatural arc that jumps up sharply not matching the momentum of the footplant jump animation. A solution to this is reverting the change of making footplants higher - or adjusting the animation. Additionally it would be cool to have a feature that adds a short hop & high jump for footplants. Much like how a platformer game works or like Super Smash Bros. Where the input behavior is basically releasing the button before the jump force is initiated = a short hop. if you hold the button past that point it will do a normal jump. If you actually elongate the jump animation of the footplant you can probably add an additional option between where tapping it is a very precise input (window of a dozen frames), between that and moment of the jump is the medium option, and holding the button past the point of where the jump starts is the high jump option. Short Button Tap / Very-Early Button Release = Ground: short hop. Air: kick a wall or run with the ground one-foot briefly before putting your foot on the board Medium Button Press / Early Button Release = Ground: normal footplant height. Air: normal behavior, normal kick away from a wall Long button hold / Late or No Button Release = Ground: exaggerated animation and height. Air: holding the footplant pose for a while before leaping if done at slow speed. If already going fast speed normal behavior + extra jump height. The reason I specify "button release" is because footplants most of the time are held in one-foot position somewhat before ground contact, we already are holding the button it feels like, so it's the release timing during the start up of the footplant animation that actually determines the jump height --- 2 - Footplant (air and ground) Spin Flow: Ground/Air Footplants only allow you to spin after the foot leaves the ground, IRL you can tweak the board and even spin your body in the direction somewhat mid-leap. It looks better not because it's "realistic" but it's because the current way of spinning from a boneless is very canned - it's not a smooth transition. A solution is perhaps just adding a slight rotation if already holding LS with the footplant, or having a slight unique animation for it, where its largely the foot, head, and skateboard angle being adjusted to face the direction of the spin. --- 3 - Footplant (air and ground) Trick Flow: Ground/Air Footplants don't allow you to do fingerflips or tweaks until the foot is on, and even then it takes a while after the foot is on for the trick animation to kick in. A solution is IDK, but for grab tweaks maybe you can blend animations half way into a pose until you are "truly" in the air state then you finish the tweak. For finger flips it might require new animations, but it would be interesting if you can experiment with the leg animations being independent of the finger flip and seeing how that would look off of bonelesses. but this seems like multiple animations playing at once blending into each other which might be black magic. --- 4 - Footplant (air and ground) Jump Speed: My issue is specifically the part where the foot is on the ground - it's massively shortened in-game. An IRL vid I compared it to (which has comparable air time to the in-game version) show that the foot stays on the ground longer and the leg takes longer to extend off the ground. this one is more subjective but my best argument is that it makes the footplant seem anticlimactic or unceremonious - like it's this quick derpy thing that happens.. skate 2 and skate 3 did a better job at the jump animation length, and I think it really adds to the force of the jump without needing to make it literally bigger. Making the speed slower at that part of the animation plus having the leg follow the ground somewhat would make the footplant feel more lively than the stiff leg animation having pogo physics. --- 5 - Unrelated Nitpick - Making the Legs Extend More on Landings for All Tricks: My friend made the argument that not extending the legs down and just falling with your butt already at your board is somehow steezy but I think it looks very uncomfortable. Part of why you extend your legs on a landing is to create room to soften the landing. Skate 1-3 had this effect, and it made landings look heavy and full of inertia - because usually the skater compresses their legs immediately after. New skate has this but it's not as pronounced and sometimes it never does it. I'm unsure if this fits the style of the skater(s) mocapped for the game, but it might be worth investigating or experimenting having the legs stomp stuff, maybe only on certain drops or transition. I suggest it can be introduced as an animation update or a feature if styles come back. --------------------------------------- weird small behavior I noticed after writing all this: Last season it was probably reported as a glitch but I finally noticed this season you can't gain speed from a fastplant/boneless from 0 speed anymore. ALTHOUGH when you have a tiny amount of speed and do a boneless you can hold forward to gain speed - it just doesn't work when completely stationary - which is odd. your foot is literally touching the ground you should be able to go wherever IMO, and IRL you always move slightly to the frontside when doing a boneless stationary. Anyway I never grab or boneless at 0 speed, it is a niche situation. But the option to go in a direction should work for stationary ground footplants, it seems odd it doesn't do anything when you hold LS on a completely stationary fastplant or boneless.
3-input grabs are INCONSISTENT AF
Devs, I spent the last 700 hrs skating realistic street style and I gotta be honest; 3-input grabs are so incredibly inconsistent I have yet to be able to add one to a line. I have been trying to AirWalk at the end of this line for 10 minutes now and I keep doing the Christ Air? It's so incredibly inconsistent, it seems to work best if I press them ALL AT THE SAME TIME rather than how the SKATEPEDIA describes how you do it: [ R⬇️ > L2 + B ] What does > mean and what does + mean if they are meant to be pressed at the same exact time? Am I doing something wrong? Or am I misreading the skatepedia?
Trick that I used to do is NO LONGER POSSIBLE
Devs, Before Season 3 we had this awesome Hippy Jump tech we could do that would cause our characters to remain where we hippy jumped from by pressing the "KICK" button (B) quickly right as you hippy jump it would send your board flying forwards like it normally does but instead of you hovering over it like a goober you stopped in mid-air. It always felt like I was kicking my board forwards instead of Hippy Jump with no-kick animation because I pressed B so fast to lock my player above the board where you pressed the hippy jump kick combo from. This was extremely versatile for a few ways; I used to shoot my board off the top of staircases onto down-rails below then jump from the top of the staircase and land on my board on the rail, then grind it. I used to ride towards a big QP and do the hippy jump kick to shoot my board up the ramp without me on it, then I'd do a backflip or frontflip or misty flip and get back on the board as it rolls underneath me. I used to send my board into a fast wall ride with enough transition then jump on it as it falls down. Now we cannot do any of these tricks because Season 3 changed hippy jumps somehow and now when you try to do a fast kick it doesn't lock you above where the skateboard is when you press the button combination anymore.Brands
Just a tip for the devs, the easiest way to incorporate a large brand library over time is by going online on. Skateboarding websites like skatewarehouse, ccs, and tactics and browsing the brands available.. from there it’s just getting the go ahead from whatever respective brands. The part of the community that skates irl would like to see some of the more newer brands out instead of an overhaul of mainstream brands for the next nine years to come. Adding the “other brands adds a variety.. food for thought. Example: mini logo, hockey, pylon, there,lovesick, EDGLRD,Trade. More niche brands I’ve found over the years their are a lot of other creative minds creating killer graphics for lesser brands who don’t get as much shine.. could showcase the very best designs in game!!!Trick Idea: Blunt Slides on FLAT GROUND
Devs, I recently saw BAM MARGERA do a blunt slide over a little nipple obstacle in a skatepark and I was like **bleep** we need that for sure. It was so sick because he was just riding up the hump, then as he was weightless over the top he was sliding in a blunt-style grindy kinda way. Super dope. Thanks, BONEGlitches get corrected too fast.
Some glitches make the game more fun. They are taking them all out. At least I want the 90 degree blunt slide position to revert speed glitch back that went away with the last rail flail update. Maybe bring back manual revert pop? Ps: streamers may want to stop abusing all the glitches all the time and dry snitching …I feel.“Skate”…
I speak for all when i say This game started off really hopeful by everyone and the gaming community when it first came out like it was hyped asf But… less than 7K players it’s dead on arrival. and this is why if any of the devs are listening… The long battle pass grind. it should take like 5 tricks i should have half the battle pass done. that’s why fortnite makes so much money you can finish and unlock everything within a day to be honest. Another thing is the Fact our old battle passes are all incomplete… they also locked them behind another wall… with this new season i was hopeful it would be like better but nope. Sincerely someone who spent like 100$ on the game. about to delete it and play GTA 5 or halloween the game lol or ghost recon wildlands some other EA game“Skate”
This game started off really hopeful by everyone and the gaming community when it first came out like it was hyped asf But… less than 7K players it’s dead on arrival. and this is why if any of the devs are listening… The long battle pass grind. it should take like 5 tricks i should have half the battle pass done. that’s why fortnite makes so much money you can finish and unlock everything within a day to be honest. Another thing is the Fact our old battle passes are all incomplete… they also locked them behind another wall… with this new season i was hopeful it would be like better but nope. Sincerely someone who spent like 100$ on the game. about to delete it and play GTA 5 or halloween the game lol
