After the update I noticed at least two changes to how spells are animated:
1) Shields and such are not animated anymore. The camera does not zoom in while you cast them, and when you have multiple shields you cast them all at once instead of each seperately.
2) When casting healing spells, the animation that made the character levitate while being healed is animated faster, making it seem as if the character jumps instead of levitating.
I think both are a shame and not improvements. With regards to the shields I can imagine that maybe some feel that the animation took too long, however, for those who use them a lot (like balance wizards) suddenly about half of our spells are not animated anymore. Surely a compromize could have been achieved. Lets say that instead of animating each shield seperately, animate them all at once, but let the camera zoom in just as much.
When it comes to the healing spells: I really think this is an aweful change. Now characters seem to jump up in the air instead of levitating while being healed. I am really puzzled as to why this was done.
The only reason I can imagine for these changes is to conserve time while in combat. Now I would like to ask all: do we really need to gain those 10 seconds (a wild guess btw) over a total battle and take the nice animations out because of it?
I personally feel that the healing animation for sure should not have been touched, it looks really weird now. The shields could have been done in a better way like I suggested above.
Am I alone in this, or is really everyone THAT concerned about the time each battle takes that they want to sacrifice the animations because of it? I wouldn't, but that's me. So I'm just curious to know how others feel about this.
I too noticed the changed with the healing and the shields. To me, being a pyromancer, I use the shields mainly as filler to pass the time until I get my big spells out so the animation changes don't bother me at all. The fast I get Helephant out the faster I can move on :)
The other thing I noticed, spell wise, that I really enjoy was the fact that Wild Fire was dropped from a 4 pip casting cast down to 2 WTG!! KI!!
Nathaniel Spellhammer Pyromancer Lvl 43 (currently in Mooshu)
you know, i do like the idea of shield/blade/trap spells zooming in but taking just as long as it does now. i always wondered why you cast shields one at a time, being one spell. but they added it now, and it doesnt zoom in. the healing spells i noticed too, but i do agree it looks like you jump, hover for a second, and fall. i would like to see those changes too. :-) -Matthew DreamBringer, Mastermind
I like the shield annimation change because we all know what the shield looks like and we don't need to zoom in. It takes up time that you could be using to stratigize, but I dot mind.
The healing jump I am neutral on. I am not crazy about the 'jump for joy' but I dont hate it either. Plus they do somewhat levitate by the heal when they are at the peak of their jump. Myself being a healer I know the joy of being healed :).
My opinion, Marcus Legendcrafter, LVL 32, LIFE storm
I like the changeup in the animations, especially the shields. I mean they're shields, not some dramatic attack. It improves the pace of the battles without taking away too much from it. Given the choice of shortening the animation for shields versus helephant, tempest, etc., they made the right choice.
As for wyldfire at 2 pips now instead of 4, all I can say is that it's going back into my deck now.
i really didnt care about the shields and the jumping just makes me think this it gives us a reason to have jump option since it really is not used for mudh.
You know, I've seen a lot of complaining going on with this patch (much of it with good reason), but I wouldn't think people would be complaining about the fact that shields aren't animated that much anymore. I mean, really, why do you care so much? It makes battles a little more intense not to have to wait 5 seconds every time someone casts a shield.
The healing is a bit silly though. My character jumps like 5 times higher when he's being healed than when I tell him to jump, lol.
Yeah i am with you. To tell you the truth i subscribed of the animationssince its what made wizard101 fun. Now its just whatever. I would reallly like to see the animations come back. Another thing that troubles me is that i keep losing connection all the tine. Do we really need these new stores? Wizard101 was good the way it was. The other thing that troubles me is the tree shops. We already have treasure card shops. Why do we need more ? They should bring Wizard101 back.
These changes were made to speed up game time, I am assuming.
Combat takes far too long, especially when it takes 5-8 seconds to cast Elemental or Spirit Shield.
I, as well as many of the friends I play with, think the changes in cast speed and shortening of animation timers was a VAST improvement in the case of making combat complete faster. It shaved at least 30 percent of the time off of PvP matches as well, which in my eyes was a huge relief.
Shields and such are not animated anymore. The camera does not zoom in while you cast them, and when you have multiple shields you cast them all at once instead of each seperately.
YAAAAAAY! Animating every single minute thing made the pace too slow; I'm glad they decided to use discretion with it. A cool thing overdone makes it....not...cool.
I'm a balance wizard and i am glad they made the shields and blades faster. It annoyed me when they slowly came up one by one. As far as healing goes doesn't really bother me much but i could understand some who liked the levitation slower cause it was kinda cool. And as for wyldfire if it is now 2 pips instead of 4 then that's awesome, i haven't been on my fire guy in a while so i would not have noticed.
After the update I noticed at least two changes to how spells are animated:
1) Shields and such are not animated anymore. The camera does not zoom in while you cast them, and when you have multiple shields you cast them all at once instead of each seperately.
2) When casting healing spells, the animation that made the character levitate while being healed is animated faster, making it seem as if the character jumps instead of levitating.
I think both are a shame and not improvements. With regards to the shields I can imagine that maybe some feel that the animation took too long, however, for those who use them a lot (like balance wizards) suddenly about half of our spells are not animated anymore. Surely a compromize could have been achieved. Lets say that instead of animating each shield seperately, animate them all at once, but let the camera zoom in just as much.
When it comes to the healing spells: I really think this is an aweful change. Now characters seem to jump up in the air instead of levitating while being healed. I am really puzzled as to why this was done.
The only reason I can imagine for these changes is to conserve time while in combat. Now I would like to ask all: do we really need to gain those 10 seconds (a wild guess btw) over a total battle and take the nice animations out because of it?
I personally feel that the healing animation for sure should not have been touched, it looks really weird now. The shields could have been done in a better way like I suggested above.
Am I alone in this, or is really everyone THAT concerned about the time each battle takes that they want to sacrifice the animations because of it? I wouldn't, but that's me. So I'm just curious to know how others feel about this.
Please share your thoughts.
i to am balance wizard i don't miond the shortening of the cast for the shields, but give back the zoom in i play on a small screen and that zoom in makes all the difference for me to see what was played. the heal levitate was great before the jump for joy is way to short and is not at all in the way one thinks of healing, it takes a little time not poof all better
I, Personally, have no problem with the heal animation. When bugs me though is the shield animations. I don't like it one bit. KI please change the Camera Angle and zoom in, don't make it as slow as before, but not as fast as now.
-Swift
I also Strongly believe that the Lvl cap should have been raised with some new ability added.
While i am on the note of the updates, Crafting is too much of a bother and GH leaves you over powered for the rest of the worlds if you do it earlier in the game.
KI also why did you change the ability to buy Zeke Gear for gold? i LOVED that update, it was also a reason to have gold
Ok, now after a few days of fights and having had a good idea of how things work animation wise I do want to add something to my first post.
I understand that most of you are not bothered with the sped up animations. Ok, that is fine. However, at times I cannot even determine what was cast, that is how fast some of the animations go now. Try casting a -40% accuracy spell as a Balance wizard, being the last in sequence before your opponents cast. Even before the cast animation finishes, the first opponent casts his spell. If you are not the one who cast it, one has no clue what spell that was.
I'm not sure but I also have the impression that the zoom of the battle camera has changed and as a result I often cannot see how much damage I'm doing to a larger creature. The numbers end up outside of the visible screen.
At times it is really hard to determine what is actually going on in combat due to the fact that I cannot see what shields are cast, or how much damage was done in certain cases. I really feel that this should be reevaluated by the team of KI.
Ok I have to toss in my few cents on these matters...
Ok first of all when you cast the life spell Rebirth now it only shows the TOP of the tree after it casts its heal spell on all members, so while it casts Absorb all you can see is the top of it. Looks silly and wrong.
Also i have noticed many creatures now seem to be moving so quickly it doesnt even look normal at all. They sit in place just bobbing back and forth or side to side.... Slow it down!?
I do like how when you cast spirit trap and blade it puts them ALL on at the same time, however it could be slowed down a bit....
Regeants... umm somewhat frustrating to find certain ones you need an abundant of. For instance; Scrap Iron. Ok so you go to MB and hit Chelsea Court.... Your running around on top of roof tops searching for scrap iron and finding ALOT of Mist Wood!?!?!? Since when does wood grow on roof tops? This should be scrap iron and not mist wood IMHO. Rather frustrating to say the least!
