[Animation] Assasinate

[Shatterman]

Assasinate
For skill information visit this link.

In the current animation Sniper stands still and crosshair appears until he shoots. This animation has a flaw when a unit walks behind or to the side of Sniper and he just shoots forward. This looks really dump and not like he aimed carefully.

Proposed Change
I suggest to make Sniper face the unit while aiming, following with every step (he still keeps his position but his facing angle changes). This shows he is aiming the unit and doesn't allow a shoot in the wrong direction.
The turning is a bit slower than the unit you are aiming giving it a short delay. This is to make it look more like a movement and less hysteric.

[Wyvernoid]

That's really a no-brainer. Nice suggestion.

[EseQueL]

oh! Nc one! it should be implemented!

[L|Enzo]

nice idea, but I don't think it's much needed ^_^

[Shatterman]

no suggestion in visuals is much needed. its just about cosmetics

[TheRealTechN9NE]

Good one.

And then fix Sniper from being one of the shittiest heroes of DotA.

[Zack1996]

It truly is crazy that Sniper can shoot a bullet that automatically turns itself around 0_o
T-UP!

[MurazorOFAngmar]

T-UP this would be a great implementation for his ultimate.

[Light-Coke]

I see where you'r coming from; shooting with the left-side of your gun isn't realistic and pleasing to your eye, as it appears as totally unrealistic glitch.

However, what comes down to the theme of assasinating as of sniping, as I see it, it requires much concentration and standing still, which can be considered as casting time, which the ability already has. But what you are suggesting to change doesn't really cross out this problem, but rather improves it to the next level.

Heroes, as we know, tend to have abilities other than normal running, which can still be very effective with set of advanced boots and possibly other movement boosting items and ability buffs, which makes this concentration and stand-still theme obsolete.
If you are Assassinating an enemy which runs somewhat directly away from you (i.e You stand in the Scourge side of the river, and the fleeing enemy runs to the base), it will look very pleasing, very similar to the current animation. And if the enemy is far away and makes from small to even medicore and possibly bigger movements sideways, the Sniper will most likely move just slightly at his position, looking like he makes very small adjustments and pays attention where the enemy moves.

However, when the enemy is closer, the movements of the sniper will be much bigger, nearly ADHD-like constant rolling around at one spot. For example, if there is some sort of a team fight and you are mistakenly on pretty center of it, and your target runs around quickly, or gets Nether Swapped, Hooked, Force Staffed, uses Blink, Waveform, Burrowstrike, et cetera short distance moving ability, one or more of them, it will propably look pretty redicilious. For example, if he escapes and blinks over you, and gets instantly Nether Swapped, it'll look plain dumb; you turning 180 degrees around twice in a row.
Or moreover, if the enemy is very close, the sniper will make a counter-move to even the smallest movements (when the enemy is further away [1mile], the movements don't seem so big due to the fact that you are so far, when compared to the situation that you are 1millimetre away from the target), and he'll end up looking like he is shaking. This is an actual fact from other custom maps. Sniper looks hysteric.

Now when you eventually shoot the bullet, all the concentration concept is basically thrown out of the window at least couple of times already. Why did you concentrate on the first place, if you don't at any point really take any time to aim, but rather just turn constantly around, and eventually shoot from the fly. In many cases it can be like that; you just hysterically shake at one place, or turn 180 degrees around, and while turning, you shoot. It's lame. It'll look like it was an accident shot, and nothing like sniping.

The shaking, and shooting before you have really turned to enemy, will look more like a glitch.


So this fixes many situations when it seems like you don't really shoot 'at' the enemy, and will look good when you shoot an enemy that runs nearly directly away from you, without any drastic side-way movements. However, it'll just look worse and worse the closer the enemy is, as explained earlier, making it look like a buggish feature, and pretty annoying.

I suggest the Sniper makes the turns slowly, very slowly, so it looks like he still is actually concentrating, rather than first aiming, then making big turn, and then aiming again, and then making turn again and shooting while at it. This of course doesn't necessarily fix all issues (shooting while turning if the enemy blinks to your backside, you still shoot from the side of your barrel), but it still looks that you actually react to the moves, and is more of a compromise.

[Shatterman]

first coming to your critique:
you say it will look hysteric if the targeted unit is in short range of you and constantly moves. well in reality he would have to hysterically swing his rifle around if he wants to shoot an enemy behind. its just logical that sniper has to move his rifle faster if the foe is running around him. i see your point, it will look crappy in certain situations but it just follows the logic.

as for your suggestion, the slow turning sounds good but has in the end the same effect as standing still if the unit is too fast, you look in the wrong direction.
the fast turning then makes completly no sense because it looks like an interruption of a concent process. again i see your point but ur suggestion has sadly some flaws.

anyways thanks for the wall of text and the constructive feedback

[JJE92]

Makes sense and is logical, I like this suggestion

[Light-Coke]

Originally Posted by Im_Frightening

first coming to your critique:
you say it will look hysteric if the targeted unit is in short range of you and constantly moves. well in reality he would have to hysterically swing his rifle around if he wants to shoot an enemy behind. its just logical that sniper has to move his rifle faster if the foe is running around him. i see your point, it will look crappy in certain situations but it just follows the logic.

as for your suggestion, the slow turning sounds good but has in the end the same effect as standing still if the unit is too fast, you look in the wrong direction.
the fast turning then makes completly no sense because it looks like an interruption of a concent process. again i see your point but ur suggestion has sadly some flaws.

anyways thanks for the wall of text and the constructive feedback

Yes, again, I understand your point. I'm not sure if you'r familiar with this shaking effect, because it actually is rather annoying. It's not very common situation, but it can't really be justified or flavored as a panic-state when the enemy is close, because before anything it looks like bug. I'm not actually one hundred percent positive about this shaking, but I have really clear image in my head how it looks (looked), like.
I'm not completely trashing this topic, it's just that this change doesn't bring the optimal and the best solution, even though working as a fix. It just brings different lame situations replacing the current lame situations.
Current situations are more often, but less obvious, whereas in the proposed version it's very borderline when the sniper shakes in a bug-like way, but it's very disturbing and obvious.

As of my suggestion, I understand the flaws, it was just a compromise, because all of these three versions have own downsides. My suggestion just eliminates the extremest of the annoying features, leaving cosntantly semi-annoying solution, rather than very annoying but not-in-all-situations.

Not trying to hijack or anything, I still find your idea very admirable, I'm just afraid of the fast turns.

Oh, and thanks for reading, shows somekinda will of justifying, defending, and argumenting for your idea, cause I understand my text was mainly blablababla and could've been summed to 3 sentences.

[Shatterman]

while argumenting with you i had an idea for the animation. how about not turning instantly but fast so that it looks more like a movement. so it has a minor delay but still is very close to the unit. what do you think about this?

[Light-Coke]

So you mean like the turn is a bit slower than normally, or that the movement happens after a small delay.

[Shatterman]

i mean that the turning is not instant but a bit slower than the unit u aim and therefore a small delay occurs

[Light-Coke]

Yea, that would fix the most annoying part.

[Shatterman]

ok it is fixed now. i present version 2.0

[NoThlnG]

No need to oppose. T-Up

[JJE92]

Still TUp, even better now

[Shatterman]

Thanks for your support JJE92!