I don't know how your inventory works, or where your heroes keep all their gear, but you could use a general "calling" animation for anything you get from inventory. It would be longer than any quick-draw anim.

Maybe he pats his pockets for a few seconds, then whips a sword out of one. Maybe he focusses his chi and conjures it from thin air, or draws a sigil that produces it in a blinding flash of light. Link always pulled everything from under his shield, no matter how big or awkward it was.

You expressed a concern about backpacks messing with your geometry. Are you sure holsters and sheaths won't?

Quote:

Original post by Iron Chef Carnage You expressed a concern about backpacks messing with your geometry. Are you sure holsters and sheaths won't?

Well, the belt will be around the meeting point for the torso and legs, so armour models will want to be fairly uniform for that spot, which is why we can justify having a visual reprisentation of a belt. Apart from that, armour could be all over the place, so backpacks generally arn't a good diea. Sure, sheaths could mess with world geometry, but that never irks me as much as two models on the player binking together, could just be personal but...

Quote:

Original post by Iron Chef Carnage Maybe he pats his pockets for a few seconds, then whips a sword out of one. Maybe he focusses his chi and conjures it from thin air, or draws a sigil that produces it in a blinding flash of light. Link always pulled everything from under his shield, no matter how big or awkward it was.

These are all good idea, but perhaps no animation at all will be better as it will not mix with the possible animation of being hit, or whatever could happen to the player during those "dreaded" seconds. I think that a simple countdown timer with a progress bar will work the best, and I think that might be the best way to do it.

Thanks for all your comments and feedback, you guys (as always) rock. I now feel much more comfortable with the idea.

Quote:

Original post by Iron Chef Carnage You could go a step further, and give players the option of dropping their backpack before a big fight.

Have you played the Mount&Blade demo yet? If not, then what the hell? Go play it. In any case, your pack is left in your starting location when a battle starts. This means you have to run (or gallup) all the way back to change equipment. This is a really great way to enforce this gameplay element. And the battlefields are just small enough to not be tiresome when you run out of arrows. It would also work in a game where battles took place in the main world (Morrowind), but perhaps not as well. It would need to be dropped off at random locations, wherever the player is standing when the fight starts. And depending on your game, having your enemies stand and watch as your character prepares for battle might not be an option.

What if someone comes by and yoinks your bag while you fight? That would suck.

A progress bar for an action is like hiding ammo and medicine in inexplicable wooden crates. I guess players will tolerate it, but it's still a little weak.

Having ammo is crates is poor and weak, but so is pulling a sword out of a pouch that looks the size of coin pouch.

I will need some time to think about diffrent ways to do this, then come back.