Thanks for the support, everyone!
Of course we need to see this ingame and play with it a bit, but now I'm really looking forward to it!
Well you won't have to wait long to try out the one-handers - I plan on releasing those after I reanimate the thrust and add a few frames to the right-side recovery movement. I've got a fair bit on at the moment, but I'll probably release the one-handed animations within two weeks at the most. Of course, I'll still work on them after that if I think they can be improved further. Then I can finally get on to the other weapons!
Maybe you can release an anim replacement pack in the future.
That's the plan!
Now if the guy want to blow his opponement with a single strike, he need extra strenght : better triceps amplitude
Also, he need to place his weapon "more at back", so his climax strike will be higher : assuming an above attack aim the head rather the belt.
The arm does bend slightly at the beginning of the attack (after the ready position). But part of the strangeness comes from the fact that I used a different kind of recovery movement for this attack so that the weapon wouldn't rotate inside an opponent. I tried to animate it so that it would look like the sword had been pulled out before it was recovered. Trouble is, when I performed the movement like that, I had to pull back against my own cut to stop the sword from hitting the ground (same animation needs to work for bastard swords of course). That means I was probably anticipating the recovery and making the attack weaker than it should've been - which is partly why the arm doesn't bend very much I expect. I might actually redesign and reanimate this attack for that reason.
Also, the sword is pointed high because this animation must be used for axes and maces. I figure it would be uncomfortable to let an axehead get too low behind you, and it would make the attack slower as well. Thanks for the detailed feedback again - it's good to have.
If there is gonna be 1 type of thrust attack, perhaps it would be better to lower the shoulders and let the attack come from the middle, because else it will look weird when you want to thrust into someone's guts, the arms being positioned high and all that. The same applies to a lesser degree to the animations of the slashing attacks. It looks like they're made for attacking high only.
Yes, good points. The thrust will look nicer when I reanimate it, and will extend out in the line of the shoulder - that should look a bit better when aiming the thrust low, but it still won't look like an underarm thrust. As for the other attacks, well, they
are made to be aimed high. My logic was that you get the greatest reach if your weapon is in-line with your shoulder when the attack is fully extended, and fighters should be using a maximum reach attack by default. Also this means that the attacks are aimed more or less at neck height by default, which seems logical as well.
But there are definitely weaknesses in my designs. Like you say, they'll probably look a bit unnatural when aimed low (especially the thrust). Also, they all come from high positions and aim high, so they might make combat look a bit... lacking in variety. Finally, because of the way I designed the movements (big, circular cuts), and animated the recovery (adding it on to the attack animation), most of these won't be very good for close fighting with friendlies. Just imagine my attacks in a shieldwall, for example.
But all is not lost. I think there are solutions to most of those problems. For a start, I may well reanimate my overhead attack so that the weapon doesn't circle out to the side at all - making it (along with the thrust) useful when friendly fire is an issue. Also, I'm going to test out a thrust from a low ready position in a later phase of the mod - and I might end up using that for the one-handers to add variety (although I do love a good stab to the face).
Looong answer, but there it is. Like I said, good points
The movement in those videos looks alot more fluent and natural.
At least to us aspiring swordsmen anyway.
Thanks - they're exactly who I want to impress.
