Adding combat animations?

[MrGrendel]

Coming from Floris, I've just started remembering how awkward the vanilla fighting animations look... how difficult/possible would it be to add Combat Animation Enhancement to Silverstag myself?

 

[Leifdin]

I think the mod could benefit from them quite a bit, I miss old Floris one-handed attack animation(slashing "diagonally" instead of horizontally)

 

[KidKoala]

The Floris mod animations are awful in my opinion, I always remove them whenever I install a mod that has them, thankfully all you have to do is replace the actions.txt. I find that they don't match up to the weapon movements in some cases and being more used to the native animations it is just plain frustrating when you can't tell which direction the enemies attacking you from in the split second that you need to.

 

[D3monic]

To be honest, I don't like them too. Vanilla ones are... not perfect, but those from Floris were... quite awkward...

 

[Livermore]

Windyplains, can you, please change the animation when a soldier is on groung not moving to make them Hold spears and pikes straigth up
From this:

To this:

And crossbows too:

 

[MrGrendel]

How anyone can bear the vanilla animations? No competent fighter has ever held a two handed pollaxe at 90 degrees to their side, and then pushed it forward like they were rowing a boat. This just looks infinitely better.

 

[KidKoala]

How anyone can bear the vanilla animations? No competent fighter has ever held a two handed pollaxe at 90 degrees to their side, and then pushed it forward like they were rowing a boat. This just looks infinitely better.

Because they're functional and you can actually see what's going on in combat? To be quite honest aesthetics such as these shouldn't be important in Silverstag as it's about changing and adding depth to the core gameplay not adding over-stylised weapon swinging and should only be added as an optional addition to the cinematic version if at all in my opinion.

 

[sirballington]

If you like Floris animation, you should play Floris, because this ain't Floris.

 

[Windyplains]

Combat animations are generally a matter of taste on whether folks prefer style over functionality.  I wouldn't go so far as to say anyone is correct on which is better or should be used.  We added them in Floris because that mod focused heavily upon improving the look of the game.  I kept them out of Silverstag as a conscious decision as it was a fairly controversial change in Floris for folks who also enjoy multiplayer and are used to being able to read their opponents attacks for manual blocking.

This is one of those areas where I hope folks will create their own tweaks to the mod now that it is open source and if they want animations add them in or even ask that an optional file be added to the download site.  Eventually I may do this myself, but it isn't high on my priorities at the moment.

 

[zapbib]

most animation are a matter of taste really.

The only exception are the polearms, they are bad by any usable metric. They violate physics, practicality, history and rule of cool all at one.
The worse is the 2-handed poleaxe and similar weapon. The sideswipe is a perfectly horizontal circle that makes reason flee. Also it make the weapon impractical for anything but hitting isolated soldier. (Note: side swiping a galloping knight with the tip of the weapon is the most jarring sight there is in the game)

 

[MrGrendel]

If you like Floris animation, you should play Floris, because this ain't Floris.

Hmm, or maybe I could start a thread about submodding this myself? Are you sure you're in the right place?

Because they're functional and you can actually see what's going on in combat? To be quite honest aesthetics such as these shouldn't be important in Silverstag

To me, it's not about aesthetics choices, it's about immersion and realism. It disrupts the mood when I see heavy weapons swung in ways only a threshing robot would. CAE is not perfect, but it's clearly an improvement in that regard. It takes maybe 20 minutes to get used to, but it is true that attacks aren't broadcast as blatantly when weapons aren't stuck out at 90 degrees pre-strike. However, bots are too easy to kill anyway.

This is one of those areas where I hope folks will create their own tweaks to the mod now that it is open source and if they want animations add them in or even ask that an optional file be added to the download site.  Eventually I may do this myself, but it isn't high on my priorities at the moment.

Thanks WP. I've done a bit of modding, mostly in other games, though. Are we talking about maybe a 1 hour project or more? Am I going to have to decipher cryptic scripting comments?

 

[Windyplains]

Thanks WP. I've done a bit of modding, mostly in other games, though. Are we talking about maybe a 1 hour project or more? Am I going to have to decipher cryptic scripting comments?

My module_animations.py is very similar to the one found in the Floris source.  The differences between the two are largely the very combat animations you're looking to add.  So a text comparison tool like beyond compare (not free) or winmerge (free) would quickly show the differences between the two files side by side.  The only other thing is that the two mods use different animation information for the shield bash animations so be careful not to overwrite that.  The names of animations are fairly readable though.

The project itself is a relatively simple one and can be done using the combat animations mod thread's instructions as well.  If you've already played around in the module system before and are familiar with the files I was referring to then it wouldn't take long.  I keep the "normal module" files in the "main source" folder for Silverstag.

Good luck and let me know if you run into any issues.

 

[MrGrendel]

Hm, I edited the file, ran the compile, and there's no Dev output folder, but it still deleted the source. 

Oh well, I'll do it again later. Thanks btw! Have some neo-classical music for no particular reason.

 

[Windyplains]

The source files (the permanent ones) shouldn't get deleted.  I am not sure how much experience you have with the game's module system so this may be relatively basic info, but just in case.

The build batch file copies source files from each of the individual kit folders to the main one.  Then every source file is compiled into the text files the game uses.  Those text files are then sent wherever module_info.py is directing them (in the event you didn't change it).  The trunk folder should have all of the original source files though.

Did you get an error at the end of the compile saying it had no output folder?  If so, then you need to change the destination path in module_info.py.  Right now this is set to the path for my game folder and specifically references "Floris Workshop (Dev)" vs. Floris Workshop.

 

[MrGrendel]

There's no module_info.py as far as I can tell. build_module was unable to find any files, and python was not recognized as a command, although I have the latest 2.something installed. At that point I stuck build_module in the main source folder, since I knew there were files to be compiled in there, but obviously (in hindsight) it still did not recognize any python install to operate on the .py files and so they got wiped at the end of the batch. No big deal, I'll re-download and then re-edit the file another time. And remember not to be so lazy and make a new folder for my workspace. 

 

[Windyplains]

There's no module_info.py as far as I can tell. build_module was unable to find any files, and python was not recognized as a command, although I have the latest 2.something installed. At that point I stuck build_module in the main source folder, since I knew there were files to be compiled in there, but obviously (in hindsight) it still did not recognize any python install to operate on the .py files and so they got wiped at the end of the batch. No big deal, I'll re-download and then re-edit the file another time. And remember not to be so lazy and make a new folder for my workspace. 

Do you have python setup in your environment variables path?  Otherwise it won't know what to do with python files even if python is installed.  Getting everything set it up is a little bit of a pain, but completely worth it when you can tinker with things for entertainment.

Lumos' guide has a good explanation on everything that needs to be setup and may catch a step missed.

 

[Kvothe_Ruh]

anybody manage? (to integrade Combat Animation Enhancement)
download pls?

 

[Easter Cow]

anybody manage? (to integrade Combat Animation Enhancement)
download pls?

Please don't necro threads.