Mix-matching animations

[Being Earnest]

In patch.pack\db\unit_stats_land, there is a column which reads: Animation Table IDRef.
If you go to anim.pack\animations\animation_tables.txt, you can look at the corresponding list and the different characteristics of the different animation IDs.
Each ID uses "fragments," which are described in anim.pack\animations\battleconfiguration.
These fragments tell which animation to use for the specific animation ID for every single action, such as idle animations and charge animations.
If you take a look at it, it's easy to figure out everything as it is very intuitive.

Here is an example of how it can be useful:
I noticed that my Cossack infantry and dismounted cossack cavalry charged with their muskets, and only switched to their sabres once in settled melee combat.
I looked up their animation ID in unit_stats_land, which is man_musket_sabre.
I went to the animations_tables.txt and looked up man_musket_sabre. It had musket_sabre_fragment as the main animation fragment, so I went to anim.pack\animations\battleconfiguration\musket_sabre_fragment.txt, where I noticed that the CHARGE animations were using musket charge animations, so I switched them over to sabre charge animations and I added "primary_weapon = off, secondary_weapon = on" to the end of each line, so that they would charge with sabres in their hands. I saved everything new as a mod, and it worked. Screenshot is attached.

Next, I had streltsy using muskets. I had changed their primary weapon into a musket and switched bardiche as a secondary weapon, and had set their animation to man_musket, but they would charge and engange in melee with their muskets.
Because there is no animation ID such as man_musket_pitchfork, I created one in the animations_tables.txt, and also created a new fragment musket_pitchfork_fragment.txt in battleconfiguration to use with it.
I made musket_pitchfork_fragment.txt by combining elements from musket_sabre_fragment.txt and pitchfork_fragment.txt.
This made my streltsy fire muskets, but charge and fight with bardiches with proper animations.

[LtChambers]

Nice work. Now can you figure out how to edit the animation timing, i.e. time between puckle shots?

[HellFell]

this is just awesome. Now we should find the way how to give cavalry units pistols

[Being Earnest]

Here's what I achieved by switching some directories to different animations: Cossacks firing and reloading while proning.

[Gwyn ap Nud]

Good breakthrough! You need to tell Hross and the guys at 1:13 how you did that, they could use that sorta stuff.

[HellFell]

well, this is fast. omg!




btw it seems we can return wounded and crawling people...

[Rorarii]

Excellent work Ernest, but we're still missing a man_spear_shield animations, which represents MOST primitively armed nations. Even during this time period - Best example being the Zulus.

Do you think we could HACK together a man thrusting a spear with the right hand while holding a shield in the other? I've tried changing Combat_type in unit_land_(etc) of African Pitch fork peasants to man_sword_shield and man_sword_stab but it didn't work.

I might look at axe animations next? do you have any suggestions?

R

[Being Earnest]

Excellent work Ernest, but we're still missing a man_spear_shield animations, which represents MOST primitively armed nations. Even during this time period - Best example being the Zulus.

Do you think we could HACK together a man thrusting a spear with the right hand while holding a shield in the other? I've tried changing Combat_type in unit_land_(etc) of African Pitch fork peasants to man_sword_shield and man_sword_stab but it didn't work.

I might look at axe animations next? do you have any suggestions?

R

You may want to look at sword_and_shield_combat_fragment and sword_and_shield_movement_fragment in battleconfiguration. I'm not sure if you could find some things there, but it's probably worth looking.

[skullman86]

Any good replacement animations for lancers? An underhanded stabbing motion would probably look better than the current over hand one IMO and does being prone benefit the unit at all (harder to hit)?

[Stokes52]

Hmm, yeah, I wonder if the animations affect a unit's "hitbox", or if that is determined elsewhere... Since each bullet is modeled and supposedly hits its target based on where it's target is when it reaches it, not just a dice roll, a smaller target should be theoretically harder to hit in this game, but I dunno if animations are just cosmetic or if they affect how the unit works (ie, smaller, harder to hit).

[Aufneer]

yessssss. yesssssssssssss!. excellent work, comrade.

[Sorkenlol]

well, this is fast. omg!




btw it seems we can return wounded and crawling people...

Wow, nice. Will you make a tutorial for this? I managed to make the animation work, but the pistol doesn't show up, like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

By the way this is incredible, crawling soldiers, pistols, I can't wait to do all of this. A step-by-step tutorial would be much, much appreciated!

Awesome! Got it to work, just had to create a warscape_theme for pistols and sabres. I've got no idle animation yet so the pistol isn't visible until they raise arms. There's no reloading animation either, they just raise the pistol and then stand still like that, I've tried using the musket, carbine and officers pistol animation, still nothing.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Rorarii]

I think there's something wrong with animations, I cannot get Man_sword_shield to hold anything other than a sword or axe,all 2 handed weapons(?) stuffup .. although in this first picture, you'll see the 6th spearman along actually holds the spear correctly but the rest, the spear floats in front of them .... so ..it looks like one IDLE animation routine handles weapons correctly while all others ,especially primary weapon on the shoulder, doesn't.

man_sword_shield (with east_spear instead of sword)



man_sword_shield (with pike as primary weapon instead of sword) Note the Pike is being held as a secondary weapon (behind the shield) ?????

Looks like there might be some confusion between single handed weapons and 2 handed weapons .. but I cannot find any table that defines whether a weapon is 1 or 2 handed???





R

[Dewy]

In patch.pack\db\unit_stats_land, there is a column which reads: Animation Table IDRef.
If you go to anim.pack\animations\animation_tables.txt, you can look at the corresponding list and the different characteristics of the different animation IDs.
Each ID uses "fragments," which are described in anim.pack\animations\battleconfiguration.
These fragments tell which animation to use for the specific animation ID for every single action, such as idle animations and charge animations.
If you take a look at it, it's easy to figure out everything as it is very intuitive.

Here is an example of how it can be useful:
I noticed that my Cossack infantry and dismounted cossack cavalry charged with their muskets, and only switched to their sabres once in settled melee combat.
I looked up their animation ID in unit_stats_land, which is man_musket_sabre.
I went to the animations_tables.txt and looked up man_musket_sabre. It had musket_sabre_fragment as the main animation fragment, so I went to anim.pack\animations\battleconfiguration\musket_sabre_fragment.txt, where I noticed that the CHARGE animations were using musket charge animations, so I switched them over to sabre charge animations and I added "primary_weapon = off, secondary_weapon = on" to the end of each line, so that they would charge with sabres in their hands. I saved everything new as a mod, and it worked. Screenshot is attached.

Next, I had streltsy using muskets. I had changed their primary weapon into a musket and switched bardiche as a secondary weapon, and had set their animation to man_musket, but they would charge and engange in melee with their muskets.
Because there is no animation ID such as man_musket_pitchfork, I created one in the animations_tables.txt, and also created a new fragment musket_pitchfork_fragment.txt in battleconfiguration to use with it.
I made musket_pitchfork_fragment.txt by combining elements from musket_sabre_fragment.txt and pitchfork_fragment.txt.
This made my streltsy fire muskets, but charge and fight with bardiches with proper animations.

The 1:13 team thanks you

[Stokes52]

I know what you're all thinking...

Empire Total Medieval War Mod!

[Dud doodoo]

So anyone figure out the spear_shield animations?

[Being Earnest]

Here is a small mod.
As is, it will not do anything.
It contains battleconfiguration\musket_prone_fragment.txt that redirects KNEEL commands to play prone animations instead.
It is intended solely for musket-wielding units in light infantry behaviour mode (although you can play around with line infantry that prones during rank fire).
The file also contains an animated_tables.txt where I included, in the beginning of the file, an example animation definition (man_musket_sabre_prone) that contains the musket_prone_fragment.
However, to use this, you need to change a unit's Animation IDRef in unit_stats_land to man_musket_sabre_prone.

In animated_tables.txt, you can add musket_prone_fragment to any animation definition you want, but be sure to list it after other fragments, because the fragments seem to load in order, so any conflicts will be overwritten by the new ones.

To avoid affecting many units at once, you should define new animation ids for specific units as I have.
For my game, I have made it so that only the cossack infantry prones while in light infantry behaviour, while all other units kneel as normal.
This is because I have made cossack_infantry to be the only unit with man_musket_sabre_prone for Animation IDRef.

Warnings:
There is no distinction between kneels in different situations; any unit with the musket_prone_fragment will also prone while taking cover or rank firing.
The animations are occasionally awkward. This is most noticeable when the unit misfires. There is only one animation for misfiring, and that is while the unit is standing. You can witness this in the screenshot.
(By the way, the one kneeling in the screenshot is the officer, who was not affected by musket_prone_fragment, because his animation is separately defined in battle_personalities_tables, which I did not change.)

I have uploaded a screenshot of (yet again) cossacks, only they are in prone light infantry behaviour.
I have noticed that proning indeed reduces the chances of getting hit.
In one of my test custom battles, where I got two proning units to face each other, there was a slight elevation in the terrain between them. They both emptied their ammo without kills, because they had no line of sight on each other. Only near the end, when one side ran out of ammo and some of its soldiers stood up while the other was still firing, did some of the soldiers who had just stood up get shot and die.

Experiment and have fun.

[Stokes52]

Here is a small mod.
As is, it will not do anything.
It contains battleconfiguration\musket_prone_fragment.txt that redirects KNEEL commands to play prone animations instead.
It is intended solely for musket-wielding units in light infantry behaviour mode (although you can play around with line infantry that prones during rank fire).
The file also contains an animated_tables.txt where I included, in the beginning of the file, an example animation definition (man_musket_sabre_prone) that contains the musket_prone_fragment.
However, to use this, you need to change a unit's Animation IDRef in unit_stats_land to man_musket_sabre_prone.

In animated_tables.txt, you can add musket_prone_fragment to any animation definition you want, but be sure to list it after other fragments, because the fragments seem to load in order, so any conflicts will be overwritten by the new ones.

To avoid affecting many units at once, you should define new animation ids for specific units as I have.
For my game, I have made it so that only the cossack infantry prones while in light infantry behaviour, while all other units kneel as normal.
This is because I have made cossack_infantry to be the only unit with man_musket_sabre_prone for Animation IDRef.

Warnings:
There is no distinction between kneels in different situations; any unit with the musket_prone_fragment will also prone while taking cover or rank firing.
The animations are occasionally awkward. This is most noticeable when the unit misfires. There is only one animation for misfiring, and that is while the unit is standing. You can witness this in the screenshot.
(By the way, the one kneeling in the screenshot is the officer, who was not affected by musket_prone_fragment, because his animation is separately defined in battle_personalities_tables, which I did not change.)

I have uploaded a screenshot of (yet again) cossacks, only they are in prone light infantry behaviour.
I have noticed that proning indeed reduces the chances of getting hit.
In one of my test custom battles, where I got two proning units to face each other, there was a slight elevation in the terrain between them. They both emptied their ammo without kills, because they had no line of sight on each other. Only near the end, when one side ran out of ammo and some of its soldiers stood up while the other was still firing, did the some of the soldiers who had just stood up get shot and die.

Experiment and have fun.

Wow thats cool that they are harder to hit... makes Cossacks especially much more useful... and light infantry in general a bit more realistic. Although it would probably be imbalanced in say, online play, but I dunno.

[Dud doodoo]

It doesn't work, you need to rename the file inside the pack so it doesn't conflict with the current one.

[Aykis16]

Someone said something about returning dying and wounded animations? Is this a real possibility? Are the animations locked into the game that we can mod back in?