Taking animation suggestions

[SigniferOne]

Hello,

In addition to my overhand hoplite and proper archer draw animations, I am considering what others should be added/fixed within the vanilla game. So far I've got two in mind, both suggested by lt1956, and I'll be editing in further suggestions:

- overhand hoplites - completed
- stabbing legionaries - completed (page 7)
- horse archers holding bows vertically and drawing with power - completed
- swordsmen holding their swords relaxed, when idle - completed
- regular archers pointing up and drawing with power - completed
- barbarian swordsmen swinging and slashing with their huge swords - completed
- elephant javelinmen - completed

- horses that make a bigger impact on the ground with weight- in development
- standard bearers carrying standards w/ 2 hands - paused development, (page 7)

- naked barbarians being a bit wild in movements and idle animations - possible
- musicians playing instruments during the "charge" sound - possible
- elephant spearmen - possible
- two-handed cavalry lancemen - possible
- BLOOD flowing from a unit after being struck - very possible (though not from me)

[{AIrBoRnE}]

What id like to see would be for the archers to aim pretty close to straight up and rain arrows on the enemy. Like on The Last Samurai movie.

[SigniferOne]

See this:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?s...opic=23552&st=0

Keep in mind that the angle at which the arrows fly off is independent of the angle of the archer's bow. The angle of the arrows is determined by the game, to reach the enemy. What I've done is adjust the angle of the body to match that angle of flight, and to improve the animation to make it seem as if the archers are drawing BOWS as opposed to plucking strings. Making the angle of the body will not make anything better, and will make things worse by desynch-ing the bows from the arrow trajectories.

[crownsteler]

Hmm, perhaps a 2 handed xiston animation for the cavalry? That would be sweet

[Eird-Way]

- perhaps an occasional shield bash for the heavy infantry? I don't know if this would look good with the loose collision detection, but it could be cool.
- some of the non-classical mods might like a bastard-swordsman skeleton who would alternate between one and two handed swings. I don't know if this might also be appropriate for some of the falx units, or some of the 'barbarians' in general.
- more idles are always great

I don't know how this new animation parsing thing works, but separate fleeing animations would be awesome.

[maximusminimus]

I'd like to see all swordsman hold swords (while walking) like officers do, as oposed to holding it like a spear (or umbrella), that looks so ridiculous! :sick
If somebody could make it look more realistic, it would be so much better. :cool
Well, just my 2 cents.
Sorry for possible bad spelling.

cheers

maximusminimus

[Myrddraal]

What I'd like to see, and I'm sure mods like the Pike and Musket mod will want, is a pikeman who uses both hands on his weapon, no shield.

[SigniferOne]

The doublehanded phalanx pikemen cannot work, as you can read about here:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?s...pic=22117&st=72

The primary problem is that the pikes from soldiers in the back rows reach so far ahead that if there's any movement by any soldier at all, there will be enormous clipping. Moreover, the pikes without the phalanx ability will not "push" soldiers, and the enemy will be able to come right against the first row of the phalanx, through the pikes. Thirdly, the guys in the back will not use their pikes to help the front row, there will be no rank bonus. Etc. All of these problems exist far less for the Greek hoplites, and in some ways even cease to be problems and become historically accurate. With the phalanx, however, the phalanx ability I think is more good than not.

maximus, can you clarify your point? I'm kind of unsure what you're referring to.

crownsteler, I'm having a hard time imagining how a horseman can wield a spear with two hands...

eird,
separate fleeing animations? What's that?
more idles? Looks like that will be possible, if Jerome continues to give us advice at the ORG.

[Bruticus the Steadfast]

I have thought of one or two.

One- Would someone please make a jav. unit animation for elephants. I think a jav. would look better then an archer.

Two- Have you seen the "muscian" textures left out of the game, I hear that they work except that they dont have animations, I would LOVE to see them in my armies.

-Just my thoughts

[SigniferOne]

Can you point me to data concerning musicians? I could create a few animations for them, though it'd require some work. But I'd have to see what's already there. I suppose if a bunch of us got together we could create a musician unit from scratch, which if combined with proper sound effects could really create amazing sound ambience to the battles.

[SigniferOne]

Someone tell me precisely what they want from elephant javelinmen. Can't we already substitute javelinmen onto elephants?

[Bruticus the Steadfast]

I will look for the threads, but I have seen screens of them. They are eastern units that are put into officer spots.


And no, I havent tried it myself, but from what I have seen for some reason it doesnt work (I would think you could as well)

[Bruticus the Steadfast]

"east_musician" - There are heavy and light versions. You just put that after officer I gather.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?a...=post&id=344924


Another
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?a...=post&id=271981

Look at Tsarevna's post that starts with
(You can add officers or standard bearers to any unit.)

"LOST UNITS"



From what I have read, they fight with the trumpet like a sword.

[SigniferOne]

"From what I have read, they fight with the trumpet like a sword."

Not after we get through with them, haha.

[Trigger]

For the elephant javelin thing, the reason that the normal javelin animations don't work is that there are no mahout animations, and the game crashes if you try using both the elephant rider and the javelin animations, something about the death anims not being the same.

If you were to make elephant javelin animations, I'd also like to see spear anims where the riders stab down from on top of the elephant, if that is at all possible.

http://www.hisinsa.com/hisinsa/graficos/ZVEZDA/8011.jpg
http://www.nhmgs.org/gallery/gallery...s/oliphant.jpg

Also: http://www.realminiatures.com/catalo.../G175-1_v2.jpg would be extremely cool.

[Eird-Way]

Separate fleeing animations:

Presently, units use the same animation for running toward the enemy as they do fleeing for their lives. A separate animation for routing units would possibly mean two benefits:

- Aesthetically, it will not only be much more satisfying to watch men scramble haphazardly for their lives, but will make the scene of battle much easier to read. The real soldiers might leg it with a little dignity, but peasants should flail their arms in terror as they flee! (I'm not saying make the game cartoonish, but a significant visual difference would be welcome to visually distinguish routing units, for example, in a dense melee, or when prioritizing mop-up actions).

- If, as some have speculated, unit movement speed is tied to the animation, routing units could be given a slight edge (accounting for run-for-your-life adrenaline), thus reducing the ahistorical casualty rates.

I don't get the feeling this is possible, but it would a lot to the game IMO.

EDIT: Yes, and lots of musicians for everyone! Gimme a freakin' marching band! (hey, why not, to serve the same role as druids in other factions!) I'm joking, but who knows? Perhaps as part of a special standard bearing or otherwise morale-boosting unit? Killing is always more fun with drums and fifes!

[Meneldil]

Heavy cavalrymen used their spears/lances/xysthon with 2 hands. The Sarmatians, the Parthians and - I believe - some hellenic cavalry fought like that.

[Zendjir]

An axeman animation, I think the axemen in the game are using swordmen animations right now.

[Anubis]

To add to the idea of the fleeing units it would be interesting if fleeing units threw their weapons away, doubtfully possible would be interesting. I also think it would be cool to see troops beating on thier sheilds with their weapns as they approach the enemy, perhaps has this could be tied to a morale drop stat for the enemy unit? And would be historically correct.

[crownsteler]

Originally posted by Meneldil@Mar 6 2005, 10:05 AM
Heavy cavalrymen used their spears/lances/xysthon with 2 hands. The Sarmatians, the Parthians and - I believe - some hellenic cavalry fought like that.

I too suggested this, but Signifer One can't visualise what it looks like, so we'll need to find some pictures for him