Problem with Char anim :/

[Joel]

Well, I've tested them more toroughly ... and I got two problems :

* some anim crash or flickers without reasons.
* most of my skill need a sequence to look nice, and all seq I try looks odd with my animation :/
* no armor/weapon change. Launching arrows from bare hand is really odd.


Should I ditch them all entirely, and recycle as NPc/Monsters and get back to normal char anim with nice armor/weap change ?

[Tyd]

hm, thats really a damn problem cause the models looked really nice on the screenshots. but, what use have models that look weird (fireing arrows without a bow oO), that would destroy a lot of the flair :/. so i think there's no choice than chosing the normal moddels, but with the correct anims and correct looking gear. i mean, it would look a bit stupid, when i wield a twohander with my knight and he stil holds the crossbow . its sad, but i think under this conditions its best to take the "old" normal models. make some nice looking itmes for them

[Joel]

Many people find the no-equip show annoying but find the model nice.
So i'll surely stick to normal anim for a while and recycle these anims in NPC, monsters allies whatever

And then, if one day I found a way to get nice models with minimal item change, well, I'll use them.

[Tyd]

hey its your mod at least . as long as no anim crashes the game, its fine i think .

[Rattlecage]

That's so sad.
Hopefully you'll be able to find new gfx for your characters. Anyway, will you change the ugly kiteshield graphics? Those things are just so ugly, I mean, ew.

[Joel]

Well maybe fixing current anim (making new ones for ugly one, fix two yielding stuff for all class) ... maybe somethign I can do. I'll see

[Joel]

Well i've replayed a it with my char anims and I may have found a way to fix them (at least the sequence stuff).

Now is the problem of no weap/no armor gfx change really important ??

[Tyd]

hm, in my opinion yes it is :/. i mean first of all it looks stupid if you're running aroung with an axe for example, but you dont have one in your hand oO. second, d2 is basically all about the items, so there would be a big part missing, when you dont see on your char what you wearing. today its standart to see your staff at your char and it would be a step back if you dont :/

[Xcolibri]

I think, I still prefer new models with no gfx changes than the old chars with gfx changes.
Can't you maybe do a compromise: One standard gfx for each subcabal? Than it would fit much better, because a subcabal will probably stick to certain weapons / armour anyway.

[Joel]

Hmmm using the Spell Holder as charm with a state that turnyou into your subcabal avatar ....

Well, that's 21 new gfx instead of 7 :p And I HAVE to find them

[Rattlecage]

I think I just thought of something. Would it be possible to have your Cabal start out with an aura that applies a state that makes them look like your Cabal and not the character? You'd have to convert you're cabal graphics to monster graphics, but that doesn't sound too hard, does it?

[Joel]

Yep ... that was the plan ... but the only way to do that is to put some state on the spell holder item. And hence when ppl remove it, they lose their look AND spell abilities ... Yep ... that could do it that's not the problem but well ... the trick is to find 21 animations with decent look, representing nicely the cabal and not looking like anim from 1xx differents sources.

The fact is also that i can use actual D2 monsters as base for some. Like having a plashifted corrupt archer as Hunter-Archer etc ...

The main problem stays the potential lack of animations ...

Other solutino is too put every single weapon class specific and take a anim with the afformentioned weapon on it. But then again, I'm not making FF7 mod and why on earth ppl can't use the weapon they want :-/

So basically, I can separate the actual animations from the main Mod, letting people choose if they want to play with the new char anim or not. So ppl who dislike the new class look, well, they will play with the old models., other sppl will dl the new char look pack and paly with.

I think it's the easier,quicker thing to do.

[Iridescence]

If it means anything, I don't think this will change the quality of the mod at all

[Chiffa]

Well, me personally prefers new gfxs...... even if no item-related look changes occure...
as to the possible animation sources, I've seen somewhere a way to extraxt Might and Magic animations.... where was it... I think it was somewhere on strategyplanet forums in homm section...
can you see if these would fit your State-of-The-Art mod?
also, it's possible to extract StarCraft and War3 anims, isnt'it?
(I know SC anims don't fit the D2 theme, but you can use some of them, like Zergs, as monsters... )

[Joel]

I'll see ... the char anim was a nice idea at first but it come sout that it limit me to classic attack anim everytime :-/

I can use some BG2 char anim, but they are significantly smaller ... so that don't fit either.