What are "Loose" Idle Animations?

[itsazoefish]

I'm looking at assigning idle animations for my follower, and I'm running into duplicate animations with different names. For example, there's one that's called DanceFidget02 and another called LooseDanceFidget02. Same animation, so what does it mean that it's "loose"?

[madmongo]

They aren't tied into specific game situations. If you open up the debug console, you can select an NPC (or the player if you use TFC first) and type the command "playidle X" where X is the ID of the idle animation (LooseDanceFidget02 for example).

 

If you try to do that with other animations they often won't play because they are tied into other game conditions and such.

 

The loose animations can also be more easily used in scripted actions since they are "loose" and not tied to anything.

[JimboUK]

I would test any idles you plan to use as some can be problematic, the beer drinking and smoking ones for example, if they're interrupted by combat or a greeting they can leave the character with their mouth stuck wide open like a goldfish. The dancing ones used for the girls outside the Gomorrah also have an issue, if played on a character with a weapon equipped but not drawn the weapon will embed itself in the body with the top sticking out of the shoulder or out of the side of the waist.

[itsazoefish]

Thank you both! The explanation was exactly what I needed.

 

Initially I was just trying to make my npc drink when she stopped moving, but then looking through all the options, I went a little crazy. I'll definitely be testing it out in game to see how stupid she looks. :)