Flying Enemies!

[VileTouch]

oh really!? that one looks nice! but... does it really fly? say... if you are on top of the

anvil lighthouse and throw an arrow at it close to the ground... will it get angry and fly higher

to attack you?

Yes.

 

well, then it seems we are in front of the only really flying enemy in oblivion...but...did you release it?

i'd love to take a look at how you managed to accomplish that. (if you don't mind of course)

 

i assume it would involve a vector speed calculation (to simulate smooth altitude gain/loss in lack of

a proper air resistance/sustain by wing span function), more vector direction comparison in XYZ

to maintain it's altitude regardless of ground surface variations...ugh!

 

well... that or i'm totally missing the point and we don't really need any phisics to accomplish this...

 

probably the most annoying part of oblivion's AI is that once a character engages a target it will

charge directly to it using the shortest possible route (that is a straight line). without considering

other factors (which would look very bad for a flying creature). for instance i once added a shark to

the game (still have the model somewhere, really cool, really big, great anims from a friend of mine)

but i could not make it so it would circle it's enemies before attacking (that is without getting stuck

somewhere or swimming out of the water blindly) and when it did attack

(since there is no mass calculations in oblivion) it would just stop in front of the player and snap its

jaws repeatedly instead of swimming past with open mouth, dragging him and chewing him to pieces in

the proccess, nor could it grab anything with its mouth and tear it appart...

 

but hey! we're talking about flying mechanics, not sharks!

but it seems to me that we need some set of phisics interaction rules to back up all these ideas.

(maybe an obse plugin?). i mean... there IS Havok (all kinds of phisics interaction funtions there)

, but for some reason i still don't understand we are not allowed to unleash it's full potential.

 

great, now i turned this into a phisics discusion thread...or something.

[UK47]

well, then it seems we are in front of the only really flying enemy in oblivion...but...did you release it?

No, it is not "really" flying.

[VileTouch]

well, then it seems we are in front of the only really flying enemy in oblivion...but...did you release it?

No, it is not "really" flying.

so it would fall off a cliff just like an imp would. it wouldn't maintain its altitude, for instance for crossing the gap between the imperial prison and the market district without needing to use the bridge.... or going from one mountain to another without dying and looking suicidal like the wolves do? :biggrin:

[UK47]

so it would fall off a cliff just like an imp would

No. It would decrease its altitude, but it would not really fall.

or going from one mountain to another without dying and looking suicidal like the wolves do? :biggrin:

The bee has not fall damage.

crossing the gap between the imperial prison and the market district without needing to use the bridge...

Yes.

[Nexus Set]

Simulated flight requires a lot more advanced scripting but I think it's doable.

QQuix had some success with it.

 

[Deleted1848331User]

flying horses!!!!!!! run away!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Xeivous]

`

*left clicks horse*

kill*enter*

`

[Deleted1848331User]

o so true.... only its

 

~

*clicks on horse*

kill

*enter*

~

[VileTouch]

Simulated flight requires a lot more advanced scripting but I think it's doable.

QQuix had some success with it.

 

--vid snipped to avoid lag--

yes, i have come to realize it's not doable by normal means. it's going to need some serious coding to persuade the game to accept it... did you notice the comments on youtube? he plans to make some flying creatures! yay QQuix!! (bout dam time tho)

 

I also noticed he places markers on mid air to define the flight routes! so... no free flights yet...short of pathgriding the whole sky...oh well... i hope it turns out well and we have at least a flying horse that poops on unsuspecting pedestrians before TES 5 comes out.

 

on the bright side, he also says he's going to release it as a modders resource! yay QQuix!!

 

 

thank's for the vid! it's a relief to know it's not impossible.

[Breeze582000]

I was going to implement flying seducer npcs in my mod and from looking at QQuix's video it seems like I had a similar idea as he did in. "Actual" flight is very difficult if you don't have access to the underlying engine to determine potential collisions easily (X units in a straight line above/below/left/right, etc.).

 

What I was planning on doing (and what I think QQuix does) is put the npc on kind of a roller coaster, i.e. fixed tracks, and then move them from the one point on the track to the next on the track until they reach the destination. Not true flight, but ok for scripted sequences, e.g. seducer warriors leaps off a tower and circle down above the player to attack them (with ranged spells) or land on the front and attack on foot.

 

Have some ideas for getting an npc to actually fly (by implementing collision checks using OBSE scripts), but it's VERY intensive on calculations and don't know yet if it's feasible or not.