Staff Casting Animations

[Pitt90]

So, it clearly may only be me, as I scoured the forums and saw no other requests for it. But I hate the way mages cast spells when using a staff. I like the way they cast them when unarmed or using a melee weapon.

 

Occasionally, for some unknown reason, my mage will use the melee/unarmed casting animations when holding his staff, so I know it's possible. But is there a mod, or can it be tweaked, so unarmed/melee weapon spell casting animation happens all the time, rather than the "thrusting the staff towards the Maker" or "shooting the spell out the end of the staff like a canon" animations even when a staff is equipped?

 

Anyone? Bueller? ;)

 

Thanks for any feedback, info, work on this.

[Pitt90]

So, it clearly may only be me, as I scoured the forums and saw no other requests for it. But I hate the way mages cast spells when using a staff. I like the way they cast them when unarmed or using a melee weapon.

 

Occasionally, for some unknown reason, my mage will use the melee/unarmed casting animations when holding his staff, so I know it's possible. But is there a mod, or can it be tweaked, so unarmed/melee weapon spell casting animation happens all the time, rather than the "thrusting the staff towards the Maker" or "shooting the spell out the end of the staff like a canon" animations even when a staff is equipped?

 

Anyone? Bueller? ;)

 

Thanks for any feedback, info, work on this.

 

Hmmm ... crickets on this one, eh? Guess not! :(

[DarkeWolf]

Interesting idea. Yeah, I know that there's folks that dont like those staff casting animations.

 

I've got an idea on how to implement it, Ima give it a go and see how it turns out. Will report back. Might be a bit tho, theres a LOT of anims to sort thru, lol ;)

 

 

Edit 7:55 PM - implementation works :D

But Im gonna have to sort thru the different animations. The one that I used for the test, my mage draws the staff to go into combat, then starts swirling her hands around in front of her as a fireball takes form. HOWEVER... the animation that I used is too long. The fireball forms, then fires, and she's still standing there swirling her hands around. Looks pretty lame.

 

So. Now off to experiment with some of those other anim files to see how they turn out. [/edit]

[Pitt90]

Interesting idea. Yeah, I know that there's folks that dont like those staff casting animations.

 

I've got an idea on how to implement it, Ima give it a go and see how it turns out. Will report back. Might be a bit tho, theres a LOT of anims to sort thru, lol ;)

 

 

Edit 7:55 PM - implementation works :D

But Im gonna have to sort thru the different animations. The one that I used for the test, my mage draws the staff to go into combat, then starts swirling her hands around in front of her as a fireball takes form. HOWEVER... the animation that I used is too long. The fireball forms, then fires, and she's still standing there swirling her hands around. Looks pretty lame.

 

So. Now off to experiment with some of those other anim files to see how they turn out. [/edit]

 

Holy crap, thanks DarkeWolf!! That's awesome, and very kind of you to get on it so swiftly. I appreciate it more than I can say, even if it can't be done; just that you tried. :) It drives me *crazy*! :D

[DarkeWolf]

Heyas! Well, its no problem. Thanks for the inspiration of something to do ;)

 

I hit a snag after further testing in actual combat. It turns out that the fireball uses the SAME animation as the staff bolt animation. So after testing in actual combat, the mages were all waving their arms around whenever they would fire from the actual staff. (Was actually kinda cool looking, like some kinda freaky cult ritual or something, hahaha).

So the idea of trying to simply replace one animation file with a renamed file, went ker-plop. :(

 

I am going to TRY to track down the file that lists which animations the spells uses, and then edit that, to use a different animation for the different spells.

Now... However..... thats gonna cause imcompatibilities with ANY other mod that uses the same file to affect spells and/or spellcasting. So those mods would have to be edited, in order to add in the additional info on which animations to use.

 

And.... I did learn why they did use some of those cheesy animations. Its because the spell fx are very short, and they dont sync up with how long the other spellcasting animations run. I MIGHT have a friend that knows how to cut some of the frames out of them, to make some of the others shorter. I will have to check on that tho.

 

LOL odd bit of trivia, but the .ani files that da uses for this, is the same format as used by animated cursors like your "busy" mouse pointer. (Too bad they couldnt be edited in a program that makes those!!!)

 

I'll try to track down that file when I get back from my GF's tomorrow. And fire off a mail to my bud and see if he knows how to do that editing to shorten some of the others down. I may end up having to post a request for an animator tho, and that could take some time to get back on :(

 

But yeah, I'll keep on this when I get back home tomorrow, and see what we can work out! :D

[superdeluxe]

Is it possible to change the combat stances? Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love having rogues bend over like old women while they waddle from enemy to enemy like they've got a pant-load of poo but it'd be refreshing to get something else. o_O

[monkybuttface]

Hush, one request per thread, or you may lose the modder, they are tricky beasts...

(pokes rifle out of the window of his post)

[Pitt90]

Interesting idea. Yeah, I know that there's folks that dont like those staff casting animations.

 

I've got an idea on how to implement it, Ima give it a go and see how it turns out. Will report back. Might be a bit tho, theres a LOT of anims to sort thru, lol ;)

 

 

Edit 7:55 PM - implementation works :D

But Im gonna have to sort thru the different animations. The one that I used for the test, my mage draws the staff to go into combat, then starts swirling her hands around in front of her as a fireball takes form. HOWEVER... the animation that I used is too long. The fireball forms, then fires, and she's still standing there swirling her hands around. Looks pretty lame.

 

So. Now off to experiment with some of those other anim files to see how they turn out. [/edit]

 

Holy crap, thanks DarkeWolf!! That's awesome, and very kind of you to get on it so swiftly. I appreciate it more than I can say, even if it can't be done; just that you tried. :) It drives me *crazy*! :D

 

Gotcha, thanks for the update. What made me think it might not be too difficult is that sometimes, as I said, I'll be standing still casting a spell, staff in hand, and suddenly all the spells I cast from that position are animated like the unarmed/melee weapon ones. My guy just stands there, thrusts his hands forward to cast fireball and the staff is in his hand, looking held and fine, or he does the arms thrust into a V form for a heal, with the staff held firmly in his hand. So it does it sometimes randomly already, so I thought perhaps it was just a tweak to get it to do those all the time. It's odd.

 

I really appreciate the effort, though, more than I can say. I've taken to using melee weapons as a mage I hate the canon shooting animations so much! ;) Madness, I know!

[Pitt90]

Darke,

 

In case you get to this and post in the next week and I don't respond with overwhelming gratitude, I'm out of town until mid-next week. :)

 

Appreciate the effort on this!

[DarkeWolf]

Pitt- Ah, ok, much thanks for the update, appreciate it :)

Yeah, I havent had a whole lot of time to myself the last few days. I was able to check one file, but it didnt have the necessary information in it, to edit. I will still be looking for that when I have time tho. No worries, I'm still on it ;)

Ima probly gonna have to find somebody that knows how to edit down those animation files. Which might also take a while :/ Depending on how the responses go.

 

Yeah, the animations are kinda wierd on this. I've got the names, and the actual animation FILES extracted. But I dont really know which one is used in which (aside from that whole fireball/staff weapon bolt one) as some of them are very, very similar. But once I get a chance to locate and view the right file maybe I can get it more sorted out.

 

Superdeluxe- we had a couple of threads about that a while back. And yeah, a lot o those walking/running/combat animations are not a big hit with a lot of folks. I'll check to see if the original poster that had a lot of info on that one can check in on this again.

 

Monky- right on :)