strike fx

[zookeeper]

Damage types can change due to picked-up items or whatnot, that's why defining the impact effects as part of the attack animation WML doesn't work perfectly.

[Boucman]

ok, in that case you need to filter on attack type in the attack WML too...

you could probably do a nice macro with all the different attack types that would just have to be included in relevant attack animations

[zookeeper]

ok, in that case you need to filter on attack type in the attack WML too...

you could probably do a nice macro with all the different attack types that would just have to be included in relevant attack animations

So every single attack animation in the game would have six sub-animations, five of which would go unused about 99.5% of the time? Frankly, that doesn't really sound like the right way to do it, or does it?

[Eleazar]

Damage types can change due to picked-up items or whatnot, that's why defining the impact effects as part of the attack animation WML doesn't work perfectly.

it's not perfect, but it's not outrageously wrong.

Say an elf fighter picks up a Mace of Undead Smashing which does arcane damage. When he attacks we'll still see the sword-swinging animation. A "blade" strike FX is not really out of place with a sword animation even if technically he's supposed to be swinging an arcane mace. I.E. it's not any more broken than our general support of arbitrary add-on weapons.

A campaign designer could make animations (like lisar and the scepter) and strike FX appropriate for what a unit might acquire, but i don't expect this to be widespread.

[Boucman]

good point zookeeper... i'm not sure how to add what you're asking without changing the whole [if][else] structure...

which I might have to do

[zookeeper]

good point zookeeper... i'm not sure how to add what you're asking without changing the whole [if][else] structure...

which I might have to do

Well, this wouldn't necessarily make it any easier on you, but I'd imagine we'd actually want a new top-level [damage_type] tag which would define things like the translatable names (which are now in hardwired/english.cfg) along with these kind of impact effects and maybe even tooltip descriptions.

[Boucman]

the idea of [damage_type] could be usefull, but i don't want to hardwire that in the anim engine unless I'm forced to...

rewriting the way [if] works is something I had planned for a long time anyway. The current structure is very clumsy and causes all sorts of glitches that are very hard to fix (like the ghost range attack sometime being upside down)

[Jetrel]

I think we could safely do it with a macro that inserts a new frame type into attack animations. It would be an [impact_frame], with an offset always at 1.0, to place it on the receiver. Inside the macro would be the appropriate [if] conditions to test against whatever we wanted to use as a key - probably damage type.

@Rhyging: We need the following types of attack:
1] blade. The animation you already provided would work well.
2] pierce could arguably use the same as blade.
3] impact could be more of a "shockwave",

And last, generic splashes would be nice for:
4] fire
5] ice
6] dark-lightning (pink/purple, like your recent lich animation)

Some of these units have custom animations already, but a generic version would help in all the cases we don't have. We don't have a good generic "hit" effect for our undead wizards, yet, and this could really fit the bill. We also need a better hit effect for flaming arrows.

[rhyging5]

well, meanwhile i suggest these improvements:

[JustinOperable]

These look pretty cool so far although I think at least some of them (like the impact) would be cooler if they were in perspective.

[iLeeT_PeeP]

What are these? I dont get it...

If they are what I think they are... Seems silly to have that red animation play on either side of the attack when a Thunderer Fires...

Whatever... Im not the boss...

[StandYourGround]

Try reading the whole topic next time. These are animations that would display when a unit is hit, directly on the point of impact. Like a popping "POW" in a cartoon without a POW.

[Yoyobuae]

These look pretty cool so far although I think at least some of them (like the impact) would be cooler if they were in perspective.

Additionally, how about playing a bit with mirroring/flipping to achieve the four "basic" directions (NW,NE,SW,SE)? North and south facing attacks can just use any. This is more for blade/impact swings kinda attacks.

Even reversing the frame order might help with slashes in one direction or another (for blade mainly. ie. grunt upward swing vs dwarf downward swing). This is assuming the effect is reversible.

For flame, maybe a smoking effect would be nice.

BTW, good work rhyging5.

[rhyging5]

I add more. For arcane/dark-lightning, I drawed an..........well, see yourself

[Captain_Rage]

I just couldn't refrain from posting and saying that your effects look very cool and exciting. Especially the arcane one you just added.
Can't wait to see them in-game!