Found a BUG in your anims, Archmage!
The bug is actually in the model, not the actions.
The flamer (weapon) is off-centered... again!
So though the animations look cool in themselves, the model looks kind of crapy interacting with the other objects (I only tried it ingame today).
Details why:
The muzzle of the flamer is displaced to its right. When it fires, Glest aligns the
flame team center to the
target center. Currently the muzzle of the flamer is, as said before, to the right of this center - the obvious sollution would be to offset the particle making it come from the muzzle again (it currently is at x="0", would make like x"-0.2" or something like that).
The problem with this "sollution" is that though Glest correcctly animates the rotation of the unit on all 360º (possibly even more fractioned), it only "poses" it at one of eight fixed 45º intervals. It then calculates and draws the trajectory from the offset x particle start to the center of the target unit.
Now the target center may be everywhere in between at -22.5º to 22.5º relative to the attacking unit's center (a total angle range of 45º). So, if your projectile/particle center is offset at x=0, you'll get a 22.5º variation
to each side drawn trajectory. The result is not always perfect (actually only is when the two units are at a 0º (or 180º if you prefer) angle from each other) but it will look alright in most cases.
But if you have the particle center offset on the x axis to something other than 0, you'll have an uneven pair of angles, e.g. 30º to the right side and 15º to the left. Now, if the target is on
this left side, it's all good (still under the acceptable 22.5º angle) but if it's on the right side, it may very well get this very weird awfully wide angle, making the trajectory look very awkward.
This might not matter so much if the unit's particle_proj.xml file defined a "line" kind of primitive value (or even better, the projectile moved with no trace left behind). But in the case of the flame team, it's a quad type of trace and a rather wide one too. So it does look bad.
Rule of thumb: Place the center of the muzzle of your firing weapon at the x center of the unit's model (the vertical green line in Blender on NUMPAD 7 angle) and have the firing weapon in a perperdicular angle to the x axis (i.e. paralel to the z axis)! So, I fixed the objects position so the flamer conforms to the above rule of thumb.
Another problem arises.
You now have the flamer aligned to the center but the flame crew are offset to their left!
Obviously, they are now placed a bit too far to objects on their right and a bit too close (sometimes even overlaping) objects on their left. Not as much as wciow's original model but still noticeable.
Fixing this is a whole more troublesome:
1. Re-edit the flamer model (the hose may not get so smooth again but I rahter it less smooth but allowing better ingame interaction). Possible problem (?):
Maybe the
armature must be re-edited too .. for every pose in every animation? ???
2. R-edit the front right side flame crew too! You correctly went to the trouble of editing it to fit his new position. Sadly, as the new position is wrong, it must be edited back to the original position. In this case, I'm almost definitively sure it must be so for every pose in every animation.
Rule of thumb for this one: Keep your model's proportions to the box it will fit in ingame! Which, in the flame team case means: keep the objects in position!It's partially my fault 'cause I gave you the green light too soon. Sorry.
I'll try and fix it next week.
In the meantime, if you want to get your own hand on it, here is the recentered model:
http://www.mediafire.com/?kmglw0wmzzt