Different Die/Attack Models

[mictes]

What about different attack and die - models ?
For example:
A bear kills an initate -> initiate flung around the air.
A Swordman kills an initiate -> initate tumbles.
Swordman attacks initiate -> Sword cutting.
Swordman attacks castle -> Sword panging.

[daniel.santos]

This general topic has been discussed many times, I keep referencing the GAE 0.3 planning thread, maybe I should bump it again.  None the less, I don't think I've heard these specific suggestions.

So first off, you are mentioning a number of distinct capabilities:

• soft-body dynamics (which will require skeletal animation)
• multiplie death animiation types (already discussed)
• being able have the death animation type selected by the cause of death (original discussion proposed random selection from a group of animations)
• being able to change the attack sound based upon both the attacker's skill and the attackee

So I'll start with item 1.  Soft-body dynamics and skeletal animation would be required for tossing the body of an initiate around realistically.  I'm not opposed to that, it's just not going to happen soon.  0.3 is scheduled to integrate ODE (open dynamics engine) which is capable of soft-body dynamics, but we would still need skeletal animation to render that realistically.  Granted, the end result would be nice.  I do suppose that tossing can be done by cheesing together existing animation frames, but it would look a bit stiff and wouldn't have an impact on the ground (i.e., wouldn't look realistic at all when landing).  On the bright side, tossing rigid body objects IS planned for 0.3, so you'll get part of your wish in that (again, discussed in the 0.3 planning thread).

Item 2 is already being addressed in 0.3 (with animation randomly selected)

Items 3 and 4 are noteworthy.  Why don't you elaborate on those concepts? Except, post it to the GAE 0.3 planning thread.  Specifically, think of how in the XML code such relationships should be expressed.  Should there be a collection of sounds for each type of object a skill is attacking (metal, organic, leather, etc.)?  Should these be specified at the unit.xml level or should there be something that defines collections of these sounds defined in faction.xml?  Same item 3, the selection of an appropriate death animation -- how should such a selection be made and specified in the XML?

Think this through and post your thoughts here please: https://forum.megaglest.org/index.php?topic=3387.0

[ZaggyDad]

Well, I'm not making all those animations for you. That would be like 150 animations per unit (Seriously. Think about it. Almost every unit has one attack. Some have two, or even three. There are usually two or more factions, with approximately the same amount units in them. I'll leave it at that. ).