Hello all .

I wonder if anyone can help with a problem I'm having with the NPC animations for my hoverchair side-car. From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3od4nCW78tA I've made the problem is obvious... the NPC stands up to shoot :rolleyes:! What I'd really like to do is have the NPC shoot while remaining kneeling, but I can't work out how to get the animations to blend.

The kneeling animation is a looping special idle (in LOOSE) which I force on the NPC using a sandbox package (wander near current location) with the animation as its only idle. The problem is that the idle animation gets aborted when the NPC goes into combat, and I have to add the package again to re-start it. I've tried boosting my animation's bone priorities in the pelvis, thighs, calves, feet and toes (to 90) but that doesn't have any effect, even though the priorities in the movement and attack animations are no higher than 30.

Is there any trick I can use to make sure my idle carries on playing even during combat, but can be stopped at will and another (stand up) idle played? I have tried the PlayIdle command, but that just locks the NPC into the looping animation; the only way of breaking it out that I've found is to shoot it a couple of times.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions .

That's pretty flippen cool

I've been beating my head against the wall trying to figure out idles. You could try http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/SetRestrained on him once he's sitting, but I don't know if he'll shoot.

From what I've found, to cancel a PlayIdle, you have to hit him again with the same idle.

REF.PlayIdle SomeIdle

Will start it, and

REF.PlayIdle SomeIdle

Again will stop it.

You can also put the anim outside of LOOSE and set some conditions so it doesn't play constantly. Then the anim will just play if the conditions are met. You might have to hit him with a

REF.PickIdle

to stop it. Then the package would only be needed to keep him in position.

I'm still trying a bunch of stuff to work out some kinks.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give them a try .

[edit]
Oh well, SetRestrained doesn't work. The NPC will still stand up if shot but won't return fire - the worst of both worlds . And rtepeating the same PlayIdle doesn't cancel the idle . I suspect that only works with idles that are looping with a Cycle Type of CYCLE_LOOP. Mine uses CYCLE_CLAMP but has 'StartLoop' and 'EndLoop' text keys.

Now to try making it a non-loose idle...

I think that problem lies in the fact that whatever packages you have on him are aborted under combat situations. I think that you would need an enirely new combat animation with the legs, feet, thighs, etc, stationary. You might also need to force a new combat style where all the dodge, find cover & charge stuff is set to a 0% chance of happening. That might keep him kneeling while in combat.

You are right, the ones I'm using are CYCLE_LOOP.

Ah.

Urg.

Do you know how I'd add a new combat animation? And get the game to use it in the right circumstances? Would I have to do new animations for every possible ranged weapon a companion might have!!?? This is really getting beyond what little I know.

For the sake of compatibility I really don't want to modify the vanilla companions if I can help it, but if it's the only way...

Well, you might be able to get away with him just standing and fireing with a new combat style, but I don't know how else you could keep him kneeling and fireing without new combat animations. And, ya, that's a tough one. The fact that you even made that hoverchair proves you know more than I about working with nifs and such.

Hm.

As far as I can see a new combat style won't work because you can't change them on the fly... can you? I have to leave the companion's behaviour when off the chair unaffected.

It might be possible to do something with SpecialAnims... but those just override default ones, don't they? Does anyone know how those work?

If I created duplicates of all the companions, swapped out the vanilla one and swapped in the duplicate when they got on the chair, and made sure the duplicates had SpecialAnims of all their movement animations, consisting of kneeling with high bone priorities from the waist down and low priorities from the waist up...

Ok, can anyone tell me if I'm fantasising or if this is a workable (if laborious) scheme?

Thanks .

Well, I don't know about the rest, but you can surely change combat styles on followers. The vanilla followers have it done to them all the time. Use http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/SetCombatStyle when they get on the chair and set it back to their default when they get off the chair. It still might not work the way you want though.

:facepalm:

Ok, I admit it, I'm an imbecile . Thanks for the info .