[Advice/Request] New Attack Animations for Lightsaber Forms

[Finchyy2702 0]

Hi, there! (Apologies in advance if I've posted this in the wrong place)

I'm an avid fan of this franchise and have been playing on repeat since it first came out in 2003. I'm also brand-new to the modding scene (I've only made one mod, for Pillars of Eternity) and would love to get into modding KotOR II.

I think it would be great if there would be a mod that changed the attack animations of Jedi depending on which lightsaber form they were currently using (e.g. tighter, more defensive movements for the Soresu form and more wild movements for Ataru or Juyo).

However, as I search around these forums and other places, I find myself at a loss for how to make this mod. While I have a few years' programming experience, I have absolutely no experience making 3D animations and no experience modding KotOR II - though I would love to learn!

If anyone has some advice for me, or if they would like to join in on this project, I would greatly appreciate it!

With love and respect,

~Finchyy2702

[DeadMan 103]

39 minutes ago, Finchyy2702 said:

Hi, there! (Apologies in advance if I've posted this in the wrong place)

I'm an avid fan of this franchise and have been playing on repeat since it first came out in 2003. I'm also brand-new to the modding scene (I've only made one mod, for Pillars of Eternity) and would love to get into modding KotOR II.

I think it would be great if there would be a mod that changed the attack animations of Jedi depending on which lightsaber form they were currently using (e.g. tighter, more defensive movements for the Soresu form and more wild movements for Ataru or Juyo).

However, as I search around these forums and other places, I find myself at a loss for how to make this mod. While I have a few years' programming experience, I have absolutely no experience making 3D animations and no experience modding KotOR II - though I would love to learn!

If anyone has some advice for me, or if they would like to join in on this project, I would greatly appreciate it!

With love and respect,

~Finchyy2702

Welcome to Deadlystream!

As far as I know, such mod is impossible to do - the game is hardcoded to use only specific set of combat animations, regardless of the saber form you are using.

[Finchyy2702 0]

16 minutes ago, DeadMan said:

As far as I know, such mod is impossible to do - the game is hardcoded to use only specific set of combat animations, regardless of the saber form you are using.

Aw, really? I saw that there was a mod that altered walking animations, but haven't found any other type of animation mod so I feared that this might be the case.

I had hoped that coupling the animations with a script that executes when a player changes form would be the way to go, but I guess not. That's a shame.

Another idea I had was to add some Force Powers such as Force Pull and Mass Choke. There are already a couple of mods that add Force Powers, but I don't believe they include these - would you be able to offer any advice on how to go about this? I'm assuming that this will be mostly scripting and somehow editing the Powers tree.

[JCarter426 1,215]

1 hour ago, Finchyy2702 said:

think it would be great if there would be a mod that changed the attack animations of Jedi depending on which lightsaber form they were currently using

This isn't possible because the game only changes animation based on what items are equipped- usually the weapon, but there is also the case of Mira's wrist launcher - and not the lightsaber forms. There is evidence that Obsidian intended to implement this, but they probably didn't have the time or budget to make animations for all the forms, and unfortunately they didn't program the stuff we'd need even if someone were to make all those animations. We're limited to specific animation sets: unarmed, complex unarmed, stun baton, single melee, dual melee, double-bladed melee, single blaster pistol, dual blaster pistols, blaster rifle, and repeating blaster rifle. If you wanted you could change any of those to do different things, but they would always depend on the type of item equipped and not on the saber forms. Plus you'd have to get rid of some of the existing ones first. Even if you had animations already, it couldn't be helped. It's an unfortunate situation, for example, that extra animations for Mira's wrist launcher exist, but there's no conceivable way to use them without replacing something else because on the programming side they only implemented the grenade thing.

23 minutes ago, Finchyy2702 said:

Another idea I had was to add some Force Powers such as Force Pull and Mass Choke. There are already a couple of mods that add Force Powers, but I don't believe they include these - would you be able to offer any advice on how to go about this?

Force powers are a simpler matter. You need to write a script to handle the game mechanics, then apply it to a line in spells.2da. All the data that determines how and when the Force power is available to the player is configured there as well. You'll also need to add a line to dialog.tlk so the power will have a description in the GUI. That makes it somewhat of a pain as you have to use a token with TSLPatcher so the right line number is referenced, which is why I've never bothered to ever try making a Force power. TSLPatcher doesn't behave for me. I have thought about adding some, though, and in fact specifically Force pull. Maybe I'll get around to it one of these days.

Also, as long as we're on the subject of Force powers and animations, I don't believe it's possible to add new animations for Force powers either. Again, we're limited to what are already used - even though, again, there actually are extra animations that are never used.

[Finchyy2702 0]

1 hour ago, JCarter426 said:

lso, as long as we're on the subject of Force powers and animations, I don't believe it's possible to add new animations for Force powers either. Again, we're limited to what are already used - even though, again, there actually are extra animations that are never used.

Hiya!

Yeah, it's interesting that you don't seem to be able to do much with Force Powers - or, at least, I can't find anything. I see that for Force Push, they apply an effect called "EffectForcePushed()", which seems to be a function. Yet I cannot find any file that contains code that describes the function. This is a shame as I would have liked Force Pull to move the target towards the character.

I don't know if this is really the case or if I'm being a fool; any advice would be appreciated, of course

[JCarter426 1,215]

It should be possible with EffectForcePushTargeted(). That applies the same effect but you can specify a location, and I believe you could calculate the target location based on the player and enemy vectors.

[Finchyy2702 0]

Indeed! I was hoping I could simply define the target's location myself, but I suppose that would be one solution - good idea!

I won't pester you for more advice for the time being; I think I'm starting to get my head around it now I'm guessing they defined their functions in a separate, non-accessible place.

Thanks for your help!

[DeadMan 103]

13 hours ago, Finchyy2702 said:

Another idea I had was to add some Force Powers such as Force Pull and Mass Choke.

IIRC, Force Pull was included in Stoffe's High Level Force Powers mod.

[Durendal 5]

2 hours ago, DeadMan said:

IIRC, Force Pull was included in Stoffe's High Level Force Powers mod.

Force Pull is kind of janky and busted, and as good as HLFP is, that power could use some retooling. Specifically, you're able to pull things that should be stationary like turrets, and pull enemies without triggering the rest of their group.

[R2-X2 35]

On 7/27/2018 at 7:25 PM, JCarter426 said:

This isn't possible because the game only changes animation based on what items are equipped- usually the weapon, but there is also the case of Mira's wrist launcher - and not the lightsaber forms. There is evidence that Obsidian intended to implement this, but they probably didn't have the time or budget to make animations for all the forms, and unfortunately they didn't program the stuff we'd need even if someone were to make all those animations. We're limited to specific animation sets: unarmed, complex unarmed, stun baton, single melee, dual melee, double-bladed melee, single blaster pistol, dual blaster pistols, blaster rifle, and repeating blaster rifle. If you wanted you could change any of those to do different things, but they would always depend on the type of item equipped and not on the saber forms. Plus you'd have to get rid of some of the existing ones first. Even if you had animations already, it couldn't be helped. It's an unfortunate situation, for example, that extra animations for Mira's wrist launcher exist, but there's no conceivable way to use them without replacing something else because on the programming side they only implemented the grenade thing.

Force powers are a simpler matter. You need to write a script to handle the game mechanics, then apply it to a line in spells.2da. All the data that determines how and when the Force power is available to the player is configured there as well. You'll also need to add a line to dialog.tlk so the power will have a description in the GUI. That makes it somewhat of a pain as you have to use a token with TSLPatcher so the right line number is referenced, which is why I've never bothered to ever try making a Force power. TSLPatcher doesn't behave for me. I have thought about adding some, though, and in fact specifically Force pull. Maybe I'll get around to it one of these days.

Also, as long as we're on the subject of Force powers and animations, I don't believe it's possible to add new animations for Force powers either. Again, we're limited to what are already used - even though, again, there actually are extra animations that are never used.

This makes me wonder: Have there been any attempts at improving the game code yet? I know other games where stuff like ASM was used to fix bugs and add features to games, or to load new code via dlls.

[JCarter426 1,215]

Yes, there is the ongoing xoreos project to re-implement the whole Aurora family in an open source engine. If you prefer to play KOTOR in a browser, there is also the JavaScript project here. Both are really impressive in what they've accomplished, but they're still far from being a playable experience. That's to be expected when the source code isn't available and the documentation is almost 20 years old.

[R2-X2 35]

Ah, both of them sound promising. But how about altering the base game code itself? Via ASM, hex replacement, dll injection etc.