0.5 - Observations

[Bercor]

Ok, I finally had time to test the 0.5 version a bit and here's some things that stood out:

-Sprites- the correct ones are not implemented, as you can see by this picture:

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All factions are using the old sprites.

-Animations- the hoplite and phalangite animations are not the best, let's put it this way. Here's a screenshot of battle between Spartans Hoplites and the Sacred Band:

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Some of the soldiers are attacking the enemy with their spears pointed upwards. Look, how much neat/less crumbled look the XC hoplite animations in comparison:

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Maybe ahowl can talk to Zarax about using their animations...
The phalangite animations are another problem. Here's how they look while under missile fire:

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Pretty awkward... I don't know if this bug is caused by the animations or another parameter, but I never seen this in EB (maybe I wasn't paying attention).

-Formations- I don't know if this is linked with the animations problem, but, at least the hoplites and the phalangites, bug out during combat. Proof:

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Here, the phalangites just decided not to strike the Cretan archers, and they both just stood in that position till the end of the battle.

We gotta fix this.

EDIT: found another problem in the cavalry units that use Prometheus horse cavalry animation and have a big shield, namely, the shield passes through the soldier arm:

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We should change their animation.

[ahowl11]

Good observations. Does anyone have knowledge on how to possibly fix these? I've never messed with animations.

[Bercor]

I believe DHS is our main man for animations... But can't you change the cavalry animations from one to another?

[ahowl11]

Yes.
I have an idea. Before we used z3n's Animations pack, but there was a bug where all spearmen would always kneel instead of stand. However I don't remember any issues with the phalangites so maybe they would be fixed.

However the day of release, z3n messaged me with his fix for the bug. We can see if it works and then the only issue left would be the hoplites, which we don't need permission for anything we just take the 'short_pike' attribute out of the edu, and give them shield_wall instead. Or we can try giving them a sword as a secondary weapon and see how that works out for them?
Give me a list of the cavalry units that need to be changed and I'll change their animations back to vanilla.

[Bercor]

Ok, will do.

[Bercor]

In regards to the sprites, did you delete the old ones?

[ahowl11]

What I did was pack the new sprites and replaced the old ones with them. I'm not sure why the old ones are showing

[Bercor]

The cavalry units that need a change of animations are the following:
- Roman Cavalry;
- Legionary Cavalry;
- Praetorian Cavalry;
- Long Shield Cavalry;
- Numidian Camel Riders;
- Desert Cavalry;
- Arab Cavalry;
- Bedouin Warriors;
- Gothic Cavalry.

Don't we have any unused cavalry animations that are not vanilla?

[ahowl11]

Okay so basically just these since I deleted the others today:

Roman Cavalry
Long Shield Cavalry
Arab Cavalry

We might but I'm not sure. I'm probably going to re-add z3n's animations pack

[Alavaria]

We can see if it works and then the only issue left would be the hoplites, which we don't need permission for anything we just take the 'short_pike' attribute out of the edu, and give them shield_wall instead. Or we can try giving them a sword as a secondary weapon and see how that works out for them?

The BI "Shield Wall" is rather crazy for some reason. Well, it makes the units insanely strong in melee fighting. (You can't break the formation either, somehow). Though without something special like that you just get a mess of soldiers in a fight which is rather lame.

The sword idea is ok, though occasionally you get dumb things like your phalanx all in formation with swords out for no reason, etc. They also always charge with swords instead of spears I think.

[Fëanáro]

Why do the hoplites use their spears in that stance?

[Bercor]

What do you mean? Overhand stance?

[Alavaria]

Weren't hoplites able to present more than just one row of spears to the enemy? The pikes have 5, I thought at least two or three ranks of hoplites could engage...

That's obviously not possible with overhand, what's going on there?

[Bercor]

Yes, supposedly, they were.
Why wouldn't it be possible with overhand?

[Alavaria]

They don't with the current way hoplites work, right? They're basically like standard spearmen. You can't get them in formation and have the guys behind thrusting enemies their friend in front is fighting.