Making flying melee attacks projectiles!

[Jimaras8]

Ok i know i have posted this before and i am sorry but i couldnt figure how to do this. I inspired from the various projectiles that depicted flying melee attacks from Benton mods and mainly MA as he has stated that projectiles are beeter than beams for flying melee (lets call them fm for convenience). Lets say i have nova_syn mesh which has a melee animation that makes him take off and attack ariborne to his opponent. What i am trying to do is change the type of the attack from melle to projectile so he can use it to flying targets. As i recall Benton told me that i neede a prefix flying animation. Nova_syn has one. Apart from that i dont know the steps after. I would appreciate any help and for the reason of total noobness  to the field of animations pls stick with me guys! Thx in advance.

[hoss20]

Here are the instructions that come with the flying melee keyframes by

CREATING THE FLYING MELEE POWER
Load the game, and go to Edit your character with the new keyframes. Create a Projectile Power and choose the flying_melee animation and the flying_melee FX. Then give the Power a magnitude, stun, knockback, etc. Give it Short Range and an Accuracy of Very Low or Low. Depending on the animation you chose for the flying melee attack you'll want to choose either Normal Velocity or Fast Velocity. If you are using the flying animation which is slower, use Normal Velocity, and the faster animation should use the Fast Velocity.

I don't know how well versed you are in Nifskope, but one thing you will need to do is alter the animation you want to use. I notice that you mention using the Nova_v_syn mesh because it has a flying melee animation built in. Unfortunately, this is actually a "melee" power. In  and  , the difference between having animations show up for melee powers or ranged powers is the "contact" or "launch" point of the animation. For melee attacks this point is called a contact and for ranged attacks, this point is called leave_hand. If you look at the keyframes in CTool, you'll see what I mean. Now, to make the animation for Nova_v_syn work, you'll have to change the contact key to leave_hand in order for it to show up in your choices for ranged animations. I hope I didn't confuse you. 

[Jimaras8]

I think i got it. However which program should i use to change the animation? Nifskope. I am afraid i am not familiar with it  . Do i just rename the animation?

[Cyber Burn]

You could probably accomplish this by using M25's keyframes editor instead of using Nifskope.

[hoss20]

Well, M25's editor will only help if he has a set of keyframes with the flying_melee already set up for ranged animations.

Jimaras, I was in the middle of putting together a little step by step guide and just decided to ask you for your email address and I can send you a set of keyframes already set up with flying animations. This way, you can do what Cyber mentioned and just copy those keyframes over. I figure it's a lot easier this way.

[Jimaras8]

I have no problem posting it here. jmjimvas08@gmail.com. I would be happy to see your guide when its done. Thx for the help guys

[BentonGrey]

Hey Hoss, that's a good idea.  A nice how-to would be useful for this.

[Jimaras8]

So i am have nifskop and character tool and i am currently immpressed with AA new 52 superman. As i see in CTool his melee_6 animation is flying melee. I saw what you said Hoss about contact and leave_hand and i want to ask you how i am supposed to change the contact to leave_hand. Via nifskope? And if yes, you could you tell me the exact process to avoid any mistakes in animations?

[spydermann93]

So i am have nifskop and character tool and i am currently immpressed with AA new 52 superman. As i see in CTool his melee_6 animation is flying melee. I saw what you said Hoss about contact and leave_hand and i want to ask you how i am supposed to change the contact to leave_hand. Via nifskope? And if yes, you could you tell me the exact process to avoid any mistakes in animations?

Remember how I told you about copying an animation to make the walk into run and how to fix issues with powers where the contacts don't match the number of punches during animation? You'll do the same thing for that.

Copy the "melee_6" animation (Copy Branch) and paste the branch anywhere.  Rename it to "flying_melee" or something like that.  Now, click on the little arrow next to the new "flying_melee" animation and click on "NiTextKeyExtraData"

Now, in the block details at the bottom (if you cannot see this, go to VIEW >> BLOCK DETAILS) and you'll see a list of "Text Keys".  Click on each one and for each instance of "contact", change "contact" to "leave_hand".  Save the keyframes and you should be done.

[Jimaras8]

Oh, man istn it a bit complicated? Ok spyder i copied the branch. When you say paste the branch anywhere for example can i select power 3 and paste it there? I did that and and below power animation there was a nitextkeyed000. Well, i clicked it but apart from renaming it i dont see any other option available for it. Next Block Details. I saw text keys and clicked every one of them but i didnt see contact anywhere. I saw time,value,for,bac and TBC (needeless to say i dont have the slightest idead what all these values are).

[spydermann93]

Oh, man istn it a bit complicated? Ok spyder i copied the branch. When you say paste the branch anywhere for example can i select power 3 and paste it there? I did that and and below power animation there was a nitextkeyed000. Well, i clicked it but apart from renaming it i dont see any other option available for it. Next Block Details. I saw text keys and clicked every one of them but i didnt see contact anywhere. I saw time,value,for,bac and TBC (needeless to say i dont have the slightest idead what all these values are).

Look at the pic below:



The red circles indicate where to look for keyframes.

Just cycle through the list of keyframes to find all contacts (they are typically the second to the one right before the last)

[Jimaras8]

Yep, did it    . Thx for all your patience guys. However now that i have completed 52 supes i cant add him!!! Add to dat mode in RR works for every other hero except superman. When the mpa loads it names him custom_template_96 instead of superman (new 52) which is the name i have given him. Now i cant add him to DCUG!

[spydermann93]

Yep, did it    . Thx for all your patience guys. However now that i have completed 52 supes i cant add him!!! Add to dat mode in RR works for every other hero except superman. When the mpa loads it names him custom_template_96 instead of superman (new 52) which is the name i have given him. Now i cant add him to DCUG!

name him as "superman_52" and then try again.

[Jimaras8]

Still doesnt work. Map loads, custom_template_96 appears then the mode doesn't end. What the heck is this?

EDIT: Tried adding him to Marvel Adventures and it worked. Also when i added ares to DCUG it worked without any problem. So the issue seems to occur with superman 52 and DCUG. I have no idea why is this happening. It keeps naming him custom_template_96 whereas in MA his name apperas ok. When i state ''keeps naming him'' i mean only in add to dat mode in RR. In th rest of DCUg his name apperas as it should be.

[spydermann93]

Still doesnt work. Map loads, custom_template_96 appears then the mode doesn't end. What the heck is this?

EDIT: Tried adding him to Marvel Adventures and it worked. Also when i added ares to DCUG it worked without any problem. So the issue seems to occur with superman 52 and DCUG. I have no idea why is this happening. It keeps naming him custom_template_96 whereas in MA his name apperas ok. When i state ''keeps naming him'' i mean only in add to dat mode in RR. In th rest of DCUg his name apperas as it should be.

This might be a stupid question, but have you ran your Superman 52 through the FFX Control Centre?

And look through the Characters and Templates using FFEdit to see if there isn't an unintentional copy of Superman 52 in the data files.

[Jimaras8]

Yes i have. Numerous times. I checked about templates too and i did found one superman_52, deleted and headed back to DCUG. Still that damn custom_template_96 doesnt give up. I dont know what the heck is happening.

[spydermann93]

You're not trying to add him by himself, are you?

Like, one Superman 52 in your squad and one as an enemy?

If you are, then the reason that it keeps saying custom template is that it actually does add the first Superman 52, but the second will fail to register.

[Jimaras8]

No i used just superman in my squad and ace as enemy.