Frequently Asked Modding Questions To BLaw

[BLaw]

I decided to start this topic because people will find a way to contact me with questions on modding, might as well have 1 topic with all my answers. Let me start.



Question by Reza
I want to replace a character's walk/run/jog/idle animations with her flying ones and Menu flying ones , but I couldn't understand the codes and I've already went through it with hex editor. Bookmarked , copied pasted , but nothing could work , the thing is I cant understand them, is there any thread that can teach me all about it ?  or is there any other help you could give me ? 

My Answer
There's several answers spread all over the forum but it might be hard to find now, my search box doesn't work anymore.

For your character to have the flying animations, you won't really have to hex edit anything. All you need to do is edit the fightstyle_yourcharacter.xmlb file in data/fightstyles and rename the ea_idle animations to the name of the flying animation that you want to use. The same for any walk/run/jog animation. Alternatively, you can also insert it in the powerstyle_yourcharacter.engb file. To get an example, decompile shared_anims.xmlb as it should have the default codes for every character. Don't edit it though, it might screw all your other characters up. Just copy from there and paste what you need in your fightstyle.xlmb or powerstyle.engb file. Hope this helps.



Question by Andersonbrazil HERE
How I can harmonize the Thing character with the character Odin?

My Answer
Decompile your Herostat.engb file and edit it. Remember the menulocation value, which looks like

menulocation = 14

Switch out a character you don't even play and use the herostat code of the character you wish to add. Change the menulocation value to the one you remembered, save the file and compile the Herostat.engb file again.

[RS_1991]

Question by Reza
I want to replace a character's walk/run/jog/idle animations with her flying ones and Menu flying ones , but I couldn't understand the codes and I've already went through it with hex editor. Bookmarked , copied pasted , but nothing could work , the thing is I cant understand them, is there any thread that can teach me all about it ?  or is there any other help you could give me ? 

My Answer
There's several answers spread all over the forum but it might be hard to find now, my search box doesn't work anymore.

For your character to have the flying animations, you won't really have to hex edit anything. All you need to do is edit the fightstyle_yourcharacter.xmlb file in data/fightstyles and rename the ea_idle animations to the name of the flying animation that you want to use. The same for any walk/run/jog animation. Alternatively, you can also insert it in the powerstyle_yourcharacter.engb file. To get an example, decompile shared_anims.xmlb as it should have the default codes for every character. Don't edit it though, it might screw all your other characters up. Just copy from there and paste what you need in your fightstyle.xlmb or powerstyle.engb file. Hope this helps.

Hi dear 
first of all i have to mention that i'm in xml2 not mua and i want to apply these changes in xml2 .
i actually went through all shared_anims and changed and added them into ps_phoenix,
but nothing happened .   could you please give us a more specific guide ? 
thanks for your time ! 

[BLaw]

Hi dear 
first of all i have to mention that i'm in xml2 not mua and i want to apply these changes in xml2 .
i actually went through all shared_anims and changed and added them into ps_phoenix,
but nothing happened .   could you please give us a more specific guide ? 
thanks for your time ! 

It goes for both XML2 and MUA. if it doesn't work in the powerstyle, then it has to be done in the fightstyle.xmlb file. shared_anims contains the basic run/walk/jump animations, fightstyle contains the fighting/landing animations and the powerstyle fighting and power animations. But every file can use the animations.

You also have to make sure the fightstyle is mentioned in the herostat and the powerstyle file.

[RS_1991]

Hello again ,,,,
thanks for your consideration for my question and advices , i may have found another way to solve my problem and it did work , i added this  section that i'm adding here in qoute to the powerstyle of my character  , 3 or 4 times , and replaced the  animations names and it all did work , for example if replaced "walk" with "ea_fly_slow"   

   FightMove {
   animenum = ea_walk1 ;    >>>> ( this needs to be changed to  ea_fly_slow  or ea_fly_fast your choice.
   handler = ch_move ;
   lockchaining = false ;
   name = walk ;     >>>>>> walk/run/jog/idle
   noncombat = true ;
      chain {
      action = idle ;
      result = idle ;
      }

      chain {
      action = walk ;
      result = walk ;
      }

      chain {
      action = run ;
      result = run ;
      }

      chain {
      action = sprint ;
      result = sprint ;
      }

      chain {
      action = strafeleft ;
      result = strafeleft ;
      }

      chain {
      action = straferight ;
      result = straferight ;
      }

      chain {
      action = advance ;
      result = advance ;
      }

      chain {
      action = retreat ;
      result = retreat ;
      }

      chain {
      action = guard ;
      result = guarddecide ;
      }

      chain {
      action = attack ;
      result = attacklight1 ;
      }

      chain {
      action = smash ;
      result = attackheavy1 ;
      }

      chain {
      action = groundattack ;
      result = groundattack ;
      }

      chain {
      action = powers ;
      result = powers ;
      }

      chain {
      action = rollright ;
      result = dodgeright ;
      }

      chain {
      action = rollleft ;
      result = dodgeleft ;
      }

      chain {
      action = blocking ;
      result = blocking ;
      }

      chain {
      action = move ;
      result = jump ;
      }

   }

and i have another question that has been in my mind for a long time , is there any way to make your Ally ( AI ) fly ? 
i know they dont cast xtremes , there is a way to make that happen , but never bumpt into any solution to make them fly as they want ... 

and again thanks for your time and i should mention that english is my third language , i'm persian so everyone who sees grammer problems here please excuse me  

Sincerely
Reza

[BLaw]

No that I know of. I know you can assign a skeleton file to it, but as far as I know no specific animation.

[RS_1991]

No that I know of. I know you can assign a skeleton file to it, but as far as I know no specific animation.

do you know why i ask this ? first because i would love if it could happen hahaa , second ; we see many vilians in the game that fly as they want , like archangel , or those computer machine guys in x factor area or in first map those sentry guys ...
i thought maybe there is a way to do so ...

[BLaw]

do you know why i ask this ? first because i would love if it could happen hahaa , second ; we see many vilians in the game that fly as they want , like archangel , or those computer machine guys in x factor area or in first map those sentry guys ...
i thought maybe there is a way to do so ...

Well, I suggest to look into the Powerstyle files of these bosses/npcs and in the NPCstat. It might be that their basic movement animations is flying.

[RS_1991]

Well, I suggest to look into the Powerstyle files of these bosses/npcs and in the NPCstat. It might be that their basic movement animations is flying.

Hello again dear ,  as you said i went through all npcs and powerstyles of those characters and vilians who do fly in the game , like sauron , archangel , energydemon , 

and found out that theyr default animation is not flying they have it in their powerstyle , but however when i copy the whole powerstyle and npc stats or parts of them into other heroes , they wont work as they should while fighting , and sometimes they even crash .   i really want to do this for my hero but i need your help ,  may i ask you to go through them and see if you can help me in details ? 

[BLaw]

Hello again dear ,  as you said i went through all npcs and powerstyles of those characters and vilians who do fly in the game , like sauron , archangel , energydemon , 

and found out that theyr default animation is not flying they have it in their powerstyle , but however when i copy the whole powerstyle and npc stats or parts of them into other heroes , they wont work as they should while fighting , and sometimes they even crash .   i really want to do this for my hero but i need your help ,  may i ask you to go through them and see if you can help me in details ? 

Using certain animations might require some hexediting of the animation files. Hex editing usually gives you the result without having to code it, although hexediting and coding go together well if you want accurate results.

If the default walking animation is not flying, then the flying animations are defined somewhere. Powers used while flying is coded in the powerstyle. The places to look are always the powerstyle and fightstyle files.