New Method of Making Flying Melee Attacks

[TaskMasterX]

It was recently discovered in a thread in the Mods forum that we could make flying melee attacks in FFvTTR (it hasn't been tested yet in FF) that actually look like Flying Melee! I wanted to make sure as many people know about the new discovery as possible so I'm posting detailed instructions here. Here's a video I made showing how it works and looks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-_llIHRTAk

Here's a basic summary of what I did:
There are melee animations in certain keyframes (Grenadier's Male_basic_eternal, Sub-Mariner, female_basic_eternal, Male_basic_superman, etc. are some examples) that have the mesh jump into the air and then fly straight at a target. All I did was, using Nifskope, rename one of these animations to flying_melee and set it to be a ranged attack rather than a melee by changing the "contact" to "leave_hand". Then, I loaded the game up and selected the character with that mesh and gave them a projectile power with the new flying_melee animation and with a FX that is only a melee "Smack!" at the end. And, Voila!, you're done!
If you're reluctant to mess around in Nifskope, let me stress that this is a very simple process. Anyone can do it. If you're still reluctant or for some reason it just isn't working for you, then you can always PM with your e-mail and I can send you the hexed keyframes you want. I can't make them available for download since I don't have permission from the keyframes' creators to do so.


Here's the Step-By-Step Process:
Let's use Gren's male_basic_eternals keyframes as the example. They're available at www.newpowerinc.com
1.) Once you have Nifskope downloaded and installed, double-click on the keyframes.kf file to open it up in Nifskope.
2.) If this is the first time using Nifskope, then the Block Details section might not be displayed. Just hit the F2 key and it will show the Block Details. We'll be working in the Block Details in a minute.
3.) The Block List shows the list of all the different animations in this set of keyframes. Make sure you load the mesh with the keyframes in the Character Tool to know the name of the animation you want to change. In male_basic_eternals, flying melee animations are melee_3, melee_3_a, and melee_3_b. Melee_3 and melee_3_b are the best ones to use since melee_3_a is the mesh flying around in circles rather than straight ahead. Once you know the name of the animation, look for it in the Block List in Nifskope and double-click the name. Erase the name and type in flying_melee.
4.)After renaming the animation, click the + next to the "NiSequenceStreamHelper" on the same row as the name of the animation you just renamed and you'll see "NiTextKeyExtraData" right below it. Click on it.
5.)Now, look in the Block Details and you'll see "Text Keys" at the bottom. Click the + next to it. You'll now see several "Text Keys" drop down below the first one. Each one is part of the animation (start, contact, end). If there are more than 3 Text Keys below the 1st then the animation probably has more than one contact or has stuff like lf rf, etc. If there are only three below the master Text Keys then the "contact" part is the second one while start is the 1st and end is the last. Melee_3 in male_basic_eternals has only three parts, start, contact, end. Click the + next to the second Text Keys and you'll see the word "contact". Double-click the word "contact" and change it to "leave_hand" (w/out the quotes).
6.) Now that we've renamed one of the melee animations to flying_melee, we need to make a copy of that animation to use when the character is flying. Right-click the name, flying_melee, and then click Block, then Copy Branch. Scroll to the bottom of the Block List and right-click on the blank line at the bottom and click Block, then Paste Branch. This can take a long time, even on a fast PC. It may look as if Nifskope is frozen but it is working. I've seen it take as long as a half an hour to finish this process.
7.)When the copy is finished, you'll see another flying_melee at the bottom of the Block List. Rename it to hover_flying_melee.
8.) Now you're done with Nifskope! That wasn't so bad was it? Click Save and save the keyframes.kf into your mesh folder (make sure you make a backup of the original if you're overwriting the existing one)
9.) Now to create the flying melee FX. Load FFEdit and click on the FX tab. Look for minuteman_patriotswing, click it and click the Copy button. Click the Rename button and rename the FX to flying_melee. Change the Attack Type to Ranged and the Attack Sub Type to Projectile. Click Save and close FFEdit.
10.) Load the game, and go to Edit your character with the newly hexed keyframes. Create a Projectile Power and choose the "ranged1, hovering" animation and the flying_melee FX. Then give the Power a magnitude, stun, knockback, etc. Give it Short Range and an Accuracy of Medium or lower. The lower the Accuracy, the better the chance that you won't have the projectile hit the target if the target ends up moving out of range and won't make it look strange. The projectile is fired when the flying character is almost right on top of the target, so if the target is close then it will hit them. But if they move, then the chance decreases that you'll make contact the further they move away. 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 melee_3 animation which is slower, use Normal Velocity, The melee_3_b animation is faster and should use the Fast Velocity.

That's it. Have fun!

BONUS NOTE: I found that Gren's Sub-Mariner keyframes have melee_8 starting in hover and then uses a flying animation similar to melee_3 in the male_basic_eternals. It looks better since the animation starts and ends with the character hovering. To use this animation you'll need to copy the animation to the keyframes you want. Follow the Keyframes Nifskope Tutorial for instructions on how to copy animations. Then, follow my instructions for renaming it to use w/ flying melee. Keep in mind that the Sub-Mariner animations are not compatible with all keyframes. I've been able to successfully copy them to Gren's male_basic_eternals and male_basic_speedster keyframes.

Here's a list of the keyframes I've hexed so far, in case anyone wants them:
female_basic_speedster
female_longhair_eternals
flyer (This is a mesh by Lord Ehmsidy)
male_basic_eternals
male_basic_speedster
male_heavy_eternals
male_hulking_azrael (this uses the melee_30 animation for flying melee. Doesn't look as good as the other flying animations but I couldn't copy the better looking animations to the azrael keyframes)
SM_amazo
starfox_tvlite
Vindicator_Gren

[Alphanaut]

Wow, this is a nice little find! Now we'll finally be able to simulate those flyers properly!

[USAgent]

Awsome!  Ive been following the thread over in the Mods forum, and this is a great idea, and the video seals the deal.
Great find Taskmaster....now I only have several hundred characters to apply this to!

[electro]

This works very nice - I'm still having trouble understanding about Giant Man ussing melee's from the ground to hit flyers ussing the TMeleeAir in my m25 file - could you explain this a little better or post what your Giant-Man M25 file looks like - Thanks :blink:

[BentonGrey]

Awsome!  Ive been following the thread over in the Mods forum, and this is a great idea, and the video seals the deal.
Great find Taskmaster....now I only have several hundred characters to apply this to!

Haha, yeah, I know what you mean!  Looks like the DCU beta will be delayed a bit more than expected ;)

[Blitzgott]

It indeed works well.

My only complain, though, is that it doesn't look very well for all meshes. I was trying just now this method with the Sentry_REN mesh using the melee_6 animation and I noticed that he hit the opponent from very far away, even though I set the range to short. Is there any way to make it so the animation plays closer to the opponent or is it a mesh/keyframe thing and there's nothing that can be done about it?

[Carravaggio]

Gah! the Holy Grail of FF! that video looks awesome, what a great find! 'thanks' just doesn't cover how useful and cool this is!

[TaskMasterX]

It indeed works well.

My only complain, though, is that it doesn't look very well for all meshes. I was trying just now this method with the Sentry_REN mesh using the melee_6 animation and I noticed that he hit the opponent from very far away, even though I set the range to short. Is there any way to make it so the animation plays closer to the opponent or is it a mesh/keyframe thing and there's nothing that can be done about it?

Looking at The Sentry's melee_6 animation, it's the same flying animation as the others, so it should work like the rest. Try decreasing the Accuracy of the Power to Very Low and see if that helps. During my testing, when I right-clicked on a target that was out of range (the line joining the character and the target is red) and then executed the power, the character would move to within melee distance and then execute the move (see the 1st part of the video where Starfox is out of range and then moves close to Alchemiss?). I then executed it again right next to her and it works fine, too. The only time that it might look like the power is hitting a target that is out of range is when the target moves. But if you lower the Accuracy to Very Low, then you greatly reduce the chance of this happening. The projectile is being released by the flier when he's just about to reach the target. If the target is stationary, then the projectile easily hits them, even with Very Low Accuracy. If the target moves away when the power is being executed, then the Very Low Accuracy makes the projectile more likely to miss if the attacker isn't close to the target.

This works very nice - I'm still having trouble understanding about Giant Man ussing melee's from the ground to hit flyers ussing the TMeleeAir in my m25 file - could you explain this a little better or post what your Giant-Man M25 file looks like - Thanks :blink:

For characters that can't fly but can hit flying characters, I create a Melee Power in FFEdit with the Airborne Only flag selected. I choose a good-looking animation from the mesh for that character that looks like he's swinging at a flier and put that animation for the Power in FFEdit. I actually have a few Melee Air Powers in FFEdit, each one uses a different animation, so I can use them on different meshes that have different animations for hitting a flier.
I then add a tactic to the character's AI file like this:

Code Select Expand

"TMeleeAir('smash fliers',time=1.04,maxdist=100,pct=100,subtype='flying')",
'smash fliers' is the name of the Power in FFEdit.

Now this works great if the character is computer-controlled, but since you as a player can't use the Airborne Melee power (unless the character was a built-in), you can simply turn the AI on when a flier takes to the air and the AI will take over and use the tactic. Once the flier is koed or lands then you can take control back. To get the option to turn on and off the AI for PCs, open m25config.py in the ffx3\Missions\Scripts folder and look for the lines:

Code Select Expand

# setting this to 1 will allow you to turn the AI on and off individually for player controlled characters
M25_PLAYERAITOGGLE = 1
and make sure M25_PLAYERAITOGGLE  is set to 1, not 0.

[electro]

Thanks alot - as for the AI i don't need it - the only time i actually control characters is when i,m playing Multiplay - other than that i,m strictly WatchMode so this is perfect for me :blink:

[BentonGrey]

Haha, I got that way for a bit, but I've gotten back into actually playing the game now-a-days.

[Blitzgott]

Looking at The Sentry's melee_6 animation, it's the same flying animation as the others, so it should work like the rest. Try decreasing the Accuracy of the Power to Very Low and see if that helps. During my testing, when I right-clicked on a target that was out of range (the line joining the character and the target is red) and then executed the power, the character would move to within melee distance and then execute the move (see the 1st part of the video where Starfox is out of range and then moves close to Alchemiss?). I then executed it again right next to her and it works fine, too. The only time that it might look like the power is hitting a target that is out of range is when the target moves. But if you lower the Accuracy to Very Low, then you greatly reduce the chance of this happening. The projectile is being released by the flier when he's just about to reach the target. If the target is stationary, then the projectile easily hits them, even with Very Low Accuracy. If the target moves away when the power is being executed, then the Very Low Accuracy makes the projectile more likely to miss if the attacker isn't close to the target.

No. I tested it with other meshes, including starfox_tvlite (the one you used in the video, I think) and it still didn't work very well; the still hero attacks the opponent from very far away.

Anyway, I think I know what the problem is.

Are you with the ffx rule "no minimum range" on? Because I'm not. I turned it off because it doesn't work for me.

If that's not the problem, then it's my game that is being a b*tch. =/

[Sioux City Dynamo]

Hi TMaster,

Great stuff!  Any chance you might post the keyframes you have made for download?  Also, would you know if the same process might be applicable to vx meshes?

Respectfully,
Sioux City Dynamo

[TaskMasterX]

[Anyway, I think I know what the problem is.

Are you with the ffx rule "no minimum range" on? Because I'm not. I turned it off because it doesn't work for me.

If that's not the problem, then it's my game that is being a b*tch. =/

Ah, that might be the problem. I do have the No Minimum Range set to On.

Hi TMaster,

Great stuff!  Any chance you might post the keyframes you have made for download?  Also, would you know if the same process might be applicable to vx meshes?

Respectfully,
Sioux City Dynamo

I would need permission from Grenadier to make them available for download, and also Tommyboy, since I did his starfox_tvlite mesh. I haven't even bother to ask anyone because I thought it was so easy to do and I think Grenadier has been inactive for awhile. I'd be happy to e-mail them to you for now. And, yes this process should apply to ANY mesh.

[Sioux City Dynamo]

Thanks TMaster.

I would appreciate it if you would pass the keyframes my way.  tureaudj@longlines.com

Respectfully,
Sioux City Dynamo

[detourne_me]

Hi TMaster,

Great stuff!  Any chance you might post the keyframes you have made for download?  Also, would you know if the same process might be applicable to vx meshes?

Respectfully,
Sioux City Dynamo

yes it is,  ive just hexed and released two VX keyframe sets for Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman with the flying melee hack.

[The Hitman]

Does anyone know if this works for FF1?

EDIT: Ehh, you know, I'm feeling adventurous, I'll test it out this afternoon.

[Sioux City Dynamo]

Hi Detourne_Me,

That is great news!  Thanks.

Any chance you might be planning a hex for vertex's new superman and/or for the previous versions?

Respectfully,

[TaskMasterX]

Terrific, Detourne_me! I'd like to encourage meshers to incorporate this into any new meshes they release. And, if possible, to release a flying_melee version of keyframes for some of their existing "flying character" meshes or give permission to people like you to do it. That way people don't have to worry about hexing keyframes and it would make it alot easier to distribute hero files and mods w/ built-ins that use flying_melee animations if the keyframes are easily available at their site where their meshes are.

Does anyone know if this works for FF1?

EDIT: Ehh, you know, I'm feeling adventurous, I'll test it out this afternoon.

Great, Hitman! I eagerly await the results! I assume it will work since this isn't a modification to the game, but instead, to the meshes.

[TaskMasterX]

Okay, I found there's a minor flaw in my instructions. I found that if you name the animation hover_ranged, then any built-in powers that use the "ranged" animation (like the default Dummy Power for Plasma Sculptor) will use the flying melee animation for that power if the character is flying, which doesn't look good at all. After more playing around, I found that you can name the flying melee animation "flying_melee" but you also need to copy that animation and name the copy "hover_flying_melee". This way you have an animation for flying melee when the character is on the ground and when flying and you don't need to rename the original ranged and hover_ranged. It takes a bit longer because Nifskope takes forever to copy animations. Or, some KFs have more than one flying animation. As mentioned in my 1st post, male_basic_eternal has two flying animations that fly forward at the target. One is fast and one is slow. Instead of copying one, you could just name one "flying_melee" and the other "hover_flying_melee" whic will save alot of time, but the animations will be slightly different.

I updated the instructions above to reflect this new finding.

[Renegade]

Ha, I was just about to post about this. In a nutshell, the hover ranged animations are meant to, if the were done correctly, be hovering versions of the same numbered ranged animations. If you replace any of them with an aerial melee attack, that animation will be chosen anytime the character is flying and you choose the attack tied to the corresponding ranged attack. In otherwords, if ranged 1 is a beam attack, hover ranged 1 will be played with the beam attack if your character is using the beam attack while flying.

[detourne_me]

woops,  completely forgot about that too!  i think in the future i'll be calling it flying_melee and hover_flying_melee as well.

[TaskMasterX]

I've hexed several keyframes and uploaded them to my site (in the Downloads Section), and Yahoo! Group (in the FFvTTR Section). A big "Thank You" goes to Beyonder, Ink, ItalPornStar, and Vertex for allowing me to hex their awesome keyframes to use this new method for Flying Melee Attacks! And another "Thank You" goes to Renegade for showing me how to make the animations be available for both melee and ranged attacks.
Here's a list of them:

Female Basic Beyonder Flying Melee Keyframes
These keyframes are Beyonder's Female Basic/Longhair/Versatile KF1, available at NewPowerInc, updated with flying_melee animations. Also, I copied all flying animations from KF2-7, so all flying animations are in this one set of KFs to conserve webspace and bandwidth. I included instructions on changing the flying animations and instructions on how to setup Flying Melee.

Female Basic Speedy Beyonder Flying Melee Keyframes
These keyframes are Beyonder's Female Basic/Longhair/Versatile SpKF1, available at NewPowerInc, updated with flying_melee animations. Also, I copied the flying animation from SpKF2, so all flying animations are in this one set of KFs to conserve webspace and bandwidth. I included instructions on changing the flying animations and instructions on how to setup Flying Melee.

IPS Rogue Flying Melee Keyframes
These keyframes are ItalPornStar's Rogue KFs, available at The ItalPornStar Website, updated with flying_melee animations. I included instructions on how to setup Flying Melee.

Male Heavy Azrael Flying Melee Keyframes
These keyframes are Beyonder's Male Heavy Azrael KFs updated with flying_melee animations. I included instructions on changing the flying animations and instructions on how to setup Flying Melee.

Male Hulking Azrael Flying Melee Keyframes
These keyframes are Beyonder's Male Hulking Azrael KFs updated with flying_melee animations. I included instructions on changing the flying animations and instructions on how to setup Flying Melee.

Male Basic Beyonder Flying Melee Keyframes
These keyframes are Beyonder's Male Basic/Belt/Cape/Muscular KF1, available at NewPowerInc, updated with flying_melee animations. Also, I copied all flying animations from KF2-7, so all flying animations are in this one set of KFs to conserve webspace and bandwidth. I included instructions on changing the flying animations and instructions on how to setup Flying Melee.

Male Basic Speedy Beyonder Flying Melee Keyframes
These keyframes are Beyonder's Male Basic/Belt/Cape/Muscular SpKF1, available at NewPowerInc, updated with flying_melee animations. Also, I copied the flying animation from SpKF2, so all flying animations are in this one set of KFs to conserve webspace and bandwidth. I included instructions on changing the flying animations and instructions on how to setup Flying Melee.

vxArchangel Flying Melee Keyframes
These keyframes are from Vertex's vxArchangel mesh, available at NewPowerInc, updated with flying_melee animations. I included instructions on how to setup Flying Melee.

vxMale_Wings Flying Melee Keyframes
These keyframes are from Vertex's vxmale_wings mesh, available at NewPowerInc, updated with flying_melee animations. I included instructions on how to setup Flying Melee.

vxVision Flying Melee Keyframes
These keyframes are from Vertex's vxVision mesh, available at NewPowerInc, updated with flying_melee animations. I included instructions on how to setup Flying Melee.

[Panther_Gunn]

I take it these are all still currently for use in  :ffvstr: and have yet to be tested in  :ff:?

[TaskMasterX]

Well, I have good news and bad news, Panther_Gunn. The good news is that I tested this out in  :ff: and it works! The bad news, none of the KFs I hexed are usable in  :ff:, only  :ffvstr:. I'll see if I can make  :ff: versions of these KFs.

[cripp12]

AWSOME!

[TaskMasterX]

i suspect that if u convert the kfs with a mesh or use kfs which were converted with a mesh at some point it won't work. but the good news is ff1 kfs work fine in ffvt3r. so u can hex all the keys from ff1 to what u need and leave them like that and they will be usable in both games.

Yes, I had converted the KFs a while back and they are what I used when hexing, not the originals. I'll see if I can redo them so they are compatible for both games. Maybe by then end of this week.

[tommyboy]

I've just released my Tom_basic_fingers which comes with my "flyer" keyframes, now with five added "flying_melee/hover_flying_melee" animations, and two of TaskmasterX's hexxed flying_melee versions of the Starfox and Falcon keyframes from previous releases of mine.
Found in the first "other" section of my site.

[Carravaggio]

awesome tommyboy, you always stay on the cutting edge of FF with your releases!

[TaskMasterX]

Nice work, Tommyboy! Thank you!

CORRECTION: I found that the hexed KFs for vxArchangel, vxmale_wings and vxVision actually ARE usable in FF1. I did use the orginal KFs for these. The rest I need to redo. Sorry for the confusion.


EDIT: Sigh! I tested the newly hexed KFs for falcon_new_t and starfox_tvlite which are included in Tommyboy's Tom_basic_fingers and found that the KFs for falcon are not working for FF1, only Starfox's. Sorry about that Tommy. I'll get the correct KFs for falcon to you ASAP.

[Symon]

(TEN days ago... I must get out more)

Superb work TaskMasterX. And another one bites the dust!

What can this community NOT achieve with FF/FF3R?