Scripting Wrestling Grapple/Hold and Throw Attacks

[Volsung]

I remember^^ But it would be harder to simulate a pile driver with it^^

[yell0w_lantern]

I think a standard hip or shoulder throw would be easy to do with existing tools but as far as a piledriver... I don't know what else TM could come with scripting.

[Xenolith]

I'd be happy if you chould just toss another character.  How cool would that be.  Finally, the Hulk could toss the Thing across the map.  So awesome.

[TaskMasterX]

I had a chance to test out your animations, YL. It looks great except, I don't see any need for the grapple animation. I added a contact to the grapplestart animation and used that as the animation I chose for my melee Power that's swapping for Grapple. When a successful grapple is detected, then the animation is locked. The code isn't triggering a specific animation name, like 'grapple', to hold the character and target in place, but rather is locking the animation chosen for the Power. This way player's can choose any animation they want instead of the code forcing the 'grapple' animation on the character. I hope that makes sense. Other than that it's working good. I'm working on adding a Throw command to the target while the hold is in place. I tried using the Throw state swap on a grappled character, but, while it worked, it didn't look right. Hopefully, I can have an update in a day or two.

As for Piledriver moves, I'm not sure. I would say first, you would grapple the target, but then how would you get the target upside down? Then you'd have to get the grappler and the target to move together into the air and then come down, inflicting damage on the target, but not on the grappler as they hit the ground. Does that even come close to sounding how it would work?

[yell0w_lantern]

Okay, so no loop animation, gotcha.

[Xenolith]

Since the end of the grapplestart animation is the wrester locked with his oppoent, you'd need a ranged attack animation where the "shooter" ends the animation with its arms stretched out toward the opponent...if trying to replicate somebody like Mr. Fantastic, right?

[yell0w_lantern]

The details of getting a physiqued mesh in Freedom Force to do anything like that is beyond my skill at this point. AFAIK, any scaling must be done in all 3 dimensions at once (would have to be close range or look goofy) and getting a good amount of curvature to look like he's wrapping up somebody might require free bones (not biped arms).

[Xenolith]

I get what you are saying, YL, but all I really meant is that the ranged attack woudn't reset to idle at the end of the animation.  It would just stand there with its arms toward the target.  It would look silly because the fx would be gone, but for now it would be the only way to keep the "ranged grapple" appearance up.  Or so I think.

[TaskMasterX]

TommyBoy's Mr. Fantastic has ranged animations that have his arm extend way out. This is what I've been using. It would be nice to have a wrap around going around the target while they're grappled, or if that's to difficult, then how about a huge hand that fits over the target making it look like they're held in his huge fist?

[yell0w_lantern]

Here's a partial solution: a separate extended primitive or something like a coil/helix could be made and skinned like a character's costume (arms, legs, whatever) and scaled up at the end of an animation to suggest the character coiling body parts around the target. Getting the distancing right on non-melee attacks would be difficult if it was animated using Max though. Would it be possible to assign a FX to play continuously like the flying_fx do?

[Xenolith]

I think the continuous fx is a good idea.

I didn't know Tommyboy even made a Mr. Fantastic!  I'll check that out.  I'd like to skin the Metal Men, so this stretchy grapple stuff is on my mind right now.  :)

[TaskMasterX]

I added a Throw command to the target when you're grappled. It works like the Throw State Swap except the grappler is throwing the target out in front of themselves instead of behind them and it uses the pick_up_object and throw_object animations. Here's a video of how it looks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dit14rtxTAQ

The reason Black Panther lands on his feet in the first throw, is because he has the Acrobatic attribute.
If there was one seemless animation of the pick_up_object and the throw_object animations, then there wouldn't be that interruption you see between the animations and the timing would be a better. If the animation could start at the end of the grapple animation instead of having the grappler begin by squatting down and lifting from the ground, that would be even better. Is this do-able?

There's still more things I need to do (so I haven't updated the above code). The main thing is figuring out how to use the heightcheck to get the height of the grappler so the target moves to the correct height above them without bouncing off :lol: I know it will take testing to get the right numbers in, but any advice or examples of how I could use the heightcheck for this would be greatly appreciated. The way I have it now, works well for male_hulking_brute size meshes and smaller, but I need something to detect the height of giants you may want to use this.

As for the looping FX idea, I'm sure it can be done. Although, I may have to make two seperate state swaps (one for melee and another for ranged).

EDIT: Hmmm. Interesting. I just found out you can create a state swap to be customizable for a specific character. So we can make the ranged grapple fx loop customizable for any character who wants to use it.

[Xenolith]

Hmm...your video makes me think the ol' fastball special could somehow be done...for real.

Very promising.

Do you guys think the pick up pole animation might look better, followed by swing with pole - which launches the thrown model?  Unless of course YL can tackle the bending over issue. 

Anyway, very nice work Taskmaster X.

[yell0w_lantern]

TM, I'm pretty sure I'd be able to cobble together something more workable. Just to clarify though, you need one separate animation that starts from the grapple and hoists the grappled character up over the head like at the end of the pickup_object animation? Or do you need one that picks up and goes right into a throwing animation?

[TaskMasterX]

Both, actually. It should be seperate animation from the grapplestart animation and start in the same position as the character looks when the grapple is taking place. It should then hoist the character up over the head like the end of pickup_object and continues and goes right into the throw_object animation. Basically, the pickup_object and throw_object animations merged into one, with the beginning of the pickup_object animation missing(the part where the character leans over and puts his hands on the ground. It should start with his hands out like at the end of the grapplestart animation). Thanks, YL!

[Volsung]

Awesome!  :thumbup:

[BentonGrey]

This is getting cooler by the minute.........oh, and curse you all for giving me more work! ;)

[yell0w_lantern]

Okay, male_hullking_brute keyframes with a throwing animation are up at my second group. It's pretty cheaply done. I stuck the grapple pose in front of a copy of the throw animation. Nevertheless, it should approximate what you're after...

Let me know.


Oh, I started working on male_basic keys for FF1 meshes.

[TaskMasterX]

Great job, YL! It certainly decreases the time it takes to lift and throw the character. I had to adjust the code to use it and since not all meshes that players may want to use with this will have the the specific animation name 'throwperson', I'll need to make it so people can choose the animation name to use when throwing. I also figured out how to get the pick_up_object and throw_object animations to blend together alot better, to where it looks like it's one smooth movement, but your animation is better because it starts from the end of the grapple, instead of the grappler picking up from the ground. But the only thing I can't stop is when you execute the Throw command, the grappler let's go of the target, basically going into the idle animation, while the target remains suspended in mid-air, and then grabs the target again and throws them. I don't think this is something that can be "fixed", because it's something to do with the way custom commands are executed. I'm kind of picky when it comes to how it looks so, I may split it into two seperate state swaps - Grapple and Throw. I could make the forward throw part of the exisiting Throw state swap and just make the Throw State Swap customizable so you can choose whether to throw forward or backward. But you'd only be able to choose one or the other for the character. That is unless I make it it's own seperate Swap, players could have a character that throws characters forward or backward. Any feedback on this subject would be appreciated.

As for what else, I've done. I've updated it so that it the thrower can't lift and throw the character if the target exceeds the weight for their strength and also added a check for Heavy Lifter so the thrower can get the strength bonus when lifting and throwing the target.

I'm removing the code in the 1st post since this is "back on the drawing board" and will post again when I have something more complete.

[yell0w_lantern]

male_basic grappler keys for FF1 are up at the 2nd group.

[TaskMasterX]

Thanks again YL.

Well, here's a status report on what I've done so far. I've ended up creating several new state swaps using parts of what I initially did with the Grapple State Swap. Here's a description of what each one is suppose (they're not quite done yet) to do:

Grapple: Basically the same as what I described in my 1st post, except that this is specifically made ONLY for melee Powers. The target and grappler are both locked in place while the grappler deals damage to the grappled target.

Range Grapple: This works similar to Grapple except that it's for Swapping Ranged Powers. It locks both the target and grappler in place for the duration of the grapple. The big differences are that the target has a looped FX playing on them that you can customize. And, you can give the grapple a certain "Hold Strength", or have it use the Strength of the Grappler to determine the duration of the hold. For instance, say you wanted to simulate Mr. Fantastic's Stretch Grapple. You can customize a looping FX by creating a Resource FX in FFEdit using the end.nif of the existing Mr. Fantastic FX and then putting it in the customization in ffxcustom2.py. And you'd also designate that the Hold Strength will be equal to Mr. Fantastic's current Strength. You can also use this to simulate a grapple with a whip. You could give Blacklash this State Swap and use the end.nif of the constrictor_coil FX for the looped FX, and instead of the Hold Strength being equal to Blacklash's Strength, you give it a different Hold Strength that simulates the Material Strength of his whip, instead. Also, you can choose to do damage, like in the regular Grapple or to do no damage, but only lock the target in place. This would probably also be useful for Green Lantern and Quasar. The looping FX would be a colored bubble on the target and GL would be locked in place. The only thing needed would be a hexed animation with a beam starting from their fist and extending towards the target, similar to what Tommyboy did with Blacklash and Mr. Fantastic, with their arm or whip extending out to the target in the animation. Green Lantern would be locked in the middle of the animation with the beam going out to the target and the bubble FX playing on the target.

Throw2: I made this it's own Swap. The animations are much better and I've made it work no matter what the height of the mesh of the thrower is. You do have to customize it by putting in a value depending on the height of the mesh and putting in the timing of the lift and release times of the target. But it works with most meshes and animations as is, without you having to customize anything. You can customize it to use a specific animation for throwing, like YL's 'throwperson', or have it use the default pick_up_object and throw_object animations. I also modified the existing Throw Swap to use this height customization.

Net Swap:This is similar to the Ranged Grapple. The key differences are, that only the target is locked and not the grappler and if the target is flying, they fall to the ground and then are locked. You can also choose an FX loop to play on the target, like a tangling net or wire. You set the Hold Strength of the Swap and the target's Strength is compared to determine if they can break free or not.

Explosive Tangle Wire: This is like the Net Swap, only that if the target can't break free within 5 seconds, the net, wire, etc. explodes injuring the target and anyone nearby. You can customize the Loop FX and the explosion Power.

I also thought about creating another swap that works like the Grapple, but with the added ability to inflict a certain kind of damage to the target, while grappled, other than the regular crushing damage. This would be useful for Blacklash who can grapple a target with his whip and then electrocute the target by channeling electricity through his whip to the target while they are held.

Also, I'm thinking that because these new "Stasis-like" attacks use the target's Strength in determining if the hold can be broken or not, that they would make the Strength vs. Stasis Option in FFXCC obsolete. Since the option is an All-or-Nothing deal, you can't properly simulate characters whose great Strength can break physical bonds but have no effect against mental or mystical holds. Take Superman for instance. His immense Strength can pretty much make any physical bond useless against him, but his Strength is nothing if he gets held my magical bonds. So by using these kinds of swaps and turning off the Strength vs. Stasis Option, will allow you to simulate this.

[Xenolith]

Wow.  That all sounds great.  So, we could use mental grapple too, using the state swap?  That would be really great for characters like Moondragon, Dr. Druid, Dr. Strange, Prof. X. 

Also, it seems like you are very close to being able to make the Grey Gargoyle's power work in FFXvTR.  Perhaps the tangle strenght is equal to "stone" but trapped character can't begin to break free until a specific time has elapsed?

Great job, can't wait to try these out.

[TaskMasterX]

You could probably use the current Transmute State Swap to simulate Grey Gargoyle's Powers.

Yes, you could use the Ranged Grapple as a mental attack if you choose a Mental Attack (Blank or Panic) to swap the Hold for. You could use the Ranged Grapple Swap if you wanted the Mentalist to have to concentrate on holding the target in place and not be able to move themselves, or use the Net Swap if you want the Mentalist to be able to move around and attack others while the target is held.
You'd use the regular Stasis Power for Mystic holds, since it IS a mystic attack.

[yell0w_lantern]

Sounds cool! :thumbup:
I'll be working on animations for female_basic, female_longhair, male_hulking and male_heavy but  very slowly since I'm tackling other projects as well.

[Figure Fan]

This sounds so amazing I just about wet myself. No joke.

I can't wait for this to be done. Figure Fan has needed this power from day 1!

Thanks for the work you've been doing on it, TMX. I appreciate it more than you know.

[TaskMasterX]

I finally got to a point with this stuff where I can release it for others to test out.

To make it easy, I added all the necessary lines to the ffx.py and ffxcustom2.py files and uploaded them, so you don't have to worry about copying and pasting. I made 2 different flavors - one for those using FFX3.2 and those using FFX3.2.1. I also included the code from Epimethee's Update to the Driver and Vehicle Attributes and Stumpy's Body Armor attribute into both flavors, so those of you who have applied these won't have to re-apply them.

Also, I included a res.dat file which you can merge to your existing one to get some of the FX loops I made for these new features. You do need the actual FX files the res.dat file is looking for. You'd need the various "stretching arm" FX's and a "arrow net", and the "constrictor coils" FX for these to work. If you don't have them, I (or someone) should be able to point you to them or send them to you, or you could just create your own in the res.dat to use the FX you want.

Here's the downloads:
FFX3.2
www.geocities.com/tmxff1/grapple_Mod_FFX3.2.zip

FFX3.2.1
www.geocities.com/tmxff1/grapple_Mod_FFX3.2.1.zip

Descriptions:
Grapple:
Basically, this works as mentioned before. You swap an existing power (Stasis, Blank, Hex, Energize, etc.) for the Grapple State Swap, just like any other State Swap. Both the target and grappler are locked in place for 12 seconds. Every three seconds, the target has a chance to break free depending on the difference between the target's and grappler's Strength. If the Grapple holds, the grappler inflicts damage equal to twice the grappler's Strength. During the duration of the Hold, both the target and grappler DO NOT recharge energy (they are both concentrating on breaking or maintaining the hold) and the grappler's agility is lowered to 0. After the 12 seconds are up, or if the target breaks the hold, energy and agility are returned to normal and both can move. The grappler is able to move or use another power during the hold, but doing so will cancel the hold. Also, if the grappler or target is KOed, or the grappler comes under the influence of Primary or Secondary State, or if the grappler is injured (the grappler takes more damage than his invulnerable attribute can protect against), or if the target or grappler is somehow knocked back from another attack, the hold will cancel.

Ranged Grapple:
The Ranged Grapple attack is quite different from the Grapple and not just because it's used as a ranged attack.
This grapple can be used to simulate a mental, mystical, or physical hold. If you use a Mental State (Blank, Rage, etc.) to swap this for, then the hold will be mental in nature, meaning that the target's mental resistance will be a factor in determining the success and duration of the hold against the grappler's "Hold Strength", the same goes for swapping this for a Mystical State (Hex, Blind, etc.). To make this a Physical hold, like Plastic Man's stretching arms, or Blacklash's Whips, or Wonder Woman's Lasso, use Energy Surge, or Energize as the state to swap. If the hold is physical then the code will check if the target has any Active Defenses against Crushing attacks activated and, if so, cancel the grapple. I also added in a Density State so you can simulate an Energy-type hold, like an Energy Vortex, or Energy Bubble, and targets with resistance vs. Energy will have a greater chance to break free of such holds. I added the Freeze State to be swapped, too, but this acts like a physical hold and uses the target's Strength to determine if they can break free of the ice, but the damage caused will be Cold so the target's Resistance to Cold will be a factor in determining how much damage they take and, because the Freeze State is considered a Cold attack, the initial attack might be resisted if the target has resistance to cold.
Also, this comes with a few customizations. The first customization after the name of the character is the FX loop that plays on the target during the hold. This is a FX from the Resource tab in FFEdit.
The next customization is the "Use Current Strength" which allows you to choose to use the Grappler's Strength or a value from 1-10. If you want to use the Grappler's Strength, put "Yes", if not put "No". 
The next customization is the actual Hold Strength value if you're not using the Grappler's Strength. Just enter a number between 1-10 without quotes. This can simulate a character that is using a device to hold the target rather than using the Strength.
The last customization is "Damage" which you use to designate whether the hold causes the target damage, like the regular Grapple, or not. Choose "Yes" or "No". Damage will always be twice the Grappler's Strength, if Strength is used, or twice the value you put in the third customization.
All the other rules from the regular Grapple apply (Both Target and Grappler are locked, No Energy Recharge, 0 Agility to the Grappler, Grapple is canceled if KB, KO, etc. occurs), the only other difference is the Ranged Grapple has a shorter duration (9 seconds as opposed to 12 seconds).

Throw:
I updated the original Throw State Swap to be able to work with different size meshes. The target would hit the thrower as the target went over the thrower if the thrower had a large mesh. Now, you designate the "Mesh Size" just like in Throw2, to prevent this from happening.

Throw2:
This Swap will make the character pickup the target and throw them out in front of them, like if they were using the Throw command used for throwing cars and such. I did alot of work in getting this to look right and it looks better than what is in the video above.
Now, it requires a small bit of work if you want to use this for a character that isn't man-sized, or if you want to use a different animation other than the default pickup_object and throw_object animations. As I mentioned in the original Throw Swap, there's a Mesh Size value that you have to put into the customization list in ffxcustom2.py. I've done most of the work in testing a lot of meshes with this and have a list showing which Mesh Size value works best with which mesh. If the character is on a man-sized mesh (male_basic, female_basic, male_muscular_tall, etc.) then you don't need to worry about the Mesh Size because it's already defaulted to that value. Here's the list I made with the approx. height in feet, the Mesh Size value, and then the actual name of the meshes that are part of that group.
The rest of the customization list is for customizing the animation. Most of the pickup_object and throw_object animations have the same time and this is the default animation for this so you won't need to change anything here unless you choose to use another animation or if the mesh's pickup_object or throw_object times don't match the default.
So, the next customization in the list after the Mesh Size is the Pick Up Time. As soon as the Thrower hits the Target with the Swap, the target will be forced into a flailing animation and locked in front of the Thrower until the Thrower begins the pickup_object animation. The customization is the amount time in seconds from the time the target is locked in the flail animation to the time they start to rise over the Thrower's head. If the target rises over the Thrower's head before the Thrower starts to lift his arms, then the number is to low. Increase the time so the target waits until the thrower begins to lift his arms.
The next customization is the time in seconds from the time the Target is locked over the Thrower's head to the time they start to be thrown forward. If the Target is thrown forward before the Thrower starts with the throwing animation, then increase the time they are locked over the Thrower's head, so they'll be thrown right when the Thrower is moving his arms forward for the throw. If the Target is still over the Thrower's head after the Thrower has finished the throw animation, then decrease the time. The last customization is the name of the animation you want to use, if not the default one.
If the Thrower moves, or takes damage, then the throw is canceled and the Target will drop to the ground.


Tangle/Net:
This is a variant of the Ranged Grapple. What is different with this swap is the Grappler is not locked and can move around, and the Target will drop to the ground if they are flying. Also, the Grappler can't use their Strength as the Hold Strength, only a value, and this Swap causes no damage.
Just like the Ranged Grapple, this swap uses a FX loop that plays on the Target and is the first customization in the list. The last customization is the Hold Strength value (1-10). Also, just like the Ranged Grapple, you can use the State swapped as the type of attack (mental, mystical, or physical). So you can simulate Mystical nets or ropes or Physical Nets or ropes, or a Mental Hold that allows the Character to move around and makes the Target fall to the ground if flying, rather than be stuck in the air, like the Ranged Grapple or regular Stasis or Freeze Attacks. The duration of the hold is determined by what State it was swapped for.

If you use this to simulate a Freeze attack, by encasing a target in a block of ice, the target will fall to the ground if they are flying, unlike the built-in Freeze attack, where the block of ice sits in the air (very unrealistic, if you ask me).

Explosive Tangle:
This is similar to the Tangle/Net Swap, except that after 5 seconds of the Target being held, an explosion is triggered on the Target, affecting the target and anything close by. If the Target can break free of the tangle before 4 sec. then the explosion is canceled. The first customization is the explosion Power, the second is the FX loop on the target, and the last is the Hold Strength.


Please post any questions or suggestions!

[Xenolith]

Great...I was hoping this idea wasn't forgotten, or just unworkable.  I'll test tonight, and thanks for all the hard work.

[yell0w_lantern]

Argh! I don't remember which version of FFX I'm running!  :banghead:

[Xenolith]

I think I've been away for too long because I can't figure out how to make the state swaps work.  They don't appear in the drop down menu in the control center/centre.  I think I need to tell it that grapple is availabe, but I can't recall where I do that.

[TaskMasterX]

Oops, Sorry. I forgot to include the ffxdefault.py file. I'll update the zip file tomorrow. In the meantime, you can add these:

Code Select Expand

["grapple"],
["net"],
["rangedgrapple"],
["etangle"],
["throw2"],

to the FFX_TO_TYPES list in the ffxdefault.py. This makes them available in the drop-down menu in FFXCC.