Unique Katana Animations

Hi guys, I'm following your work with Skywind and Skyblivion for months and I'm very excited about it. :D

I'm thinking about this request for months, since I saw the topic about unique spear animations, that will allow you to add spears in game with their unique animations (maybe also perks?). So finally I decided to open this topic and just talk to you about it.

Why katanas would need their unique animations? Well, that's because they are not western swords, they can't be used like western swords and it's not a matter of style or fashion, the problem is that Bethesda never bothered to implement the right animations for katana. If you just go on youtube and look at some videos about Kendo, you would understand what I'm talking about.

So my request is: would you consider to add unique animations for Katanas too? Just think about the Blades, finally fighting with their katanas in the proper way, and not just waving the sword around. Actually, I was never able to use Katanas in Oblivion and Skyrim because every time I look a that animations, a piece of me dies..

Bethesda never bothered to

Bethesda never bothered to implement proper animations for western swords either, and I think if we ever get onto changing those things we'd start with those.

And I have exactly the same feeling looking at how characters wave any weapons in any game :( Not seen a single game with realistic combat system or animations. This problem runs way deeper than just katana.

And katana is a pretty rubbish sword too, but that's a side note.

I want to see new and unique

I want to see new and unique animations for everything personally. Sadly the only person who knew how to implement new animation types has disappeared from the project. Which is why spear and halberd animations aren't in the works at the moment.

@Dragomir: you are right, but

@Dragomir: you are right, but from my point of view, since I'm a kendo student, the japanese swords had always the worst animations, especially in Bethesda games.

@JorgenGorgen: he didn't explain to anyone how he did it? What a waste... I was really dreaming about finally see more variations in combat. Btw, you mentioned spears and halberds, but just in case the guy returns, would you consider to add new animations to katanas too?

From a western fencing

From a western fencing student and early medieval reenactor point of view they're really not the worst ones :P

So everyone has his dose of

So everyone has his dose of kicks in the balls :D

He explained how it worked

He explained how it worked for the most part, but it involves a mountain of work. The way he described it was going into the behaviors and splitting the anim type paths to make duplicates.
He was planning on making a special behavior editing tool that would allow anyone to do it easily. As part of a mod I'm working toward (though it'll probably take a year or two to really get anywhere with) I wanted to use that tool to make even more new types than the spears and halberds planned for Skywind.
All of that is in limbo now though.

Also I think the katana is great for it's intended purpose, and environment. It's pretty much the definition of a niche weapon though.

"Also I think the katana is

"Also I think the katana is great for it's intended purpose, and environment. It's pretty much the definition of a niche weapon though"

That's the reason why I always hated how the Blades use it, they are supposed to be trained in using it correctly, right? Something I really loved about Oblivion (it was my first Elder Scrolls game) is that the animations change correctly to your skills level, so there were two or three set of animations for each type of weapons: the more you train (level your skill) the more your become good at using your weapons and you can actually see your character using it better! That is something Skyrim really missed.. It would have be so good to seen your character using a western sword (or katana) really bad at low skill and then become very good at using it at high skill with a change of animation. I think Skyrim really miss also the jump attack and the rolling dodge... I will never understand why Bethesda removed this features.

Btw, I really hope you will be able to complete your mod! Good work to everyone guys, I can't wait to play Skywind and then Skyblivion and thanks for everything :D

Jorgen do you think he will

Jorgen do you think he will ever come back?

I think everyone hopes so. I

I think everyone hopes so. I think he may, but I'm not sure when. He may have just taken a long break to focus on personal projects, or maybe just felt overwhelmed here. Eham was involved with a lot of different aspects of Skywind, in particular creating the .nif import/export plugin for 3ds Max 2013, which is solely his work, so he had a lot on his plate.

Mmh.. Did you guys kept

Mmh.. Did you guys kept contacts only on this forum? None of you have his skype or facebook contact? Not that I want to contact him, I don't know the guy, I'm just wandering if there is the possibility to actually ask him what are his intentions.

Nobody here is contractually

Nobody here is contractually obliged to do anything, it's all unpaid volunteer work done purely out of love for the game, and a desire to see the project completed. Sometimes things come up, or people just need a break. As far as contact outside of the site goes, some of the devs might have outside contact with him, but I don't know. I only spoke to him on here myself.

Welp, it's definetly in good

Welp, it's definetly in good tone to at least give us some farewell and tell us if there's any chance of coming back, so we're not stuck in a limbo of anxious waiting ;) Especially if you're an important, if not essential part of the project. But yeah, there's no obligation for that either.

Well, I didn't mean to

Well, I didn't mean to contact him to "persuade" or worse "convince" him to come back, I know that modding it's about fun and not about obligation or contracts. And it's right this way, because things done because of passion and fun are always the best.

It's just that there is nothing wrong about asking "hey man, how are you?", if some of you know how to contact him :D

Googling his name gets you

Googling his name gets you quite a bit of information.. Apparently posting this information here triggers a spam filter though.

He's coming back after

He's coming back after Christmas.
Also I'm not sure he wants anyone stalking him via Google.

Who disappeared?

He's asking about Eham.

He's busy developing modding

He's busy developing modding tools for Dragon Age Inquisition on his own forum. Can't wait to play some mods on a unbugged version of Inquisition. It's not even for the mods themself now, it's just for giving Bioware a giant middle finger for their 10 bucks dlc with 1 armor, 1 mount, 1 throne and 1 weapon for each type. Damn Bioware.