Merricksdad's Wake The Dead

This package gives you an alternate set of A_BA -like animations specifically for skeletons. The files each replace the following animation cycles: APPEAR, both DEAD, both GETUP, and SITCROSS.

I have a collection of these alternate skeleton animations which I need to tweak to be used with standard skeletons.

The first file gives you an Appear animation for use by skeletons who jump out of a wall, or out of a pond. That file also modifies sitting cross legged so that there is no movement from start to end, while also making it looked slumped over to the side. The forward and backward dead and getup animations are modified to give two more varieties of skeletons on the floor.

The second file gives you another Appear animation for making skeletons rise from the ground. It also gives you another of each: sitting, dead backward, and dead forward. This sitting variety is more slumped down to the floor, nearly on its back. One of the dead frames is clutching his heart, while the other is kind of crumpled and laying on a broken arm.

In the next few releases, I have a few series of skeletons who are positioned inside wall niches, who will roll out to a standing position (5 in total). There are also some more floor based dead bodies (1 more), a skeleton in a bird cage, and a skeleton stuck half way down a hole. For appear animations, there are also more skeletons who emerge from the ground (1), skeletons who climb up a cliff (1), and others who are pinned to walls with their own weapons (2).

I'd also like to do some more magical looking appear and getup animations, including a skeleton who rises vertically out of the ground surrounded by his coffin, and then shrugs off the coffin (VFX). I'd like to make another levitate out of a horizontal coffin, like a vampire. Another should push a large coffin lid off with his back and simply step out. I'd like to do another that appears to be summoned, which jumps out of the ground.

To make use of this animation, you first need to attach a skeleton model to it. Do this by copying a skeleton model and setting its supermodel to my a_md_skel file. I've provided a copy of the common skeleton for you in this package.

That isn't very useful by itself, so you then need to use the scripts I have provided with the module. They aren't perfect, but they might be some day. Here's what you need to do:

• Set your skeleton's appearance to the new c_md_skel model (the included appearance.2da in the hack should have it as "Skeleton, Common, Alt 1" or something similar)
• Give your skeleton one of 4 integer variables (set to 1):

1. CREATURE_VAR_MD_USE_APPEAR_ANIMATION  ** doesn't seem to work correctly, see trigger modifications below **
2. CREATURE_VAR_MD_USE_SPAWN_IN_SITTING
3. CREATURE_VAR_MD_USE_SPAWN_IN_DEAD
4. CREATURE_VAR_MD_USE_SPAWN_IN_SLEEPING

• Assign the skeleton a set of action scripts (see module for name and order)
• Create a trigger which will wake up your undead
• Give the trigger the onEnter script "md_wakethedead2"
• Give the trigger a float variable MD_WAKETHEDEAD_RADIUS and set that variable to a number of meters of waking power the trigger has
• If you want to disable the waking trigger, set an integer variable MD_WAKETHEDEAD_DISABLED to 1

Creatures spawned will be set to a friendly faction so you don't automatically go attacking them. They will be entirely unwilling to socialize with you, or otherwise give you any satisfaction, unless you attack them. Currently attacking one will only wake that one, and will set the entire faction as hostile.

Activating the waking trigger will cause all the skeletons in the waking radius to wake over a period of 6 seconds, rather than all at once. Once awakened, they will individually target you.

Anyway, go try it out. The included module has two areas in which to test the waking mechanism, and shows off everything constructed so far.

***** VERSION 2 *****

*The perception script has been fixed for all of my skeletons in the module. Skeletons will now not perceive you when they are marked with CREATURE_VAR_MD_DEAD, which is applied onSpawn and removed when activated via the trigger script.

*Hidden variety 2 can be made to appear crawling up out of the ground. This is tied to a new trigger variable (integer) called MD_WAKETHEDEAD_NUMHIDDEN. When activated, the trigger will spawn a number of Hidden Variety #2 Skeletons within the wake radius at random positions and facings. The new hidden#2 appear animation is 2 seconds long instead of one, which makes them rise realistically from the ground before attacking. Currently all hidden skeletons spawned by the waking trigger are spawned at exactly the same time, as will rise in unison.