Current mood:

productive

Devil's Advocate

Started doing the Advocate animations today.  This was one weapon that really needed custom firing animations.  Their almost done. There was still something wrong with it...
it wasn't big enough.  So I enlarged it quite a bit which really helped it feel better to use.  Weapons are a tricky thing to get right.  If it sounds wimpy, not very usable or its animations are crappy, people won't use them.  It also looks like I might have to modify the textures a bit now that I have the crossbow strings on it moving. 

The onslaught shotgun is going to be the next big weapon animation I have to do.  Its firing animation will be a bit tricky.  Its a lever action shotgun.  So I have to time the player's movements right with the gun's lever movements.  The gun is also attached to the hand via code.  This means that when the hand moves, the gun bones connecting to the weapon move.  I have to lock those bones during the animation so the entire weapon doesn't move around.  I plan on doing 2 different firing animations for it.  There are a handful of ways to cock a lever action rifle.  Onslaught is a big ass gun, so single handed lever actions aren't going to look right.  I will be sticking with two handed ones for it.

The Onslaught shotgun, and Advocate auto reloading crossbow are very connected...
They both use the same form of ammunition.  Each one also requires different amounts of ammo per use.  The player must decide which weapon is best for the given situation before using them.  The advocate's burst fire mode makes it ideal for long distance sniping.  Its automatic firing mode is good for long distance crowds.  Onslaught is as one would guess, good for close quarters.  Its homing bo shurikens alt fire mode helps out for those frantic times when you need to kill something and just can't get a good aim on it.  This is very helpful fighting Archviles. They require the player to constantly move if they want to avoid damage.