AOs
The following is a guide for making an AO in Second Life that does not conflict with the C:SI sword system. I am not sure what else is out there for melee these days, but it might be useful to others using other systems.
Guide to making your AO
The following guide consists of practical observations myself and others have made while making our AOs fair for C:SI use. It should be considered provisional and experience (rather than technical knowledge) based.
First, here is a copy of my AO card I use while sparring:
[ Standing ]Outrider-Female-Stand22
[ Walking ]
[ Sitting ]ao2-sitting-crossed-leg
[ Sitting On Ground ]ED Kunoichi Ground Sit
[ Crouching ]
[ Crouch Walking ]
[ Landing ]
[ Standing Up ]
[ Falling ]ED Kunoichi Falling
[ Flying Down ]
[ Flying Up ]
[ Flying ]ED Kunoichi Fly
[ Flying Slow ]
[ Hovering ]ED Kunoichi Hover
[ Jumping ]ED Kunoichi Jump
[ Pre Jumping ]MAYPREJUMP
[ Running ]ED Kunoichi Run
[ Turning Right ]
[ Turning Left ]
[ Floating ]
[ Swimming Forward ]
[ Swimming Up ]
[ Swimming Down ]
Some slots I have blank just because, while some are blank for a reason. The ones that are blank for a specific reason are the ones I will cover first, then say something about the animations I do use.
Walking – I leave walking blank because it was observed (by the always observant Jason Maddox) that when you stop running, your AO shifts into a walk for a brief moment. This change from your run to your walk animation can interfere with your sword animations if you slash just as you stop. Therefore you will want to remove your walk from your combat AO (since you run while sparring its not needed anyway).
Crouching – Sometimes the crouch animation will play when you try to block while having no stamina. Its best to remove this animation to prevent that, and to prevent the possibility of the crouch playing over the block (it seems I remember this happening but I could be wrong… still it is best not to take risks and just remove it).
Crouch Walking – Same as above (even though the block keeps you from being able to crouch walk). There is no need for this animation and so I think its best to remove it as a “just in case” measure.
Landing – This is one you will need to remove, because there is a good chance it will cover any slash you do after falling from a high jump. This might depend on the priority of the animation, but it seems like most landing animations create this problem so its best to remove it.
Standing Up – Will need to remove this for the reasons stated above for Landing.
Turning Right and Left – These I never seem to find useful or appealing in a normal AO. I don’t know if they are even a problem for C:SI but I expect that they likely would be, so best to remove these.
Now, for the animations I do have:
Standing – First its important to make sure your stand is NOT priority 4 (priority 4 means it will override any animation occurring during the stand). It is not always easy to tell what priority an animation is since its rarely listed in the animation name or the advertisements for AOs (although some do include that information). My stand comes from Outrider, which I happen to know sets all their stands below priority 4. I think Vista (maybe the most popular animation store) and SEmotion (other very popular one) both set their stands at priority 4. The best way I have found to tell if a stand will work with the sword is to actually draw your sword while siting on the animation stand and test to see if there is a conflict or not. If there is not, you are probably safe in buying the stand.
Its also good to limit your combat AO card to just one stand. Sometimes the switch from one stand to the next can cause a problem.
Sitting (and Ground Sitting) – these obviously do not cause any problems since you won’t be sitting for your spars.
Falling – I’ve never had an issue with a falling animation causing a problem for C:SI, and they can sometimes look very attractive when falling from a long distance.
Jumping – Most jumping animations will not cause an issue. I have had some priority 4 jumps that still do not cover the swords. Jumping and running seem to be the two most important animations to keep yourself from looking silly while sparring, so I think its worthwhile to find a jump animation that does work in the event that the current one you are using does not.
Pre Jumping – I happen to have a prejump because I found one that works (mine came from Vista actually), but they can often be a problem in that they seem to somehow get your avi stuck sometimes. Most of the time I have sparred without a prejump, so you could experiment with this. My recommendation is to probably go without unless you happen to find one that works. My prejump does not interfere with any sword animations.
Running – My run comes from the Kunoichi AO sold next to the swords. The only time a run can be an issue for C:SI that I am aware of is if it doesn’t show movement until after you are out of range. I experienced one run that was like this; when they went to run away, I didn’t actually see them moving away until after they were out of range, which is an obvious problem. Otherwise runs are pretty important to avoid looking silly and do not have the opportunity to interfere with the sword animations (since you can’t slash while running).
Addition!!!
Here is a note from Doleragon Merryman that explains how to find out the priority of an animation currently playing on your avi:
“I just would to add something that could be wrote into. People can check themselves the animation level of their AO with a simple test included in the advanced functions of the viewer (I still got the 1.23.5 but I am quite sure nothing changed so much)
1) Enabling the Advanced menu (Ctrl + Alt + D)
2) Advanced => Character => Animation Info
This will let show over the head of the avie the list of the curent animations and their levels.”
Look at the first UUID listed (for example, 0000-0000-0000-0000 – 3). That number on the very end tells you the priority of the animation.
