Electrical Affinity "seizure" animations on allies

[Naraka]

Have you taken my advice and sought assistance from fellow players that can create mods and/or remove certain sounds/animations?

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/60-tools-utilities-amp-downloads/

 

EDIT:

FYI, if you want to get in touch with individuals fiddling with animations, look in this thread:

 

Apparently, it is possible to change some aspect of animations for your client only but you just have to find where the animation is, all variations of it and then swap something appropriate in its place.

Edited April 18, 2020 by Naraka

[Keen]

On 4/17/2020 at 9:20 PM, Naraka said:

Have you taken my advice and sought assistance from fellow players that can create mods and/or remove certain sounds/animations?

 

There are several reasons I don't want to mod my client:

• I just don't. I want my experience to match what most other players see.
• Modding is not easy. (Keep reading...)
• Modding animations will not stop other players from seeing my character having seizures, which is a small part of the original problem.
• Replacing the seizure animation causes enemies to not play it when they're mezzed. It's not a problem for the animation to be caused BY and ON ENEMIES -- my OP clearly states that the problem was solely about the animation being caused AMONG ALLIES. Also myself, when affected by that animation BY ENEMIES was totally fine. After modding, I don't have those visual cues in combat anymore.
• Keeping mods across different computers is a pain. I have two gaming laptops and one gaming desktop that I can play CoH on.

I knew about modding back from the Live days and used it to an extent while I was interested in machinima stuff. But not anymore. I just don't have any desire to mod my client these days whatsoever. 

 

However it came to a point that it was either that, or not play the game at all. 

 

So modding became the lesser of two evils, and not a "solution" by any means.

 

I spent a week or so away from the game after my previous breakdown. I played a bit of other games but was missing CoH so badly, so I decided to look into minimal modding so I could be able to play the game again.

 

I already knew what to expect. First I had to use a pigg reader/exporter, and most options out there are not really friendly. Even the newest tool from Ourodev (Piglet) was not intuitive. I wanted to export only specific animations or use search features, but that proved to be a challenge. So I just exported everything. Then I had to look into animation file names to try to find the animations I wanted to use instead of the seizure one. And so I found the two animations I needed to replace:

• electro
• air_electro - seizure animation while flying

Okay so now I have to find an animation to replace it with. Considering the culprit power from Electric Affinity is a buff, I could replace it with a buffing animation like absorb, which is used when you eat an Inspiration for example. But that caused the following to happen:

• Enemies affected by electrical powers would play that "buffing" animation.
• Myself when affected by an electrical mez would play that "buffing" animation.

NOT GOOD. So I started looking for that quick "bump" animation that plays when allies receive Speed Boost. It is also the generic animation that plays when players are hit in combat. That would resolve the two issues above.

 

And that's where my nightmare began. Checked all the available topics and couldn't find anyone reporting what that animation was named. I spent literally DAYS looking for that animation. Every time I need to test an animation, I have to replace the file in the data folder, then restart the game.  It was very time consuming.  I think I had to do that hundreds of times, for every animation file I suspected to be the one I was looking for. I couldn't just change animation files while the game was running -- it would freeze the game and I'd have to force-close it.

 

Demorecording didn't help. Apparently, hit reactions are baked into FX files, and demorecord code would not tell me what animation the affected target would play. And I had no clue how to open or work with FX files.

 

At some point and days and lots of frustration later I came across this animation named "HQ_high" which name didn't really tell me anything. So I tested it ingame, and that was it. The small bump animation. All good! Then the next would be the aerial animation. I just used the same file, and it was pretty bad. The character would play the "grounded bump" animation while in the air, with steady feet.

 

So I had to look for the aerial bump animation. You'd think it'd be called "air_HQ_high" or something (most aerial animations start with "air_" in the names). But NOOOOOO. It had a totally different name. Nightmare Part 2 begins. More days looking for a frickin' animation that was not reported in any topic whatsoever. MEANWHILE, I realized the animation I replaced would only play for male characters. Female and Huge players would still get the seizure animation. I wanted it gone from all of my allies, not just myself. Yay, time to replace more animations around.

 

And guess what?? Female animation file names can be different. Thankfully, the male animations playing on female skeletons did just fine. But female characters had no HQ_high animation. What gives? Turns out their name was actually "combat_HQ". Huge version matched male. But then I was still looking for that aerial version.

 

After spending even more days looking for it I had an idea. Maybe looking at the source code of the game could give me hints. So I went to Ourodev and downloaded the whole thing (3GB). After some quick searches using the file names I previously found out, I was able to discover that the aerial bump animation was called "float_HQ". (Of course I missed it because Windows search sucks.) And that it thankfully matched across male, female and huge.

 

So in regards to animations, this is what I did regarding replacements:

 

Copy This File to data/player_library/animations	Rename it to
male/HQ_high.anim	male/electro.anim
male/float_HQ.anim	male/air_electro.anim
fem/combat_HQ.anim	fem/electro.anim
fem/float_HQ.anim	fem/air_electro.anim
huge/HQ_high.anim	huge/electro.anim
huge/float_HQ.anim	huge/air_electro.anim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I tested things in game for a few days. Then I noticed things like ally pets (demons, robots, etc) were still getting the seizure animation from ally buffs. Welp. More animations to replace. This is still going on.

 

I also replaced some of the sounds, and noticed it improved things a great deal. While sound effects from Elec Affinity were not exactly part of this specific problem, they helped aggravate it -- whenever those sounds played I'd get psyched about my character getting a seizure. So dampening those sounds helped. I chose two sounds as replacements:

• data/sound/Ogg/V_Powers/Mu_cagebolts.ogg -- the sustained effect after they hit
• data/sound/Ogg/V_Powers/Mu_cageboltshit.ogg -- the sound upon impact

Those are the sounds of Mu Mastery's Electric Cages, a lowered version of electrical effects. Since I was already decided to NOT look for sounds specifically used by Elec Affinity, I just scanned through ALL electric sounds that I could replace. This affected most electric power sounds in my client, and somehow had an effect on Elec Affinity too, which was what I wanted after all.

 

So currently, when ElecAff buffs go around during Hamidon raids, I barely hear them, I don't see my character and my allies get seizures (aside from pets) and things have generally improved. But I don't consider this resolved at all. This is just a band-aid solution, and it was a huge PITA to set up. I don't want to ever have to mod my client again for something like this. But at least I can play the game now.

 

I still hope this can be addressed from the devs side so one day I can remove those mods from my client and see that animation again where it belongs: during combat and among foes.

 

Edited May 5, 2020 by Keen

[ArchVileTerror]

Thanks for the thoughtful and informative post, Keen.

 

I think you may also want to check out https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/18743-weekly-discussion-49-alternate-fxanimations/

Additional voices in the chorus asking for support to the power of users being able to disable specific Power visual and sound effects, and emotes, would be appreciated.  It's one of the leading points of discussion in that thread.

[Blastit]

On 4/8/2020 at 12:18 AM, Harpsong said:

I love how this issue has sprung up around the Elec set, but nobody has taken issue to the Experimentation set's ally buff power.

 

You literally inject someone with a syringe. They even will try to block if they're not already doing another animation, like they're trying to stop you or flinching, and then you stab them with it.

 

If you do no moves in-between, you even have the same syringe in hand when you use it again, so you could even 'share the needle' using it on someone else.

 

I'm surprised nobody's gotten upset at that!

I haven't seen the power used. Perhaps most people haven't.

 

But ok, since you brought it up in the first place, let's be open to changing that animation as well. Thank you for your concern.

[golstat2003]

For those that get sick from this I'm fine if they gave a different animation option or blocked the animation from being seen in some way.

 

Other than that I think the animation choice is perfectly fine for what it is.

[ABlueThingy]

I have three thoughts upon reading this thread...

 

It's anecdotal but I have a friend(who shall remain nameless) who had a lot of epileptic seizures when younger. They're on the good meds now so it's not as much an issue.

 

The kids at their school sometimes found it funny to mess with my friend by flickering lights at them or as a group pretending to be on their phones and all hitting the flashlight app at once.  It didn't always trigger an episode or anything but it did once in a while.  One too many times being mocked and laughed at while the world breaks down around them and they can't move has given my friend less than kind opinions on games that do that. 

 

I got my friend to play CoH for a bit and I don't think the had issues with elec based mobs.  I didn't ask why but the Freakshow and Clockwork animations didn't seem to bother them.  They hard quit after Elec Aff dropped.  The idea of other players being able to make them seize and the threat of players doing it over and over to grief them was a deal breaker.

 

Additionally. My SG had someone quit back on live when Thermal Rad came out. Because they had an Ex who dumped lighter fluid on them and threatened to light it.  When thermal dropped... I want to say they quit but I don't remember honestly.  I think maybe they stuck around and just only teamed with close friends? (I didn't know them well I just remember that going down in my periphery) 

 

And lastly I remember when Sonic Resistance was added in the game a million years ago, long before power customization.  When Sonic was originally added it had similar effects to sonic blast.  Basically rings of alternating grey.  The rhythmic pulsing actually gave people headaches and seriously threatened epileptics playing.  We had a whole thing on it.  The Devs altered the animations, colors, sounds a half dozen times before scrapping the existing style and going with the weird orange stuff we have now.  As I recall they also changed Trick Arrow's Disruption arrow for the same reason.  It used to pulse faster I think.

 

I guess my point is that this isn't a new issue.   The HC devs just have to decide how accessible they want the game to be. 

 

Personally I think going hard on this and building a new UI that lets us go through and check off which power effects we want to see.  Maybe a minimum option and a remove option for all buffs and wide area persistent effects.  Debuff auras and dispersion bubbles such.

 

I'm not gonna pretend that that would be easy or quick to implement.  But it would solve a lot of issues all at once and I think it would be worth the investment.

 

 

 

[Solvernia]

Man, nobody tell the guys in this thread about the stuff they'll find in other powersets.

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Solvernia

[Blastit]

3 minutes ago, Solvernia said:

Man, nobody tell the guys in this thread about the stuff they'll find in other powersets.

 

You haven't actually read his problem with the animation.

[Solvernia]

2 minutes ago, Blastit said:

You haven't actually read his problem with the animation.

Yeah, the problem is they don't like the animation. Which is fair, I guess. I don't like the big giant chunky ice block shields of Cold Domination. But hey, the buffs are nice, so I deal.

Edited May 8, 2020 by Solvernia

[Lines]

On 5/6/2020 at 12:32 AM, Keen said:

 

<Snip>

 

Well done for persevering and getting some results. That's impressive work and is good information too.

[Naraka]

18 hours ago, ABlueThingy said:

I guess my point is that this isn't a new issue.   The HC devs just have to decide how accessible they want the game to be. 

 

Personally I think going hard on this and building a new UI that lets us go through and check off which power effects we want to see.  Maybe a minimum option and a remove option for all buffs and wide area persistent effects.  Debuff auras and dispersion bubbles such.

 

I'm not gonna pretend that that would be easy or quick to implement.  But it would solve a lot of issues all at once and I think it would be worth the investment.

I'm all for this.

 

Ultimately, though, I have no issue with players having control over what they see on their screen.  My problem comes when they are trying to control what I see on my screen and if I want my sentient Raiton ninjutsu surge electricity through his ninjas and allies, possibly even painfully so because he's not a human therefore doesn't care what effects he causes to them, then that's my business.  Having UI options to turn those animations off, while hugely cluttering and would likely be lost on normal players who wouldn't even know the option exists if it did, could be something to strive for.

 

Here's hoping the OP will roll something together to help those that might need that mod.  It might take some assistance from other modders to make it easily installable to other systems but is likely a more reachable solution than weighing it on the devs to do it.

[darkgob]

If you want a practical reason for changing the current animation that most people should be able to get behind, how about this: the current animation is confusing and makes no sense.

 

The animation is the same as getting hit by some electric attacks.  Every time I get hit with an Electric Affinity power I'm taking a second to think "wait what just hit me".  The confusion is even greater if I'm actually running something where enemies have attacks that do exactly that (Synapse anyone? of course not, no one likes Synapse, but I digress).

 

It's like if you were to take the head-holding animation or the sleep animation and use it on a buff/heal power.  It doesn't make any sense at all, and would only serve to confuse the player and mislead them about what is actually happening to their character.

 

I was against the name Shock Therapy because it seemed to make light of something pretty serious while using a term that nobody has used in decades, but also because it didn't fit into the game's existing naming scheme for powersets at all (this probably bothered me more than the name itself but that's mostly a reflection of my pedantry).  I don't have the same stance on the animations -- I can understand why some people would be bothered by it, but like I said enemy attacks trigger the same animation on your character, so you'd have to replace the animation wholesale across the entire game, and I definitely don't support that.

[Naraka]

2 minutes ago, darkgob said:

The animation is the same as getting hit by some electric attacks.  Every time I get hit with an Electric Affinity power I'm taking a second to think "wait what just hit me".  The confusion is even greater if I'm actually running something where enemies have attacks that do exactly that (Synapse anyone? of course not, no one likes Synapse, but I digress).

You're talking about sounds, not animations.

 

The animations for Shock Therapy aren't all "seizure" animations.  In fact, it's only Energizing Circuit that actually causes that animation and you're likely only using it in combat since it's such a short-lived buff.  The other powers use a more generic "pop an inspiration" animation.

 

If anything, a better argument for changing the animation is that all the other powers in Shock Therapy are "inoffensive" except that *ONE* power so why not change it?

[Keen]

12 minutes ago, Naraka said:

If anything, a better argument for changing the animation is that all the other powers in Shock Therapy are "inoffensive" except that *ONE* power so why not change it?

Because now there are a number of players who actually like being able to cause (or receive) pain to/from allies. Not judging, just acknowledging their existence.

 

I can only imagine that if the devs went ahead and changed the animation, those players would come to the forums to complain about it. This is why I'm trying not to advocate for an outright animation change, even though it would address my personal issues.

 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Keen

[Greycat]

19 hours ago, ABlueThingy said:

 

And lastly I remember when Sonic Resistance was added in the game a million years ago, long before power customization.  When Sonic was originally added it had similar effects to sonic blast.  Basically rings of alternating grey.  The rhythmic pulsing actually gave people headaches and seriously threatened epileptics playing.  We had a whole thing on it.  The Devs altered the animations, colors, sounds a half dozen times before scrapping the existing style and going with the weird orange stuff we have now.  As I recall they also changed Trick Arrow's Disruption arrow for the same reason.  It used to pulse faster I think.

 

Poked around and found this thread referenced from another.

 

Yeah. I pretty much was *very* loud and fought... since sonic resonance was on beta to get those animations (well, graphics) changed, because I heard *every night* I played with my SG just how it was affecting people. I have friends who get bad migraines and had this trigger them every...single...time.  *I* don't get migranes and it was giving me a headache. I was even told by BAB that it couldn't be fixed (or that they wouldn't or some such. I don't remember the wording, just that it rather... annoyed me, to where I was ready to leave the game.) I argued that often and for what felt like years.

 

Then the current animations came out. Relief for everyone... except one person.

 

What *really* annoyed me - and part of what prompted me to post was your friend's experience with people *trying* to give them siezures (who, frankly, if they're doing it with foreknowledge? Should be jail time, as far as I'm concerned,) was the number of people making fun of the people who *actually* had problems. If there was ever a time I was disappointed in the COH community, that was it. And the "Orange gives me migranes" (which they admitted to others that, no, they were just not liking the shields.) All their BS almost drowned out one person who *actually did have a physiological problem with it* - which, while I'm not happy they did, it turned out that's how they finally went to a neurologist and got diagnosed. (They'd apparently also had an episode of... whatever it was, I don't remember now - because of the opening of the movie Saw, as I recall.)

 

 

So, if Keen says they have a problem with it, I'll believe them until I have reason not to.

 

And yes, for me personally, I keep wondering just what the hell attacked me, too. (Especially if we're dealing with enemies with electric attacks.)

[Greycat]

2 minutes ago, Keen said:

Because now there are a number of players who actually like being able to cause (or receive) pain to/from allies. Not judging, just acknowledging their existence.

 

I can only imagine that if the devs went ahead and changed the animation, those players would come to the forums to complain about it. This is why I'm trying not to advocate for an outright animation change, even though it would address my personal issues.

Funny that he mentions this while I type the above.

 

Yes, I remember *very* well asking NOT to be buffed with the original Sonic (because it caused headaches) and having people intentionally do it, who *quite obviously* heard the request.

 

That should be reported to a GM and acted on, because that's not "funny."

[ShardWarrior]

5 minutes ago, Greycat said:

Yes, I remember *very* well asking NOT to be buffed with the original Sonic (because it caused headaches) and having people intentionally do it, who *quite obviously* heard the request.

 

That should be reported to a GM and acted on, because that's not "funny."

Anyone remember the days before the friendly teleport prompt was added to the UI?  People were using Recall friend endlessly to grief others.

[Greycat]

12 minutes ago, ShardWarrior said:

Anyone remember the days before the friendly teleport prompt was added to the UI?  People were using Recall friend endlessly to grief others.

Yes. I did love having hover, doing /em *flips you off for trying that* and reporting the people who were doing that.  (I want to say that was before they set it so you could not die from fall damage from full health, but would end up with 1hp.)

 

Just as annoying were the people teleporting others into guard towers.... you'll note they have openings to walk out of now.