SkySA Guide

A written guide to SkySA

Skyrim | April 18, 2022

The Adventure Continues With Attack MCO|DXP

SkySA is not maintained and no further movesets will be made for it

What is SkySA?

SkySA is an animation framework. It is the first mod to implement an attack commitment. It broke the animation wall and is at the origin of the 2021 animation revolution. Your movement will be locked during the animation, like in every modern game. It puts an end to the ice skating combat where you control your character like the Pong bar

The changes are so profound that with only SkySA and a stagger mod, the game will already be a lot better. Of course you can improve it more

This movement lock enhances the gameplay and gives creative freedom to the animators. The movesets do not require SkySA just to annoy you, SkySA allows them to exist. No you cannot just use AMR. You need both SkySA and AMR

SkySA’s success is due to the animators. They work with it because all I already did all the tedious background work. The barrier to entry is completely removed. Everybody can make a moveset, it doesn’t require any form of knowledge. The animators only have to focus on making good animations

Convert SkySA movesets to Attack MCO|DXP

Click here for the video guide

  • Download and install .NET5 Runtime and HKCT 2010 X64

  • Download HKanno64 and the converter and put them in the same folder. HKanno64 isn’t just the exe file. You need the folders with it

  • Copy your SkySA animation into the folder with HKanno64 and the converter inside

  • Convert one moveset at a time. Only the skysa animations are processed. If an animation doesn’t have “skysa” in its name it doesn’t need conversion

  • You will be prompted to enter a speedmult. This allows you to accelerate or slow down movesets. If you’re not sure, set it to 1

  • Launch the “SkySA to MCO converter.exe”

Download the Converter

Changes from v1.9 (Nexus) to v2 (SkyrimGuild)

NPC movesets

SkySA 2 is made to encourage the development of NPC dedicated movesets. NPCs are controlled by DAR and use the same movesets as the player

SkySA – Intense Combat is outdated. Telegraphing should be integrated to the animations, not to the behavior like in v1.9. For example Elder Souls now has NPC dedicated movesets, as it should be

One Click Power Attack

SkySA has been reworked to work perfectly with OCPA. This allowed to add a conveniency input buffer. Some movesets were wrongly set up and had very short transition windows. It is now solved on a behavior level

Sliding bug

The bug has been properly fixed and the mod is now a behavior-SKSE hybrid (credits to dTry). It makes it version dependant and requires SE. Please do not use the mods that claims to “fix the SkySA bug”. The pseudo-fix locks you in place making the game feel incredibly stiff. Even when the bug was there it wasn’t a good idea to use them

Sprint attacks

SkySA sprint attacks have been added. The sprint attacks are also enabled by default

Weapon speed multiplier

The weaponspeedmult takes a bunch of factors into account to speed up or slow down your animation. The weapon type, the weight…It is now removed. This may be controversial now, time will show it’s a good decision. There will be inconviences during the transition. Let’s not be short sighted. We’re building for the future

Why:

  • It’s incredibly annoying to work with for the animators. The animation will now play 1:1 to the Blender animation and simplify the workflow

  • SkySA brings the animation to the heart of the gameplay. Every animator becomes a bit a game designer. The speedmult can make the results of the animator’s tests very different from the users experience. The removal will improve the gameplay

  • The speedmult butchers the animations. You don’t need a 400% increase to ruin an animation. 20% already makes some movesets look ridiculous

Counterparts:

  • Weapon speed multipliers such as the Elemental Fury shout are rendered useless. It will affect some modded perk mods. It’s a good thing. In 2022, if you want slower movesets, animate a slower moveset. Sacrificing quality for features is not the way to go, that’s what Bethesda does, we don’t. A modern perk overhaul is planned

Converter Changelog

v1.1 :

  • Added case insensitivity

  • Added logging (open “ConverterSkySAtoMCO.log”)

v1.2:

  • Changed wait method (should be significantly faster)

  • Added auto removal of already converted movesets

  • Improved invalid and unused annos logging

  • Added auto removal of duplicate last power attack

  • Auto skip unused annos

  • Added auto skip speed multiplier set to 1