Seated guests in the tavern hall, each in a spot that fits their lines
I used the sitting animations from 152 for the first time in the tavern hall. I sat the three existing guests in spots that fit their dialogue, added Pelli the bard and Greta the woodcutter, and fixed a mug that was tilted 60° in their hands.
In 152 I made two sitting animations (holding a mug, hands resting on the thighs). I wondered where to use them first and settled on the tavern hall.
The tavern already had three guests (Garen, Tobi, Isa) with dialogue. I decided to find seats that match what they say, and to write new dialogue from scratch for two new guests. The goal was to make the tavern hall look like a place where people actually hang out.
Screens I built
- Garen, adventurer: In the west chair at the long table on the west side of the hall, holding a mug. Fits the lines about the dungeon being rough and the beer here being the best in the village.
- Tobi, villager: Across the same table, sitting with hands on the thighs. True to the line about stew being the highlight of the day, Tobi sits across from Garen waiting for food.
- Isa, traveler: In a chair in front of the fireplace, watching the fire. Resting by the fire, just like the line about having come a long way and having swollen legs.
- Pelli, bard (new): Holding a mug at the long table on the east side of the hall. Practicing songs, and brings up Iris from the guild while mentioning that Marco gives a beer for every song.
- Greta, woodcutter (new): Standing at the end of the bar on the raised north platform, facing Marco. Talks about regular-customer habits, the trees in the northern forest, the wolves Dana mentioned, and how Bran at the blacksmith only uses Greta's firewood.
The hips of the four seated guests sit about 0.5 m above the chair seat (hall floor −0.72 → hips −0.21 to −0.22). Seated guests don't turn around when you talk to them.
Pelli also stays seated facing the table at 270° when a conversation starts. Paths connect from the arrival point to the bar, the talk spots and the sides of the west and east tables.
Things I thought about
- Seated guests don't turn. If they rotate while sitting, they look like they've slid off the chair.
- Sharing the NPC creation functions. I pulled the dialogue and NPC creation functions out of the guild generator so the tavern can use them too. The guild result stays the same.
Rabbit hole: the mug tilted about 60°
In Play, the mug in the hand was tilted way over. The generator evaluated the pose in edit mode and attached the mug there, but the hand orientation the Animator produces in Play was different. On top of that, the original idle animation keeps changing the shoulder, arm twist and wrist bend over time.
So I overwrote the shoulder, twist and wrist values of the mug-holding arm with fixed values to remove the wobble. I also added a new script that stands the mug upright in front of the hand on the first animation frame after starting, and then has it follow the hand bone.
Next up
- Put seated NPCs at the guild tables too (right now all four guild NPCs are standing)
- The booth benches have a lower seat, so sitting there needs a pose adjusted for that height
- There aren't many model types, so Pelli and Greta share faces with other characters in the village and guild