[Tatooine - Dune Sea] Issue(s) with Hulas encounter

[Salk73]

I have two issues with this encounter.

The first one is something I have verified to be confirmed when I watched a few videos about the confrontation: there is a Rodian among the opponents that looks exactly identical to Hulas. I believe an appearance edit is in order here.

The second instead is something which may as well be (yer another) local issue of mine: when hulas call the charge and plays the Victory animation at E7 (tat18_hulas.dlg) the weapon he is wielding disappears to reappear again when the fight starts. In the two videos I watched, this doesn't happen though.

[DarthParametric]

The second issue is almost certainly on your end. I'd suggest you've set the root node of the DLG to hide equipped weapons, which kicks in when he plays the anim.

One of the thugs (tat_thug1.utc) does share the same appearance ID (257 - Alien_Rodian_03), which is presumably a result of Bioware switching Hulas from a Duros to a Rodian at some point. An easy fix.

[Salk73]

I have no doubt the second issue may be local. I have (had) a good number of those... But the root node of the DLG is not set to hide equipped weapons.

Here's a video of what it looks like on my sad side: https://youtu.be/f3Rr-d0bw6w

[DarthParametric]

Using the mod that edits animations.2da to hide weapons during cutscenes then.

[DarthParametric]

More importantly, I notice he has already popped his energy shield at the start of the cutscene. That looks like an issue Sniggles reported with companions during the Lehon beach scene that I could never reproduce. Should probably address that too.

[Salk73]

The shield being activated at the start of the cutscene is intended, I think. I would not change it, honestly, but it's your call of course.

You were very right instead about the .2da edit. It hides weapons when playing the victory animation. I don't see much of a reason for it though so I think I'll revert that.

Thanks for your help with this.

[DarthParametric]

There's no evidence in any of the related scripts that it is intentional (and his UTC doesn't even use any custom scripts, just generics).

[DarthParametric]

He doesn't pop the shield on my end until combat begins, so in the absence of further evidence I will put this down to Salk's version being screwed up (again).

[Salk73]

What happens in my case is that Hulas activates the shield some seconds after the area is loaded (I guess via heartbeat), actually. Doesn't this happen to you too?

[DarthParametric]

No. He manually activates it when combat starts post-conversation (including an activation animation).