Originally, I planned to discuss the topic through a Pull Request. However, since changes to the ACU animations can be a rather sensitive topic, @magge gave me the good advice to first make the adjustments available as a mod to a larger group of testers.

That is exactly what this mod is intended for.

Besides testing my own work, I also want to give other modders an easy way to experiment with their own ideas and improvements.

I am only a hobby creator and not a professional animator. These animations are therefore my attempt to create the most convincing movement possible with the tools and skills I currently have. Maybe we can improve them together.

The Mod

For now, the mod simply uses the name TEST S. This allows me to reuse it for future projects without having to create a new test mod for every project.

What has been changed?

Cybran ACU

The original walk animation has mostly been kept intact.
• Head position: The head no longer sinks as deeply into the shoulder area while walking.
• Hip and upper body: Both have been raised slightly to reduce the noticeable height difference between standing and walking.

UEF ACU

The walk animation has been completely recreated.
In the original animation, the very rigid upper body combined with the strong bending of the legs felt somewhat unnatural to me.
With the new animation, I tried to give the UEF ACU a stronger sense of weight and mass, as you would expect from a large and heavy combat robot. I also tried to involve the other limbs more in the movement to create a more natural and dynamic animation.

Aeon ACU

There are two versions of the Aeon ACU.
One is based on the original animation and is currently also my personal favorite. The second version was completely recreated.
With the original animation, I noticed a particularly strong sideways movement. This made the ACU appear somewhat unstable, with the head moving noticeably along with the body.
The new versions are intended to create a more stable and natural walking motion.

Note for Testers

Alongside the mod, I have also included a small test map that allows you to quickly compare the different animations. A test should take around 2–5 minutes.

At the beginning, you have access to all four ACUs, as well as the required factories, mass and energy.

The different animations can be built directly from the respective faction factories and compared with each other.

My current favorites are marked with a blue V icon.

The other variants are numbered and marked with a black icon.

Note for Other Modders

The respective unit files also contain the corresponding Blender source file.
If you are interested, feel free to experiment with them and try creating your own versions or further improving the animations.
I would be very happy to see other approaches, ideas and improvements.

Final Note

I want to make it clear that this is only a proposal from my side.
The corresponding Pull Request is currently on hold. I do not want these changes to simply be added to the game unless we have first found an approach that as many people as possible are happy with.

Whether and in what form such changes are ultimately implemented in FAF is entirely up to the FAF core team.

For now, this mod is simply intended to make it easier to test and compare different approaches.

Have fun testing!