Just like the name suggests, would it be possible to implement a flying animation for PCs with Winged Character feat, usable only during sprint?
I've been playing an avariel for a while now, a race whose culture, and in many ways personality, is centered around flying. And that also happens to be distinctly lacking in the game. Arelith is very reliant on wysiwyg - you can't emote flight, when in reality you are very much standing on the ground or running around hasted. Don't get me wrong, the wing flaps sort of help, but they do not feel like a real representation of flight. So, in theory, you are a winged elf that loves flying, but you cannot reasonably represent that in the game, aside from occasional rope climbs in Sib that have the speedy hin animation (you know the one), or climb checks which also feel sort of incomplete.
What I'm suggesting would be a purely aesthetic change of the sprint mechanic, for any PC with Winged Character feat (except pixies or imps, their models already fly), which would allow them to enter a flying animation for the duration of sprint. Something akin to lightly hovering over the ground. It would make sense that a character with wings would fly, rather than trying to run?
Now, the hard part of that would probably be the animation itself... And if that's impossible to implement, that's fair. I'm no dev, I have no idea what kind of work would be needed with implementing new animations. Although I did see a hak that added "Avariel elves" into NwN EE, who seem to move around by hovering. This is what made me think about this idea in the first place.
If implementing the flight animation can't be done, then I'd really love the flying animation during climb checks to be revisited, because it does feel kind of incomplete. I don't know if that's intentional or due to engine limitations though.
When you start climbing as a winged PC, you just disappear with a minor audio effect, and then land at your climb destination with the same animation that messenger hins use, albeit a bit jankier. Would it be possible to include an "ascention" animation during the first part of the climb? I know it exists, as it is perfectly utilized during rope climbs in a particular Sibayad tomb.
Even a fix to the animation would be great, if implemented!
