Animations - do we need them?

[makazuwr32]

It will be such a pain to animate them

sure animations are pain, i talk about here the "engine capability" to set such animation for this and that unit (especially eg. Legendary skin units)
so it will not be presented for all units? Not as a mandatory at least.
If yes that is good.

facing not left or right but towards player

sure all should be figured out how to.
That is good.

Attack animation for up and down directions. I do not see any good ways of making it without making it looking weird

this problem already menioned in roginal first post: i called it "direction problem"

attack with more than 1 action

this is easy: both separate attacks will animate the unit (so 2 attacks shows the same attack animation twice)
you did not get me right here:
We have a unit with 2 weapons and 2 actions. Should we use full animation for each attack (when it uses both its weapons) or should we make separate animation for first weapon and first action and separate animation for second weapon and second action?

Also in case of second option with separate attack animations for each weapon what animation must be used when unit gains additional actions?

how to animate attack of front-facing units like

this problem already menioned in roginal first post: i called it "direction problem"

Here we have the biggest range among all ao-based games of possible units' looks

yes but again: i do not talk about making ALL unit images and animations at once, i am talking about the ENGINE capability to set such animation if it was drawn already.
Now i understand what do you mean. And i must disappoint you — i think 3, 4 and 5 points will not be used in aof at least. Well for some time for sure (probably for few years). Mainly because of amount of work.

ents (btw why they are dropping corpses? they do not have bones?!)

ents dont have bones i think.
the thing is that ent warrior and ent thrower both drop giant corpses.
or you ment the undead monsters? those do not drop not to make UNDEAD too op (as having unlimited corpses to revive)
That i did not mean. I mean how dying animation must look for them? I can't imagine dying animation itself for some units. I do not even mentrion dropping corpses

And dying animation for them will be really hard to make looking well

why hard? i mean all animation making is hard but why the dying?
Question itself is above — i literally can't imagine dying animation for some units.

raising animation as well

yes raising is a new animation option, i put into list.
Not that we will get to it anytime soon...

[makazuwr32]

1. idle animation whole unit (idle = a standing unit that does nothing at the moment)
.....
b) random special animations (eg. in 30-40sec of standing it start changing the wepon in hands or moves its legs a bit, or does some movement)

This one for now is most promising, easiest to implement and easiest to start using for devs and helpers as for me.

I even have few ideas for some units idle animations.

[Midonik]

It seems like a huge effort to animate. I mean, each game has a few hundred units in it, they would all need separate few frame animations, right?

[Stratego (dev)]

not all, i mean the "possibility" so set them.

eg. it is mandatory for legendary skins. they must animate varied ways

[makazuwr32]

Since it is at least for now is not a mandatory requirement for basic images it is fine.