[AI] Castle cavalry and angels

All fourteen Castle creatures have local drafts. On October 1, 0.27.32 gives the Cavalier downward attack a grounded turn and downward thrust, correcting slight hoof penetration during transitions. The Champion has not received these revisions; upward attacks and other roster motion remain under review.

Angel installed in the game (October 2, 0.27.33)

The integrated Angel body, revised neck and hair, sword-hand connection, and fitted wing roots now replace the local CANGEL assets. All 16 groups and 94 frames retain the native layout, with 1× and 2× images, shadows, and selection outlines. Packaging reports 0 errors and 0 warnings. Replaced files were backed up, other creatures remain unchanged, and no VCMI source was modified.

A local test battle confirms the revised Angel appears on the battlefield. The wings follow the new spine, with a local root adjustment applied across all 94 frames. This remains a test draft: hair joins, wrist materials, robe texture borders, and some flight deformation need work. The screenshot and packaging checks do not constitute a complete visual review of every action. The Archangel has not received these changes. The Archangel subsequently received its own body update in 0.27.34, described next.

Archangel body update (October 2, 0.27.34)

The Archangel now uses one reconstruction for the head, neck, and armored body, retaining brown hair, the winged circlet, dark steel with gold trim, and the white tabard. Meshy 7 geometry cost 30 credits and rigging cost 5. Astra restored the original material maps, transferred the existing actions, and attached the sword, shield, and closed grips to the new wrists. The separate-head neck seam from earlier trials is no longer part of this model.

All 16 groups and 91 frames have been exported at 1× and 2× with shadows and selection outlines. Packaging reports 0 errors and 0 warnings. The local mod is now 0.27.34, and a test battle confirms loading. The Angel and other creatures retain their previous assets; no VCMI source was changed.

This update delivers the body and equipment assembly while retaining the previously installed wing geometry and motion. The new curved wings are not installed. Flight attachment and folded-wing fidelity remain unfinished, as do visible wrist, elbow, and death-pose deformation defects.

Rejected wing assembly trials

The new wing trial exposed a hierarchy error: its armature followed the body, but its meshes did not follow the armature’s object transform. The body fell while the wings stayed upright. Parenting the meshes correctly made them follow the fall, after which ground checks revealed substantial penetration. Rotating the roots using a ground-only objective pushed feathers through the legs. That trial was not installed.

Bone naming also caused a misplaced attachment: in this Meshy rig, Spine is the upper chest and Spine02 is lower. Choosing by the name placed the roots too low. Refitting from measured bone positions still needs a complete flight and death review. The body update ships first; the wing candidates and rejected trials remain available for the next revision.

Archangel folded-wing revision (October 1, not installed)

The game still runs 0.27.32. The mod reached 0.27.33 on October 2, but the Archangel assets remain unchanged. Version 0.27.34 subsequently replaced the Archangel body; the new wings in this section remain uninstalled. Comparing the Archangel with the original showed that thinner feathers alone had not fixed the folded silhouette: the old wings hang like straight panels, missing the rounded upper edge and darker inner layers. Bending the old rig produced a pinched elbow. This revision keeps the body and equipment and rebuilds the wings.

Meshy reconstructed front and back surfaces with depth, consuming 30 credits. Astra separated the wings in Blender and adjusted their size and attachment positions. This high-resolution still shows the actual 3D model. It is a folded-pose fitting, not an installed animation replacement.

Two unfolding attempts failed. Treating connected mesh components as individual feathers and assigning bones by their roots opened gaps at the elbow. Blending weights uniformly within each component then produced fragmentation. A diagnostic weld revealed why: the 199 / 227 components per side were separated by texture seams. Merging coincident vertices within 0.000001 scene units on a diagnostic copy produced one connected component per wing.

Continuous per-vertex weights now preserve the original texture layout while preventing those seams from separating. The wings have been tested on the seven-frame flying body animation, but the fully opened root still curls and the recovery silhouette needs more comparison with the original. Full action coverage, collision review and in-game acceptance remain unfinished. The Cavalier upward-attack and Champion candidates also remain local and uninstalled.

Cavalier downward attack

The previous downward attack reused a rotated front attack, including its rearing horse. The original instead turns into a low thrust. This revision retains the repaired grip and changes the horse stance, rider lean and turning phases. An intermediate attempt held a frontal orientation throughout the middle frames and looked stalled; the revised turn peaks at frame 4 and then eases back.

Reopening the Blender scene and sampling 33 poses found no lance–horse intersections. Endpoint meshes differ from holding by less than 0.000001 scene units at any vertex. These checks cover specific issues; they do not certify every self-intersection or the appearance of every action.

Local 0.27.32 entered a test battle, confirming loading and battle progression. This capture does not cover all nine downward-attack frames in playback.

Local 0.27.31 entered a test battle, confirming loading and battle progression. Every action has not yet been captured in full.

Local 0.27.30 entered a test battle and displayed normally. This capture does not cover the complete ten-frame attack playback.

October 1 model revisions

Version 0.27.25 subsequently entered a local test battle. Capturing only the window owned by this test process produced 93 frames, with the revised assets visible as battle progressed. This does not establish acceptance of every action. Earlier status: The new 0.27.25 revision has not yet been checked in battle.

The 0.27.22 test battle confirmed that all fourteen units could be displayed. This capture predates the latest Swordsman arm correction and does not establish full animation playback quality.

The Swordsman’s free-side elbow projected forward before the forearm bent back down. Astra adjusted the wrist target and elbow direction, keeping the separate hand attached while preserving the sword arm and its existing swing. The correction covers 13 groups and 76 frames. Version 0.27.23 installs 336 body, shadow and outline images with unchanged animation configurations. Installed format validation reports zero errors or warnings; 6,805 other files remain unchanged, and backup and rollback validation passed. Full in-game motion still needs review.

The October 1 walking comparison exposed another issue: the sword hand stayed almost fixed in front. 0.27.29 swings it back toward the hip, bringing the blade closer to horizontal while the free arm comes forward. Both independent hand attachments follow their wrists. The first trial intersected the body with the blade in frame five; reducing that frame’s swing cleared the tested blade, hilt and pommel surfaces in all eight exported poses. Body and matching shadows were rendered again, replacing 28 images while preserving all other actions and configurations. Installed validation and rollback checks passed without errors or warnings. This addresses the arm swing; the gait still differs from the original.

Both Griffins now have larger wings while retaining their original folding proportions and body scale. All 170 revised poses fit the game canvas and keep the wings above the ground. The complete set is installed in 0.27.24, with zero format errors or warnings. The update changes 744 images and the mod metadata; 6,399 other files remain unchanged, including the revised Swordsman. Backup and rollback validation passed. In-game playback still needs review.

Reviewing all 170 enlarged-wing poses found wing overlap in one flight frame and the end of the death action. Rotating the whole right wing raised the final pose too far, so that trial was rejected. The next revision makes a small flight adjustment and uses Blender shape keys to separate the crossing feathers locally during the fall, preserving the roots and prone silhouette. Some overlap remains at the root connection; this is not a claim of zero intersections across the model. The revision is installed in local 0.27.28. Actual changes comprise 67 images and mod metadata, with 7,076 other files unchanged. All four animation configurations are unchanged; installed validation reports zero errors or warnings, and backup and rollback validation passed. October 1 verification history: Window captures from this test were black; a usable battle capture of this revision is still missing. A retry that day entered battle and produced a usable capture. The cause of the first black capture remains undetermined.

The Angel continues to use Meshy body and wing geometry, with binding and motion edited by Astra. Comparison with the original led to a more compact idle-wing silhouette, broader shoulders, shorter forearms and a smaller free hand. All 94 frames and shadows are installed in 0.27.25, with unchanged animation configurations. The update changes 412 images and the mod metadata, leaving 6,731 other files unchanged. Installed format validation reports zero errors or warnings; backup and rollback validation passed. Continuous in-game playback still needs review.

Revising the Angel wing attachment

Further inspection found feathers entering the back in the compact-wing revision installed in 0.27.25. Moving the entire wings outward cleared the intersection checks but left visibly floating roots from behind. A broader blend into the back then stretched the inner feathers into bands. Neither trial was installed.

The new candidate keeps the Meshy wings, with a smaller binding transition near each root following the torso. The roots now retain a fixed position relative to the torso while the wings rotate. A right-wing adjustment also clears the sword during the wind-up. All 94 poses were reopened: no sword/body or sword/wing surface intersections, body/wing contact confined to the designated attachment patch, and intact wrist seams and game framing. This does not certify every self-intersection or continuous interpolation. All 94 frames and their shadows are installed in local 0.27.27. The update changes 412 images and mod metadata, leaving 6,731 other files unchanged. Animation configurations are unchanged; installed validation reports zero errors or warnings, and backup and rollback validation passed. The assets loaded and battle progressed in a test run; this spot check does not establish acceptance of every action.

An earlier trial pointed the first wing joint upwards and folded the next two downwards. The existing weights curled the upper feathers into loops, so that version was rejected. The current candidate retains smoother feather geometry while reducing the idle silhouette, with the extended span retained in flight.

Version record: 0.27.8–0.27.18

The following records each version’s changes and verification at the time. The latest Pikeman work appears under “Realism revision.” Earlier status on 26 September: The local mod is at 0.27.12, refining the Marksman’s three melee impact poses. It retains the bareheaded, blue-clad Pikeman, upright cavalry lances and gold Royal Griffin forelegs and talons. Version 0.27.13 replaces that Pikeman while retaining the other units.

Both carry the lance upward while standing and moving, lower it during an attack, and raise it again afterward. Each retains the original 13 groups and 81 frames. Body, shadow and selection layers at 1× and 2× total 342 PNGs per unit. Both packages passed format validation with zero errors and warnings, and installation preserved backups and rollback scripts. This update checked the exported frames and installed files; it has no new battle screenshot. The battle image in the historical record below shows an earlier version.

On October 1, 0.27.30 updates the Cavalier’s ten front-attack frames. The previous lance was already level in frame three; the revision delays lowering until around frame five. A wrist-only timing trial drove the rear shaft through the gauntlet, and two elbow-only trials failed too. The selected revision preserves the lance’s world position and direction, turns the palm relative to the handle and solves the arm with two-bone IK. During the level thrust, an additional palm rotation moves the forearm away from the shaft. Reopening 145 sampled poses gives a maximum wrist-target error of about 0.00000038 metres. Contact checks still include the grip and a small cuff transition; this is not a claim of zero intersections throughout the model.

The body frames and matching shadows are installed: 40 images and metadata changed, 7,103 files stayed unchanged, and animation configurations were preserved. Installation and rollback checks passed. The native downward attack lowers its lance earlier, so it must be reviewed separately. Other directions and the Champion retain their previous assets.

The full-action grip revision in 0.27.31. The remaining actions keep their lance trajectories while the palm and arm are repositioned together. The display action and left turn also exposed an old shaft–leg intersection. The hand and lance now move outward together, then return smoothly. Transition checks covered idle, movement start and stop, display, turns and death. The old right-turn wrist orientation did not match its neighbouring actions, and the death clip had missed the upright-lance revision. Reusing those transforms produced roughly 5–9 centimetres of wrist displacement at transitions. The revised right arm and lance now reverse the left-turn sequence. Death starts from the corrected carrying pose and blends into the previous falling trajectory during release.

The reopened death scene was checked at 113 samples: no lance–horse surface intersections or lance penetration below the floor were detected. This does not certify every self-intersection in the model. The repaired right-turn and death boundaries now agree at the wrist within floating-point precision. All body frames and shadows are installed, with format and rollback checks passing. The movement-to-stop boundary retains an existing difference of roughly 3 centimetres; native-pose review of the upward and downward attacks remains unfinished.

Six missing Royal Griffin turn frames are now rendered, bringing the gold talons to all 13 groups and 85 frames. The first colour-threshold pass missed highlights and shaded areas, leaving brown and yellow patches. The replacement mask comes from paired renders of the same pose before and after talon colouring, preserving the silver feathers and brown lion body. The body silhouettes retain their registration. The package passed validation with zero errors or warnings and is installed with rollback files; 0.27.9 has not had a new battle check. The body is still too broad and the folded wings need work.

The latest multi-image Meshy Pikeman also failed visual review. It still has a helmet, a mostly white chest and a blocky heraldic motif inherited from the low-resolution references. This candidate was not installed. October 1 correction: the helmet and blocky motif remain problems with that candidate, but treating the light chest region itself as an error was too broad. The subsequent navy-cloth costume also drifted from the original.

Codex’s built-in image_gen produced a new concept from original idle and turn references: bare head, navy clothing, empty hands and an A-pose. Meshy has finished the mesh and rig, at 30 and 5 credits respectively. Front and back review confirms that the helmet and large white chest are gone. All 11 unique action groups and 76 frames are now transferred and installed in 0.27.10. The Marksman’s arm extension and the Halberdier’s open helmet still need work. Earlier FLUX and direct-Meshy experiments are retained below.

The first motion transfer left open hands several centimetres away from the shaft. The repair keeps the earlier separately modelled hands and finger animation, then fits the new arms to their wrist positions. This also preserves the release during death. Four downward-attack frames needed up to about one centimetre of shoulder movement to reach, without stretching the arm bones. Rendering is complete; samples from every action were inspected for grip, turns and death. Format validation reports zero errors and warnings, all 328 installed files match their recorded hashes, and backups and rollback scripts are retained. Version 0.27.10 has not had a new battle check.

Codex handled this handover, packaging and installation. The upright-lance scenes and exports were already available at handover.

Marksman melee blade

The Marksman’s melee sword direction remains unresolved. Version 0.27.11, installed on 26 September, rotates the blade face and wrist and reduces foreshortening at impact. The previous blade faced the camera nearly edge-on and looked like a thin line. The repair also restores the separately modelled sword hand with its finger animation. All 18 frames across upward, front and downward attacks were updated. Surface intersection checks found no blade contacts with the body or crossbow. Format validation passed and all 424 installed files match their hashes; there is no new battle check yet.

The assessment at 0.27.11 was: The blade is easier to see, but the full motion still differs from the original: the upward strike angle and arm extension need further work. Version 0.27.12 uses the original impact frames to adjust grip positions and blade angles. The front and upward strikes use arm and clavicle changes; the downward strike also changes the torso, left arm and crossbow. Moving the right hand alone first produced an unreachable target. Bending the torso then left the crossbow overhead, so the left hand and weapon had to move together toward the original upper-left position.

All 18 melee frames were exported again, the 424 installed files match their hashes, and rollback files are retained. Landmarks were read manually from the original images. Body proportions, shoulder deformation and playback still need review; matching a hand position does not establish overall likeness. The Halberdier’s open helmet and the Royal Griffin’s proportions and folded wings remain unfinished.

Version 0.27.12 test battle

The local test map includes all fourteen Castle creatures and successfully entered combat. The new blue Pikeman is visible at the upper right, and the Royal Griffin’s gold forelegs on the left. The capture also shows scale, colour and occlusion against the actual battlefield. This short run verifies loading and display; it did not capture complete playback of all three Marksman melee directions and does not sign off the full animation set.

Realism revision

After seeing the battle capture, the user found the Pikeman and other drafts too cartoonish. This iteration has not passed visual review. A bare head, blue clothing and working animations address only part of the problem; balloon sleeves, broad bright edging, puffed trousers and smooth surfaces still suggest a toy.

The material audit also found a pipeline error. The original Pikeman mesh GLB has metallic 0, roughness 0.8 and no emission. Meshy’s rigged GLB adds emissive colour and strength 1, while omitting metallic, which imports into Blender as the default 1. The modelling preview had corrected these settings, but motion transfer did not restore the original material. The inspected Marksman, Halberdier and Archer action scenes have similar settings. A controlled render with metallic and emission disabled still looks stylized, so geometry, textures and lighting need attention too.

Revisiting the Pikeman costume, October 1

The attempt to reduce the cartoonish costume also simplified the light chest structure into a navy cloth doublet. A fresh comparison restored light silver chest protection, blue clothing and narrow yellow edging. Steel remains a modeling interpretation of the low-resolution region, requiring fidelity review. Meshy completed the mesh and rig for 30 and 5 credits respectively. Restoring the original PBR material included verifying matching UVs across 74,521 triangles.

The new body retains the existing pike and separate gripping hands across 11 groups and 76 frames. Maximum wrist-target error is approximately 0.0053 mm, with less than 0.6 mm of shoulder adjustment. All images fit the original canvas. These checks cover grip alignment and output. After the edging repair and shadow render, 0.27.26 installs 326 images across 11 groups and 76 frames. Installed validation reports zero errors or warnings, with other creature files unchanged. A test battle confirms loading; detailed action review remains outstanding.

The installed repair fits four front skirt-border curves and adjusts blue and yellow material only near those lines, across every action. Body geometry, motion and original PBR textures are preserved. One intermediate shader trial left the vertex alpha at its default and turned the body white; it was rejected. Correct initialization produced the installed revision. Fine texture irregularities remain.

Earlier failed trial, October 1: The skirt edging still has jagged gaps. An attempted vertex-material repair smeared yellow across the border and was rejected. The motion draft above retains its original material, with this detail still pending repair.

The new image_gen concept reduces shoulder volume, narrows the pale trim and uses fitted trousers. Meshy completed the mesh and rig for 30 + 5 credits, with PBR maps enabled. The material loss reproduced: the source had normal and metallic/roughness maps, while the rigged result omitted them and added emission.

The restoration tool first verifies matching UVs across all 74,835 triangles, then restores the source material while retaining the rig and animation. Its exported GLB keeps the normal and metallic/roughness maps without the added emission. The tool and usage notes are available in the public code repository.

Status during the single-frame experiment on 26 September: Idle motion and the separate gripping hands have been transferred, and one frame rendered at game resolution. Costume volume and bright decoration are reduced, but the full animation set and battle checks remain unfinished. This candidate has not replaced the old model in 0.27.12, and its style has not been signed off.

All 76 frames are now rendered with a more directional key light and weaker ambient and frontal fill, giving the cloth folds and boots clearer form. Every action scene retains the normal, roughness and metallic maps without emission. The separate finger animation is preserved, with the new arms fitted to its grip positions. Format validation reports zero errors and warnings, and all 328 installed files match their hashes. Backups and a rollback script are retained.

The revised unit has entered a local test battle, shown at the beginning of this article. This short run confirms loading and display; it does not validate every animation in playback or establish that the other Castle creatures have completed their realism revisions.

Halberdier helmet and clothing

The previous Halberdier covered the original’s visible face with a closed faceplate and reproduced its chest emblem as pixel blocks. A new built-in image_gen reference retains the blue-and-yellow clothing, white griffin and shoulder plates, with less inflated fabric. Meshy generated the replacement with PBR maps for 30 credits.

Rigging subsequently completed for 5 credits. The source material was restored after verifying matching UVs across 74,318 triangles. Status at the single-frame trial: The game still uses the earlier Halberdier. Grip and motion work remain: the source action scene has no separate finger bones, so the Pikeman hand-repair script cannot simply be reused.

The earlier model already had closed-grip geometry and release shape keys. Its hands were retained separately, with the new arms fitted to the original wrists and the hit/death release drivers preserved. All 11 groups and 63 frames are rendered. Material maps and hand-release values passed frame-by-frame checks, and samples from every group were visually inspected. Format validation reports zero errors and warnings; all 278 installed files match their hashes. Version 0.27.14 retains backups and a rollback script.

The battle capture at the beginning of this article confirms loading and display. The short run did not cover complete playback of every action, and the art still needs further review.

Archer colour placement and proportions

The previous Archer expanded the costume into a large blue-and-white chest split and had a visibly washed-out face. A new built-in image_gen reference follows the original’s dark kettle helmet, pale neck protection, blue chest with white heraldry and asymmetric hose. The crossbow and melee dagger remain separate props. Meshy generated the replacement body with PBR maps for 30 credits, and its front and back have been inspected in Blender.

Source scenes for all 16 action groups and 96 frames have been located and checked. Rigging cost another 5 credits; source materials were restored after matching UVs across 72,659 triangles. The first 22 frames cover idle, forward shooting and forward melee, retaining the existing hands, crossbow, bolt and dagger motion.

The recovery pose in shooting frame 7 put the crossbow stock through the new chest. Moving the weapon and both hands forward by 4 cm cleared that frame, but intermediate poses still collided and wrist mismatch reached almost 6 cm. A second attempt applies a smooth forward offset between frames 6 and 8, peaking at 8 cm, and refits both arms at denser intervals. After reopening the scene, 113 samples showed no crossbow/body surface overlaps. Intermediate wrist mismatch remains about 7 mm. This check excludes finger contact, containment and the other clips.

Status during the 22-frame trial: The other actions remain unexported. Melee equipment clearance and the original waist equipment also need review. This version has not been installed. All 16 groups and 96 frames are now exported. Upward and downward shooting had the same recovery collision and received the continuous repair. An 8 cm offset in the display action exceeded arm reach; reducing it to 6 cm passed the sampled check. A separate slender leather attachment at the right hip was modelled in Blender and follows the pelvis.

Across all 96 exported frames, PBR maps are retained, with no crossbow/dagger surface overlaps against the body and no waist-case overlaps with weapons or floor penetration by the case. These checks exclude finger contact, body self-intersection and complete subframe motion. Samples from every action were visually inspected. Format validation reports zero errors and warnings, and all 630 installed files match their hashes. Version 0.27.15 retains backups and rollback instructions. The battle capture at the beginning confirms loading and display; complete in-game playback of every action has not been recorded.

Matching the Marksman’s style

The user asked for the Marksman to match the new Archer’s realism. Built-in image_gen used the original equipment and the Archer reference to retain a pointed helmet, shoulder-covering mail and reinforced bracers while matching the human proportions, blue fabric and leather boots. Meshy completed modelling and rigging for 30 and 5 credits. Material restoration verified matching UVs across 74,003 triangles.

Version 0.27.16 installs all 97 Marksman frames. The replacement retains the articulated hands and separate weapons. Walking and display poses adjust the two-handed crossbow hold; melee uses a steadier left-arm hold while the right arm swings the sword. Defence, hit reactions, death and movement transitions were also fitted to the new body. All exported frames retain PBR materials and pass body/weapon surface-intersection checks. Format validation reports zero errors and warnings, and an independent reread verifies all 424 installed files. Backups and rollback instructions are retained. The battle capture at the top confirms local loading and display.

Several failed repairs exposed tooling faults. Choosing the older of two body rigs discarded earlier pose corrections. Restoring world-space bone matrices repeatedly during pose search accumulated parent-transform errors: one candidate cleared the weapon while detaching the wrist. Restoring local bone poses and checking wrist alignment separately caught that failure. Existing fractional-frame keys also survived newly inserted keys, so complete replacement of the edited curves was necessary for continuous-motion repairs.

This delivery covers VCMI’s discrete sprite frames. Some source scenes still have cuff intersections or grip misalignment between those frames. They need further curve work before use as continuous three.js animation. The exported-frame checks do not certify containment, every finger contact or body self-intersection.

Initial trial recorded on 26 September, before installation: The melee scenes retain both an older rig and the more recently repaired body rig. Motion transfer now explicitly selects the repaired one so those pose changes survive. The first 28 frames cover idle, forward shooting, forward melee and downward melee; weapon and hand-attachment transforms match their repaired sources. The replacement body introduces crossbow/body intersections, and two melee recovery frames also intersect the blade. This version is not installed; motion adaptation remains necessary alongside the style change. The installed result above supersedes that pending status; the early failure sheet remains below.

Revising the Swordsman

The user asked to keep the Crusader, revise the Swordsman next, then address the Angel and Archangel before reviewing the Griffins. The previous Swordsman had mail sleeves, an overly pointed helmet and a slender build with light-looking leg armour. The new reference follows the original costume, using the Crusader for believable materials and the Archer for a consistent photographic treatment. It restores bare upper arms, dark steel head and leg protection, and a short blue-and-white tabard, without adding a shield, cloak or scabbard.

Meshy completed the body and humanoid rig for 30 and 5 credits. Astra inspected eight Blender views and restored the source PBR materials after verifying matching UVs across 74,006 triangles. The following 1400 × 1600 still shows the actual mesh.

On 27 September, 0.27.17 installs all 13 Swordsman actions and 76 frames. Meshy supplied the body and humanoid rig. Astra reused articulated Meshy hands from existing work, replaced the open palms, built a leather hilt and steel pommel, adjusted the thumb and grip, and adapted walking, attacks, defence, reactions, death and turns.

The first transfer aimed the blade toward the camera, making it look short. Correcting its orientation exposed another problem: the old handle was only about 3.8 cm long. Subsequent action probes found a pommel/forearm collision during the wind-up and blade/body intersections during hit reactions. Wrist and weapon poses were adjusted together. Every rendered scene was reopened; all 76 exported poses pass body/blade, body/hilt and body/pommel surface-intersection checks, with no canvas clipping. Format validation reports zero errors and warnings, and an independent post-install read verifies 338 files. Backups and rollback records are retained. These checks cover exported game frames, not continuous 3D interpolation or detailed finger contact.

Initial transfer record from 26 September: The existing motion sources cover 13 groups and 76 frames. An initial transfer produced the eight idle frames, but sword orientation and grip still need work against the original reference. This body is not installed; the local game remains at 0.27.16, with the Crusader unchanged. The installed result above supersedes that pending status; the original failure image remains below.

Revising the Angel and Archangel bodies

Work on these two models began on 27 September. The original Angel has dark shoulder-length hair, bare arms and an ankle-length white robe with blue edging. The Archangel wears dark steel armour with gold borders, white skirt panels and a winged headpiece. The earlier drafts departed from those references in robe length, trim, armour materials and shield shape. This pass builds separate bodies, leaving wings, swords and the Archangel’s tall shield as independent attachments.

Meshy has generated and rigged both bodies, at 30 + 5 credits each. Astra inspected eight Blender views of each model and restored their source PBR materials. These 1400 × 1600 stills show the actual 3D bodies; neither is a complete creature yet.

Initial transfer recorded on 27 September: The Angel’s first motion probe covers eight idle and seven flight frames, using the existing wings and sword. The idle silhouette is closer to the original, but automatic skinning pulls the flying robe into two trouser-like legs. The wings also intersect the new body, and the sword grip remains open. Robe controls, hand grips and wing attachment need further work; the Archangel’s tall shield and complete motion set are also pending. The original layouts have been checked: 16 groups and 94 frames for the Angel, 16 groups and 91 frames for the Archangel.

Two local repairs followed the initial 15-frame probe. A shared three-part robe control replaces independent leg influence on the lower skirt, restoring a single trailing cloth silhouette in flight. An existing articulated Meshy hand was fitted to the sword, with a skinned wrist transition. Raising the hand-removal weight threshold left skin fragments, and moving the replacement hand did not close the seam; those attempts are retained, while the current candidate uses a separate wrist bridge.

27 September, before the full motion adaptation:

Reopening all eight idle and seven flight poses shows no separation between the wrist bridge and forearm, and no sword/body surface intersections. This is a local check of those 15 exported poses, not certification of every finger contact or continuous interpolation. Adjusting the idle wing-root angle also removes the earlier arm intersections. Flight wings still intersect the waist and back: modest root translations did not clear every frame, and shortening the inner trailing feathers only reduced some contacts. That wing reshaping has not been selected for delivery. Remaining Angel actions and the Archangel’s attachments and animations still need adaptation.

Neither revised Angel body is installed. The local game remains at the Swordsman update, 0.27.17. The Crusader is retained, and Griffin review follows these two units.

The flight problem was traced to wing geometry extending roughly 35 cm inward beyond the root joint. Translating the roots, twisting the whole wings and shortening inner feathers had not cleared the body consistently. Astra trimmed and capped the surplus root geometry, retained the outer feathers and textures, then made small pose adjustments for flight, turns and hit reactions. Wrist angles in the three attack windups were adjusted to clear the raised wings.

The first full death sequence kept the robe straight, lifting the kneeling body off its intended position. Folding the three robe controls let the body settle lower; the final two poses also needed wing-root clearance adjustments. Every action uses the same 3D body and rig.

A high-resolution still exposed another inherited defect: the sword tip carried a second handle-like structure. That candidate was briefly installed locally and then rolled back. The final version keeps the Meshy hilt and guard, with a single-point blade repaired by Astra in Blender, followed by a fresh export of every action.

Each final scene was reopened to check all 76 independent exported poses: no wrist-seam separation or surface intersections between the body, sword and either wing were detected. The original body normal, metallic and roughness maps remain linked. These checks cover the integer frames used by VCMI; they do not certify every finger contact, self-intersection or continuous 3D interpolation. The 16-group, 94-frame package passes format validation with zero errors and warnings. All 414 installed files match their recorded hashes, with a backup and rollback script retained.

The local mod is now 0.27.18, updating only the Angel. The bounded runtime check stayed on a black screen after renderer startup and was ended by the script; it does not demonstrate entry into battle. Older captures have not been presented as evidence for this version. The game still uses the previous Archangel assets while its new body’s attachments and actions are adapted.

Archangel grips, shield and collapse drafts

On 27 September, the revised Archangel body received separate closed gauntlets, a sword and wings. The body’s original open hands did not grip the weapon. Existing Meshy gauntlet geometry supplies the closed grip; assembly aligns its cavity with the actual sword handle, shortens the excessive handle length and adds wrist liners. These gloves follow the wrists; this draft does not add individually articulated fingers.

The first replacement shield was a mistake. Reading the idle silhouette alone led to a rectangular shield with a central boss. The original turn, defence and death frames show that idle mostly exposes the back, while the front carries a gold griffin. I had also oriented the new front toward the idle camera. This shield cost 30 Meshy credits and remains a rejected trial; it was not installed.

With this trial shield, 12 non-death actions have been rendered as 65 independent poses. One attack wind-up needed both upper-arm and wing-root adjustments to clear the sword. The shield arm had also inherited the Angel’s free-hand motion, requiring corrected attack, mouse-over and recovery poses. Reopening these scenes confirms retained body PBR maps and no intersections among the tested body, sword, shield and wing surfaces at those exported frames. These results apply to the rejected trial shield and integer frames only; the replacement needs fresh checks, and appearance remains unapproved.

The replacement shield has now been generated for another 30 Meshy credits, retaining the gold griffin and rounded lower edge. Meshy duplicated the emblem on the rear, so Astra replaced rear shading in Blender and added a grip, mounts and a continuous metal rim. The shield faces forward and outward from the body: idle exposes the back, while turning reveals the front. Both turn actions also restore the carrying arm pose instead of inheriting the empty-hand motion that tipped the shield sideways.

At the shield-revision stage, still using the old wings, reopening all 65 non-death poses shows no intersections among the tested body, sword, main shield surface and wings, with body PBR maps retained. This excludes the grip, small rim, complete finger contacts and continuous interpolation. Full replacement still requires the death animation.

The inherited death script also needed replacement. It knelt forward, whereas the original recoils, lifts its legs and falls backward, with the wings closing around the body. Recorded on 27 September before replacing the wings: The new backward-collapse draft clears the tested equipment surfaces, but its final wings remain too flat and the shield sits incorrectly. It is still being revised and has not been installed. The later draft below changes the shield tilt and wing geometry. The comparison below includes the original, the rejected kneeling version and the backward-fall draft.

Replacement Archangel wings

On 27 September, the thick, sculptural feathers prompted another wing model. Built-in image_gen supplied a thin-feather concept, and Meshy generated the mesh for 30 credits. Astra split the wings in Blender, bound each to the existing three-bone chain, and explicitly set non-metallic feather shading while retaining colour and normal maps.

Two initial idle and flight poses were checked before transferring all 12 non-death actions, totalling 65 poses. A uniform root adjustment introduced intersections during flight, so each clip now uses a fixed correction. Reopening the saved scenes finds no intersections among the tested body, sword, main shield surface and wings, with body PBR and rigid grips retained. These are exported integer poses; the check excludes all small attachments, complete self-intersections and continuous animation, and does not establish appearance acceptance.

The collapse silhouette remains unfinished. The first new-wing draft grounds the body, tilts the shield and bends the landing feathers through actual 3D deformation. Of its eight frames, the first six clear the tested main surface pairs. Frame seven still puts feathers below the floor, and the final two retain arm–feather intersections. The complete draft below records those remaining failures.

A later repair adjusts the final two wing-root poses and gives frame seven a separate feather-grounding shape key. Reopening all eight frames now finds no intersections among the tested main surface pairs; the wing tips in frames seven and eight remain about 3 mm above the floor. The result below still spreads the final wings too widely, like two side fans, whereas the original encloses the body more tightly. Passing these surface checks does not resolve that shape difference.

The wide mesh also exposed a preview-tool problem: a fixed camera cropped the wing tips. The tool now fits one shared frame across eight viewing angles, checked with this mesh. The public tool change is available.

Plan recorded before installation on 27 September: The local mod remains 0.27.18 and still uses the previous Archangel. Installation waits for the complete action and appearance review. Griffins follow afterward. The complete action set was subsequently installed as a local test version so the new body can be viewed in game. Final wing enclosure remains unfinished.

Archangel test version 0.27.19 and Griffin revision

The collapse now begins with lowered wings that open as the body falls, closer to the original opening frames. Several tighter final folds were also tried, but introduced wing intersections with the body, shield and opposite wing. Those trials were rejected. Version 0.27.19 retains the wider fold that clears the tested main surfaces; final enclosure and the later wing-opening timing still need refinement.

The full set contains 73 independent rendered poses and melee-action aliases, matching all 91 native frames. Tested main surface pairs clear at integer poses, render bounds are intact, and format validation reports zero errors or warnings. After installation, 396 file hashes were independently verified, with backup and rollback retained. VCMI source and the approved Crusader were unchanged. The GUI capture was black; a subsequent system-state check confirmed that the Mac was locked. This does not establish an asset-loading failure or a successful battle test.

Folded legs, feather tips and between-frame checks

Comparison with the original also exposed how strongly the boot soles faced the camera. Revised calves and ankles in the final two frames keep the body grounded, while wing-root rotations bring the wings closer to its sides. Simply moving the roots inward caused body or shield intersections. Larger tilts required raising the roots away from the back; those trials were rejected.

The outer feather tips now turn downward, with local 3D bending where feathers reach the ground. The following 1000 × 800 Blender still shows the new final-pose draft. All eight frames have been rendered again. Tested main body, sword, shield and wing surface pairs clear at integer frames, with no floor penetration. Feather joins and the final silhouette still need review.

Sampling the transition from frame seven to eight at one-eighth-frame intervals found brief shield–body intersections. The installed predecessor has the same shield problem, along with intermediate wing intersections. Integer-frame checks did not cover those instants. The game currently uses pre-rendered frames; this is an interpolation issue in the 3D scene that remains to be corrected. Eight checked images do not establish a clean continuous animation.

Collapse update in 0.27.21

The still and intersection findings above record the work before installation. Subsequent wrist and wing-root adjustments route the shield around the body and keep feather tips above ground. Added keys initially changed the incoming curve handle at frame seven, introducing a right-wing intersection in the preceding interval. Restoring that incoming curve and separately correcting the earlier shield path resolved the sampled contacts.

Reopening the scene and checking frames six through eight at 1/128-frame intervals covers 257 samples. The tested main body, sword, shield and wing surface pairs clear, and visible meshes remain above ground. The eight exported poses are preserved. This result covers the final two intervals and specified surface pairs, not complete body self-intersection or every other action’s interpolation.

The eight replacement frames and shadows are installed in local 0.27.21. All 396 staged file hashes were checked. Actual changes are 32 death images and the mod metadata; another 7,111 files remain unchanged. Installed format validation reports zero errors or warnings, with backup and rollback verified. Griffins and the Crusader are unchanged by this update. The desktop remains locked, so battle display is unverified. On October 1, a 0.27.22 battle-display capture was added above; full motion review remains pending. Feather joins and details of the original silhouette remain refinement work.

Griffin reference correction and rigging trials

On 27 September, a fresh extraction of CGRIFF.DEF from the original H3sprite.lod exposed a reference error. The idle image in a directory named native had been rendered from an earlier Blender scene. The original ordinary Griffin has two prominent upright ear tufts and higher foreclaws. Treating a swept-back head as an original feature was incorrect; the new concept and body inherited that mistake and still need correction.

Meshy completed the body for 30 credits. Automatic rigging returned HTTP 422 with “Pose estimation failed, please provide a valid model”; no rigging task was created. Astra then wrote Blender tooling for a fitted body, foreclaw, hind-leg, tail and wing skeleton. The wings reuse an existing Meshy feather mesh with segmented weights and adjusted colours.

Initial distance-based weights tolerated small movements but stretched chest feathers and claws into strips in a flight pose. The revised approach automatically weights a simplified continuous proxy in Blender, then transfers those weights to the detailed body. Independent checks after reopening the saved scenes confirm unchanged body vertices, faces, UVs and materials. The obvious tearing is reduced, though local deformation still needs work.

The proxy skinning tool and usage notes are public. Models and complete mods remain outside the tools repository.

Record before the local ear-tuft modelling trial on 27 September: Work currently covers an idle pose trial and four flight poses. Claw height, tail direction, ear tufts and wing folding still need adjustment against the actual original. Stretching the head feathers and assembling clipped wing tips as ear tufts both failed visual review. The full action set, Royal Griffin variant and installation remain unfinished; the game still uses the earlier Griffins.

The holding draft now has eight poses. Individually modelled ear feathers looked like smooth comb teeth, so built-in image_gen supplied a local tuft reference and Meshy generated a replacement for 30 credits.

The actual mesh has a pronounced fragmented surface. Disabling the normal map and fixing roughness did not remove it, so normal settings alone do not explain the result. The rejected close-up is retained below.

After scaling and head attachment, the paired upright silhouette is restored. A smoothing trial pulled isolated vertices towards the origin; removing it fixed the attachment check at head rotations of 25 degrees in either direction. This verifies attachment only. Granularity, colour and root blending remain unfinished. Status at this trial: The full animation set and Royal variant remain unfinished. No new Griffin has been installed. The ordinary Griffin motion draft and Royal material variant were subsequently added, as described below; neither is installed.

Complete Griffin animation draft

On 27 September, the ordinary Griffin draft reached 13 groups and 85 frames: holding, hover response, turns, takeoff, flight, landing, three attack directions, hit reaction, defence and death. Six additional source frames duplicate the turns and are not counted as independent motion. All scenes were reopened to check frame counts, and all 85 previews have intact image bounds. Groups still use offline review framing; game registration and installation remain pending.

Larger movements exposed another binding error. A left talon crosses the body centreline, and automatic weights assigned it to both hands. Reassigning weights by the two connected claw regions reduced the stretching. Lower chest feathers still carry some arm weights. A position-based attempt to remove those weights damaged the transition further and was rejected.

The first death endpoint exposed the belly and lifted the hind legs too high. The revision changes the side of the fall and lowers the legs and tail, but ground contact and wing folding still need work. Both versions below remain unfinished.

Griffin mouth

The Meshy body’s upper and lower beak were joined, leaving the mouth closed throughout attacks. The Blender revision separates the lower mandible and adds a jaw bone, beak tip, oral lining and tongue, while retaining the existing body, limb, tail and wing animation.

The first capping attempt treated duplicate vertices along texture seams as holes, leaving a dark gap even with the jaw closed. Welding coincident vertices in the mandible before filling the actual cut largely restored the closed outline. An additional surface connects the moving jaw at its hinge.

The mouth assembly is now present in all 13 action scenes and their 85 frames. Independent reopening confirmed unchanged transforms for every existing bone at every integer frame; only the jaw adds motion. All nine forward-attack frames were rendered, plus one probe from each other group. The full game asset set has not been re-exported with the new mouth.

Status before the Royal material pass on 27 September: Mouth corners and interior shape still need refinement, alongside ear-tuft quality, chest deformation, death and wing poses. The Royal Griffin, shared game framing and installation remain unfinished.

The Royal Griffin body

The Royal variant uses the same Meshy body and wings with the Blender rig. Its materials now follow the original silver-white head, neck and wings, gold beak and foreclaws, and brown lion body, retaining detail from the source textures. The first gold mask reached onto the forehead; the revised mask confines that area to the beak.

The Royal materials are present in 13 action scenes covering 85 frames. Independently reopening every scene confirmed identical mesh geometry and bone transforms at every integer frame, including the articulated mandible. One frame per group was rendered for material review. The complete Royal frame set has not been exported or installed.

The earlier ear tufts were granular. A voxel reconstruction trial attempted to merge the fragments and project the Meshy texture back onto the surface. The finer result retained extensive holes; the coarser result formed lumpy masses. Neither was adopted.

Status before the ear replacement on 27 September: Both Griffins remain offline drafts. Ear tufts, mouth corners, chest deformation, death and some wing poses need further work before shared game framing, full rendering and installation. The installed Griffins are unchanged.

Broad ear feathers

The previous mesh contained 1,571 disconnected components in one ear tuft, including fragments at the tips. A new built-in image_gen reference uses seven broad, continuous feathers with much less fine fluff. Meshy 6 reconstructed it for 30 credits.

The resulting feathers are coherent, but the asset is thin from the side. The first head attachment looked like spikes at a distance. Shortening, spreading and curving the cluster in Blender, then adding a shorter rear layer, gives it more volume. The render below shows the replacement for the fragmented surface. The roots could still blend more naturally into the head.

The ears are present in both Griffins’ 13 action scenes and 85 frames each. Reopening every scene verified 170 integer-frame poses: existing bone transforms and non-ear geometry are unchanged, and the tufts follow the head without the earlier pull towards the origin. Idle, forward attack, flight and turn probes were rendered for each variant. Full game-frame export remains pending.

Status before the death and weight corrections on 27 September: Both remain offline drafts. Mouth corners, chest deformation, death and some wing poses still need work, followed by shared game framing, export and installation. The installed Griffins are unchanged.

Death poses and weight corrections

The final pose still looked suspended: foreclaws tucked beneath the body, hind legs raised and wings spread sideways. Extending the forelegs and lowering the hindquarters exposed another problem. Ground alignment used the tail tip as the lowest point, lifting the whole body back up whenever the torso was lowered. The tail had to be laid down before reviewing contact across the body.

Chest feathers also carried influence from both forearms. During correction, a code bug emerged: saving list(vertex.groups) before removing memberships leaves stale Blender data references as the collection changes. Some old weights survived and were added to the replacement weights, producing totals as high as 1.81. Copying numeric group indices before removal fixed that operation. The earlier claw repair had the same bug, so its 4,136 affected vertices were recalculated from the scene preceding that repair.

The weight replacement helper and Blender regression test are public. The test checks that old memberships disappear and neighboring vertices remain unchanged; it does not establish anatomical fidelity.

Both variants’ 13 groups and 85 frames each were reopened. Body vertex weights now sum to one, with mesh geometry unchanged. The revised chest weights reduce the worst local stretch in the flight trial, although other regions and the later death poses still need work.

The second half of the death sequence now repositions the forelegs, hind legs and tail, with the wings laid flatter over the back. All nine frames were rendered for both Griffins. The stills below frame the final pose separately at high resolution; the animation uses one fixed camera throughout each sequence.

27 September, before shared camera registration: These remain offline drafts. The forearm-to-chest transition still stretches in the later death poses, and mouth corners and some feather joins need refinement. Shared game framing, export and installation follow those corrections. The installed Griffins are unchanged.

Further trials ruled out weight smoothing, which moved strain to another seam, and volume-preserving deformation, which introduced ground penetration. A smaller elbow and foreclaw adjustment in the final two frames reduced local strain while keeping the claws visible ahead of the head. The first seven frames and the body, head and wing motion are unchanged. The two high-resolution stills above precede this small adjustment.

Shared game camera

The modelling previews had been framed separately for each action, with different scales for standing and attacking. Both variants now use one fixed orthographic camera across their actions. Registration matches the original standing height of 89 pixels, horizontal centre and foot position. Scale is uniform; the model is not squeezed to match the original width.

27 September, before full export: All ten probes fit inside the canvas. The complete 170-frame sequence is being exported with this registration, alongside shadows projected from each posed mesh onto a fixed ground plane. Full export, shadow review, packaging and in-game verification remain pending, as do checks of local feather joins and mouth corners. The installed Griffins are unchanged.

Local test version 0.27.20

Reviewing the full action set exposed inconsistent lighting. Idle, mouse-over and both turn groups retained a darker environment, making the creature brighten abruptly when attacking. Both variants now share the same environment lighting. The 44 affected frames were rendered again; reopened scenes have identical geometry and bone motion, and exported alpha channels match pixel for pixel.

All 170 body frames and their shadows are exported. Each shadow projects the actual posed mesh onto fixed ground and receives the same opacity and blur settings. The 1× and 2× bodies, shadows and selection outlines total 744 images. Native active groups, frame counts and file-format checks pass; validation after installation reports zero errors and zero warnings.

The local Castle mod is now 0.27.20. All 748 installed asset and configuration files were hash-checked, and 6,395 untouched files were verified unchanged. Backups and a rollback script are retained. The approved Crusader is unchanged. The desktop is locked, so visual verification inside the game remains pending. The October 1 section includes a 0.27.22 battle-display capture; full motion review remains pending.

Outstanding work recorded at 0.27.20: This is still a test build. The foreclaws are small, and mouth corners, feather joins and late-death deformation need refinement. Hit and defence amplitudes also differ from the original. The Archangel final death wing fold remains unfinished as well. The Archangel collapse was updated in 0.27.21 above; further Griffin claw work follows below. Other shape and motion details still require review.

Claw size and forearm pose

Offline revision after 0.27.21, September 27: the original Griffin has conspicuous raised talons, while the current model holds its smaller claws close to its chest. They become difficult to distinguish at game scale. Astra adjusted the existing Meshy geometry with a tapered enlargement from the wrist to 1.3× at the distal claws, then extended the forearms. Other body vertices and skin weights are unchanged.

The size-only trial was rejected: it increased claw/chest intersections and introduced ground penetration in some actions. Extending the forearms improved most poses, but hit reactions, downward attacks and collapse required separate adjustments. The final collapse pose also needed a wrist rotation.

All 170 exported poses across both variants passed the claw/torso surface-intersection and claw-ground checks used here. Intermediate sampling then found brief ground penetration in downward attacks and collapse, reaching roughly four centimetres. After adding transition keys, those two actions were checked at 32 intervals per frame, totaling 1,028 sampled poses, with neither issue detected. These checks cover the claws, selected torso surfaces and ground; they do not certify all body parts, feathers or motion.

Recorded before installation on September 27: The claw revision remains offline while complete action frames and shadows are rendered with the shared game camera. The installed mod remains 0.27.21. Full export, installation checks and in-game review are still pending.

Claw revision installed in 0.27.22

All 170 frames and their shadows are exported using the shared game camera and fixed ground projection. Local 0.27.22 replaces 744 images across the 1× and 2× bodies, shadows and selection outlines, retaining the original 13 active groups and 85 frames per variant. The offline revision shown above is now installed.

All 748 staged asset and configuration hashes match the installation, and installed format validation reports zero errors or warnings. Actual changes are 744 images and the mod metadata; another 6,399 files remain unchanged, including the Archangel and Crusader. Backup and rollback validation passed without applying a rollback. The desktop remains locked, so this version has not been visually verified in-game. A 0.27.22 battle-display capture was added on October 1, above; it does not verify every action. Claw shape, feather joins and differences from the original motion remain open to refinement.

Historical record: 0.17.1–0.27.8

Status before the new Pikeman installation on 26 September: Idle motion has been transferred, but the two-handed grip still needs adjustment; the other actions are being exported for inspection. The new Pikeman is not installed. Version 0.27.10 completes this grip repair and installation; a new battle check is still pending.

Status recorded on 26 September at 0.27.8: The Royal Griffin’s gold talons are still awaiting installation, and its proportions need work. The latest Pikeman mesh needs review; the Marksman’s melee sword direction and the Halberdier’s open helmet remain unresolved. Version 0.27.9 installs the talons; the Pikeman candidate has been reviewed and rejected. The other issues remain open.

The earlier text and images are retained below. References to the “new draft” or “current version” describe that particular iteration; superseded conclusions are struck through. The opening paragraphs describe the installed state today.