About this mod
The definitive first-person animation pack for all melee and unarmed weapons in New Vegas and TTW. Every one-handed, two-handed, and unarmed/fist-type melee weapon has been re-animated. Every. Single. One.
Uses vanilla timings for all animations--no balance changes.
Uses and requires kNVSE.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
- Donations
NVAO SERIES
New Vegas Animation Overhaul | Guns
New Vegas Animation Overhaul | Melee <---you are here
New Vegas Animation Overhaul | Throwverhaul
DESCRIPTION
All melee weapons are covered. All unarmed weapons are covered. No exceptions.

Every single stupid little animation, including the ones you never see, are covered between all of those weapons.
If you're new to modding, this is all you need.
If you've been following my mods for a while: some brand new animations, some totally remade animations (one-handed, namely), and some old animations. All collected with some bugs fixes.
Balance: all timings are the same. Every single one of them. The only exception is the Shishkebab equip/unequip animations, which were doubled in length. An optional file has been provided that restores vanilla timings to them, at the loss of the new details. Up to you if you want it.
If you need more details, there's a "What's Changed?" section that details this stuff, although you can basically assume you're getting the best possible package here.
Read the Requirements section. Scroll down just a little bit further...
REQUIREMENTS
- xNVSE
- kNVSE
- HIPControl
- Gauntlets Debulked (technically not required, but gauntlet animations were made with these in mind)
WHAT'S CHANGED?
Hi. Maybe you're here because you used Butcher Pete - Complete. Maybe you're here because you used Wasteland Warrior. Maybe you're here because you used Assume the Position. This section details what's changed from each mod.
...FROM BUTCHER PETE
BEFORE

AFTER

As you can see, the weapon isn't held super close to the screen, which caused problems with some larger one-handed weapons. It also just, well, looks better.
Speaking of looking better, notice that the attack animations are now smoother and have less camera movement. This is a benefit, because melee in New Vegas mostly involves spamming the attack button:
BEFORE

AFTER

There is one downside to this. In Butcher Pete, each weapon was split into three "classes:" chopping, slashing, and blunt. Idles and equips were shared, but each class received unique regular and normal attacks, effectively tripling the workload. Moreover, although I tried to make attacks work for each class, it didn't pan out in practice--what looked good for the Chopper didn't always look good for the Machete, for example. As such, I removed the "class" idea from the attacks and standardized them. The benefit: I was able to produce these much quicker at a much higher quality. Each "class" still has a unique normal attack for its moveset, but that's about it. Power attacks are largely shared, with the exception that I was now able to make the vanilla unique attacks look, well, more unique.
Power attacks are also now smoother, bug-free (the blunt power attack in Butcher Pete was totally busted), and respect their original animation design more. Check it out:


As for the rest, you should see the below video:
It was always my intention to make equip and unequip animations more unique, too, and now I have, as you can see in the video. You can also see that the Shishkebab has finally made its way into the collection! The Katana and Ripper (click link, I forgot to showcase it) are in here now, too, with the Katana featuring its own bespoke animation set.
...FROM WASTELAND WARRIOR
...FROM ASSUME THE POSITION

Nothing has changed here, but things have been added. For the old animations, this showcase still works fine:
But now, there's new stuff! Full support has been added for all Power Fist-type weapons (including the Displacer, Ballisitic, and Zap Gloves), the Industrial Hand, and the Bear-Trap Fist Gauntlet. Oh! And, as a bonus, the Scientist Glove has now been fixed and has its own unique attack animation. Take a look:
INSTALLATION
- Download mod
- Install mod with mod manager or manually
- When it doesn't work right, come back here and read the Requirements section
- Download requirements
- Done
COMPATIBILITY
- No, it doesn't work with melee animation overhauls from other authors
- Yes, it replaces my old melee animations mods (Butcher Pete, Wasteland Warrior, the fisting one, etc.). Uninstall them.
- Compatible with Viva New Vegas, and is the guide that we recommend anyone follow before modding their game in any way.
- Use with whatever locomotion you like.
KNOWN ISSUES
The operative word here is "known." Please don't report these--I will ignore you. I'm trying to fix them to the best of my [limited] ability.
- Some unarmed weapons don't transition properly from their "block hit" animation to the "block idle" animation. Reason unknown.
- Some unarmed weapons don't have their "nodes" (read: the moving bits on the weapons) activate during certain power attack animations. Activating them is trivial; however, they break the animation completely when active. Reason unknown.
- The Scribe Counter animation for some unarmed weapons caused your weapon to, um, twist around in a weird way. It's pretty quick, though, so you probably won't notice.
SUPPORT
I have put an extraordinary amount of effort into providing first-person animations for the entire game. If you wish to show your support, a very easy and very helpful thing to do is endorse. If you wish to show your support further, both of us graciously accept donations. You can find links below:
- rockbiter68's ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/rockbiter68
- rockbiter68's PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/joeypayne155
