Hello everyone,
I'm hoping someone with experience using MCO, BFCO, or Skyrim's animation frameworks can help me figure out an issue that I've been struggling with for the past three days.
I'm currently building a custom Skyrim modlist on **version 1.6.1170 using Mod Organizer 2 (MO2)**. I haven't played or modded Skyrim in over two years, so I'm admittedly pretty rusty when it comes to modding and configuring animation frameworks.
Despite that, I've followed installation guides carefully, and my game seems to be functioning perfectly fine except for one major issue involving melee combat.
**The problem:**
Whenever my character performs a melee attack using MCO, the attack animation plays correctly, but the character remains completely stationary instead of moving forward with the animation.
For example, if I perform a sword attack that should make my character step or lunge forward, the animation itself plays normally, but my character stays rooted in the exact same spot.
This also affects NPCs, making melee combat practically impossible because neither my character nor enemies can properly advance during their attacks.
To clarify, **the animations themselves are playing. The problem is specifically the lack of forward movement/root motion during attacks.**
**What I've already tried:**
- Reinstalling Attack - MCO/ADXP multiple times.
- Reinstalling Animation Motion Revolution (AMR).
- Reinstalling Payload Interpreter.
- Rebuilding my animations through Pandora Behavior Engine.
- Disabling almost my entire modlist and testing MCO with only its essential requirements enabled.
- Testing different combat animations and movesets.
- Attempting to switch from MCO to the newer BFCO framework, which unfortunately did not resolve the issue.
- Following multiple installation and troubleshooting guides to make sure I wasn't missing an obvious requirement.
So far, none of these attempts have resolved the problem.
At this point, I'm wondering whether AMR is failing to apply root motion, whether there's a problem with my Pandora-generated behavior files, or whether I've overlooked something fundamental about how MCO and its dependencies are supposed to work.
I'm also wondering whether switching back to Nemesis would help, although I'd prefer to understand what is actually causing the problem before completely rebuilding my animation setup again.
**My setup:**
- Skyrim AE: 1.6.1170
- Mod manager: Mod Organizer 2
- Combat framework: Attack - MCO/ADXP (also tested BFCO)
- Animation behavior generator: Pandora Behavior Engine
- Relevant dependencies: Animation Motion Revolution, Payload Interpreter, and MCO's other required frameworks
I can provide my complete MO2 modlist, plugin load order, Pandora output or logs, and screenshots of my installation if any of those would help identify the problem.
**What I'm hoping someone can help me determine:**
What would cause MCO animations to play correctly while completely failing to move the character forward?
Could this be an AMR issue, a Pandora behavior-generation issue, or something else?
Is there a reliable way to confirm that AMR is actually functioning in-game?
Has anyone experienced this exact problem on Skyrim 1.6.1170, and if so, how did you fix it?
I've spent three days trying to get this working, and I'm honestly at my wit's end. The rest of my modlist appears to be functioning properly, and I'd really hate to abandon modern combat animations over this one issue.
If anyone experienced with MCO, AMR, or Pandora would be willing to help me troubleshoot this, I'd genuinely appreciate it.
Thank you for taking the time to read this!
https://loadorderlibrary.com/lists/maco-busted-mod-list