Component scripting architecture for units?

Having a very limited number of animation skeletons makes perfect sense to me, but I still want unique animations/behavior for certain commanders (and to other units by extension).

To accomplish this, a component architectural would be ideal so devs could write a script and attach it to a unit. Is this already planned?

For example, I want to create a unique commander that has wing-like things (think Gundam). I would model the wings myself, and to get them to animate I'd write a script that could either handle movement programmatically (by grabbing references to bones on the stock animation for position info) or just attach a complete external animation data file that only controls the added wings, without touching the stock commander animation/skeleton (the script would probably still load the wings in and attach them to the base though).

This keeps the base animations while allowing devs and modders to add uniqueness to our units, if only just decorative. Additional functionality like missile packs could be possible this way, but not sure that's wise for the sake of game balance (still fun tho!).

Well, if it's anything like the SupCom system, there isn't really anything from stopping such a thing from happening.

A prime example is my Basilisk MKII, It is a Mobile Unit that Can also Change to an Artillery Mode, the trick is that it can do this while moving, and will continue to move after the mode change(thought at a reduced speed) but the Walking animation isn't affected by the Transforming Animation, that is because they don't both use the same Bones.

So going back to PA, it isn't unreasonable to assume that even thought commanders might have Identical 'Core' Skeletons, they'll still have differences, the Flaps on the shoulders and the smaller details on the Weapon and Nanolathe come to mind, those are likely unique to the Delta, but the proportions of it's legs and arms are still based on the 'Core' Skeleton so it still has the same 'Walk' Animation as other Commanders with the same skeleton, but the different weapons or extras aren't directly part of the Walk animation so they can still be different.

Mike