So I had some progress - though enough. ALS_AnimMan_CharacterBP has two meshes, a higher level character mesh (which uses the AnimMan skeletal mesh) and a lower level (visible) skeletal mesh. Now what was happening was that I was retargeting (correctly I think) the new mesh onto the humanoid rig, but I was only changing the lower level Body Mesh - which gave me the cubist rendition above. However if I changed both the lower and higher level meshes to the new version (along with their re-targeted animation bp) then it worked fine. Except now I have lost ALL of the mantling and held-object controls/functionality that you are supposed to get with the ALSv4 template. I’m at a loss - I can change the character or lose functionality. I assume that the AnimMan skeletal mesh is the thing that maps all the specific object linkages - but the skeletal meshes just for some reason aren’t compatible.
Note - when I change to an official “UE4 rigged” skeletal mesh, it’s no drama at all.
Someone PLEASE HELP!.. this should be basic stuff for such a fundamental UE4 capability (ALSv4)