Synchronisation of movement and animation

Hey there,

What is the best way to do movement in an Multiplayer FPS? Let me be more specific.
I know that I can have a character move using Mecanim, parameters and RootMotion.
Seems fine at first, but I fear it could have the following disandvantages:

• Indirect and thus delayed movement, which is really bad for an fps
• No Character Controller that would take care of step height and
• It would have the physics of a RigidBody (right?) not of a Character Controller

I haven't actually tested any of this yet, so those are only assumptions. Correct me if you think it is wrong.

So my alternative seems to be to not use Root Motion and sychronise the movement and animation manually. And I was wondering whether there are certain methods, patterns and/or functions that are already made for this that I should use.

Of course I'd prefer to use the Root Motion system, as it allows a way more elegant way to do the whole animation topic, with states machines and all that.

--Marenz