Lo-Fi Games

There's a number of ways I can think of to do combat-related skills, and I would like to hear peoples opinions on them. There are also physical factors like strength but we wont go into them here.

There are several melee weapon types, for now just:
Swords
Sabres
Heavy weapons
Unarmed

and I also want separate skills for attack and defence, so you can fine-tune the character's combat style.

- So option 1 we have loads of skills like this:

sword attack
sword defence
sabre attack
sabre defence
etc

- Option 2 we have the same list, but the * defence skill corresponds to defence against that weapon type, rather than when using it. The defence skill would have to be correspondingly cheaper. The more I think about it, the less I like this one.

- Option 3 we have:

weapon skill attack
weapon skill defence
unarmed skill attack
unarmed skill defence

and these would act as multipliers with the above 4 skills:
sword
sabre
heavy weapons


Any ideas? Alternatives?

I'd probably go with something similar to option 3; start off generic but then add specialisations once the generic skills reach a certain level.

not really anything to do with this except the unarmed, will unarmed be signifigantly weak compared to the others? or slightly weak? or weaker but once u get to a certain area quite strong(like oblivion),never liked the oblivion cuz i just couldnt believe a punch could do more than a huge fire enchanted sword,even though i know some martial arts masters can be exetremely deadly in battle able to kill in only a few hits

Unarmed will be weaker at first and making it your main combat skill will be a very very hard life. At advanced levels however it is comparable to an equivalent weapon skill and you can send guys flying 10 meters with a single punch. Thats the idea.
Its also just handy as a backup, if you loose your weapon or are in a situation where you are unarmed. Also its just cool.

Wouldn't fists be more ideal for secret-ops/very close combat? Being able to push someone away 10meters with a single punch is insane.

It is ideal for secret-ops type stuff, its only at very very very high levels you can do that, and it would only have such an effect on enemies much weaker than you. It shows the difference in power, and it helps on crowded battlefields.

im probly gonna go mainly unarmed and max strength(however u decide to implement that) and go bruce lee on people

one question you know how unarmed people can never block maybe give them gauntletes that covers the forearm for guarding then he'll use it to block enemy attacking, maybe something on there leg to, one last question ,will you be able to punch/kick(if u decide to implement a system like mount and blade which id like)

Yeah I was thinking they could maybe use some kind of forearm guard, but probably I will make it so they can only dodge.

I'm sure there will be kicks too, it depends on what animations I dig up

Well if you want to go even deeper into the subject, you know those movies with artial marts when a guy stops a blade attack with his bare hands, by clapping them on the sword right above the head. I would recomend this (IF you want it in) to be also at extreme levels

I would love that but coordinating all the animations would be too difficult

So animations are really killer in a game creation process ? Do you make them yourself?

Maybe techniques that are learned at a specific proficiency, if you are good enough with the sabre, you can learn to do a side roll to attack a person's side. So after learning it (through training or combat) your character could do the attack if he sees fit, and without you telling him to.
I keep picturing dissarming your opponent with superior strength, or if he disarms you, you grabbing his arm, and tearing the opponents weapon from his hands.

The animations are based on stock motion capture, so I have to trawl through thousands of animations and see what I can use. Most of them are either poorly acted or done by incompetent martial artists, so it takes a while. Then I need to spend about a day per animation to clean it up. If the animation I want is not in there, there is nothing I can do.
And to do the sword-catching thing I would have to also make a matching animation for the swordsman, and line up the characters perfectly so the sword lands in between his hands, and even then characters will be different heights with different shaped swords and so on. So its pretty much impossible unless you did it as a preset pre-made event between 2 pre-made characters (ie in a linear game).

Suta wrote:Maybe techniques that are learned at a specific proficiency, if you are good enough with the sabre, you can learn to do a side roll to attack a person's side. So after learning it (through training or combat) your character could do the attack if he sees fit, and without you telling him to.

Yeah, I will have that anyway, so maybe the specific weapon type skills can just unlock special/extra techniques.

I keep picturing dissarming your opponent with superior strength, or if he disarms you, you grabbing his arm, and tearing the opponents weapon from his hands.

Possibly. You've also given me the idea for strong characters to be able to tear peoples arms off.

lol wouldnt the arm thing be a bit over the top

If by over the top, you mean, awesome, then yes. I assume the very same arm could be weilded as a sword afterwards, one that wouldn't block so good.

Suta wrote: one that wouldn't block so good.

unless it had armor on it lol

Oh dear, i just hope you WON'T add ripping arms with bear hands, it's just impossible... and unrealistic i guess

Have you ever tried?

Actually, if you think about it. If someone was really buff and strong, (not endurancy, just strengthishly like gorrila strong)

And stepped on a guy who was on the ground's chest, and grabbed his forearm (not his hand or wrist). And the guy was thin and weak, and maybe already a little cutup. The big guy might actually be able to rip his arm off...
The skin and muscle would just rip and slide off painfully. Leaving bone and a whole lot of blood. If he stepped on a the bone enough to shatter it to pieces. And if you keep twisting the arm it might be possible to rip it off, twisting it until everything is broken.
Would there be animals (irelavent) because a tiger has reportedly torn off peopels arms, same with a crocodile (the rolling part tears it off)

im hoping to see animals cuz then maybe u could implement taming and useage of animals like a tiger attack or something cuz if i saw a bunch tigers chargin at me i wouldnt want to be on the "getting owned" side