Direct swordplay

[shlainn]

Has any of you ever played a game from LucasArts' Jedi Knight Series? Give or take the mystical Jedi Powers which made you perform impossible acrobatics, but i loved the possibilities of swordplay in these games.

So, coming to the point I wanted to make, the question is: Do you guys think such "directly controlled" swordplay/weapon handling could ever be appliable for RPGs? (From the player's point of view. The implementation is another cup of tea!)

I'd like to hear your opinions...

Shlainn 

  ? Where else should I post? 

[Syilph]

The direct sword play sounds like an intheresting ideea. It would make fighting nicer because you won't rely only on your character stats and skills but on your skills as the guy at the keyboard, behind the screen and character.
AFAIK there will be some special moves in PS too, something like sword combos but wheater or not they'll depend on pressing a series of keys in a certain order, I couldn't tell.

[Cyl]

There's one major issue that keeps this from happening: Lag.

Even with a simplified, and streamlined combat system like the current one, lag causes quite some deaths, now imagine fighting an ulbernaut, then suddenly your game lags out, and once you have control again you find yourself impaled by the beast...

[Phinehas]

Yeah, I understand the implementation problems, but personally I've been dreaming about this concept for years. Wouldn't it be nice to be a "someone" in-game because you're good, not just because you have nothing to do with your time but click on monsters?

[shlainn]

Surely lag is a major problem, but as internet bandwidth increases the lag shouly decrease.

It's another thing if the client itself lags because of too many objects onscreen or whatever else. But that's a programming issue.

Shlainn

[Santiago]

The game Gunz touched on this in a small way. It was mainly a FPS, but with RPG elements. Yet that was not "Massively Multiplayer". I doubt a true MMO game could support realtime combat without an extremely clever solution to client/server traffic. Otherwise the lag would simply be too much.

[Phinehas]

The game Gunz touched on this in a small way. It was mainly a FPS, but with RPG elements. Yet that was not "Massively Multiplayer". I doubt a true MMO game could support realtime combat without an extremely clever solution to client/server traffic. Otherwise the lag would simply be too much.

Ever played Planetside? That was kinda cool. As long as we're talking about FPS'. Not perfect by any means. But kinda cool.

[RayvenD]

The game Gunz touched on this in a small way. It was mainly a FPS, but with RPG elements. Yet that was not "Massively Multiplayer". I doubt a true MMO game could support realtime combat without an extremely clever solution to client/server traffic. Otherwise the lag would simply be too much.

Yeah i played guns briefly, wasn't too bad a game. My personal opinion is that in RPG's the fighting is usually a secondary concern, in most games it is resolved with a dice role to see whether the action you wish to take is succesful or not, i think the cobat based on skills is th ebest way of doing it. Direct swordplay is great in some games, i'm deffinately a big fan of it when it is pulled off well (decent amount of moves and animations rather than the same sword slash over and over) I just don't think it is directly applicable in a RPG but then that is my opinion.

[Sharakaz]

One word: "Die By The Sword"

[RayvenD]

That was 4 words?

[zanzibar]

The elderscroll series had a form of direct sword play, but you didn't have the level of physics that exists in the lucasarts games.  I think parying is in Oblivion but I could be wrong, I haven't played it yet.  I've played Dark Forces Jedi Knight, and the demo for Jedi Accademy.  I like the style of play in Jedi Academy bunches.

If we could have something like that in an online game with a Tolkien-esque setting, I'd be thrilled.

[Ahriman]

Oblivion has full battle control, Dodging by you, look at this video; everything is controlled by the player.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4634588732202182743&q=%22Oblivion+Battle%22

[Suno_Regin]

A first-person sword fighting game? That has to be highly unpopular; it's nearly impossible to play those types of games without being able to see in third-person, jump around, and all that stuff. First-person shooters are -ok-, but still it's hard to figure exactly where to jump on a platform from, and see how far away you are from an enemy, etc.

EDIT: But at the same time, the "skills behind the keyboard thing" was used in RYL and RYL2, which I enjoyed a lot. I'd love to see it in PlaneShift, just not first-person

[Ahriman]

Oblivion somehow makes the game "Unplayable" in third person instead... Perhaps this would be nice it third person... it is in TES4, i'm sure its possible in CS.

[Suno_Regin]

Back when I suggested "combo attacks," I was also referring to actually interacting with the character, not just pressing a button and going to get some breakfast and come back with 100 PP. You should be able to fully control the attacks, and slash your sword in different ways instead of just move your hand up, slash down, up, slash down.