We all know that attacking with melee and ranged weapons can be either as unique and interesting as Soul Calibur 2, or as repetitive and borring as poking a dead rat with a stick. Attack types - Defensive, Berzerk, Cautious - can all increase the \"fun\" level of fighting, but not by much. As well, it\'s somewhat over-done. So, i hope to impress upon you a different fighting system worthy of PS.
First, i\'ll outline my ideas for attacking with melee weapons and sheilds:(Please note that LMB (Left mouse button) and RMB (Right mouse button) ARE interchangable, incase someone wants to weild their sword in their LEFT hand, instead of their right. [As well, you dont have to exagerate movements greatly. Mouse sensitivity can be increased to get necessary movement to start slashing. 5-10mm would be enough to start slashing with the default sensitivity.])The main way to control your melee weapon is with your mouse movements and clicking. To slash, you click your LMB (Left Mouse Button) and move your mouse in a direction. A upward slash would be a click and upward mouse movement. A right-handed slash would be a click and mouse movement from top left to bottom right. And so on. To stab right click. Movement can also dictate where the stab is comming from (downward stabs are the best. trust me, i know.
) No movement on a slash will turn in into a stab; no movement on a right-click stab will still stab, except go strait (a thrust)
You can also dictate how the attack will go down with your foot movements - Moving left will give more power to a slash headed to the left, moving right will make a slash headed right more powerful. Moving forward will produce a powerful thrust or stab. Moving backwards will add a larger arch to your swing and pull it back faster.
Of course, that\'s for bladed weapons... If you\'re using a mace a downward slash becomes a devastating bludgeoning blow. Pikes could peirce bodies impaling several people at once. Pole arms would have devastating wide-archs breathing destruction everywhere they touch save the enemy close to them, etc etc.
\"But what of sheilds?\" I hear you say. No problem. Your sheild takes over your right mouse button. Right clicking will bring the shield up, ready to deflect a blow or stop a missile weapon. The bigger the sheild the more of a chance the attack will hit the sheild and not you! Dont worry though - you can still thrust and stab; just move forward when you do. Moving the mouse in a direction while the shield is up will move the sheild around to that part of your body. This way you can cover your right side without looking right.
However, you\'re limited on how far you can move the sheild - Moving the sheild all the way to the left while weilding it in your right hand will constrict your left arm - you can\'t swing you\'re sword very well. switching your weapon with your sheild will happen if you press crouch and the RMB (Right Mouse Button) quickly together. Switching takes awhile though, so you\'ll be vulnerable as your weapon and sheild switches hands.
You can bash with your sheild by pressing the RMB and then the LMB with directional input from the mouse and movement, as well. Moving forward will bash forwards - swinging the mouse to the right will arch a bash going right. Wielding TWO sheilds gives you a LARGE defensive bonus, simply because you have two sheilds. Bashing with two sheilds is simple; you press the sheild you want to bash with represented by your 2 mouse buttons (remember Left hand tied to LMB and Right hand tied to RMB) and then you press the other mouse button to initate the bash. Foot movement and mouse movement again dictate what the bash does.
Missile weapons - there are two common types - thrown missiles and shot missiles.Throwing missiles are easy - Move your mouse and press your LMB to dictate the arc, and while you hold down the LMB the missile will be thrown farther/shorter because a slider power bar will apear on the screen with a indicator moving up and down for as long as you hold the LMB. The top of the bar is power, and the bottom of the bar is accuracy.
If you want to chuck that rock REALLY hard... wait until the indicator is on the upper half of the bar. If you want that shot to land exactly where you want it to at the end of the arc, wait until the indicator is on the lower half. Of course, the middle is the base accuracy/power of the missile and you have to hold it for at least 2 seconds to get maximum distance. Clicking with the RMB will make you bash/stab with the missile that\'s in your hand.
Shooting the missile - There are always different ways of shooting projectiles - Bows, Crossbows, Slings, Blowguns, and many others. Each one is different, though, but they all require ammo.
Crossbows are the simplest to shoot and reload. It requires 2 hands, and fires bolts or darts. To shoot, just press the LMB. Once shot, you can press and hold the LMB to tension the string. A meter will pop up, and the longer you hold the LMB, the tighter the string will get - but be warned - if you hold the LMB down for too long you\'ll over-tension the string and possibly break it! Low tension means low power, so be sure to tighten it properly - unless you want to not tension the string properly. Pressing the RMB gives a bash - again - the basic movement of feet and mouse gives power and direction.
Slings and Blowguns are just like a throwing projectile. A power/accuracy bar pops up when you hold the LMB down. Holding down the LMB for too long will make you tired, though, and you\'ll eventually lose power and accuracy until it stays dead-middle for 3 seconds and then stops. If you let go of the LMB here, you wont fire and you\'ll have to hold it down to try to shoot again. These weapons are also commonly one-handed, so you can carry a sheild/other weapon in the free hand.
Shooting with a bow has all the usual elements, but is trickier - two handed and able to bash (though not that well if it\'s wooden) but it, too, has something different. A stress meter. The longer you hold the arrow in place, the more stressed you become. Accuracy and power is based on how little stress you have. When you first press the LMB the bar will start at 1/3 the total amount of stess - this is you pulling the arrow into place. However, after that initial amount of stress, the meter goes down but then rises at a speed dependant on your stats. The higher the meter goes the less power, distance, and accuracy you\'ll get - so be sure to fire the arrow before your stress becomes too much.
Countering attacks from enemies is a vital part of survival. A upwards diagonal slash could be countered with a horizontal slash or vertical choping motion. Pole arms would only deal damage around their slicing implement - weapons could very well break the pole between the blade and the user, leaving the weapon useless (unless the connection was magical between the handle and the blade.) As well, you can\'t ignore weapon dynamics - pikes will stop and probably kill the short sword user where as crossbows may defeat the pikeman\'s armor. crossbows would take VERY long to reload, so if the crossbower misses, he\'s mostly screwed against anything. maces would be defeated by sheilds, and swords would be countered by armors that deflect slicing blows. Etc etc...
Different ways of shooting and fighting - Just a little side-track from the main idea, you would be able to hold multiple projectiles in a shooter or in your hand and throw/shoot them, spraying them over a area like a shotgun. You could put multiple bolts onto a crossbow, but it might become highly inaccurate. You could also weild two small swords/daggers in one hand, for double the slashing and stabbing power, but they might slip around. As well, small things like daggers and arrows could be thrown even without a projectile weapon, but they might not be as powerful as when they\'re in their proper shooter. For instance you could substitute crossbow bolts for daggers, but they
probably wont do very well as a projectile. (Im not saying they wouldn\'t work, im just saying they may not work as well as the proper ammo.)
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All in all, i think this Soul Calibur 2-like attack and defense combat system would breathe total and rejuvinating air back into the severly deflated balloon that is \"Attack type/method/tactics - hack and slash.\" Of course, this could only really work well with a Real Time combat engine, but...
i think it would work in turn based, too. Not sure, but i think so (As long as each player could respond to moves durring the other\'s turn. I just dont see turn based combat being fun in a MMORPG... ?( )
Well, go on. Post away.
