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Hell Raiser
Site Developer
Post 05-Mar-2006 04:45        

Control is like a mech. Aiming would move arms around (reach the 'edge' and yaw of the legs occurs), camera would stay fixed on a target and player would be 'cohersed' into moving towards target. Movement modifies swing arc/direction according to forward/back/strafe, but does not define the type or strength of swing.

The 'acrobatics' key will be crouch. So different combinations of crouch + movement/swings will do different things. Jump is your alternative 'acrobatics' key, and will perform various things if used correctly.

Legend:
[key1]+[key2] (Key1 and Key2 down at same time)
[key1]^[key2] (Key1 down and up, key2 down and up, real fast)
[key1]-[Condition]->[key2] (Key1 down, meet condition, key2 down)
[key1]++ (key1 tapping over and over)
[key1]__ (key1 held down)
__[key1] (key1 let up (after held down))

[Forward] ^ [Forward]__ would make your Jedi Run/Use force speed.

[Forward] ^ [Forward]__ -[Wait at least 1 second]-> [Jump] would make your Jedi do a dash jump, to cross large distances.

[Crouch] -[0.1 to 0.3 window]-> [Direction] makes you roll in that direction. (if you wait 0.5 seconds, you'll just crouch walk)

[Jump]__ + [Direction]__ -[0.5 seconds of air time]-> [Saber Swing] would do a lunge type attack.

[Attack 1]++ to win a saber lock.

[Saber Swing]++ uber slashy slashing, weak attack but fast

[Crouch] -[Wait 0.5 seconds]-> [Saber Swing] would perform some kind of upper cut like swing.

Etc etc so forth and so on....

Saber System:

Saber Collision is thing based, totally loosing JKs system and verbs. Makes it easy to tell where the saber collides, and makes it easy to have the saber leave scorch marks on walls, or even amputate specific limbs. It'll also allow for more, intracate detection of saber collision, to allow for more varied and intensive combat. Think of it like this, if two sabers touch each other, they become... slightly attached. To get them unattached, you have to apply a little... force (pun intended) to your swing. You can knock back other peoples sabers by parrying. (basically swinging at the same time) And depending on the parry and counter swing, is how you fight and win. You literally seek out 'soft spots' in the other players technique.

Saber fighting is dependant on these key factors:

How well you time your swings in an attempt to strike.
How varied your moves are.
How well you deflect your moves.
How well thought out your stances are.
How well you use melee attacks.
How well you incorporate force into your attacking style.

Character Build Up (undecided):
RPG Aspect to have custom character/skills/level up based on fights and technique.

There are many options for your Jedi/Sith:
Saber Skills
Force Skills
Melee Skills

Saber Skills:

Stances:

You can customize (and save) your saber stance through an intracate UI that is simple and effective. You can have up to 8 saber stances depending on how many Skill Points you have in Stances. Stances can be customized by modifying pitch/yaw/roll X/Y/Z of left and right hands. (limited to the physical reach of your characters arms)

Speed:

Each stance also incorporates a speed, which affects it's effectiveness in defense and attack. The quicker a swing, the less it can defend when parrying. The slower a swing, the better it defends when parrying.

Melee Skills:

Speed: Like saber attacks, quick melee attacks are less effective when blocking.

Moves: The more points, the more moves you can pull off


Melee/Force -> Saber incorporation:

You can incorporate Saber attacks along with melee or force attacks. Depending on how many points you give to melee or force, you can use melee and force attacks with Saber Swing combos for greater offensive strength.


Finishing off opponent:
Occurs when the killing blow is done on an opponent. Think of it like Mortal Kombat's 'FINISH HIM!' thing. You can perform some kind of beheading/stabbing vital organ move or a 'mercy' amputation of hand or arm, or even leave the opponent to be for 3 seconds, in which death will then take over.

Force Skills:
There is none of this 'Light' or 'Dark' Jedi crap. You have Jedi or Sith. Force allows you to interact with things in the environment. Be it items, structures, debris, other players/actors, yourself or amputated limbs even.

Force Jump is incorporated into the Jump key. Tap jump to perform a normal height jump, hold down jump and you'll jump + fly into the air a ways, higher for more force points in jump.

Force Speed is incorporated via [Forward] ^ [Forward]__. [Back] ^ [Back]__ enables it for backwards.

Force Sense is an all around 'awareness' of things around you. Players, force attacks, projectiles, saber attacks, etc.

Force Regeneration occurs at all times. Faster when standing still. More force per second, per points in power.

Force Boost: [Force Manip]++ -[Tap so many times]-> would make your Jedi/Sith stronger and faster with less defense for # of seconds.

Force Manipulate:

On Items: -[Reticule over Item]-> [Force Manip] ^ [Force Manip] would pull item to you

Anytime: [Force Manip]__ + [Forward/Back] back would pull, forward would push. It's an 'explosion' of force, or just pulling in surrounding enemies. You might be able to trip your opponent by doing this.

On Players: [Force Manip]__ -[Reticule over players]-> [Strafe] would send the nearest Thing of type Debris, flying towards your opponent. Left would send things from the left side flying in, right, well, things on the right side would fly in. (Special things of type Debris will be randomly created throughout level, at level start)

On Structures: [Force Manip]__ -[Reticule over structure, (waittime)]-> [Aim around] would allow you to levitate objects and move them around. (waittime is based on how large the object is. The bigger it is, the longer it takes to 'lock on' and move)

Sith Only:
-Choke- [Force Manip]__ -[Aim at player, wait 0.5]-> [Move Aim] would choke/move your opponent around.

-Lightning- [Force Manip]__ + [Crouch]

Jedi Only:
-Confusion- [Force Manip]__ -[Aim at player, wait 0.5]-> [Move Aim] would send a 'clone' of yourself off in the direction you aimed at, and you would be invisible for a short time.

-Blinding- [Force Manip]__ + [Crouch] would project a mist from hand to blind your opponent, not by whiting out the screen, but by making the level darker, and grayscale. (less annoying, more blindness)

Last edited by Hell Raiser on 06-Mar-2006 23:58; edited 2 times in total
Hell Raiser
Site Developer
Post 05-Mar-2006 07:07        

About saber stances:

You can have 8 saber stances, however, they are not stances in the traditional sense. You can use these positions, and assign them to direction keys, up to 8 movements. If you use them correctly, you can effectively change your stance mid-move via direction keys, and vary things up a bit. You could turn it off, and change stances some other way I guess, but where's the fun in that?

A stance affects the 'starting position' of your swing and how your arms will arc as you move your mouse to swing. If you set your right and left hands to be on the saber handle, and you bring it all up behind your head, your starting swing will always start there, but you'll have a heck of a downward swing. It's kinda wierd, but it really puts a twist on things. Razz
Hell Raiser
Site Developer
Post 05-Mar-2006 07:22        

Wall grabbing/running:

I loved it in JA, and be damned, it's in LbtF:

Wall run: [Direction]__ -[Into wall]-> + [Jump]__

Grab and hold onto wall: -[Be falling/jumping near wall]-> + [Jump]__

Jump off wall: -[Be falling/jumping near wall]-> + [Jump] OR -[Be holding onto wall]-> + __[Jump] ^ [Jump]

Run up wall: [Forward] ^ [Forward]__ -[Run into wall]-> + [Jump]++ (Wall or Force runs out you fall. If you reach top of wall, you climb up onto surface above)

Ledge Grab: -[Near ledge]-> + [Jump]__ Move around by: [Direction]
Hell Raiser
Site Developer
Post 05-Mar-2006 07:59        

Double tapping jump while holding a direction will make you dive in that direction, or backflip if holding back.

Flips in air give you a bit of a boost in height. While in air, press and hold crouch.

Last edited by Hell Raiser on 07-Mar-2006 06:57; edited 1 time in total
Post 05-Mar-2006 09:23        

aww no force destruction?
You could have some key that jedi could hold down to do force absorb (anyone else notice that in ep3 when yoda is blocking lightning with his hands, it looks like he has translucent force absorb icons in front?), while sith could hold down the same key to build up a force destruction ball, dbz-style (that power always reminded me of dbz anyway).
Post 05-Mar-2006 15:06        



That soundsa very impressive all, HR! If you can get all of that to work... that would be awesome. I can't wait to find out what it will be like to play!
Hell Raiser
Site Developer
Post 05-Mar-2006 18:54        

The_Carp_King wrote:
aww no force destruction?
You could have some key that jedi could hold down to do force absorb (anyone else notice that in ep3 when yoda is blocking lightning with his hands, it looks like he has translucent force absorb icons in front?), while sith could hold down the same key to build up a force destruction ball, dbz-style (that power always reminded me of dbz anyway).


Ah yes, absorb via saber/hands, can't forget about that. Destruction seemed kind of silly to me, but! I like your idea for charging it up DBZ style, (TDiR hasn't gone to the wayside in vain, hehe)

And thanks JoS.
Hell Raiser
Site Developer
Post 05-Mar-2006 22:18        

If a Jedi uses force absorb when a Sith starts using lightning, they become 'locked' in a battle, and you must [Force Manip]++ to win.

Destruction is a fireball type attack. Hold down whatever keys to charge, let go to fire.

Heal works almost the same way. Charge up to heal, and any 'weak'-ish (depending on points) force attacks will heal, (stealing force for health basically) but any saber/melee attack will intterupt the process. Absorb will also convert any force attack to mana. Ammount of mana or whether it's absorbed depends on points.

Force absorb can also be used to steal a destruction ball or lightning, and fire it back at your attacker.

More as it comes.


I think I just might throw in the Force Manipulate key, and your Jedi/Sith Powers Key. Yea. That's not too many, is it?

Forward
Backwards
Strafe Left
Strafe Right
Look Up
Look Down
Look Left
Look Right
Attack 1
Attack 2
Crouch
Jump
Force Manipulate
Jedi/Sith Powers

I think there's more than enough buttons to go around. The saber system will work whether you use the keyboard, joystick or mouse. So long as you have your look controls bound. Movement from one point to another constitues a swing. I'll do up a diagram later.
Hell Raiser
Site Developer
Post 06-Mar-2006 00:34        

Saber Swing diagram:



Each dot represents a position your saber hand will be at. If you're using the single saber, and start at position 2, hold down fire 1 or 2, and move the mouse over to 6, you'll swing in that direction. You can then keep swinging, but each successful swing will be weaker than the last. If you let go of Fire, you can then do another swing like above.

Each saber style has a different range of motion, as you can see above. Two sabers is special because you'll be controlling the swing for each saber at the same time with the mouse, but Fire 1 swings left hand, Fire 2 swings Right hand.

More later.
Hell Raiser
Site Developer
Post 06-Mar-2006 01:10        

Swinging the saber:

Moving the mouse point to point snaps your wrist(s) to that position. Once Fire is pressed, the saber will be 'enabled' (meaning MORE damage is applied) and you will go into saber swing mode. Once you move the mouse, and another point is snapped to, your Jedi/Sith will swing their arms from point to point, and do a flashy wrist twist. However, once snapped to the point, you can continue moving the mouse to another point, that isn't right next to the current point. This will in turn, swing from point 1, 2, then 3. Each successful move to a point will have less damage. Being able to click, move, click, move, will enable you to swing with more 'oomph'. By holding down Fire 1 or 2 (Or both!) you can perform parrying moves, if your saber should collide with other one mid-swing. You could Move from one point, to another, but say it's blocked by another saber mid swing. You'd then start over at the point you had selected first, and then able to move to another point again, and perform a parry, or counter swing. (Much quicker to block if you're holding down fire, than click, move, click, move. Click moves are stronger, but blocked easier.)

More at 11.
Post 06-Mar-2006 01:13        

Heh, ok, so I'm going to need 4 buttons to look around instead of just moving my mouse to look? Oh dear...
Hell Raiser
Site Developer
Post 06-Mar-2006 01:26        

Hell, while I'm thinking about it:

There will be the option to be able to 'mix n' match' a character model. All nodes that are Kyle orientated, will be able to have parts switched between them. You could have Jerec's head on Kyle's body, with mandalorian Pants.

Customizable saber, somehow. RGB Colors if possible.

You can modify the thickness and length of your saber to an extent. Both will have their ups and downs.

Uhh, some other customizable shiznat, that I can fully use the Heap save/load verbs for.
Hell Raiser
Site Developer
Post 06-Mar-2006 01:28        

254 possible saber colors using JKs cmp system. Need to save one color for transparent. Sabers will not look dorky. Will have nice alpha blended glow and whatnot applied.
Hell Raiser
Site Developer
Post 06-Mar-2006 01:38        

ORJ_JoS wrote:
Heh, ok, so I'm going to need 4 buttons to look around instead of just moving my mouse to look? Oh dear...


Nononono. Look can be bound to the mouse or a joystick, or even keyboard controls. Using keyboard controls would not be my first choice. Mouse would. Joystick might be interesting....
Post 07-Mar-2006 00:22        

OK, it seems you're doing 2 versions. If you are, the RPG version should have options for armor, and penalties for particular armor types.

Also, I suggest that the RPG mode have a morality system that makes you a light or dark jedi depending on your "fatality" decisions. You start out as a light or dark jedi depending upon your saber color. The more good/bad things you do, your force morality is placed. IF you do LOTS of bad things, you have higher force potential [A higher mana bank] and use sith force powers. At a certain level, if you've managed to become completely nuetral, you'd be able to somehow use both light and dark on a lower/mid level.

Your force should have a max force level, but then a higher level capacity, say 20 more that can only be reached through saberless meditation. Reward us Palpatine/Yoda-types and let saberless force wielding reign supreme.

Also, JA's acrobatics were horribly overused. Make the physical stuff level up so that brand spanking new jedi can't jump off the ceiling. Or maybe make a tug-of-war system between different types of force. Attack force and acrobatic force cannot both be powerful. That way you don't have palpatine-like force users suddenly spin-flipping all over the place.

Will saber types play a major roll in the power of attacks? Will you have saber spinning between button clicks? What about blasters? I'd LOVE to see blasters suddenly be a little more useful against a saber. Maybe even blaster-related-force. Being able to guide a projectile, maybe? I've got lots of nice projectile guiding cogs from URMod. You should also make explosive projectiles less effective, or easily defeated by jedi. It'd be really nice to see Jedi contending with gunners, and the two equalizing. Even a jedi caught off guard dies from a blaster bolt. Maybe purchasable items like jetpacks or power-shields or radars or something to even the odds.

Furthermore, I'd love to see this system done so well that the saber is a dignified one hit kill. Rather than a fatality, you literally fight in a way that incorporates the fatality.

Alternative crazy saber-weapons would be my next suggestion. Saber-shields, pikes, axes, force-controlled-saber-remotes, saber claws, saber maces or any combination of the above. I don't know, I'm feeling zealous.

JediKirby
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