Combat movement and animations, aka the infamous....

[Jarmo]

To put it bluntly, NWN combat with its infamous "dance of death" looked better than NWN2 combat.

Some of you will disagree with this. That's fine, hear me out anyway.

 

Now, Eternity is going to be a tactical party based game, so we won't be seeing the characters sailing willy nilly all over the place without player control,

killing themselves in traps and accidentally stumbling into friendly fire area effects. That's completely understandable.

 

But when character models and graphics improve, the whole combat will risk dropping into uncanny valley.

If the basic style sticks with the old ie principle of "everybody's standing in place, gazing intently forward,

not reacting to the incoming mace wielded by the humongous ogre,

not reacting to the hits except with "ouch" and a splattering of blood, it's going to be too unreal.

 

NWN2 suffered from this, somewhat, and assuming the world has kept on turning, the risk is greater with Eternity.

 

Games like Diablo3 or Torchlight are not really affected, there the player continuously moves his character around,

dodging from this and that, much like "the dance" but better.

 

I'd like to see real effort into making the combatants react to each others.

Blocking and dodging attacks, clearly reacting to getting a spear in face, falling down, getting up, stuff like that.

 

And definitely not the old, no reaction to 40 dagger stabs, but the 41st similar stab suddenly completely rips the opponent in itty bitty pieces.

Edited September 20, 2012 by Jarmo

[SanguineAngel]

I have to admit I'm not too fussed about the animations.

 

I always have this idea where there's no "Hit points" and instead, combatants loose when they become too exhausted. Animations could reflect this - combatants deflecting attacks, with the odd touch landing or glancing blow indicating one combatant doing better than the other, then upon defeat, a lethal hit.

 

In this way, you would need set animations for different weapon types in combination with each other. Also for number of combatants. But if we're talking an isometric game then such animations wouldn't necessarily be crazy amounts of work. I'm still not entirely clear if it's to be 3D or 2D (like IE engine)

Edited September 20, 2012 by SanguineAngel

[Jarmo]

I like it, but it does sound like crazy amounts of work actually.

But picking up from that, it'd be nice if even the "base stance" of the combatant would reflect how wounded or exhausted he is.

[septembervirgin]

I think they should use icons of painted miniature figures set on a hexagon map with drawings on the hexagons.

[MinotaurWarrior]

I never had a problem with this in the IE games, though I definitely know what you're talking about with NWN2 and KotOR. If the game really looks like an IE game, we should be fine.

[1varangian]

In most DnD titles combat was visually destroyed by the sheer number of attacks high level PC's could get. Trying to animate 6 attacks into a round that lasts 6 seconds is just a nightmare.

 

If they go with a "one attack per round" principle it should be much easier to make combat look good.

 

One thing that RPG's rarely get right is the impact of combat with blocks, dodges and hits animated properly. I hope this time combat will have a "real" feel to it instead of swords whooshing through enemies and floating numbers being the only real indicator of what's actually happening.

[Jarmo]

In most DnD titles combat was visually destroyed by the sheer number of attacks high level PC's could get. Trying to animate 6 attacks into a round that lasts 6 seconds is just a nightmare.

 

If they go with a "one attack per round" principle it should be much easier to make combat look good.

 

I'd just speed up the animations, or something, and do something to blocks and stuff as well.

I see it as a nightmare you just need to tackle.

 

NWN2 had this really awful great cleave and spinning attack, where after the first strike the character

just stood there and damage numbers floated from nearby enemies. Not that way! Don't go there!

 

If some action or a greater number of actions can't be properly animated, they just shouldn't be in the game.

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.

 

In a D&D setting, some features just had to be there no matter what,

but in a new thing you can choose the stuff that works on screen.

[Infinitron]

In most DnD titles combat was visually destroyed by the sheer number of attacks high level PC's could get. Trying to animate 6 attacks into a round that lasts 6 seconds is just a nightmare.

 

If they go with a "one attack per round" principle it should be much easier to make combat look good.

 

I'd just speed up the animations, or something, and do something to blocks and stuff as well.

I see it as a nightmare you just need to tackle.

 

NWN2 had this really awful great cleave and spinning attack, where after the first strike the character

just stood there and damage numbers floated from nearby enemies. Not that way! Don't go there!

 

If some action or a greater number of actions can't be properly animated, they just shouldn't be in the game.

If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right.

 

In a D&D setting, some features just had to be there no matter what,

but in a new thing you can choose the stuff that works on screen.

 

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2HakpaksOriginal.Detail&id=308

[Entropious]

One way or the other, what in reality we shall get within a 2D game is a combat imitation, not even simulation. There is absolutely no chance, nor need, for even mildly realistic visuals. However, when I write "realistic", what I have in mind is the common "game combat" image, wild, dance-like and full of flourishes.

 

In reality, what two warriors did was continually swing/thrust at each other until one of them found an opening or broke throught thanks to speed or sheer strength.

 

And please, spare me the "samurai had true and artful fencing, as well as <insert civilization>. Such castes were formed around "one hit duels" - no true armour was oferred, so whomever got the first hit usually one. Once Europeans arrived with their advanced armour, such techniques turned into useless crap, to be blunt.

[Infinitron]

The characters in this game aren't going to be 2D.

[eimatshya]

Ideally I would like to see more complex combat animations, but it isn't really a high priority for me, and I suspect designing a system where characters visually block and dodge attacks in real-time would be fairly labor intensive. Given the scope of the project, I'm not sure this would be the best use of resources (but I could be wrong about the difficulties of implementing such a system).

[Merin]

Personally, I don't need fancy combat animations. I was satisfied back in the SSI Gold Box days with seeing the little two dimensional flat guy holding the weapon above his head, then suddenly the weapon was pointing downwards to let you know he swung!

 

Graphics and animation, meh, not really what I'm concerned about for my cRPGs.

 

Give me Wizard's Crown over Dragon Age 2 any day.

[Nonek]

Always liked the NWN dance of death, made it seem that you were involved, rather than stood there performing a holmgang.