Subject: Re: User interface proposal
From: Jerry 'Sinister' Kurunen (sinister.serpent@sci.fi)
Date: Thu Aug 26 1999 - 15:16:49 EEST
> >the first one naturally is, how are we going to handle
> >fighting?
> >does the battle commence whenever two aggro entities come
> >across each other inside certain radius, or do you have to
> >keep hitting the mouse button so that you\'ll hit the
> >monster or what?
>
> Personally I detest \"battle modes\". As we have sometimes
> discussed, battle should be considered on a hit-by-hit basis
> with added pseudo-automatic features such as your character
> dodging automatically and by dodging taking steps to the
> sides or backwards etc so that you\'d have to watch what your
> character is doing, the same could apply to your character
> advancing towards your enemy and rushing into him if he is
> aggressive. So, in general, the characters movements
> should/could be partially controlled by the computer while
> the character himself would decide when to attack or flee
> and how. There should be a dodge/parry -adjuster, having
> more dodge vs parry would move your character around a lot
> and having more parry would keep him static and he would try
> to fend off incoming blows.
Yep, this is good idea that there is some automatic actions involved.
These actions are/should be actually instinctive actions, not conscious,
but these actions should not be strictly limited to dodging and/or
parrying but these should be done by the guidelines of maneuver the
character has chosen to use (assuming, of course, that the maneuver
system is still being used of which we discussed in Majik4). At least I
think that maneuver system presented back in Majik 4 sounded very good
to me and I would like it to be implemented in Majik 3D as well.
And yes, I agree with Hook on that you do NOT have to look at your sword
when you pull it out. Or how many of you are looking at your groins when
you have itch there and you are scratcing them? Basically the "weapon
select" system could also be done as it is done in 1st person shooters
with such exception that it depends of the location of certain
item/weapon if you have to take a look at it or not (ie. trying to get
an item from your backpack while it is still on your back is quite hard
without taking a look at it, I might say).
> Generally, making the battlesystem completely automatic
> would make it extremely boring, and it would be pretty
> difficult to come up with a versatile automatic battlesystem
> that would look and feel right. On the other hand, making it
> completely manual would make it extremely hard and
> exploitable, it would turn into a chasing performance, but
> then again, chasing performances should be possible
> considering the characters have only one single life. A fast
> pair of legs should be an advantage.
>
> Also, as Majik\'s battlesystem strives to be realistic, there
> must be combat types (\"barbarian bashing\", \"tiger way\",
> \"brawler\'s special\", \"elven scimitar slashing\" etc), special
> attacks (\"flying kick\", \"full circle slash\", \"overhead bash\"
> etc), like in Majik4, and different types of attack/defence
> patterns that will make your character customizable
> (\"berserk\", \"aggressive\", \"careful\", \"evasive\", \"fleeing\").
> This, I think, is the most important feature of the battle
> system. I have a pretty good picture of all this in my head
> (as I have thought about the battle system a LOT having
> coded this stuff into Majik4) and I will come up with
> more specific documentation once it is required.
I must agree with Yorkaturr. Majik needs versatile system with lots of
options for configuration etc, yet it still has to be simple enough to
be understood quickly enough. Otherwise, all newbies would die in
seconds when they first encounter a monster or another player.
--
/ Jerry Kurunen / Sinister \
/ ~ Serpent of Nightside ~ \
-- -- <sinister.serpent@i.am> ~ <sinister.serpent@sci.fi> -- --
/ Homepage: http://i.am/sinister.serpent/ \
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