Saber Locks?

[MaceWindu]

How do you initiate a saber lock? they seem to happen randomly.

[Alexrd]

How do you initiate a saber lock? they seem to happen randomly.

 

Hit repeteadly the attack key while fighting.

[MaceWindu]

Hit repeteadly the attack key while fighting.

dude, that's what I do anyway. I mean... that's how to fight, by attacking. Unless your talking about how to get OUT of a saber lock? I already know that. I want to know how to initiate one.

[nizwiz]

Well, the decision wheter a lock occurs or not is fairly sophisticated, including a dice roll. If you know C, open w_saber.c and look for the function WP_SabersCheckLock and its invocations.

 

Here's a rough outline (for mp), with some details and special cases left out:

 

Prerequisite is a genuine or (only if d_saberSPStyleDamage is zero) fake saberclash with calculated damage > 1.

 

A random number between 1 and 20 is rolled and compared to the value of g_saberLockFactor, which defaults to 2; a lock occurs only if the random number is less. (In case the saber offense levels differ by at least 2, the chances of a lock are somewhat increased).

Increasing g_saberLockFactor will therefore increase the probability of locks, disabling randomness completely at a value of 21 (well, there's still one dice roll in a certain case in WP_SabersCheckLock; see below).

 

Now, in WP_SabersCheckLock, some assertions are made, including these:

- the distance between the saberists is between 8 and 80 units, and their y-levels are no more than 16 units apart.

- the saberists are facing each other

(well, at least that's my guess on the purpose of this piece of

 InFront( ent1->client->ps.origin, ent2->client->ps.origin, ent2->client->ps.viewangles, 0.4f ) 

).

 

Next it is checked whether either one of the opponents does a top-down slash, or one of the following clashes occur:

- TR_BL vs. TR_BL

- TR_BL vs. BR_TL

- TL_BR vs. TL_BR

- TL_BR vs. BL_TR

- L__R vs. TL_BR

- R__L vs. TR_BL

(or the other way around; each direction as seen from the respective saberist's viewpoint, so "TR_BL vs. BR_TL" means the sabers are moving against each other in the same diagonal from opposite ends).

 

If so, a lock will certainly occur.

 

If neither opponent does a vertical top-down, diagonal top-down or horizontal slash, a lock can still randomly occur, with a probability of 1/11.

 

So, to "initiate a lock", one would have to try and counter attacks by slashing in the opposite direction (I think I've read somewhere that this is known as "attack-parrying"), since that maximizes the chance of a lock.

 

 

As for sp, only Raven knows for sure, but I guess the mechanics are quite similiar, if not the same. In deed, it seems to me locks occur more often if one is aiming for attack-parries.

[MaceWindu]

dude... that's intense. lol thanks!