Saber blocking, manual, or automatic?

[Silent_Thunder]

What kind of saber blocking do you hope will be in JA, or (a real) JKIII?

 

Automatic, like in Jedi Knight, Mysteries of the Sith, and Jedi Outcast where attacks are automatically parried, or deflected if you're not attacking, but you have little control over it...

 

Or Manual, the likes of which would be seen in other sword fighting games, where the secondary fire manually blocks an incoming attack?

[Agen]

Well i think, it's fine for SP (keeping auto), but in mp maybe it would be good to press the button rather than the strange block box around you. Also you can only attack when you don't press it, and holding block down might make moving the mouse slower....

[Jedi Apprentice]

I think manual blocking would be a very fun idea and would give the system some new light, but it would make all the fights extremely slow. And how exactly do you manually block two sabers or a cheap backstab?

[CanadianSurfer]

Manual would throw a new twist into the game. Playing guns can be frustrating because if they have their saber up, it's hard to break their defenses with a non-explosive gun.

[Guest Jolts]

In the most basic form of recreation in of the movie battles I see it like this. If I see the enemy swing at me, I hit block, my animation looks like an actual attack, but it ends up meeting the other saber animation midway colliding. Give it quick pause to sell the fact that it was clear and obvious block and then release to pull back to the stance pose.

 

In JO the blocks were 2 frames of an actuall swing animation that were always close to the body. You need block specific animations not recyled time savers. This is just how I see it of course.

[Silent_Thunder]

This is the way I think manual blocks would work:

 

You press the secondary fire and you bring your saber up in a block position. The long you hold the block button down the less chance you have of sucessfully blocking the attack, untill you are forced to lower your defences. Therefore, that forces people do use more skill and timing to have more effective blocks -- as opposed to just random blocks.

 

Since the block button would be right next to the fire button you'd be able to switch between an attack and a block very quickly.

 

A succesfuly block would make the opponent slightly less capable of blocking your next attack in return -- a succesfuly block would knock the opponent's defences down for a second. That causes 2 person fights to be more up close and personal, since you'd WANT to land a block in order to kill your foe. Evading attacks alltogether -- which is very non movie like -- would not be as practical, so no more jousting.

 

When two sabers colide, with both fighters doing an attack, and not a block then the saber simply block each other, and no one is penalized.

 

When a lightsaber wielding person has his saber out, and is hit by another saber, than there is a slight chance the saber will automatically block, provided the saber is close enough to the attempted attack. That would be in defence against attacks going through an ignited saber.

 

When a single lightsaber wielding opponent is blocking a two lightsaber wielding player, the one with 1 saber would block it in the same manner in which automatic blocking would be.

 

Anyways, that's the way I would see it working, it would still retain nearly all of the speed of JO (heck, anything is faster than a heavy versus heavy fight), while implementing alot less random deaths, making fights more calculated and strategic.

[eastcoast2895]

i think manual blocking should be an option in both single player and multiplayer, sort of like auto aim, but in multiplayer it would be a server only option. also i agree w/ Silent_Thunder cuz some ppl could hold block all day and making it the longer holding block = less accuracy seems like a great idea.

[Agen]

That's a really good system you have there silent

Hopefully Raven take notice. You mgiht want to add that to the gameplay suggestions too Thunder

[greedo626]

I think scince a Jedis let the Force flow through them, saber blocking should be automatic, like it comes naturally. though I do think there should be an option to turn it off if you want.

[Silent_Thunder]

Thanks, but it's actually pretty much the way that old PS1 game... Jedi Power Battles (note; I'm not advocating buying it) did it. So the accuracy thing isn't really my idea .

[Silent_Thunder]

Well, an option to turn it off when you want to wouldn't really work... The game would have to be designed with either system, or have them both intergrated in some way.

 

Also, since all you do is press a block button in my idea, and the blocking system would automatically counter a high, low, side, ect attack than you could still say the "force is flowing through them". Remember old Obi Wan about the force: "(You mean it controls my actions?) Partially, but it also obeys your commands" .

[CanadianSurfer]

Saber blocking should take up force.

[greedo626]

I think autoblocking could be turned off like autoaiming. though I enjoy my autoblocking so I wouldn't want to turn it off. there's nothing quite like walking into a room full of stormies with your lightsaber out and deflecting every single shot back at them:D . dance, stormies, dance!

[Silent_Thunder]

If they do include autoblocking again, I really hope they do what CanadianSurfer suggested; having a succesful block use up mana.

 

There's nothing (In my humble opinion ) more stupid than walking into a room of 100 stormtroopers and easily deflecting every single one of them without breaking a sweat. It was worse in JK1, but it's still pretty bad. I think if there's a loose 'timer' on the amount of time you can block than that would solve that problem, and force players to actually go in and ingage their enemies, instead of just standing there...

[AlzWisHum]

I'd go for both in multiplayer/singleplayer games, except for manual blocking I'd rather do not tap on the block key, but hold it down instead, the player won't be able to attack while it is held.

 

Hope they do something like this.

[Guest Jolts]

In obiwan you could block autoblock some saber attacks, but someone could always just kick you and take health off that way or use a forced charged special saber attack. In order to really open someone up to a full on attack you had to use the force and pull back on the right thumb stick which was the block command, and deflect blaster fire back at shooter command. It worked well and only used up a little bit of force mana.

[Tesla]

Automatic because you would have to waist time keep blocking manually *damn button where is it* any way back on topic my vote goes to automatic

[Hekx]

I have yet to see the manual blocking system in place.

I think I'll have to see it and play it before I decide.

Having some people with automatic, and others manual can be a little unbalanced.

But automatic is false, and unrealistic.

 

I think I may have to opt for manual blocking with alt-fire.

Maybe a meter of power, which eventually 'conks' out after deflecting too much. Allowing you to control the angle too.

 

Jedi Power Battles had a manual block ability, which worked well.

[AlzWisHum]

Originally posted by Hèkx Nòxú

Having some people with automatic, and others manual can be a little unbalanced.

But automatic is false, and unrealistic.

 

I agree. This manual/auto blocking could be simply set on the server side. Heck, if they won't do it, my next mod will support it.

 

[eastcoast2895]

i'm just saying alt fire may not work cuz it probably be binded to saber throw like in jo, but then again what do i know. but one thing i don't like about manual block is what Tesla Trooper said about waisting time. not only using another button, but also when fighting a bunch a jedi at once, it may become hard to remember to block manual while trying to evade attacks and attacking.

[Silent_Thunder]

Well, saber throw would be made just a normal force power, like in MotS.

 

I don't think it would make things THAT much more complicated to remember manual blocking. After awhile it would become like second nature.

 

And as one of the above posters said; manual blocking worked well in Jedi Power battles.

[AlzWisHum]

Yes, you'll probably get used to the block key. IMHO its better than "random" defense.

 

[RenegadeOfPhunk]

If anybody would like to try out Manual Blocking on the right mouse button, feel free to try out my mod...

 

Details are in this thread:

Movie Battles Thread

 

Link to the site to download the mod is at the top of the thread.

 

Although it's still technically a beta, this latest build (Build 7) is looking pretty solid and bug-free so far, so it's very close to a proper release build.

 

As far as I'm concerned, having a manual block button is a very good thing...

 

Anyway, feel free to check it out

[Tesla]

AUTOMATIC,AUTOMATIC,AUTOMATIC!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rad Blackrose]

Screw blocking.

 

If you are really going to be concentrating on saber to saber combat, then you wouldn't even consider blocking/parrying. Why?

 

The best duelists do not get touched at all. This goes back to old european dueling

 

Evasion will always win over a defense.

 

However, since it it not available... I would say automatic.