Saber blocking, manual, or automatic?

[shaowei]

How does the saber defense work right now? Can you guys tell me or point me to the right thread? I am no coder, so I am just trying to get the basic idea.

 

As I understand from playing JK2: JO v. 1.0 vs bots (no force, saber only):

a) one has to face the opponent and stand still to have a maximum blocking chance against a saber strike

b) there is a random chance to block a strike if your saber accidentally gets in the way of an opponents strike, but then your saber gets thrown out of "ready" position

c) the shield for auto defense is ~ 120 degrees of a sphere in front of a jedi

d) "b" is possible thanks to collision detection of the saber collision boxes

 

Would be nice to know if the game really acts like that or I am just imagining things:)

[Matariel]

Wow, this thread is still alive? hmmm...

 

Some of you guys posted some really essay length posts back there, i was too lazy to read them...too long really

 

But just one small thing- while i'd love manual blocking, overcomplicating it will just make people hate it. So thinks like your force meter going down for each successful block is just silly (doesnt look like obi-wan made much effort blocking a sabre in ANY of the movies, and ive fought with swords before, and i dont have the force...its a pretty simple skill).

 

One other thing, ping wont have much of an effect on the blocking system (that i'll implement anyway) because each saber move takes about half a second to complete anyway, if ping is 300, you'll have plenty of time But with prediction and stuff like that, it wont make it any different from the other moves in the game.

[Ken Kasanagi]

not sure if sum 1 suggest this already since i didnt read all da post but i fink instead of a manual blocking, the secondary fire should be a manual parry, blocking can be left as it is, the only thing that needs to improve on blocking is adding more animation and a much better collison detection for saber combat.

 

the reason while manual blocking works in other sword fighting game (soul calibur comes into mind) is becoz of the high/mid/low attack system, and i doubt lucusart would implement sumfing this complicated....

 

in a manual parry, the attacker's saber would be pushed back, leaving the attacker defenseless for a monment, and giving the chance for the defender to fight back. the parry cannot be hold, so that after the parrying animation the defender is left defensely as a penalty. this would mean only a well timed parry would be rewarded.

 

also once parried, the attacker's movement during the staggering animation should be slow serverly or even stopped, thus avoiding the jousting issue of the game.

 

and off the topic here, can sum 1 point out what's so good about promod?? its trying to implement a FPS system into a sabercombat, and the increasing defense/offense based on movement just encourages even more jousting.....

[praenuntius]

I think we could have both at the same time.

 

How about in a training room, Kyle tells you about blocking which is manual at this time. And you have to practise with one of those sphere drone laser thingies like all the kids were doing with Yoda in AotC.

 

The game keeps track of how many successful block you manually employ, and very gradually increases the chance to automatically block enemy fire.

 

It could be like a levelling system. It takes you 100 blocks to get 10% auto chance, then another 1000 to get to 20%, or something like that. Obviously the numbers would have to be tweaked so that most people might finish the game with 60%. And the truly hardcore players might try to finish the game with less than 20% auto-blocking.

 

There could even be levels where one of the sub-objectives is to practise blocking, or to maybe get through it without blocking at all.

 

It could be like Bond where if you reach a certain threshold for not blocking, you unlock a secret level maybe, or a couple of secret character models.

[Matariel]

ya, i hope JA has a real training part, not like the crappy 'trial' in JK2 which is not using powers for fighting in the actual game, just silly little scripted puzzles...

Spent more time, being a padawan and all, just training the lightsabre skills (like blocking sabre attacks or even laser attacks) training with weapons, and even kicks, punches or whatever hand-to-hand moves that Raven are putting in. And finally, training in force moves, in practical situations, not just puzzles- actual fights, or force move counter moves and things like that.

JK2 does have counter moves for EVERY move in the game (force powers and sabre moves, as well as every weapon) and the game should TEACH you what they are! You are a student in the Jedi Academy after all