Dynamic Combat

Hi:

I remember reading comic books, and watch my favorite heroes shooting their pistols as they jump, fly, bounce of a wall or what not.

In the game, our heroes run to a spot, shoot, then run again; not very cinematic if you think of it.

I will confess game has improved a lot from the stop, do something, move, stop do something. As a whole, many of the defensive powers had a similar stop and go effect, but thankfully those graphics had been sent packing and you can activate many of your defensive powers as you run, fly, jump or whatever you doing with out stopping.

I think, it would be nice if we could attack as we moved with out stopping.

I'm not sure how heavely the attack graphics would get changed, to allow for this suggestion, nor how much more work would be involved with it, perhaps it could be a I20 type improvement.

Hugs

Stormy

I don't know how this could affect the game graphics wise, but it could have a minor affect on hitting. If you're jumping around it's not very realistic that you are still getting hit dead on. Of course it doesn't need to be realistic but you know.
It also couldn't apply to all powers, some powers take a long time to use even once you've triggered them, it would have to only work on instant powers.


If there are no major problems with this then i'm all for it

Aren't those stops part of the animation of the various attacks?

If so, then wouldn't that mean a metric crapton of animations changes for all the attack powers, times each of the various travel powers, times the 3 body types? And I may have left a multiplier out of that string.

And then there are the balance issues that Ian mentioned.

Actually Martial Arts doesn't look too bad with this. On all the Martial Artists I've had (and with a lot of melee attacks) I'll jump over an enemy while activating the power, which causes it to hit them even as I'm leaving melee range. Works really well with super speed or ninja run activated.

But I think the balance and animation issues would keep this from becoming a reality. Just thought I'd pipe in that in a way it's already possible with some powers. (the roundhouse kick from Martial Arts looks great with the trick I mentioned above)

There are rooting for actions which are aggressive. The intention is to give the person or the mob affected some time to retaliate. Here lists the rules for rooting.

Attacking and moving, especially in melee, is one of the biggest problems of contemporary gaming. Most games that allow you to attack while moving either have special versions of your melee attacks to be used when runnin, have special running attacks (like Oni) or look bloody awful (like Rune). There is no dumber choice to make than to have melee combat consist of a bunch of people strafing around each other waving swords. It destroys any sort of "cinematic" experience when the upper body and the lower body are animated separately, because this makes characters look gimbal-mounted turrets on top of a motorised chassis.

Melee combat and melee attacks require animations that encompass the entire body. Leg stance, body posture, arm position and the whole body acting in unison to produce a believable-looking strike. Having a person stand up perfectly straight and just swing a sword around with just his upper body is one of the DUMBEST ways to animate attacks, and it's also one of the easiest ways to tell when a character has no idea how to use a weapon he is given. I can sort of imagine running and gunning, but melee attacks just DO NOT LOOK GOOD when you let the player strafe and change directions as they're animating.

All that is to say that moving melee animations would basically require brand new animations, and even then would probably lock you into moving in the same direction while they animated anyway. Too much work for too little gain. Melee fighters that uproot just never look good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

For anyone interested, BaB actually addressed removal of rooting in the "Wouldn't It Be Great If..." panel from Hero-con (podcast can be found here).

Hi:

I did mention in my post that there would be issues, but I really was after a more cinematic feel for the combat. As another player indicated, I do often mix leap with martial arts attacks and do get some rather impressive visuals. I can also agree that fire while moving would not make sense either for certain powers, for example Snipe would not make sense while leaping!

I do agree there could be some game balance concerns, for some "jousting" like attack effects could also be experienced as well.

But the suggestion was merely for cinematic flavor.

Sue

I can agree with the -idea- of it, from a more cinematic standpoint, on ranged attackers.

But a Melee set without rooting would lose -all- of it's punch. Throw a punch at a practice dummy (Punching bag, whatever you have) and tell me how you move and how hard you hit. Then do a full-turn punch throwing your hips into the motion. And then do a running punch as you dash past the punching bag.

Which hit harder? Well unless you were running very fast (and either hurt yourself or stopped) the hip-turning punch is going to hit hardest.

Removing the root animations would visually weaken all the melee attack animations, to be honest... Though I'm right there with you on the jumping melee attacks! My first 50 was a heroine named Jumper Girl! Second generation spider mutation with claws and super reflexes. I'd jump over targets for all kinds of attacks.

And I think, for cinema's sake, that's our best hope. to enjoy the jumping and, now, the ninja-run forward flip into a sting of the wasp at the enemy's back!

-Rachel-