This is fairly minor, and I suppose it's kind of late in the game to implement something like this, but it would sure make me and my melee characters happy:
I'd like to see a minor modification to the targeting reticle to visually indicate the targeted mob's "personal space" through, say, a circle on the floor. By "personal space", I mean that currently-invisible line that determines collision detection.
I suggest this simply because I'm getting really tired of running in a straight line toward an enemy only to suddenly bounce off the invisible wall around him and find myself facing a completely different direction. The problem is that the "invisible wall" usually has a diameter a good bit larger than the actual space the model occupies, meaning that I bounce off the enemy when my character is still a few virtual feet away, i.e. without my character's model actually coming into "physical" contact with the enemy character's model. There are some models I'm able to punch in the face while standing 5 virtual feet away from them because their hitbox seems to have a 5-foot radius.
This is a "problem" because bouncing off an enemy, particularly in corridors or other limited spaces means that, though I started running directly down the center of the corridor, the "bounce" shunted me to one side and suddenly I'm wedged in between the enemy and the wall (or pillar, or other object), with the virtual camera jammed into the back of my head so that I'm suddenly fighting in 1st-person perspective, and all I can see is that one enemy's head and shoulders filling my screen. I'm unable to see where the other enemies are.
In other cases, the "bounce" shunts me right into the middle of the crowd of enemies. My intent was to make a frontal assault on the nearest enemy, but through a quirk of game mechanics I ended up surrounded. It's one thing to have enemy AI set up so that the other enemies strategically move to surround me; it's another (unrealistic) thing to keep accidentally getting myself surrounded purely because I didn't know when to stop moving forward.
I assume that there's little that could be done with the game engine itself at this point to tighten up the hitboxes to make them conform more closely to the actual dimensions of the models, but it may be easier to simply put a circle at their feet to provide a collision warning.
Mezzes are one thing; losing control of my character purely because of a mechanical quirk, even for a moment, is another thing altogether. It's like my car deciding on it's own to apply the brakes or turn the steering wheel at random, unexpected times.
Posted
Wait, your car doesn't do that?
(Rather than telling you all the ways you learn how to identify hitbox size as you play -- there are a few, one of which is the width of the existing reticle -- I'll just say I wouldn't mind a circular floorspace indicator if it's technically possible.)
This is fairly minor, and I suppose it's kind of late in the game to implement something like this, but it would sure make me and my melee characters happy:
I'd like to see a minor modification to the targeting reticle to visually indicate the targeted mob's "personal space" through, say, a circle on the floor. By "personal space", I mean that currently-invisible line that determines collision detection.
I suggest this simply because I'm getting really tired of running in a straight line toward an enemy only to suddenly bounce off the invisible wall around him and find myself facing a completely different direction. The problem is that the "invisible wall" usually has a diameter a good bit larger than the actual space the model occupies, meaning that I bounce off the enemy when my character is still a few virtual feet away, i.e. without my character's model actually coming into "physical" contact with the enemy character's model. There are some models I'm able to punch in the face while standing 5 virtual feet away from them because their hitbox seems to have a 5-foot radius.
This is a "problem" because bouncing off an enemy, particularly in corridors or other limited spaces means that, though I started running directly down the center of the corridor, the "bounce" shunted me to one side and suddenly I'm wedged in between the enemy and the wall (or pillar, or other object), with the virtual camera jammed into the back of my head so that I'm suddenly fighting in 1st-person perspective, and all I can see is that one enemy's head and shoulders filling my screen. I'm unable to see where the other enemies are.
In other cases, the "bounce" shunts me right into the middle of the crowd of enemies. My intent was to make a frontal assault on the nearest enemy, but through a quirk of game mechanics I ended up surrounded. It's one thing to have enemy AI set up so that the other enemies strategically move to surround me; it's another (unrealistic) thing to keep accidentally getting myself surrounded purely because I didn't know when to stop moving forward.
I assume that there's little that could be done with the game engine itself at this point to tighten up the hitboxes to make them conform more closely to the actual dimensions of the models, but it may be easier to simply put a circle at their feet to provide a collision warning.
Mezzes are one thing; losing control of my character purely because of a mechanical quirk, even for a moment, is another thing altogether. It's like my car deciding on it's own to apply the brakes or turn the steering wheel at random, unexpected times.