Combat engine ideas for KOTOR III

Darth_Danzig · Post by **Darth_Danzig** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 12:43 am

Here's my idea for a much better game engine for any, even all rpgs and perhaps other platforms to consider.

CHART:

Offensive hierarchy;
Attack
Complex attack
Manuever
Kata/Barrier
Special

Attacks:
Chop
Slice
Slash
Thrust

Complexities:
Twirl
Switch(dominant hand/holding hand)
Transfere(holding regular, holding inverted)
Alternate(alternative attack jesture(hilt-bash)

Manuevers:
Area attacks
Frenzie attacks
Free range manuevering
Combination

Katas:
Attack kata
Medium kata
Fast kata
Strong kata

Barriers:
Barrier
Barrier wave
Parry
Parry wave

Specials:
Medium
Fast
Strong
Force

//
Area attacks:
Mequito attack
Butterfly attack
Fury twirl
Drone manuever

Frenzie attacks:
Rush attack
Swan attack
Lunge attack
Bane attack

Freerange:
Atheletic - turn, spin, pivot, dodge
Acrobatic - Roll, dive, conformaty(wall run), semi-arial
Arial - flip, flatspin, arial, round about
Combination - Combination- Successfully intervening or immediately adjoining different motions at any point for any length of time.

Combination- Successfully intervening or immediately adjoining different attacks at any point for any length of time.

Special attacks:
Fast-
Tzunami
Tornado - the charachter becomes a spin-churning machine rapidly slashing right through enemies and deflecting attacks at the same time.
Shooting Star - This is a flatspinning dive attack that is similar to palpatines greeting during his arrest atempt. Yet a hell of alot more lethal.
Star breaker - The charachter litterally shoots right at the opponent faster than defense alone can protect against.

Medium-
Lunge wave - Repetative lunge strikes that are swifter and more decisive than normal(length and damage grows with skill)
Traction strike - forced pulled enemies that are struck once within range(capacity grows with skill)
Level wave - All opponents next attack becomes a counter threat to themselves or their friendlies also in range.
Counterwave - The opponents attack is bypassed and the greatest vulnerability is exploited based on the users skills/abilities)

Strong-
Chamber breaker - Block is inherently futile(even more so with greater skill in this attack)
Flying slam - The charachter jumps into the air and crashes down on their opponent bashing all defense.
Power burst - The charachter becomes frenzied bashing through attacks and striking through defenses with greater affect and speed.
Meteor Strike - The charachter performs a litteral barrage of aggressive engagement at the opponent striking right though any defense unless the opponents defnes skill use is of a significantly greater magnitude than the users skill in this attack.

Force:
Light side endowment
Dark side endowment
Nuetral stasis
Force disruptence

Engagement and defense factors:

Summary of objective;
When conflicting-rudimentary or complex actions of offense collide, stance positions filter how the character autonomously manuevers to strategically maintain a momentum within any engagement.

Atack redi- manuevers the character to the opponents vulnerable areas
Defend redi- manuevers the character to defense optimal areas
Counter redi- manuevers the character to defense prime areas that also expose the opponent to vulnerability
Redi manuevers the character tactically only when under direct attack. This position leaves the player full, exclusive manuevering without the auto-aiding of the priority filter.

This extends out into terms that don't necessarily mean running/jumping around in circles spuratically. It means that reflex saves, dexterity shifts and agility dodges align to a pathing scheme during a progressive engagement that best accentuates the highlighted priority, also tailored to the characters skill ratio for best net-effect.

All in depth material governing the conforming process is based on the factors of character development.
These factors are;
Attributes
Sub-Attributes
Traite
Skill
Method(attack type)
Weapon
--
Technique(shii cho, adept hilt style)
Stance(standard saber style, medium)
Postion(attack redi)
Style(counsular, master)

All modifyers to the actual situation. This is the absolute and fully encompassing way to realistically cover all practical factors of a realistic scenario in the great star wars theme, action-aided rpg sense.
So as long as those who want the fuller experience of action along with all else the game has to offer, this engine idea would grant precisely that. And to watch a party of companions take out a party of opposers with this scope of dynamics would be a hell of a cinematic feature indeed. Less to be said all the force attacks and light sabers flying all over the place. Then you wanna think about heated blaster and grenade fights.

Technique:
Filters how the character autonomously prioritizes the process of elimination during battle.
Static changes may occure based on several factors of progressing situations such as;
hostile geopgraphy(closest, farthest enemy)
threat assessment(opposing weapons types
And response according to actual skill factor of the character

Stance:
Filters the alignment of function arsenal(IE fast opts for speedy and agile moves as dictates the button scheme)

Position:
Filters how the character engages/disengages

Stances:
Medium - vieing for range between strength and speed suited towards the strength of counteraction
Fast - aiding towards the goal of fast and agile attacking methods to quickly deal with hostiles
Strong - upholding the air of superiority, using utter might to cast out resistence

Positions:
Redi
Attack redi
Defend redi
Counter redi

Complex attacks also include flurry attack, criticle attack and power attack.

The first option of combat is the standard turn base that does not show numbers or any of that crap, to display hits, though the same motions, technically speaking are still apparent. New changes are made in that, offense and defense are revamped fro more elogent displays of engagement.
IE- different attack types may be learned such as compiled attacks, when highlighted as fast based or strong based or medium based, weigh out to what either criticles, flurries or power attacks amount to in animation and hence function.

The second method or option for the player is queue-line, which ultimately allows the player to queue up technique, stance and postion command, along side attacks, and beable to break the sequence of fighting which is more realtime than turn base, just damped out.

The third is full fledged real time combat which conforms to the laws of motion described further above.

Considering things like fatigue, integrated defense systems and other various factors, it is in no way as flawed as jedi academy, yet still maintains even a ahigher grade relation to the awsomeness of controlability, manueverability, and nterchangeability which that particular game had to offer, yet placed in the context of the ever-open-ended, character depth game of kotor.

DarthZ · Post by **DarthZ** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 5:35 am

Pretty nice idea there, Danzig; and welcome to the forum!

Darth_Danzig · Post by **Darth_Danzig** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 5:44 am

Thanx, and thanx, I'm sure I'll enjoy my stay. THe other two related forums are also proving their merit.
I have loads more, but I'll keep it steady for now. I am built for building, if ya know what I mean.

supershadow · Post by **supershadow** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 3:48 pm

Sweet idea! I liked some of those special attacks.

Darth_Ruin · Post by **Darth_Ruin** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:25 am

Do you think that a Jade Empire type combat engine could be the future for Star Wars games? Or isnt there enough attack and manouver(?) possibilities?

Chris (Darth_Ruin)

Kyp Torvyn · Post by **Kyp Torvyn** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 2:24 pm

I personally think that if you take the basics of What Jade EMpire did, mix them with KOTOR, and then add in the jedi spice it could be the future for all RPG games. The lightsaber is an elegeant weapon which can be rendered in real time stunningly.

Darth_Juro · Post by **Darth_Juro** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 12:21 pm

kotor is turn based...it should stay like that....if anything make some neat animations. If you were to make a battle system like jade empire then there would be no challange because most of the enemies would die before they ever got a chance to heal. think about it. EX: Say you have two single hilt sabers in each hand, Both have 97-227dmg after the best upgrades you get, the average boss has maybe 13 hits before s/he dies given s/he doesn't heal. now say you get real lucky and you keep doing the 227 dmg plus bonus, you run up to said boss and you kill him in seconds flat because you swing and hit him like 20 times in less than a second(if any of that made sense). I hope i'm not the only one that wants to keep the turn based combat lol. and also even though it's turn based your still over powered in the game imagine what it would be like if you could freely swing

Kyp Torvyn · Post by **Kyp Torvyn** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 3:07 pm

Well imagine the enemy block and dodge abilities be more attuned to level differences so as to not make it easier but possibly harder. A mix of personal skill and in game skill.

PUmPsTA-BR!K$ · Post by **PUmPsTA-BR!K$** » Sat May 26, 2007 3:40 pm

well

Simple mixture of PRINCE OF PERSIA III, JK3 & ERAGON

OftheRepublic · Post by **OftheRepublic** » Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:40 am

i like it as it is in KOTOR 1 and 2 nothing personal since your ideas were great- but for me this game is about story not really the combat

riotfellow · Post by **riotfellow** » Wed Jun 06, 2007 2:06 am

IMO a changing the combat engine into something realtime would be a nice but it would not be KoTOR. It would be like taking Oblivion and making it a D&D style gameplay, it would not be very consistent with the previous TES games and the same I think would be true for the KoTOR series. The real time combat is for the Jedi Knight games and not for KoTOR.

Drunkside · Post by **Drunkside** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:33 am

Keep the freaking combat just the way it is, but i wouldnt say no for more spec attacks.

riotfellow · Post by **riotfellow** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 12:20 pm

Some special attacks would be nice as long as you dont have to press a multitude of keys just to get your character to jump to one side while stabbing the nearest enemy.

Greg. · Post by **Greg.** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 1:59 pm

More interaction with the environment would be nice - your character making use of cover, and enemies falling against walls, manipulating the environment with the force would all work well...

buxton_boy · Post by **buxton_boy** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 7:13 pm

I don't mind the turn based but they should really speed up combat I always got a pause between attacks on my xbox

11Revan26 · Post by **11Revan26** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:47 pm

I think its supost to pause so you have time to pick atacks but it could be faster

Darth Valthri · Post by **Darth Valthri** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 3:05 pm

combat

aight, i haven't read every post on this thread, so please excuse me if i repeat anyone's ideas. i wouldn't mind something that's kinda bordering on the anticipated Force Unleashed. by that, i mean being able to use the Force on environmental objects to use them against enemies. however, it has to be a selectable object (eg. doors, footboxes and plasteel cylinders), so it's not like you can rip trees out of the ground (unless you can actually target it's label that says "Tree") and throw them at enemies. this includes throwing enemies at enemies

my idea of how this could work is that you can pause the game, target object (let's say a door), and use the Force to pull it off hinges and throw it at a single enemy or a group of enemies by clicking on the desired target and selecting the same Force power as you used on the door.

so that's the Force. lightsaber time. idk if it was possible in the first 2 games to do this, but in case it wasn't, please allow us the option to take the effect of attacks off to make it look more realistic (no yellow glow around a blue saber when using master power attack, no coloured ribbons around the hilt from master flurry). wouldn't mind some actual physical attacks, such as kicking an enemy to knock them off guard, then slashing at them. another possibility for a new saber attack is a stab. basically the same as power attack, but it's a stab instead of a jump attack

. finally (for now, anyway), an idea on the lightsaber throw attack: it doesn't come back to you. you wanna throw it, go ahead, but it gets "lodged" in the enemy and you don't get it back until you kill him. so you've got 3 options to kill your enemy to get your saber back: have a back-up weapon (i usually do), finish off your opponent's using the Force, or hope that you can win using your fists

OftheRepublic · Post by **OftheRepublic** » Sun Jul 01, 2007 4:02 pm

i dont care how the combat is- but i dont want to see a ls hitting someone and them not dying... i prefer seeing maybe stamina or mind being knocked down after continuous saber fighting. When u make a kill with a ls it should be monumental- a slash or a saber in the body, or a saber slash at the leg u see the person fighting with a limp but the end near.

Darth Valthri · Post by **Darth Valthri** » Mon Jul 09, 2007 6:30 pm

had a new idea a couple days ago, but was too lazy to come onto the Internet to type it in lol. the idea is that combat is changed to be able to move around a bit more (without cancelling combat mode). i can only recall 1 moment in the movies that the combatants of a saber duel were standing in one spot for more than about 5 seconds and weren't restricted from movement due to lack of space (ie. Anakin and Obiwan on the platform over lava river, Yoda and Sidious on the thing in the Senate room), and that moment is in Empire Strikes back in the carbon freezing chamber. so imo, moving around, maybe even just rotating around a bit. tell me what you think

Darth Valthri · Post by **Darth Valthri** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:25 pm

another new idea here. kind of a minor one though. i'm thinking of semi-destructable environment. not that you can thorw grenades in the same spot 30 times and there's a huge crater in the ground, but it at least blows metal off of the floor (if it's a building. if it's elsewhere, like a desert, then sand, or whatever the area is made of). i'd also like to see more from impact with blasters. maybe a couple minor holes in somebody's armor (or carbon scoring at least), and the missed shots make holes in the wall instead of just a couple sparks flying from impact point.