{"id":1214,"date":"2004-11-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-11-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/?p=1214"},"modified":"2019-01-17T23:35:32","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T22:35:32","slug":"fighting-system-for-computer-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/fighting-system-for-computer-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting System for Computer-Games"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nRealistic Arms- Armor- and Fight-Models<\/div>\n

Abstract<\/h3>\n

Most action-games, even the ones set in fantasy-environments
\nconcentrate on ranged weapons, or do have only a very limited support for
\nnon-ranged weapons, limited moves, thrusts and slashes. More so if they’re
\nfirst person perspective. Most RPGs on the other hand just display some
\npre-defined moves, according to whether the agent hits or not, which
\nin turn is mostly defined by the stats of the agent and some dice. This
\nessay will present you with an action-oriented alternative combat-system for
\nfirst-person perspective-games<\/i><\/p>\n

Premises<\/h3>\n

Real medieval hand-to-hand-combat is completely different than what
\never is depicted in movies or computer-games. The aim is to incorporate
\nthese realities into a game-engine.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Armour<\/b> is as light as possible, designed to be as much as
    \nprotective as possible against specific threats and weapons. Chain mail
    \nfor instance was designed against slashes, but not against thrusts.
    \nArmour is also nearly impenetrable against those specific threats. You
    \ncannot, for instance, pierce late medieval plate armour with a bow or
    \nlight crossbow.<\/li>\n
  • Arms<\/b> are as light as possible as well, and change with time
    \nto accomplish a very specific goal, to inflict damage to a very specific
    \ntarget. A flail is only useful against opponents wielding shields, but
    \nin that case very much so, because you can hit them behind their shields.
    \nA lucerne hammer won’t inflict more damage than a sword, but is able to
    \npenetrate plate armour, thus only appeared with the appearance of plate
    \narmour.<\/li>\n
  • Style<\/b> arms and armour dictate how you are able to fight. You
    \ncan’t just bang on plate with your sword and hope to break it some time.
    \nYou could try to thrust into weak spots instead. There is no “parry” or
    \nhard block with weapons, instead real medieval combat focuses on
    \ncounterattacks or avoidance.<\/li>\n
  • Damage<\/b> is primarily done to the opponent. The chance of
    \ndamaging the armor in a way that it isn’t protective anymore is
    \nabout null. But the armour will afflict your damage if not cancel
    \nit altogether. As part of a simple damage-model, fatigue could be
    \nused, thus making wounded agents slower. In extreme cases, limbs
    \ncould be severed, limiting the physical possibilities of the agent
    \nfurther.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    [If you’re objecting now, you’re probably wrong. If you’re not
    \npracticing medieval armed combat and regularly wear armor, you most
    \ncertainly are]<\/p>\n

    Needs<\/h3>\n

    Here we look at the technical needs to incorporate this into a game.<\/p>\n

      \n
    • 3D-Engine<\/b> Most basic. Mort probably any good one will do,
      \nfocus on large seneries is best, as well it should be able to handle
      \na great many objects with different textures (or shaders to accomodate
      \nfor the lack of textures).<\/li>\n
    • physics-engine<\/b> is probably the most important part. Not only
      \nit has to apply phisics to normal objects, but also to players, and most
      \nimportantly to weapons as well. It also needs the capability to define
      \nobjects which can damage other objects, namely cut and pierce according
      \nto with which force\/speed it is applied.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      How it works<\/h3>\n

      For ranged weapons, its simple. You target preferably a weak spot of
      \nyour opponent, and on a hit, your arrow or whatever will maybe hit some
      \narmour, pierce it or not, and inflict a wound.<\/p>\n

      For hand-to-hand combat, you use your mouse. left button slahes, right
      \nbutton thrusts; and it does it when you release the button, thus making
      \nit possible to direct the weapon with movements of the mouse while holding
      \ndown the button. Its possible in that way, not only to direct your weapon
      \nexactly to where you want to, like a thrust into the eyes, but also to
      \ncounter a thrust with a slash.<\/p>\n

      The weapons will of course have different mass and impact, thus making
      \nit possible to pierce a plate armour with a lucerne hammer, or to thrust
      \nthrough chain-mail with a one-and-a-half-handed sowrd.<\/p>\n

      Fatigue will be essential, making people wearing heavy armour or other
      \nload tired and slow down very fast; opening the possibility for lightly armed
      \nfighters to win nevertheless, even when one has to hit one small weak
      \nspot in the enemys armour.<\/p>\n

      A further idea for more realism is that, poeple having mass, you can
      \ndefine that some armour has sizes. Maybe three sizes for chain mail,
      \nbut very fine-grained sizes for plate armour. This way, most plate
      \narmour found would be useless and could only be sold. This also balances
      \nthe inflation of armour.<\/p>\n

      Examples<\/h3>\n

      To slay a wolf, you just target the wolf, go near enough and thrust or
      \nslash anywhere. You could target the head or try to sever one of its legs.
      \nThe wolf isn’t armoured, so it doesn’t matter too much where you hit.<\/p>\n

      To fight a barbarian which wears a chain mail gets a bit more
      \ndifficult. Will you try a thrust to his head, or maybe a slash to his legs,
      \nwhere he is unarmoured? Or maybe just thrust anywhere, in the hope your
      \nlong sword is able to pierce his armour?<\/p>\n

      The knight in plate armour is a very dangerous opponent. You could thrust
      \nto his axles, or maybe run around him in order to make him tired (and then
      \nthrust), run away, and so on.<\/p>\n

      Peter Keel,<\/p>\n

      2004-11-04<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Realistic Arms- Armor- and Fight-Models Abstract Most action-games, even the ones set in fantasy-environments concentrate on ranged weapons, or do have only a very limited support for non-ranged weapons, limited moves, thrusts and slashes. More so if they’re first person perspective. Most RPGs on the other hand just display some pre-defined moves, according to whether […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computers","category-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1260,"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions\/1260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seegras.discordia.ch\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}