Are there any games out there that implement taunting as a player-based strategy to be used against AI-driven enemies? Taunting, like any attack or defense, requires time and animation to execute. It could be used to smash the composure and confidence of your enemies. Or at least when those enemies do not have well-defined states of mind to begin with. Angering opponents should cause unpredictable results. It could sometimes even backfire, if the opponent uses anger in their style of combat. It could cause them to rush your character (can be good or bad, depending on the situation). Or waste their ammo blasting at you. Or go into a frantic motion of attacks. I've played a few games where taunting was available as a command, but there never seems to be a reason to use it, other than self promotion.

Quote:Original post by Gametaku
Well not "enemies" taunting, along with other forms of persuastion, were usable in morrowind and oblivion, in order to increase or decrease a npc's depostion towards you. Lower it enough and they will atack you.

And in many cases in Morrowind, you were still arrested for taking them out. But yeah, that is probably the closest to useful that I've seen taunting become in gaming.

Are there any other games? Especially where the taunting is used towards an already-provoked opponent?

Neverwinter Nights includes a taunt skill which is a useable combat tactic.

Basically, it reduces the opponent's armour rating based on the amount your taunt skill beats their concentration, to represent their distraction. I think it also has a few other effects.

It also can cause a non-hostile NPC to become hostile. Although I think the taunt itself is regarded as a hostile action, so guards etc defend the target rather than you.

Unfortunately I havent seen the default AI ever use it against the player.

The first game that comes to mind with me is Street Fighter 3.

Taunting with each character had different effects; for Alex it increased his throw damage, for Necro it increased the damage of the next combo by a certain percentage, for Q it increased his defensive power. For some character taunting is a definitive part of their strategy, I have yet to meet anyone who can play Q well who doesn’t taunt all the time. Using his taunt made up for his exceedingly slow speed. I don’t think there are any characters who’s taunt does something to their opponent, it all seems to be a way of buffing themselves.

I did two little demos a while back of combat systems that use taunting. In one of them, you could use a taunt/intimidate command to weaken enemies' morale stat, then use a "Threaten" command to do a psychological attack. If it succeeded, based on your character's scariness versus the enemy's morale and willpower, the enemy would surrender and your character would get a point of honor for winning without killing. It was also possible, if one of your guys surrendered, to use a "Rise Up" command to make them able to fight again at the expense of honor. Since characters also lost morale by being wounded, one strategy was to have scary characters taunt while less imposing ones did actual attacks.

In a different game demo, each character had Body and Heart stats. Losing all Body meant death/destruction, while losing Heart meant surrendering/fleeing. Each combat move had stats for who it affected, what type of damage it did, how flashy it was (to build up your reputation), and how violent it was. Then the NPCs had an aggressiveness rating, which limited their willingness to escalate the battle's violence. If you stuck to taunting and menacing enemies, the guards might attack you with nightsticks or threaten you back, while if you actually tried to kill them, the music would change and the guards would start shooting. Depending on enemies' Body and Heart stats, the appropriate level of violence was a mix of strategy and how evil you wanted to be.

So sorry for not giving the name of the game. It just that I forgot it and I’ve been searching for the name all day with no luck :/

There was a 3D free-roam-fighting game that utilizes taunting to control a stun enemy (A.I. and human). If you hit the enemy hard enough to stun him or make him dizzy, you can make him stand up from a fall or walk toward you by taunting him.

It was hilarious :P You can take control of your friend’s character for a few a seconds to make a devastating attack while your friend pressed all the buttons like a mad man trying to wake his character up :)