Quote:Original post by mrbastard Die By The Sword almost proved that first person sword fighting with 'realistic' controls aren't fun ;¬) It certainly convinced me of it at the time.
It comes down to your own preference, I guess. I still have a copy of DBTS right here, and I remember loving it. A game that I think did it better, but wasnt totally mouse-based, was Severence(aka Blade of Darkness). Both those two cemented it for me, which is why I am designing in some minor twitch-based combat into my project.
With some tweaking, you can get Blade of Darkness to play on WinXP with a modern graphics card, you should check it out. In my opinion, it was highly underrated.
Are we talking 3rd/1st person? There are a huge amount of titles in which you can hack/slash/stab/block. Dime a dozen. Almost every game features a sword somewhere....
When it comes to realistic sword fight development, we should ask "what control system is most intuitive to be swinging the sword with?"
Die By The Sword had huge potential, with its VISM system, heavy use of physics, and inverse kinematics. However, the r.s.i. inflicting mouse/keyboard combo turned a lot of players off.
Consider the potential if this games controls were mapped to a Wiimote+Nunchuck!
We could potentially control our swords dynamically, in full 3D space. Cant wait to belt a baddie with the flat side of my sword to stun him, or twist the blade in thier gut for the finishing blow...
Control systems are what restrict us from feeling the immersion of potentially "dynamic" sword fights.
Quote:Original post by Jessebalsom Die By The Sword had huge potential, with its VISM system, heavy use of physics, and inverse kinematics. However, the r.s.i. inflicting mouse/keyboard combo turned a lot of players off.
Consider the potential if this games controls were mapped to a Wiimote+Nunchuck!
We could potentially control our swords dynamically, in full 3D space. Cant wait to belt a baddie with the flat side of my sword to stun him, or twist the blade in thier gut for the finishing blow...
Control systems are what restrict us from feeling the immersion of potentially "dynamic" sword fights.
In other words - Bring on DBTS for Wii!
Too late: ">Die by the Sword - Wiimote & Nunchuk
I've just reinstalled my copy of DBTS and then found that video. I just setup my wiimote, and will report back if it makes it any better.
Got my wiimote working with DBTS last night and it was pretty darn fun. I had totally forgotten that DBTS had an move editor, which is something I have been designing recently. It was good to see it in action to know what I can improve upon.
I do have to say, it is definitely a good idea to go back and play old games that have ideas you want to see in action, even if they are only slightly similar. These can help you refine your new idea in ways that you wouldn't have foreseen.
About the games not mentioned, I was going to edit my post and add Mount and Blade, but saw someone had already mentioned it. I can't believe we all forgot to mention Zelda though ;). That should be toward the top of the list for interactive combat.
The real question is how exactly you want to be "realistic" with your combat. With current technology there are concessions to be made. You could, for example, use the forms of Tower Fechtbuch and give your self a historically accurate combat system, for a price. You would have to limit the controls to the forms, and because of the nature of the imputes systems of today, you would be pretty much limited to the strategic side of it. It would be great for singular combat or player versus player. But it would lack, by necessity the elements that draw players to games such as Prince of Persia, or Oblivion. Another point to be made is the fact that realistic is not always "fun" to the average player. For instance there is edge bashing, blade to blade full on collision, or static blocking. These things are common parts of the gaming experience, they are also dead wrong. But the issue rises in how to go around that factor whilst retaining real time play. The fact remains that it can be simply more entertaining to bend the rules a bit, and allow such matters, for the simple fact that the game play is fun. Combine all that is stated above with one additional factor. Numbers. How many times have you played a game where your death toll tops three digits? Would the average gamer enjoy having to fight enemies one at a time? While I personally would enjoy that mechanic, it is not the one that a player would seek when buying a combat game.
