Combat graphical effects

[The Pope]

Here's a few ideas to make the combat more visceral and put those new shaders to good use:

-Add some aim wobble (rather than just expanding crosshairs) and blur the edges of the players vision when holding a high power bow drawn. The power draw skill would reduce the effect of this rather than increasing damage.
-Some aim wobble (no blur) for other ranged weapons, but not as severe.
-Jerk the camera and blur vision when the player gets hit. How severe this would be would depend on how much damage the hit did.
-Very minor camera jerk on parries. Enough to make it seem like there has been physical contact, but nothing like the absurd amount in Oblivion.
-Blur vision edges when zooming, and tone down its effect. That will make it feel like the player is squinting rather than using a telescope.
-Add an expanding blood decal on the ground under corpses.
-Adjust the ranged weapon animations to add some sort of aim estimating point in first person without crosshairs. Bows are ok, but crossbows could do with having the camera moved a bit to give an iron sights style view and throwing weapons could have the shield arm raised near where the crosshair would be. After Red Orchestra Crosshairs seem kind of cheesy.
-Better halberd swing animations and multiple thrust attacks for spears.
-More varied wound and death animations, with some for specific attack types or hit locations
-Vision bob when riding a horse. This would be more severe at low riding skill levels.

Any other ideas/comments?

 

[ArabArcher35]

I would LOVE ironsighted crossbows. That would be a fantastic addition. I totally agree with every suggestion you've made, and I think it'd all make combat feel alot more gritty and realistic.

 

[Hellequin]

(Not all of these thoughts are purely graphics, but they're all in the same envelope of increasing viscerality with little touches.)

Facing-dependent crosshairs wobble&spread when using ranged weapons from horseback.  Heavily modified by Horse Archery skill.  By which I mean - at low Horse Archery, turning to face the back of your horse and shooting remains possible, but it's noticeably less accurate than the same shot, same horse, same clip, but facing forwards.  (My guess is that straight-sideways is even less skill-dependent, but I leave that to those who may actually ever get a chance to try.  Being downwind of a stable in RL can incapacitate me for a day.  Sigh.)

Don't just jerk the camera when player gets hit.  Under severe impacts, spin him slightly about and bob a little, and 'settle out' in a different facing than he started with.  Make it feel like you've had to desperately adjust your footing.

Swords moving when they actually strike home.  If I performed a draw cut from horseback and noticed my wrist flexing so that the blade followed the surface of the other guy - or a little inward of surface! - rather than ghosting through him, I'd drool.

Running speed increase without a weapon in your hand.  Try it.  You hold even a shortsword, your twin brother barehanded; he'll catch you in twenty feet flat.  Shields even more so.

Weapons becoming stuck in the body of the foe.  Retrieval is automatic unless you switch weapons, and shows you bracing a foot on the corpse and yank/twisting it free.  Takes time, based on damage done by the blow that suck, user's strength, foe's armour, and random factor.  Obviously this should be rare, as it's a potentially negative experience, but very visceral.  (Ooh - for bonus points, design it so that the time-to-retrieval is actually dependent on proximity of an enemy.  Secretly increase the size of the time bracket wherein it's just barely possible to get the sword out in time to parry, before a foe arrives.)

Weapon jerk, aka arm give, on parries.  A strong opponent drives your blade - and his! - back toward your face despite your successful parry.

 

[ArabArcher35]

Oh, man, all of this is awesome. I'd also like to see bladed and piercing weapons being stuck, and jerked out of the player's hands on horseback (sometimes). Of course, this would require lootable weapons, and would give additional incentive to go blunt =D

 

[Merentha]

Running speed increase without a weapon in your hand.  Try it.  You hold even a shortsword, your twin brother barehanded; he'll catch you in twenty feet flat.  Shields even more so.

I disagree.  If I have a shield in my hand, its not going to slow me down any more than it being on my back.  The weight on the back will just press you down and shorten your stride, thereby slowing you.  This always irritates me in games, because it just leads to people running around with pistols out while the weight of their BAR mysteriously vanishes when its on their back.

I'm also not sure of how I feel about enemies sticking onto blades.  Does anyone know if that actually happened?

 

[The Pope]

There should be a pulling out animation after a high damage hit, but it should be quick. No bracing the foot or anything like that, just a bit of a pull - enough to make it look like the weapon actually encountered resistance.

 

[Merentha]

There should be a pulling out animation after a high damage hit, but it should be quick. No bracing the foot or anything like that, just a bit of a pull - enough to make it look like the weapon actually encountered resistance.

Okay, that's fine.  Its the 'kicking the enemy off the blade' i gew wary of.

 

[Crazed Rabbit]

Having a little bit of blood spurt out from hits and land on the ground would be nice, too.  Even when the person hit doesn't die.  (think: snow)

I'd argue that power draw skill would still increase damage, though, as you're giving the arrow more force by pulling it further back.

Crazed Rabbit

 

[The Pope]

From what I've read and my (very limited) experience with archery, if you can't pull a bow back completely then it will be hopelessly weak and innacurate. Once you can pull it completely, pulling it any more will just break it.

 

[Hellequin]

I've heard the thing about blades sticking in bodies - generally in bone, or the cracks between close-set bone - from enough different places, mostly with decent standards, that I'm disinclined to think it a myth.  And to be honest, the bit that's a stretch is, in some ways, the getting it back.  All the sources I've seen for that generally suggest that now is a good time to go to a backup weapon, not to heave and yank right there and then.  Which is iffy when in combination with a game like this where you can't pick up the dead guy's blade instead.  I'll grant that.  Nonetheless, from both a verisimilitude perspective and also a gameplay perspective - you go to battle with the weapon you've got, not the weapon you wish you had, thank you Mr. Rumsfeld - this does, IMO, have promise.

And, Merentha, you're right; having it on your back won't help.  Hucking it into the bushes helps, and (at least in my experience) when the need arises you'll do so with no more than a few seconds' thought.  With things like a smallsword, having it sheathed helps.  My point is just that it makes a remarkable difference; enough that anyone will notice it.  Again it's an interesting nugget from a gameplay perspective; switch to fists and your running speed goes up maybe 10-15%, arms pumping hard in the animation.  But, of course, then you'll need to pause and draw again at the end... unless your objective was just flat-out flight.

 

[Merentha]

Having a little bit of blood spurt out from hits and land on the ground would be nice, too.  Even when the person hit doesn't die.  (think: snow)

I'd argue that power draw skill would still increase damage, though, as you're giving the arrow more force by pulling it further back.

Crazed Rabbit

They're a huge thread on how overdrawing the bow won't help it increase damage in any way.

 

[Crazed Rabbit]

Woops, I'll go looking for it...

CR

 

[Brolligod]

Speaking of PoV implements, 3rd person should be done away with, and the 1st person view should be enhanced for maximum realism.

3rd person view detracts from the game, and it allows the player to see things they simply shouldnt. Also, the 1st person crossbow model should be fixed to perhaps the ironsight idea to help out folks who dont want to "Shoot from the chest", like it is now.

I dont use a crosshair, and the crossbow view in 1st person is terrible for accuracy.

 

[Merentha]

First person restricts your view far too much.

 

[CrazyEyes]

I love the stuck weapon idea, and the wobbling on bows. I sure as hell know my arm would wobble if I picked up a bow and arrow and drew it. Best scenario of weapon stickage being added is an additional hitbox for the ribcage in which stickage is a lot more common, and almost 0% in say, limbs.

Note to all those who are thinking "just because it's neat and it's not in doesn't mean it's realistic durr": Sticking someone with ANY pointed object will get it lodged in there like the devil. It's gone way up to World War II, where many Germans used the very sharp edges of their shovels because it would not get stuck like the bayonet (that is why the German's melee weapon is a shovel in, say, Day of Defeat for instance, not that I am using DoD for my references), and it was generally like using a one-handed axe, so it was much more effective than the bayonet. yes, I love dulling arguements before they can occur.

 

[Cainurk]

First person restricts your view far too much.

Just like real life - you cant see a full 180 degrees.

 

[The Pope]

You can see a lot more than a 4:3 screen provides. Still, I prefer first person as it's a lot more immersive.

 

[Ingolifs]

Just like real life - you cant see a full 180 degrees.

You can, the full field of vision goes to about 200 degrees. But you have to go to 100 degrees before the things in your vision really take proper form.

 

[CrazyEyes]

You can see a full 180 degrees, but that would require torso twisting, otherwise with our necks alone it's a little over 90 degrees.

 

[Merentha]

You can see a full 180 degrees, but that would require torso twisting, otherwise with our necks alone it's a little over 90 degrees.

...You can see past 180 without moving your torso.  Hell, even if you had no field of view and could only see absolutely directly in front of you, you'd still be able to see 180 without turning your torso.