a few weeks ago (namely the Advance Weapon System topic). I
recieved mixed responses (most of them were good) concerning the
system and have now taken all of the critisms into account and
have created a new system which is much easier to implement.
The Melee Evolution Mutator, is a mutator that seeks to add more
depth and chaos to the Melee version of Duel.
It makes the melee combat flow and much more exciting.
It uses 5 weapons:
2 "light" weapons (Katana, Daggers)
1 "medium" weapon (Bastard Sword)
2 "heavy" weapons (Double Bladed Axe, Mace)
Combos can be "built". For example if you attack (left mouse
button) 3 times you will do a slash, slash, thrust combo. The
combos will be fast and will link seamlessly to each other ( so
instead of doing a slash, pausing, and then doing another slash
you do 2 quick slashes in one smooth animation).
Combos can be made more complex by using pauses after certain
parts of a combo. E.g You do 2 slashes and then pause for a short
while. You continue attacking and instead of doing a slash you do
2 uppercut slashes and a thrust. Combos can be maded within other
combos (so if you pause after the 2 uppercut slashes you can do 2
more strikes and so on).
The amount of time you pause for decides the combo strikes you
will preform. For example:
Pause for :1 second= 2 slashes
2 seconds = two uppercut slashes
And so on (until you reach 5 seconds, the maximum). The longer you
pause for the more powerful the strikes.
Blocking is achieved by right clicking. It's simple: when the
opponent attacks and you press block, your weapon automatically
changes its angle to block. This may sound simple, but you have to
keep up with the enemy. If you block before or after he attacks
your weapon will miss the enemy's weapon and he will hit you.
This adds strategy. When attacking you have to vary your combos so
that you can make the enemy miss your attacks. When blocking you
have to keep up with your enemy by following and at times
predicting his attacks. It's all about rythm. How you vary it and
how you follow it.
Each weapon has ONE buildable combo (for easy implementation).
Most of the early comments were about the number of new animations
needed. I
have found a way to overcome this problem. Combos are "built" not prerendered. Example: you do a thrust and a
thrust and you pause. Your weapon (e.g sword) remains
outstretched. Further strikes are the "built" from those pauses
instead of doing the whole combo before hand.
Each combo has an "end strike" which cause the blocking weapon to
be thrown of balance (to be "pinged"). E.g In the slash, slash,
thrust combo, the thrust is the end strike.
Stances are vital. The combos for all the stances are the same (in
other words each weapon has one combo for all the stances). The
stance dictates the speed and power of the combos. For example if
you use a light weapon, in light stance it will be a blurr but it
will also be super weak. In heavy stance it will be fast (because
it's a light weapon) but not nearly as fast as light stance, and
it would be significantly more powerful. A heavy weapon will be
slow but powerful in light stance, but it would move like a snail
and be an instakill in Heavy Stance. A light weapon in light
stance is a nightmare to block because of it's speed.
When blocking, stance determines how easy it is to be "pinged" and how fast your weapon can block. It adds strategy to the game: should you go for speed or power?
Each player has an energy bar that accompanies the healt bar. Whenever you strike or block your energy bar goes down. The heavier the weapon and stance the faster the bar goes down and the slower you become. So you would never spend an entire match being on the offense, or blocking because you would both wear down. Running away and not attacking would help you to regain your energy, while getting hit would reduce it.
This how you would be able to use the powerful 5 second combos. After wearing your opponents's defense down, he would go so slow that you would be able to wait for 5 seconds. If you did this while he was on full energy he would just counter attack while you were pausing.
Movement would be restricted to allow the for a constant flow of fights. When blocking you can only WALK backwards and side ways, when attacking you can only WALK forwards. Gone are the days were you can bring down your sword while running backwards.
These movement restrictions would only take place when somebody has attacked AND has been blocked. So you can block and move wherever you like as long as your not being attacked. This is called the battle mode.
In terms of the animations, they can be the same as the existing attacks used in the current melee system.
Weapons can also be broken if pinged too often.
When playing games with more than one player, the advanced weapon feature button (default X) would change the enemy your facing. On top of each enemies head would be a coloured circle. You would press X and continue pressing until you were facing the colour (and enemy) you wanted.
Last of all this is a CUSTOMIZABLE MUTATOR. If you don't like the attacking system for the mutator, but like the blocking, you can just take off the attack system. If you don't like the battle mode, take it off. And of course if you don't like the mutator take it off.
This IS melee: evolution! very nice work! EDIT: although where would you get a new weapon if it was broken? maybe this would be a new version of duel. have the current arena's have melee weapon spawns on the walls. one spawns as soon as someone loses their weapon. and their weapon spawn is behind their playerstart.