I know there a few hack''n''slash games out there, but I feel they have something missing. They tend to relie on combos and button bashing. FPS are so successful on the PC because of the mouse control, it allows the player to precisly pick out their targets. I want to use some of that mouse presision in a hack''n''slash game. It would have to have 3rd person view and use standard FPS controls. You would have attack, defend, parry and combos but your sword swing would be ''influenced'' by the mouse. This will make it feel like a PC orientated game rather than a console button basher. Could it work? would it be fun? We need to make of the mouse, its one of the few things that seperates the PC from the console.

You know, I really like this idea. Have the player click on a point to specify an action target. The specific action could be determined by the game based on the context. For example, if the player clicks on the bad-guy''s body, you''ll get a stab (don''t know the formal terms, so please excuse my lingo) unless that is physically impossible at the time; clicking on the opposing sword causes a block to happen. You''d need a good IK system here, and it could help determine the appropriate action by ruling out certain moves due to the constraints of physical movement.

Actually, new thought. Left mouse button attacks, right mouse button blocks. So when the left mouse button is pressed, it looks for points on the surface of the target object to attack; when the right mouse button is pressed, it looks for points in the space immediately around the player to defend. By "it" I''m referring to the control AI. It could be complicated to get working well, but if you do a good job I''ll bet it would be really fun because it would give the player a chance to do some real swashbuckling. Cool.

One problem you may encounter is the footwork. If the mouse is controlling the sword, how will the player control their character''s ground-movement? The keyboard could work, but would probably be pretty clumsy. I guess you could either have the controller AI automate it (could be annoying), or you could keep them glued to the spot (unrealistic and possibly annoying). Something to consider.

Try playing Severance: Blade of Darkness

This is a VERY good game with detailed fighting. Its not quite what u said with the mouse, but it does take a lot of skill to win battles!

This is the website, unfortunalty the company who made the game went out of business, so im not sure if u can still get the game, i got it free with my GeForce 4 ti 4200, damn good game for free!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.codemasters.com/severance/

Boy! This took some searching and digging, even with the GDNet Search tool up and running again.

Check out these two threads. The first describes a system for melee-style sword combat while the second proposes a "First-Person Melee" game based on gladiators battling it out.
Bullet-Time to Sword-Time
Gladiators (FPM)

Thank me later (for all the digging; these threads date back to December 2001 and January 2002, respectively).

Oh, also found Sword Fighting (through the search tool; May 2002).

I think a sword game that utilizes the mouses free movement to possibly conduct combat would be cool. What I mean is, have the mouse be attached to the tip of the sword, so where the mouse tip goes, the sword goes. This would be cool for limited combat situations, but I can see TONS of issues...though I think it would be a very interesting twist to combat(real-time, fully player controlled, sword combat).

Damn...
Didn''t ANYONE pick up "Die by the Sword?"

-Hyatus
"da da da"

There was a very old game called Die By The Sword which does exactly that. You can also record moves and play it as a standard slasher, if the ''V-Sim'' technique was too difficult.

I found it was easier if you used a joystick and slammed left-right-left constantly - it just smashed through blocks and cut off limbs

http://www.epinions.com/game-Software-All-PC-Die_by_the_Sword/display_~reviews

http://www.interplay.com/games/product.asp?gameid=114

http://www.game-revolution.com/games/pc/action/diebythesword.htm

One big problem I see with the mouse controlling the sword in an FPS-type game is that you would either have to disable mouse look (which most people I know use to look around and turn, with the keyboard being used to move forward/back and strafe), or you have the view swinging around with the sword which would make combat very difficult (and it would make many people sick seeing the screen flying around like that). You could disable mouse look when holding an ''attack button'' (like mouse1), but then you have situations where the player ends up looking in a totally wrong directiong trying to fight somebody (and would thus have to press attack, move mouse, release attack, move mouse, repeat) and it comes down to player''s reflex speed which IMO goes against the idea of RPG-style games (assuming this would be one and not just another FPS deathmatch-style game, minus the range).

If you could find solutions to those problems, though, I think it might be a nice idea =-)

Die by the sword comes to mind (as mentioned above) as one game that implemented your style of mouse control.

I thought myself the execution of the style was sufficient, but it was still a little clumsy. I''d imagine this is because your mouse ended up all over the place like a ball in a pinball machine. A couple of things i wonder about is whether it would have been better with an optical mouse (less friction and resistance, as i feel ball mouses tend to lose accuracy when moved extremely quick. Also ensuring that the refresh rate of the mouse was optimal, for the same reason.

The main issue I think you would have is promoting acceptance amongst users, as it is quite an unfamiliar control mechanism, and takes some time to get used to. In saying that, I''m yet to speak to anyone successfully play Q3 with keyboard only...

DBTS did have a couple of options for control, (as in mouse control, or arcade style IIRC, which was 9 preset keys performed pre recorded moves) which I felt may have allowed greater accesibility for all players, but many would have opted for the ''easy'' arcade mode, which kind of reduced the ''fun'' of the game, because it then become "Just Another Hack''N''Slash (TM)"

Anyway, no conclusions from me, just stuff for you to ponder.

Actually I thought about an idea like that a little while ago, but instead of a sword, it was a chainsaw (muhaha )
Anyways, for a FPS it''s pretty much impossible I think, but for games like Diablo, why not?
Walking with the keyboard would be very tiresome in Diablo, but you can change this by having a set of keys (w,s,a,d) which are used to walk with when you have a combat situation, and use the whole mouse for swinging the sword about. Instead of the eternal clicking combats in Diablo, it might be pretty cool to use the whole mouse to operate the Sword...