I was thinking of this for a while when I was sketiching a few things out. In RPGs all weapons always do the same damage, despite the action taken by the player, but that''s kind of stupid. So I decided to break it down into various actions that could be done with a sword type weapon: Stab - So stabbing is pretty simple, you take the sword, and jab it into someone/thing, which is pretty simple, but what about putting cerrations into the blade so when you try and pull the sword out, it grabs a bunch of innards and crap so it does like 75% more damage? Slice - Another simple action. Slice damages could be modified by making the blade sharper and heavier, giving it more momentum. Twist - Something I was sort of playing around with. Why not have cerations going in a circular motion around the blade so it does aroun 60% more damage when you twist it. I know these are kind of not-to-well thought out, but what are your ideas? "A socialist is a communist who didn''t try hard enough." - Me

i took the basic damage types and applied a scale to them. for instance, slicing and slashing damage are two extremes of the same damage type. whether your attack slices or slashes depends on, among other things, your character's strength (generic, for now), and your specific weapon.

the most basic types that i have come up with are...

slice -> slash
hack -> bash
stab -> gore (which is a variation on your "twist" damage)

there will be more, of course (burning, blunt/impact [different from hack/bash in that the skin is not broken], etc., etc.).

differentiation in damage types requires, in my opinion, the ability to choose which moves your character does and when. i would like to think that i have come up with a foolproof system for this:

normal keystrokes determine specific actions, and shift-keystrokes change the current action sets. thus, the same keystroke will not necessarily procure the same action in two different situations.

keystrokes can then be assigned different variations. i think a resonable limit is four. for the purposes of example, i'll use a slash action with a sword, which will be assigned to keystroke "v", and a stab action with the same sword which will be assigned to keystroke "d":

v = single slash
vv = double slash
vvv = triple slash
vhold = circular slash (like a roundhouse punch, with a sword)

d = single stab
dd = double stab
ddd = triple stab
dhold = stab + agitation (perhaps a twisting action)

furthermore these actions could be combined:

dhold + vhold would allow a player to, perhaps, stab an enemy and then use his sword to fling that enemy to the ground. using the same combination backwards would have a different effect.

sorry...that was a tangent, but i think there is an obvious connection.

[edited by - syn_apse on July 21, 2003 10:45:27 PM]