From what I remember, in Soul Calibur, you move around with the control stick, and there are seperate buttons for jump/duck. When you pressed down you would walk towards the camera, and up you would walk away.

To duck, i think you just had a Dodge Attack button which did the appropriate block/duck/evade depending on what the enemy was doing.

There were two attack buttons, a vertical swing and a horizontal swing. I prefer this mode that heavy punch/lightpunch because its intuitive. You know that if the enemy is crouching, you can slam your hammer on his head but if you swipe at him it will go over the top!

As I said, that is from memory, but I think its correct....


wise_guy

It sounds good, maybe you shouldn''t allow the player to hide and heal though, this could make for a long fight, maybe even too long. Of course their energy would very gradually go up while they weren''t attacking (or defending), but not go off behind a rock somewhere like a pansy.

I especially liked the idea about the game lobby, and you could like challenge people to fights and stuff. Maybe even have in-game items that can be used (healing potions, throwing knifes, etc.).

I also like the part about useable terrain. not too complicated, I''d suggest keeping the map relatively small unless your going for a long, drawn out battle.

Keep it up, if you make it, I''ll play it.


"We are the music makers, and the dreamers of the dreams."
- Willy Wonka

hi

was racking my brain trying to think of what the game was called but to no avail. it was an old PSX game where you could customize your mecha and then you entered the aren and proceded to blast each other to bits. the problem was if you got separated the areans were so massive you could spend a good 15 to 20 minutes just trying to find each other. A larger arena with useable ( and maybe deformable terrain ) would be really cool. i love the idea. nothing would satisfy me more than kicking them into the ground and admiring the crater i left behind.... just make sure you spend more time beating the snot out of each other than just wandering around trying to find each other. one game that may be of intrest is Die by the Sword published by interplay. there was nothing like picking up your dismembered arm or leg and beating your opponent with it( sick but fun). i am going to have to dust of the trusty PSX and get back to you *sneeze*

Yeah, Networked games allow for hiding and stuff without having a screen the size of a flea.

While you would have to figure out a way to make fighting in 3d easy (not difficulty but play control), I think it would be a good idea.

The thing is, the game is going to have to be much different than the traditional fighting game. Be sure to make the strategy more than fire/cover/fire/cover/fire/cover. So, to do that, you''ll have to make the game more complicated. Like, the ability to blow up the cover. Oh, and you shouldn''t be able to get your powerback that fast. Maybe 30 minutes after the fight is over, you start getting your energy back. I mean, Vegeta wasn''t lying on the ground nearly dead, and then he suddenly powered up and boom, back to full strength.

-Blackstream

"See you later, I'm going to go grab a few Bytes. I'm so thirsty, I could drink a whole data stream."

There was a couple of games that poped into my mind when reading this. The first was "Bushido Blade" on PSX. You could go anywhere in the level (Huge levels), but when you entered a new area it would have to load it and there was a couple second pause. I don''t think this would be as much of a problem with a computer. The game was 3D and free roaming. The camera would zoom out to always show both characters, but if they were to far apart, it wouldn''t allow them to move any further.

The second game I though of was "Power Stone" and "Power Stone 2". I think Power Stone 2 would be a better model to go after. It had multi-leveled stages and you can play four players at once. The levels, though weren''t too big. The camera would zoom out to show everybody, and then zoom in when possible. It didn''t rotate as much as Bushido Blade. But there was a lot more ''level'' interaction. You could pick up boxes and throw them at your opponent, who could catch the box and throw it back. Also, if you threw your opponent twords a pillar, they could grab a hold of it, swing around and come flying back into your character. The focus was on fast, frenzy fighting and got a little confusing at times. It was fun, but no depth.

I see your game as leaning more twords Power Stone myself. I do hope that you get this project off the ground as I also am sick of the carbon copy fighting games...

BTW, I just remembered about "The Bouncer" by Squaresoft. It is a fighting game also, but more of a Final Fight/Double Dragon style game. It looks good and may be kinda what you are looking for. Squaresoft also made Bushido Blade, and I am sure we will be seeing some influence from the game

These are all great suggestions that I will take into account. I would like to do a little explaining about the whole hiding/healing/powering up issue.

First of all, I do not intend hiding to be an act of cowardess, instead I want it to be used as a strategy for either ambushing or giving a player time to come back from a near defeat. I like games that give the underdog a chance, I don''t want this to be a game where the stronger character is garunteed a win unless they act like a complete idiot. That is too static. I want this to be a game where strategy, timing, and skill allow someone who is weaker but more skilled to still have a good shot at victory. Also keep in mind that the strength of the character does make it more difficult to hide, so a recovering character in hiding would be detected once they reached a certain strength (see my second and fourth comments).

Also, I''ve noticed comments about the ability to power up and recover. I have played a game where this works well, and although it can lead to a longer game, if a player moves quickly and doesn''t let up, an opponent has no time to recharge, so the game can also move in a fast and furious style, depending on the strategies employed by players. This makes the game more dynamic.

I would also like to propose an adaptation of my previous power up idea in light of Blackstream''s comments. What if when a players powerlevel fell below a certain point (ie. they were really weak/hurt), they lost the ability to power up and simply had to recover slowly. The reason I''m not willing to totally throw out the power up idea is that I have seen it work and it does allow an underdog a better chance of success against a powerful opponent. I could also change the rate of power up to reflect the current damage level of the player, as another idea. (ie. The weaker the player, the more slowly they power up.) Let me know what you think.

Thanks for all the good suggestions. I also would like to mention that I intend to have both network and single machine multiplayer. Also, I haven''t read any suggestions about my programmable sequences idea (mentioned early on), so if anyone has any thoughts on that, as well as more thoughts on powering up, hiding, or strategies, let me know.

One thing which really annoyed me in 2player games, was the opponent just sweeping you continually and not being able to block properly / easily (or automatically). Ie. Ken / Ryu.

okay, I don''t know if this stuff has been said before, I don''t have time to read the posts.
How about three bars, a life bar, a pain bar and a conciousness bar. The life bar is you actual life, it depletes, you''re dead. The pain bar indicates how soon you can recover from a hit, a big kick in the gut causes a lot of pain and makes it tough to recover. the concisouness bar indicates how effective you will be, how quickly you will react, how good you defense is. You could also get knocked out, and that would be the end of the fight if you got counted out, but you would also have a chance you recover. The higher you conciousness, the less damage. The higher the pain, the more damage.

shut up
CAN I GET A WOO WOO!

The triple bar is an interesting idea, I think I might try it a variation of it, but I still want to include the effect of losing a little life or conciousness or something when you use a special attack. The more powerful the move, the more your drained. I think this effect makes the game more strategically interesting. Keep up the good suggestions people.

Hmmm.. I was thinking that you were going to breakdown the genre completely. I''ve always wondered, for instance, whether you could combine the click-shoot method of the old side-scrollers with a freeform combat scenario (think "attack" click vital region and "defence" click enemy limbs, without predefined methods of execution).

In combat, its the timing of strategic choices you make between offensive, defensive maneuvers that counts, not combos or sequences. Combat is also usually much more intense than fighting games make out, its up close and personal. Lastly, time is not psychologically linear; when combat reflexes kick in, time slows down, you have space to guide your movements, then bang! damage happens rapid fire and the whole sequence plays back in your head like a crazy kung-fu flick.

Just some thoughts.

PS. Anyone remember 4D Boxing? What a classic!