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Original post by Dhadson Quote: Original post by Horatius83 My problem with this is: Jiu Jitsu and grappling don't photograph well, it's just a couple of guys bent over and then all of sudden someone's arm snaps, I think you might stick to Kung Fu and that sort of thing because it looks cooler, it doesn't work that well in real life, but it makes for a neat game. I mean kicking someone into the ceiling is cool, a guy with his arm between another guys legs and then a *pop* doesn't leave you much to work with in the special effects department. Horatius, In reality, a lot of martial arts don't photograph well... the problem is that the photos miss the "in-between" moves. Not sure where you get the idea that Kung fu doesn't work that well in real life. I have studied it for years and I teach it too... it has never let me down in the many times I needed it. There are also grappling moves in many Kung Fu styles, it is believed by some academics that most of the Jiu Jitsu and other Japanese grappling styles in some way originated from these original Shaolin "Chi Na" styles. Quote: Original post by fearghaill If you want something more distinctively french than Savate, might I suggest La Canne, of cane-fighting? It was a combination of fencing, smallsword, and brawling, with grappling/disarming moves using the handle of the cane. I read and saw something about this a while ago. I thought it was actually a variant of Savate which was introduced around the time of (or shortly after) the French Revolution for Gentlemen who needed to protect themselves from thieves and the like. This was when the Sword-Cane was used most commonly and could be when it came into use (although I don't know this for certain).

The problem is that in grappling you've got the guys body covering most of the action, since you're supposed to get in close. I'm not sure how you would arrange the camera so you could see what's going on, unless you went for like a grab'n'stomp type variant.
As for Kung Fu, my experience with the striking arts consisted of Tai Kwan Do and Shotokan, neither of which seemed to address ground fighting in any kind of meaningful or useful way. If Kung Fu is different, then I'll definately have to join a class, I have some reservations about Brazillian Jiu Jitsu too, but the emphasis on free-sparring and ground fighting are the most effective training I've found so far.

Might want to look into the Virtual Fighter 4, which is known as the most technically correct/accurate fighting game on the market right now (at least that's what I've heard and how I feel when I played it). Supposedly all the martial arts they used are real and motion captured.

To keep things clean, I think they did avoid alot of grappling moves just because of many of the issues people have mentioned here.

I'm not a big fan of Virtua Fighter. If you play with more than one character, you notice that a sizable portion of their combos are identical. (Don't get into the relative similarities between styles, they still just copied-pasted moves from one character to another.)

As an actual martial artist, I don't find Virtua Fighter all that similar to real fights. It reminds me of old SNK fighters where you'd have to have insane timing just to pull off a super move. I do own a copy of VF4:E, and I use Akira, but a couple of his moves are just absurdly difficult to pull off.

I do want to have grapples play a large part, because if it didn't, how could I have a wrestler or a Jiu Jutsu practitioner? (OT: is it JiuJutsu or JiuJitsu? I know Jutsu means "technique", but I haven't been studying Japanese very faithfully!)

Tekken isn't any more accurate to real life, but I've never burst a blood vessel trying to do a rising knee! I still vote Soul Calibur as best series. I'm really, REALLY excited to get SC3.

@Dhadson:
I vaguely remember that movie. I like David Carradine, but if he really did make up those styles, I don't think I'll go for it. I'm trying to find styles that express the roots of various cultures. Hence my struggle to find viable arts for Western Europe and Native Americans.

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Original post by templewulf I still vote Soul Calibur as best series. I'm really, REALLY excited to get SC3.

I never thought to mention it, but when I was referring to "fighting states" - sort of like combos but more flexible, the Nightmare character in Soul Calibur uses exactly the technique I'm referring to. After certain slashes, he ends the moves in another stance. He can sometimes even move around in that stance. My entire combat system will work nearly the same way. Although most "end states" may just be a part of the move that was just executed instead of a new stance.

Anyway, just clarifying. He's where I got the idea to begin with.

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Original post by templewulf ...Pencak Silat...

There was/is a flash game named pencak silat around the net (I believe I found it on newgrounds some time ago), don't know how well it reflect the style, but it may give some ideas...

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Does anyone have a plausible story for people to get together to fight? Has there ever been a believable story for a fighting game? (I'm thinking of Musashi-style wandering samurai as an excuse for duels, but not every character can be ronin!)

How about setting it in the future/alternate universe where there is no wepaons (allowed). With this world the story could AFAIK be as believable as any game...

@Kest:
Coincidentally, Nightmare is my very favorite character! I already have similar plans in my design doc. The exception being that I want all characters to have more than one stance. I think this will go a long way to giving variety of moves without requiring a variety of buttons.

@sirGustav:
I played Pencak Silat, and I couldn't really get a sense of the style from it. The animation was tremendous for a flash fighter, though. As the excuse for a tournament goes, I'm going to stick with the cash prize schtick. I did have an idea for my current RPG, though.

Consider how Shaolin monks can demonstrate resistance to pain and damage. A lot of it has to do with spreading out force & toughening up areas likely to be used. I thought it might be plausible (in the sci-fi sense) to have guns be less powerful than punches if magic were to be revived. If you could take a bullet by spreading out the force, it'd make some kind of sense.

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Original post by templewulf Consider how Shaolin monks can demonstrate resistance to pain and damage. A lot of it has to do with spreading out force & toughening up areas likely to be used. I thought it might be plausible (in the sci-fi sense) to have guns be less powerful than punches if magic were to be revived. If you could take a bullet by spreading out the force, it'd make some kind of sense.

Well, I wouldn't exactly call it spreading out force, but rather creating a greater force to counter it. The base concept of martial arts is to use your body as a weapon, which all of us knows. Based on this fundamental idea, to freely achieve it, one must first have full control of their body, down to almost every muscle. When you can freely control the flexing of individual muscles, you can actually achieve quite a few things. Based on biology, the average human muscle exerts about 40% or less of its full potential strength at any given time, this is because the human skeletal system can't take the 100% possible, but that doesn't mean it can't be done for short instances. Flexing is just constraction, which, with enough force, can harden the muscle area enough to withstand sudden impacts (countering an incoming force with an equivalent or greater outward force. You probably can't stop bullets, but you sure can keep them from going deep enough to cause major damage, possibly. So, same would go for other sharp or blunt objects.

edit: Sorry, I think I went out on a tangent.....just ignore me....

Truthfully, I don't think any fighting game ever came close to being realistic, just because they need to be "games" first, and then realistically, like last.

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Well, I wouldn't exactly call it spreading out force...

For bullets (or any other force acting over a small area) the pressure is what allows it to cause that much damage. Most handguns only produce about as much force as an extremely heavy punch up to a medium swing of a club. (I'm not going to get into hand cannons or anything else!)

The very fact that the force is applied to such a small area is what allows it to penetrate your body. If you spread the force out, even the average person might survive the swing of a club. Withstanding that much force should be no problem for a shaolin monk!

Oh, and speaking of Pencak Silat (let's just pretend I was), is that related to the Monkey style of Indonesia?

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Original post by templewulf Quote: Well, I wouldn't exactly call it spreading out force... For bullets (or any other force acting over a small area) the pressure is what allows it to cause that much damage. Most handguns only produce about as much force as an extremely heavy punch up to a medium swing of a club. (I'm not going to get into hand cannons or anything else!) The very fact that the force is applied to such a small area is what allows it to penetrate your body. If you spread the force out, even the average person might survive the swing of a club. Withstanding that much force should be no problem for a shaolin monk! Oh, and speaking of Pencak Silat (let's just pretend I was), is that related to the Monkey style of Indonesia?

I studied Shaolin Kung Fu for 8 years. The idea you mention above is called "Iron Shirt". There is a few variants on this... one of which is Golden Bell. I have seen this personally and it is pretty impressive.

You could do a search for this, I am sure there is some information about it somewhere.

Dan

@Dhadson:
I already have a good idea of how I want this concept to work in my game world, but this'll really help me add some flavor to it. Thanks a bunch!

Any martial artists recognize Lee Chaolan's style? I definitely know I'm going to include it, but I don't want to give it a generic name like "Mishima Karate"...especially when it bears no resemblance to the styles any of the Mishimas use!

I'd really like to connect various styles to various cultures. That's why I'm harping on Lee's style, anyway.

Anyone know any western european styles?