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Original post by Bru but i just thought of something with the speed. how about i increase the speed of normal movement,and allow target lock only in melee mode? that way players will still be required to aim when shooting,and will not have hard time fighting in melee while moving fast.

Usually you have a button for melee locking. In the case of Zone of the Enders (the previous example given), you have a soft-lock and a hard-lock. The soft-lock happens automatically, and will auto-aim many of your normal weapons on your enemies as long as they're in your targeting area. The hard-lock is engaged by pressing a button, and will cause your mecha to focus only on one enemy, and cause your mecha to circle-strafe.

The soft-lock is actually pretty useful. It takes a lot of skill out of aiming, since you only have to keep them in a wide area, but it works great when you're dashing around, dodging, and still trying to damage the enemies. The hard lock is better if you're trying to melee

Speed also depends pretty heavily on gameplay. Continuing with ZoE as an example, they made it pretty easy to boost around levels while still hammering on enemies. They also generally kept the screen pretty busy in the active parts. If you don't mind some spoilers,

">here is a video of the final boss battle. At this point in the game, you have an ability which allows you to quasi-teleport to your targeted enemy. Note the use of speed lines, the busyness of the screen, and the general ease at which the player teleports around the arena, while still managing to get melee hits off on the boss.

Edit: The problem with making your players aim while moving is that it encourages them to slow down in order to get hits off, which, of course, makes the game feel slower. The "targeting area" is a pretty good compromise. I'd also check out Armored Core: For Answer on ways that you can make your game feel fast. I think that iteration of the series did a good job improving the feeling of speed.

[Edited by - Rycross on November 4, 2009 2:20:28 PM]

Actually, I think your game looked faster for the brief moment when you zoomed off the avatar and pulled the camera back. The things to fix it I think have already been mentioned above, but honestly, I did not feel like the commercial game you linked looked all that fast.

I am not sure if someone has already mentioned it, but racing games oftentimes use motion blur to give a faster sense of speed. However, that is probably going to be a polish you would add later once more of your game comes together.

The problem with pulling back the camera is that it's a very temporary effect, kind of frustratingly so. Infact, so much so that I think you'd be best off minimizing that effect, or else players will feel like their optimum speed is achieved while accelerating.

also to add... Motion blur.

The only problem with motion blur is that it is easy to see through if you have any chance to study it. That was a problem I had with Tekken 6, which used it extensively to give the player the feeling that they were attacking faster. It was used so often that the player begins to expect it, and can see and study it, showing it for what it is and defeating the purpose. When it is mixed with other effects to help mask it (like in Burn-Out), or it is only used for a brief moment when the camera turns, it is much better. I did, however, mention motion blur above, so I do feel like it could have a place in a project like this. I just don't know about using it for sustained speed effect.