Mr Lemony Fresh

No auto cycling, I'm saying that you CAN move around the enemy, and it work works well because while your mouse is moving the view right (so that you can stay centred on the enemy) you are blocking and moving on the right side at the same time, so that not only are you moving away from a blow, you are also block it, which is something that happens in real life. OR you can hold still while holding the parry button then drag in the direction you want to block AS YOU NORMALLY WOULD except you aren't just restricted to moving it in one direction then letting go, you can move it in a direction, then while still holding parry, move it into another direction, for instance moving it left while pressing parry to block a blow, then being able to move it right without letting go of the parry button.

Well not exactly, I suggested that while the parry button is clicked, if for instance you decided to move the mouse the the left to block left, if you decided to instead block from the top, you could then while still holding parry, change the direction. This would be most handy if you had to prepare yourself to block fast, because you could ready your parry (or if you like take defensive position) and then be ready to block in any direction. After this is set in place, you could make the guards attack and block faster a little which would on whole keep the difficulty but make the combat more fast passed and exciting. My concept art was meant to show you how this could be implemented without having to worry about not being able to keep an eye on your target and be able to move around him. EDIT: btw, I'm glad to see that people enjoyed my illustration

Yep i can pick up bodies lol it's one of those things you don't have to think to do under pressure. (most of the time) I just played the training mission again with auto parry, i ran at the first guy with my stab thrust at the ready and skewered him in the head with ease I also fought a very fast battle with the hammer guy and guard which ended up the same way And i beat all three of them a couple of times too on expert. So basically while auto parry may have made it less or a chore, it does water down the combat a little. The idea I suggested would have spared the realism and fun that goes into blocking and there is less chance of fumbling it if you're fast. Think about it, lemme' draw you a diagram (see attached) As you can see, when you you turn right to block right, you are effectively avoid the enemy blow while you block it, all while keeping your eye direction on the enemy. This also encourages the pllayer to move around the guard which creates a more involved gameplay. When looking up or down it's just a matter of looking up to stab and down to thrust while holding parry. The only flaw in this design is that you couldn't overhead or stab while you move around the target, but if you think about this, it's not exactly vital, and stabbing or overhead attacking someone isn't the best way to hit someone while you are circling them anyway i reckon.

As for the randomised attacks, or course I might be wrong and it might be a bounding box problem which I'm sure is in the mod team's sights. With the visual and audio help, i mean the same kind of thing that tells you that you're carrying a body of that your bow is about to collapse, that kinda thing. Except in this case to indicate when you're between attack animations so you can make another action at just the right time, but i don't know how that will help now because... I just played again and realised you didn't actually have you be pointing at where the enemy was hitting to block... (WHY DID NO-ONE TELL ME ) I actually had fun when i went back and sparred in the training mission. It seems that people were so busy reassuring me that the sword fighting system was good rather than checking whether I knew it that well I would have guessed that i needed to point in the right direction to block, but the book hadn't told me that. Now i think the sword fighting system is great, but I still think it can be improved. When pressing the parry button, how about while your hold that button, you can keep changing the direction, so you can have it ready to defend when you've hit the guy and only have to think of the next direction to move the mouse.

Hi everyone, Sorry about the late post, but i was having difficulties logging in and didn't bother with it because I was busy. I played the training mission again today and noticed something new, i hadn't known I could block in different directions, i guess I should have but I don't remember noticing a hint for it. That made it a lot easier. A few new things I noticed when playing. Is it just me or are the attacks you deal slightly randomised in where they land? even when hitting stationary targets i tend to miss the head even though I'm dead on. Still I have some difficulty reacting to enemy movements when my sword is drawn, Please consider the following changes. -Allowing the player to simply point at what he wants to block or stab in order to hit it, and the game automatically detecting what angle to hit eg: top of bounding box for limb/head/torso/ = overhead centre of bounding boxes for torso and middle and bottom of head = stab left side of head/left arm/left leg = left thrust right side of head/right arm/right leg = right thrust -OR Visual or audio indicators to fill in the void of feeling and touch that would otherwise tell you that your sword was at swing power or for sense, that you are physically able to swing it. (like a bar or something similar to 'secret of mana III' [seiken densetsu II] on the snes) or an audio equivalent like grunts similar to when your bow is about to give way. I still think there is room for improvement though. I know there are some pros on this forum or people who play a lot more, but at very least, please do me the favour of indicating that you are carefully considering what i say if you reply as i often put a lot of thought and care into it, and it's often alarming to see so many blunt dismisses, I often feel like I'm trying to talk to a hivemind and I can't get a grasp of an individual consensus. EDIT: To tell you the truth I'd prefer the latter of those two ideas, but I feel like anyone of them would make the experience more enjoyable.)

I can't help but think that it's a little odd that a thief would bring a sword to rob something like a mansion with no intention of using it. Maybe it's time to consider making it more of an optional item rather than labelling it as one of the necessity items. Perhaps bring in the option of a dagger since you need to be stealthy, and save the sword for when someone finally makes a mission with monsters you actually want to hit with a sword. I know when i played thief, a sword was always useful when attacking a group of burricks, but was never the best choice of attack at any other time. You didn't even need to slice the crab men, you could knock them out which made some sense since they were bipedal and easy enough to sneak up behind. And us for being of use as a last resort weapon, does anyone continue playing that state if they are found out? if they are found out at all? And if they do continue, don't they sneak into the shadows? I know my finger is quick to find the F9 button if I accidentally make an epic noise when trying to reach past a few jars of preserved jam to grab hold of an ornamental goblet. Any thoughts along those lines?

I noticed 2 people chose the 4th option. I wonder if those people could tell me whether it was A- because they dislike the sword B- because the sword is without use or C- because they prefer to play it hard Or a mixture of the 3? I added a new poll option which I think might suit some people.

Hello, When I played daggerfall, I thought the way you thrust your sword was kind of neat. For those who haven't played, the mouse view locks while you swing so you can strafe around but you can keep your screen centred on the enemy without much effort.. In dagger fall, of course all you can do is move forward and backward, left and right while you attack. But in dark mod, it's hard although possible to move in a circular motion around an enemy while you attack them although it doesn't do much good. How do you think this compares with the darkmod's sword swinging?

I just want to add something... Can anyone comprehend that something that was originally third person on the pc has a prequal/sequal that is actually fps (as it should have been) and is now on the Wii?? dead space extraction. Would have been so much better on a pc, both better looking and better playing. sigh... and people wonder why I play games like system shock 1...

happy birthday for 2 days ago

this thread made me lol

Thanks all the same MD, some help is better than none

Hey guys, As you can see, biker dude has offered to help, but will only be doing basic geometry. I'm still taking on board mappers if you'd like to help. In fact i might at some stage make a fresh thread about that some time soon if it's ok with moderators.

Thanks for offering Bikerdude! I'll ad you to my msn so i can fill you in on the details ok?

Haha, I can relate. As soon as i mention me and game design in the one sentence somebody wants answers Lol

Nope. I had a fm planned, but has little to do with the competition.

Little Britain for the win. You can download plugins that makes blender have a more intuitive interface, so perhaps don't rule it out completly until you've explored all the options. I downloaded one that made it look and feel like 3ds max, although the only downside i guess is that you wouldn't really be able to follow the tutorials. Otherwise, you might want to go with gmax, I love using 3ds max and gmax is essentially just a watered down version for modders. Here's something that might interest you http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/25-free-3d-modelling-applications-you-should-not-miss/

I'm psyched! can't wait to see the entries!

Along the lines of music, there is the mind of the original artist to consider I think a true artist wants people to see or listen to their work even if you can't afford it if only for it to be recognised. I mean, think about it, half the songs written are about what's going on in the world and what people should do. While the artist needs support, one thing to consider is that they are sometimes very eager to get messages across, like Rage Against The Machine. They have powerful things to say and a very catchy way of saying it, even if you're just having a casual listen, the more you want to know what the lyrics mean, and then perhaps you'll agree. I know for a fact that Black Sabbath, a legendary band to all concerned about metal, actually wrote a pro Christian song called 'After forever', and i have no doubt that some people who respected Sabbath so much for their music and bad ass persona, actually decided to become Christians based on their idles preference in beliefs. I know people liked the song because Biohazard covered the song (pretty well I think) and it went in with the rest of the covers for 'Nativity in Black' a tribute to black Sabbath. I know if it was me on stage with millions of people knowing and respecting me and my music and getting to play in front of them, I'd be thinking about how good the experience is rather than the money. But even then, it's not as though people can't pirate seeing a band play live, people openly and collectively pay large sums of money to see them. My friend payed something in the order of $250 to go see anthrax live a little while back.

Guys, Mortem desino is too busy to help, would anyone else like to? keeping in mind what was said recently in my first post.

Oh well, at least it's there nothing wrong with that idea. Here's another thing that really applies to individual mission makers. I think a mission briefing should give you a subtle clue as to what equipment should be taken on a mission, and I've found that although the missions have been fun, some have missed a good opportunity to make them better by allowing the player an informed decision about what he's taking with him. I usually just get lots of water arrows in case, because i can usually just get along with them alone, but it's not ideal. Not a big issue, but someone might consider noting that in the wiki...

No, I mean brushes and radius' as 2 separate methods of adding deathening for the AI, one for whole rooms/areas and one for noises that happen in a small area, small enough to justify give it a radial value that fades out.

Good work mate, short by sweet.

YES. This hit me pretty much the same time as you, and I support the idea completely! surely brush based entities could be used for more universal noises and radius based for noises in the immediate vicinity.