Charge ability? Coders, give me your expertise!

[Matth85]

Heya everybody!

Before anything else: I did a mod search for it, but nothing fit my liking. I might just be bad at searching for mods /shrug

 

So, I am in need of some confirmation here, by any of our code-gurus. Basically, I am looking into the whole "Vanguard charge!"-playstyle, as made famous in Mass Effect 2, and 3 and also playable in Bioshock Infinite. It's the playstyle I love the most, adding a full on "Risk versus reward" aspect to the game.

 

Now, for the people only here to look, the question is: Is it doable or rather -- is it feasible, to code this sort of thing, while keeping the gameplay smooth?

 

For everybody else, here is what I got so far, isolating part from part.

 

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Looking through the named games, and how charge work, I have tried to work out the effects, individually.

 

- A screen effect from start to finish

- FoV changes during the effectt

- A "trail" effect, if seen in 3rd person.

- An effect on impact, a small explosion of sort, or something similar to make it interesting.

 

Other than that, the key element is also "shield recharge", which is tricky enough in a game without the futuristic "shield". A simple solution is to add invulnerability to damage during the animation, and a second afterwards, or bump up the resistances/armor to max. An harder solution would be to create a shield effect. That might need some UI modding as well, but that's all doable.

 

 

Reference: Bioshock Infinite "Charge Vigor" for 1st person, Mass Effect 2 "Vanguard Charge" for 3rd person. ALternatively we got the standard charge from World of Warcraft, which would work as well, though it is slighlty bare-boned.

 

So, in essence, the whole effect would be:

- Spell cast, either as a spell, or a custom keybind. Script checks if a target is within the currsor, and if it is possible to reach it (-Is this even possible to check?).

- The effect starts. In 1st person the effect takes up the majority of the screen, as seen in Bioshock Infinite, limiting side view. The FoV is also set so it seem you are "charging away from the camera".

- In 3rd person the FoV changes slightly less. You get a broader vision, your body dissapears and is changed to a particle glow, which makes a "tail". Alternate your character is still there, and you just get some sort of tail/glow on top of you.

- The hit adds an explosion, and a stagger to enemies you hit. in 3rds person the explosions materialize you. Alternative it during the last second of the charge, it does the forward power attack animation, so as the animation stops, your character just ended with a power attack.

- In 1st person it's seen as a stagger + explosion of some sort. If following the Power Attack theory, the charge simply ends with you landing a power strike.

 

How would this all work out? Coding is something I am not familiar with, and have not done any scripting since good ol' Oblivion days.

From what I can see, I need:

 

1) Detect the enemy is within the crosshair. Possible? If nothing else, it could be changed to a spell that needs to hit to activate.

2) Detect there is a possible path

3) Move the player to the enemy, starting all the effect at right times. Not even sure if this is possible.

4) Change FoV during the charge, and change it back at the impact.

5) Some sort of damage mitigation during that window. If nothing else, a temporary boost to all defensive stats.

Perhaps 6) Add a small slow motion during the charge, to give it a real "super fast charge" effect. Perhaps from the shout?

 

The whole visual part is easily done, but I am rather unsure of how far we can script these days.

 

EDIT: for simplicity's sake, the whirlwilwind Sprint shout animation, and effect, could be used. It still needs a "charge to the target" effect, a stagger effect and some sort of enemy detection script.

Thanks in advance!

Matth

Edited April 28, 2014 by Matth85

[lazyskeever]

I've seen spells that let you charge towards the target it's cast on. You'd just need a different delivery method better suited for a warrior playstyle. Having it as a special power is probably the easiest way. I'm not sure it's possible to feasibly make a "lock on" charge that follows your intended target 100%, since Skyrim doesn't have such a manner of targeting.

[Matth85]

That's one of the things I am pondering about. Skyrim does not seem to have any way to isolate a target, and keep track of it. Not as far as I know.

Then again, back in Oblivion, custom spells were impossible as well, until Midas Magic came along, showing a workaround using lots and lots of coding. Was wondering if that sort of coding-magic is possible these days?

 

There's also the whole "I will last until I hit the target!" and a limitation on how far that can be. So instead of going X distance, the spell can only be cast if the target is X distance of you, and you will charge all the way over to the target.

But, alas, I have no idea what kind of flexibility is possible, and if it is possible -- how feasible is it. If it requires a hundred scripts, it might not be clean, or it might end up being buggy. It might also require me to spend the next 3 years learning to code.

 

Hm...

[lazyskeever]

I'm not a coder, but just with some logical thinking I think you could make a lock on charge by first marking the target with some type of debuff/magic effect. It would be instantly applied on the creature it's cast on and trigger the charge effect. Now, I think I've seen spell projectiles that can follow a moving target, but I'm not so sure it would be as easy to make the player behave the same way. Unless it would work like literally turning the player character into a projectile for the duration of the charge.

[Matth85]

By using the Mass Effect model, excusing it lore-wise that it is some highly magical stuff, we could remove the player model, and instead make it a magical projectile. Though that brings another question, can the camera be edited to follow a projectile? As far as I know the camera is linked to the skeleton.

It could be avoided by not having the camera follow the path, but that would ruin the whole feel of the effect.

[Sjogga]

Setting targeting to "Target Actor" in the Magic Effect settings limits the abillity to only trigger a valid cast if an actor is within the crosshair.

[Matth85]

Sweet! Then that's one step closer.

Now I only need to know if:

1) One can make the charge go from A to B, where the camera follows. The animation itself is easy enough, but I seem to struggle with the movement there. How can I make the animation play to the target, as a projectile? How can I make not go further, or stop halway? hm...

 

For example, if using the Whirlwind Sprint shout effect. How could I make that animation dynamic, instead of fixed? How can I get it to go from A to B, instead of ending after Y.

 

2) Impact. Is it possible to end the animation in a solid way? The benefit of Charge in Bioshock Infinite and Mass Effect 2/3 is that by the end, you are given momentum. Enemies are staggered for a second, and you got a second of invulnerability. The impact itself simply gives the player a momentum to build upon.

A simple "s#*! goes BANG and enemies are staggered" is easy enough to do, but it gives no momentum. The player need to start a swing, which can take a long time.

A solution here is to make the player do a power attack during the whole animation, and as the impact hit, the attack hits. But how dynamic is the animations? Could one extend/shorten an animation, on the fly, given the animation of the charge itself? Is that even possible?

If not, can one cut the animation, and as the impact hits, the player materialize into a smoothed out end-of-power-attack-kind-of-deal?

 

Hm....... If anybody knows, please give some input! I am trying to figure this out myself, but I am not a scripter/coder.

 

Thanks!

Matth