Total Realism Overhaul

[InsaneJelly]

I'm just wondering, is progress for Basic Needs 1.0 currently paused while you work on the Combat overhaul?

Or are you still working on it, while focusing mostly on the combat overhaul?

[HiddenRanger]

I think the concept of "skill" may be causing the confusion. There are two types of skill be discussed here. The character skill in a certain aspect of the game and the skill of the player (you and me). I think, and I very well may be wrong, that mansh00ter is trying to make to game more focused on our skill as gamers. Your character no longer has the advantages that the vanilla game gave so now it requires you to use your full potential while controlling your character by planning, not button smashing, etc. So instead of progressing through the game getting perks and such which increases your characters skill you get greater battle knowledge and prowess along with better gear that does have some impact. Which I like as it is more challenging of you since we have to be consistently on the ball for our character to succeed. Just my take though :)

 

I think what I would like more than anything though is the physical ability to dodge away. I'm still worried about my bosmer getting too up close and personal with the brutes in skyrim :woot:

Edited March 10, 2012 by HiddenRanger

[meh12345]

I think the concept of "skill" may be causing the confusion. There are two types of skill be discussed here. The character skill in a certain aspect of the game and the skill of the player (you and me). I think, and I very well may be wrong, that mansh00ter is trying to make to game more focused on our skill as gamers.

 

Possible, unsure. However, I must say that I wouldn't find that particularly realistic, in the sense of a logically consistent game world. (I can't cast fireballs in real life but that's no hindrance in the game.)

 

Either way, I suppose the capitalized Skill could be used to refer to Character Skills to avoid such confusion.

[Mansh00ter]

Actually I am merely trying to make the whole system less artificial and less inconsistent. Challenge in vanilla games actually comes from the fact that the player fights opponents which are cheating. Plain and simple. You have NPC's who have many thousands of HP to help them soak up damage, who have massive hidden damage boosts to help them deal way more damage than they should, etc.

And on the other hand you get creatures which *should* be that powerful, but aren't, and get killed by a bear - yes, I am talking about Dragons.

 

What I'm trying to do is replace a lot of that artificiality with something that feels more appropriate. Instead of an NPC having thousand of HP and shrugging off arrows in the eye like they don't exist, that same NPC now can get his head crushed just as easily as they player can. BUT, the player has to land the blow first. It's a similar kind of change Bioware (half-assedly) pulled off in KOTOR, when they replaced characters just hitting each other with characters actually duelling, blocking, dodging etc. and thus created more immersive and fun combat.

 

Player skill will be more important in TRO, but so will your character skill or stats. For example, you decide when to block, and without actual player skill in blocking you're going to get killed quickly by just about anything. BUT, when you block, your character's skill and stats are greatly taken into account, and that's what makes a difference between blocking all or most of the damage, or having the attack just crush through your block. Same with attacking.

 

@InsaneJelly - I am working on both, but throughout the working week I don't get many hours for hobbies. So I mostly just flap around here instead. Weekend is crunch time! ;)

[frostypaw]

Do you think some combat will be released this weekend?

[Mansh00ter]

Combat, unlikely. There is a slight script delay I can't get rid of, seems the code has simply grown too complex to process instantly. I'll have to take a look at the algorithms I created so far, take their results which are otherwise very nice, and optimize the code by simplifying some things. That should keep the end results and player experience same and improve speed.

 

I did put together a little demo video to show the difference between normal combat gameplay and TRO enhanced gameplay:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxelj_zSUxk&feature=youtu.be

Edited March 11, 2012 by Mansh00ter

[HiddenRanger]

Looks pretty good! Was that a shield bash that took you down a third of you health at 1:42 though?

 

I'm guessing that scripting delay is the delay in the reduction of damage?

 

Thanks for the update :)

[Mansh00ter]

The delay seems to be based around the time it takes to process the code, since instructions at the beginning of the script fire immediately, while those at the end have a delay. Which is kind of weird since the whole script is some 500-600 lines of code, that should process immediately. I guess the whole virtual machine is a bit slow with that, which is understandable since the scripting platform was never meant for this kind of intense tasks. It was meant for actor scripting in quests, and some special effects and such.

 

So I will simplify the algorithms where possible, for example reducing armor classification from current 10 categories to just four, then splitting AI improvements such as dodging and parrying to a completely separate script so that is can run in another thread etc. In the end the experience will be the same, just with less math. And sans delay of course.

 

And what took my health down was a shield bash, that did a little damage, and a hit I failed to block in time, which almost killed me. Comparable to the original game where you see how I can just disregard blocking altogether, it is a big improvement. Those are level 1 NPC's, but what's great about the mod is that they don't feel like level 1 NPC's - and that kind of intense fighting is *everywhere* now. There are no more pushover fights and no more "holy s*** I shot you 20 times and you're still walking" situations.

[tomislawus]

Some sexy stuff there! I would prefer the video to be in first person though.

 

Waiting for the mage gameplay video.

[Koolaidmaker]

The I only thing I worry about is that the AI might not be very good at combat.

Like not blocking often enough or generally being less active in fights than the player.

 

Thats what I experienced with the Combat Damage Multiplier.

It was still a lot more intense, mind you, but it was very difficult for the AI to stop my attacks and gain the initiative.

 

Also, the combat in the video does look very promising!

Can't wait till it comes out, am waiting for that till I start a new charakter to try both your modules.

Edited March 11, 2012 by Koolaidmaker