For the longest time I was interested to create a great role playing game. well between 8h work and the managing of virtual teams unpaid that keep quiting on you, after a few project I just gave up. I than remember a game that I played a long time ago, knights of legends by Origin. what strike me the most about this game was it very original combat system. I'm not going to explain here, Google it and find out. I realized that it would be very cool too spend this limited free time to do on task better than a whole game. The idea would be to develop a original combat system base on the game I loved so much, but bringing it to the age of 3d and developing it so that it could be licensed to other who actually make games. The basic idea would be to create something that is a plugin for a all range of engines, as well as having the ability to be cross platform. Off course I do not want to say too much at this stage, but would love to get some feed back form the community, would this make a good project, what are the plus and cons, does some of you artist and coders interested in such a project,well you know the usual rent and praise thing! Thank you.

if you want to get anyone interested, you should

Ha Ha! Well i kind of meant not having to write a whole project design yet.but I understand what you're saying. I you remember in knights of Legend the combat system was turn based, but you where able to target limbs, distances mattered, highs, ect... now imagine a 3d engine where each limbs have a function and a set of attribute, where a drawf would be mad to try striking a giant with a head blow. has you fight you disable you're enemy limbs with each successful blows and you must make sure that your enemy doesn't take out you sword arm. It is a very blury outline of what i have in mind and be happy to awnser any question. Thanks for the response.

[game=dwarffortress] is a pretty sweet game that reminds me somewhat of what you're talking about . . . except it's ascii.

Interesting that you want to develop a new fighting method. That's pretty much what I'm trying to do. It's a little off-topic from what you want to do, but my idea was that there are too many games that use fists, weapons, whatever and absolutely no games that use ground fighting. I've been trying to work on a system for that, but I'm short on ideas at the moment. Sorry for the off-topic blurb, but at least it's vaguely the same idea (new method of fighting and all).

Yeah Paul, I'd been thinking about that recently too.

What language are you looking at programming this functionality in? I imagine that C++ would be best, because its object oriented and its what most game engines are likely to be using ( am not sure how much c# has penetrated the market as of yet) You would create a class or collection of classes that contain all of the functionality of your combat system. This would wither be packaged in a lib file or distributed as a collection of .h and .cpp files ( the difference being that with the .lib file no one can see your code, while with the .h and .cpp files people can so if you are doing open source that is what you would use.) You would them have to select your target engines and integrate your combat system with it….keeping in mind that you will need access to the engine source. This will allow you to spot any pitfalls which your clients may have with the integration and allow you to create detailed tutorials on how to integrate you system with various engines. Also what may make things easier for some engines is if they have an established plug-in frame work. In that case you may be able to package your project into a dll which the engine would load at run time. You could follow their guide lines to build the package and then create documentation on how clients will use your product in the engine.

I've played that game as well. I thought the fighting style was...well...awesome. However, the problem with changing it to a 3D engine, is simply targeting and disabling limbs...is not enough. I was thinking more on the lines of showing where you want to swing your weapon, your opponent doing the same, and only hitting if the weapons don't clash. However that could usually result in highly-succesful attacks. Because by law of chance, you'd have 75% chance to hit. Good idea, I'd say.

Vagrant Story for Playstation kind of had the same idea where you could target specific parts of the body.. but there were no limitations on what parts you could hit (as far as I remember) But it harder to hit, say, the head than the body, for example. It was very interesting -- I wish someone else would come up with something like that.

"its only a flesh wound" ring a bell? i was thinking about that, and how most games, FPS's in particular. treat the whole body like one big marshmallow. When in fact when one hit will do you in.

Actually...I have no idea what that's about. Also, I'm starting to try my idea I posted above. I hope I can use C++ to make it, but...my C++ skills have been so far unused...

its a reference to monty python and the holy grail. you should watch it. good british humor.

Ah, okay then. I constantly saw people talking about Monty Python, though never actually googled/wiki'ed who he was. Also, it's working fine, though now I realise I kind of need 3D models, which I suck at doing, and ODE which I'm having trouble using (any tutorials, guys?)

Ok guys. thanks for the feed back, There is some really interesting stuff up here. I will have take a bit of time to get back on it so tomorow if time permit between 2 maps (i make maps)thanls again.

First of all thank everyone for contributing to this post even for those who feel a bit off topic, sometime off topic note can lead to a rethink of the original one! Paul B, the engine I'm thinking does use weapons, fist, sword etc.., but you are right in the fact that I'm trying to change the way those are used in regular games. Earl Carey, I'm not a coder, so I will try not to missused what you are saying. I think that it would have to be written in C++, for all the years I've been working in Games, always it has been written this way ( at the exception of the good old day of the Genesis where we had games written in assembly if my memory serves me right!) In the effect of licensing the product as a plug in for game engines, I would agree that it need to be protected to the best level and as you say (taking your word for it due to my ignorance) a .lib file would be the way to go. Access to engines sources. Now there is a big one. No one would give this to a small dev. I don't think that I could get my hand on the last unreal engine as all the major one! Even with the amount of connections I still have in the industry I know how no one would give me the source code of the baby they've been writing for the last 2 years and plus. So. 1: write for a showcase engine that is affordable and available for little money such as garage games Torque engine. What is nice about this is that it enables you to create a solid prototype to showcase your plug-in, and also to make it commercially available to Torque dev and by doing so start making money right away. 2: Write something that does not necessary rely on a particular engine but that is written is such a way that with a little work from the user it can be easily adapted to their needs ( game engine). (In an abstract example something likes the plug-in written for modeling software such as Maya or Max. I remember a game that I was working on for Argonaut where us artist could give properties to objects, and once the level was exported the feedback was immediate. Now I'm not saying that there was no coding involve on the part of the engine side, but that it was transparent to our side of things.) I've used a lot of plug-in in the past and yes the .dll system is the one most used and reliable. Thank you Earl this is a most interesting post!

Jokker. You are absolutely spot on. Instead of using blind numbers to generate fight, we use a balance of various aspects simulated in order to accomplish our goal. A set of rules bases vs. others. High + strength+ how far+ swing+back up after blow+speed et...vs. the other character set of rules. I know it is sketchy and not fully thought out but I think we are on the same wave lengths. By all mean this is the point of this thread, to start thinking about the If and maybes and all the early process involved in a a design. Brandon. Yes, there would be limitations I think, the more equation you add the harder it become to create, so the idea is to take it to the max without compromising the game play and the coding possibilities of such a module. Johnweld. It true (I think that what you saying) that one hit could take you out. Well yes, but it could take the opponent out too and this is where you skill come into play. Ok the odds are against you, you could run, you could run and use ranged weapons especially if your opponent is way slower than you due to his size or the clever leg wound you managed to inflict before taking off. Don't forget that it is still a game and as all games restrictions have to be made in order to keep the game balanced. The trick is to do as little compromises as needed.

If any of you wish to actually try and create a game such as this, I'm willing to dedicate time (yet not money unfortunately) to doing such a thing. I believe that if a few of us would get together, discuss a 'battle-plan' of sorts, and planned out the game in detail, it would end up a pretty good game. If any of you are interested in this, fire up an e-mail to t_mihai91 AT yahoo D.O.T. com and we can talk. If necessary, I could host a small board to put up all our discussion as needed, just e-mail me.

It is an interesting possibility, i do have a few ideas on how to create a showcase product. what do you think Earl Carey? Hey Jokker, Why not way a couple of days to see some feedback and than maybe go head and setup a private board if enough people interested. BTW. There would be a steep level of commitments, I've done some unfunded projects in the past and found it very hard to keep people going without monetary reward. but I think that there is way around this problem.

I'm always up for making a new game. I can put my current projects on hold for now, since they are moving slow as molasses (spelling?). My team consists of me and my ideas are too big for a one-man game, so they won't be speeding up any time soon. If enough people want to make this sword-fighting game, I will help as well.

my suggestion would be to make just a one on one duel game type, like a proof of concept.a mini-game. this way you can refine it to its full potential and not waste valuable energy and possible disappointment on developing a whole game to surround it when the main concept is still fuzzy. PS: molasses you spelled it right.