I am working on a fist combat game. I know that the combat looks bad, but I have no idea on how to improve it, so I’m looking for advice.
I am asking for help, but if you are going to give generic advice, like “Improve animations, improve fx, make it look better”, please just pass by, saying nothing. I know I need to improve those things, I am looking for the How.
Mechanics:
There are 2 main types of attacks, light and heavy. Light attacks are extremely fast but deal low damage, heavy attacks are slower, but have bigger range and deal more damage.
Player can be holding either Up guard position (hands at face), or Down guard (hands at body). Similarly, depending on the guard player is holding, hits are from the same position.
If you are holding down guard, while opponent is hitting from down position, his attack gets blocked, and you receive halved damage.
Attacks cost stamina. When fully out of stamina (below 10%), if you get hit, you ragdoll for a few seconds.
Also keep in mind, that while on the video I’m fighting an NPC, this is meant for mainly PVP combat.
EDIT: End result after improvements
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Here’s a list of a few superficial things that you could improve for better visuals/experience:
- If you can, try and make the hands actually have a fist-fight stance
- As of now, the first few attacks (light attacks from what I assume) look more like vertical slaps, so you can try and work on a back-and-forth motion rather than an up-and-down one, and to differentiate them from heavy attacks, you could add more momentum to the latter (try making the animation a bit longer when they’re charging up the attack.
- When out of stamina/health, try giving some kind of visual cue (maybe make the corners of the screen turn red, or blur them a bit without it getting on the visual campus of the player), since just making the character ragdoll all of a sudden can be confusing and players will probably just assume their character is bugging.
- Try adding some kind of visual cue for the received and struck hits (whether its a number like “-6” or an icon like a minus red heart"), keep in mind players will be focused in combat, and constantly checking down on their health will make the experience a lot more complicated.
- Add different visual/sound effects for light or heavy attacks, you could maybe keep the small white explosion you have as of now for the light ones, and add something a bit more extra for the heavy ones.
These are some of my ideas, hopefully they can inspire and help you to polish some game features!
2 Likes
Hi, the combat itself looks good so far, but quick question.
Are you using animation tracks or procedural animation?
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Regular animation tracks. I know how to use procedural animations, but am not sure how to implement them into PVP combat with lag compensation.
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Alright then, I would just recommend what Vilu said in the post above. Overall great combat system though!
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