Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) Suggestions Some thoughts on combat animation

You know, I've been plating <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> for a bit now, and I was thinking maybe it would be much better if there were different types of attackes. Such as hitting on the head or thrusting the sword into the stomach. To expand on this a litle more, it would be nice if we'd see the character in combat actually block the attacks if the computer calculated that the enemies attack would not be succesful. Now since the character (or anybody) can't block while recuperating, the character can block (if enemies hit is unsuccesful) only when recuperated and attack quickly right after that, then recuperate, and so on...

Furthermore, an automatic special attack would be nice: when the hitpoints of the foe are so low that one succesful blow would kill it, the character does the special move. Now I dont want to list any because they would be violent, but if requested I might.

Another thought; if the arows, when succesfully shot, would stick into the body of the opponent, that would be nice too.

so you are suggesting that they make the game more like Neverwinter Nights? no offense to NWN, it is a great game, but i think that if all RPGs are the same, then you would only have to buy one RPG. yes i know that the main point of RPGs is the story line. i just mean to say that the graphics and the gameplay are a big part in it too.

But don't make attacks automatic, like in NWN! It gets so boring, just sitting and watching your char fighing an orc, and you're not really doing anything (got this to the extreme in GW, after a while you noticed that fighting was just pressing two keys to target asnd attack. Once in a while you pressed the 1 or 2 button to use a skill. This was just SO boring...).

Übereil

Yes well I ment making only blocking automatic. Let me make it more clear. The character blocks automatically if the player decides to attack, and at the same time is being unsuccessfuly attacked, or if the character's just standing there and is being unsuccessfuly attacked. I agree, automatic attacking would be borring.

This is how I understand the suggestion:

Combat is done exactly as it has always been.
Combat is displayed differently.

Sometimes, not being hit will be displayed as a successful defensive action.
Sometimes (a random chance determined by your offense and target defense) the killing blow will be (displayed as) something a bit more impressive than the regular slash or smash. Maybe if the killing blow knocks the victim down to -1/10 of its (max vitality + defense * 2). (A 100 HP monster with 50 defense would get it for being knocked down to -20 on the final blow, and then there might be only a 20% chance that it happens still)

Conditions for special kill:
Monster HP (after death): Less than or equal to - ( MaxHP + 2 * Defense ) / 10
AND: Random value from 1 to 5 = 5.

Of course, this won't happen if the victim (I mean "monster") is killed by a special move.

Is this what happens after a normal kill?



What I ment was that when the player can kill a monster in one blow, why not make look kool? AND do maximum damage.

I think I understand what you mean.
I also think I agree with it, to a far extent.
But with thousands of kills, I'd think it more fun if something truly spectacular happened on kills -but quite rarely.

Something slightly spectacular, if you catch my drift, could happen on regular kills.

Oh, and it is a great idea, regardless of how often it should occur.

About the special move:
The warrior special move is a spin attack.
You could hardly implement a special killing blow in that.
That's what I meant about it not happening in special moves.

A bit like the bloody mess perc in Fallout. Every kill you made looked as bloody as possible (otherwise you only got it with a finnishing crit). This wasn't very usefull, but when every rat exploded when you shot it was kind of funny <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />.

Otherwise I agree with the very special death only occurring once in a while, otherwise it isn't a special death, then it's only a normal one. That REALLY spectacular one gets kind of boring if seen too many times.

Übereil

I agree.