June 20 Control - Weekly Devlogs
Let's start at the beginning.
Combat remains the one major system that's incomplete before beta and major content pushes. I've been experimenting and thinking and I've come to the conclusion that the controls need a bit of an overhaul. Specifically, being able to maintain control while performing actions and having a fine-level of control over your movement and actions is ultimately the most important aspect of making the controls feel responsive and control feeling "good."
The first step was to remove the old system of freezing you in place while performing actions and replace it with one where you can still move around. Doing this required overhauling the entire animation system. Instead of just playing an animation on the character and locking out controls, I allow control to continue and separate up the animation system into animating specific body parts instead. Many animations also need to change, but since I'm a poor indie with neither the time nor money to have fancy custom animations for everything I've had to instead work on procedural animations where I create specific keyframes and then use a blendtree and curves to animate the inbetweens. It honestly works pretty well and looks quite nice. You can see an example of some of the new procedural animations by locking onto an enemy, you'll find that your camera controls are locked out and instead the right analog stick will move your right arm around. Try it with a sword selected to see the full range of motion.
It's a bit of a peek at the new combat system, which I'll talk about more when there's more to show, but I've recently taken up medieval weapon sparring (with cheap shoddy imitations, mind you) and it's changed my viewpoint drastically on combat systems in games. These new control changes with fluid movement while attacking is a direct result.
Shout outs: Stacey, Phil Mehl, Wesley Muncy, elijah D. maben, R., bruschkin, Vincent Drone, thea musing, Brian Nunziato, Matt Yates, Elisa Martinez, Ryan Flagg, Jade Arrowood, Angelo Anderson, Dave Walker, Rhonda Seiter, Alexa Hobusch, Jonathan Lekse, Katie White, JollyGamer, Tiernan Greenman, Burlyfighter, Gillian Tolbert, David R Abbott, ツ Htz_Michelle, Rick Marsh, Brittany DeNicholas, Phillip Hash, Amanda Kettles, John Trent Dumproff, Lou Bliss, Pythor Sen, Desedent, Michael Isberg, Nat, Thomas Wilhelm, Krueger82, Irate The Pirate, Mark L, Conall Reilly, Cam Largent, Siren, AstroLass, Lizzie, Michael Hamilton, Vedie V, Mylon Schroder, Nathan, Jordan Florez, Robert Rich, Rodney O'Dell, Robin Ellis-Foster, Jess, Lars Yell, Zee Livezey, Kevin, Kerry Melton, Mary Kieser, SallySparrow132, Naomi B, J, Millergendraft, Federica Frezza, Nick Soucy, Ellen Mitchell, Melanie Warga, Jeremiah Walker, Bryan Sheairs, Bryan Kempka, chris wilson, Max Hops, Sarah Holland, Joshua David Maddox, Jennifer Smith, Liz Fontain, Ray Bissonnette, Joe Dalby, Joline Tran, Nicholas Zamora, ShortyMcgibble, Mr. Vinclair, mtnman1979@aol.com, KFB_Patreon, eric sun, Kayleigh Sulin, Dani, Gundar Wez, Nahellion, Nicholas Hanke, bilbens baggo, Stuart, Brysen Packer, Maxwell Mayer, Gannon Dubay, Thobek, Aaron Teupe, Mage1X, XMrMonkyx ., Miss Zilla M, Jordan Brazeal, Kyle Clark, Jake Lane, Adam Ruiz, Phillip P Torchia, Stefan Gottschalk's, Remora Jewel, Alex Harford (VA7OMM), jeremy baisch, Daniel Edwards, Zealot23, Shane Andrews, Brandon Mußiq, CJMAXP, Dylan Rintoul, Lisa Tucker, KingHavok1217, Mx Charlie, Justin Snyder, Zachary Burgess-Hicks, Shazear, Steve Rosenlund, Ezzela1891, John Nazario, Gordon Alexander Fallon, Justin Stensgard, Jason Clark, Trey Vickory
Their contribution stands as a beacon of hope for all adventurers!
