256
Projects, demos, and games Information / Re: STICKY: 2020 King's Field II port progress report
« on: October 02, 2020, 02:11:12 AM »
Update: I tested both the idea of not squatting/crouching when not running (or jogging) and to squat simply when releasing the action button when not running.
But first, I identified a long standing bug in the jump detection system that has been causing jumps to misfire (duds) for a while. I'd suspected my switch over to using triggers but the problem was because even though the button was held long enough the character hadn't ducked down to the level required to jump. I'm not sure how's that possible, so there may be another problem, but it is complicated when doing rebounds.
Back to the original topic, I felt not squatting to seem flat and encourage running when fighting monsters, which I don't consider to be normal way to engage monsters. I had a number of technical difficulties with the squat option but I've worked it out. The biggest hurdle in it is there's a pretty significant discrepancy in speed when switching. But I think it's the right direction to head in. The speed relationships (or lack thereof) may need rethinking. In the short term I made squat-walking move at the same speed as regular walking to make it a little faster, and increased my project walk speed 0.1 m/s, but I don't think these changes have a big impact. I probably would have increased the walk speed anyway since I think people will expect it to be a little faster.
Switching in and out of stealth like mode and squat-walk is an interesting addition. I think since the stealthy mode is slow I can probably figure out a way to make switching to a crouch seamless. I don't want to get rid of the new way to go from running to crouching/squatting. It's useful just to not have to stop.
Because the dash modes are so complex it's shifted my thinking about them to not be about 1-to-1 controls like in traditional games. I think that they serve a few different roles. One is to encourage body awareness that I think is important to a game like King's Field, to its mood. One is to just make the movements more complicated. I've been bothered for a while that the movement is too simple to seem robotic. It works fine in the original KF with its course digital controls, but it just doesn't suit analog controls. I wonder if From Software tried analog with its later games and decided against it for these same reasons. My personal preference in games (everyone's different) is for heroes who aren't exactly competent and proficient. The Ico and SOTC games have very awkward and clumsy heroes that seems to me to make more sense. So I think of making the movement controls convoluted as a way to introduce a challenge of just having your body get in your way like in real life. In "survival horror" games clumsy controls are often prized for causing suspense and terror of failure. King's Field is not so far away from that mode of game. For me personally my primary objective is to make an ultimate kind of VR experience that is very fixated on bodily movement, so it's a natural outcome of this I think to have many movement options on the table. As many as possible. And of course if you're really deeply attuned with the game you will want the character to carry out the movements you imagine for yourself, so it's good to be able to approximate that. If you're really absorbed you may find yourself learning to be proficient like a camera man. My biggest reservation is my lack of confidence in the DualShock style controller. I think it's not ideal or what I would prefer. It's very imprecise and noisy. I wonder sometimes if a traditional joystick would be better or if it's even possible to make a better controller in this style. For the dashing modes I wish I could reliably push the stick to get the mode I want but I find it's almost a crap shoot if I press it, will I be in the bottom third, middle, or max press, I really don't know. It feels different every time and the more strung out I am the more finicky it becomes. My fingers aren't very reliable devices either for that matter.
But first, I identified a long standing bug in the jump detection system that has been causing jumps to misfire (duds) for a while. I'd suspected my switch over to using triggers but the problem was because even though the button was held long enough the character hadn't ducked down to the level required to jump. I'm not sure how's that possible, so there may be another problem, but it is complicated when doing rebounds.
Back to the original topic, I felt not squatting to seem flat and encourage running when fighting monsters, which I don't consider to be normal way to engage monsters. I had a number of technical difficulties with the squat option but I've worked it out. The biggest hurdle in it is there's a pretty significant discrepancy in speed when switching. But I think it's the right direction to head in. The speed relationships (or lack thereof) may need rethinking. In the short term I made squat-walking move at the same speed as regular walking to make it a little faster, and increased my project walk speed 0.1 m/s, but I don't think these changes have a big impact. I probably would have increased the walk speed anyway since I think people will expect it to be a little faster.
Switching in and out of stealth like mode and squat-walk is an interesting addition. I think since the stealthy mode is slow I can probably figure out a way to make switching to a crouch seamless. I don't want to get rid of the new way to go from running to crouching/squatting. It's useful just to not have to stop.
Because the dash modes are so complex it's shifted my thinking about them to not be about 1-to-1 controls like in traditional games. I think that they serve a few different roles. One is to encourage body awareness that I think is important to a game like King's Field, to its mood. One is to just make the movements more complicated. I've been bothered for a while that the movement is too simple to seem robotic. It works fine in the original KF with its course digital controls, but it just doesn't suit analog controls. I wonder if From Software tried analog with its later games and decided against it for these same reasons. My personal preference in games (everyone's different) is for heroes who aren't exactly competent and proficient. The Ico and SOTC games have very awkward and clumsy heroes that seems to me to make more sense. So I think of making the movement controls convoluted as a way to introduce a challenge of just having your body get in your way like in real life. In "survival horror" games clumsy controls are often prized for causing suspense and terror of failure. King's Field is not so far away from that mode of game. For me personally my primary objective is to make an ultimate kind of VR experience that is very fixated on bodily movement, so it's a natural outcome of this I think to have many movement options on the table. As many as possible. And of course if you're really deeply attuned with the game you will want the character to carry out the movements you imagine for yourself, so it's good to be able to approximate that. If you're really absorbed you may find yourself learning to be proficient like a camera man. My biggest reservation is my lack of confidence in the DualShock style controller. I think it's not ideal or what I would prefer. It's very imprecise and noisy. I wonder sometimes if a traditional joystick would be better or if it's even possible to make a better controller in this style. For the dashing modes I wish I could reliably push the stick to get the mode I want but I find it's almost a crap shoot if I press it, will I be in the bottom third, middle, or max press, I really don't know. It feels different every time and the more strung out I am the more finicky it becomes. My fingers aren't very reliable devices either for that matter.