Swimming combat?

[Handyman]

Hello,

 

Has anyone attempted to make combat between those swimming? It seems like a neat idea, especially since my contest scenario involves slith bandits, and bodies of water... but how would I go about doing such a thing well? I could theoretically just make water floors things can walk on, but that doesn't seem right.

 

Also, is there any way I could make the combat be unusual? Then again, maybe I should be thinking of these things myself, and surprise you all!

 

Thanks!

[Metatron]

You could create water that rises to the player's waist-height with unblocked floors and terrains that are made to look like water. Then the characters could fight in, say, a high river. Have you played Frostbite? Lazarus did something similar with snow.

[Dintiradan]

First off, you won't be able to change the graphics for the player characters, so whatever water combat you have will require the party to be standing up (i.e. wading). That means the sliths the party will be fighting would also have to be standing up instead of swimming (though a cutscene where the sliths swim through deep water then get up and charge once they reach the shallows would be very cool).

 

Using a floor to create a water effect won't work that well, since sprites are drawn on top of floors -- so it would look like the player characters and the monsters were walking on top of the water. However, you can use terrains to create the illusion of the player characters wading in water up to their thighs. Make a water terrain that has 'height':

 

 

(EDIT: This specific template won't work in your case: you want the top of the water to be flat. But you get the idea.)

 

Then fill your entire water area with it. Now, when a sprite walks on a water terrain, it'll still appear above it -- but the water terrains below it will be painted over the sprite, so it will look like the character is wading.

 

(EDIT: Looks like I've been sniped by Metatron.)

 

A scenario I'm working on is doing something similar with fog. Check out the graphic here (and the template here, though you'll have to do something different to make the water look level).

 

a few gotchas: make sure to use a flat floor on the shoreline, otherwise it will look really weird when the party comes out of the water. Make sure to use a fully lit dungeon, otherwise the water in the distance will look blocky because it's not close to the party's light.

 

EDIT: Another gotcha is the te_can_look_at attribute. You want this to be set to 0 for your water terrain. However, there's a bug; te_can_look_at doesn't work for every terrain number. Check this post for numbers that are safe to use.

 

I find this kind of thing to be really finicky, and a pain in the butt if you have to redo parts of your dungeon. I'd recommend leaving the graphics portion to when you're nearly done the scenario.

 

EDIT: Oh, and remember to give the water animation. Animation effects are nifty.

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Metatron

You could create water that rises to the player's waist-height with unblocked floors and terrains that are made to look like water. Then the characters could fight in, say, a high river. Have you played Frostbite? Lazarus did something similar with snow.

I also believe that TM did something similar in Echoes: Renegade, when he created the Marines, which were enemies that could walk on water (you obviously couldn't). You might want to check that out, too, if that's the effect you're going for.