Sword Play

The magic thread is going well but there has been little consideration put into creating an effective method of close quarter combat, this document is pretty generic but refers to swords, but the system could be applied to any weapon.

The system relies on the direction travelling to decide which attack it creates, but the particular direction may contain muliple attacks, which is how depth is added.

The moves consist of various initiator, linkers, attacks and terminators.

For example working on the assumption that whilst moving forward when the attack button is hit the player will execute an over head chop with the sword. The player would raise the weapon above his head and bring it down. The move would consist of:

Initiator : Raise sword
Attack : Strike down.
Terminator : Raise blade back to the ready position

The initiator causes no damage but simple prepares the player for the attack, moving the weapon from the ready position to the point where the attack starts, once over the terminator returns the weapon to the ready position, much like the sword version of a reload.
In a similar situation strafe left, could create a one hand swipe at head height from right to left, which would consist of

Initiator : Raise sword and move blade to the player's right.
Attack : Swipe from right to left at head height
Terminator : Return blade across the body to ready position.

Now the two could be linked, as it seems quite natural to allow the swords momentum to continue around for an over head chop, by strafing left and hitting attack, then at the moment of the completion of the move pressing forwards and attack:

Initiator : Raise sword and move blade to player's right
Attack : Swipe from right to left at head height
Linker : bring second hand up to grasp hilt, move blade above the players head
Attack : Strike down.
Terminator : Return sword to ready position.

Lets add another move in, let us assuming that moving back would cause an upwards attack:

Initiator : Move sword down between players feet.
Attack : Upwards swipe to above enemy head height
Terminator : Return sword to ready position.

Let us then link this with the above combo:

Initiator : Raise sword and move blade to player's right
Attack : Swipe from right to left at head height
Linker : bring second hand up to grasp hilt, move blade above the players head
Attack : Strike down.
Linker : Allow sword to drop a little further.
Attack : Upwards swipe to above enemy head height
Terminator : Return sword to ready position.

Conversely a system of a backwards attack followed by a forwards attack:

Initiator : Move sword down between players feet.
Attack : Upwards swipe to above enemy head height
Linker : Continue over the top of the head
Attack : Swipe down.
Terminator : Return sword to ready position.

The other thing I mentionned about other moves being contained in the same direction, consider this as a series of moves, forward attack, followed by backwards attack, followed by strafe left. Normally that would be strike down, up then quick slice at head height, no more, that would be strike down, strike up, two handed cleaving attack through the enemy at chest height:

Initiator : Move blade above players head
Attack : Swipe down
Linker : Let blade move further down
Attack : Swipe up
Linker : Whirl blade around head
Attack : Powerful attack to enemies chest area.
Terminator : Move blade back to ready position

The system I think would allow a lot of learning to perfect, but would still be simple to pick up. There would have to be a number of Linkers available to attack with at anyone time before the combo finishes, plus terminators would take longer depending on how powerful the finishing move would be.

Owen