[Suggestion] Possible Fix For Auto-Roll/sliding Mechanic Off Edges

[ALDO]

Problem: The auto-roll mechanic kicks in during undesirable moments causing the player to constantly fall off edges and die, occasionally trapping the player in an endless loop of rolling into the same hole from the respawn point.

 

Solution:

 

- Adding fall damage to compensate for the event that character does not auto-roll due to certain circumstances

 

Currently, players that jump from a certain height will trigger the auto-roll mechanic when they touch the ground and it causes them to roll forward where their reticle was last pointed before touchdown. By implementing a fall damage mechanic, the "movement AI" could calculate whether or not to break-fall depending on where they will be rolling towards. If there is at least X amount of distance for a safe roll to be executed, then fall damage will be absorbed by rolling. However, if the distance X would lead the character to fall, die, and respawn, auto-roll mechanic would not kick in and instead the character would perform a harsh landing, stopping where he/she landed and sustain fall damage as a result. Think about it this way: Would you choose to break fall just to roll off a cliff and die instead or choose not to break fall and just absorb the impact with a harsh landing, sustaining damage BUT avoiding death by not rolling off the cliff?

 

This offers more strategic parkouring as compared to the current "hold slide to cancel every parkour move", which still might have you sliding off the edge. Another good implementation could be having momentum built-up from the jump height x distance. For example. if one jumps from a further distance and greater height, after a break-fall roll he would pick up more speed after the roll as compared to one who jumps from a more vertical position and does not cover much horizontal distance to generate momentum. 

 

- Adding an edge-grab mechanic if a character auto-rolls off the edge

 

In addition to the above solution, if in any case the calculations fail to stop the roll, the character will acknowledge that he/she is about to roll off the edge and die, performing an edge-grab/wall-grab instead. The animations for the wall-slide and/or vault-up grab can be utilized here. This will add more fluidity to the movement structure and also could add a possible gameplay mechanic to lure the AI to chase a player off the edge, but the player instead pretends to fall off and hangs onto the ledge, firing his weapon from a hanging position. 

 

- Speeding up animations for parkour and adding more variants as to how one would clear an obstacle or add more fluent varieties

 

People slide to avoid parkouring animations simply because they make no sense as to how it breaks all momentum and slows you down to a halt, requiring you to start up the sprinting animation again. This has caused alot of people to die while parkouring as a result of getting shot by enemies while in a parkouring animation. Right now, to most people, parkouring consists of mostly holding shift to maintain momentum, because PARKOUR is all about maintaining MOMENTUM, not breaking it, like what the current parkour mechanics are doing.

 

- Allowing players to either tap-space jump or charge their jumps

 

Currently, jumping occurs by tapping the jump key. Adding a "hold space to charge jump power" would open up endless possibilities in terms of movement fluidity and more importantly, to be able to gauge the distance and power required to clear a jump. Players more often than not choose NOT to trigger Parkouring moves because they stop momentum and are extremely slow and sluggish to perform. Doing a vault or wall-grab slows players down and are very susceptible to enemy fire. With this mechanic, together with fixes for auto-rolling, it opens up a whole new playground for players to experiment and hone their skills in clearing obstacles and finding the best spot to jump from and where to land to keep the momentum going, or simply, as the core of Parkour states, getting from point A to B in the most efficient way as possible without losing momentum.

Edited February 22, 2014 by ALDO

[arisaka]

How about this: rolling in midair triggers the roll upon landing - otherwise, just keep running if the height fallen is small. At larger heights, the result would be the same - landing heavily and stopping. Also, do you think crouching in midair to do a ground pound is a good idea? It could be used for stopping yourself in midair if you don't want to overshoot a platform or maybe knocking enemies off their feet.