Melee Graphic And Depth Of Mastery

[CPTdikface]

The time it takes to charge a powerful melee swing can vary greatly due to the mod which reduces it. This is a great idea, of course, but I think it would be beneficial for newer players and also players that choose to focus on and improve their melee play to have some form of indication as to when the strike will occur.

This can be accomplished by having a more pronounced animation that allows a player to predict more accurately when the strike will take place, but I understand that this might be troublesome to include.

Perhaps it would be simpler to add an option to have a "cast bar" somewhere on the screen that depletes or fills up to give a player a fast and easy way to understand the timing of each charged swing.

Such a system can also open up interesting "minigame" avenues. In the old golf, baseball, and fishing games there were circles, arcs, sliders, bars and all manner of graphic indicators that allowed a challenging way to strive for a proper amount of power, speed, direction, ect. A charged melee attack in Warframe could deliver bonus damage or raise the chances of critical damage depending on when the melee button is released, and this "red zone" could be indicated by a slider or other graphic. Another idea is that a melee attack could offer a small window of time after it is completed for the same button to be quickly pressed again to receive a bonus attack that rapidly follows the first. Consequences for failing this extra attack may be a gap in time before another swing could be executed, causing some players to opt for a simple strike at no risk. Mods could be implemented to offer these new abilities, so that a player is forced to choose one over another, or forgo them all in favor of existing melee mods for simple damage or crit increase, ect.

Fun little quirks like this can give an action game greater depth of mastery for those players that can really show that they are good. (the magazine reload in Gears of War comes to mind) Since melee is less about aiming and more about timing, it would make sense to create some way in which player skill at timing their strike can vary greatly and produce rewarding results. Marksmen can get a headshot, which is very difficult to execute consistently, yet every player can expect to pull off a few good headshots per mission. It would make sense for melee attacks to have some equivalent opportunity for skillful execution.

[FatRefrigerator]

Such a system can also open up interesting "minigame" avenues. In the old golf, baseball, and fishing games there were circles, arcs, sliders, bars and all manner of graphic indicators that allowed a challenging way to strive for a proper amount of power, speed, direction, ect. A charged melee attack in Warframe could deliver bonus damage or raise the chances of critical damage depending on when the melee button is released, and this "red zone" could be indicated by a slider or other graphic. Another idea is that a melee attack could offer a small window of time after it is completed for the same button to be quickly pressed again to receive a bonus attack that rapidly follows the first. Consequences for failing this extra attack may be a gap in time before another swing could be executed, causing some players to opt for a simple strike at no risk. Mods could be implemented to offer these new abilities, so that a player is forced to choose one over another, or forgo them all in favor of existing melee mods for simple damage or crit increase, ect.

Fun little quirks like this can give an action game greater depth of mastery for those players that can really show that they are good. (the magazine reload in Gears of War comes to mind) Since melee is less about aiming and more about timing, it would make sense to create some way in which player skill at timing their strike can vary greatly and produce rewarding results. Marksmen can get a headshot, which is very difficult to execute consistently, yet every player can expect to pull off a few good headshots per mission. It would make sense for melee attacks to have some equivalent opportunity for skillful execution.

This would be kinda cool, yet at the same time I do enjoy spamming heavy melee with my Gram and not having to worry about timing.

[11.11.11]

This would be kinda cool, yet at the same time I do enjoy spamming heavy melee with my Gram and not having to worry about timing.

You do realise this kind of sounds like "Nice suggestion, but I like exploiting the game as it is, so please lets not add this." No offence, but that's just how it sounds.

[MJ12]

I'd prefer for the weapon to glow right as it's fully charged and like a half-second before it releases, or something more... organic.

[Darzk]

A glow effect linked to charge speed could work.

I'm absolutely against a minigame/QTE for an offensive tactic. If you're paying more attention to the mechanic than the combat you're doing it wrong, imo. Already I play Infested missions by charging while running away, quick 180 for the release of the attack, and back to fleeing.

I would like to see some aiming implemented into melee tho, angle down to hit crawlers/mobs on stairs below you, and if you're aiming right at a mobs head (and its in reach) we should see some headshot damage (maybe only on charged attacks?)

[Xriborg]

The problem with a visual indicator is it takes your eyes off the action.

I'm actually ok with the system we have now. The charge time is always exactly the same, so you can easily get a feel for when the blow will land just through practice. The less numbers, meters, and bars we have to keep our eyes on in an action game like this, the better.

[FatRefrigerator]

You do realise this kind of sounds like "Nice suggestion, but I like exploiting the game as it is, so please lets not add this." No offence, but that's just how it sounds.

Yeah I knew exactly how it was going to sound even as I was typing it, but I still went ahead with it because, while it would add a bit of a skill requirement and depth to the game, it would be one more thing to have to keep an eye on. The game is very fast-paced and a charge indicator can be somewhat distracting.

[HvcTerr]

A visual charge-progress indicator that's off to the corner of the screen would be great, because it would be a useful way for newbies to figure out cause-and-effect when starting out, while also being something you could ignore later on. (Or perhaps even turn off with a checkbox somewhere.)

Edited April 9, 2013 by HvcTerr

[ReiganCross]

Too much work to something that's essentially too easy to correct. Plus i'm against automatization of this game and i like to keep some things more to intuition then to see a whole lot of markers and guides to lock me into artificial lines. The charge currently have an audio cue that's discreet enough that some people don't even notice, block does blatantly ilustrate the area that you're blocking from so you have to kind of guess where to point your block. Wallrun and Walljump are kept nicely hidden so you feel like you're really making stuff up, sprint and crouching are perfectly integrated into something so intuitive that you barely don't notice the real meaning behind it. I hope to keep melee like that, already don't like the feeling that sometimes i'm getting locked into an enemy and i'm auto-turning to hit him (I would hope that every enemy that gets caught in my slash's arc would get it, y'know?) and i already don't feel that i can block any sort of melee attack, only ranged. (Making block a very useless feature against Infected.)

Bottom line, i don't think making changes to the way charges work is the way to go to improve melee. I would rather like if "What You See Is What You Get." kind of thing.

[HvcTerr]

Booyeah, latest patch added armor-glow to show charging times for melee. (And I think it glows differently during the mid-strike period when you aren't stagger-able.)

[zelgaris]

+1 for simple and optionable charge bar in HUD (or around the crosshair).

[11.11.11]

This has been patched - can this thread be locked please?