Fighting Schools/ways/techniques?

[Tasurinchi]

So far I loved the choices taken by the development team, sacrificing some popular and common stuff (PVP, staunch class systems, etc.) for the sake of the games uniqueness (ninja-style) and soul (PVE). Also the way over the question of financing/ vs / pay-to-win through the foundry and customizations.

 

A third thing I loved, and over which I'd like to give an opinion, and possible ideas, is the possibility to customize one owns game-play. So far I've had fun choosing which combinations of weapons, mods and warframes fit the better to my taste, and I've had lots of ways to tweak the slightest detail, without truly loosing that much of efficiency on the battlefield (as it would happen to an elf warlock who decided to charge with an stick).

 

But taking into account the first things I signaled, the game could further accentuate this last element, while adding to the Ninja-lore, by including "Fighting Schools". I mean by that a number of possible fighting styles, for the use of melee weaponry.

 

For example, the idea came to me while looking at the animations of the Orthos, which must be one of the longest weapons in the game, but that has a relatively restricted range of attack for it's length. In martial arts, there are movements that considered using the whole of the pole, since not only it adds radius, but also momentum, which means more damage to the target. That could be part of the move set of an Aggressive fighting stance or fighting school, that could be learnt, for example, in a Dojo's special room, built by the clanmates, or that could be alternatively, provided by Lotus after an special "donation"

 

Either way, learning the style/addhering to a certain school, could imply to pass a set of tests, rather than hoarding resources. I thought that for example, the Defensive school could have one (among many) were you'll have to defend yourself from a horde of enemies in a limited space, were falling would mean game over. Sameway, the Aggressive school could have you chaining kills under limited time, for example, kill 30 enemies with no less than 3 seconds of difference between each kill.

 

Going from test to test under a certain school could mean to learn new movements, or more advanced sets of movements under a particular weapon, or set of weapons, giving the possibility of progress, and to further personalize the way one uses melee weapons (ideally, the neutral, or base movement set [the current one?] shouldn't be much weaker than the possible acquired).

 

In a summary, since it's a big TL;DR,

-To implement a system that would allow for more diverse melee fighting, while also making the experience itself richer and complementing the "Ninja" facet of the game.

-Such system could be centered on weapon sets, longsword schools, pole schools,axe schools, who knows, even perhaps, a Kyudo school, for archers?

-They could complement different play-styles, Defensive, centered on survival and crowd control (First Idea that came to my mind, was Kenshin's reversed-edge sword, for skanas, lol), Aggressive, on frontal damage, Stealth, based on quick movement and focused/strategic actions (for example, that a charged attack on this style would deliver great damage to a single target, while propelling you out of the crowd).

-The idea would be to profit from the advantages of the relatively low competition brought by the PVE, I can grow attached to a weapon without needing to discard it inmediatly, but there's little ground to perfect your current weapon. It's a shame the Skana has to be eventually left behind, while instead, further training could make it even better, while opening possibilities for further consumerism, for financing sakes.

-And last, to nurture personalization aspects of the gameplay, and teamwork, this way, weapons such as the Bo, that are already great for crow control, could have specially dedicated movements, such as a charge attack that throws away enemies, giving the team the possibility to relocate, another that stuns nearby enemy, giving the team a chance to end them, or just jumping from one side to the other, as a good Ninja.

 

(F***, don't you hate when the summary is bigger than the actual wall of text?)

Edited July 9, 2013 by Tasurinchi

[Ronin666]

This is a very interesting concept and idea.

 

Would allow for more melee/weapon style diversity, I hope.

 

Support.

Edited July 9, 2013 by Ronin666

[Kingashe]

So like sub classes? Not bad idea though

[adisknight]

That would sort of be a specialization tree for character builds, right?
+1 on this idea!

[notlamprey]

From what I understand, animations take a lot of resources and time to create. Still, this is definitely an idea worth looking at.

I'd imagine it working a little like weapon research does now. Here's my raw brainstuff:

Your clan builds a special room (like OP suggested) - let's call it the Conservatory, or something like that. In it, you have a shrine (imagine something like a kamidana) that you can interact with for a list of research projects. For these, you would gather some resources along with a blueprint for the technique you want to research. I would suggest that these blueprints be added to a special list of random completion rewards that can drop from Void missions; we don't want them diluting the table for existing blueprints.

For fanboy bonus points, let's call the projects Kata. Knowledge of a particular Kata would enable clan members to choose a Meditation (or whatever you want to call it), and the Meditation would then provide unique movement or melee combat benefits. This is the tricky part: it will have to be tuned to compliment (and not compete with) the Mod and Artifact systems, or some things would potentially need to be reworked.

I can see this idea working just like the proposed Clan Polarity idea, except each player would be able to select his/her own preferred Meditation to hopefully promote group synergy/variety.

[Tasurinchi]

From what I understand, animations take a lot of resources and time to create. Still, this is definitely an idea worth looking at.

I'd imagine it working a little like weapon research does now. Here's my raw brainstuff:

Your clan builds a special room (like OP suggested) - let's call it the Conservatory, or something like that. In it, you have a shrine (imagine something like a kamidana) that you can interact with for a list of research projects. For these, you would gather some resources along with a blueprint for the technique you want to research. I would suggest that these blueprints be added to a special list of random completion rewards that can drop from Void missions; we don't want them diluting the table for existing blueprints.

For fanboy bonus points, let's call the projects Kata. Knowledge of a particular Kata would enable clan members to choose a Meditation (or whatever you want to call it), and the Meditation would then provide unique movement or melee combat benefits. This is the tricky part: it will have to be tuned to compliment (and not compete with) the Mod and Artifact systems, or some things would potentially need to be reworked.

I can see this idea working just like the proposed Clan Polarity idea, except each player would be able to select his/her own preferred Meditation to hopefully promote group synergy/variety.

That's the way my ideas were going by. Right now, Dojos look more like HK Development centers, working as weapon development laboratories, with little of an actual dojo (at least, of an stereotypical martial-arts dojo). They could also consider advanced gameplay features, that would also be an extra incentive for players to join communities, while giving additional quest-like path of personal development. Perhaps the Dojo's room is only were your final test is provided, while you have to actually, visit several Orokin Temples around the Origin System, and you have to either buy, or built the key for such temple.