Daniel,
nice work you are certainly improving at DB.
THe fact you are using FPSC as your level editor and as a resource for your other textures ( like the blood ) and characters I think is both a bonus and a curse.
On the up side, you have some really nicely built and light mapped levels. You are obviously a good levels designer, and have put thought into it. The places look like real villages/cities, and the extra scenery and so on really makes it stand out from other Dbpro projects (which are often visually...uh..horrible). Also, the characters and animations are very tight. You have also coded a really nice DB side around this, the collision is good, I was at that bit on the video when he's at the bottom of the stairs, thinking, "it's going to be all bouncing and crap" but it wasn't, it was smooth, so good job there.
On the downside, I think FPSC is kinda limiting you. At the moment, this still looks like an FPSC game, just in 3rd person. There are a wealth of features and so on in DBpro that aren't made us of in FPSC that you should be tapping into. The blood for example, it does an ok job in FPSC, but it could be alot better. I think in a sword fighting game like this you could make the blood much more interesting.. have it splatter surfaces, have it arch into the air etc. I guess this is proabably slightly pointless crit, as I'm sure that you have loads of other things you're adding. I guess the EXP and so on at the top of the screen will lead to leveling up and inventories and stuff in the future. I guess FPSC is just the core right? and that there's lots more original stuff in the works??
Anyway, that's all by the by, you're making good use of the tools available.
From the point of view of the gameplay in the video...
* When you enter the room and read the parchment, this is nice, and it's a good way to tell the story, but maybe have a key prompt to show the parchment. Having it pop up every time the player is close could be really annoying, infact it did look like you were getting stuck in the video because the parchment image meant you couldn't see where you were going. It could be as simple as a little "press E" sprite floating over the paper.
* Granted the guy is in armour, but he moves SOOOOOooooooo slowly. It's ok in a dev video, and probably when you are testing, but the number of games that get a negative in their reviews for having a slow character is really frequent. When you start putting player death into the game, or challenging parts that the player will attempt 10 maybe 15 times, having such a slow move is really frustrating. Maybe add the option to jog or run by holding shift?
You're a good animator, if the character doesn't have a run animation, why not add one to the biped? I learned a random fact off TV yesterday that the average suit of armour weighs 50kilos, but the average modern soldier carries far more weight than that, so if you can run in Modern Warefare, you can run in medieval times..!
* The fighting looked floppy. I know that you're just in WIP and so it probably has a long way to go... I also know that getting melee fighting right is a total freaking nightmare. So, rather than crit, I'll offer some advice...
At the moment, you seem to be experiencing a probablem where the enemies go through the player, or get to close and clip him when they are trying to attack. also it looks like a slash-fest because when you hit an enemy they don't react, they just keep hitting you. Imagine when you've only got 5 HP left and you're fighting a guy who just keeps hitting, it'll drive you nuts..
With the distance thing,
At the moment I'm guessing you get a distance from the player and when that's less than a certain amount they attack?
Perhaps get 2 distances.
Lets say your enemies attack when they're at less than 60 units.
So in the AI, if the enemy is at less than 60 units from the player they attack... also if less than 60, rotate them to point at the player.
Now also check for a minimum distance.. so say 30. if the enemy is less than 30 units, dont stop the attack animation, but move the enemy backwards by say, 2 units. This means that the player should never get closer than 30 units from the enemies, and so wont clip when fighting.
If you want to add feeling of damage to your attacks, have a hurt animation. This can easily just be a reversed walking animation... basically I'm guessing you have an array for enemy health? SO, as well as health add an array for enemy hurt. every time the enemy takes damage, add 1 to the hurt value as well, then if hurt goes over say, 4, you make the enemy play the hurt animation.
This gives your attacks a feeling of damage. Every 4 hits the enemy will stumble back, giving you the opportunity to run in and get some free hits without taking damage. You could have a varying number of "maximum hits before stumble" value too, so that those little goblins would stumble after a few hits, making them easier to kill, and something like an ogre might take 10 hits before it stumbles...
Ok, I'm sorry to rant... I'm making a sword fighting game too at the moment, and it's good to see other people doing it, and I just wanted to share some of my experiences and things I picked up. Please don't think this is like,... massive negative... I'm just trying to lend a hand... or brain... or whatever.
Anyway, It's looking really solid.
Best,
J
I want robotic legs.
