The first release of "Tencent GWB Game Unbounded", published in May 2021
Part 1:
How do I create a skill design module that meets multiple game types? Let's start with how skills are triggered
Written by Bruce
Tencent Interactive Entertainment Advanced game planning
Skill design is a very important part of the game, so how can you quickly design fun game skills? Can this be achieved through modular combinations? The author of this article shares some ideas on the design of skills modules, hoping to inspire you.
"When you want to design a character or boss, you need to use skill performance, and after the result feature set takes time to develop, the result verification is not fun, or the verification efficiency is too slow. Is there a way to quickly adjust the design ideas of skills in the process? ”
The reason why I want to write this article is because I am doing skill module design in 2019, which is simply to use the foundation of UE4Gas to build a development module for planning independent skill design, hoping that when planning is applied to skill design, it can provide tools and work pipelines that quickly meet the planning and design ideas through modular combination.
After several months of exploration, it can be regarded as a result, so I want to summarize some things in the development process and share with you my thoughts on the design of skill modules.
1. What are the game skills?
Since we talk about module skill design, let's first take a look at what game skills mean? I found various instructions, and after comprehensive comparison, gave such a paragraph.
Game skills refer to the way in which game actions cause effects such as attack, defense, assistance, etc.
With more derivative fusion of gameplay elements, we can see that most of the mainstream game genres involve the application of game skills.
Therefore, for different game types, regarding the definition of game skills, I have added a personal opinion here, the performance of game skills will depend on different game environments, and there are different effects and expressions.
Second, how to create a skill design module that meets multiple game types?
When I was doing this content, I was thinking that although we are facing different types of game skills, we don't need to get into specific skill design, but withdraw from the specific effects of various types of game skills and find out the necessary elements of game skills.
The necessary elements are the basic type modules that make up the skill, and I hope that similar to the large bricks of Lego, these basic type modules can be freely combined into different skills.
With this idea, we re-sorted out the different types of mainstream game skills on the market, no matter how different the game skill types are, nothing more than six basic type modules, in order:
1. The trigger method of the skill;
2. Conditions for the release of skills;
3. Skill release selection;
4. The way skills are expressed;
5. Skill generation mechanism;
6. The influence effect of skills.
Third, the trigger event of the skill
Regarding the way skills are triggered, it is usually understood by everyone, that is, how are skills triggered?
The traditional trigger method is understood as:
One is active triggering: that is, the way of active key triggering;
The other is passive triggering: the conditions for passive triggering are very extensive, such as injury triggers, death triggers, hit triggers, and other triggers.
What we call trigger methods will not only be summarized into active and passive methods, but divided according to trigger events.
For example, in some active skills, there are also active keys that need to meet a certain trigger event to trigger the skill behavior.
For example, Morgana's "Soul Shackles" skill, in the traditional sense, is an active key skill, but in the way of triggering, it is also necessary to verify the method of range triggering, that is, the range can only be triggered after the enemy is detected.
Speaking of this, the big guy may complain, I also know this thing, isn't it to set trigger events, this design skill will be done, what is there to live in vain?
Don't worry, wait for me to come together.
In order to select sufficiently generic and sample trigger events, I analyzed several well-known products with relatively complete skill mechanisms on the market, and compared the designs of more than 400 skills horizontally, and found that although these skills have their own characteristics, the way skills are triggered is almost included in eight trigger events.
Eight types of events are simply named, divided into:
Attack, hit, time, space, state, attribute, death, verification.
Of course, these eight types of events do not exist alone, and more characteristics can be shown through the coupling of multiple events, and it is not an exaggeration to say that these eight events have been able to meet most of the skill design needs.
1. Attack trigger event
Attack triggering: Simply understood, it is a behavioral event that is triggered after an attack is launched.
It is often used in skill effects that affect character attributes and effects after the attack method changes and the attack is launched.
It should be noted that the attack trigger event is only related to the attack issue, and logically the event will be triggered as long as the attack is issued, without the need to detect whether it hits.
Of course, this usage method will add different features to the attack trigger event through additional judgment conditions.
For example, in the gun characteristics of the shooting game Borderlands: will the number of bullets consumed be determined before the attack? If satisfied, each shot will be judged to consume two bullets, which in turn triggers an attack event, which increases the attack effect of the firearm by consuming 2 bullets.
Let's talk about another application of attack triggers, in "Honor of Kings", there is such a setting, the hero will trigger a change in attack method after a certain number of normal attacks.
Take Luban in the MOBA game "Honor of Kings" as an example:
Each attack event triggers the act of recording the number of attacks, and when the number of attacks = 4, the next attack changes the attack mode.
In the SLG-type game "Under the Grandmaster", there is a type of combo skill, and the skill effect is triggered by probability determination in the attack trigger event.
There are many more ways to apply attack triggers, but here are just a few common examples.
Of course, no matter how the application method changes, the core of the attack trigger event is the behavioral event logically triggered by the attack. In this application process, designers will add interesting feature usage methods to attack trigger events by adding different conditions to enrich the effect of skills.
2. Hit trigger event
Hit triggering: The behavioral event that triggers after the determined unit (enemy/self) is logically effectively hit by the program.
In hit trigger events, feedback on the effect of "sending attacker" and "being attacked" after determining a hit, and feedback on conditional judgments after a hit is usually used.
For example, the "Bangalore" "Speed" skill in "APEX Heroes": when it is hit, it triggers the effect of the skill that increases its movement speed for a duration of time.
In this skill case, the hit target determined by the hit trigger event is himself, and when he is hit, the movement speed attribute increases.
In the "Fresh Flesh and Blood" skill of World of Warcraft warriors: it is determined that the behavior event is triggered after I hit the enemy. In this case, the individual who is judged to hit is the enemy.
The above two skills illustrate the mechanism of triggering events in hits, in addition to determining the logic of the hit, but also record the information of the units on both sides where the hit occurred.
There is also a way to apply hit triggering, which has a two-way effect on the initiator of the attack and the person who is hit.
The "Spike Defense" skill of the "Armored Dragon Tortoise" in "League of Legends", in the use of hit trigger events, first of all, the enemy will cause damage to himself when he hits himself, but after he is hit, it will also bounce back to cause damage to the person who hits him.
Of course, the hit event we are talking about here is not only used in the character's hit skills, but also in the determination of hitting actors (objects that are logically determined to be hit by attack).
For example, in "APEX Heroes", the gas canister released by the plague can be hit by the attack, triggering the effect of explosion in advance. This is also one of the most common ways to respond to the hit judgment of a particular Actor in game skills.
Therefore, the hit behavior, first of all, is how to define the hit from the program logic, and in the application of the hit behavior event, the most basic usage is to record the "attack" and "attacked" information, so as to expand the skill effect of the hit behavior event in the skill effect.
3. Time-triggered events
Time trigger: A behavior event that satisfies the behavior result of a specific time interval or node.
So the question is, how to explain a specific time interval and a specific time node?
The first is the use of satisfying a specific time interval, which I will interpret as behavioral events that can only be triggered within the duration, and are used in a similar way for persistent skills commonly used in various game types.
For example, the dimensional rift of the evil spirit in "APEX Heroes": after opening the skill, for a duration of time, opening two portals, and your own team members touching the portal, will trigger the skill behavior of the character teleporting in the two portals.
The prerequisite for the time-triggered event here is that it is within a specific time interval in which the portal exists.
The use of satisfying a specific time node is a behavioral event that requires time to reach a specific node before triggering, and in many games, the skill of delayed effect will be used in a similar way.
For example, "League of Legends" Time Old Man's "time bomb": drop a time bomb at a designated target location, and the bomb will explode after a 3-second countdown. After 3 seconds described here, it is one of the most common ways to satisfy a specific time node.
In the usage of satisfying a specific time node, there is also a special time node that meets the definition of the rules of the game, such as four seasons, day and night, year, and even changing the current time node through the skill effect to meet the trigger skill behavior event.
In the game rules of "Dota 2", the game rules about the day and night switch are set, and the night lord will get additional bonuses for his own skills in the specific time node stage of the night, and even have the ability to directly change the current time node.
Of course, there are many derivative uses of the concept of "time", here we mainly refine the concept of "time-triggered events", and the above three cases are used to illustrate the application of time triggers.
4. Space trigger events
Spatial triggering: A skill behavior event that is triggered after the specified actor is detected in space and meets the preset conditions.
In spatial trigger events, you usually see two ways of application, continuous monitoring of effective conditions within the range and conditional detection of range boundaries, the former has a wider application path, which can be seen in almost all game types, while the latter applies relatively few environments.
For range-triggered events, we are most exposed to similar halo type skills, such as the "Thorn Halo" in "Warcraft", or the "magic sound transmission" of the evil spirit in "APEX Heroes", which are similar application methods, self-centered on the range of targets, real-time detection, as long as the target touches the range and meets the judgment conditions, the skill event is triggered.
In addition to real-time detection of the direct effect of skills, there are also judgments for active triggers, such as the "soul shackles" of fallen angels in "League of Legends":
Before releasing the skill, the range detection is carried out with itself as the center, and when the enemy target is detected, the skill trigger condition is met, which triggers the damage and slowdown effect of the enemy in the range; If not detected, the skill cannot be triggered.
In Gibraltar in APEX Heroes, the shield skill is conditional detection of spatial boundaries, centered on the position of the summoned actor, a certain spatial range boundary, and a three-dimensional shield is opened to protect bullets and explosion damage.
The protective cover here is the conditional detection that sets the spatial range boundary, when the explosion occurs and the explosion will affect the spatial boundary, the spatial range condition detection is carried out, and the explosion point is detected at the boundary position of the protective shield, and when the explosion occurs on one side of the protective cover, the shield will block the explosion damage.
Regarding the application of the "space" event, in addition to our example here, it is triggered by a single or duration detection of a circular/spherical range; There are also shape changes in the spatial range, and more in the application of conditional determination.
For example, Anne's incineration skill in "League of Legends", her skill space range detects a tapered range.
5. Death trigger event
Death Trigger: to specify that the skill behavior event is triggered after the Actor is in a logical death state determination.
The death state, the logical determination of death in most games, will focus on "the life attribute is 0, and the input command operation cannot be performed", which is the most commonly encountered state effect in the game.
For example, the illusion in "APEX Heroes", when the illusion is in a state of logical "death", a fake Actor is generated in the death position, and he is temporarily invisible.
Therefore, regarding the death trigger behavior, the core is to determine the skill effect triggered by the actor in a logical death state.
For example, the "Death Totem" skill application of the undead in "APEX Heroes" generates a totem at a specified location, which is within the effective range of the totem, and after the player enters the dead state, it will trigger the resurrection and rebirth near the totem.
Another use of death in World of Warcraft is to transform into resistance to damage and temporarily stay alive when it is judged to be dead.
When both of these are dead states, the skill effect is immediately triggered, which changes the dead state.
Another is to confirm the state of death, but set the effect of the skill in which the player is still in the state of death even if it is in the state of death.
The death contract skill effect of Dead Song in "League of Legends" changes the logical judgment of death when it is in a dead state, and players can continue to release skills during the extended skill effect time.
About this usage is a composite mechanism use, first of all, when the death state is triggered, and secondly, the application of time-triggered events is associated, so in the application of triggering behavioral events, in addition to a single trigger mechanism judgment, there are usually multiple mechanisms of composite application.
6. Attribute trigger events
Attribute triggering: Detects changes in the value of Actor properties in the game and triggers skill behavior events.
Usually when the game is made, the Acotr in the game, here I collectively refer to the game character, sets the basic attributes, and the standard used to measure various behavioral states.
For example, the most basic health, movement speed, attack speed, etc., and skills are related to the blue bar or energy used to measure the cost of skills.
Olaf's fury in League of Legends is the most typical attribute trigger, increasing its movement speed every time the health attribute decreases. The application of this attribute trigger is essentially to monitor the change of a certain attribute of itself in real time, and trigger the skill behavior effect after the condition is determined.
And the stimulant potion skill of "APEX Heroes" octane, compared to the fury of the berserk, is also the effect of reducing health and increasing the speed of movement.
However, in the stimulant skill, it is the active trigger, and the skill logic is that when octane uses the stimulant skill, the movement speed is increased for a duration and its "health" attribute changes.
Another is that when the attribute changes, it is necessary to determine whether the attribute reaches the critical value, which needs to be triggered and verified for this attribute change to determine whether the threshold value of the condition triggered by the skill is reached.
The most common way to trigger attribute trigger events is to determine the change of attribute values, and when the conditions are met, the skill effect will be triggered.
7. Status trigger mode
State triggering: Detects changes in the state effect of Actors in the game and triggers skill behavior events.
In our game production, in addition to the property value, there is also a common definition, which is the state effect of the Actor under different behaviors. For example, the most common abnormal state effects such as acceleration, deceleration, dizziness, and silence are usually positive or negative state effects that define Actors in the game to attach to the game.
For example, the "silent" state effect is usually defined in games as an actor being silent and will not be able to release active skills. Of course, the logical definition of states in each game will be somewhat different, and the various state effects and definition methods will be detailed in the subsequent status chapters.
For example, the "Silence" skill application of the undead in APEX Heroes, throwing devices, causes the status effect of unusable skills on enemies within range.
Of course, you may wonder, isn't this a direct effect of the "silence" skill? How does it fall under the state trigger?
Usually the use of attribute and state triggers in games is a standard for verifying the change of attribute or state after the change of these two changes. When the change criteria are met, the skill behavior event is triggered.
In the case of the Assassin's "Ointment Expert" in World of Warcraft, the skill effect is to verify whether the target is poisoned, and if the poisoning state is met, 8 energy points will be returned.
The use of state-triggered events here is to validate against the target of a specific state "poisoning", and if the verification goal is met, the skill event will be triggered.
Of course, there is also the player on the picture, who has played "League of Legends", knows who it is, Swift Wind Jianhao, who often has our "Nursesal", the reputation of the enemy Jianhao.
The skill of "Wind Crush" is a typical trigger for state judgment. The condition for skill triggering is that the skill event will be triggered when the target is within the space of the enemy target being shot.
The trigger mechanism of Swift Wind Jianhao is a mechanism that requires high-end skills or teammate cooperation, so the scene played requires players to have certain requirements for the connection understanding and proficiency of skills.
Usually, this mechanism that requires state triggering is generally defined as a general mechanism in the game. Such as slowing down, flying, knocking back, and other skill mechanics that are satisfied under most conditions.
8. Stack verification trigger
Overlay validation triggering: Verify the overlay BUFF on the Actor's in-game, and trigger the skill behavior event after the validation condition is met.
In a strict sense, overlay verification is not a kind of trigger event uniformly classified in the game, but more of a conditional verification method to assist other trigger events, and the use scenario will also be integrated with other trigger mechanisms.
However, the mechanism of overlay verification appears too frequently, appearing in almost any game genre and any game mode, so it is explained here as a categorical trigger.
For example, in League of Legends, this kind of overlay verification is used endlessly, and there are currently 155 heroes in total, and more than 100 heroes with overlay verification in skills.
Take Anne, the daughter of darkness, for example, firethirsty, and after casting the skill 4 times, Annie's next damage skill will cause stunning. At this time, the overlay verification application is to add a BUFF to herself every time Anne releases a skill, and the "stun" state effect will be triggered after meeting the number of stack verification.
The Pain Extraction of Desert Death God Nessus is a fusion application method of overlay verification and death triggering, which determines that when an enemy dies from the skill effect of Pain Extraction, it will superimpose damage values on itself.
In World of Warcraft's Warlock's Churning Pain skill, the application of overlay verification is further integrated. The first is to verify that when the pain buff is stacked to layer 4, it starts to deal damage, and secondly, the number of pain buff stacks will increase the damage effect.
In stacked BUFFs, I usually divide BUFFs into two types:
One is the effective BUFF in the sense of the game, which means that there is a substantial effect BUFF for the Actor, such as the application effect of the churning pain BUFF just mentioned, this type of BUFF has a substantial effect and undertakes the function of overlay verification;
The other is an invalid BUFF, which has no material meaning to the Actor and is used as a standard for recording the number of times the skill of Anne, the daughter of darkness, is applied.
Writing here, the chapter on skill modular skill design - trigger event has also temporarily come to an end, and in the process of writing the article, I have re-sorted out a process, deeply aware of the breadth of the application of skills in the game, so the summary in this article only represents personal understanding, if you have any other opinions, I hope to be able to communicate with the author.
Part 2:
How should ARPG game skills be designed? What is the process?
Author: Fish Bones
What is the process of casting ARPG game skills? The author of this article breaks it down into three stages, and today I will talk to you about skill effectiveness testing. If you are also worried about game skill design, reading this article may help you avoid some detours.
Hello everyone, I'm Fishbone, and today I want to talk to you about the skill process of ARPG. Here I will first break down the entire skill process into three stages, as shown in the figure below, which are skill validity detection, skill casting process, and skill effectiveness.
To put it simply, skill effectiveness testing is to solve the problem of whether the skill can be put and to whom; The skill casting process is to solve the problem of how to put skills; The skill effectiveness phase is to solve the problem of what kind of impact the skill has. This is the first part, the effectiveness of skills to be tested, see below.
I. Preface
Skill effectiveness testing generally includes the detection of four variables: consumption, cooldown, range, and casting target. There is not much to say about the rules of consumption, which this article skips. In terms of cooling, there is only a brief discussion, and the focus is on the detection of casting targets and ranges and their related rules.
Second, cooling rules
The skill cooldown is a simple chat, and the more common design is that the skill cannot be cast during the cooldown, and can only be cast when the cooldown time is 0. This design must not need to be repeated, let's talk about a small optimization design - loading cooling.
In some games, skills have the concept of "loading cooldown", that is, when the physical unit with the skill has a skill, it will enter a "loading cooldown" in advance before the skill can be cast normally. "Load Cooldown" and "Skill Cooldown" are two different variables, the former will only take effect once when the skill is owned, and the latter will take effect once each time the skill is cast.
For example, when a character is first spawned, the general attack loading cooldown is 0, but the skill loading cooldown is 5, and the general attack will be cast directly at the beginning of the game, and the skill will be cast only after 5 seconds. These two variables can well control the rhythm of skill casting, especially the skill casting rhythm of AI, and these two parameters can well restore the skill casting rhythm of "Dota Legends".
In the arena of the game DNF, high-level skills also have different loading cooldowns at the beginning of the game for balance and the need to combat the rhythm design.
Third, the design of the target and range
Because the target and range are strongly correlated, I plan to write it together. Before that, Fishbone first divided the skill into two modes, and divided it into "strong target" skill and "weak target" skill in terms of whether a target must be required when casting.
3.1 Strong targeting skills
Strong target skill means that when the skill is cast, there must be a valid physical target within the range of the skill, otherwise the skill cannot be cast. This type of skill is often referred to as a lock-on skill, and in MOBA games, the hero's normal attack is commonly designed with this design.
In this design, the player does not always use the skill command to cast the skill immediately because there may not be a valid target within the skill range. However, in terms of experience, players use skill commands and expect immediate feedback.
In the strong target design, the battle is more numerous, and the player only needs to pay attention to the distance
When an effective target is out of range, the Strong Target skill in most games will execute pursuit logic. That is, the system will let the caster find the way to the right distance before attempting to cast the skill. Note that the pursuit itself is not part of the skill flow, but an optimization rule made to make the effective target meet the effective range.
Pursuit generally sets a pursuit range, which means that the caster will only launch a pursuit behavior against valid targets within the pursuit range. If there are no valid targets within the pursuit range, the player will also be prompted that "this skill needs a valid target", which means that an immediate error feedback is used to remind the player that the skill cannot be cast at this time.
The blue aperture on the soles of the character's feet is an indicator of the range of the skill, and the character will chase to the right distance before attacking
Here, it is worth mentioning whether it is a chase or a direct error feedback prompt. From the perspective of experience, it will reduce the sense of control, and in terms of player control behavior, his intention is to activate the skill, but in fact the skill is not activated. Chase is a compensatory measure, while error prompts are direct error feedback.
Therefore, in terms of improving the skill control experience, Fishbone wants to talk in detail about the relevant design under the weak target lock enemy.
3.2 Weak target skills
The "weak target" skill corresponding to the "strong target" skill is that when the skill is cast, it does not require a valid physical target within the range of the skill, which means that the skill is allowed to be empty. The main advantage of this design experience is that the feedback is immediate, and the player can immediately see the character casting the corresponding skill by issuing the command to cast the skill.
This scheme is more used in ACT games, which improves the sense of control, but also because of the immediacy requirements of operation feedback, the process of target selection is abandoned, and instead of the selection of direction or the system automatically selects effective units.
In the weak target design, the player needs to feel the space by himself
Directional skills
Skills that are well understood in direction are skills that are cast in a certain direction. Melee skills, ranged, displacement, etc. can be used purely in one direction.
In the design, the direction of the moving stick is generally preferred, and if the joystick is not used, it defaults to the front of the character. We can convert the 2D coordinates of the player's joystick in the UI into 2D coordinates of the character's horizontal ground. This establishes a correspondence between the character's orientation and the direction of the moving stick.
This skill is generally used for skills such as Roll (Dodge), Summon, etc. that do not require a target. Because there is no need for effective goals, I will not talk about it in this article, but in the next article, I will talk about the design ideas of these skills in the process.
The system automatically selects the enemy
Because the system has omitted the relevant functions of target selection, it is replaced by the need to design rules for automatic enemy selection. How can you ensure that the skill can attack the target with as little control as possible, and it is the target you want to attack? Here, Fishbone intends to talk about the mechanism of auto-locking enemies that is customary in many ARPGs. This mechanism has a lot of details, let's talk about it in several steps.
Step 1 - Filter the target
When selecting targets, first we need to eliminate all targets outside the range of the skill, and only keep the targets within range. Different skills have different ranges, so the number of targets retained is also different.
If there aren't any targets within range, the skill is empty. The empty placement skill is generally processed as casting itself empty or casting a virtual anchor coordinate in front of the character, which will not be repeated here, see the figure below.
Cast diagram of a virtual anchor point in front of the character
If there is a target within range of the skill, select a target and cast the skill on that target. For clarity, we generally design skills to cast spells towards the target, but this is not absolute, not all skills will be cast towards the target, the designer can decide at his discretion. As for the rules for target selection, they are described in detail in the second step.
If there is no target within the normal attack range, it will be empty
The Tornado skill has a long range, and if there is a target within range, it is cast towards the target
Step 2 - Pick the "recent" target
In the case of a large number of enemy units, the player uses a normal attack to directly attack the nearest enemy unit, which is undoubtedly a solution that saves operations and can give full play to the effectiveness of skills.
With normal attacks, the character immediately attacks the nearest enemy unit
But there is also an obvious problem with this scheme, which is that the nearest enemy unit is often not the enemy unit I want to attack. Then we need to add some more intelligent judgments, that is, determine what units the player wants to attack. Here, we need to combine some of the designer's own ideas and change the unit that the player wants to attack to the unit that the designer thinks the player wants to attack.
The following fish bones will elaborate on the optimization rules from the monster nature, lens field of view, joystick control, and attack range.
Monster nature
When picking targets, we can incorporate the concept of enemy unit threatening. That is, different monsters have different threats, and this threat affects the calculation of distance. Some monsters have a higher impact rate, and some monsters have a lower impact rate, which is generally divided according to the three gradients of ordinary monsters, elite monsters, and boss monsters.
In practice, we added the threatening impact ratio to the previous distance judgment, and the result is the distance*impact ratio. For example, the normal monster is 1, the elite monster is 0.9, and the boss monster is 0.8. Then the same distance is 10 meters, after the system calculates the impact ratio, the three are calculated distances of 10, 9, 8 meters respectively, that is, if the ordinary monster cannot be within 8 meters, the player character will always attack the boss monster when casting skills.
Enemies with larger red are bosses, and if the boss is only slightly further away from the mob, the protagonist will attack the boss first
Along these lines, we can also calculate the strength and health of monsters, allowing the player character to prioritize attacks on weaker or easier units to kill. These depend on the specific needs of the designer, so I will not repeat them.
Field of view of the lens
After the above calculations, the player character will attack a calculated target with the closest distance, but this problem may occur: the camera in the game is level up, and the distance to the character is relatively close, the player clearly sees a target 5 meters in front, presses the normal attack button in anticipation of attacking this unit, and the character suddenly turns 180 degrees to attack an enemy behind that was not visible at a distance of 2 meters. While this is in line with the above logic, it does not meet the expectations of players.
So in the above logic, we also need to take into account the field of view of the lens. Generally speaking, we can give higher priority to units that can be seen in the game camera, consistent with the monster nature rules described above. For example, if the off-camera target is 1.1 when the distance is calculated, the off-camera target will attack the target in the lens unless it is significantly closer than the target in the lens.
However, there are still some problems, and despite the above rules, it is always possible for a character to attack an off-camera target. And the lens itself actually has another problem, that is, if the target position is not very reasonable relative to the position of the character, such as the target is at the edge of the lens, we do not feel comfortable when attacking. Then we need to rotate the lens to the right angle to solve these 2 problems.
At this time, we need to change the three parameters of the lens, horizontal rotation angle, vertical rotation angle, and distance from the target anchor point.
These three parameters allow the camera to watch the character attack the target in a suitable and comfortable position, but if the character attacks all the targets requires the camera to rotate, it will cause the camera to shake too often.
Because each product has its own design in this regard, Fish Bones will mention only a few common designs here.
In some games, as shown in the figure below, a two-dimensional coordinate system is constructed with the position of the character and the horizontal orientation of the camera. If the target is in the 1, 2 quadrant, the lens will not be selected horizontally; In the 3,4 quadrant it rotates horizontally. This is a relatively simple design idea, that is, attacking the target "in front of the camera", and the judgment before and after is based on the protagonist.
The camera turns when the character attacks the "rear" unit that the camera is facing
The camera does not turn when the character attacks the "front" unit that the camera is facing
Schematic diagram, the numbers are quadrants
Another design that is also more versatile is that in fact, each attack system will try to change the lens parameters. They will try to change the camera to a reasonable position, so that the protagonist and the target are in the center area of the shot, and the determination of this central area requires the use of the theory of thirds. The rule of thirds is simply to divide the shot into a nine-square grid, the character and the target are best at the intersection of the three-point line, and the two lines are in the second best position, as shown in the figure below. Space is limited, so I won't explain the trichotomy in detail.
Footage based on the rule of thirds
The visible targets are all at the intersection of the three-point line and remain centrally symmetrical
Then, when it is recognized that the target is not in the right position, the lens will automatically rotate to the right angle so that the target is in the right position. This design needs to calculate what orientation the target is in the lens, that is, the spatial 3D coordinates need to be converted to the 2D position of the lens. If you are troublesome, we can also use a simpler algorithm to set the appropriate parameters for the shot based on the difference in distance between the character and the target.
The joystick is oriented
We can always have a sector area in front of the joystick facing forward. The center of this fan is the coordinate of the character, and the angle is set by the project. For targets within this sector, the distance calculation priority is higher. In this way, we can better control the joystick to decide which direction they attack enemies. So if the player does not control the joystick, then a fan can be generated in front of the character, or there is no such fan at all.
Joystick operated footage
Because the joystick is always facing the monster with the red arrow, attack the monster when it is almost close
When there are very close oddities, the joystick is not easy to make
Attack range
After we have applied so many rules to optimize the current goal, we still face a problem. That is, when the goals are very close, it is difficult for us to accurately choose one of these goals. Well, to be honest, Fish Bones feels really difficult, so in general, the design of weak targets generally makes melee attacks range damage, so that you are only responsible for cutting the target, because the specific cut to everyone is the same, who calls us range damage. However, if the ranged is also a range damage, whether it is performance or gameplay, it is generally not easy to handle, and this will be a weak place for the range. Of course, there are also games that can also attack one piece from a distance, depending on the specific project.
Bonus - distance compensation mechanism
Under the lens rules of weak targets, the player cannot actually feel the concept of distance very accurately due to the perspective of the 3D lens. For example, if the villain wields his own giant sword, the attack distance visible to the naked eye should be 2 meters, including the special effects is also 2.5 meters, but what about the monster standing 3 meters? Logically, it is impossible to attack, but from the visual perception, it should be able to attack.
The attack in the gif image does not hit the cube, and it is actually difficult to accurately judge the distance of the attack in a 3D conventional view
At this point, the player thinks they can attack, but the result is that they can't, which is undoubtedly frustrating in terms of experience. At this time, we need to use the distance compensation mechanism, which is actually similar to the pursuit in the design of strong targets.
That is, if the target is within a certain distance from the attacker, such as within 4 meters, we can let the protagonist move forward to the appropriate distance when he launches an attack. This rule is not an attack displacement, but a displacement superimposed on the basis of the attack displacement, as shown in the figure below.
There is obvious distance compensation when attacking
Here are two more comparison graphs of attack displacement and distance compensation
Because the player's perception of distance is fuzzy, we need to design some rules to counteract the player's vague feelings. Although it can increase the feeling of refreshment, it does sacrifice precision. Therefore, in many games, this design is not adopted, and if you can't attack, you can't attack, and you won't give more compensation. For example, Monster Hunter and Devil May Cry will not do this design, but they did this design in Genshin and God of War 4. Whether to be more accurate or cooler is up to the designer.
3.3 Bonding design - TPS
The two types of skills mentioned above have their own advantages and disadvantages. This is mainly the corresponding joystick control, controllers, joysticks, mobile phones, etc. are within this category. If it is corresponding to keyboard and mouse control, there is also an optimization scheme, which is the design of the TPS class. TPS is short for third-person shooter, and its counterpart is FPS.
The more representative works are "Dragon Valley" and "Eternal Calamity". This design adds a more convenient way to select targets on the basis of weak targets, and in Devil May Cry V, although there is a locking method, it itself relies more on the system's automatic lock rules and the target switching function that is not so convenient compared to the mouse. In "Genshin PC", there is not even a switch target.
The design of TPS does not require the system to automatically lock the enemy, because the TPS itself can accurately lock the target by hovering the mouse over the target. This is to take advantage of the advantages of the mouse, but there are also defects, one is not conducive to porting to other platforms; Second, players need more energy to focus on target selection, which will distract some of the energy of operation.
In order to increase the accuracy of the mouse hovering target, this game generally requires crosshair. This design may sound peaceful to some at first glance. In fact, if the design is not particularly obvious, the player will not even feel his presence, but it is especially effective.
Dragon Valley is a less obvious cross-class crosshair
Eternal Calamity is a less obvious solid point
The TPS class lock enemy mechanism, the simple summary is to prioritize the target with the center of sight, if not, aim at the center empty. Some games will attack targets closer to the crosshair when the crosshair is not levitating, but this design is rare, and it can be understood as the effect of Soldier 76 in Overwatch.
The advantage of the TPS mechanism is that it can take into account the above two designs, when the mouse hovers and has a target and the target meets the range, it is a strong target skill; All other cases are weak target skills. And there is no system that automatically locks the enemy.
Because of the needs of lens language design, the characters often do not stand in the middle of the screen, and are generally lower. However, considering the existence of the crosshair, it is generally more comfortable for the characters to be located at the bottom left of the lens, so that the sense of substitution will be stronger. The more extreme is "God of War 4", which is already very close to the first-person perspective.
Because of this design, the orientation of the lens is actually inconsistent with the orientation of the character, but the collimator is in the center of the lens, that is, the direction revealed by the collimator = the direction of the lens ≠ the direction of the character. Fish bones here briefly talk about the design, see the figure below. The position of the lens shoots rays in the direction of the lens, and the first effective entity target that collides is the levitating target, and the direction calculated from the position of the character to that position is the direction of the attack. As for the empty rule, just cast the skill at the end of the crosshair.
epilogue
1. In fact, the skill target is logically unified, whether it is a strong target or a weak target, or a TPS type of locked enemy, it is nothing more than determining the target coordinates when a skill is cast, and then judging whether the distance is sufficient and its related processing rules according to the target location.
The reason why I wrote so much is mainly to describe that different types of games have differences in the design of locked enemies, and these differences mainly stem from the differences in the game itself and the differences in the game platform. The difference in the game itself is mainly in how much energy the designers want the player to spend on precise enemy selection or how much energy he spends on control. The differences in game platforms are mainly hardware differences and supporting software differences.
And some skills may be a combination of multiple scenarios when implemented. For example, the archer in Genshin, when there is a target within range, it is a strong target skill, and when there is no target within range, it is an empty form of a weak target skill. In the PC version of "Dragon Valley", a similar combination is made based on whether the mouse has a hovering target.
2. Again, the pursuit itself is not part of the skill flow, and this rule is actually caused by the skill casting does not meet the range conditions. The process of chasing itself is an act that the system automatically performs in order to meet the range condition before the skill is cast. Some projects will write this as AI, and some projects will just write that the system temporarily takes over the role, and cannot be fully called AI, which will not be detailed.
However, the distance compensation mechanism is part of the skill process, which belongs to the logic in the skill casting process, and the skill has been released at this time, which is a special behavior performed during the skill casting process, which will be mentioned in the next article. And to make a small preview, mechanics such as skill camera movement will also be introduced more in the next article.
3. The strong and weak target scheme is more strategic and can be more accurate on the whole; Weak targets are more controlling, but at the expense of accuracy. So one is mainly applied to MOBA while the other is mainly applied to the ACT class.
TPS games can be said to be a combination of two solutions, combining the advantages of keyboard and mouse, so that precision and control performance can be effectively combined. But combining the advantages of keyboard and mouse is also a disadvantage, that is, the inconvenience of transplantation, after all, only PCs have mice.
Finally, I hope to help everyone, I am a fish bone, a happy wind man who makes (full) (meal) a happy man who is happy (eating) and making (full) (rice) a game planner, thank you~