The Mana World Forums

RO uses this weapons:

• 00 = Fist
• 01 = Dagger
• 02 = Sword
• 03 = 2H Sword
• 04 = Spear
• 05 = 2H Spear
• 06 = Axe
• 07 = 2H Axe
• 08 = Mace
• 09 = (Special?) Mace [Swo, Kni]
• 0a = Wand
• 0b = Bow
• 10 = Katar?
• 11 = Katar?
• 12 = Sword?
• 13 = Axe?
• 14 = Katar?Sword
• 15 = Katar?Axe
• 16 = Axe?Sword

as stated in RO's protocol.

while SoM:

• hands
• sword
• spear
• boomerang
• bow
• axe
• javelin
• whip

Now the problem is: what kind of weapons do you like? Before answering think on these practical issues: if you like boomerang and javelin, think that eathena doesn't support them, but we can make them to act as a bow, so it won't be a big problem. Having so many weapons as RO will mean a big work for our artists: every weapon needs 4 frames for each of the 4 directions for every action for the playerset. So if you want 10 weapons we will need 4x4x10 = 160 frames! Think also at memory occupation! And think also that you need also 16 frames for every hairstyle, and 16 frames for all the clothes for each weapon. This means a lot of artwork (years of time) and lot of memory usage (even if I'm thinking on a way to dynamically load graphic data to save some memory).

My suggestion is to use a restricted set of weapons: let's say 6 to 10. The ones I prefer are: sword, spear, bow, axe and boomerang. But I think also hands should be used or you can't attack while disarmed. About shields I don't remeber if they're used in RO, but we should also think about them.

Please suggest what weapons do you like the best.

RO does use shields, but I'm not sure if they have graphics. I can't seem to recall that at the moment. ;_;

To be honest, I think 6 weapons is even too much for the start. You guys should concentrate on 2 weapons, just to start off. I know it doesn't seem like much, but it is much better to get 2 things done and then start on the next 2, rather than spread work amongst 6 things and finish 1/2 of everything.

My two favorite weapons:
- Sword
- Bow & Arrows

If you still need four more:
- Spear
- Hands
- Axe
- Javelin

To be honest, I really really dislike the idea of boomerangs and javelins. For some reason, it doesn't fit into my paradigm of what a MMORPG should contain. Why? I have no idea. I just don't like them. Lol.

The problem is I need a complete playerset, before going on with the clothing system or improving the graphic engine. That's why I want to decide it now. We can't simply add a weapon later, because this will mean to create 16 more frames for every clothes, tileset and playerset. Just think when we'll have 1000 items: it's not an easy work

Well shoudln't it be so that the clothes and items are just "pasted on" on the fly when applied..? It would remove the need to do the extra frames for every playerset..

Or rather the sprite of the player should be composited on the fly..?

I've been looking into programming with allegro. It should be possible to standardize how a player carries / uses different types of weapons. Then just change ( if needed ) all the player and weapon graphics to fit this. The files will still have to be stored on the hard drive, but only when a player changes their weapon, or a new player comes into view, should the files need to be accessed.

So as I see it:

- Standardize the graphics ( eg, sword and axe a carries the same. )
- Change the program to draw the layers appropriately.
- Store these images somewhere im memory.
- Make all this info available somewhere.

This would accomplish everything that is needed. However the idea of alternate characters or species should be addressed soon to prevent problems down the road.

I don't think that memory usage is such a big deal. I've 1 gig of ram, and I've never used more than 10%. I love Linux.

MathGeek: more or less is how I planned to redesign the graphic engine.
About different species, they can be added later as well, even if we want to introduce them.

Memory usage is a problem since we want this game to work on computers also with low memory, let's say 32, 64 MB of ram if it's possible and not everyone uses linux, just think of winxp users (winxp takes 120 MB of my 256)

I think that players love to hava a great number of choices.

We're planning to have somekind of compatibility with RO?

If not why we bothering with that?

I think that weapons should have unique features.

I really think that there isn't difference between axe and sword (in RO games), the difference is, CAN BE USE BY SWORDMAN or CAN BE USED BY MERCHANTS.

Give the damn AXE to swordman.

Good weapons:

Fist (2xlow damage, fast attack rate, double attack)
Knife (low damage, fast attack rate)
Sword (medium damage, medium/high attack rate)
Two handed sword (big damage, medium attack rate, attack rate increases if you miss the previous atack due unbalanced weight)
Axe (medium damage, medium attack rate)
Two handed axe (War axe), (big damage, medium attack rate, can stay locked in enemies body, slowing next attack when succes)
Javelin (1 handed spear) (medium damage, medium range, damage bigger than a bow, need refill)
Spear/Halberd (2 hand) (great range (to body-body attack), good against mounted characters, medium damage, slow attack)

Katar (very fast attack, can use 2 katars, double attack)
Knuckles (low damage, rise fist damage)
Mace (Big damage, slow reload, can stun)
Bow (Medium reload, big range, medium damage)
Crossbow (Slow reload, greater range and damage)

And about whip and boomerang... I think that it's strange. But whip can have a good feature, slow down enemies (grabbing their arm), very painfull.

Boomerangs, throw weapon with medium range and didn't need refill (as arrows or darts)

well.. i am more for te SoM weapons thingy..
why?
because its great :d

I'd like Mace', Morning Stars, Maul and Hammers.
The only thing i miss at Som is a big War Maul or something else to crush em all ^_^ .
Oh, and we need Cross Bows!

I'd like the idea that you could use EVERYTHING as a weapon.. (Not necessarely effectively, but you could if you wanted to..)

I think you folks are restricting yourselves a bit overmuch.

My idea:
Incorporate weaponry into the game in the same way as clothes; as extra sprites pasted in on the fly. This would drastically cut down on the amount of sprites needed, because it would be simple to adapt any weapon to one of eight basic attack animations (well, 32, counting all directions):
Single-hand across
Single-hand up
Single-hand down
Single-hand thrust
Two-hand across
Two-hand up
Two-hand down
Two-hand thrust

Pretty much any weapon you can dream up can be adapted to one of those eight, meaning you never have to worry about making weapon-specific attack animations; each weapon would have four attack animations (one for each direction) that were just the weapon, and could be slapped onto any character sprite in-game.

The real, end-all benefit of doing it this way: flexibility. If you make weapon-specific attack animations, you're heavily restricted in what weapons can be added to the game later on. For a MMORPG, you need a wide variety of choices, else it will get boring in a hurry, and nobody's going to want to add in more weapons if it means hand-crafting tons of new animations.

You've got a great opportunity here to make something awesome. Don't squelch that by thinking in too narrow of terms.

What about long range weapons? Bows, throwing spears?

And spell casting!

In any case I think 8 animations for just melee weapons is too much. We should be able to cope with maybe 4 for those, 1 for bows, 1 for throw move, and 1 or 2 for magic spells, I think.

Well, personally, I could see bows being done with a reverse of the two-handed thrust, and thrown weapons being done with the one-handed downward, but I agree that spellcasting would need its own--I'd actually say 2 or 3 for that, though, especially if you were planning on doing multiple schools of magic: like, a pray-cast for healers, a simple powerup-cast for fighters with magic, and a more powerful-looking attack-cast for the "black mages" of the game.

To pare it down...well, the upward ones probably aren't totally necessary, so that's six...and I suppose anything you could do with a two-handed weapon hitting across you could do hitting down...so that's five. But I don't know that you could take out more than that: one-hand thrust for dagger stabs and punches and, one-hand across for sword slashes, one-hand down for axes and maces, two-hand thrust for spear jabs, and two-hand down for hammer smashes and polearm slashes/chops.

The throw move is something I hadn't thought of...definately require it's own animation.

Mmm spell casting can use only 1 animation, something like raising up hands in the easy way.