How is melee combat in the game different from real life

Only losing to a gun in the arsenal of the game’s weapons in general, swords play a large role in gamers’ virtual world experience. However, while many games have almost perfected the art of simulating guns, when it comes to fencing, it’s like children swinging around with plastic swords. The reason for this is very simple. Simulating fencing in the virtual world can be considered the hardest part of developing a game. “It’s extremely complicated,” said Guy Windsor, founder of the Helsinki-based European School of Swordsmanship. “What you usually see in the game is 3 or 4 moves, you can simply block or hit back. They are so simple that there is nothing like a real sword fight.”

Guy has studied swordsmanship for the past 25 years, researching and teaching techniques in a 600-year-old Italian fencing manual. Although not a gamer, Guy wanted to recreate sword fighting in a realistic way. “It is very important to present it as accurately as possible, because the more realistic the game, the more convincing it is to the player.”

Unfortunately, in the game, this is very, very difficult. For books or movies, the main barrier in showing sword fights is mainly due to the producer’s lack of knowledge. In the game, there are a lot of technical problems that need to be solved. First, real and virtual fencing are two completely different fields.

In melee combat games, there are often a number of attacks available, including quick attacks, strong hits, and blocks, all of which are performed with single buttons. In actual fencing, while there is still a list of attacks with different names, they can be deployed with different speeds, different angles of attack, and they combine seamlessly. For example, with a longsword, parry and attack are done at the same time. “It’s like a paint box.” Guy said. “You have billions of colors in reality, while a child’s color box probably only has about 12 colors. Although there are thousands of different shades of orange, there is only one orange in a crayon box.”

Another major barrier to the game’s fencing is what happens when swords collide. In fencing circles, it’s called “the bind”, and it’s barely shown in the game due to the complexity of these moves. Not to mention the complexity of physical interactions. “It’s not simply an object subjected to a force, but two objects interacting under the influence of multiple forces,” Guy said. “There is also the force that the two swords exert on each other, in addition to things like the resonance of the two swords, the way they stick together or slide sideways or bounce off each other. It is very complicated.”

But is this really important? Although swords are quite common in the game, sword fights are rare. Most of the time, you’ll be fighting someone wielding another weapon, or a non-human being, like a boss in Dark Souls or a monster from The Witcher. But Guy believes it has an effect. “It doesn’t matter what form the wielder of the weapon is. If there’s a sword-like, stick-like, or non-explosive weapon pointed at you, it will operate according to the laws of physics, and those mechanics and tactics can all be applied.”

The problems with fencing in the game are numerous, but by no means insurmountable. The first step is to accept that the game only performs to a certain extent. Even our modern knowledge of combat is limited. Masters like Guy have to translate and analyze techniques from manuals from decades ago, and we no longer fight swords to kill our enemies. That greatly affects the way people fence against each other.

While the game cannot reproduce the chaotic complexity of real sword fighting, the game can accurately represent the fighting styles. Guy discovered this while co-developing a card game called Audatia, designed to teach his students the names and functions of longsword techniques. The cards have symbols to indicate whether swords stick together when a technique is performed. Videogames can use the same random factor to trigger sword binding, and then change the controls to focus more on techniques after tethering, creating more nuances in lane. beaten.

There are also a few simple rules that game developers can apply to avoid humiliation. For example, swords are almost useless against someone wearing armor. This is a common mistake in most fantasy RPG games. “It’s like swinging a sword at a piece of iron,” Guy said. “Why would you do that? Pretty pointless. Of course, if you can, hit him on the head. You can stun him. If you can, do it. Similarly, it is very difficult to defeat a shield-wielding opponent when you only hold a longsword, which The Witcher 3 did very well. “This is why shields were popular 3,000 years ago,” Guy added. “They are very effective.”

Virtual fencing still has a long way to go, but perhaps we should see this as an opportunity rather than a problem. In addition, the developers are gradually improving. Guy mentioned the medieval RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance as an example, he was impressed by their level of research. Warhorse Studios also supported a fundraising campaign for one of Guy’s research books. “When someone really tries to make it happen, they have my unwavering admiration and support,” Guy said. “I look forward to one day being able to purchase fencing training simulation software with the same quality as pilot training simulators.”

According to PCGamer