Linking combos for boxing punches

[temnix]

You know how a second bar pops up when you leap up with Arcane Flight, with Translocation on it? Or Afterburner with Fly? The same kind of bar could float up when delivering punching moves. I'm thinking about all of the forms of boxing between the different sets: starting with Brawl (cool and unusual thrown from the left), then Boxing per se in Fighting Pool, Cross Punch later on, Flurry in Speed, most moves in Super Strength too (especially if you switch to the alternative animations there; Haymaker, Knockout Blow really look much more pleasant than with those top-down slams that are on by default and that all Super Strength enemies use, e. g. Family Muscle; switch some of them to the alternate moves, Homecoming), a few of the moves in Street Justice also. I think they ought to enable combos. It can be discussed and tested which are more suitable, e. g. Crushing Uppercut in Street Justice doesn't look like any uppercut from life, but on the whole, it would be great to engage in something like a real ring duke-out between these moves. My latest character is a strong, bulky Super Strength Tanker with boxing gloves on his mitts, and he don't do any kicks. Strictly pugilism.

 

Of course, you could have a parallel system for kick moves. Another incentive to want powers from other sets, by the way. Dive into a Shin Breaker from a Crane Kick. Collect your punches/kicks today!

 

The way I see it, the pop-up panel would appear when you started one of the eligible moves, if you had other valid powers to follow up with. If you clicked on one of those in time, you would next execute it faster than usual, but at higher Endurance cost. Maybe 50% more. The second move would also have the pop-up option, 100% higher, and so on, forming a chain. The punches would probably go off too quickly for the player to link up any more than two or three, though, since this is not a turn-based game... But this would be a way to compress a lot of damage in a short span for a good slice of Endurance. Either as an opening sequence in a fight or as a desperate last resort. Maybe for balance linking should work as an upfront Endurance payment, when you click the upper-bar button, rather than when the follow-up begins.

[Akisan]

...Funny you mention Street Justice.  Isn't that pretty much exactly what you're asking for?  Maybe with the combo system from Dual Blades tacked on?

[temnix]

5 hours ago, Akisan said:

...Funny you mention Street Justice.  Isn't that pretty much exactly what you're asking for?  Maybe with the combo system from Dual Blades tacked on?

 

No, how is that similar? Street Justice has specific builder and finisher moves, and only within the set, and with the builders making the effects of finishers stronger. Other sets have other ideas of combos. My idea here is a way to get out combinations of attacks that the player himself chooses from many different sets quickly for extra Endurance (they should apply defense debuffs, too, to be more worth investing in).

 

I thought a little more about this, though, and I think attacks should be grouped not into punches and kicks but into High and Low, depending on their animations. After all, mixed martial arts are a valid fighting form. Every unarmed attack in the game would start from one of these classes and either end in that class or lead to the other. For example, as Brawl, Punch, Jab, Boxing, Heavy Blow begin from the shoulder level and end there, they would be labeled as High-to-High attacks in the power descriptions. Starting any of them would invite a sequel in any of the other High attacks the character has got that are already recharged at the time. So there is prizefighting. Crane Kick would also be a High-to-High attack, since it happens entirely in the air. But Haymaker would be a High-to-Low (the alternate animation should be adjusted to more of a waist punch) and open the choice of Low attacks instead, if any. Air Superiority from Flight, a power that is not, I suspect, very popular, would also be a High-to-Low attack, as would some of the descending kicks. Kick from Fighting and Shin Breaker from Street Justice would be Low-to-Low. Crushing Uppercut is an example of something that would open the High attacks menu from a Low start, and both Crosses look that way too. If my idea about progressing in other power sets after level 50 were accepted, veterans would have a chance for the widest variety of segues.

 

All of these possibilities would get players thinking: is Haymaker worth using as a starter without any Low powers to continue to, to use Punch in the same set as a first or second attack, given that it often knocks enemies out, ending any combo, to use Rib Cracker for its transfer to High now or not when it's a builder within the set and you'll be continuing with different attacks instead of the finishers, the same for Savage Melee and its Blood Frenzy, how Assassin's Strike will fare in a combo for Stalkers who take Street Justice or Kinetic Melee, how effects from Radiation Melee and other energy Melee sets will play out here and so on. Many different fighting styles would be possible. I am for admitting any unarmed attack with hands or feet here, which should make powers like Mental Strike and Stone Fist that everyone probably respecs out of as soon as they can more attractive, but nothing for Claws (that set needs help), Spines, solid or evoked swords, psi blades, mallets, maces... nor Hand Clap or Foot Stomp either. Some of the animations for standard-looking punches can be reworked to lead to a different level. Why not change the elemental Fists to be hook-type punches to the liver, for instance?

Edited July 24 by temnix

[CrusaderDroid]

 

All you're really doing is reinventing Street Justice for no reason. You haven't even provided a reason why this would be a good idea beyond "I AM TEMNIX, AND I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE". Who in their right mind would see your post, see all the effort it would take, and think "ah yes this is clearly what I need to do, Lord Temnix's word is truth"?

 

Stop spamming this forum with your bad posts.

[Luminara]

Condensed, you're requesting free-form power selection and a combo system to complement it.  In other words, Champions Online.  But you apparently don't want to play Champions Online, because you're here, asking for this game to be turned into Champions Online... so you can play Champions Online... without playing Champions Online...

 

[mistagoat]

Disabling that pop-up bar is the first thing I do on EVERY new toon I make, I hate it with the passion of 1 billion exploding suns. I can't support anything that would make more use of that obtrusive monstrosity.