9Dragons Dev Journals: Combat
This latest developer journal looks at the most basic system of them all: combat.
By Guest Writer on November 22, 2006
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Developer Journal: Combat in 9 Dragons by Ken Johnston
9Dragons has a background story we haven't heard a hundred times, 9Dragons has period authenticity that was clearly painstaking to compile, 9Dragons has beautifully rendered artwork that likely took time off the lives of their artists ... but what those who have entered The Land (and survived) will tell you, is that the real perk of 9Dragons... is the combat system. 9Dragons combat was designed to be different than that of any other MMO from the seed stage. The designers had played the early MMO's like Everquest (where you could just click on a monster and let the stats package do the rest) and knew they wanted more, more, more. They wanted more interaction, more skill sets and to make combat more... well... more better. Here's a glimpse of what the designers came up with... When you first start the game you have no fighting ability at all. You could maybe punch out a stray dog. If you happened to come across a staff or a saber... you'd be so inept that you wouldn't be able to use it, or it would break pretty quickly. You, grasshopper, need to learn some Kung Fu before you'll get to wield that sword or those razor wheels.
But you're not ready to join a clan yet, peasant, so what you need is someone to teach you some simple survival moves first. Well, you're in luck. There are Sifu's (teachers) who run independent martial arts schools in many of the villages. They will teach vagabonds like you some basic moves in return for a few coins. But know that the Kung Fu you learn from a Sifu is puny compared to the master training you will receive from a Master after joining a clan. Still, it should keep you alive for a while. So, after you've learned some basic chi-breathing techniques... What? I have to learn to breathe, you ask? Of course. One cannot learn Kung Fu if one does not learn correct breathing and meditation skills first!
You punch and you miss, and you punch and miss again and then KA-CHUNG! You strike true! Trust us, it's a very satisfying, almost Pavlovian sound. You continue swinging away and then after you've done it just right several times, a second move, your kick, is unlocked. You punch and connect and then a kick on the return, your first combination! Get that right enough times and then a third move is unlocked, a return round-house kick, and you find yourself skilfully moving like a Tasmanian Devil through an intricate three-strike maneuver. KA-CHUNG! KA-CHUNG! KA-CHUNG! The first time you see and hear yourself make a successful combo you will glimpse the true nature of the game's addiction.
Fortunately, there are hundreds of quests in 9Dragons, so you are never short of an opportunity to go and practice your moves. At the bottom of your action bar you get a number that indicates how far in the combo you have progressed. So you practice your punch and when you are competent with it you then add the kick. When you have mastered those two moves you can then add the second round-house kick. You now have mastered a three-move combo! Just like during your training, you've begun with the first punch (or the first sword stroke, or staff strike), and then after levelling up your Kung Fu through actual combat you've unlocked each additional move.
However in 9Dragons, once you have mastered the move it means that you can use as much or as little of it as you wish. Different monsters will have different weaknesses. Some will require quick repeated jabs to wear them down because they move so fast. Some will require really heavy combos to break down their defences. If you have learned to use a three-step combo you can choose to use just the first step, or the first two, or all three (It's a simple selection off your quickslot menu). Using just the punch is quickest, but using all three does the most damage. It's your choice. Once you have been taught several combos you can start to string them together. So you can get combos of almost unlimited length (provided that either the monster is still alive or that you have not run out of energy to deliver the blows!).
Once you have joined a clan you will learn even more devastating moves that are unique to that clan. Beggars, for example, can learn Drunken Monkey Kung Fu. Shaolin monks learn Praying Mantis style. Wu-Tang Clansman study harder than any other clan to join the lineage of ancient swordsman, know the Tao and master Tai Chi. And disciples of Heavenly Demon Clan study Bloody Hands technique, the most deadly unarmed combat system ever devised.
We promise that earning your Kung Fu is a process you will enjoy and feel satisfied with, or your money back. Wait, 9Dragons is free to play, remember... Well then, we just hope you will have fun out there in The Land, but remember... "There is fighting grasshopper, and then there is Kung Fu." If you want more information, please visit either the North American site www.9Dragonsgame.com or the European site at www.9Dragonsonline.com.
- Ken Johnston
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Yes the whole combat and training system, trying to make it look like real martial arts, makes it quite interesting, i just hope they go open beta soon, so we'll be able to have a taste on the product, without having too many bugs that could ruin the fun ofcourse.
The whole nameless hero, drunken master, and other martial movies over it, could overhype it so be careful, i myself seem rather doomed as i've always been a fan of the old drunken master and old kung fu movies, what a shame that it would probably be unlikely to make a succesful newbiw start like drunken master, as doing all the dirty work. So liqour coins seems fair enough heh.
One thing is for sure, it might very well be a very refreshing mmorpg to set your foot into, just hope there won't be too many complications.
"Eh...i've played a little bit. I got bored around lvl 9, and also didn't want to play, because of the character wipe, so far the fighting is still point and click. Atm i'm just sticking to Deicide and WoW."
so u played it for an hour or so. since 9dragons is still in CB, testers shouldnt be discussing it, but since this info posted by MMORPG.com i have this to say - the animations for the different fighting styles make this one worth checking out just by themselves! and as you level, you can choose new improved fighting chains that look different to the chain before, with different combat mode postures and different punch, (roundhouse) kicks, knee drops, elbows etc combos... (and then there is fighting with swords / spears / staff etc.) and i'm no fanboi, but i'll be waiting for OB to post a general critique
I certainly hope there will be a wasd controle feature added, never been a fan of "point and click".
Then again those who seem to spite bad stuff about this game and saying they are playing CB, are far from constructive, thus thier points are as valueable a piece of dirt is, guess untill someone makes a constructive post about CB, we'll just have to wait for OB.
Just curious, but how is saying bad stuff when in CB unconstructive and as valuable as dirt, but a constructive post from someone in CB (I'm guessing that means someone posting good things?) is worth something? I don't know, guess you lost me on that one.
And for the record, posting anything good or bad while being in CB is not allowed.
I'm lucky enough to be in the closed beta, and I'm not too sure about combining the moves, or even combining weapons... each clans is locked to two types of weapon (hand&feet, or the weapon - sword,spear etc...), so combining weapons style is a no-no...
As for "creating" combos, you can usually only do 1 ranged attack, 3 smasing attacks and 3 to 4 "basis/instant" attacks as warrior (equivalent of the tank sort of).
Any other class will DIE before that as you usually end up being swarmed with enemies, and due to much lower HP, you simply can't handle more than 2 npc's of the same level as yours...
the Idea is still great, but I'd strongly advise you not to expect TOO much of the game ;).
True there are 100's of skills to pick from BUT ... only 3/4 fighting ones will be available to start with, which all do the minimal damage of the clan (gets better as you use them), the only difference in ALL of them is how they LOOK.
I'm not trying to put the game down, but just the whole comment about the combos... I've been on both US and europeans closed beta, been at medium levels on all clans (basicallly on the US version not everything was there yet... so nothing to test as such after a certain level was reached :-) ).
what is howevere quite enjoyable is how quickly you can do the first 40/50 levels (each levels can be done in an average of 30 to 45 minutes quite easily).
I'm waiting to see more content on the game as somethings are probably still not implemented (which could explain why at a certain level, things get REALLY harder and way longer to level up).
One thing that is REALLY a turn down is the clothing items. you don't really have that much choice on it, hence the customization of your character is not that great. Still remains a very good game, but somethings if not added before the final version could be this game's downside unfortunately.
As for the combat engine, it looks super similar to the old Matrix online one, mixed with everquest/Wow style, quite typical 1 to 0 quickslots...
A combat is pretty much as follow for my warriors: Push 5 to run to the target, hit&stun then, bash them nicely on 3 and 4 to slow them and distract them, then just let the engine switch to the preferred attack style (mapped on 1)... and let the target die.... monster's dead.. next... repeat... next..repeat... help up/meditate... that's about it.
now if there is an option to "add" moves/combos/styles, this would also means that instead on focusing on 4/5 attacks, you will focus on let's say 10. by doing so, you will divide the "skill xp" gained by two, hence you will deal twice as less damage as someone with the same toon as you that only worked on 5 skills (as he/she uses them twice as much, they go up twice as fast as yours). At low level this has little to no impact... in pvp however.. and example was my Demon fighting a demon with the same stats, same equipment, same basic style, however, the other one trained 2 additional styles, making him 1/3rd of my experience on my unique style... here is how the combat happened.
"FIGHT"... charge long range to cheng 5... deals over 1500 damage... run/stun... hit once... dead.
I had to deal with 250 hp of damage during the whole fight...
In saying that the opportunity to mix style is probably nice... I think... for visual effect, but with the way things turn, and how quickly you have to face npc's that are not kidding, this switching style thing is going to make it REALLY tough for you to survive :) - added to that the extra slots you need for the "boosting abilities" and wound cures - fine you're given 3 quicklots, but when you can die in 6 seconds, switching quicklot can be quite... an unpleaseant thing to do :)
To explain this, assume you are using only 2 styles, each styles will come down to about 4 skills (minimum),then your meditation, steps, wonds treatments, ranged attack, and running skill. which is 9 out of 10 (some will use 5 attacks as to get 2 effect from the smashing skills).
now the last 5 are pretty much needed on all the bars as if you run out of chi, you want your protection skills back as soon as you stop meditating, then then wound cure is also needed (especially if in a bad situation ^_^ )... basically 5 out of 10 slots are or "should be" used reserved for those... leaving only 5 slots for combat... you get the picture... to switch style, you'll pretty much need to switch the quickslot bar... unless you're sticking to like 3/4/5 different instant attacks with no smashing/piercing/charging skills (yeah right :-) )and with macroing not being allowed... it's all gotta be done manually step by step... :)
and that's it for me :-P
the actual thing is that at lower level 5% is like 2 npc's.
At higher levels however, the quests seems to remains at 5%, as such worth a LOT more of npc's which are harder to kill... so it's not a bad thing in my eyes :)
A couple posts up a comment was made that 9Dragons wasn't P2P quality. What exactly IS your definition of 'P2P quality'? I CERTAINLY hope that Lineage 2 is NOT your definition of P2P quality LOLOL. I took a break from 9Dragons to do the 14-day trial of Lineage2, which just ended now for me. Two years of retail in the West, two YEARS of P2P, and that game is a horrifying CRASH-FEST, an issue I have YET to encounter with 9Dragons.
No, people need to start DEFINING what they consider the term 'P2P quality' means, coz it is beginning to get a bit over-used, along with the terms 'grind-fest' and 'Carebear'.
To the person who 'is sticking with Deicide'... Holy Catfish Batman!!!! I can't BELIEVE I just read that!!! DAYUM and what Dimension are you living in where Deicide suddenly became a 'P2P quality' game? LOLOL! Talk about GRIND-FESTS!!! ZOMGWTFCATFISHBBQQFTXYZPDQLOLORZZZZZZ
action99, um... , my fellow CB friend. Instead of mocking you even MORE for being a devout advocate of Deicide (hey, some people believe in the Big Kahuna too), I will instead condemn you for misinterpreting CB for meaning 'Cautionary Buy' instead of 'Closed Beta'. You are in CB to test the hardware, plain and simple. You are NOT in the CB to max your character so you can twink out a fresh one at launch. CBs that do not involve wipes are few and far between. Grow up action99; better yet, go smoke another blunt and aimlessly waste your time in Deicide ^^ Good day.
P2P quality is self evident - good enough to warrant YOU (or anyone) paying a subscription (any game is F2P quality)
grindfest - exactly that, farming mobs over and over and over again ad naseum
carebear aka karebear - term used by l33t kidz when they dont have the possibiity to FFAPVP so they can gank lowbies to feel like a big man
i'am testing is also.. and it playes like RF, Archlord, Linage II etc.etc,
It's just another asia grind till your eyes bleed.
The questsystem is little better than most games of this style but the amount and quality of quests is simply to low.
The skillsystem cries so loud for bots that it will get the same playerbase as RF. 1/3 human player.. 1/3 autofarming bots and 1/3 autotraining bots. (I need to press my buff button 1000 times to gain a update from chi 2 to 3 from 1 to 2 it were only 300 .. you see the image ? I need chi 8 to get my updated buff skill ... i just don't get ist. Why did game developer think this is fun at all.)
They have a greater number of skills but most skills are simply upgraded versions of your base skills. So most players simpy use 2-4 skills activly. (Every class has some buffs they activate priviously)
The AI is stupid like hell..
Sure there are always exceptions to the ruel, however I haven't seen one yet. I played and enjoyed lineage 2 for quite a while, however it definetly goes into this catagorey as well and honestly couldn't tell you why I liked it at the time so much.
I'm hoping that 2moons combat will be as awesome as it looks tho, however for the game itself I'm sure it will be another mindless grind fest too.
There are more quests once you get a clan, so when anyone says there's only 1 quest a level they're still low-level in terms of the whole game. It's a Korean game licensed in Europe and America, so:
Grindy as hell *Check*
Click to move navigation with weak pathing *Check*
Shallow story lines *Check*
Obscure and probably unintentionally obtuse quests *Check*
It's Free to Play and it is playable, has some good features and some crappy elements that make it frustrating and a pretty average game with a lot of potential, *if* the devs were prepared to do some alterations. It's unclear how much they're willing to do and the debate about WASD still rages on the forums.
I could do a full blown preview, but I'll leave that to some poor bod on the MMORPG.com staff to wade through...