Blocking/Parry mechanics?

[daggerdude]

One thing i hated about daggerfall is the generic clanking sound when you swing a weapon at a humanoid. my idea on how daggerfall combat could be jazzed up.

1.) Arena's manual had a parry mechanic apparently if you swung at the same time your attack negated each other. this is how parries are done IRL, moving a weapon to intercept proactively. I dont know if this was ever possible in arena or was just in the manual, but i'd like to be able to intercept an attack with a sword swing. A succesfull parry dice roll (attack greater than opponent skill and damage) would freeze the opponent allowing for a free attack. A failled parry dice roll would freeze the player like in battle spire considerably allowing for a free hit.

2.) Morrowind had shield blocking and a skill for it. i'd love to have a shield pop up randomly to intercept a blow. good hexen sprites for that that could theoretically be coded int.

3.) oblivion had a block button. there were some things i liked about this system so i'd like an option to block with a weapon or shield when its more intuitive to do so, such as fighting a much stronger opponent or an animal where attacks are harder to read or something, would block the % that block skill is.

4.) quick kick. kicks like a normal attack but only pushes an enemy away with a chance to stun on critical strike, does no damage.

I would love to work up sprites like i do for doom to smooth out weapon swings and make block and parry animations, but as i understand it daggerfall does not have a animation keyframe type system where you can simply call an image and give it a time on screen and coordinates and individually direct each frame .
=

[Jay_H]

An idea I had was to implement a real-time blocking ability, where if you're using a shield you can press a button and a little shield icon would appear on the screen. It could reduce damage based on timing:

0.0 to 0.15 seconds within click: 100% blocked
0.151 to 0.35 seconds within click: 75% blocked
0.351 to 0.5 seconds within click: 50% blocked
0.51 to 0.65 seconds within click: 25% blocked

I think melee tank characters need an additional way to save damage rather than just dodging. Right now speed is supreme in Daggerfall when that isn't ideal for every character.

[jayhova]

I tend to think that Daggerfalls D&D like mechanic of just upping your AC for having a shield should stay as is. That being said you could add various sounds for when different pieces of armor take a hit, parrying with your sword, blocking with your shield. Maybe one day we can watch as enemies block and/or dodge all those low level hits that are so ineffective.