Lugaru needs "bullet time"

fragmental · Post by **fragmental** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 5:29 am

Yeah, so I was sitting here thinking about how I didn't like the lugaru demo because I got stuck on the (sentinels?5?) level. I decided this was probably due to my inability to decide which buttons to push before I get beaten up. I do a lot of running aroudn trying to remember what buttons to push(This is of course due to my disfunctional working memory that lasts about 2 seconds and my slow reaction time which I blame ritalin for. I digress.)

So I was thinking of what would make the game a hundred times better and I thought "Bullet time", like in Max Payne. It wouldn't be called bullet time of course, but any sort of controllable slowing or pausing of the game would be nice. It has slow downs, I think, but you can't control them so I'm not sure if my computer is lagging or what and it only happens after and attack not before.

Also, is there any to see how much damage you've taken or how much life you have left? Seeing how much damage you've given out or how much life the opponent has would be nice too but I think seeing how much life your own character has left is essential. Maybe there is one and it's not working out on my computer? If there's not, I think it would be helpful and it doesn't have to be anything more than like a number down in the corner of the screen.

Maybe lugaru 2 will have these things? It would be nice to see a patch for it in the this one though. It would double the likelihood of me buying the game, if not more.

Crill3 · Post by **Crill3** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 5:47 am

There is no "life-o-meter".
There is slowmotion when you kill someone, not after every attack.

fragmental · Post by **fragmental** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 6:23 am

Actually, that level wasn't to hard after reading the wiki and the readme(there should be a link for the readme in the start menu). I did die once again though.

I stick by my suggestion of the "life-o-meter" and the "bullet time"(bullet time ability could be a console toggle, like a tweak). I might buy the game anyway, but if it had those two features I definately would.

I played black shades. That has bullet time doesn't it? Or maybe that was a leave your body thing.

I haven't played SOS but that's supposed to have bullet time doesn't it? Isn't the the same engine as lugaru? So implementing it would be easy? I dunno. it's easy to be a "backseat" game designer.

Crill3 · Post by **Crill3** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 7:05 am

In Lugaru you can turn on bullettime/slowmotion with the B key, if you have debug on (which you have to register to get).
Then you can also press V to stop time (but still be able to move the camera). Good for screenshots.

fragmental · Post by **fragmental** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 7:27 am

oh...well that's neat I guess. More incentive to buy the game.

A life meter would still be nice though. Especially because of the whole life regeneration and bleeding to death thing.

zip · Post by **zip** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:10 pm

As you take more and more damage your screen begins to blur(if you have Damage Effects on).
I play on a low-spec iBook, and have damage effects off, my solution is just to not get hit =p
After you play for a while though you will start to get an idea of how many hits you can take, and mentally keep track of them.

fragmental · Post by **fragmental** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:19 pm

It's the life regeneration and bleeding that get me. how do I know if my life is going up or down when I'm just standing still?

Is damage effects a full version thing, because I don't remember seeing it in the demo?

zip · Post by **zip** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 1:02 pm

Ok, here is Lugaru's health system in a nutshell.
You have your starting health, and there are two factors that can affect it, normal damage and cut damage.

Normal damage is from impact blows and goes away slowly, if you stand still you heal faster than if you are moving.
Cut damage is permanent and doesn't heal.

Damage Effects isn't in the options screen, you have to open your config file.

Vib Rib · Post by **Vib Rib** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 2:05 pm

The damage effects are really nice. The motion blur and limping combined with the body damage model make for a really interesting sort of "health bar". Very nice.
The absence of any on-screen displays (save score) makes the game seem very involved.

fragmental · Post by **fragmental** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 6:14 pm

Motion blur doesn't seem to work on my system. It just kind of lags out for a few seconds instead.

I've noticed the limping and the body damage and the holding-of-the-sides. That's neat. My computer lags though(duron 1200, radeon 9600xt, 756mb pc100), so it's hard to catch some of these things when I need to.

I think the absence of the on screen displays can kind of make the game more immersive, but I would still like the option of turning on a health indicator just so I can better gauge how much damage I'm taking and regaining while I'm learning.

Post by **Jeff** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 8:20 pm

In the tutorial, there is a sparring match where it tells you how much damage you have dealt and received. Maybe that would be good practice for you.

erazorhead · Post by **erazorhead** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 10:05 pm

i really appreciate david's idea of leaving out any "HUD" to aid in realism/immersion.
i.e., real life doesn't have "life bars"

but from my perspective, you need some type of HUD. in real life you just intuitively know how hurt you are, and it's not just from how bad you are limping or how blurry your vision is. in my hundreds of hours playing this game i still only have a loose idea how much health i have at any given time.

ultimately, i love the idea, but until we hit on a way to display remaining health with pretty great accuracy without a HUD, at the end of the day i'd still turn on a life bar display if it were an option.

fragmental · Post by **fragmental** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 11:29 pm

Maybe david could add health bar or numbers to debug(and maybe opponent health bars too) and then advertise "special options like bullet time and health bars" as one of the reasons to buy the full game.

That might make people complain that it wasn't in the demo version though.

Crill3 · Post by **Crill3** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 1:59 am

No, I know!

1. We can make some USB thingie which you plug into your nose or whatever, and which sends false ouchies to your brain when your hurt ingame

(with area damage of course).

2. We can find a way to get INTO the computer, and play the game from there!

fragmental · Post by **fragmental** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 3:36 am

Crill3 wrote:No, I know!

1. We can make some USB thingie which you plug into your nose or whatever, and which sends false ouchies to your brain when your hurt ingame (with area damage of course).

2. We can find a way to get INTO the computer, and play the game from there!

Are you implying that health indicators are far fetched or ridiculous?