New Flintlock Pistol, Ranged Combat & Fixing Reconciliation | Unity Multiplayer Game Devlog #32

In this Unity multiplayer game devlog, I model a Flintlock pistol, implement ranged combat, and fix client reconciliation.
Next devlog: • You Can Now See Underw...
Pirate game playlist: • Multiplayer Pirate Gam...
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Discord server: tomweiland.net/discord
Support me on GitHub Sponsors: github.com/sponsors/tom-weiland
Support me on Ko-fi: tomweiland.net/kofi
GitHub: tomweiland.net/github
Project's Trello board: trello.com/b/vJwk0iwS/pirate-...
Website: tomweiland.net/
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
In this devlog, I fixed up client reconciliation which was still broken from the last video. I also modeled a new Flintlock pistol with Blender to use as the first ranged weapon and I implemented the basics of ranged combat.
Although my prediction system now works great on dry, non-moving land, the fact that ships move poses a problem. Since the client sees himself in the present but ships in the past, it can't accurately predict the player's movement when on board a boat because the starting positions are different from what the server uses to make those same calculations. I'm still not sure how I'm going to get around this issue.
#Devlog #GameDev #IndieDev #Multiplayer #Unity3D
"Interplanetary Forest" by Meydän is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommons.org/licenses/...)
Artist: / meydansound

[@tomweiland]

If you've got any ideas for melee combat mechanics and features _please_ let me know-I could really use some help designing this core part of the game!

[@jc495]

overgrowth's melee combat is pretty sweet

[@tomweiland]

@@jc495 I took a look at it and I'll definitely keep it in mind, but unfortunately some of the mechanics (like rolling) don't work very well/at all in a first person game. Have you played any first person combat games that you really liked?

[@cameronholt4735]

You should definitely try out mordhaus combat

[@t72oftruth66]

Look at For Honor’s melee system

[@bip901]

A cool element in melee combat is charging attacks. You hold the attack key to charge your attack, which means it will deal more damage, but you also risk being hit while charging. So it's a constant mind game of how long to charge.

[@haydeghah5527]

0:18 Is that ancient technology, I’ve never seen anything like it.

[@tomweiland]

Yep, believe it or not I am an archaeologist :P

[@SealDev]

Good work Tom :)

[@tomweiland]

Thank you :D

[@moosafizaal6845]

Been waiting for this. 🙏🏼 arigatou

[@tomweiland]

You have?

[@moosafizaal6845]

Yup, it's like waiting for a new anime episode.

[@tomweiland]

Well I'm glad you like the videos that much :P

[@moosafizaal6845]

Please keep doing you.

[@tomweiland]

I definitely will!

[@nsabesz]

Glad to hear that you managed client side prediction to work :) What you should go read about is lag compensation, theres a post about that in Gabriel Gambetta blog. What you also can do is to make sure all inputs from player are running in the exact same order in the server, thats very important to avoid desynchronizations. About the bullet fx, simply run it client side, you dont need to wait for server response, even if the player is cheating he is going to be the only one seeing his inexistent bullet. The boat problem is also something ive been scratching my head a lot, even if you did client side prediction on that you would have to make sure that the waves were sync between client and server or the boat would have different behavior, meaning desynchronization.

[@tomweiland]

I've actually already got lag compensation in place, although it's currently not being used much since I also buffer incoming inputs (and I've read Gabriel's stuff, it's super helpful). "Predicting" bullet spawns is something I had considered, but I was a bit hesitant to do that since it's a state change that would be hard to reverse if it was incorrect. The waves are already synced up, which means boat _prediction_ would be easy to implement, but reconciling boat movement will complicate things _a lot_ since that would mean that the player is no longer the only physics object in the scene. To reconcile that I'd need to build a fully-fledged rollback system on the client that allows me to rewind the entire simulation and correct it (because you can't simulate physics steps for individual objects).

[@FlynnsForge]

Great video and game!

[@tomweiland]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it :D

[@stealthbanana4432]

I cant wait for this game !!

[@tomweiland]

I'm glad you're excited for it, but there's a long way to go before it's really playable!

[@Rumplestiltzchen]

Congratz on 5k subs! I havent been able to watch the past few videos due to me moving :\

[@tomweiland]

Thank you! I guess you'll have plenty to look forward to then :P

[@LawsyDog]

I love how this game is looking so far, and I haven’t watch the previous videos yet so I don’t know if anyone else has subjected this, but I think it would be very cool if you added a lot of see life and potentially adding a giant crab “boss” or something sort of like like that. And I know this isnt a top priority but something kind of like this would be very cool if added some time in the future, keep up the amazing work and I can’t wait for your next Dev log!

[@tomweiland]

I'm glad you like it :) Would you happen to play Sea of Thieves? I ask because I've seen a lot of people asking Rare to add a crab boss :P Sea life will happen since you'll be able to go underwater, I'm just not sure how extravagant it'll be since I need to focus most of my time on things that are above sea level.

[@LawsyDog]

Tom Weiland Yes I do play Sea of Thieves and I would like to know if that game was one of your inspirations for making this game. I enjoy what you make, and I understand completely why you want to make more things above the water, I just would really like if you could have the opportunity to check up on What is bellow the water. But what ever you do with the underwater I will like either way, keep up the amazing work and thank you for responding to me, have a nice day!

[@tomweiland]

I won't deny that Sea of Thieves has been an inspiration in _some_ ways, although I actually had this idea before I heard of it :)

[@LawsyDog]

Tom Weiland since I love sea of theives so much I am sure I will adore your game when it comes out aswell (:

[@xzippyzachx]

The end screen looks good now! Looks like combat is starting to come along.

[@tomweiland]

Thanks :)

[@user-qf5be9km6o]

Keep up the good work.

[@tomweiland]

Thank you, I will :D

[@kas-lw7xz]

Your game is taking form!

[@tomweiland]

Slowly but surely :P

[@lefm_]

Your videos are very inspiring. Doubt comes to us all, believe. Just keep going forward, the path itsels always shows a way.

[@tomweiland]

Thank you :)

[@flaunic7632]

Nice model!

[@tomweiland]

Thank you :D

[@TonsOfHunStudios]

Sweet, glad you got the reconciliation working! The flintlock pistol looks great as well! It's going to be really cool to see the combat system evolve. I think the mouse direction combat style would be cool, but like you said not to simple to accomplish. I personally like Assassin's Creed's combat system. It is fairly simple control wise, with left click strikes and blocks, but there are also counters and grabs. I think it's also cool that for example the hidden blades are insta kills when in stealth, but are much harder to use in regular combat and require much better timing for blocks. The swords however are not as effective for stealth kills, but it is much easier to block. I don't know if you are looking in combat variety in the mechanics itself or the weapons, but this is one of my personal favorite systems. Nice work!

[@tomweiland]

Thank you! I'll definitely check out Assassin's Creed's combat :)

[@Frank_G_Finster]

Thank you for the video. Fun to watch and informative. Usually, when Characters move on moving objects, it is easier to move the world around the object, on which the player is located. This avoids collider issues and other unexpected behavior for sure. Maybe this gives you an good idea for your system.

[@tomweiland]

I'm glad you liked it :) I'm honestly not aware of any "regular" games that move the world instead of the player-there's no reason to do that, and updating every object in the world every frame isn't free in terms of performance. I say _regular_ games because open world games on large maps are the exception, and often don't have much of a choice in the matter. If they don't move the world around the player (origin shifting), they'll eventually run into major problems (especially with physics) due to the limits of floating point precision. Even so, moving the world around the ship wouldn't solve the problem, since the ship-player interaction is what's causing the jittering. I'd need to move everything, including the boat, around the player, and then I'd still have the same problem as before because the client sees the ship in the past compared to the server. Thanks for the suggestion though!

[@Frank_G_Finster]

@@tomweiland Space-Games tend to do that, when they have to deal with immense speeds and distances, as you already mentioned. Kerbal Space Program does it, for example, as they experienced the same problems in the early days of develpment. The thing would be, to make the ship center of the world, so the player can interact without problems. A script that identifies, if the player is on a "tagged as possible center" object could do that. But anyways, i hope you find a good and performant solution to your problem. Looking forward to your updates :)

[@Nervniyak]

Extrapolation for ships seems like a right way to do it, ships tend to maintain their course and speed, and if it lags it misses the change of direction and may even ran through obstacles, which is pretty common in AAA games like Arma, GTA and NFS (also you don't have much to collide with in the sea)

[@tomweiland]

The more important part of the ship's movement (which is also the main cause of the player's incorrect predictions) is the rotation and vertical movement caused by the waves. When cresting a wave, that can change quite quickly, which means extrapolating it won't be as reliable as you might first expect.

[@Nervniyak]

@@tomweiland true, I was wondering if waves are going to mess everything up if they are left out of equation.

[@DanielLochner]

Love the pistol model Tom!

[@tomweiland]

Thank you :D

[@Nervniyak]

The first thing I thought when I quickly glanced at thumbnail was that it is torpedo and I was like "wow, that escalated quickly" :D

[@tomweiland]

Ah yes, Age of Sail torpedoes-my favorite :P

[@IronFreee]

The basic fun close combat mechanic is to parry/dodge a certain amount of damage (it must not be too easy or to complex) and attack (certain games use a "load attack" that is more risky but can inflict more damage. You can watch "Mount & Blade" for first person combat inspiration, it's quite complex but fun to play... It involves physics to calculate damages.

[@tomweiland]

That's actually what I started implementing in the latest devlog, thanks for the suggestions though :)

[@IronFreee]

@@tomweiland Yes, I saw it a little time after I posted my comment :D Great job!

[@NeatGames]

I still love the water!

[@tomweiland]

Thanks :D

[@blackflag7020]

Great dev log, and I really like the flint lock model! As for melee/shooting combat the only game I have played that pulls off both quite well in an online environment is Elder Scrolls Online. What they do is give some melee features to range weapons: for example person A has a bow and person B has a sword, if B swings with their sword person A can use their bow to block it and can use there bow to “knock” the swordsman giving them time to switch to a melee weapon. However, if person A seriously wants to use his bow he has to think about keeping distance, this is where Elder Scrolls does a good job not only do melee attacks have a long range but the melee player is offered a variety of ways to get to player A (the bow person) for example jumping through the shadows (teleporting) or by pulling them closer or by using an item to throw at the bow guy to stun him and the run over to him. Those abilities are easy to implement in a fantasy setting, but in a pirate game... you might have to have a think lol, maybe a chain could be used to pull, and to get closer ride on a parrot lol. The balance in combat comes from the bow being more powerful but easier to counter. Hope any of that was useful and keep up the great content!

[@tomweiland]

I'm glad you liked it :D Balancing melee and ranged combat will definitely be important, although I've been envisioning the ranged combat as being used mainly to try and give yourself an advantage before the fight really starts. Once you're in the heat of battle, the reload time will probably be too inconvenient to really make use of guns, unless you manage to distance yourself a bit. As for pulling players towards you, someone else suggested adding a grappling hook-like harpoon gun which could be used to do exactly this, in addition to helping you board ships. Thanks for the suggestions, they're definitely helpful!

[@blackflag7020]

Glad it helped! Maybe if you want the range combat to be a precursor to melee, range combat could be used to stun another player so it’s all about getting the first hit in the melee combat... once the other player has been hit once they would get un-stunned and because they are so close melee combat will just naturally happen! Also, a harpoon gun would fit the game’s theme quite well, better than a chain lol!

[@tomweiland]

Maybe, all though small guns like a pistol inflicting stuns might be a little too much 🤔

[@blackflag7020]

Maybe you have a second health bar that when it’s empty you get stunned then, so the first battle can last a bit longer and bigger guns have more damage and that sort of thing (just standard shooter balances). The stun could only last for a few seconds so it may take a few stuns/slows to get close enough to whip out a cutlass or sword. Also, maybe melee could have knock back so ranged weapons become helpful once you have been hit far away...

[@tomweiland]

Yeah there's definitely a lot to think about :P

[@davaronas686]

Wow this is really cool, may I ask what do you use for multiplayer ?

[@tomweiland]

I use a from-scratch networking solution-I actually have a tutorial series about it if you want to check it out, although I'm working on an upgraded version which will hopefully be done soon.

[@davaronas686]

@@tomweiland Thank you for your answer, I'll definitely check it out! All the best to you

[@seangallagher9848]

This is basically a pre alpha sea of thieves

[@tomweiland]

If you say so.

[@dtbrown01]

Great. I actually watched the whole vid before commenting today :D

[@tomweiland]

Hahaha is that a first for you?

[@sypdev]

Need to learn blender :D Gun looks cool, great devlog as always!

[@tomweiland]

Thank you :)

[@oelx0]

I’m not exactly sure if your planning on adding more player weapons and what kind but as it is right now with the flintlock and sword combo perhaps mixing the flow by allowing players to quickly switch from their sword to the flintlock up close to shoot and apply knockback then quickly switch back to the sword and use the knockback as an opportunity to make some distance or to quickly attack while the enemy is mid air and perhaps unable to attack as a result. As for the melee combat perhaps attacking at the same time will result in a parry with no damage but risky with blocking still taking damage just reduced to an extent, as for the sword attack itself maybe a click combo thing where if you click fast you quickly attack with a limit on how much attacks you can do in succession but got to take a breath afterwards depending on how much quick attacks you just did in succession and if you just click once you just attack once but don’t have to take a breath and apply a small knockback.

[@tomweiland]

There will definitely be more weapon types, I'm just not entirely sure what yet. I don't plan on keeping the knockback from the Flintlock's bullets-it just doesn't make sense for such a small weapon. Shouldn't blocking prevent more damage than parrying as a result of attacking? What you suggested there seems a bit backwards, but it could work if flipped 🤔 As for the attack combo, that's something I've considered, and while it might be worth including, it still feels like something is missing (depth-wise). I really appreciate all the suggestions, I'll definitely be using the comments of this video as a reference when I tackle melee combat!

[@fish7540]

For the melee combat mechanics, I think a system similar to game Mordhau would be lots of fun. Sadly, this system seems like a lot of work, and considering you're working alone I don't expect you to be able to make this. Instead, I suggest a simpler version of For Honor's combat system. The combos and special moves aren't that important, but I think the directions playing a major role, and the difference between light and heavy attacks is very engaging for the player. It gives variety and makes it very skill-dependant. Hope you consider this!

[@tomweiland]

Yeah, those two games have been suggested quite a bit, and I'll definitely take inspiration from them, but both combat systems are quite complex and wouldn't be easy to implement.

[@clonkex]

Mordhau has probably the best first person sword melee combat, but it's obviously also very complex, with ms-precise timing windows, directional attacks and raycast-based hit detection. The 1st person model is the same as the 3rd person model so attacks are accurately represented from both views, which adds to complexity.

[@tomweiland]

Yeah quite a few people have mentioned Mordhau, but I'd definitely need to simplify the combat. I'm not after such an elaborate system, plus it'd be pretty complex to implement. It's still good for inspiration though :)

[@thedestoryer21]

Combat system sort of like kcd? You can lock on to targets. You can hit in 4 diagonal directions and stab. You can block in 4 vertical directions. Up blocks Diagonal top left and top right. The attack will only come after you release your mouse so you can change the direction last second.

[@tomweiland]

Some others have suggested that one, so maybe, but we'll see. Thanks for the suggestion :)

[@RugbugRedfern]

Just saying, for a few examples of interesting melee combat, you should take a look at For Honor and Mordhau. I want to take a moment to compliment your resolve in game design! I don't think I've ever seen a game designer so determined and persistent working on a game. If there's every a problem, you get it fixed, whether it be now or in a few weeks, it gets done. I've always had the problem of quitting working on games because of hard problems that seemed impossible to tackle, but you make it seem so easy! Keep up the good work, and good luck on your game.

[@tomweiland]

As per the suggestions of others, I've already watched some videos about For Honor's and Mordhau's combat systems-they've given me a lot to think about, although they're definitely too complex/in-depth for this project (especially considering I'm a solo dev with limited resources). As for my "resolve," I really appreciate the kind words. I think I'm often very hard on myself (as most of us tend to be), especially when it comes to procrastination and staying focused-to the point that as I was reading your comment, it almost seemed like you were talking about someone else. I can't even begin to count how many times I had things I should be doing, and simply didn't do them. As a matter of principle, I hate wasting my time, but in practice I do it _so_ unbelievably often while simultaneously hating what would seem to be my lack of resolve. Despite the fact that I try to talk about my struggles in these videos, a lot of my shortcomings end up getting glossed over, so I want to point out that I'm very, _very_ far away from where I would like to be when it comes to staying focused and productive. Please don't compare yourself to me and then feel bad, because I can almost guarantee that I'm not nearly as good at this stuff as it might appear in these devlogs. While it's important to be hard on yourself if you want to improve, I think way too many of us _only_ focus on the things we could do better, and not enough on what we're already doing well and what we've accomplished. I definitely need to do a better job at celebrating my accomplishments, so thank you for reminding me of that. Maybe that's what the next video will be about :P

[@RugbugRedfern]

@@tomweiland I also want to let you know how much I appreciate you replying to every comment in the comment section. I'm guessing it takes a while to compose thoughtful replies for everyone, and it really makes me feel welcomed and part of your community. You seem truly passionate about your work. I'll 100% buy this game when it comes out. I think it also has huge potential to not just be a Sea of Thieves clone if you avoid the mistakes they made at launch (cosmetic-only progression, repetitive quests), and a game like this will always risk and suffer from lack of content. As an Indie dev I worry that lots of content is going to be a hard task to achieve! Again, best of luck.

[@tomweiland]

It's nice to hear that it's appreciated! As things grow, I'll obviously have to limit myself if I want to still get other things done, but I'll keep replying to all comments for as long as possible :) Lots of content definitely makes things hard-I just need to focus most of my efforts on the mechanics and features that will provide the most play time. Intricate story-driven quests are cool, but their resources-required to playtime-produced ratio is too low. Hopefully I can make up for that in other ways!

[@jayslex]

Nice video! I was wondering if you could do a tutorial on how to make your client-side prediction and Reconciliation. Or give it like you did with Interpolation. I'm really struggling with it,

[@tomweiland]

I've pretty much decided that I won't make a typical tutorial about that stuff. Prediction & reconciliation are _way_ more involved than the other things I've covered in the tutorial series, and the sheer amount of time I'd need to spend editing all that footage is horrible to even think about :P That being said, I probably will cover it at some point, but if I do it'll most likely be in a livestream format.

[@jayslex]

@@tomweiland Ok Thanks a lot.

[@fabianvelander]

Man, I wish I was smart enough to be able to implement multiplayer into my games. That just seems like a crazy amount of work lol

[@tomweiland]

The multiplayer part itself is actually _relatively_ straight forward. It gets really confusing and mind-melting when you start trying to compensate for latency and keep gameplay smooth while maintaining server authority :P

[@fabianvelander]

Tom Weiland haha yeah, watching your devlogs and just looking how much time is spent making the multiplayer work flawlessly vs how much time spent on actual game features, it feels like singleplayer-game-devs are spoiled lol

[@nathaniel3133]

For a melee weapon you could use a bottle of alcohol, that breaks after hitting someone

[@tomweiland]

Hahaha, like when Captain Jack gets bottled from behind after dueling Will :P

[@thedude4039]

@@tomweiland There MUST be molotov cocktails! Or perhaps once you throw the alcohol, you can shoot it's spilled alcohol once it lands, to set it on fire. Or if you're skilled enough to shoot it midair, it explodes and sets an even larger area on fire.

[@felixd8665]

To make melee feel better, you could have multiple types that'll do more hit-stun on block and what not. An example could be a normal swing, which would be an average attack and be down a couple frames on block. A stabbing move would maybe take longer, but could be up a few frames, giving the advantage to the player attacking. Also, I think a blunderbuss could be a fun weapon, which could send players farther away, like your current pistol, with the cost of shorter range.

[@tomweiland]

If I implement a blunderbuss I'll get accused of copying Sea of Thieves 😅 What do you mean by "up/down a few frames"? I'm not sure I understand that...

[@felixd8665]

​@@tomweiland Ah sorry, it's fighting game terms. I can't really explain it well, but here's a video explaining some of the stuff I can't. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZPchoBrlrx-ps0

[@tomweiland]

@@felixd8665 alright, I'll give that a watch. Thanks :)

[@goodnewsgames3286]

Hey! Have a look at how lightsaber combat in the Jedi Knight games. I know it's not exactly what you're looking for but it might give you some cool ideas (specifically the different stances and weapon types)

[@tomweiland]

I'll check it out, thanks for the suggestion :)

[@jayslex]

Im here second ;) I'll watch the video now.

[@tomweiland]

Awesome :P

[@Rossilaz58]

I recommend using the boolean modifier in blender to add some detail to the flintlock and make it look used

[@tomweiland]

I might do this in the future, but right now it's not very high on the priority list :P Thanks for the suggestion though!

[@theghastlygamer2484]

If you have not already started on melee here's an idea A combo based system, where when your attacking you do a certain amount of attacks each one increasing in damage with about a half second in between, then a 1-2 second cooldown before you can start attacking again. I've seen this done before and its pretty fluid, by having different times between the attacks within a combo you can make it so even if somebody has landed 3 hits on you, you can still block the last hit if your precise enough and then while their stunned damage them back. This makes it possible to punish the enemy if your skilled enough, but I don't have enough insight into how this combat system works to come up with a way to escape being punished. (Maybe the timeframe to block mid combo is really small?) But this would require adding a stun system to being attacked, which you would probably be doing anyways.

[@tomweiland]

I haven't started on melee yet-this sounds interesting, although it's a bit hard to visualize. Do you know of any games that use a system like this which I could take a look at to get a better idea? Thanks for the suggestion :)

[@theghastlygamer2484]

@@tomweiland There is a game named rogue lineage which uses this idea as its base for combat, but it also has things such as rolling and heavy attacks (Heavy attacks can bypass a normal block, but they can be blocked if the block is timed right) I don't know if showing a clip of a fight would help much but here is one of sword vs spear: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4SsdqxsZ5aWirM

[@theghastlygamer2484]

Just realized its also 3rd person so that might be a problem.

[@tomweiland]

@@theghastlygamer2484 obviously things like rolls don't work well in first person, but I'll check it out-thanks :)

[@karam7399]

How about attack modes like using sword as two handed for extra damage but is a little slow and you can add the depth mechanic you talked about ,other would be a sword and a gun ,the same depth mechanic will be there but not that accurate and fast paced and when you shoot your gun at a right time ,you can pull out combos and finishers and other stuff.The final mode can be just a sword and it will be the fastest of them all but overall less damage and but accuracy will be more than sword and gun combo.And you can switch between different modes easily but there will be a cooldown period ,so players cant spam . and you can only use some weapons in some modes only and moreover using one mode for a period of time will level it up increasing your proficiency in it. ofcourse you dont need to implement everything it just a rough idea.

[@tomweiland]

Having different weapons that do different things is definitely a good idea, thanks for the suggestions :)

[@xxdeadoutxx761]

While not a priority. The crest of the waves should be smaller as you approach land

[@tomweiland]

Yep, that's on the list. I talked a bit about why I haven't added that in devlog #30 if you're interested.

[@cybrown3369]

I think you might learn something interesting from the melee combat system from the game For Honor

[@tomweiland]

Yeah that one has been mentioned quite a bit-I've taken a look and I'll probably take inspiration from it, but we'll see :)

[@123valami8]

If you want to stop the jittering use what sea of thieves did. They created a copy of the ships coliders somwhere hidden in the map, the copy ship should not be moving you need to move the player on that ship and calculate the distance between the real and the fixed copy and you need to place the player to seem that he is walking on the real one.

[@tomweiland]

Are you sure that's what Rare have done? If so, how do you know? Admittedly I've thought about using this approach, but I'm pretty sure it'll cause other logistical problems-I'll keep it in mind though!

[@Tanteturner]

Do you plan on realising the game on any other platforms then PC, Mac or Linux?

[@tomweiland]

I'm honestly not sure. I'd like to, but it does make things more complex, and this project is already big enough :P

[@RialuCaos]

I would not worry too much about melee being a basic attack/block. It's good to start with something basic and just polish it until it's fun to use even being basic. At that point you can think about making it more nuanced to add more depth.

[@tomweiland]

That's a good point-starting simple also makes it less overwhelming, which would in theory mean that I'll procrastinate less :P

[@contagiousscorpio7048]

Add Bucket and a cup:P

[@tomweiland]

What, so you can drunk :P

[@CorneliusCornbread]

I would love to see a video on client-side prediction and reconciliation. That stuff is super annoying and difficult to deal with

[@tomweiland]

Yeah, it's definitely complicated. If I do cover that, I don't think it'll be in a typical tutorial-maybe in a livestream?

[@CorneliusCornbread]

@@tomweiland That'd be weird, but still helpful

[@tomweiland]

@@CorneliusCornbread it would save me the _enormous_ amount of editing which I'd otherwise need to do for those complex topics, plus you guys would get to see me debug multiplayer problems which might be useful.

[@HaydenTheEeeeeeeeevilEukaryote]

what about how zelda does combat, where the left stick (or wasd) affects slashing a bit, like forward, neutral, back and maybe side and maybe Left and Right click can be Light and Heavy attacks, maybe both or another key could be block using ocarina of time as an example (when not z targeting) forward is vertical slash neutral is horizontal when z targeting forward is stab neutral is vertical slash back is horizontal slash

[@tomweiland]

Yeah, that could work. My head is starting to explode from trying to think about all these possibilities at once :P

[@HaydenTheEeeeeeeeevilEukaryote]

Tom Weiland good luck, just remember that you can experiment with them and change it, you don’t need to nail it immediately. Just remember that even if it takes more time, if the end result is better it’s worth it.

[@wesleyjanse6600]

is there a reason when you're modeling that you keep tabbing to your browser instead of pasting the image in blender as a background reference image?

[@tomweiland]

There's something about eyeballing it which I somewhat prefer. It forces me to add my own twist/spin/creativity to it instead of just tracing outlines. If I had reference images in Blender I'd find it a lot harder to let myself deviate from them.

[@wesleyjanse6600]

@@tomweiland Alright I completly onderstand 😉 nice work tho

[@tomweiland]

Thanks :)

[@contagiousscorpio7048]

Add particle effects : P

[@tomweiland]

I will :)

[@sidboss9561]

This looks thicc...

[@tomweiland]

I'll pass on the compliment 😂

[@EnginCanUre]

I got an idea. If your holding a melee weapon and start "attacking" , you can repel incoming bullets.

[@tomweiland]

That sounds like light-sabers :P Even if I implemented that, it I'm still not sure what melee to melee combat should look liked-any ideas on that?

[@EnginCanUre]

@@tomweiland I hope this helps. 1. If 2 melee weapons intersect, the attack will be "canceled". 2. Different attack styles: "Slashing, Striking with the handle, Stabbing, and maybe heavy attacks by holding down the specific button for a specific attack" 3. Some hotkeys for the attacks if it also helps: "Slashing (Left Mouse Button), Striking with the handle (Holding Shift and then pressing Left Mouse Button), Stabbing (Scroll Up with the mouse)". If you want more ideas, just tell me.

[@tomweiland]

1. So you mean it should effectively result in a block for both players? 2. I like where this is going, but these different attacks would definitely need to have a different effect on your opponent-simply playing a different animation won't add any depth :P 3. Using an extra key is a good idea, but if I use shift to change the attack style, what do I use for sprinting 🤔 This was already very helpful, but if you've got even more ideas I'd love to hear them. At this point it's the more, the better :)

[@EnginCanUre]

@@tomweiland 1. Yes. 2. Slashing is the "normal" attack it is fast, does a good amount of damage, but has a shorter range, and has no knockback. --- Stabbing has a bigger range (trying to hit someone with the sword tip) and more damage, but attacking is slower than the "Slashing" attack, to balance that the stabbing attack needs a great amount of knockback. --- Striking/Handle attack causes a concussion which makes the target unable to attack or change weapons (if it's an option), and maybe slow the target, it does almost no damage, has shorter range and breaks the block (4. For more info), the attack is executed very fast but to not be able to spam that it should have a slight delay between the next attack. 3. Maybe CTRL is better but game testing is needed to truly know if the hotkeys are good enough for an action to execute. 4. Defense: If you press the "Right Mouse Button" the player blocks fast, getting hit with the stabbing (knockback will be still applied) or slashing attack will cause a repell and the attacker will be unable, for a short time, to attack to give the "victim" an advantage / an opening. --- Getting hit with the handle/striking attack will break the block and makes the player unable to attack and switch weapons (same as the concussion effect but without making him slow). It's good because it balances the block action and not be able to just block and take no damage.

[@tomweiland]

Thank you, I'll definitely be coming back to these comments when I start working on melee combat!

[@FFcafe]

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

[@tomweiland]

I'll take a look, thanks!

[@cubee4108]

Can you PLEASE add kick? Like when you are kicking you will inflict medium damage and send enemy flying while ragdolled for 1 second.

[@tomweiland]

Possibly, although in first person that might feel really weird. I'm also not sure how useful it would actually be-and I need to focus my limited time and resources on things that will be used...

[@Alexander-ij5vz]

Could you create a nice Ship Movement Tutorial on the water and also a tutotial how to get a low poly terrain included the water because on youtube is not one tutorial for a low poly water. If you create this, I will be thankful and also I will enjoy your videos with more interesting. Edit: I mean a tutorial of exactly the waves you have. Please and stay safe!!

[@tomweiland]

I've already created a tutorial about the buoyancy physics I use for my boat. The low poly shader is kind of like my secret sauce, so I'm a little hesitant to share that...

[@Alexander-ij5vz]

Tom Weiland but it will be very encourage of you because the water looks very nice. Also you had only create a video about the water physics, which I am very thankful for this video, but you didn‘t show a movement script.

[@Johnny-wn4dl]

gaming

[@tomweiland]

What about "gaming"?

[@Johnny-wn4dl]

@@tomweiland i just like gaming

[@tomweiland]

That's good I suppose...?

[@Johnny-wn4dl]

@@tomweiland Thank you for your consideration!!!!!!!

[@natharon]

yo can you make a blender tutorial? because I feel like I should start making models for my game

[@tomweiland]

I don't think I'll make a Blender tutorial, largely because there's already so many of them out there. This is a good series if you're just starting out: kzbin.info/aero/PLa1F2ddGya_-UvuAqHAksYnB0qL9yWDO6

[@thedestoryer21]

I think you should not add a crossbar or something for aiming. Instead of making the guns randomly inaccurate, the inaccuracy depends on the player.

[@tomweiland]

Yeah there probably won't be a crosshair, but bullet spread will likely also be substantial, especially at longer distances.

[@vexed.]

came here as soon as I got pinged on discord :)

[@tomweiland]

That's awesome!

[@casualdutchman]

I really like the technical part of your videos, but with more features added, it starts to feel like Sea of Thieves. I am not sure what your goal is with this project, but I would highly suggest thinking of different features that will make your game unique and not look like a copy of Rare's game

[@tomweiland]

Believe me, I've thought about this a lot. One of my main goals is to _not_ build what would be considered a Sea of Thieves clone. Unfortunately, a lot of the base mechanics of sailing and pirating will always remind people of Sea of Thieves since there isn't much room to make those unique while also keeping them logical from a gameplay perspective and somewhat realistic. As the project progresses though, there will be more opportunities to differentiate it.

[@dasphantom0439]

Wouldnt it be easier to just give every Client the Player id and there the Bullet should lend (as predicted by the Server) and the Client who shoots renders the bullet imidiatly but stuff like hitmarkers are rendered After the Server Send them and predicted.

[@tomweiland]

Yep, I'm planning to add some sort of bullet prediction soon :)

[@dasphantom0439]

@@tomweiland Nice looking forward to it. Keep up your great work!

[@Rossilaz58]

Is this inspired by sea of thieves? It seems to be. I'm not saying that's bad! Im very interested in this project and hopes it goes well. Edit: the flintlock looks great!

[@tomweiland]

It currently looks very similar, and I won't deny that along the way Sea of Thieves has inspired me in some ways, but I had this idea long before I heard of SoT.

[@aBennu]

The sloop design is almost 1 for 1

[@gamewafflezgamedev6492]

play games like sea of thieves, legend of zelda breath of wild and hollow night, you can derive a combat system from those games

[@tomweiland]

I've played Sea of Thieves, but none of the others. Are there any specific mechanics you like in those games?

[@gamewafflezgamedev6492]

@@tomweiland geeze you reply fast, i like the combos in legend of zelda, i like the feel of fighting in hollowknight, also make it so you can slide but in a pirate way and not in a parkour way, make it slide like they do in the movies

[@tomweiland]

When my brain starts overheating from programming too intensely I tend to check my comments :P Sliding? Considering that ship decks are made of wood they're not usually that slippery-unless it's been raining or a big wave just smacked the deck...

[@gamewafflezgamedev6492]

ok

[@Nervniyak]

Play Mordhau for melee combat inspiration.

[@tomweiland]

I've been watching some videos about the combat, but it's honestly too in-depth :P As a solo dev working on an already massive project I need to keep things doable, so don't expect to see anything close to Mordhau's combat, but I'll definitely use it as inspiration.

[@ParkerGameDev]

X10 more comments!! this ep was short T_T !!

[@tomweiland]

Yeah it wasn't quite as long as the last few-there wasn't too much else I could've added though, and I'm not going to "fluff up" videos with unnecessary stuff :P

[@contagiousscorpio7048]

Sea of thieves sniper

[@tomweiland]

I'm not sure yet, we'll see.

[@salosteenkamp926]

This game sounds the same as sea of thieves

[@tomweiland]

I'm getting really tired of repeating myself when responding to these kinds comments, so if you're _actually_ interested in my response to this, feel free to check out the other similar comments.

[@salosteenkamp926]

I'm sorry I will stop

[@salosteenkamp926]

I just watched the first video To figure out what you ment I apologise plz forgive me

[@tomweiland]

No it's fine, I completely understand where you're coming from. The game looks a lot like Sea of Thieves at the moment-it's just that explaining that one of my main goals is to _not_ create a SoT clone is getting quite repetitive :P

[@DookPot]

this is just sea of theives

[@visibletonone.superiortoal2033]

Why does everyone keep typing that. He's tired of seeing these comments.

[@tomweiland]

Everyone keeps commenting that because it _does_ look a lot like Sea of Thieves. I just haven't gotten to the point where I can add mechanics that clearly differentiate it, so I think I'll be getting these kinds of comments a bit longer :/

[@_Jam1]

Sea of thieves?

[@tomweiland]

Nope.

[@_Jam1]

@@tomweiland oh is it inspired by it?

[@tomweiland]

@@_Jam1 I had the idea before I heard of Sea of Thieves, so not directly, but I won't deny that SoT has inspired me to keep going at times.