Aerial combat

So you know the question: what's aerial combat going to be like?? You know, Rider/Dragon vs. Rider/Dragon, Rider/Dragon vs. Beast Master/Fanghur & Beast Master/Fanghur vs. Beast Master/Fanghur. Any replies??

I honestly have no idea, it will be interesting though. I think the only person that can answer this is Span

No clue. I know span has it worked out.

Haha, Span has a lot worked out

I do lol
....
And this isn't one of them

I'm still thinking on ways to have aerial combat in a game that's point of view is already from the sky

Well, do we just opt for no areal combat for now? The fights end up on the ground usually anyway.

Thats an option for sure. I know we discussed this in some depth over in the IF group PM and we never actually figured it out. Item nuber 1001 on the need to work out list, lol.

Yeah, maybe launch the game without areal combat and work on getting it for an update.

Ya that's an idea too.

Hmm, I am moving this to the Suggestion Section

I think Span's idea sounds great . But if we're looking at it from above, then how are we going to control movements And speaking of movements, will we be able to switch between controlling the Dragon/Fanghur & the Rider/Beast Master Like when we're controlling the Dragon/Fanghur, we're able to bite, scratch, breathe fire (in the Dragon's case) on the enemy Rider/Dragon or Beast Master/Fanghur & when we're controlling the Rider/Beast Master, we're able to attack with weapons, use magic (in the Rider's case) on the enemy Rider/Dragon or Beast Master/Fanghur (no jumping off your ride's saddle, Eragon).

Well This might sound dumb but...

You know in some games how when you enter a fight you load a new screen? Something like in the Pokemon Nintendo DS?

Would that sort of setup work?

Now that I think on it, yea that is dumb... :S

I just got one question - do we even know how normal flying (on a dragon or any other beast) will look like? Fighting in the air shouldn't be too different from it, after all.

To the best of my recollection we ended up split between switching screens to an arial battle or having it play out like some of the helicopter battle games where the view is from above with the characters moving alonga treadmill style ground image and trading attacks.

I have an idea after looking through the books, and here is what a basic dragon battle is. A dragon battle has 3 different stages: A Climbing phase, a Grappling phase, and a Chase Phase. The Climbing phase is where the dragons and riders do not fight, but try to gain a height advantage on the other. The grappling phase is when they begin the attack by grabbing each other, and both Dragon and Rider try to do as much damage as possible, and the Chase Phase is when they break and they have the chance to land onto the ground, begin another Climbing phase, or flee. It is also perfect to give ranged attacks like using a bow, or attacking with magic.

So, we need something to do with the Climbing, and Grappling Phase. I think that it should be time based, and more real time. First the Climbing phase starts, the camera view zooms up to right behind your dragon, and here you climb for a few seconds, giving you a chance to prepare yourself with anything you need, then a message says "Get Ready" and a couple seconds later the dragons collide, and you and your dragon give and block as many blows as you do, or instead, do an attack against. The Phase lasts for 5-15 seconds, and the dragon's separate. The view then goes to a bird's eye view, and you can choose to reengage, flee, battle on the ground, or heal yourself. The battle continues until either Rider and Dragon gives up, flees, or dies. How does that sound?

I like it Bris! It sounds really good, and I think it would really be more like the games if we do it like that. Now to hope that it's not too much to code(seeing as I know nothing about code xD)

Sounds good to me!But what if none of them give up or neither person dies and the battle lasts for like ever.

It won't last forever. Don't forget that healing and attacks require energy. So one has to give up or loose eventually when their energy stocks run too low.

Hmmm, yeah. Could work.

I like the phases, and hopefully we can find a way to do them.

Ya I think that would be the best way that could be made in this type of game.

We need a way to be able to skip the phases though. Cause I wont want to do areal combat a lot. I would opt for ground only.

I really like that Bris! And they actually wouldnt last that long cause like Bris said, healing and magic equine a lot of magic

Ya.I won't mind doing aerial combat but would want to be able to do it on the ground to though.I think somebody mentioned this earlier but can we swap between rider and dragon?

I still think we need a way to bypass it. So, before each fight, you have a choice areal or no areal, then if both click yes, it goes to the agreed manor. If it is a tie, it does a random toss up.