Add Whip Combat

[CountReiniardThe3]

This would be marvelous to add! A few RPGs add them, and when they do, they are fun to use!

Please consider adding Whips, they should do high impact damage and cause bleeding when striking flesh (maybe slow weak health decay) and even maybe be used to skillfully disarm opponents! Or even be used in conjunction with one armed weapons, etc.

Whips in this game! oh could you imagine it! I realize it would be difficult to animate or give physics but I think it'd be great.

 

[Fawz]

I'm not so sure an exotic weapon like that would work well in the physics heavy combat of Sui Generis, let alone how actually useful it would be in combat. I can maybe see it as improvised weapon, but not really as a viable combat build.

Unless it's easy to implement, I would much rather the dev team work on other more interesting features that might better fit the world (unless they have slavery as a theme in the game?)

Could be cool to a quick video prototyping the idea even if it doesn't make it into the game but they feel like trying it out

 

[lvk]

While whips might not work well against anyone wearing anything more than cloth, we have seen an enemy with a very well functioning ball and chain that the player kept getting snagged on (in the first Kickstarter prototype, no less! A testament to how well the physics work).

Maybe if you remove the ball and make the chain a bit heavier, you could end up with a pretty cool weapon. They could then double as set decoration in dungeons (broken off rusty chains next to a wall), or perhaps less rusty chains could be found at a blacksmith's.

There's an extra element of skill involved, because swinging wildly and missing might get you injured yourself. If someone parries the chain too close, it would swing around the weapon and hit the guy behind anyway - and all of this would likely work with little additional programming, since we've seen these things in action already.

Of course it's up to the devs to decide whether it fits in the game world they're envisioning, but this sounds pretty feasible.

 

[Parco]

it looks like the physics already works well for whips or whip like weapons, if you look at the end of the kickstarter pitch video porky is using a morning star, a stick and a spiked ball with chain between. if whips were implemented i guess it would have a very low impact, so low it would be useless if someone is wearing leather clothes or armor, but hard to block and got an insane range, but no form (or very little) for blocking or parrying.
but as faws says its something thats most likely is gonna be prioritized later, or not at all.

 

[Fawz]

I can see long bendable weapons (ie: Metal chain tied to a stick) having some combative use. It would be more about the weapon wrapping around your opponent with force, I'm not sure they would be able to reliably recreate the damaging snap of a whip as it uncoils, strikes and withdraws.

It could actually be very cool with the physics system wielding a chain as it should lead to easy ways to trip an opponent. I can at least see Ogres making use of that type of improvised weaponry and being quite effective due to their strength and significant size. Though it might be hard to uncoil the whip once it wrapped around someone and tripped them...

 

[Oona]

I'd love whips! The kind that stick on the skin and when pulled away and take some skin! Those can definitely be dangerous, and with SG's physics, can be used to pull/push enemies into traps, etc! If any game should have whips, it's SG, I think!

 

[Tessaya]

I think there was a purpose for the jailers to take off their prisonner's clothes before a whip beating. If you want to be effective against more than nude skin you may want to turn it into a flail, something already in the game. Even the bleeding injuries it causes are not lethal in any way (except maybe for some throat hits).

There was a good reason it was so commonly used to torture : it was never meant to kill.

 

[Bibidibop]

I think there was a purpose for the jailers to take off their prisonner's clothes before a whip beating. If you want to be effective against more than nude skin you may want to turn it into a flail, something already in the game. Even the bleeding injuries it causes are not lethal in any way (except maybe for some throat hits).

There was a good reason it was so commonly used to torture : it was never meant to kill.

For centuries, clothing was extremely time consuming to manufacture, and thus extremely expensive. Ancients would boggle at the idea that even a modern homeless person could have multiple sets/layers of clothing; the idea that a middle class person might have a dozen sets of clothing would seem like we're nations of royalty. My point is, they likely removed the clothing because they wanted to save the clothing from damage.

To my knowledge, you're right, whips aren't particularly deadly, they do cause a lot of pain though. I could see whips having a special damage called trauma or pain, which forces a character to flinch away or spasm in response. Perhaps a particular stat could mitigate the response to various degrees, depending on the hit strength and stat strength.

 

[TwoPumpWarrior]

I am not even close to being well-versed in the use of whips. But would they make sense as an off-hand or secondary weapon? Something to snag and tug opponents off balance? Sorta like how hooked weapons will work. If whips were used in this fashion, I could certainly see their effectiveness in game. However the input for such an action is beyond me heh

 

[J.G. Elmslie]

If whips were used in this fashion,

In absolute honesty, I have never heard of a single fighting manual from any period which contains use of the whip.

The closest I can think of is the indian urumi, used in Kalaripayattu. However, even there, where its a whip-like blade made of steel, its both recognised to be utterly ineffective against any sort of armour and also absurdly difficult to use, being taught to only the most skilled practitioners.

While it would be interesting from a physics standpoint, I wonder if there's more practical weapons that it can be applied to - flails, for example.
(that may be the only time I ever use the word "more practical" to describe a flail...)

 

[lvk]

@J.G. Elmslie There's a massive flail-wielding enemy in the Kickstarter pitch video here, at 8:55 in. It doesn't look like a player character could use that one effectively.

 

[Faelivrin]

I think Madoc mentioned flails for characters are going to be a thing.

 

[TwoPumpWarrior]

Thanks for the clarification, I went ahead and wrote that in hope someone would correct me.
I've only seen the urumi once before and it was in a manga, pretty damn neat when it's depicted in the hands of a highly skilled fighter.
Madoc mentioned a method to make procedural weapons, I thought it was a fantastic idea. Maybe a tad bland if it's only swords but due to the physics stuff, it could be interesting. It makes me think of swords being made by all different people, no?

 

[Octo]

I'd like to see "soft" weapons. I keep mentioning nets because it should be fairly easy to pull off (just a basic cloth sim) and be very effective..would be pretty satisfying to bash an enemy that's tangled up in a net.
I wonder if semi-soft weapons would be effective..like a halberd where the shaft isn't completely rigid..should give some extra oompf to a hit if you use that extra energy correctly.
Can't wait for ball and chain type weapons to be usable.
I think a really effective weapon would be a long 2 handed stick with a short chain and spiky ball at the end.

 

[J.G. Elmslie]

I'd like to see "soft" weapons. I keep mentioning nets because it should be fairly easy to pull off

Now that would be something that the game engine could REALLY excel at.

 

[Octo]

I made an "interesting weapons" thread a long time ago where whips and such discussions would fit in,
but it hasn't been active for a long time.
http://www.baremettle.com/forums/index.php?threads/interesting-weapons.403/

Would be fun with springtraps...pretty hard to walk with one of those attached to your leg and fit the setting well enough.