Would It Be Possible To (mechanically) Balance An Accurate Lightsaber (in a video game)?

[Eighteen-Counts Trevor]

We all know Star Wars and we all know the super cuts anything laser swords from Star Wars. The biggest question I have about these things is if it would even be possible to balance an Accurate Lightsaber. I'm pretty sure every single Star Wars game went the route of making it a shiny normal sword for balancing purposes but that's boring and inaccurate. The only thing I can think of is making a game like Bushido Blade, where the game is a 1-on-1 fighter balanced around instakills and limb crippling. Think you can come up with a way to balance instakill cut everything swords in a game that isn't a fighter specifically designed around instakill combat? I can't.

[Steve]

Lightsabers aren't supposed to be balanced. Jedi are superheroes.

[Swarmfly]

Lightsabers haven't been relevant since smokeless powder was invented.

[Mina]

Dooku had tilt within his hilt to help for precision and weight

[Eighteen-Counts Trevor]

Originally posted by Dr. Staten Island:

Lightsabers aren't supposed to be balanced. Jedi are superheroes.

Yeah and they all died.

Oh and also there are several superhero games that balance superpowers. I guess MVC counts but that's only because the super characters tend to be so extremely busted that it ends up balancing out.

[Eighteen-Counts Trevor]

Originally posted by Swarmfly:

Lightsabers haven't been relevant since smokeless powder was invented.

I disagree. In the world of gaming, they just become more relevant every time the money machine (disney) prints out a game that makes money (a star wars game).

[Eighteen-Counts Trevor]

Originally posted by Mina:

Dooku had tilt within his hilt to help for precision and weight

We're getting a bit too accurate with that, let's dial it back a bit to just the lightsabers cutting everything. We can add those later.

[secuda]

Originally posted by Dr. Staten Island:

Lightsabers aren't supposed to be balanced. Jedi are superheroes.

PRetty much, a lightsaber wearer are no more better then his abilities to deflect shots with lightning reflexes, even if you had said lightsabre you would still be putt down with a ordinary cheap gun.

[blacksunchaos]

It's difficult, you got the ability to do different stances in KOTOR, SWTOR is just slice and dice PVE after level 70, Force Unleashed tried, but it's hard to do.

[Uncle Sam]

Originally posted by Gambler Gamblents:

We all know Star Wars and we all know the super cuts anything laser swords from Star Wars. The biggest question I have about these things is if it would even be possible to balance an Accurate Lightsaber. I'm pretty sure every single Star Wars game went the route of making it a shiny normal sword for balancing purposes but that's boring and inaccurate. The only thing I can think of is making a game like Bushido Blade, where the game is a 1-on-1 fighter balanced around instakills and limb crippling. Think you can come up with a way to balance instakill cut everything swords in a game that isn't a fighter specifically designed around instakill combat? I can't.

Complex task as it would need a game engine that has a lot of destruction and i really mean alot. Plus take into account old mechanics from other Star Wars games, see if it's going to be single player / coop and / or PvP focus or have both, etc.

Edit: Maybe this game engine?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttwBelIlLv8

[Eighteen-Counts Trevor]

Originally posted by Uncle Sam:

Originally posted by Gambler Gamblents:

We all know Star Wars and we all know the super cuts anything laser swords from Star Wars. The biggest question I have about these things is if it would even be possible to balance an Accurate Lightsaber. I'm pretty sure every single Star Wars game went the route of making it a shiny normal sword for balancing purposes but that's boring and inaccurate. The only thing I can think of is making a game like Bushido Blade, where the game is a 1-on-1 fighter balanced around instakills and limb crippling. Think you can come up with a way to balance instakill cut everything swords in a game that isn't a fighter specifically designed around instakill combat? I can't.

Complex task as it would need a game engine that has a lot of destruction and i really mean alot. Plus take into account old mechanics from other Star Wars games, see if it's going to be single player / coop and / or PvP focus or have both, etc.

Edit: Maybe this game engine?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttwBelIlLv8

I think we could avoid most of the destruction by making it so lightsaber animations avoid walls unless you're actively attacking (so you won't be breaking a wall by standing next to it) and adding a decal to the wall that makes it transparent. Of course, you would have to render even rooms you aren't supposed to go in at all to keep the illusion and have an engine that supports decals making parts of the wall texture transparent but I don't know much about 3D game development to know if this is possible. We have had some impressive games though so I don't doubt it would be possible to render all of the destruction even without decal black magic, and it should especially be possible to make minimal destruction where the only time walls and stuff get destroyed is through collateral damage and deliberately trying to break the walls. Hell, Teardown is a pretty good example of this from what I've seen, now all you need is enemies to go with the environment and a lightsaber and then you've got the basics. Then the only problem is making the enemies fun to fight.

[Fajita Jim]

What is an inaccurate lightsaber?

Oh wait, it's the schwartz, isn't it?

[Eighteen-Counts Trevor]

Originally posted by Fajita Jim:

What is an inaccurate lightsaber?

Oh wait, it's the schwartz, isn't it?

Nah, an inaccurate lightsaber is just a sword with a lightsaber slapped on top, like most lightsabers in games.

[vkobe]

Originally posted by Gambler Gamblents:

We all know Star Wars and we all know the super cuts anything laser swords from Star Wars. The biggest question I have about these things is if it would even be possible to balance an Accurate Lightsaber. I'm pretty sure every single Star Wars game went the route of making it a shiny normal sword for balancing purposes but that's boring and inaccurate. The only thing I can think of is making a game like Bushido Blade, where the game is a 1-on-1 fighter balanced around instakills and limb crippling. Think you can come up with a way to balance instakill cut everything swords in a game that isn't a fighter specifically designed around instakill combat? I can't.

plasma torch weight is too light, so it is like if you manipulate a tv remote

equivalent it is when kid use imagination sword

[Rain't]

Originally posted by Gambler Gamblents:

We all know Star Wars and we all know the super cuts anything laser swords from Star Wars. The biggest question I have about these things is if it would even be possible to balance an Accurate Lightsaber. I'm pretty sure every single Star Wars game went the route of making it a shiny normal sword for balancing purposes but that's boring and inaccurate. The only thing I can think of is making a game like Bushido Blade, where the game is a 1-on-1 fighter balanced around instakills and limb crippling. Think you can come up with a way to balance instakill cut everything swords in a game that isn't a fighter specifically designed around instakill combat? I can't.

Armour that reflects 100% of light

[Basho]

Originally posted by Gambler Gamblents:

Think you can come up with a way to balance instakill cut everything swords in a game that isn't a fighter specifically designed around instakill combat? I can't.

my immediate though: Hitman/GTA/AssCreed wanted system approach to balancing.
you rely on keeping a low profile, as is expected of a jedi, and you can take pretty much any foe in straight combat when pressed.
but you cant fight 1,000 foes, so you need to pick your battles and plan for a quick escape.

obviously lends itself to an open world setting.
for anything other than that, i have no clear immediate thoughts.

but maybe, in a classic "FPS" type of linear game context, make things like parrying and deflecting more of a manual affair rather than "hold X to auto-deflect blaster shots", and make enemies very deadly.
so you can still take anything with ease, but you are also subject to being (nearly) 1-shot by enemies and need to think about surviving your way to the next target in order to 1-shot them, akin to the Hotline Miami experience.