Should the player control the head or torso

Miscellaneous Topics
#1

I have been working on an web based rpg game, which is suppose to be all about the players character, and what happens to him/her. Quests, battles, and random encounters can very well end up changing the character. If the character die, it’s a possibility the character comes back as a zombie, skeleton, or ghost. Depending on how the character died.

Now to the “problem”, since a character is going to change during the game, I have made all major limbs to items. Normally a player can’t unequip them without using an axe or sword, but the exception is the zombies. But this makes me think, normally I would put the “controls” in the head, but I have been thinking if I should instead set them in the torso, since then the players can be a headless zombie, otherwise they can’t. So I wonder what you think, controls in head or torso?

EDIT: This is not a question about how I should do it, it’s just to get me to decide on a game mechanic. The player can control all limbs that’s connected to the controlling limb, so if that’s the head, and the head get’s removed for the body, then the body will just fall to the ground like a ragdoll since nothing is controlling it. I was thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of having the controller in the torso.

#2

That’s hard to say knowing nothing about your game design, but maybe this:
Have a Controller interface or something and use an implementation that controls the torso for zombies and another implementation that controls the head for regular entities.

#3

What’s wrong with just not drawing the head?

#4

This really isn’t a question that we can answer, since it depends entirely on how your code is setup. What does it even mean to “put” controls in a head or a torso?

Why don’t you just have the controls completely separate from the encapsulation of the player?

Thinking out loud: can you have a head without a body? Maybe a zombie head can become detached from the body and go on biting people? Haha…

#5

[quote=“KevinWorkman,post:4,topic:51608”]
This is not a question about how to do it, since I know exactly how I will program it. No it’s more about what I should do, and why.

[quote=“KevinWorkman,post:4,topic:51608”]
The player can only control things that’s connected to the “controller”, which means if it’s the head, once the head is removed and rolls on the ground, the body will no longer be controllable to anyone. If the control is in the torso and the head gets removed and throw to the ground, the head will no longer be controllable, but every other limb still connected to the torso will.

The reason why this matter is, if the controls is in the head, then no player will be able to become headless, but if the controls are in the torso, then the player can’t decapitate mobs or other players to try to win battles quickly. I can’t decide what would be best when it comes to the game mechanics.

#6

(off topic) how did people not get the question…?

Anyway…

Well, do you want the player to be able to be a head-less zombie? I think you should put it in the torso, realistically you could have an undead character live without limbs (head, arms, legs), but without the body they would have a tough time moving around as just a head.

So it really depends on if you want to have a mechanic that allows for head-less players.

edit: put them in the torso, it would be cool to lop off the head of an enemy but still have them fight you.

#7

Or you could just have an abstract player class that the body parts are added to. That way, the player always has control of the character regardless of body part composition.

#8

People “didn’t get” the question because it’s not really something we can answer. It’s entirely up to OP.

Personally, I wouldn’t “put” the controller of the player “in” any particular body part. I would have a controller class that contains the player, and the player can be made up of any collection of body parts you want to account for. That gives you the most freedom to do whatever you want in the code instead of restraining yourself with false limitations.

However, if you want those false limitations because it’s how you want to organize your code, that’s cool too. The point is that there really isn’t a “right” answer here, as it depends entirely on how you want to organize your code.

Game sounds interesting though. Keep us posted.

#9

[quote=“KevinWorkman,post:8,topic:51608”]
I’m aware of that, but this is a forum where people discuss things, it doesn’t need to be a “right” or “wrong” way to go about it to post here. I want to hear what people think about the up and downs of it.

#10

You don’t have to force a dichotomy. The third option would be to let a player whose head becomes detached from their body switch between the two.