Jeff Strain says... JUMPING?

Found this transcribed interview with Jeff Strain on gotfrag. Mostly the same stuff as any first time interview with JS, but on page 2 the guy asks the "why no jumping" question and this is the last sentence of the answer:

I'm sure it's way out there 'on the horizon', but it's the first I've heard of it. Talk about a total overhaul of the underlying physics engine. I guess they'd also perhaps address the bridge issue as well, but who knows. Anyone else heard anything along these lines?

Jumping would be awesome. But how useful would it be? you certainly can't attack while jumping, atleast not in any accurate manner. Maybe it could add a 15% chance to evade or dodge? Seeing an ele jump around waiting for his big nuke to recharge would be funny. But the bridge issue, definitely should be fixed before if not at the same time as other engine issues.

Ever play WoW? You can jump and attack, but it does nothing for offensive or defensive purposes. I just like jumping offa things and seeing if I can live....

Jumping would undermine one of the core strategies of the game: body blocking.

Might not be such a good thing. If I could jump over your front line straight to that monk.

Jumping would change the entire game.. Perpahs allow unreachable places to be reached, allow people to get "stuck" in areas... Really would be worth alot more trouble than it's actualy worth, especialy as there wouldn't be a huge benefit for being able to jump in the first place.

As for the bridge issue, that definently needs to be fixed, along with the other engine bugs. I think all the bugs with the engine should be fixed before they add jumping...

I agree, in order to make jumping useful in any way they'd have to re-evaluate their mapping pre-jump, and see what to change.. That would take a long time.

If anything I see them just making a PVE-only small type of jump just for the feeling of "freedom".

What? It sure *does* have offensive/defensive purposes in WoW. Jump, spin around, cast insta-cast spell that requires you be facing the enemy, spin back, continue running. Great for casting instas when being chased.

Ever think that maybe they could add jumping, but it would do nothing but make your character jump? As in it'd be like an emote you can do while movie, kinda thing? I don't know..

I loved jumping off shit in WoW though.

You can just do that while strafing.
But this isn't a WoW board, so I'll shut up now

Given the realistic nature of the avatars and world, I wouldn't expect it to be a cartoonish WoW-type jump over someone's head. Unless you're Spiderman, if you can't go around me, why would you be able to jump over me? Blocking someone into a corner next to a low staircase or railing might be another issue.

That's what surprised me about the answer. I just assumed (and even seem to remember reading) that it was something they would simply never even consider. The fact that they apparently are - assuming he wasn't just talking out of his @$$ - indicates that they already have an idea how to implement it, and what functions it would/wouldn't server.

As long as theres no jumping in towns. I hate it when you walk around and everyone looks like monkies.

Why no jumping in towns?

Also, if they do implement jumping, I wonder how well they'll implement it. Will it just be a basic up and down jump? Will you be able to jump while running? If you're on higher ground than another game entity, whether it be friend or foe, would you be allowed to jump over them? What about jumping from walls to gain extra height? Would you be able to change direction mid-jump?

I think it'd be interesting.

Jumping. I think Warrior in Diablo II.

The fact that body blocking is a "core strategy" is a serious game design flaw IMO. It is extremely not fun for either party; I want to win and lose because of my skill and my build, not because I was or wasn't good enough at exploiting the game's horrific pathing and collision problems.

or how about they introduce tackling at the same time, as in, you run into someone at full speed and you both go down

A jump that has no offensive or defensive purpose? Has nobody thought of trying /jump?

if u got "skill", then u wont be body block by other ppl or monster.

"blocking" had been a core strategy for many RTS game to prevent unit running away. i see it as a good thing to implement in gw.

You seriously think they would allow a normal character to jump completely over another character? I don't think so. That would look silly, and be completely ridiculous.

Hmm, jumping, turtles.... I see where this game is going

Adding jumping would be too much of a hassle. It really isn't necessary in the least. Say jumping is incorporated in the future releases. What about people playing on previous releases? And what about collision detection with other players/monsters/areas from the older maps?

Massive overhaul on the game engine. Do you know how much trouble there is to be had to with this? Not to mention the time it will take, which is time that should be spent focusing on existing problems than just the implementaion of an irrevalent feature.

If body blocking was not intended to be part of team strategy, they wouldn't have implemented it in the first place. If they wanted you to easily reach the enemies back rank, they would just allow you to walk right through their warriors.
Now... the pathfinding and collision is still an issue :/ sometimes it's inconvenient when you think you slip past a warrior and then a second later find yourself back in the same place with him blocking the way and beating on you.

I didn't say it was unintentional, I said it was stupid. :P

It would probably be to allow you to jump over minor little obstacles. Like that tiny little pebble which causes even the most athletic ninja to get stuck in his tracks.

Beyond that, it would probably be too much and end up annoying too many people (warrior in the way? No worries, just leap over them....)

as long as it didnt have defensive purposes *gets flashback of CS*.

oh and no spiderman jumping as said before, like ur jump could be reduced by the heaviness of armor ur wearing n stuff. but IMO it wouldnt be a feature that'd make too much fo a difference.

Great, now ANet decided to jump from the suggestion list made in the betas to something almost no one is requesting for. Jumping seems stupid to me, ditch the idea.

Jumping would be great, with with the horrid hit detection on things. Hmm, I can climb a hill/log at 75 degrees convered in ice/moss but I can't walk over this stick on the ground..

NOT GOING TO HAPPEN PERIOD.

first bold states that they would have to start over which isnt going to happen.

second bold seems to simply have a little more free form roaming and not be stymied by hills (going around them/tunnel/etc)

yes JUMP is very important i cant really enjoy this game without jumping in a fight.

PLEASE go jump someother place.

Jump is for little kid’s that want to find another way to annoy people. if they want to bring/share things from WoW then get a AUCTION HOUSE. (not saying only WoW got the jump command)

Played D2LOD for 5 years never needed to jump, maybe teleport

Hopefully maybe they will have a few skills for warriors or assasins where you can jump to a target foe in close range, if nothing is obstructing it (ignoring players).

Maybe something like this:


Juggernaut Lunge
Strength
5e 40s recharge

Perform a jumping attack to target foe in the area, dealing an additional 2...14 damage if it hits. If hitting a foe from behind, that foe is knocked down, and suffers from Dazed for 1...4 seconds.
You have a 33% chance to dodge arrows during this attack.


The hardest thing would be implementing the animations and making it work and not look silly.

Yeah I agree, however you should be dazed for 20 seconds after running through someone cos you, like, just saw all their insides and are kinda freaked out by this.

you can add jumping without messing up the game's balances, just simply not allow people to jump over others. obviously, a person can't jump over another, so how would that affect body blocking?

Jumping = stupid.

Assassins can already do that. I forget the name of the skill, but its one of the first ones you get. It shadow steps you directly to target foe, and heals you for X if they have more health.

Jeff Strain also promised Reconnects.

Jumping will bring catastrophies. People will nervously jump around for no reason, like an addicts. Noone will take the paths in towns, everyone will slide on the cliffs, fly of the roofs. They will have to put fences in tho whole game preventing you from just sliding down the path and skipping the whole level (Same as Jdoom - you jump, take blue key and skip the whole level, doom was never intended to have jump).

Jumping in towns - in WoW beta, there was ride on Ogrimar, I hide my noob troll in the stairs and guess what? Noone found me because NO ONE was taking the normal stairs? Why doing it when you can just leakp 200 feet, take 1000 dmg and continue to your path of whatever.

Jumping is good, but not for this game. It is not based on reality but so far the level of tactic is great. Also we already got that fancy harmless jump.

Yeah, yeah, "in the future, seems important, we'll get to it eventually." Maybe they will fix the bloody z-Axis and it will be a chapter 6 only update, screw the rest.

I really don't think they would allow people to jump that high! heh

But it would be nice to allow only the Assassin class to jump over people, would give them an interesting extra edge in battle.

The funny thing is, body blocking is actually one of the few things that actually connects this game to a physical world. 'Body' blocking as you put it, has been a war strategy for as long as we have had war. Why do you think the Romans always moved in formation? They even invented that crazy thing called the Testudo formation (looked like a giant turtle made of shields).

I'm betting most of you have seen the combat in WoW. It looks like crap. When I see a character get hit in wow, there is no real feedback. It feels and looks weak as hell. Add to this the fact that you can walk 'through' your opponent makes the battle just ridiculous. Why even bother looking like a real fight? Just give all the characters a calculator and call it World Of Calculators.

This is the main reason I chose GW over wow. The combat in this game is far superior because it has some respect for physics.
So you say this is a design flaw? The fact is, controlling the terrain has always been a war strategy. GW should be comended, not berrated for this. As a caster I have far weaker armour than a warrior and occasionally a ranger. In a direct confrontation, I will lose. I have to kite. Sometimes kiting a warrior is hopeless because said warrior is using a run stance. Then I can use the bodies of my allies as cover. With the addition of the ritualist, the tactical possibilities have improved even further (e.g.. the 'spirit-wall').

If I am an Elementalist, I have basically been designed to be completely obliterated by a ranger. how do I stop those arrows striking me? In some instances I can use the environment instead of wasting energy. Hide behind an obstacle. With this I will admit Anet have been kinda' slack. Some of the arenas have some stupid collision. Try and hide behind a huge slab of orange stone (meguuma arena) and low and behold the arrows still come through anyways. I really should make a bug report.
Anyways, the physical aspects of this game make it feel really solid. I remember being trapped between my allied warriors and the enemy warriors. Since my stupid allies we're in wammo mode they just kept swinging, not letting me through, so I eventually died. Annoying as hell but I felt true carnage at that moment. That is something I would not trade for anything. Certainly not some crazy jump mechanic.


Do not miss-understand me, I'm not saying jumping would suck. Jumping could be very interesting for controlling the terrain. We all know controlling mobility in PvP and to a lesser extent PvE is a huge advantage (water eles ftw ^_^ ) "He who controls the earth can conquer heaven".
I just think that it would require some serious thought to implement and would probably need environments designed around the ability for it to really work.

Yeah, it's not like anything has ever occurred in the game as an unexpected result of some weird implementation of code.

Implementing jumping seems to me like a waste of resources. I really couldn't care less. In fact, I think it would be a very bad idea to change a mechanic that works well midway through the life of the game.

And I have a hard time believing bodyblocking is a mistake of the game code. There's even a Master of Bodyblocking in the Isle of Nameless!