Mapping one game genre onto another mechanically is a design challenge that fascinates me. Drawing parallels between competitive fighting games and old-school arena shooters has become my newest guilty pleasure in that regard. I recently posted a series of tweets addressing how some fighting game concepts might translate into the context of an arena shooter.

Today’s thought: How different fighting game mechanics might work in an FPS. Not attacks, hit boxes or thematic elements; but more along the lines of invuln, zoning, movement, and RCs. Zeno Clash and For Honor are heavy hitters, but what about airdashers?

— ☕ əze (@azpng) June 7, 2018

Punches, kicks, and attacks in general are categorized as “thematic”, since they’re generally interchangeable without affecting player tactics. I was curious how broader fighting game mechanical concepts like zoning, juggling, footsies, whiff punishing, and their various mind games could be applied. I’ve been conceptualizing an FPS that tackles these challenges, and Wire-Fu Shock Arena (WIFU) is an early prototyping experiment intended to inform something more involved.

 

An entire minute of Decktron’s WIFU game mode.

 

The prototype has been made playable on my UT2004 server through the use of the TweakTool2004v22 mutator by Matt ‘T-Bone’ Miller, and the Shock Rifle SuperCombo mutator by Alex ‘RaptoR’ Dobie.

 

The Movement

The first thing most players notice is that WIFU plays slowly, this is because the game’s overall speed has been slowed to 40%. The strength of dodging, jumping, and gravity have been all boosted by roughly 300% in an effort to normalize them with the new game speed. The result ends up being a game where everything moves slowly except for jumping and dodging, which makes them a player’s best options for moving around quickly. There is also the fact that air control has been boosted by over 800%, which boosts air strafing to be even more effective than strafing whilst grounded. Ground landing from a dodge has recovery on it that can only be jump cancelled, although because of the momentum transfer from the dodge, you’ll end up moving on a fairly predictable jump arc.

What: This is some weird shit.
SilverHydra: This is actually kinda sick.

There were a few reasons why WIFU’s movement and physics were balanced this way. The first was to reduce emphasis on precision, but not entirely. Increasing emphasis on positioning is a natural side effect of reduced precision emphasis and a game mode where the primary method of dealing damage is area effect attacks. The decision was also partially motivated by a desire to take the aspects of UT2004’s movement mechanics that make it unique, and make their effectiveness more immediately apparent. Part of me hopes it’ll help new players achieve a better handle on the game’s more advanced movement options.

 

Cathaticus demonstrates effective zoning.

 

The Shock Rifle

Primary fire has had its lethality dialed down to 4 damage per hit. It also has a lot of additional recovery from each shot. I did this because hitscan at this speed of gameplay is clearly the best option for scoring kills, and I wanted to focus more on rewarding spacial awareness, positioning and timing. That isn’t to say that the primary fire is useless now, far from it. When you hit someone with the Shock Rifle’s primary fire, it has a knock-back effect that also lifts its victim from the ground slightly. WIFU’s slowed down game speed makes this short airborne knock-back state almost 3 times longer than normal, and since you can’t dodge whilst mid-air, it can be used to stun someone long enough for a late stage combo’s damage wave to become active.

 

Secondary fire recovers slightly faster than normal, although in addition to the game mode’s overall reduced game speed, the core projectile moves at about 32% its original speed too. The damage output from a raw core is still good, but to hit someone with something that moves slower than your slowed down walk speed isn’t exactly practical. Firing a core puts you at risk of taking heavy damage from it if done carelessly. You can make core placement safer and more effective by leaping past your opponent and firing your core mid-leap.

 

Shock Combos can now be activated on the same shock core up to 4 times, with each combo stage larger and higher damaging attack than the last. Each combo stage’s damage wave is more delayed than the last, allowing for time to escape the damage radius. A core’s next combo stage can be initiated at any time. So while you’re at the mercy of your primary fire’s recovery to trigger a core’s next combo stage, the other players are not. WIFU’s Shock Rifle changes also allows you to combo 2 cores at the same time, by alternating which core you’re triggering with each shot.

 

WIFU Details

comboTime            30    →  40
ExtraJumps           1     →  3
JumpHeight           100   →  216
DodgeSpeed           100   →  232
DodgeHeight          100   →  216
AirControl           35    →  832
Gravity              100   →  300
ItemRespawnTime      30    →  6
HealthVial           5     →  16
HealthPack           25    →  80
SuperHealthPack      100   →  160
ShieldPack           50    →  40
SuperShieldPack      100   →  80
AdrenalinePill       2     →  4
Shock_Ammo           50    →  80
Shock_Damage0        45    →  4
Shock_Damage1        45    →  32
Shock_Speed          1150  →  400
Shock_DamageRadius   150   →  160
Shock_ComboDamage    200   →  160
Shock_ComboRadius    275   →  240
Shock_FireRate0      0.70  →  0.80
Shock_FireRate1      0.60  →  0.40

Killer_EXTREME!!!: What the fuck did I just play?
What: The greatest game mode ever.

If you’re interested in trying out Wire-Fu Shock Arena, check out channel #fite-nite in Decktron for events and server pick-up games. Standard Unreal Tournament 2004 versus and cooperative modes are available as well.