Kingdom Vs Clang

Hi all,

i’m also backer of the former (and it seems that currently failed) Clang ‘initiative’ and I see that there are very close similarities between KC-D and Clang (‘we strive to create realistic sword fights’, very interesting video updates, etc. ) - at least for the depiction of sword fighting (i know that Clang didn’t aimed to create anything else) - so i would like to know whether the authors of KC-D took any inspiration / lesson learnt from Clang as well ?

I already asked KC-D team through kickstarter question form, but I received only generic answer that
We are aiming for historical accuracy. So we work with sword martial artist and study all relevant sources

  • which didn’t answered my Clang related question at all…

So in more detail

  1. how Clang approach / technology differs from KC-D (or vice-versa) ?
  2. Any thoughts on what went wrong with Clang (specific HW, too complex fight controls, not enough know-how) ?
  3. How do you ‘know’ that you will be better than Clang (and actually succeed in capturing the swordfight well)?

Again - my main point is that at least for the combat the KC-D seems to follow same path as Clang (e.g. they displayed similar videos with people fighting and motion-tracking etc .) - so what will be different in case of KC-D ?

Thanks,

David

p.s. link to Clang http://goo.gl/t6rE31

It’ll be better than Clang simply because it’s going to be a semi linear open world. Clang is an arena based game.

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I’m not asking about the game in general (as i already wrote - i’m know that the scope is largely different), i’m asking about the sword-fighting

I think in this case there shall be no big difference if i will be fighting someone in arena (Clang) or somewhere in the field / castle (KC-D) - the sword shall still kill the virtual people…

ah sorry my bad. I think the fighting in KC D is more directional than clang. Several predefined sword manouvers that you can utilize. Whereas clang has more like a free aim sword. you choose the direction, length of the arc and force behind it and so on. I haven’t done any extensive research into either of them but this is my assumption from watching both trailers.

I don’t want to speculate on the reason why Clang seems to be in hibernation now. I can only say that Clang was never our source of inspiration. We drew our inspiration from historical fencing and it seems that our outcomes are visually similar to Clang to some extend. But the actual combat will be quite different.

I believe the defining point of Clang was the aim to create dedicated sword fighting hardware. This is in my opinion a very difficult task, because the controller cannot provide proper feedback and therefore it gets out of sync with the game: e.g. I try to strike the enemy, he parries and counterattacks. However my sword-like controller was not actually blocked and as a result is now in a different position than my in-game sword is.

In this respect, our approach is much more ‘game-like’: you use gamepad or keyboard to choose what kind of attack or block you want to perform and the important thing is your timing and your tactics.

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The game has many facets , one of which is the fight with and without weapons . Be too strong to focus on this one facet and even turn off the hardware on it ( WII / Okolus ) hurts my view the game as a whole. Especially the first part will probably be a single player ( or. … ? :wink: ) And thus no " party " character takes , which would possibly speak for WII . The example M & B shows that often provides a solid combat system without a lot of "bells and whistles " more fun than complex Daddeln with X- buttons or keyboard shortcuts. Important in a game but the game depth , choice of options and a successful , authentic atmosphere. Unfortunately, just lose large developer in details that are irrelevant in the end. The allure of chess is not primarily in its looks , but the fact that it is " shaped " by the opponent and provides a fair test of strength with no luck of the dice or cards. And that you can also lose . That must be so :wink:

sorry…google-translatet…

Das Spiel hat viele Facetten, eine davon ist der Kampf mit und ohne Waffen. Sich zu stark auf diese eine Facette zu fokussieren und gar die Hardware darauf abzustellen (WII/Okolus) schadet meiner Ansicht nach dem Spiel insgesamt. Zumal der erste Teil wohl ein Singleplayer sein wird (oder…???;)) und damit keinen “Party-Charakter” annimmt, der eventuell für WII sprechen würde. Das Beispiel M&B zeigt, das ein solides Kampfsystem ohne viel “Schnickschnack” oft mehr Spielspaß bietet, als zu komplexes Daddeln mit X-Knöpfen oder Tastenkombinationen. Wichtiger an einem Spiel ist doch die Spieltiefe, die Wahl der Möglichkeiten und eine gelungene, authentische Athmosphäre. Leider verlieren sich gerade große Entwickler in Details, die am Ende nebensächlich sind. Der Reiz von Schach liegt nicht primär in seiner Optik, sondern darin, daß es durch den Gegenspieler “geformt” wird und ein faires Kräftemessen ohne Würfelglück oder Karten bietet. Und, dass man auch verlieren kann. Das muß so sein :wink:

kingdom for sure… =)

Clang positioned itself less so as a game, per se, and more of a mechanic for putting more realistic sword combat (at least) into video games. While they created a demo using the Razer Hydra controller (and hopefully they will update it for the STEM controller when that comes out and maybe even PrioVR when that is ready) that was meant to be the launching point for further expansion. So, like KC, the other game companies don’t seem to want to take any kind of chance on it, but then again it wasn’t necessarily built directly to be a standalone game, but rather the game was meant to showcase what could be done with the system itself that they were building.

So in that sense Clang might be something that could be integrated into KC, then again it might not. Still, it’s an interesting concept and if KC is going to be highly moddable (and I hope it will be) then we may still see some ability to mod something like Clang into the game. In any case I do think looking at what Clang has done could be something worth considering and looking at for KC’s combat design.

clang was the result of people from non-gaming backgrounds trying to do the impossible in terms of game design.

i wish them the best, but really…they seem in over their heads