Welcome to the second melee update. Last time we have shown you what to expect of the new melee design with a couple of videos for better imagination of how it will work. This time we will be going though each of the subsystems one by one. Each subsystem will get its own update and the updates specific to melee will be made every couple of weeks with each of the updates done by a different development team member.

Short history of the Simple Melee system

ESF Beta 1.0:
-First introduction of Simple Melee
-Lock on required to swoop with only forward swoop possible
-Head-ons won by lower ping players
-Blow back length and speed enough to cover half of the map
-Chance for unlimited areal combos

ESF Beta 1.1:
-Head-ons won by player with more KI remaining

ESF Beta 1.2.X:
-Lock on removed in favor of the double tap swooping system
-Blow back speed and distance decreased drastically
-2 hit limit for areal combos implemented to cope with easier chaining of hits
-Head-ons changed to both players hitting each other and being blown apart

With that small history of the simple melee system behind us let me present the changes made for ESF:Final. The changes can easily be summed up into a few short paragraphs.

Damage and Blow back

In the past damage and blow back dealt from a melee hit was consistent no matter how the hit was done. In ESF: Final the blow back and damage dealt with simple melee will depend on 2 things. The first is speed, meaning that the faster you go the more damage blow back is done. The second is power, which can be considered the power level difference between the two players. Whether a player is stronger or weaker than an opponent will affect how much damage and blow back are dealt. Of course limits have been set as to how much damage may be dealt to players.

Continuous melee hits

The two hit limit has been reverted back to the infinite hits for simple melee.. To balance the system out each new hit you do will cause a bigger knock back to the opponent so it gets harder with each hit. Getting the second hit is relatively easy, but with the third one it'll become harder as knock back speed and distance increases with each hit.

Collisions

With the incorporation of head-ons in ESF Beta 1.2 players that simultaneously attack each other with the same attack would be knocked back from each other. The system was further updated to include improved visuals.


Videos & Audio - Earth's Special Forces Mod for Half-Life - Mod DB

Bonus points

With the addition of special moves a system was added to allow players to earn bonus points and then use them to “buy” special attacks. Bonus points are earned by performing actions in the game, such as simple melee hits. The system is designed so that more advanced actions are given a greater reward. For example, a simple melee hit will give you 1 point; the second hit will give you an additional 2 points, third hit 4 points, fourth 8 points and so on. Of course this only counts for continuous hits. If the target recovers from his blow back your point multiplier also gets reset.

ESF is hiring!

The ESF team is looking for additional developers to help speed up the production of ESF: Final. ESF has come a long way, but there is still a lot left to do. If you're interested in contributing ESF's last big release then take a peek at the jobs below and send in an application.

Environment Artist
Character Artist
Web Designer - Content Manager
2D/GUI Artist
Sound Engineer

Also, I realize this is a bit delayed, but on behalf of the entire ESF team I would like to thank everyone that voted for us in ModDB's Mod of the Year competition. Because of your support ESF was awarded an honorable mention for the "Players Choice - Mod of the Year" award. It is nice to still be considered one of the top mods after all these years. This has been taken as a very nice compliment from all of you, so thanks!


Also, I would like to congratulate Naruto: Naiteki Kensei on receiving two "Best Upcoming Mod" awards. They have put a lot of hard work in and deserve it. Congratulations guys.