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Forums - Gaming - How are you supposed to walk and run with Natal?

Porcupine_I said:
These recent natal threads make one thing clear:

Microsoft should put out more information about what it can or can't do, or in the end they will never be able to live up to the hype and notions building up in the time to its release.

I disagree.  I see these recent threads as evidence that people are still very interested or curious about it, and that's nothing but good for MS. 

What we need to be right now is something that we always have a hard time with:  patient.  Its not coming any time soon so MS will let the hype machine kick in when the timing is right.  Expect more info in Feb and March but probably not before.



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i was thinking this about the sony wand and natel the first time i saw them.



Hephaestos said:
the movie "gamer" had the player put his palm forward for walk (as pushing the back of the character).... so I guess you close the palm for stop and show the back side of your hand for backsteps and the side for going right and left with the hand being about 10cm appart for both options.
use your other hand for shooting and aiming.

sounds intuitive enough.

then there is also the option to talk ^^

So you're going to be using your hands to move and turn, while aiming and performing other actions?

Isn't Natal meant to make gaming simpler?

I think it would avoid this sort of game, and focus on the multitude of genres and ideas which a motion camera could work with. You can't have a game like Halo, using only NATAL. You could perhaps have a handheld joystick.



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THATGUY said:
i was thinking this about the sony wand and natel the first time i saw them.

With the big difference being that Sony's Wand is a peripheral with buttons that could be used to move the player in the game

Also Natal is not able to scan finger moves and that may be a "nice" problem to solve for this device



JaggedSac said:
libellule said:
JaggedSac said:
Natal will not work with the FPS genre or many other genres as we know them now. At least not without having a controller in hand. It will work fine for Myst style adventure games by using hand gestures such as swiping to turn and pulls and pushes to move forwards and backwards. Pickng up items would be done by reaching for and grabbing the item. It will also allow for complete 1:1 movement matching for a 30x30 ft space. So awesome games like Dodgeball could be made. Or a very robust excercise game. The feet, hands, arms, legs, waist are all mapped and able to be used. Need to jump to dodge the ball or leap over a pit, actually do it. This is a limitation for fat people and people who live in small spaces, but I tink it would be pretty neat. Controllerless gaming will definitely require a paradigm shift in how developers design games, but we could see some really neat stuff.


free natal bashing on

that is true : I play video games to play dodgeball games ...

I would rather play a bullet dodging game where I can dodge AND fire bullet

WAIT, it already exists and it is called an FPS ? and, guess what, the motion control version on Wii is "meh" ...

free natal bashing off

note : I still see your point ;)
and we all want to see those "dedicated" games

Why does Natal need to have an FPS game?  Or why do you need to use only Natal with an FPS game? 

And what is the issue with a dodgeball game?  I happen to think it would be friggen awesome.

 

World Championship Dodgeball

General Gameplay

Players will be able to control their onscreen counterpart via a complete 1:1 mapping of their environment and body to the games body and environment.  If the player moves forward and to the left 3 feet, the character onscreen moves forward and to the left 3 feet.  If the play jumps to the right, the character jumps to the right.  Natal supports an area of 20X20 if I recall, so that gives plenty of room for maneuvering.  This will not be a game for people with tiny living spaces.

Games will have the standard dodgeball rules.  Teams throw balls at the other teams in an attempt to hit them.  Once hit a player is out.  A player can be brought back into the game if a team member catches a ball thrown at him/her.  After all players on a team are hit, a point is awarded to the winning team.  After a configurable amount of points are earned, the game is won.  Balls must be caught with both hands, but can be thrown with one.  Only one ball at a time can be held.  Balls can be deflected using a ball that is currently being held.

It is called World Championship Dodgeball because, using Live's infrastructure, world championship tournaments can be held on a monthly basis.  Players compete in ranked matches with other players from their country in an attempt to make it onto their country's team.  Once the teams have been determined a tournament takes place on a specified and day of the month at a rotating time frame(so as to not always give the time advantage to one country).  Earlier matches in the tournament can be configured to have less play time so as to speed the tournament up.  Once the final matches are reached, the play time can be lengthened so as to make a more skill based game.

Any match during the tournament can be viewed by spectators.  Possibly showing their avatars in the stands, much like they do with 1 vs 100.  Perhaps avatar trophies or MS points can be awarded to the winning teams.

Configurable Gameplay

Environment options

The environment can be configured to change as the match rolls on in an attempt to speed it along.  Hazards will appear, such as holes in the floor, lava rivers(depending on the stage), low walls to force jumpming or high stepping, etc.  Perhaps the outer foot of the space keeps getting removed every 30 seconds or so to give the player less room to maneuver and dodge.

Power Ups

Power ups can either be thrown at or walk over to pick up.  They will be located on the players court and in the air between the two teams.  It will be risky to go try nd pick up a powerup because the opposing team will most likely be ready for you to attempt to get them and have a ball waiting for you when you get there.  Throwing a ball to get a power up can be risky as well since you could have attempted to get the other team out with it, or they could catch it more easily.

Shield - Can be activated on voice command.  Provides a 1 second invulnerability.

Fast ball - Ball thrown speeds are increased.

Fire ball - Cannot be caught, must be dodged.

Team mate revival - This will allow one of your team mates to rejoin the match.

Slow down - Ball for the other team are slowed down.

Environment change - This will cause something to happen to the other team's playing field.

There could be many more powerups to offer.

Stages

Stages can get really crazy.  A playing field could consist of only small ledges that must be stepped or jumped onto carefully.  Dodging balls at the same time as this could get quite interesting.  There would be the inevitable beach stage, lava stage, water stage, desert stage, space stage, forest stage, etc.  All offering different environmental hazards and power up sets.

But I do all that in real life dodgeball!



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Sweep said:
THATGUY said:
i was thinking this about the sony wand and natel the first time i saw them.

With the big difference being that Sony's Wand is a peripheral with buttons that could be used to move the player in the game

Also Natal is not able to scan finger moves and that may be a "nice" problem to solve for this device

Are you sure because I recall reading it can read hand gestures.  I think you would have to raise your hand to the camera mind to do this.



Turn signals... would be my guess. Hold out your hand right and your character starts to turn right until you pull it in.



Darth Tigris said:
Porcupine_I said:
These recent natal threads make one thing clear:

Microsoft should put out more information about what it can or can't do, or in the end they will never be able to live up to the hype and notions building up in the time to its release.

I disagree.  I see these recent threads as evidence that people are still very interested or curious about it, and that's nothing but good for MS.

What we need to be right now is something that we always have a hard time with:  patient.  Its not coming any time soon so MS will let the hype machine kick in when the timing is right.  Expect more info in Feb and March but probably not before.

it still might be like Calvins Propeller-Beany.

 

...nope, i don't expect anyone to understand :D



“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.”

- George Orwell, ‘1984’

slowmo said:
Sweep said:
THATGUY said:
i was thinking this about the sony wand and natel the first time i saw them.

With the big difference being that Sony's Wand is a peripheral with buttons that could be used to move the player in the game

Also Natal is not able to scan finger moves and that may be a "nice" problem to solve for this device

Are you sure because I recall reading it can read hand gestures.  I think you would have to raise your hand to the camera mind to do this.

Hand gestures (palm) yes it can read them but not the fingers : A game requiring you to shoot with fingers (like depressing a trigger) is not possible on Natal



why didn't i think of that? I always knew natal was lame but damn they will have to find creative ways to make people move and such.