Example of what Radiant Damage might look like
GIF Credit- Ramayana- The Legend of Prince of Rama
Weapons design - chakram
Why the Chakram?
In the recent past, I’ve been keen on playing around with weapons and combat design, and what better way than by creating your own starting point with a design doc?
When I started this experiment, I wasn’t really sure what type of weapon I wanted to design.
If it was a gun, I wanted to play with more elemental damage like the Maliwan guns from the Borderlands series.
Magic? Then probably a staff or series of spells that would have been fun to design.
The more I thought about it, the closer I started looking at my own culture and history for inspiration, and zoned in on the Chakram. The Chakram has references from Indian lore, and has historical accounts of its use and deadliness in the battlefield. But what would this weapon look like in a game?
This isn’t a new question, and I’ve seen various designs from disc-like weapons like in Tron Disc Wars, to Tira’s giant Chakram like weapon in Soul Calibur and most recently, Priya’s Chakram design from Brawlhalla.
Chakram – The Design
The Chakram refers to an Indian weapon that is a flat ring, with sharp outer edges all round, and is highly aerodynamic. They come in varying sizes, and can be used as both a melee and ranged weapon, focused on slicing through enemies.
For this weapon, the player archetype would be rogue or assassin based, as the weapon is dexterity based. The feel of combat with this weapon would be reminiscent of the combos and styles of the Shadow of Mordor or horizon Zero Dawn series, with skills like Death Blows based on accurate deflects.
Notes for Clarity:
Divinity is an attribute that starts at 0 for all Players and subsequently increases based on their exploits – whether they ally with or worship a deity.
Charging a weapon refers to the action of holding down the attack button within or for a set period of time.
Deflect is an action similar to the parry concept, that allows Players to Deflect an oncoming attack to ‘move the damage’ away from them. This does not negate the oncoming attack’s damage.
Weapon Details
Single handed weapon. Players may equip two to dual wield.
When equipped or swapped, functions as main hand weapon.
Dexterity and ‘Divinity’ attribute based weapon.
Higher the dexterity, higher the damage.
Deals Slashing Damage when used as both a melee and ranged weapon
When ‘charged’, deals Radiant Damage on top of Slashing Damage.
Charging is capped between 1-5 seconds. Does not need to be fully charged to deal Radiant Damage. Players can walk and run whilst charging the weapon, Deflecting however, cancels the charge.
Like throwing knives, once thrown the weapon can be recovered by locating and picking it up.
The weapon can be summoned back to the Player if their Divinity is > 0, and travels at a speed for 22m/s. Based on the range of the weapon therefore, it would take 1-5 secs to travel back.
Players can deflect both small and big weapon classes, i.e moving the damage away from them. Failure results in taking full damage from the oncoming attack.
Damage Formulas
Slashing Damage
Melee Damage = Base Dmg x (1 + Dexterity)
Range Damage = Base Dmg x (1 + Dexterity) + Distance
Normal throw range – 10-50m
Charged throw range – 3 x Normal throw range
Radiant Damage
Radiant Damage = Slashing dmg + (Charge time (1-5 seconds) x Divinity)
Animation Reference
Melee
Held in hand in a hammer grip and used to slash at opponents, much like daggers or short swords, when used in wide arc like motions to slice at enemies.
There are other native weapons that are used similarly, such as the Ku’eku’e (Hawaiian knuckle duster).
HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) techniques for short dagger slicing / slashing movements are great for animation reference, as they capture the fluid motions we’d like to see in game when wielding the Chakram.
Forged in Fire had an episode that featured the Chakram. The video shows just how deadly the Chakram could be in when used in close combat. Refer – 6:55 to 7:05
charged animation – melee
For melee, an animation to show change in damage type with vfx for chakram (like a glow or sparks) is required. This is to indicate to Players that their Damage type has now changed and they have the benefit of added Radiant Damage.
Range
As a ranged weapon, it can be thrown like an Aerobie and travels in arcs. Based on whether the weapon is charged or not, the Range differs.
Normal throw range – 10-50m
Charged throw range – 3 x Normal throw range
The Chakram has various techniques and therefore different throws, that should be noted in animation. A majority of the throws used a pinch grip, relying on technique to throw the Chakram hard, fast and with good aim.
Three main uses of the pinch grip appear to be the Overhand, Underhand and Side hand throws.
- Overhand throw would be used when players have the high ground
- Underhand throw when Players are facing enemies on higher ground
- While Side throws are good when both Player and enemy are on the same level
Extending the techniques, there is a possibility to use the hammer grip in similar fashion. As Players may be using the Chakram in melee and throwing it almost immediately following a strike, it is also important to have blend state animations that cover this.
Charged Animation – Range
For range, display of the charging animation could be the Chakram being spun on the index finger with vfx, such as a glow or sparks, to show Players the change in damage type.
Refer the image on the top right for what this might look like.
Deflecting
Only when used as a melee weapon, Players can use the chakram to deflect oncoming attacks. Players can deflect attacks from both smaller and larger weapons, not negating the damage, but moving the focus of the damage.
HEMA techniques often focus on deflecting attacks before landing the blow and is perfect for animation reference with regards to deflection.
Summon
Once the Chakram is used as a ranged weapon, it can be considered lost unless recovered, often by locating and picking up the Chakram.
Or, Players can summon the chakram back, encouraging it to return in an arc like motion. This can only be used if players have Divinity.
The Chakram is assumed to travel at a speed of 22m/s. Based on the range of the weapon therefore, it would take on average 1-5 secs to travel back, based on the distance thrown.
The Process
My inspiration for the Chakram design primarily focused around the depictions from Ramayan: The Legend of Prince Ram and other stories from Indian mythology.
As my process involves a lot of research, there were many questions I had to ask myself, such as how was the Chakram used? Was it both ranged and melee? Was it possible to use it in melee and what would that look like?
Once I had some answers, I had more questions, such as how would you represent these various animations, how could I structure the document to clearly and concisely explain the design? It took some trial and error after throwing my thoughts on a document to find the ideal structure. These were followed by questions of how damage could increase over time.
As with any game that has swords and Chakrams, surely, there is a way to parry or block. I didn’t initially have a straightforward answer for this, till I discovered the HEMA techniques.
As a player, I’m far more partial to attribute weapons grow with you over time. As a designer, answering that question was an interesting challenge. I had to think about the kind of game I wanted to design, and how this weapon fit in with the rest of the game’s weapon arsenal. While some straightforward formulas could have been Base Damage x Dexterity, it felt rather overpowered and more like a late game or ultimate weapon perhaps.
After some thought, I came up with the formula that felt ideal, and that is likely to help balance more than a single class of weapons.
The research into the background and lore for the chakram wasn’t as difficult as finding references for the type of animation I was looking for surprisingly.
I initially thought my search for disc like weapons would be simpler, considering Xena the Warrior Princess brought Chakrams into the limelight.
However it seemed to spawn a series of other disc like weapons that split up, which unfortunately didn’t make them ideal references.
Tron Disc Wars turned out to be a surprisingly good reference for both short and long range use of the Chakram.
And after quite a bit more digging into older weapons, techniques and traditional martial arts, I stumbled upon the HEMA techniques, and the rest is history.
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