3rd Person WASD vs 3rd Person Click to Walk (Discussion)

News & General Discussion
1

Hello, I’m trying to decide between using a WASD walking system or a click to walk system.
The game type I’m going for is MMORPG 3rd Person. Something similar to Runescape, WoW, etc.

I prefer a click to walk system, but there can be some issues with this. Pathfinding has to be implemented to make this system work, and you have to enable Enter to type (for talking) which can be a big pain.

If I were to go with 3rd person Click to walk, should it be done with a Grid System (Similar to Runescape), or completely limitless where the player can walk to any exact spot?

Would love to hear everyone’s opinions, all input is appreciated.

2

I think, like WoW, the ideal answer is “both”. If you have a 3rd person click-to-move system working, it shouldn’t be that much more work to add WASD support and let the player choose.

3

Hmmm… I was thinking more of a grid based click to walk system because with colliders, which use more memory and can be inaccurate (Unless using Mesh Colliders). If say you generated a clip map (an Integer array) that has a 1 for unwalkable, and a 0 for walkable squares, and a grid based pathfinding system that avoids all squares with the value of 1, wouldn’t it be more accurate when it comes to clipping? What I’ve noticed in a lot of MMORPGs, is their clipping is very inaccurate and this would solve the problem for that, as well as use very little memory.

If it used a grid based system, that would rule out WASD almost, and would also not require “Click or Press Enter to Chat”.
Hmmm… Any thoughts?

4

hey there, I was able to find a solution that does not require pathfinding when i was experimenting myself with click to walk idea…

i used a Unity Asset / Plugin called iTween. Check out the example here: iTween for Unity by Bob Berkebile (pixelplacement)

Scroll down, and click on the one titled “Moving on Uneven Terrain”

this example shows you how you can click and move and object (player) to location, over terrain and does not use pathfinding at all.

if you want to check out what i did with it go here: http://xiaosaga.com/ my setup is very buggy but it works…

5

That’s very nice, but will the character run into objects?

6

sure, you just have to setup the collision to do so… my demo there is very buggy lol! so just use it as an idea of what you could do with this iTween Asset/Plugin to accomplish what you want.

One noticeable bug with this Asset/Plugin is that if you click somewhere there is really far away from the Player Object, the Player Object will Move really fast to that Location where you Clicked. I don’t know how to adjust it, or modify it to not do that as i’m not much of a coder, so you’ll have to play with it, maybe even contact iTween Support and see if they can help with that not sure.

7

I’ll most likely write it myself, but thank you :slight_smile:

8

The issue is your tweentype, you should look up different ones. Linear will keep it at a steady pace throughout etc.

9

if movement doesn’t have any influence on performed attacks/blocks etc in combat and if gameplay doesn’t involve much agility then i’d go with clicking.
having to use WASD to walk really annoyed me in KOTOR, which had a TPP camera just like action RPGs while combat itself was pretty much point and click.

10

Hm… If I did a click to walk system I would definitely have a click to attack system, but If I had a WASD system, the combat would not be click to attack.

I’m also debating if I should have an Xbox + PC MMORPG with a WASD system, and for the xbox, a simple walking system with hitting X,Y,B to attack etc.

Does anyone know if it’s possible to have a single server supporting 2 platforms at once?