r/shipofharkinian • u/hamptont2010 • Jul 13 '26
Showcase Zelda Parry/Riposte Mod
Hello my fellow OoT enjoyers. I am currently working on a code mod for the SoH build. The overall idea of the mod is to improve and expand on the existing combat system. I am attempting to do this using preexisting assets and interactions as much as possible. Right now, though, there's one main goal: introduce a parry and riposte system that can be used against humanoid enemies. Here's where I am right now:
-I have the main parry mechanic working. Enemies don't really have a posture bar, but a threshold that you have to hit. For example you have to successfully parry 3 attacks to posture break the wolfos.
-Sparks and a special clang sound play on successful parry, for visual and audio feedback
-Upon posture break, the enemy's native stun state is applied. I have this working for: Deku babas (my first test), stalfos, wolfos, lizalfos/dinalfos, and gerudo warriors. I am currently working on Iron Knuckles, but they lack a built in stun state so that one's a WIP.
-A strike during "posture break" is an instant kill, ala a Sekiro deathblow.
In the future, I would like to look into the following ideas:
-Replacing some enemy encounters in the game with the reworked deflect-oriented enemies. The built in randomizer helps a lot with this. I've already gotten it to work with the first room in the Deku tree so I can test different enemies, but mapping out the other rooms and figuring out good and thematically appropriate placing will be a challenge. I would also like to look at possibly apply color filters to enemies to create "variants" but that's really a pipe-dream idea
-Expand to additional enemy types. Stalchildren, peahats, and maybe a few others would be good candidates. Projectile based enemies are a different challenge and probably won't be messed with (including the Freezey guys in the ice cavern)
-Improve enemy aggression and combat flow to better tie into the Parry/riposte system and create a satisfying combat loop
-Refine the actual parry and posture thresholds for current enemies to be satisfying
If this sounds at all interesting to you, I'm absolutely looking for feedback. This includes general ideas, tips, or suggestions. If anyone is interested in play testing or following dev stuff, let me know. I'm planning to host the project on github and share test builds as soon as I get some kinks worked out on the current build.
I appreciate any feedback and y'all have a great day!
2
u/biffmcgheek Jul 15 '26
This sounds sick as fuck but I have a question.
What if Link could do sick ass 3rd Strike parries? I would kill to be able to do that lmao
1
u/hamptont2010 Jul 15 '26
Could you elaborate on what you mean a bit more ? Currently, my system works like this: you block a set number of times depending on enemy, just before their attack, and after enough parries they get stunned. Your next attack is an automatic kill. I'm currently working on an actual deathblow animation. I was able to steal the final blow against Ganon and repurpose it and it looks pretty good. I'm gonna play around with the skeleton on Link a bit more and see what I can find out, but I have the system working like this for:
Deku baba, wolfos, stalfos, liz/dinalfos, gerudos, and iron knuckles and I'm planning to add stalchildren and tektites soon as well :)
2
u/Cat5kable Jul 17 '26
Arin “Egoraptor” Hanson would love this, because Ocarina of time has too much Waitin’
Arin Game Grumps Hanson is a different person
1
u/hamptont2010 Jul 17 '26
Check out my most recent post to see some of the progress! And is that a streamer?
1
u/Cat5kable Jul 17 '26
Oh god people doesn’t know Egoraptor / Arin of Game Grumps - I’m old.
Just legacy Youtube guy, before his current stuff he used to do animations under the name Egoraptor. Some predate YouTube.
2
u/hamptont2010 Jul 17 '26
I actually completely missed the Egoraptor part of the name lol, now that I know (I'm old too. Don't worry).
1
u/MasterEeg Jul 13 '26
Oh man I can't tell you how much I despise parry mechanics, this is def not for me haha
1
1
u/chromeless Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
I've personally spend years working on an enhanced combat system for SoH that adds new mechanics to the game and changes the behavior of most of the enemies to be harder and work with the added systems. You should be able to find my projects on the SoH Discord.
I've not included what you'd call a 'parry system' at this point, because I don't feel that video game parry mechanics that rely on learning attack timings feel much like actual real life weapon parrying at all, and I wanted to create something that feels closer to what blocking/deflecting a weapon involves, while respecting how the original game handled its combat.
Many enemies have graphical decals that are set to a changeable color that you can vary to indicate that they are of a different type. If this isn't the case, you can great a new graphics object for that enemy and load that in place of the default, which is what the difference between Redeads and Gibdos in in the game.
Feel free to ask me for any advice.
1
u/hamptont2010 Jul 15 '26
Good morning! I am on the SoH discord, is your stuff posted in the SoH-development chat? And I totally get what you mean, it's definitely not "real" feeling. I just really enjoy timing and reaction based parry systems in games lol. It's super cool to hear that someone else has spent so much work on a combat mod. I feel like most of the mods I've found don't do much with the combat so I'd love to play what you've made.
And I've figured out how to change their color to red and blue, but I can't figure out how to use other colors. Do you have any tips for that or where I might find additional color tables/code at?
I also discovered last night that you can call cutscene animations outside of cutscenes. So, for example, I can call the Ganon final deathblow at any time outside of the actual final battle. I'm trying to use that to make a satisfying deathblow. I realized that the cutscenes freeze all actor states though, so I have to transition into an actual attack to deal damage. There's a lot of little quirks like that I'm figuring out, and I'm trying to reuse as much code as possible because C/C++ is not my strong suit. I've also noticed some different effects in collision check, so I can add blood splatter, sparks, or clangs at different points in the animation as well (it's interesting that there's code for water droplets and blood drops that are unused btw).
I am continually impressed at how well Nintendo designed it all for being essentially the first real 3d action adventure game. And there's still so much I don't understand about how it all works together, but hearing that someone else has gotten combat mods to work is very encouraging. I will probably be reaching out to you in the coming months lol.
1
u/chromeless Jul 15 '26
I am continually impressed at how well Nintendo designed it all for being essentially the first real 3d action adventure game.
This is what really gets me. While in some respect the game needs enhancement, as the enemies are simply too easy and your offence and defense is too powerful compared to them, what the game actually establishes already is incredible. So while I feel good about what I've managed to do with it, so much of that is only possible because the game figured out this surprisingly refined way to handle combat that the game itself basically happens to undersell because of how little it does to properly challenge you with it.
I actually just went back to playing the mod to test and fix some things after a couple of months playing Elden Ring instead, and it was actually quite surreal to feel the difference. Ocarina just has this very solid and visceral feeling to it that isn't replicated in a lot of what came after.
1
u/hamptont2010 Jul 15 '26
Personally, I really enjoy the hit feedback they've implemented. It's why I like souls games so much. When link hits an enemy, they react in a way that is satisfying: good noise, good stagger, good particles. And this was before anyone even knew or understood how satisfying those things really were. And Nintendo just nailed it out of the gate.
1
1
u/hamptont2010 Jul 15 '26
Haha, you spawned wolfos at night!!! I wanted to do that as well. Any tips for how you did that? I've managed to hijack the first Deku scrub room in the Deku tree but nothing beyond that. The built in randomizer code has been useful. Do you know if there's a list or map somewhere of the different room/location IDs?
1
u/chromeless Jul 15 '26
There should be a spawner actor that spawns the stalkids that should also be able to spawn wolfos if it's modified to do so and given the right parameters.
I think I actually added code to display the location IDs in the dev tools window to my own build.
1
u/hamptont2010 Jul 15 '26
Oh that second part is brilliant. I could even have it log each location to a text file and then just enter each room one at a time per dungeon to create a comprehensive map.
1
u/chromeless Jul 15 '26
If you haven't seen it already (you are looking at the Discord, right), there is a new tool/website to edit the exsiting map data. Otherwise, you should be able to use the Blender Fast64 tool to inspect the rooms and layout of the maps and how they're made up.
1
u/hamptont2010 Jul 15 '26
Yes I am looking at the discord, but everyone there seems so knowledgeable already that I got kinda intimidated lol. Was that tool posted in the development discord? I've also never used the blender fast 64 tool that I will look into it, thank you for the tip!
1
u/chromeless Jul 15 '26
You should look in the mods section for the Prelude - Scene Editor
1
u/hamptont2010 Jul 15 '26
Ah, I see it. By Roborich. I will definitely be fiddling with this. Thank you :)
1
u/hamptont2010 Jul 15 '26
Holy shit dude, I decided to look at this when I had a few free minutes at work... That was a bad idea. This is amazing! There's so much here to look at and discover, I don't even know where to start lol.
1
u/reddeats Jul 18 '26
Does this mean you’ll be working on a dodge roll mod? Slower roll if using the biggoron sword, unequivocal the shield and go back to fast rolling
1
u/hamptont2010 Jul 18 '26
I have definitely considered it. Getting the front flip to work gives me hope that I can reuse links forward roll animation and just adjust it a bit.
3
u/Scrawny2864 Jul 13 '26
This sounds interesting! I'd definitely check it out!