08-Sep-2007 14:08
I know exactly what you mean, and I'm so excited to see you approaching it with this attitude! I feel like the games these days are moving toward a mindset that the more control you give the player, the better - but this simply isn't true! As with everything,
in moderation!
Yeah, Determinance is the one I was talking about. I agree, the flying was corny... the thing that bothered me about wrist movement was that it was all manually controlled by the player, which was just clumsy. This is a perfect example of why some things just have to be automated, but you have to be careful with it so that it still feels natural to the player, like having the wrist extend and contract with respect to the pitch of the arms rather than making him manually control the position of the wrist.
The trick is giving the player the illusion of having the most control possible, but you have to build in certain limitations and automations so that it still functions physically true to the way it would in the real world (such as having predefined "swing guides" or whatever so that the player is forced to following through with a swing at a certain point). Like you said, keep it simple.
As for your issue, I don't know your current plans for that but honestly I wouldn't worry about it until you really notice that it's a problem. It might turn out to be something the player can simply get used to and exploit rather well with just a little practice.
I don't know, I'm just doing a lot of talking and rambling now. You're the expert on how all of this works, whereas I really have no experience whatsoever. Keep up the good work!
You would not believe the amount of hours I've spent swinging a broomstick, noting every detail in every which way I swing. 
The idea is still on the drawing board, and will probably be more in depth than the tiny description I just gave. It spawned from many ideas ago, where I had posted some pictures of points on circles and ****. Not too sure what I was thinking there. 
I would hardly say I'm an expert on how all this works, but I've played enough games and watched Star Wars Ep1-6 enough to know what kind of game play experience I want to deliver. The main issue right now is coding in arcs and defining the right ones given certain situations. For example (more automation), when two sabers collide, unlike Determinance, I would like the swinging to continue, for the clashy clashy type saber fights seen in Star Wars. I'd like to have the sabers 'bounce' backwards and then have a pre-determined arc to come back on, but somewhat deviate it/give the player some control so that it's not endless clashy clash. Something like as long as you hold down fire, move the mouse and keep moving into your opponent. I seriously doubt a true Star Wars saber fight would be possible without some some aspects taken care of automatically.