Room-scale VR multiplayer combat styles: Winged Archer
Locomotion methods in room-scale VR open the doors to a multitude of playstyles.

In a previous post I outlined the general idea of a VR MOBA style game. With a MOBA style VR game a VR developer can create a testing grounds for multitudes of locomotion and combat methods for players with room-scale VR setups to utilize.
While full body VR rigs are a dream for most of us, the cost and feasibility of such rigs in the average user’s home may yet be a decade away. Until then, room-scale VR is the most feasible method for introducing players to full body control schemes.
A MOBA style VR game pitting various hero characters against eachother in team based combat allows for different play styles to take place in the same game world. Competitive gaming is the most popular form of online gaming and presents a large opportunity for a VR developer to attract new players.
This is the first in a series of posts outlining various locomotion and gameplay styles a multiplayer VR combat game a la Overwatch, League of Legends, or DotA could use. The great thing about room-scale VR is the untold number of new play styles possible in VR. No longer are we limited by a mouse and keyboard or a hand held controller, now the entire human body is at play.
The Winged Archer locomotion and combat style
Thanks to Valve’s The Lab, VR archery has been made popular. Various titles such as QuiVR and Vanishing Realms have used bow and arrow combat as their central game mechanic. The tracked hand controllers lend well to the two handed nature of a bow and arrow.
A real world sport with growing popularity is that of Archery Tag. Think airball Paintball but with bows and blunted arrow tips. Players on each team fire a limited number of arrows at the opposing side in an effort to knock out the opposing players.
A multiplayer VR game can utilize archery to great effect as a satisfying way for players to battle against one another.
The most popular competitive multiplayer games mirror their 2D FPS counterparts, such as Pavlov VR and Onward. Or they take entirely new directions like the game Smashbox Arena which resembles dodgeball with physics based combat and locomotion.
Locomotion: Arms as wings.
While standing in room scale, a player can spread their arms wide like wings and begin to flap. With each flapping movement, their character will be propelled upwards and towards the direction they are pushing from. Similar to swimming, a player can flap their arms, or in game wings, to push themselves up and over obstacles.
Each moment a player is not flapping their wings, their character will succumb to gravity and fall.
A player will need to continually flap their arms in order to stay airborne. The tiring nature of flapping arms will keep most players grounded and only using their wings as a means to gain high ground advantage or dodge attacks.
While flying, the winged archer character can still use their bow.
The speed at which they will fall means there will only be time for 1 or 2 arrows to be fired before downward momentum causes the player to crash. Only the fastest of players will be able to fire 2 or more arrows will flying.
A player who masters the winged archer character could spend their time in air firing between wing strokes.
Constantly on the move and firing on their opponents from above, a well played flying archer can turn the tides of any battle.
As a balancing method, the winged archer would have little to no armor and low hitpoints.
From a story perspective this would be due to the light and nimble nature of the flying archer.
As a special attack, the flying archer could dive downwards for a direct melee hit.
This attack would obviously make the archer vulnerable once they landed, and a keen enemy could sidestep the attack in order to take out the archer while grounded.
The flying archer will not be playable by everyone.
For reasons of motion sickness, the flying motion of this character could be disorienting for many VR players, especially those who have yet to develop their VR legs.
Being in decent physical shape could be a great advantage with a flying archer character.
For those who wish to stay airborne and nimble, the flying archer would be a physically intense character to play. Most players would learn to use the flying locomotion sparingly in sprints. Flying towards better vantage points or for short aerial attack bursts would be common amongst flying archer players.
When full-body VR rigs come out, the Flying Archer character will remain viable.
Like most of the locomotion and combat methods in a VR MOBA, future innovations in VR will still allow for players to utilize these characters. By designing full body locomotion into a VR combat game, designers can future proof their VR game for any new hardware that might emerge.
If you liked this post, stay tuned for more combat and locomotion methods a VR MOBA can utilize in order to test assumptions and open the door for players of all styles to join in.
This is post 32 of my 90 day VR experiment. Join me here for a daily dose of virtual reality design, gameplay, speculation, and adventure.

