Dev Blog #5 Combat

[Molly]

Gief secret scholar pre-alpha!

No way to form a proper opinion without actually play testing it ourselves.
I go with ptx on this: interdasting.


Oh... replace question marks on the ground with cabbages for next video, please.

[Leshma]

If you're wondering what feels wrong about combat, it is goddamn gliding. Hopefully they'll give some attention to leg movement soon.

[pogosan]

[Utrakil]

she was talking about biweekly. so test maybe in 10 weeks plus the usual donkey delay.

[korppis]

I really don't like the sound of this.

Stamina to me has always been a big no no as it just restricts gameplay. It may work in a one on one where you can manage it but fighting multiple opponents for multiple minutes in a battle situation just sounds horrible.

The new stances sound terribly restrictive as well, you cant perform an attack if you don't have the correct stance, once again may be fine if your in a one on one but in a battle situation where things are constantly changing and your fighting multiple opponents at once, it doesn't sound viable.

It sounds like this combat is geared towards duelling type gameplay and not the hectic situations of a battle environment.

The reason m and b combat is so good is that it has a basic 4 directions that you start with, every new player knows these directions and can use them from the start, its a very easy idea to grasp. To make the combat more intuitive they didn't add a bunch of  gimmicks, they added functions on top of the 4 directions like chambering hilt slashing etc, but didn't mess with the core mechanics. That's why it was still  accessible for newcomers and engaging for veterans.

However your approach seems to be just adding loads of things on top of each other to try and create something new and intuitive and yet still easy to play. But to me it sounds like it will be the opposite.

I got the same initial impression as well. Stamina usually makes things worse, I'd understand it if it was just used to prevent endless spamming, but there are better ways to do that. And I fear this stamina system may have a huge effect on one-vs-many or even many-vs-many battles since there's one more factor to watch out for. Especially if it takes too long to regain that stamina. It may just add too much for complexity imho.

Stances.. I've kind of conflicted feelings about that. If it's designed to make life easier for newbies.. then it kinda makes sense. On the other hand, the beef in these kind of games is learning all about the combat and the freedom of attacks. Teaching newbies to lean on some helper stances just feels like a step back in long run. I didn't quite get it how to assign/change a stance so I'm also worried about accidently fuck up and get locked into one.

It's hard to say if these ideas feel right or wrong without trying them out. I'm a bit worried since it's a lot more complex than the initial ideas. Still, what matters most is that the combat itself is fluid and feels responsive.. even if it didn't offer anything new to warband's combat system.

[Panos_]

More stances mean more ways to kill Turks.

I LIKE.

[pogosan]

[Zeus_]

11:30 best part

[Jambi]

lol stamina and stances, rip in pieces.
Melee: Battlegrounds on ice.

[MacX85]

I'm a bit turned off by the idea of switching into combat mode in epic. Why not simply draw your weapon like in Warband?

[Sultan Eren]

That's "EPIC".

Edit
Suggestions for combat:
-Lots of blood
-Wounds
-Plate armor you cannot cut through etc

This is better than my expectations so good job guys.

Uh, wanna see horseback and shield combat too.

OMG 4:33 WATCH CLOSER

[MacX85]

Uh, wanna see horseback and shield combat too.

Yeah, I wonder how this stance system will translate into fighting with a shield. My guess is that it won't and it will just be the same as in Warband.

[Yeldur]

The game looks really nice, however, I am a bit worried about Stamina and Stances as I feel they may restrict the gameplay a bit too much. Other than that very impressed

[StonedSteel]

Stamina has been a game breaker for me in any Mount and Blade mod or medieval game, for various reasons, the most important being immersion. Having to constantly look over and see how much stamina you have left really breaks up the flow of combat, which is thee most important thing imo.

Mount and Blade offered players a semi realistic simulator for how medieval combat would have felt, and the adrenaline we get from playing is nothing compared to what the actual soldiers would have. There fore adding a stamina system completely defeats the purpose of what your game is trying to offer, a very niche experience to a very small player base worldwide.

We ( at least I ) didnt buy Warband for its rpg open world elements, and i certainly didnt buy it for its graphics, i bought it entirely for the combat system. Other games have tried, but Chiv and Wotr, dont even come close to that Warband feel. This may come as a terrible shock to some of you, but swords, shields, armor, etc, these are not nearly as heavy as games like Chiv and Wotr make them feel. And hopefully you arnt looking to attract those players. That would not be a good look.

You have a nice little player base already built up of people your game is perfect for, medieval enthusiasts!
Please dont turn us away with stamina systems and what not, we are talking about grown ass men, fit mutherfuckers well adjusted to the weight of their arms and armor.  YOU may not be able to swing a sword for 25 mins, i dont wanna play as you tbh, i wanna play as a knight, who totally could!

[MeevarTheMighty]

...
It sounds like this combat is geared towards duelling type gameplay and not the hectic situations of a battle environment.
...

I got the same initial impression as well.

Glad I'm not the only one immediately struck by how lame this sounds for any scenario with three or more players: both the stamina and the stance system.

Don't get me wrong, the system is impressive and I can see a lot of thought has gone into it, but I get the impression that the thought has been 100% looking at 1v1 situations. Maybe I've misunderstood, but if you have to change stance to parry every direction of attack and there's a delay to change stance, it only takes two people using different stances to easily destroy you with nothing you can do about it. In this light, it's easy to see how sprinting (to and from ganks), even if it restricts your viability in a 1v1, will be the main game here, not any sort of combat proficiency.

The stamina system also just generally rewards and excuses players for hanging back and cherry-picking (read: leeching, delaying) instead of participating, even if that's mitigated by basic combat not being slowed by low stamina. I have a similar concern about equipment breakage, which was mentioned in the video. It sounds like doing the right thing in combat still punishes you by slowly draining your stamina; will the same thing be true of equipment damage or will only incorrect actions damage equipment?

When you add ranged combat into the equation, if you get to a nest of archers, they will immediately disperse with sprint and shoot you from all directions. There's a good reason sprinting isn't in M&B. It just isn't a good feature for this sort of game.