Right now in this stage of the MO2 combat alpha, many players along with Star Vault have ran into an issue with encouraging more offensive playstyles in the game. As it stands currently, there is no true method of being offensive considering using a fast enough weapon allows you to swing, parry, riposte, parry, riposte, etc.
Just from my experiences with duels.. Here are a few suggestions I'd recommend in order to raise the skill ceiling, and also allow players to become more aggressive.
1.) Lower the block / parry radius. Now this doesn't mean drastically reduce it, but tweak it ever so lightly down. Because as it stands - a very good player will never get hit by an attack unless his opponent forces his animations to be unreadable and or quick enough to get a strike in. (i.e. Jumping, looking up in the air, starting the swing with your back to them, etc.) But even then, the combat is slow enough to an extent that good players will still block these kinds of attacks. I definitely feel the block / parry radius is way larger than it needs to be. Fine tune it down.
2.) This is a coming change, but remove the swing release delay or make it absolutely unnoticeable if you plan on keeping it. All it does is slow combat down and make it feel clunky.
3.) Reduce the time a parry / block can be held before it is no longer counted as a parry. This currently promotes a SUPER defensive playstyle as the parry timer seems to last FOREVER. People need to keep their parry 'refreshed' consistently, rather than just doing it every 3-4 seconds. It should be more reaction based.
4.) Currently blocking of any kind only takes 11 stamina. It doesn't matter if you're using a 10+ Kg weapon, a dagger that weighs .7, or just using your fists. This amount of stamina is probably okay in the long term, but this number could potentially see tweaks. But for now - lets look at point 5 for the bigger problem (In my eyes).
5.) You can parry / block and move without any penalty to your stamina what so ever. As far as I can tell, your stamina does not regenerate any slower and doesn't go down whilst you have a block held and are moving. This feels great, but it also promotes way longer fights and people turtling up. This good use some tweaking in my eyes.
6.) Blunt weapons currently feel like they don't do much considering they don't chip through parries. Now let me make something VERY CLEAR. The Mortal Online Community DOES NOT want to see a future where Mounteds ride around uncontested swinging heavy, two handed blunt weapons that continually chip through parries for 15-20 damage every hit. This is NOT skill based in the slightest. Now, would that be fine on foot? Sure. Give blunt weapons that advantage on foot, not on horseback (And don't let massive, heavy two handers be used on Horseback to begin with.)
Now these ideas are all keeping in mind the way the current combat works, but no new / experimental ideas coming into play.
But I did have ONE new EXPERIMENTAL idea.
You guys know how pushing / shield bashing seems useless? Aside from pushing people around to grief, or getting that lucky shield bash to throw someone off a ledge? Pushing and shield bashing always has seemed POINTLESS in MO1 and now MO2 because of it's lack of true impact on the game outside one-off scenarios. So I propose a potential experimental change.
1.) Shoving (Pushing) and Shield Bashing should now break someone's parry / block. Now by break.. I mean this. It can go a few different ways, so here are some potential suggestions to how this could operate in-game.
A.) When shoving a player who is blocking, they are locked out of doing ANY KIND of blocking / parrying for 1.5-1.6 seconds (Number should be fine tuned and tested). This allows people who turtle up, to be attacked for constantly parrying / blocking. This also gives players who wish to be offensive a method of getting in and getting an attack off. This also allows mix-ups in the gameplay. I think doing this with a shield should incur an even LONGER lockout on being able to parry / block. Perhaps 2 seconds.
B.) The second variation of this idea would be a hybrid of 'Variation A' and of 'Variation C'. Basically, we follow the same principle that shoving / shield bashing would incur some kind of penalty of parrying / blocking, but instead of entirely locking the player out; it cancels their parry / block that is held; and they can go to place it back up - but now for that short amount of time all of their parries / blocks will only be counted as 'Blocked Damage'. Meaning the player gets no Riposte after parrying, and it allows the aggressive player to chip through the defensive players methods.
C.) The third variation of this idea would be the least game changing and intrusive (In my eyes). This would basically allow shoves and shield bashes to cancel other players held parries / blocks. Nothing more, nothing less. No penalty timer, no delay, no 'blocked damage' for a short period of time. All it does is cancel their held parry / block.
Now with these being kept in mind, I believe the 'shove / push' and the 'shield bash' would have to be put on an internal cooldown timer so they couldn't be spammed. What ever the 'shove / push' cooldown timer would be, the 'shield bash' would need to be double that. If I was to recommend some times, I'd say 6-7 seconds on the 'shove / push' cooldown timer, and 12-13 seconds on the 'shield bash' cooldown timer.
This would give more purpose to a seemingly not-so-used feature of the game into the combat, and it would allow players to mix-up their defensive and aggressive playstyles. This would also allow shield players / one handed users have more of an advantage instead of the game falling back into a two handed dominated meta. (Look at MO1 for examples.)
I'll leave a poll up specifically for the opinion on this experimental idea to see what you guys think. Feel free to toss in your own ideas and feedback so we can help Star Vault shape a well-balanced and fun game!
Just from my experiences with duels.. Here are a few suggestions I'd recommend in order to raise the skill ceiling, and also allow players to become more aggressive.
1.) Lower the block / parry radius. Now this doesn't mean drastically reduce it, but tweak it ever so lightly down. Because as it stands - a very good player will never get hit by an attack unless his opponent forces his animations to be unreadable and or quick enough to get a strike in. (i.e. Jumping, looking up in the air, starting the swing with your back to them, etc.) But even then, the combat is slow enough to an extent that good players will still block these kinds of attacks. I definitely feel the block / parry radius is way larger than it needs to be. Fine tune it down.
2.) This is a coming change, but remove the swing release delay or make it absolutely unnoticeable if you plan on keeping it. All it does is slow combat down and make it feel clunky.
3.) Reduce the time a parry / block can be held before it is no longer counted as a parry. This currently promotes a SUPER defensive playstyle as the parry timer seems to last FOREVER. People need to keep their parry 'refreshed' consistently, rather than just doing it every 3-4 seconds. It should be more reaction based.
4.) Currently blocking of any kind only takes 11 stamina. It doesn't matter if you're using a 10+ Kg weapon, a dagger that weighs .7, or just using your fists. This amount of stamina is probably okay in the long term, but this number could potentially see tweaks. But for now - lets look at point 5 for the bigger problem (In my eyes).
5.) You can parry / block and move without any penalty to your stamina what so ever. As far as I can tell, your stamina does not regenerate any slower and doesn't go down whilst you have a block held and are moving. This feels great, but it also promotes way longer fights and people turtling up. This good use some tweaking in my eyes.
6.) Blunt weapons currently feel like they don't do much considering they don't chip through parries. Now let me make something VERY CLEAR. The Mortal Online Community DOES NOT want to see a future where Mounteds ride around uncontested swinging heavy, two handed blunt weapons that continually chip through parries for 15-20 damage every hit. This is NOT skill based in the slightest. Now, would that be fine on foot? Sure. Give blunt weapons that advantage on foot, not on horseback (And don't let massive, heavy two handers be used on Horseback to begin with.)
Now these ideas are all keeping in mind the way the current combat works, but no new / experimental ideas coming into play.
But I did have ONE new EXPERIMENTAL idea.
You guys know how pushing / shield bashing seems useless? Aside from pushing people around to grief, or getting that lucky shield bash to throw someone off a ledge? Pushing and shield bashing always has seemed POINTLESS in MO1 and now MO2 because of it's lack of true impact on the game outside one-off scenarios. So I propose a potential experimental change.
1.) Shoving (Pushing) and Shield Bashing should now break someone's parry / block. Now by break.. I mean this. It can go a few different ways, so here are some potential suggestions to how this could operate in-game.
A.) When shoving a player who is blocking, they are locked out of doing ANY KIND of blocking / parrying for 1.5-1.6 seconds (Number should be fine tuned and tested). This allows people who turtle up, to be attacked for constantly parrying / blocking. This also gives players who wish to be offensive a method of getting in and getting an attack off. This also allows mix-ups in the gameplay. I think doing this with a shield should incur an even LONGER lockout on being able to parry / block. Perhaps 2 seconds.
B.) The second variation of this idea would be a hybrid of 'Variation A' and of 'Variation C'. Basically, we follow the same principle that shoving / shield bashing would incur some kind of penalty of parrying / blocking, but instead of entirely locking the player out; it cancels their parry / block that is held; and they can go to place it back up - but now for that short amount of time all of their parries / blocks will only be counted as 'Blocked Damage'. Meaning the player gets no Riposte after parrying, and it allows the aggressive player to chip through the defensive players methods.
C.) The third variation of this idea would be the least game changing and intrusive (In my eyes). This would basically allow shoves and shield bashes to cancel other players held parries / blocks. Nothing more, nothing less. No penalty timer, no delay, no 'blocked damage' for a short period of time. All it does is cancel their held parry / block.
Now with these being kept in mind, I believe the 'shove / push' and the 'shield bash' would have to be put on an internal cooldown timer so they couldn't be spammed. What ever the 'shove / push' cooldown timer would be, the 'shield bash' would need to be double that. If I was to recommend some times, I'd say 6-7 seconds on the 'shove / push' cooldown timer, and 12-13 seconds on the 'shield bash' cooldown timer.
This would give more purpose to a seemingly not-so-used feature of the game into the combat, and it would allow players to mix-up their defensive and aggressive playstyles. This would also allow shield players / one handed users have more of an advantage instead of the game falling back into a two handed dominated meta. (Look at MO1 for examples.)
I'll leave a poll up specifically for the opinion on this experimental idea to see what you guys think. Feel free to toss in your own ideas and feedback so we can help Star Vault shape a well-balanced and fun game!
