Hello!
I am here to share my thoughts after playing for a few weeks.
First of all great project, there are a lot of positive things to say. However, today I want to focus your attention to one of the weaker aspects of the combat system.
I am a veteran of many medieval combat games and full loot MMOs. Chivalry, For Honor, Mount and Blade, Life is Feudal, etc. I appreciate the work that went into the animations, which go a long way to make melee combat feel good, even though the underlying "game" is weak as piss. But every combat system has it's flaws, and not all of them are baked in to the point of resisting any further polish.
First, the stanced blocking system is dumb and arbitrary. It's so confusing to me why you track attack collisions so well, but went with such an arcadey defense system. Rather than enter a specific blocking stance, the weapon/shield should project a blocking hitbox in the desired direction. If I am being attacked from the right, and I block left, then turn 90 degrees to the right, it should block. Just about every game with a stanced blocking system works this way, and until it is fixed, combat will continue to feel so arcadey.
Weapons with similar attack animations for different stances further exacerbate the above issue. Players have come up with some creative mixups, such as performing a spin attack and striking from the top rather than the side, but this is due entirely to the arbitrary limitations of the current system, and is not a serious way to design gameplay.
Second, there is only one viable mixup, which essentially relies on your opponent's lapse in attention. One easy way other games have added extra layers of mind games is by allowing animation cancelling on mixup timings, as well as interrupt moves.
For example, let's suppose the current "parry" is actually a block with no additional properties, and to perform an actual parry one must input an attack just prior to being struck, which will then guarantee a light strike on success. The attacker, if performing a heavy swing, could then cancel it up to 400ms into the actual attack animation, either setting up a parry of their own on the incoming failed parry, or trading with an attack from another direction. Assuming the failed parry doesn't interrupt their swing (as it currently doesn't) they could potentially strike with a heavier blow, thus being rewarded for clever play.
The push move could be used to interrupt incoming attack animations, applying enough stunlock to confirm a light strike, but confirming a strike for your opponent instead on whiff. This adds another layer to the above mixup, where both participants can choose to utilize it instead of parrying, or in place of the feint punish, if the timing and distance permits it.
I wouldn't say implementing both of these will suddenly make the gameplay "good", but it will be a massive step forward out of the 90s.
Additional things I would change:
Top attacks should be 200-300ms slower than side attacks for all weapons, but also hit 10% harder. Little timing discrepancies like this go a long way towards improving the mind games in a fight.
Fast flow to block stance straight after an attack with a two-hander should not be identical for each side. After a left strike, blocking right should be faster than blocking left. Same for top to bottom. This will create an additional layer of micro mastery for optimal levels of play.
Blocking with bow. Why is this not a thing? Sure, do a lot of damage to durability on softer materials, but you should be able to.
And yeah, the lance couching mechanic works like ass.
Anyway, that should be enough for now.
Feel free to correct me if I have bad info. Otherwise, have a great day and please consider my words.
I am here to share my thoughts after playing for a few weeks.
First of all great project, there are a lot of positive things to say. However, today I want to focus your attention to one of the weaker aspects of the combat system.
I am a veteran of many medieval combat games and full loot MMOs. Chivalry, For Honor, Mount and Blade, Life is Feudal, etc. I appreciate the work that went into the animations, which go a long way to make melee combat feel good, even though the underlying "game" is weak as piss. But every combat system has it's flaws, and not all of them are baked in to the point of resisting any further polish.
First, the stanced blocking system is dumb and arbitrary. It's so confusing to me why you track attack collisions so well, but went with such an arcadey defense system. Rather than enter a specific blocking stance, the weapon/shield should project a blocking hitbox in the desired direction. If I am being attacked from the right, and I block left, then turn 90 degrees to the right, it should block. Just about every game with a stanced blocking system works this way, and until it is fixed, combat will continue to feel so arcadey.
Weapons with similar attack animations for different stances further exacerbate the above issue. Players have come up with some creative mixups, such as performing a spin attack and striking from the top rather than the side, but this is due entirely to the arbitrary limitations of the current system, and is not a serious way to design gameplay.
Second, there is only one viable mixup, which essentially relies on your opponent's lapse in attention. One easy way other games have added extra layers of mind games is by allowing animation cancelling on mixup timings, as well as interrupt moves.
For example, let's suppose the current "parry" is actually a block with no additional properties, and to perform an actual parry one must input an attack just prior to being struck, which will then guarantee a light strike on success. The attacker, if performing a heavy swing, could then cancel it up to 400ms into the actual attack animation, either setting up a parry of their own on the incoming failed parry, or trading with an attack from another direction. Assuming the failed parry doesn't interrupt their swing (as it currently doesn't) they could potentially strike with a heavier blow, thus being rewarded for clever play.
The push move could be used to interrupt incoming attack animations, applying enough stunlock to confirm a light strike, but confirming a strike for your opponent instead on whiff. This adds another layer to the above mixup, where both participants can choose to utilize it instead of parrying, or in place of the feint punish, if the timing and distance permits it.
I wouldn't say implementing both of these will suddenly make the gameplay "good", but it will be a massive step forward out of the 90s.
Additional things I would change:
Top attacks should be 200-300ms slower than side attacks for all weapons, but also hit 10% harder. Little timing discrepancies like this go a long way towards improving the mind games in a fight.
Fast flow to block stance straight after an attack with a two-hander should not be identical for each side. After a left strike, blocking right should be faster than blocking left. Same for top to bottom. This will create an additional layer of micro mastery for optimal levels of play.
Blocking with bow. Why is this not a thing? Sure, do a lot of damage to durability on softer materials, but you should be able to.
And yeah, the lance couching mechanic works like ass.
Anyway, that should be enough for now.
Feel free to correct me if I have bad info. Otherwise, have a great day and please consider my words.
Last edited:
