Criticism of Melee Combat: Why Melee Combat Right Now isn't Skillful but relies on Tricking opponent to land a hit.... And why it's stupid.
For Melee combat, the skill ceiling right now is learning your parries, and then after that you are basically a average fighter. We could call a Average Player a 5 out of 10 for skill. Next step is learning Baits, Feints, Chip damage, and Stamina Control.... This alone will let you hit a player who doesn't know about this stuff. Your skill goes to a 9 out of 10 just from that. You might wonder but how am I a 9 out of 10 in skill already if this game is skillful? Well... Sit down and I'll tell you why.
Your next step in becoming a better Foot Fighter is where things get stupid, because the game lets you Block/Parry any attack that is a Thrust or Side Swing from literally any angle. So because of that the Skill involved in choosing where you want to hit your opponent doesn't exist. Instead to hit your opponent you need to learn how to Spin like a Damn Ballerina. Spin with a right attack, then switch to a left before it hits your opponent. The oldest trick in the book, likely won't work on anyone good anymore. But it would work if they couldn't parry every attack thrown from the left or right even when you aim at their feet. Next step is looking up in the sky like a moron and spinning with your weapon out while charging a overhead. To your opponent your weapon will look like it's moving in a strange way, making it hard to tell it's really a overhead... Works sometimes, and sometimes doesn't. Spears, Poleswords, Poleaxes can look like they are slashing right or left when you look in the air at a certain angle.. even though they are Stabbing.
And now all you can do is practice using these stupid tricks instead of skill to learn how to land a sneaky hit because your opponent is always parrying so this is the only way. Soon you will realize light weapons make your tricks easier to perform and so you might prefer them, or you might like longer weapons because you can bait opponent a tiny bit easier. But that's it, that's the skill ceiling in Mortal, Spinning and figuring out how to abuse the animations. You can even do a Sprinting Jump spin while charging left or right to try to hit opponent, or Jump away from their attacks. But that is really the limit of what this game offers for "Skillful Melee Combat"
So here is what Starvault can do to really make the game about Skill instead of Spinning.
Make it so a opponent needs to Parry/block each of opponents attacks that are aimed at different areas of your body. For example, If opponent is aiming at my feet with a Stab attack, but I can block my feet by guarding middle then I shouldn't be able to do that. Make it so there is 3 Parrying options against Thrust attacks, My Head, Body, And Feet. Do the same thing with attacks to the left or right with 3 spots to parry/block. And Take away parrying from the back entirely that shouldn't even be possible. And then we would have a system that resembles skillful combat.
Instead of tricking opponent with spins, you could engage in meaningful melee combat with normal feints and attack angles that keep you and your opponent on your feet, and if you can parry a hit but aim at feet you could probably get a hit, if they parried that, try aiming for head next, or sprint and parry and aim at their back. All kinds of options to mix things up there. It would be much better then the system we currently have.
For Melee combat, the skill ceiling right now is learning your parries, and then after that you are basically a average fighter. We could call a Average Player a 5 out of 10 for skill. Next step is learning Baits, Feints, Chip damage, and Stamina Control.... This alone will let you hit a player who doesn't know about this stuff. Your skill goes to a 9 out of 10 just from that. You might wonder but how am I a 9 out of 10 in skill already if this game is skillful? Well... Sit down and I'll tell you why.
Your next step in becoming a better Foot Fighter is where things get stupid, because the game lets you Block/Parry any attack that is a Thrust or Side Swing from literally any angle. So because of that the Skill involved in choosing where you want to hit your opponent doesn't exist. Instead to hit your opponent you need to learn how to Spin like a Damn Ballerina. Spin with a right attack, then switch to a left before it hits your opponent. The oldest trick in the book, likely won't work on anyone good anymore. But it would work if they couldn't parry every attack thrown from the left or right even when you aim at their feet. Next step is looking up in the sky like a moron and spinning with your weapon out while charging a overhead. To your opponent your weapon will look like it's moving in a strange way, making it hard to tell it's really a overhead... Works sometimes, and sometimes doesn't. Spears, Poleswords, Poleaxes can look like they are slashing right or left when you look in the air at a certain angle.. even though they are Stabbing.
And now all you can do is practice using these stupid tricks instead of skill to learn how to land a sneaky hit because your opponent is always parrying so this is the only way. Soon you will realize light weapons make your tricks easier to perform and so you might prefer them, or you might like longer weapons because you can bait opponent a tiny bit easier. But that's it, that's the skill ceiling in Mortal, Spinning and figuring out how to abuse the animations. You can even do a Sprinting Jump spin while charging left or right to try to hit opponent, or Jump away from their attacks. But that is really the limit of what this game offers for "Skillful Melee Combat"
So here is what Starvault can do to really make the game about Skill instead of Spinning.
Make it so a opponent needs to Parry/block each of opponents attacks that are aimed at different areas of your body. For example, If opponent is aiming at my feet with a Stab attack, but I can block my feet by guarding middle then I shouldn't be able to do that. Make it so there is 3 Parrying options against Thrust attacks, My Head, Body, And Feet. Do the same thing with attacks to the left or right with 3 spots to parry/block. And Take away parrying from the back entirely that shouldn't even be possible. And then we would have a system that resembles skillful combat.
Instead of tricking opponent with spins, you could engage in meaningful melee combat with normal feints and attack angles that keep you and your opponent on your feet, and if you can parry a hit but aim at feet you could probably get a hit, if they parried that, try aiming for head next, or sprint and parry and aim at their back. All kinds of options to mix things up there. It would be much better then the system we currently have.
