06/04/2020 - Feedback Request - Creature Balance

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Originally Posted by thurgond

Tested today with a character that has basically starter combat skills.

With a running skill of 36 could not dodge most attacks so the easy spin around a critter seems mostly based on running skill rather than dodge skill. All characters started at 5 dodge but others had 60-100 running.

Fought a cat and 2 dogs in water. They did not hit back in the water, but did attach successfully after backing out of the water.

Was able to leave combat with a pit bull and run up a ramp. Did get hit a couple times then a couple misses in disengaging. The 1st time the dog camped the bottom of the ramp and the 2nd time it ran off. Guess this is part of the random response.

I like the new buttons for quarteriing dead critters. This would be a nice addition to the interface for interacting with other objects like bins and gates.

Fought an 0.8 power chicken. Almost one hit it. Saw some rookie small critters with 2 and 3 hp. I feel that the hp of small critters be boosted, probably back to about 75% of their old level. With damage in the 1-2 range, they are not a great danger to even a 40 hp new character. By taking more swings it would give a greater skill gain for new players.

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Yes I agree, things are much too easy to kill, something in the 30-50 range for most of the low end critters would mean people have something to practice combat on while being a low end newbie.

1-5 dmg seems fine too, you want them to be low dmg but being able to take a couple hits.

I think "everything" is "way" too easy to kill now.... while its nice to see small creatures/baby creatures, them having 2-5hp and being 1hit defeats the whole point of combat, to fight something, by making it just a 1hitable resource.

Its no longer combat at that point, its just a moving loot box that all you gotta do is walk up and 1hit... it feels bad.

Even being able to 3 hit deer or coyotes feels bad. If you want them to be easier than they used to be, you can reduce the damage ratios of them while keeping the health and armor ratios up.

Only reason I mentioned the Super Revs was to show they forced me to change my combat style, so far I haven't encountered any glitched revs, and so far I've found one Lesser Rev with all the rest being Rookies, and they basically ignore me unless I get right in their face.

Some smaller animals have problems tracking me when they go agro on me, lumps and bumps in the terrain seem to cause them to lose me.

Seen quite a few animals trying to deal with steep slopes, they get so far up after several minutes then give up, walk back down, turn around at the bottom and try to climb it again.

I think the animal "size" is all over the place atm, ran into a male black bear cub, thing was almost as big as the full grown female used to be.

Was doing a spot of experimenting in my tribe yesterday, I let my mule deer kill me over and over, was looking to see if I could still "Grow" their HP, that's when I noticed I was gaining dodge from just standing there, the simple fact it take so long to kill my nekid ass means I can get quite a bit of dodge for each death.

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Originally Posted by MrDDT

Question. I saw the increased damage on charged attacks. What is your view on how often this should be used, and it's strength compared to fast attacking?

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I honestly don't have a strong opinion about it. I was ready to remove charged attacks entirely and simplify melee combat to match what is done in Rust and similar games.

My overall goals are:

1) Make sure combat is simple, intuitive and easy enough for new players - so it should be close enough to standards set in other survival / sandbox games.

2) Add complexity for more active and seasoned players. This I am doing my best based entirely on feedback with things like Dodge, Parry and the current charged attacks.

What I don't want is the system to rely entirely on charged attacks as before.

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Originally Posted by Bejaymac

Some smaller animals have problems tracking me when they go agro on me, lumps and bumps in the terrain seem to cause them to lose me.

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I will have to try to see this for myself, but it sounds correct. Creatures should be affected by slopes and then lose aggro as they get out of range.

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I think the animal "size" is all over the place atm, ran into a male black bear cub, thing was almost as big as the full grown female used to be.

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I will check animal scales. I haven't adjusted those at all with these patches but I think many grow too big.

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I noticed I was gaining dodge from just standing there

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I've fixed the Dodge skill gain but haven't patched it yet. I'll patch it by tomorrow.

Thanks!

Note to everyone:

I am going to close the current threads and start two new threads, one for combat actions and another for creatures focusing on stat balance.

I'll do that later today.

Thanks for all the feedback!

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Originally Posted by Xsyon

I honestly don't have a strong opinion about it. I was ready to remove charged attacks entirely and simplify melee combat to match what is done in Rust and similar games.

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I'm all for removing charged attacks, however, PVP attacking and Parry. Will be the only loss here (but not really due to ping) as the short attacking speed will not be able to be parried by skill. It will be just straight up luck.

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Originally Posted by Xsyon

My overall goals are:

1) Make sure combat is simple, intuitive and easy enough for new players - so it should be close enough to standards set in other survival / sandbox games.

2) Add complexity for more active and seasoned players. This I am doing my best based entirely on feedback with things like Dodge, Parry and the current charged attacks.

What I don't want is the system to rely entirely on charged attacks as before.

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I'm very excited to see all the work you have done so far with dodge and parry. I think the next real steps are special attacks, ranged combat, and group/team healing/buff options.
I'm not sure how hard any of those are to code, but I think you have the core to most of it.
Like healing, it can't be too hard to change the code from food (or skill) effecting another player as you bandage them. It's the same function as "Heath Gain %" food.
This would allow for better group teaming on harder mutants. Teams are a lot of fun which also create activity.