06/11/2020 - Feedback Requests - Combat

[MrDDT]

This thread is for discussing current combat improvement suggestions.

Here is what I have so far from the other threads:

1) Adjust swing power. I did this already and could up the damage a bit more. However, the more I boost swing power damage, the more combat relies on charged attacks and again we get the problem that new players (and a lot of player in general) just are looking to click attack as they do in games they are familiar with.


2) Remove swing power / charged attacks.


3) Replace swing power attacks with special attacks from the action bar / hot key. These could be, for example, a slower attack that does double damage.

From my point of view, the charged attack vs the hot key power attack are very similar. The main differences would be how the action is initiated (through mouse action vs a key) and timing (charged attacks can be done at any time, a power attack should have a cool down like in other games).

I think like Static says, lets remove them. Add in special attacks. Special attacks to me are like:
"Power Attack" = +50% damage, cooldown 5s, uses 3x energy of a normal swing.
"Snare Attack" = Normal Damage, cooldown 30s, uses 5x energy of a normal swing. Gives debuff of -20% movement speed for 10s.
"Lunge Attack" = Normal Damage, cooldown 5s, uses 3x energy of a normal swing. +100% reach of attack.
"Bleed Attack" = Normal Damage, cooldown 15s, uses 5x energy of normal swing. +100% damage of the attack over 10s.
"Stunning Attack" = Normal Damage, cooldown 30s, uses 5x energy of normal swing. Gives debuff of stunned for 2s.

These are examples. You would be able to bind them to a hotbar/keyboard. You click the button and the next attack would add that stat/cost/effect to the attack.
You can even make it limited to some weapons over another. Like a Pick and Blade can do a bleed attack. Shovels/Axes/Clubs can do Stunning attacks. All weapons can do Power attack etc.

Here are things that I have worked on and plan to release as part of this patch series:

1) Artisan and Master weapons including bonuses based on specific weapon types such as critical strike and defense (parry) bonuses.

2) Ranged combat.

As usual, if you have a suggestion that is similar to something in another game, please list the game or games so that I can potentially check it out directly.

Note: If I missed anything, please post and I will add it to this top post.

Note: Please keep suggestions as concise as possible and the arguments to a minimum. It's taking me a long time to go through these threads (and suggestions) to pick out the actual suggestions.

Thanks!

Again as Static says, I do not feel like base damage on master/artisan should be increased. This would make balancing much harder.
As you stated here, I think adding properties that help combat would be better. Attack speed, reach, criticals, defenses, are all good options.

Ranged Combat is going to be major. Due to the fact that no animal in game has ranged skills/attacks, this will have to be fairly weak to start with I would expect.
Because this game doesn't have first person targeting options really. I think the best thing to do is simply make ranged combat pretty weak. Allow parry and dodge and blocking (if shields added) to be highly effective vs it. You would not be able to manually dodge attacks. (Sadly I don't see how you could not have it that way without first person, which I can not stress enough is not good for this game please do not force first person for people wanting to do archery)

Unlike Static I do not believe it's required to have a quiver slot, or a hot key to insta swap between weapons. This is not a fast first person shooter where you jump in the air whip out a bow, change to melee before you land and keep fighting.
Combat can be fun without the extra speed of pulling out weapons super fast to change them for exact needs of the second.
I think you can have arrows in your bags or bin, or make a new slot and it will all work. Yes the best would be a cool looking arrow slot. But its not "needed" per say.

[Static]

I think combat should be balanced to give the weakest person the largest chance, not give the strongest people a even bigger advantage.

Parry changes support this mentality by giving the defender the ability to hit recover the attacker to slow them down or give you a chance to make a action.

We shouldn't be making it easier for super strong aggressive people to kill weak people, we should be making it easier for weaker people to defend themselves from much stronger people, maybe not win, but being able to defend themselves or even hold them off if they had enough skill would be huge.

[Static]

Unlike Static I do not believe it's required to have a quiver slot, or a hot key to insta swap between weapons. This is not a fast first person shooter where you jump in the air whip out a bow, change to melee before you land and keep fighting.
Combat can be fun without the extra speed of pulling out weapons super fast to change them for exact needs of the second.
I think you can have arrows in your bags or bin, or make a new slot and it will all work. Yes the best would be a cool looking arrow slot. But its not "needed" per say.

Some kind of weapon swapping button IS 100% required if your going to have a ranged weapon.

The bullshit line about it "not being a first person shooter" is not addressing this core issue, theres no time in combat to open your inv and manually swap weapons.

"extra speed of pulling out weapons super fast to change them for exact needs of the second" Who is saying this aside of you? I don't mind if it takes a sec to do the swap, as long as you can still continue to move while doing it.

Ranged is not going to be anywhere near as powerful as you seem to think, since if the creature runs at you after the first arrow, than you have maybe another shot before it gets to you and at that point you need melee weapons.

Lets give another situation, your running after say a deer or a bear that has ran away from you, so you swap to your bow and give chase, hitting it with a arrow and it decides to turn around and fight you... if theres no swap button you could die very easily in this situation if the bear turns around and starts attacking you with your bow out.

Again you can't look at the bear and back up at the same time, the bear runs faster than you can walk backwards, so you can't just keep shooting.

You can't really sprint out of the way, turn around, shoot, than sprint away again, shoot again cuz it would burn out your stamina so quickly that you would get caught pretty dang quick due to lack of stamina.

Really the biggest thing that "i" see ranged combat being good for is mainly new players so they can join the hunt of larger "boss foes" without walking up right next to them into 1hit range. I don't think bows should do alot of damage, but I also think it should be boosted by dex just like str boosts weapon damage.