Originally Posted by
Drevar
Totally my opinion here, so bear that in mind.
People appear to be fighting FPS style, ie. running around like chickens with thier heads cut off so that the other person can't hit them and looking for an opening to strike. I'm suprised they aren't doing the annoying constant jumping made popular in Quake.
Super speedy combat is not really possible in an MMO where the server has to keep track of (in some cases literally) a billion other things while also trying to keep two opposing character positions and actions synched up. Things are happening here so fast that there is no way to ever get rid of the desynch; even if its not a true technical desynch where the server is actually skipping updating your position/status, but simply a visual desynch due to client side prediction. The situation might be better once multiple servers/CPUs are load balancing different aspects of the game. Even the M&B video up there looks a bit out of sync. Notice how many times the spear/polearm people swing when they are obviously out of range...on their screen they probaby see the person recording as actually being in range (or they just totally suck and don't have any feel for their weapon choice, LOL)
1. Movement speed in combat needs to be cut a good bit still. Jittering around all over the place doesn't look like any SCA battle I've ever seen. The M&B video above shows a good speed. I can actually track what is going on and its not just a blur of flesh colored blobs strafing in a circle spamming attack.
2. Swings and dodge/parry need to be slowed down or have some sort of recovery animation. When you swing a big-ass axe, once you are at the end of the swing arc the axe doesn't snap back into ready position instantly. Maybe some more balancing needs to be done on weapon swing speeds as well?
3. Weapon ranges need to match their visual representation in game. "Eh, close enough" just isn't going to cut it in the minds of most. I shouldn't be able to hit someone 2 meters away with a dagger on an overhand swing (unless its some kind of special lunge attack), nor should I have to get inside 1m to hit with a spear or long handled axe (again, unless its some sort of special attack where you strike with the butt end of the shaft for a stun effect or similar). The distance you can hit from should be discernable just by looking at your weapon's reach, not after 100s of swings to determine where the magic invisible hit-boxes actually are.
4. I'm not sure how to handle those of us who got a whole hell of a lot of levels (and thus HP) via maxing out multiple craft schools. If HP is further adjusted via combat skills, then those who mostly craft won't have a chance to defend themselves. Normally that would be logical, but in a game where we pay to be entertained rather than harrassed, it just won't fly. For that reason I do like long combat. It gives those who want to try to run a chance to run instead of the old system where someone who specialized in combat could one shot you with a preorder axe. Those who enjoy fighting can stick around and fight.
5. Energy consumption needs to be tied to weapon type (or individual weapon stats) and skills and stats. You should be able to flick a dagger around quickly and you would tire slowly, but each hit would do relatively little damage. A big axe, however would be much slower, consume more energy, and do significantly more damage.
6. Weapons (and armor) need a bit more individualism both as archetypes as well as each individual weapon. Daggers as a group might have a higher chance to crit, while axes have a higher crit mod (they don't crit more, just harder when they do). Individual weapons within the groups would have their own distinquishing characteristics, be it faster swing but less damage or higher crit chance but slow speed, etc. The only caveat to this is the time it would take to balance all this junk.
7. Please add the joypad code for the horseman lance attack *grin*
*edit to add*
What would people think if parry was reactive within a small forward arc? Meaning if a swing came within the effective protective arc, you would parry the attack. I believe right now you have to pretty much time your parry so that it hits their weapon for it to count.