Huge Combat Feedback thread
- Thread starter Phantasm
- Start date
I mostly read your post, may have missed some things due to how long it is, I will be sure to read through it properly and articulate my post more when I have the time.
I do agree that the movement needs to be fluid, currently when you hold a key down (I use sprint to dash) the character takes 2 steps and then pauses for less than a second. In my 400+ hours of playtime I've grown used to it, but I think a continuous movement like you suggested would be much better and allow for more control. I'd imagine that it would also make pulling off more complicated maneuvers easier.
If I recall correctly, the devs want to avoid artificial balancing as much as they can. One thing that could balance out light/heavy builds is that you make much less noise while moving around in lighter armor such as gambeson/leather as opposed to heavier armor such as plate, this could be very useful whenever stealth elements are added to the game. Right now if you don't want to be encumbered by wearing a full set of plate armor + chainmail + padding, you will need to invest in all 3 armor skills, there is only room for 5 total skills, so in the future the devs could add some new and interesting skills that would make players want to train those instead of mitigating encumbrance.
I don't really think armor is too advantageous if you have no encumbrance skills trained, you will be very slow to move, and your weapon swings will be slow unless it's a 2 handed weapon. There are also weapons such as the maul or polehammer that can defeat a full plated opponent with 2 well placed hits.
I agree with pretty much everything in your "General Combat Feedback" section besides feinting speed and a few other minor things. You can actually feint and even combo attacks really quickly if timed correctly, such as in this video (3:12). I've tried doing a fake overhead and then following up with a right-to-left swing and it's just as fast.
Everything in the "New Attacks" section would be great to see, especially running attacks and the Mordhau technique which I think will be in the game sooner or later, along with being able to use different pointy/blunt ends of other weapons such as polearms.
I'm not sure if the devs will go completely in depth with different stances and combat styles but I would love to see the character's general stance improve as more combat skills are trained.
I personally enjoy the current parrying/blocking system, I like having less keys to press which allows me to focus on combat more. I'm not sure how I feel about your suggestion, since it's well though out and does seem to expand on the combat and make it deeper, but it requires adding stuff to the HUD which I don't like, perhaps an exaggerated effect would be better but I'm not exactly sure.
Again, I'm not sure how I feel about the mouse changing when hovering over containers. On one hand it would make finding what to search less tedious, but on the other hand I actually enjoy being curios and clicking on everything that seems to be a drawer or a chest. However, I would love to see more drastic changes in the cursor to let you know you're out of range.
The entire inventory system will be getting a very big overhaul in the future, and I think it seems like an improvement and will be with-holding judgement until then. I see no harm in having the option to toggle between old and new.
Being able to move objects and bodies around easier would be a godsend.
Well, the dev tools in the Sui Generis alpha videos seems to be very user-friendly, although we haven't seen much of the engine yet. I think it's understandable that the devs aren't comfortable with giving out dev tools to everyone just yet, I think we will have to wait until at least Sui Generis is fully released. Modding could basically make the replay value of this game infinite. Hell, having just a custom dungeon maker would make the replay value infinite for me, but I think that's a little too much to expect from Exanima, especially since we're gonna be getting a fully fleshed out arena mode.
I think we would all love to have as many updates on the progress of Exanima as possible, but if the devs give insider forum access to everyone then I think they would be going back on their promise in the kickstarter (One of the perks was access to an insider forum).
Something like an Exanima/SG subreddit would be nice, and more accessible too, but I think such things should wait until Exanima is fully released or at least until the devs start promoting it more.
I do agree that the movement needs to be fluid, currently when you hold a key down (I use sprint to dash) the character takes 2 steps and then pauses for less than a second. In my 400+ hours of playtime I've grown used to it, but I think a continuous movement like you suggested would be much better and allow for more control. I'd imagine that it would also make pulling off more complicated maneuvers easier.
If I recall correctly, the devs want to avoid artificial balancing as much as they can. One thing that could balance out light/heavy builds is that you make much less noise while moving around in lighter armor such as gambeson/leather as opposed to heavier armor such as plate, this could be very useful whenever stealth elements are added to the game. Right now if you don't want to be encumbered by wearing a full set of plate armor + chainmail + padding, you will need to invest in all 3 armor skills, there is only room for 5 total skills, so in the future the devs could add some new and interesting skills that would make players want to train those instead of mitigating encumbrance.
I don't really think armor is too advantageous if you have no encumbrance skills trained, you will be very slow to move, and your weapon swings will be slow unless it's a 2 handed weapon. There are also weapons such as the maul or polehammer that can defeat a full plated opponent with 2 well placed hits.
I agree with pretty much everything in your "General Combat Feedback" section besides feinting speed and a few other minor things. You can actually feint and even combo attacks really quickly if timed correctly, such as in this video (3:12). I've tried doing a fake overhead and then following up with a right-to-left swing and it's just as fast.
Everything in the "New Attacks" section would be great to see, especially running attacks and the Mordhau technique which I think will be in the game sooner or later, along with being able to use different pointy/blunt ends of other weapons such as polearms.
I'm not sure if the devs will go completely in depth with different stances and combat styles but I would love to see the character's general stance improve as more combat skills are trained.
I personally enjoy the current parrying/blocking system, I like having less keys to press which allows me to focus on combat more. I'm not sure how I feel about your suggestion, since it's well though out and does seem to expand on the combat and make it deeper, but it requires adding stuff to the HUD which I don't like, perhaps an exaggerated effect would be better but I'm not exactly sure.
Again, I'm not sure how I feel about the mouse changing when hovering over containers. On one hand it would make finding what to search less tedious, but on the other hand I actually enjoy being curios and clicking on everything that seems to be a drawer or a chest. However, I would love to see more drastic changes in the cursor to let you know you're out of range.
The entire inventory system will be getting a very big overhaul in the future, and I think it seems like an improvement and will be with-holding judgement until then. I see no harm in having the option to toggle between old and new.
Being able to move objects and bodies around easier would be a godsend.
Well, the dev tools in the Sui Generis alpha videos seems to be very user-friendly, although we haven't seen much of the engine yet. I think it's understandable that the devs aren't comfortable with giving out dev tools to everyone just yet, I think we will have to wait until at least Sui Generis is fully released. Modding could basically make the replay value of this game infinite. Hell, having just a custom dungeon maker would make the replay value infinite for me, but I think that's a little too much to expect from Exanima, especially since we're gonna be getting a fully fleshed out arena mode.
I think we would all love to have as many updates on the progress of Exanima as possible, but if the devs give insider forum access to everyone then I think they would be going back on their promise in the kickstarter (One of the perks was access to an insider forum).
Something like an Exanima/SG subreddit would be nice, and more accessible too, but I think such things should wait until Exanima is fully released or at least until the devs start promoting it more.
Chase
Insider
Stances are something that are being worked on, and may even make an appearance in the very next update. This will bring significant changes to the combat in general, so I would hold off on making suggestions until then. Shields are being worked on as well, with many new skills being implemented to improve the way your character uses their shield (protecting yourself while attacking is one these skills). However, Exanima's combat system was never intended to mimic reality, and while real world fighting styles work well for skeletal animation systems, it simply isn't that easy with the physics-based system BareMettle has created (I would say it's impossible, but maybe I'm just pessimistic).
Regarding armor not hindering movement with all three skills, I believe that Madoc wants to increase the encumbrance stats of plate armor.
The games current UI design is very minimalist, so I'm not sure how well a flashing, shape changing mouse cursor would fit. Pretty much every object in the game can be interacted with, so it would end up flashing and changing shape almost any time you moved the mouse (which, imo, would be very annoying and distracting). Same thing with containers; if it has drawers or other storage space, it can probably be interacted with. It's all very straightforward and I don't think it requires any kind of UI representation.
Left to right attacks can be kind of tricky at first, but they become very natural after some time--I personally don't see how a changing mouse cursor would help in that regard (also, the cursor would only change for a fraction of a second before you move your cursor back towards your target).
We can't really make any helpful suggestions about the new inventory until we see it, so I'll hold off commenting on that.
Modding support is something the devs want to do, but it's not easy. The community tools need to be simple and user friendly, and making them would take up a lot of dev time, so it's sort of been put off as an after-release feature if they have enough time and money (at least as far as I know).
The insider forum has been fairly quite as of recent months, and most if not all developments on Exanima are already open to the general public. For example, none of what I have said here is insider information, and the news about stances was taken from discussions on the lead devs publicly available Beam channel. That isn't to say the insider forum doesn't serve a purpose anymore, as I'm sure discussions will surge once Sui Generis enters it's Alpha and Beta stages. These discussions should not be made public because I, and many others, were promised insider access (it's called the insider forum for a reason lol) to new developments and information about Sui Generis, as well as a place to discuss said developments. Making the Insider forum public defeats the entire purpose of having it, and would upset a good number of BareMettle's original supporters. However, I would not be against allowing more recent fans to donate to BM in order to gain insider access, but I feel that many of them would be disappointed by the lack of secrets regarding Exanima and the current lack of any new Sui Generis info.
I disagree that opening the development process (for either Exanima or Sui Generis) to the general public would do any good for the devs or the discussion about the game. The vast majority of people would complain because X thing doesn't look finished, and the remainder would tell the devs things they already know or spam feature requests (again, maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but I think my point is clear). Hype prior to release does more harm than good, and isn't necessary as long as they have the funds to continue working on the game. I also remember Madoc saying something about wanting to hold off on any advertising or major popularization until further in development.
Regarding armor not hindering movement with all three skills, I believe that Madoc wants to increase the encumbrance stats of plate armor.
The games current UI design is very minimalist, so I'm not sure how well a flashing, shape changing mouse cursor would fit. Pretty much every object in the game can be interacted with, so it would end up flashing and changing shape almost any time you moved the mouse (which, imo, would be very annoying and distracting). Same thing with containers; if it has drawers or other storage space, it can probably be interacted with. It's all very straightforward and I don't think it requires any kind of UI representation.
Left to right attacks can be kind of tricky at first, but they become very natural after some time--I personally don't see how a changing mouse cursor would help in that regard (also, the cursor would only change for a fraction of a second before you move your cursor back towards your target).
We can't really make any helpful suggestions about the new inventory until we see it, so I'll hold off commenting on that.
Modding support is something the devs want to do, but it's not easy. The community tools need to be simple and user friendly, and making them would take up a lot of dev time, so it's sort of been put off as an after-release feature if they have enough time and money (at least as far as I know).
The insider forum has been fairly quite as of recent months, and most if not all developments on Exanima are already open to the general public. For example, none of what I have said here is insider information, and the news about stances was taken from discussions on the lead devs publicly available Beam channel. That isn't to say the insider forum doesn't serve a purpose anymore, as I'm sure discussions will surge once Sui Generis enters it's Alpha and Beta stages. These discussions should not be made public because I, and many others, were promised insider access (it's called the insider forum for a reason lol) to new developments and information about Sui Generis, as well as a place to discuss said developments. Making the Insider forum public defeats the entire purpose of having it, and would upset a good number of BareMettle's original supporters. However, I would not be against allowing more recent fans to donate to BM in order to gain insider access, but I feel that many of them would be disappointed by the lack of secrets regarding Exanima and the current lack of any new Sui Generis info.
I disagree that opening the development process (for either Exanima or Sui Generis) to the general public would do any good for the devs or the discussion about the game. The vast majority of people would complain because X thing doesn't look finished, and the remainder would tell the devs things they already know or spam feature requests (again, maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but I think my point is clear). Hype prior to release does more harm than good, and isn't necessary as long as they have the funds to continue working on the game. I also remember Madoc saying something about wanting to hold off on any advertising or major popularization until further in development.
lol textwalls
Roryn
Insider
Oh really? That's awesome, I hadn't heard about that. Is that insider information? If not, I'd really like to know where or on which thread you heard that on.
Chase
Insider
Roryn
Insider
Hahaha, right, I didn't have time to read the whole text wall
, thanks!
