Combat "Discussion" - Dev Spotted

Well, player can do feints, but for AI it wouldn’t matter much. Parrying doesn’t rely on the direction of the strike, so feints would do nothing for AI.

Actually he does. If you hold block then some opponents strike around it (if they change guard before attacking). I seem to block more successfully if I only attempt to block while being attacked (not parry, as that fires off very infrequently for me - I’m “too quick” to block I think).

I do only seem to be able to hit using feints though, so I’m not sure how it is all supposed to tie together with combos etc as I still haven’t knowingly set one off.

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If you want to try combo, I have one tip for you:
Absolutely easiest combo to perform is “Pommel strike” - basically knockdown with pommel of your sword.
You start by stab, then you slash from right and then from bottom left - this is particulary easy because when you strike from right, your sword automatically ends up in bottom left position :slight_smile:
I have about 90% success rate with this combo, aswell as shield slam combo (same with shield) as they both start with stab, and its really trivial to pull these off. Combos starting with slash, especially slash on the head… they are pure random for me, most of the time they just won´t work. And combos from 4 strikes in row are from realm of dreams for me :smiley:

(I am sorry if I switched sides, not sure now :))

And this is why I like the combat system. Attacks are not in isolation, but transition you between guards just like in real life :smiley:

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Yeah, its really great isn´t it? :slight_smile: If only these combos were more reliable and had bigger effect than it feels they have currently :slight_smile:

Go to the 3:03:00 mark for the demo.

Damn… I used to really like M&B combat system… But I have to tell you that after KCD it just won´t ever feel the same. I mean, when I look at them just smashing weapons against each other in those constantly repeated overswinged blows, it makes me cringe. I am getting spoiled really fast :smiley:

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I want to share my opinion regarding lock to the opponent in combat. I play with mouse and keyboard and as long as I fight against one opponent (1v1) I like lock and I have no issue with it.

Problem starts with combat against multiple opponents. I see these problems:

  1. to get first lock to any opponent when no opponent is attacking me (eg. they attack my allies) – problem is that I want/need to get lock ASAP at opponent of my choose so I can attack any opponent immediately and effectively

  2. to cancel lock quickly when I want to disengage from current opponent and observe battlefield

Possible solution to this is that the lock will never be activated automatically but only by pressing some button. That means that I will aim with cursor to any person, press the button and lock will activate to that person. And once I press that button again the lock will be deactivated. So I can also fight multiple opponents without activating lock or I can activate lock to someone not attacking me yet and without me hitting him yet.

That’s my 2 groschen.

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Yeah, this is basically standart practice in meele combat games since Gothic 1 I think, so I see no reason why this wouldn´t work :slight_smile: Its usually on TAB (like WoW) or T key, of course customizable. For controlers, I think that LeftStick press is still unoccupied.

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Completely different game style (and I suspect they haven’t finished the collision models on their weapons fully yet) but m&B will also forever shine as the ARMY simulator, where as we are playing what is ultimately a sword and shield simulatorIts like comparing apples to cookies.

oh definitely, I do realize they are really entirely different games :slight_smile: And I honestly love M&B, but those animation seem just so “basic” in comparison :slight_smile: But I do realize that its combat system have completely different qualities - its competitive, its intuitive, and it is easy to control yet hard to master, so it does absolutely fantastic job at what it needs to do for this game.
KCD has absolutely completely different approach, I am just saying that its animations and style feels much more realistic and atmospheric.
Both games seem to be really good at what they want and need to do :slight_smile:

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Merci mon ami.

Hey again guys, this time I have question which only one of devs could maybe answer.

I was once again testing combos in arena, and I just found curious, very useful but unexpected behavior.
I was always able to perform combos starting with stab - pommel strike and shield slam, I can do them whenever I want. But I had really really huge issues with all the other combos, they all seemed to go off very randomly.
Well until now - I just found out, that when I try for example scarmaker - bottom left-stab-stab, it usually doesn´t work. But when I start with STAB and then go bottom left-stab-stab, it works in like 90% percent :slight_smile: So I tested further, and all other combos work when I start them with extra stab at the beginning of the sequence.
Can somebody answer me why is this? Or am I doing something wrong somewhere?
I challenge everyone else to try this and confirm if I am correct, but it works really reliably for me (with all weapons)

100% agree, I think these are the biggest issues of the combat, I wrote very similar post earlier in this thread. This also seems to be something that should be easily doable from technical perspective, so hopefuly the devs will think about it.

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The way to use combos that I came up with for myself is this - parry the enemie’s attack and then start your combo in the counter-attack.
By dodging you’re not guarasnted to have good starting attack though. Some attacks after dodging are easily blocked, like a guy with the shield will easily block your stab from the left after you dodge his swing.

The issue is that combos are totally useless at the moment,they have no practical benefit.
so don’t worry about learning them at the moment :slight_smile:

It would be way easier to pick the direction of my strike if I could simply move the camera normally in combat. Sure, with unrestricted motion I might end up looking a bit far to the left/right of the enemy when choosing to hit him from that side, but as long as he’s on my screen, that shouldn’t be any sort of problem.

The relationship between my limited mouse movement and the feedback I get from the “crosshair” feels very iffy and difficult. Doing away with the constraints would make direction easier to choose, provide much more control, and feel way more natural.

I don’t have much issues with fights, tried them only briefly at diplomat level and I guess AI of soldiers is better than AI of cumans. They usually hold sword on the right leaving their left side exposed. Another thing that’s quite easy to exploit is reaction to pain - enemies are not blocking or attacking, so it’s possible to spam attack at hit them three times before running out of stamina (to be fair, they can do the same and kill you in no time) Of course blocking and dealing with stamina requires little skill. Here are some records of my noobish fights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmU-TncH8M4
Anyways I like combat system except mysterious ways of triggering crimes (for pushing NPCs? hitting ally or NPC by accident even out of sight? killing guy who intended to give up? just fighting in populated places? putting on suspicious clothes as cuman chain mail to fight other cumans or bandits - mostly it’s not clear)
And by the way, I guess there’s no need to kill the annoying soldier in Samopše tavern, but there’s no audible clue that he got enough so I killed poor young guy not realizing that he stopped fight fast enough.

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Ok recently criticized some the needed intensity for fights after repeatedly fighting the archer/bandit duo up north as being too quiet as well as needing more audio/visual feedback of hits and who is around you. Just had my first tryout back at the training camp since a few updates ago and that felt more like what I was expecting and found the combat pretty fun and engaging -just need new keybinds -block is most instinctive human behaviour so we need it at our fingertips.

So while training my sword must have accidently hit a bystander and next thing I know -the entire camp is on me as a mob with an archer out front who just straight up thug plugged me at point blank -it was glorious. l just love this kind of emergent behaviour. My faith is also restored in this game and I can only say you guys are attempting innovative new sword game mechanics and on the way to calibrating it -expect a landslide of criticism!

Back to the player awareness of multiple attackers on side and rear, perhaps (short of a 3rd person mode) show the bloodied screen effect relative to a clock position -so if blood is at the left bottom of screen, that enemy or arrow came from the 7 oclock position. Just an idea - keep up the great work

PS: Please add more sound to walking in thick brush like twigs snapping and louder bushes. I was chasing a guy who ran from me in woods but couldn’t hear anything plus would be nice for hunting :slight_smile:

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Not sure bro. Scar-maker for example always work for me.(I never go with combos over 3 strikes though…but those work perfectly).
I think combos can only fail if your opponent dodges or parries or you click late or you run out of stamina (this one is hard to notice but according to my experience it exist) if you hit their block it seems to work mostly. What I’m not sure about is that if you hit them, combos can continue or not.

When you sprint you can control the looks freely and have a dot as a targeting mark place it on your target and that’s it. at least until they add a lock-switcher button or something.