I have to question several of the design decisions in the combat part of the game, but that is not to be dismissive, patronizing, or be-littling to Warhorse or all the minds who contributed to the system. As a “first draft” of a signature combat system for this studio, it is astoundingly good. The obvious goal of it is: make NPCs more than just meat bags which the player darts around chopping into little bits.
This motive is to be applauded. There IS NO SUCH THING as “artificial intelligence,” much less in a PC game, what we have are “computer opponents” and “Computer Opponent combat algorithms.” This means that, the system by which combat is implemented can have a tremendous impact on how well those non-thinking, non-knowing, non-aware, non-existent illusions of “entities” which are created by the meticulous orchestration of rendering, animations, and local value/function updates with each cycle of the app, seem to “perform” in combat. Ever since the early 1990s, the solution in many combat games with a human-scale perceptual framework has been to used turn-based combat. high-frequency user perception, appraisal and action–experiences which have become synonymous with “computer game” for a whole generation or two of gamers–a set of user experiences and responses we might call “Twitch Gaming,” were not much of an option until the later 1990s and even then, for games where roleplaying elements and stat/attribute based systems were sought, “Twithc gaming” formats didn’t offer many advantages. This has changed, or perhaps “is changing” and Warhorse are part of that very welcome and intriguing change. I applaud them for their innovation and ingenuity.
With all that said: Combat has a LOT of rough edges. To be fair, and more importantly, to not speak out my ass (or TRY not to anyway), I think that because the systems in the game are novel, one cannot get a “good read” on one’s own response to the system without (a) plenty of try and retry; and perhaps even a (b) step back and start over and try something different; if not © repeat A & B a couple times.
I say this because: in plays #1 and/or 2 (Normal mode and now deleted playline) as a completely brand new bow user toon, I fired probably 6 or 7 arrows per hare killed. In play #3 (also a Normal mode now deleted playline) I managed to kill ~110 hares and maybe 8 people with bow by firing around 450 arrows. A definite improvement! I don’t know what it was n Play #4 (a shelved hardcore I can still go back and finish but probably won’t) but I’m confident that now in Play #5 I’m doing a LOT better, more like 2.5 arrows to kill 1 hare on average. Partly this change in my user performance with the game system is that I am approaching the whole “rpg” part of it differently. Plays 1 through 4 were “sane normal, mostly in character Henry,” whereas Play #5 is “Psychopathic serial killer Henry” who literally did as much carnage in Skalitz before going to help Dad finish the sword as possible. I literally wanted to see just how much XP and skill/attribute gain one could milk out of Skalitz (as well as loot) if one threw all pretense at being a “normal henry” out the window. I literally picked EVERY herb, punched EVERY cow, stealth attacked/kidnapped/and repeatedly stealth attacked four or five innocents, and then stealth killed another 6 or 8, including 4 or 5 guards. I killed the Bailiff and the catchpole, I robbed probably 75% of what there was to rob. By the time I arrived in Rattay my toon looked like this:
Main: 7…Def: 0…Alch: 0.8
Str: 9+1…Wrf: 3…Drink: 4
Vit: 6+3…Axe: 0…Herb: 20
Spc: 3+1…Bow: 1…Horse: 0.6
Cha: 6…Mace: 1…Hunt: 0.0
Vis: 59…Pole: 1…Lock: 0.9
Cons: 55…Swrd: 2…Maint: 8
…Unarm: 3…Pick: 0.0
…Read: 0.0
Buffs: Padding; Resistance
Reputation: Rovna 0
Talmberg 50
Skalitz -100
I had a stack of probably 2500 or 3000 pounds of loot which I left in the trunk in the house (in order to be able to access it, I had to get passed the bandits on the way from Talmberg to Skalitz, grab that loot (without going anywhere NEAR by parents body and risking getting locked into Skalitz by some scripts, and then slow walk it to a storage container in the one of the buildings southeast of the castle in the valley; I went back and grabbed this a few days after getting active from Rattay and cashed it in with the blacksmith at the quarry for around 1500 or 2000 groschen worth of coin and goods, and that is even with the hardcore price adjust).
Which is to say: it is impossible to say with certainty whether my improved performance with the bow in play #5 version the first four is in fact because I have a better implicit understanding of how to play the game (better perception, appraisal and action with monitor, keyboard and mouse) or whether I’m finding it easier since my toon is considerably more powerful right out of the gates.