First off let start off by saying I’m extremely excited for this game. I have been waiting for a game of this type to happen for a long time. I was pretty disappointed that the game was delayed however I hope they use this time to fix their slow and boring combat. This game has so much potential but I know for a fact this combat will really hurt the game. I understand their vision to be authentic as possible. I just don’t think sword fights were ever this slow. Even if they were its way too uninteresting. I would love to feel like a Powerhouse on the battlefield, I am not talking about being able to cut down a guy in one hit. No I my opponents to be similarly powerful. Hopefully they use this time wisely to make the game as fun as possible. I can’t wait to storm a castle and charge a field.
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I thought this too at first but have changed my views on it. I feel it’s very authentic and challenging. I think they need to work on it some i.e. I have hard time switching between targets, hard time lining up my sword direction, etc. but overall a great base.
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Yes I’ve spent a lot of time in combat and it is fun once you get into it.
But I also see the point that often combatant just wait and regenerate and that it takes a bit too long and there is a lot of waiting in duels.
I like how it’s done in general and I don’t even have problems with switching targets. But I would be glad for some tweaks like smooth camera - it doesn’t need to follow every centimeter that enemy moves. Especially when he moves rather randomly and the camera is then jittering too. Which is somehow connected to what is, in my opinion, the biggest weakness. The animation transition. Opponent changing stances and direction doesn’t feel good at all. And that is really important thing in combat - to read your opponent’s movement.
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HEMA with unarmoured fighting styles (which are the broad basis for the armoured combat in game (and SCA ‘sport’ combat)) supports a punctuated combat - pauses of varying length before an onset, handwork in the bind and a disengagement while cutting away (if the opponent is good enough to have prevented you from successfully landing an effective strike or disarming/grounding him during the onset and in the first moves from the bind, staying close for too long is asking for trouble).
This isn’t dictated by stamina however, but is more about the increasing difficulty of continuing to deny opportunities to an opponent who is better than you would like them to be, and it is safer to start again from a wide measure than to continue from a neutral or losing position.
Armoured combat is different in the real world from the game combat, which is based on SCA/unarmoured HEMA styles. The techniques used against armour favour more grappling/disarms, a short point and hilt work from half-swording used to find gaps or to stun/disarm and importantly utilise a predominantly leading left foot, rather than the passing foot work of a longsword style, the leading right foot of sidesword styles and a leading left foot with some passing steps of shield and sword (all with some exceptions).
Swords are too light and hilt balanced to really be effective against armour in cuts or thrusts unless the point is threaded into gaps, which the half swording aids, and the flexibility of the blade hinders penetrating gambeson or maille (and utterly defeats penetration of hard plate armours such as brigandine or white harness - only by going to the large ‘gaps’ covered by flexible armours or in the visor can these be defeated by a sword blade) - the use of the leading hand on the blade shortens the effective blade length and provides a much stiffer thrust against the flexible armours and a more easily guided point for the attack of narrow breaths or lights…
Here’s a video of a real long sword fight.
If you compare to the games combat it’s quite similiar.
But it also represents a formalised style of unarmoured fighting. It also may go on longer partly because a lethal hit on an early exchange is only recorded as ‘some points’. Because it is still a points game, there is a bit more pressing advantage than you would see if being hit had a high expectation of serious injury or death.
Harness fighting (or even fighting in helmet & gauntlet with a thick(er) gambeson (which will stop serious cuts from most hews even if the blade is sharp)). requires a different fighting style, and may include more techniques which are not permitted even in the comparatively free-form HEMA world.
Aye that is true.
God yes, I am always mistaking a change in stance as a swing, and am missing a huge majority of chances to block attacks. They need to smooth out the animations or somehow change hem to give the player a more obvious visual cue that an opponent is swinging his weapon at me and not just changing his stance.
That is one of the reasons to change stance in HEMA. It confuses the opponent about whether you are making an attack or merely switching guards. There should be nothing significant that telegraphs the start of an actual attack.
Even more fun is failing an attack to cause your opponent to parry in the direction that the actual attack won’t be coming from. Without the feeling from a landed parry it takes a lot longer to react to the change of line. Also fun games with pulling or doubling on a single attack line to catch an opponent when they make a successful parry and still get struck from the same line.
I saw some footage on a site where combat was faster and looked to be better paced…sorry can’t seem to remember the site.
Slow and boring combat? I’ve got to say that I think you’re nuts buddy. The combat is fast and interesting - too fast I would say, but then that is what makes it so difficult in the heat of the moment. Desperately trying to fend off a flurry in a series of just-in-time blocks is such a thrill.
100% agree with you animations needs to looks more natural and that locking system should be less rigid