Wounds and death - visually

Combat system
#1

I didn’t see these in any topic so I’ll just blurt this out.

After looking at the combat footage, I have basically one thing to say - amazing. It feels real in a way I’ve never seen in a game before. Especially when the player takes a hit. A tiny reflection… the moves seems to be rather slow and deliberate, like sparring or a demonstration. Would it seem more real if sped up a bit?

And two minor ideas about damage visuals…

  1. If it’s going to take 10 hits for one part to go down, I’d like each hit to seem less fatal/incapacitating. When getting my kidney seemingly pierced, I’d like to be out, or at least noticeably wounded. When blood spurts from a cut in my enemy’s arm, I want to see him go down or at least be visibly wounded.

  2. It would be wonderful if a defeated enemy wasn’t always obviously dead and still when defeated; he could be lying or sitting on the ground bleeding and groaning instead. You can then choose to finish her off for the fuck of it, or walk way.

11 Likes
#2

I like the second suggestion, the combat you suggest seems like it would break any sense of realism in combat they would go for imho.

1 Like
#3

It was add a little work to designing the NPC behaviors but I do like your idea of mortally wounded foes being active. It may add to a morality scale in the background if you finish off enemies or show mercy. The greater or lower your reputation for morality may have subtle affects on NPC interactions. These are all just random thoughts on where this could go if implemented.

#4

I agree with number 2 where non-fatal but crippling wounds would leave the enemy on the ground alive. Gun did this I think, way back when, at which point you could then scalp them alive, for no reason whatsoever. Unless the screams made you happy. For game purposes they were still considered dead even if you left them, you would just see them aching on the ground until you went somewhere else where they died silently.
To expand on that the instant rag doll effect looks really silly. Even the canned death animations in Mount and Blade looks more natural after seeing the same ones hundreds of times in a row.

#5

wow. it’s been said a hundred times literally, even in the video it was mentioned. the combat hasn’t been tweaked. the opponent is tougher and you have god mode on to demonstrate various moves.

and this topic has been made already. you could have chosen any one of the topics discussion wounding, deaths, injury, or combat.

#6

wow. it’s been said a hundred times literally, even in the video it was mentioned. the combat hasn’t been tweaked. the opponent is tougher and you have god mode on to demonstrate various moves.

and this topic has been made already. you could have chosen any one of the topics discussion wounding, deaths, injury, or combat.

For your second point, I scrolled and scrolled and couldn’t see a topic that fit at all. Also goes for the auto-suggested topics when you post. As for your first, I’m well aware the combat animations, the visuals aso aren’t finished. That’s why I’m bothering with constructive criticism :wink:

Why the hostility?

#7

Its his or her ‘thing’, or so it seems. Ignoring Aristotle’s prime principle of rhetoric as well.

Still not wrong, such things have been suggested numerous times. Be kind and save such suggestions till testing or hell even something more solid is known about about the game. Right now there are only blog like videos and a pre-alpha proof of concept demo - which is nigh meaningless, just meant to get the general idea across.

I’m my humble opinion, in this phase of development, it is better to just let the developers work and best not badger them with wants and needs. May bring about discord in the vision of their game and undue changes - trying to please this or that client.

Of course, I could be wrong, it is merely a opinion.

#8

Fair enough. But I don’t agree, really. If Warhorse didn’t want opinions and discussions about their footage and progress so far in a constructive and polite way, with participants well aware of the current unfinished status of the game, I doubt they would host this forum.

I’m also quite confident this small reflection of mine (or any similar ones) will “sow discord in their vision” or cause undue changes. I do think they’ve shown their vision is strong enough for us not needing to tip-toe around it out of fear of disturbing it, as you put it. Quite frankly, I think it’s a rather weird view that the community and backers should refrain from sharing its thoughts and discuss the details of the game just because it’s in development. I’d say rather the opposite. :sunny:

#9

The second point is something I wish gamedevs will accept already… You have one moment the character alive and kicking ass with 1hp, then takes a small scratch and suddenly he is just a part of the “decorations”. And 99% of the games I know have that problem.
I really hope Warhorse will see your post…

#10

I think what “213” was trying to say is that the characters in the demo video, both player and NPC, were deliberately made much harder to kill so that we could see more combat in the video.

In other words, killing / incapacitating someone will NOT take that many hits in the finished game. I think the devs said 2 or 3 hits will probably decide most battles.

Personally, I think it sounds great. Combat will be dangerous and meaningful.

I also hope that even a single serious wound will have stiff penalties, similar to older Tom Clancy games. If you were shot once (and lucky enough to live) you were hopelessly crippled.

#11

Understandable, indeed perhaps even correct.

But I still feel this is like pestering a project architect by calling him in the middle of the night and demanding a window be put in just there - without ever having seen the house or having a clue about cohesive design for said house.

Not to mention said architect had already planned a window ‘just there’ and is annoyed at you in general, never mind you called in the middle of the night. Albeit extending this metaphor past its desirable life length, one would supposed they could discontinue the line or ignore it.

Perhaps I am just being contrary for the sake of being contrary.

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#12

The amount of health the NPCs and the player have is one thing, which we know won’t be the same as the game play video since they talked about it.
The instant transition from alive to completely rag doll limp dead is another, which the devs haven’t talked about and is typically left like that in most games, which I think makes it a valid concern to bring up since it can be very immersion breaking.

1 Like
#13

Well, there’s a reason why it worked there, you’ve always had numerouns teams to control and missions were about 1 hour long, usually shorter. Only being able to play your limping, slowass character with severe bruise on his leg would get very annoying very quickly.

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