![[BRE] Hildebrand](/data/avatars/m/33/33243.jpg?1701900377){kind=avatar}
I have been playing M&B for a while now and while I do like the game, I find certain features incredibly frustrating and somewhat unfinished. Here is the list of some of my complaints and a few ideas on how to improve things. It isn't my intention to bash the game or anything, jsut provide some constructive feedback. A lot of ideas listed here are connected and might not work as well on their own. I might add some more stuff, ideas from other people and edit the post to make it less messy, providing this thread doesn't get completely ignored.
EDIT: removed a few lines and underlined the problems (literally). Also underlined links;
BATTLE SYSTEM (mano a mano)
BLOCKING
SHIELDS
ARCHERY
POLEARMS, PIKES AND SPEARS (how to make a kebab)
HORSES AND HORSE COMBAT
MY SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FIGHTING SYSTEM:
BATTLE MAP AND MULTIPLAYER
COMMAND SYSTEM AND COMMAND STRUCTURE IN MULTIPLAYER
MULTIPLAYER
BETTER GAME MODES
INVENTORY AND ITEMS
PARTY AND CHARACTERS
WORLD MAP
Once again, you are welcome to post your own complaints and suggestions, i might add some.
EDIT: removed a few lines and underlined the problems (literally). Also underlined links;
BATTLE SYSTEM (mano a mano)
- fix weapon length: it's wrong; also some of the weapons are too short, you have to push into players to actually hit something, the biggest problem is with one handers on a horse, since the reach is extremely small; polearms could be a bit longer too;
- remove jumping: its unrealistic and looks dumb (when someone jumps through my lance, over my horses head and kills me I usually alt+x); there shouldnt be any maps that require jumping either, everything should be made accessable by walking or not at all;
- enemies circling around you: it looks stupid, results in a lot of team kills and is sometimes hard to follow due to the fighting systems mechanics(moving mosue to strike and block);
- weapons do inconsistant damage: sometimes you are killed in 1 hit by a weapon that usually takes several hits to kill - this is very bad because it makes armor useless; i think this is because of swinging and because the game adds bonus damage if the player is walking forward; this is very unfair, since it's near to impossible to predict when the opponent will change the direction due to bad animation;
- bonus weapon damage due to speed should only be added when or horseback, fighting vs horses (horses running into pikes and such) and while charging(check "my suggestions for the fighting system>charging"); that is, if I understand the problem above correctly;
- faster but shorter kick: kick should be used to push away enemies that are too close;
- instead of randomly crushing through blocks maces and such weapons could instead always do a smaller amount of damage through block (both with shield and without) and kill anyone with one hit if not blocked (still only top attack obviously); (this is to remove randomness; randomness is a bad thing in a competetive fighting system imo);
BLOCKING
- blocking system is sometimes unresponsive:sensitivity of a blocking system is weird, a lot of times blocks go in the wrong direction or just don't work at all;
- blocking forces you to look away from the opponent: this is especially annoying with the top block or when you cant follow a circling enemy with the mouse because you have to block his attack in other direction;
- instead of chosing direction and then pressing rmb, it would be the other way around; there would be an option in settings to draw a line that follows your mouse cursor when you press rmb; the same would be used for attacking; this would work exactly like mouse gestures in some browsers;
SHIELDS
- carrying 2 shields at once: there don't seem to be that many drawbacks, but mostly im bothered by the look of it;
- shield on back should protect from arrows and partially from melee attacks (attack could transform to bashing damage);
- some extremely strong attacks on shields could transform into damage (check "charging");
- shield should cover smaller area, to give lancers and archers a terget to aim for (considering aiming is harder);
- players should be able to carry only one shield(check "inventory and items");
ARCHERY
- archers are a bit overpowered;
- crossbows should reload slower: in rl it was supposedly about 2 shots a minute, I dont really want realism to destroy the gameplay, but a couple more seconds of realoding time wouldn't hurt;
- bows should do less damage to heavy armor; should fire slower (in real life about 6-12 shots a minute, in game its around 30 at the moment, I dont think it would be that bad if it was reduced to say 20 shots a minute(additional second to draw the arrow from the quiver
)); - bows and crossbows could be aimed in first person with no crosshair (but with better fps aim);
POLEARMS, PIKES AND SPEARS (how to make a kebab)
- a lot of polearms are too short: pikes should be much longer than lances and spears; spears should be longer than they are atm;
- weird thrust animation for 2-handed polearms: when someone attacks you with a pike it looks like it shot out of nowhere;
- pike mode: you could only use pike when deployed(x); it would act as a couched lance (extremely deadly for horses), but you could still attack with it(top and bottom thrust); with a deployed pike you'd walk slower and you couldn't aim it sideways as fast (this way a pikeman couldn't do a 360 and kill all the horses in vicinity);
- top thrust for spears: instead of the current swing attack you should be able to thrust a spear from above (would be useful for fallen horsemen and enemies on lower ground too); clip for reference;
- no sideways attack for polearms: there is already a big advantage in range, plus its easier on your teammates;
- new idle animation for polearms: the char should be holding his weapon vertically(looks nicer);
HORSES AND HORSE COMBAT
- weapon reach on horses is really bad: especially with one handed weapons (this is really annoying for infantry since they get bumped around by a horse until they get killed), horses are stopped way too often (friendly and enemy horsmen, friendly troops, empty horses, annoying obstacles)
- there is a large area directly in front of your horse that you can't cover with a lance: because of this the safest place to be when horse charges at you is, ironcally, directly in front of it; make this area smaller!; exhibits A and B;
- infantry gets knocked around too much: slight bumps at low speeds shouldn't affect infantry;
- empty horses should get off the battlefield: they are an obstacle to cavalry, they knock around infantry and they're hard to catch when you need one; the chance that you'll survive and catch one, once you've fallen of your horse is too slim to make up for the cons; in single player you should be able to f one of your cavalrymen to give you his horse (by that I mean press f and he gets off... the horse);
- louder horses (even Sam Fisher can't sneak up on you like that);
- friendly infantry shouldn't stop horses; (check "multiplayer" for teamdamage suggestion, wchich would make cavalry carfeul where they're riding);
- infantry should get knocked back a lot more when hit by a horse at full speed: enemy and FRIENDLY!;
- something should happen when horse hits another horse from the side;
- horses get stopped way too often
- lower maneuverability and slighty slower acceleration for horses; this way it would be less infantry harrassement (now you can charge a footman, stop a few meters behind him, turn very quickly and charge into his back - I almost feel sorry for the poor fella), it would probably also result in fewer "crashes" into friendly horsemen (fewer coming in the opposite direction and horse movement would be easier to anticipate);
- jousting and great lances should only be used couched; all other horse polearms should have smaller reach even when fully extended (for balance purposes; this way lances could only be used once every charge);
- possiblity of two lancers hitting eachother at the same time; hitting an opposing lancer in the shield(not raised) would do some bashing damage instead of ignoring it completely(this would make aiming more important);
- change of attack scheme on horse: instead of vertical and horizontal attacks you would use diagonal directions - top left and top right would be for attacking other horsemen, bottom left and right for infantry; bottom animations could be made to reach out more to eliminate the above mentioned problem; all attacks would stil act as left and right attacks and would be blocked by the same blocks, you would lose top attack (not that useful on a horse anyways) and thrust attack(collateral damage);
- more damage from falling off a horse (especially heavy armor); this would prevent you from buying heavy armor and cheap horses (tin can on a pony also looks unpresentable);
MY SUGGESTIONS FOR THE FIGHTING SYSTEM:
CHANGES TO MELEE
CHARGING (an idea that imo would make a neat addition to the fighting system)
- slower walking speed (mostly sideways, that includes diagonally); its incredibly annoying when people are making circles around you and causes problems with the blocking system;
- you couldn't block while attacking(only when releasing lmb): it would make swinging swords randomly more risky and chambering much deadlier, it would remove feinting during an attack though(a good thing imo, you could still do it without attacking);
- you cant move while attacking(same as above): this is mostly for the sake of realsim - you have to stand still and put your weight in a swing to make it count; (if you dont include slower walking speed, this would not work very well);
- fixed attack direction(after releasing lmb): you wouldnt be able to swing your weapon around you in a 360 circle; for the duration of the attack the camera would act like you pressed ~;
- sidejumps (not sure how this would work with the whole system): by pressing directional key and jump button the player would do a quick jump to the side or back to avoid a swing (jumping towards enemys swing could hurt you badly); it would have some cooldown time (a second or two); this would probably be really annoying for players with short range weapons;
- sprint button: due to lower walking speed it would be necessary (check "charging");
- pros: looks more realistic (imo at least), no more mad mouse swinging, no more crazy feinters, more tactical, chambering would be more useful and worth mastering;
- cons: no more feinting during an attack, might not work well in group battles(not sure), probably a lot I havent thought of yet;
CHARGING (an idea that imo would make a neat addition to the fighting system)
- assuming jump is removed, space key would be assigned for charging;
- it would be used as a sprint button (instead of the current sprint system); if you held it together with top attack it would trigger a charge; the player would start building speed (the more speed the more bonus damage on attack), if player released lmb during the peak of the charge (this would be at the end of the charge and would last for a very short time - a second maybe) he would do damage (not full but certain percentage) even through block(bashing for shield); this would require very good timing and judgement of distance;
- on horseback this would work the same (although it wouldn't be used for sprinting); the peak would be harder to anticipate due to bigger speed but would result in unhorsing if enemy was hit in the shield(anywhere when jousting), otherwise certain death; shielded infantry would get some bashing damage and a heavy knockback;
- horse speed when not charging would be slower than atm; in a tournament if you hit an opponent close enough to the peak of the charge, your lance would break;
- while charging, the maneuverability would be much lower (both on horses and on foot);
BATTLE MAP AND MULTIPLAYER
- bad AI in single player;
- limited tactical interface;
- soldiers running around by themselves;
- map size depending on size of the armies;
- soldiers in a group should fight together at all times (chasing lone soldiers across the battlefield is extremely annoying); if you order your infantry to attack enemy group, they only chase after soldiers of that group and attack everyone else only if they come near, but they shouldn't chase them;
- groups of soldiers should always allign themselves in 3 or 4 lines at the beginning of the battle, otherwise they spread over the whole map;
- climbing animation for siege ladders; tops of the ladders should be above enemy level so you wouldnt get hit while climbing it (just shot in the face by an arrow), like this;
COMMAND SYSTEM AND COMMAND STRUCTURE IN MULTIPLAYER
- better command system: you could do most of the commands with just one button(middle mouse button click for example); if you clicked on the ground, a group of soldiers you have selected would go there, if you clicked on an enemy, theyd attack everyone in that group; (check command system in Brothers in Arms, its simple and fast;
- command structure: general (the role would be offered to the best player in the team) would order the groups (cavalry, infantry, archers) around the same as in single player;
MULTIPLAYER
- amount of archers and cavalry should be limited(serverside option);
- most of the current game modes are outdated and have no objectives;
- game does not reward tactical play: needs more tactical play and should reward for it: points for kill assists, following commands, achieveing objectives;
- way too much teamkilling:
- archers: movement is hard to predict (slower walking speed), cant tell friend from foe(faction colors);
- tks due to group fighting: reasons same as above; this discourages tactical play;
- tks due to transparent ragdolls: often when the enemy dies and you're in a middle of a swing you'll accidentally end up killing your teammate; dead people should be solid!!!;
- tks due to circle banner blocking your view: rare but happens when in group;
- armor is somewhat useless: good armor is not worth buying (check line 4 in "battle system"), since there is a high chance u'll still die in one hit;
- too much time spent in the equipment menu: managing equipment is a bit annoying, since it takes some time to get the best equipment for your price (couple of seconds, but you have to do it a lot); the annoyance would be reduced with my suggestion of making armor one item and using only 3 equipment slots;
- if you hurt or killed teammates, some of your money should be subtracted and given to them;
- no more banner circles floating above head: it doesn't look that good, sometimes it's hard to see next to the background and it blocks your view when in group; banners should be shown on shields and surcoats and should be of the same colors in one faction;
BETTER GAME MODES
- sieges should progress in stages (about 4 stages - first you capture castle exterior, outer courtyard, inner courtyard and then the keep), instead of time limit it would be limited by respawns, attackers would have more than defenders; when a point was captured respawn points would reset for both teams (this would force attackers to progress and give defenders an option of tactical retreat); when the last cp is taken or either of the teams runs out of respawns, the battle is won; spawn points would obviously move with each capture; when a point would be captured it couldn't be taken back; points could only be captured in succession;
- tournament
- battle could be similar to siege with slight alterations: both start teams with the same amount of respawns, respawn points woldnt reset, capture points could be taken back; (this would give you a better objective than just eliminating the enemy team and make camping pointless, also you might notice its very similiar to battlefield );
- bigger and better maps with varied terrain (large fields for cavalry, woods and hills for infantry and archers); I also dont understand why there are so many maps with ruins; even if you ignore the irony of medieval ruins being in a medieval game, it still not exactly the most logical place to have a battle (not that I dont like the maps, I just find it weird);
INVENTORY AND ITEMS
- too much clutter and useless items;
- traders should sell only items of their faction;
- certain weapons shouldn't be available on horseback(2-handers mostly);
- no more balanced, cracked, crude, etc. equipment: there should be only 2 types - broken(dropped at the end of the battle) and normal(sold by traders); if an item is better, there should be a different model for it or at least a new texture;
- equipment specific slots: primary weapon, secondary weapon, shield and ranged ammo(arrows, bolts; thrown would go in weapon slot); this way you couldn't carry 2 shields and archers would actually run out of ammo sometimes; even better - join bow and arrows as one item and you can go down to 3 slots;
- all body armor (apart from the helmet) could be 1 item; this would reduce unnecessary clutter in inventory and speed up equipping process in sp and mp, some armor might look better if modelled as one; cons: less variety (some armor combinations look silly tho), fewer options when buying armor;
- bows and arrows and crossbows and bolts could also be 1 item; same reason as above and you could also get rid of one inventory slot;
- special items for lords and kings (crowned helmets, better armor and weapons); they could give bonuses to reknown and such;
- traders inventory shouldn't be random; items should be available depending on buildings in cities and villages;
- colored lances; they look nice ;
- armor of one faction should have the same colors; it would make armies look nicer and your teammates more recognisable;
- banners of one faction should also have the same colors; banners should be specific for each faction(in multiplayer your banner could change color depending on what team youre in);
- maybe a bit unnecessary but ill still mention it: a few soldiers would have broken equipment after battle; it would get repaired by camping depending on your smithing skill; this way you would have an advantage over enemies that have just been in battle; deserters would always wear broken equipment;
- less is more, quality over quantity, crowded elevetor smells different to a midget (just checking if you're reading );
PARTY AND CHARACTERS
- party screen is tiresome to manage: equipping companions takes too long, upgrading troops one by one is annoying;
- recruit units instead of single troops: each unit would have 10 soldiers; they would level up together and their morale would be the same on the battlefield; they would still be commanded as a part of a group in battles, this would only make them much easier to manage in party screen and you could put same type of soldiers in two different groups; when some soldiers in the unit died you'd have to retrain the unit in a city or castle (with appropriate buildings);
- generals unit: this would be a group option that you could assign to a unit or a companion and they would automaticlly follow you around in battles;
- companions would give bonus morale to the group they were assigned to; if they would get killed they'd give negative morale; characters would act as sort of a minibosses in battle;
- more characters on the world map (maybe captains in other armies, that you could kill to lower their morale); new ones could be randomly generated;
- all characters can die (if you capture them you can execute them) and are replaced by others (this means all characters should be better equipped, to prevent them dying too often); characters can replace dead lords and ladies, kings or queens...
- when you gain a title (lord, king, ...) it should automaticly get added to your name;
- option for cavalry to dismount in party screen;
WORLD MAP
- fix dumb AI;
- better tournaments;
- lords should leave relatively empty garrisons whent they go on war campaigns;
- lords armies should be affected by their income;
- add ability to camp for AI parties;
- add roads;
- buildings: you should be able to build stuff that would actually matter (military buildings for recruiting higher level troops in castles, buildings for improving tax collection (so you dont have to do it manually) and happiness in cities, also a blacksmith for better items in shops, production buildings in villages);
- premade battle maps for certain areas (some bridges and borders between factions where armies tend to clash a lot); this way you could use advantage of a familiar terrain and have epic battles like the spartans at hells gate or... other ones, im sure theres plenty ;
Once again, you are welcome to post your own complaints and suggestions, i might add some.
