Frustating experience

[Viik]

Playing beta for two days.
I must admit developers did a great job, all this new animations are awesome. It looks and feels much better.

On contrary side in single player game you have a kind of learning curve, so as you learn to fight better you see results of this.
Right now, playing in total about 4-6 hours (yes, i do realease it's not much) I hardly can understand what I should be learning to achive better results. It's more or less clear with bow and crossbows, but melee weapons... One time you end game in a top score, than you at bottom, basically doing the same things. What I didn't liked is that people using a lot shotcomings of certaine weapons, like pikes that for some reason can be swinged faster than sword  To my mind it says that winning is not about technique or reaction but about picking certaine gear.
Strange experience, from the beginning it's fun, but at some point you stop understanding how you actually should fight. Being a cavalry horseman looks like the most pointless role, they are least capable fighting infantry 

 

[Sir Pwn-A-Lot]

Playing beta for two days.
I must admit developers did a great job, all this new animations are awesome. It looks and feels much better.

On contrary side in single player game you have a kind of learning curve, so as you learn to fight better you see results of this.
Right now, playing in total about 4-6 hours (yes, i do realease it's not much) I hardly can understand what I should be learning to achive better results. It's more or less clear with bow and crossbows, but melee weapons... One time you end game in a top score, than you at bottom, basically doing the same things. What I didn't liked is that people using a lot shotcomings of certaine weapons, like pikes that for some reason can be swinged faster than sword  To my mind it says that winning is not about technique or reaction but about picking certaine gear.
Strange experience, from the beginning it's fun, but at some point you stop understanding how you actually should fight. Being a cavalry horseman looks like the most pointless role, they are least capable fighting infantry 

New patch added a lot of new weapons in multiplayer, and they're not balanced at all yet. And there are still some issues with some weapons from previous builds, but hey, it's beta after all. If you have some suggestions about weapon balancing and stuff you should check out Beta forum here.

 

[Qwertyman]

as Sir Pwn-a-lot says-  the xmas patch threw in a lot of untested and new weapons that are for the most part very spammable and very very powefull, so dont worry thing will be sorted soon.

the game can be intimidating for new players- it took me a good 4-5 round of battle before i even scored my first kill.

tips for new players:  practice your 1v1 fighting skills on a duel server, or just your general fighting skills in a deathmatch or team deathmatch,  then get into a seige or battle server,  learn to fight in a group, stick together with infantry,  flank and manouver with cavalry and support the frontlines with ranged troops.

I mainy use infantry and xbows-

as infantry- stick with teammates, this is a must-  allways watch your back for lancers, and watch the distance for archers or xbows.  in a straight fight with another infantry player, its all in the footwork-  move back as they strike, and move in as you strike-  try to guess their next move,  if they go for an overhead you can just stab them in the gut unless they are using a really fast weapon.

as an xbowman-  dont be scared to get in close-  the xbow troops are reasonably good in melee too,  most of the time you wont be doing much by sniping-  keep at medium range, move with the main group, let the infantry charge whilst you hang back and give supporting fire.

 

[Adorno]

... One time you end game in a top score, than you at bottom, basically doing the same things.

I like how varied the gameplay is and how you can't rely on one technique only.
It very much depends on the opponents, and battles can be very different from each other,
even with the same players. That's a strong side of this multiplayer experience.

 

[HTAPAWASO]

... One time you end game in a top score, than you at bottom, basically doing the same things.

I like how varied the gameplay is and how you can't rely on one technique only.
It very much depends on the opponents, and battles can be very different from each other,
even with the same players. That's a strong side of this multiplayer experience.

Too true.

Knowing your opponents is absolutely crucial... learn to recognise their faces, what works against them and what doesn't. People have very different methods of fighting.

And that's the best thing about the game, a good player can have a unique technique and an unusual weapon and still destroy you.

As said above, the last patch was put our hurriedly as a Christmas present, it hasn't been balanced well yet.

 

[kingofnoobia]

The very first thing that happened to me when I got Warband: I install the game, very enthousiastic, I join the first server with reasonable ping I see, I spawn as an infantryman and... I catch a lance in the face . It was less than a second after I spawned .

Anyway, multiplayer is quite intimidating. This is a game that doesn't look or feel like any other game. If you are good at one shooter, you will usually be at least reasonable at another one, once you get used to the weapons etc. In this game, when you just join, you're a raw recruit. Even experience with native won't help you too much, the feel has changed a lot. Someone with a month of experience has a huge advantage, on all terrains.

And as Adorno said, this game is very variable. You can excel and dominate a specific situation, only to find yourself getting butchered in another.

 

[Archonsod]

Or just run forward and spam left click. Since the new patch I'm back to getting 50/50 kills in melee with this technique. In fact, if I get Rhodock I may as well not bother buying the crossbow anymore

 

[inox_ionizer]

Or just run forward and spam left click. Since the new patch I'm back to getting 50/50 kills in melee with this technique. In fact, if I get Rhodock I may as well not bother buying the crossbow anymore

I tried something similar. Unbound kick and block, and just ran around with a 2-hander, spinning and spamming. Good results.

 

[eric virgo]

ΟΗ ΜΑΝ I thought I was good at this.

I just played a few multiplayer games and I got my arse handed to me big time!
Allow me a short review..

Is everyone on speed there????
What the hell is going on? People glide all over the place, the horses are faster than bullets, enemies with large axes kill you just by looking at you, 9 out of 10 of my attacks hit nothing.. it's chaotic.
What 'level' are our characters supposed to be anyway? I mean it looks like everyone has an athletics skill of 10!

Is there a less sped up server or something? It reminds me of CS with swords... rather than.. you know.. mount and blade. Maybe I am just too old for this.
Either that or I have to wait for the full version that supports LAN so I can kill my friends who are normal people with normal reflexes.

 

[Mudcrab]

Eric the speeds are way faster you are right.

Another thing is that some of us Beta testers have got rather good at the game, rather good indeed.

 

[HTAPAWASO]

ΟΗ ΜΑΝ I thought I was good at this.

I just played a few multiplayer games and I got my arse handed to me big time!
Allow me a short review..

Is everyone on speed there????
What the hell is going on? People glide all over the place, the horses are faster than bullets, enemies with large axes kill you just by looking at you, 9 out of 10 of my attacks hit nothing.. it's chaotic.
What 'level' are our characters supposed to be anyway? I mean it looks like everyone has an athletics skill of 10!

Is there a less sped up server or something? It reminds me of CS with swords... rather than.. you know.. mount and blade. Maybe I am just too old for this.
Either that or I have to wait for the full version that supports LAN so I can kill my friends who are normal people with normal reflexes.

The speeds of combat and movement change often - just about every patch has some sort of change to it. For the last couple of patches, swing speeds in particular have been very fast. There are a couple of threads in the beta forum suggesting to make it slower again (and I agree that it should be).

Also, there are admin settings to make the combat pace faster/slower (just like in 1.011, in the options menu. I always played with 'fast' so I was reasonably prepared for MP, but if you played on normal or slow I can imagine it's a huge change). Can't say I've ever played on a server where the settings have been changed though, so I don't know how much of a difference it makes.

 

[bees in pants]

The biggest thing is situational awareness. Stay with your team, watch your back and keep your shield up. New players should avoid 2-handers as spamming won't really get you very far and wildly swinging around a long axe will likely get you booted from the server after you kill all of your teammates. Try to pick your battles and don't be afraid to hold back and run back to your teammates if you think you're in trouble. i.e. you're an archer and there's a group of crazy Nords coming your way, or if you're cavalry and their archers or spearmen have spotted you. In both cases you should just hold back until the enemy is distracted.

But yeah, situational awareness. Everybody gets tunnel vision when they think they know where the enemy is, so you have to take advantage of that when you can and watch your back at all times. This game can be extremely unforgiving, but that's why I love it.

 

[eric virgo]

Eric the speeds are way faster you are right.

Another thing is that some of us Beta testers have got rather good at the game, rather good indeed.

Υeah how about you lot go outside for a while and let us casual gamers enjoy this damn game for a change?

See, I know I will eventually get better at this, I just don't know how!!!
I don't know what I am doing wrong to be honest.
I think I am TOO used to vanilla MnB animations to the point that I have to re-train my self to use the new animations as apparently they are timed differently than the vanilla ones.

And don't get me started with the horses aight? What do they feed those damn animals?

@HTAPAWASO

I guess you're right. MnB was always hard to tame anyway. Let's see...

 

[HTAPAWASO]

Eric the speeds are way faster you are right.

Another thing is that some of us Beta testers have got rather good at the game, rather good indeed.

Υeah how about you lot go outside for a while and let us casual gamers enjoy this damn game for a change?

See, I know I will eventually get better at this, I just don't know how!!!
I don't know what I am doing wrong to be honest.
I think I am TOO used to vanilla MnB animations to the point that I have to re-train my self to use the new animations as apparently they are timed differently than the vanilla ones.

And don't get me started with the horses aight? What do they feed those damn animals?

@HTAPAWASO

I guess you're right. MnB was always hard to tame anyway. Let's see...

Huh I played SP M&B for the first time in ages (at least 6 months) today... so difficult to adjust!

Dead right about the animations, I'd forgotten how much they'd changed.

But I definitely feel Warband is much smoother once you get used to it - I was constantly failing to shoot my crossbow because I clicked slightly too early, etc. etc. in SP. Couldn't do archery for the life of me either.

 

[Reapy]

Hey eric, I felt exactly the same way when I started. The animations seemed like lighting coming off vanilla into warband, and when I started, I don't think they were as fast as they are now.

This patch feels very 'off' compared to the past couple ones in term of pacing as well. There are also a lot more things going on under the hood in terms of stuns and different styles of blocks then are in vanilla. At the moment it seems as though we are in a flux trying to figure out how to balance things out as well.

I started out on cav since that worked best for me and that was what I was familiar with. Grab a lance and a fast horse and start poking people   From there I moved on to archery/xbow for a bit. This let me shoot at people from a distance so I could see how others were playing, and it gave me a bit of melee experience when people got close to me. Finally I started playing infantry since I had a good grasp of the pace of the game by then, and just over time you start to get a bit better.

It seems every patch though anything I got good at resets itself though. Eventually your brain will start to recognize the animations and you will get a feel for the timing. Players tend to be more predictable then AI most of the time anyway, though better ones will throw you for a loop.

I think the score board is still messed up so whatever is up on there isn't anywhere near correct (on the DM server at least). Also, your score depends on who is playing that round. You will get to know people's names, so you can tell if you are in for some hard work that round, or are in for a nice relaxing one block = a kill night.

 

[eric virgo]

I played another set of battles in the last couple of hours and I am pretty positive something is causing a response delay.
It happened almost all of the times. I have to release the mouse button a long time before I naturally feel like releasing it (depending on my distance/position to the target). It doesn't only feel too early... the effect of the attack happens after a short delay which, let me tell you wasn't the case with vanilla... of course.

I keep forgetting that **** and time my attacks when I am in the right position and guess what? It's already too late! I wish I liked playing in 3rd person to see how the animations look like and get a feel of them.

I am not very happy with how this game feels. It's kinda random which is good for a multiplayer game, as it makes for some interesting unpredictable battles but I am not having THAT much fun, I am ashamed to admit.