How would you improve the combat system?

Users who are viewing this thread

Scarf Ace

Sergeant Knight at Arms
Personally, I think the area in need of the most reworking is the shield department.

Currently they're strange metaphysical forcefields, at least in relation to melee weapons. Hold RMB to make it appear, let go and the forcefield is gone. In some situations this can be really damn weird, such as when you couch a lance and your character holds up his shield, but it's actually doing diddlysquat to protect you from melee attacks, most notably someone else's lance.
Ideally, a shield should always protect you from melee attacks, BUUUUT it should only protect what it visibly covers, in all dimensions. That means there shouldn't even be magical leg covering either.
Instead of blocking to create a forcefield of magical protection that prevents you yourself from attacking, blocks should be directional, in effect moving the shield to prioritise the defense of one part of the body over an other in a sort of stance-esque system:

Right block: "Default" stance. Your shield is held up front, Your left foot goes forward. If you have a kite shield your left leg should theoretically be somewhat protected this way.
Up block: Raise your shield, focusing the defense on your head. Look up to go full testudo mode..
Down: Hold the shield down to protect your legs.
Left: Hold your shield at your side, protecting the left part of the torso. Primarily useful against an enemy obsessed with getting around your left side.

Note that the stance changes are toggled, you click once and you stay in that specific stance, and you are always free to attack. The attack animations should be so that your shield movement is minimal - the obvious exception being left-to-right swings where your shield inevitably has to move far out of the way, unless the attack animation becomes more diagonal.

Initially this may sound like it would make shields overpowered because the other guy can keep attacking while his shield protects him, but remember the reduced coverage. Bypassing a shield would be far easier this way. A person who rushes up swinging willy-nilly and neglecting defense would be vulnerable anyone who can get around his sides, or even to a quick stab to the feet/face with a long weapon.
 
It's not an invisible force-field, it's just simulating the player's shield skill. (Character with better shield skill will catch arrows etc. better)

You already have multiple ways of getting past a shield, for an example, stuns. In some situations you can also use kicks, a friendly horseman can trample over or bump your enemy, or you can just use an axe to break the shield in just a few hits.

Besides, in 1v1, shield actually brings me down because i can't use kicks as freely as without one. I can block for ages with or without a shield anyways, same goes for most top level players. The only thing shields are really needed is group fights and against ranged. Sure, anyone can back off until his shield breaks and that might piss off noob****s playing tdm, but bitcz pls.

Before you suggest against "force-field shields", make sure you know the game pls.
 
sotamursu123 said:
It's not an invisible force-field, it's just simulating the player's shield skill. (Character with better shield skill will catch arrows etc. better)
It doesn't matter what it represents, it means that your weapon is stopped by thin air.
You already have multiple ways of getting past a shield, for an example, stuns. In some situations you can also use kicks, a friendly horseman can trample over or bump your enemy, or you can just use an axe to break the shield in just a few hits.
Besides, in 1v1, shield actually brings me down because i can't use kicks as freely as without one. I can block for ages with or without a shield anyways, same goes for most top level players. The only thing shields are really needed is group fights and against ranged. Sure, anyone can back off until his shield breaks and that might piss off noob****s playing tdm, but bitcz pls.
What are you talking about?
I know this is hard for close-minded competitive types to understand, but this thread was not a balance complaint or anything like that. This is about expanding upon one part of the combat system to make it more fun and believable. The Mount & Blade franchise doesn't revolve around your tiny little scene of people who take the multiplayer aspect waaaaaaaaaay too seriously.
Before you suggest against "force-field shields", make sure you know the game pls.
You press RMB, your front side as well as some parts that your shield does not physically cover gets protected. You let go, your shield will do absolutely nothing against weapons. It's not exactly hard to notice that there's a lot of room for improvement there.
 
Right. I'd add


Quick step. (quickly moving in a direction to avoid damage)
Run
Crash- When your bodies colide with another person, one of you is pushed over (or you both fall over) (whatever'd be more logical in the scenario)
When both players swing weapons at the same time and they collide a parry happens.
Those are the main things.

Oh and Characters can become tired , Foolhardy, frenzied, scarred and terrified.
Special skills too. One character might be able to cut of enemy heads and use them to upset the enemy. Another might be a field doctor who ensures the wounded don't die.

I'd also say that when you want to order troops around, you can do so as if you were in an rts. If your character can see your allies then you can select them and send them wherever you see.
 
Back
Top Bottom