Daimyo
Veteran
Hi, while this is my first post I'm lurking here from a while, and I'd wish to begin saying that's the first game I've actually *bought* after 10+ years (last one was Xcom- Terror from the deep), because IMO it deserves all the money it's worth (unlike actual big software-house crap-RPGs). This game is great, really, don't be fooled because this thread will focus on criticisms, that's because it's a suggestion post, not an enthusiastic review! 
As a sidenote, to better describe what I've experienced within the game, my hero is a lvl 25 squire, I use 2h axes, throwing weapons and xbow, and I fight both mounted and on foot. My Marnid/Borcha ar respectively a lvl 14 sword/shield fighter that throws axes, and a lvl 18 mounted archer with a 2h axe as backup. I've played also a lvl 6 archer (hunter), and lvl 10 mounted lance/sword+shield squire. Also PC =Playing Char, NPC =Non-playing char.
Let's see point by point what does not work:
Weapon skills: they actually give to little or even no benefit to PCs. While I've noticed substantial improvements in damage when increasing my power-strike from 1 to 5, and some improvements in swinging speed when increasing Agility, the difference between a 38 skill and my actual 200+ is pratically non-existant. NPC +do+ perform better on the battlefield with higher weapon skills (Marnid seems to be fight more smartly now), my damage is much, much more influenced by horse charge skill, weapon damage, power strike and (maybe?) strenght.
The only skill wich seems to have any actual usefulness is Archery.
Xbows: as above they do not gain anything with skill. The main problem, is that with 25 xbow skill, you aim fast and perfectly just like with 180 skill. In the beginning of the game with just 25 aiming crosshair (is the correct term?) closes completely to minimum, with 180 skill the only difference is that you do it 2/10th of a second faster (or maybe it's just because my Agi is higher?). This contrasts with archery that *does* gains benefits from higher skill, and makes xbow overkill in the beginning of the game, where you can just sit and slaughter hordes of slow-walking pirates climbing on horse when they're too near.
Also, I've noticed that shooting a too near target (expecially when you're on horseback), always misses him, because the arrow actually goes *through* him without dealing damage. I think it's a collision problem.
Mounted lance: as someone else already said, it's overkill. You can fight with a 2h weapon while on horseback and deal lots of damage, still you're never sure if you will kill your foe or not if he's armored, and hitting him is still somewhat difficult as he can parry you (and if he's an archer it's a very dangerous business). With a couched lance, he cannot parry, damage is over 100+ (ergo instant kill, always), it's easier to aim, and you can wield a shield while charging. Cheesy.
Swords: they are actually too similar to each other to have any real usefulness. I mean, what's the purpose of so many swords (nordic, arming, broad, long, falchion, scimitar, nomad...), if they all do the same damage? Why don't you make them more "personalized"? So maybe a falchion has a higher damage rate (let's say 32-33), but it's shorter range and slower speed is limiting, while a nomad sabre has even more speed with less damage. For example a 1h axe has no reason to exist: same damage as scimitar/nomad sabre, with shorter range and speed. At least give it a much longer range, better damage (30-31), and slower speed. This opens up choices.
Polearms: give it some more damage, they're too weak by now to have any usefulness. Also give them substantial edge against mounted foes (eg. damage bonuses, can't be parried, can be "planted on ground" to destroy a charge impaling horse and horseman, etc), actually that's the principal reason they were used on real battlefields.
Blunt weapons: as above. They do too little damage, and they're *way* too slow and short to be useful. Also 2h hammers weight a *ton* adding insult to injury, as you are also very encumbered when wielding a warhammer.
Pickaxes: what's their purpose? They're slow, do less damage than swords, have shorter range and can't even be used to capture prisoners.
Balanced vs Heavy: it's a good idea, but make the difference more noticeable. Actually it's just a +1 dmg +1 speed for balanced vs +2 damage for heavy, very little difference indeed. It would be nicer for example a +1 dmg +3 speed for balanced, vs +3 damage -2 speed for heavy. 5 speed points make a difference, just 1 doesn't make up for the additional +1 to damage.
Capture Prisoners: as someone said, useless skill, a nice idea I've read so far is that you sell prisoners 150 denars/Prisoner Managment skill. So a 5 skill is 7500 denars for 10 prisoners, wich is a good amount of money even later in the game.
Surgery: may it even give a chance to save horses from crippling, just like it saves people from dieing?
Thrown weapons: Npc with thrown weapons are idiots. I mean, throw weapons need no aiming reticle, they aim instantly. Why NPCs keep aiming for 10 seconds when throwing things? This make this kind of weapon crap when used by NPCs, while they're very useful when used by a PC. Seeing Marnid raising his throwing axe for 10 secs when an horseman is charging him is quite frustrating, btw.
Black armors: you did a GREAT job with armor apparel. They're really awesome, and as an historical weapon collectionist, I can add they have a distinct feeling of real armors, and that's awesome. But... Black armors are really silly. Chars wearing them seem funny drag queens playing badass in a LARP .Maybe it's the palette that's unbelievable as metal, or just the way they look, I dunno. But they kill game's atmosphere. Plate mails instead makes you feel much more *powerful*.
Purple padded coif: why it's purple? I mean all other padded coif you wear under many kinds of helmets, and even the padded coat are coloured with a very nice light-brown palette that feel "dirty and unclean". Why the coif is this silly *purple*?
Female mouths: why I can't change them? They look like horribly siliconed models, lol. Like playing a middle-aged game with baywatch pinups!
Chop-off body parts: I've read somewhere you already built a physics engine to calculate object rolling and applied it to shields. Why don't you use it for meat-chopping? It would be really *huge* when you deal a massive 60-90 damage to a feet or the head of a naked footman, to see his head rolling over. How many times you did a ton of damage with a huge 2h axe while mounted, and you hit your foe squarely in the head or (when he's uphill) in the lower leg, or his raised arm? Limiting chopping to huge damage single blows, will keep body parts scattered a limited amount, without weighting on slower systems.
Fall on back: all enemies dead fall backward. While a ragdoll physics is out of the way, I know, why don't make them die sometimes falling frontally? Just to avoid the silly show of 15 bandits looking at the sky like a New age picnic
I know that's long but I hope developers will spend a little time reading it
Thanks for your patience.
As a sidenote, to better describe what I've experienced within the game, my hero is a lvl 25 squire, I use 2h axes, throwing weapons and xbow, and I fight both mounted and on foot. My Marnid/Borcha ar respectively a lvl 14 sword/shield fighter that throws axes, and a lvl 18 mounted archer with a 2h axe as backup. I've played also a lvl 6 archer (hunter), and lvl 10 mounted lance/sword+shield squire. Also PC =Playing Char, NPC =Non-playing char.
Let's see point by point what does not work:
Weapon skills: they actually give to little or even no benefit to PCs. While I've noticed substantial improvements in damage when increasing my power-strike from 1 to 5, and some improvements in swinging speed when increasing Agility, the difference between a 38 skill and my actual 200+ is pratically non-existant. NPC +do+ perform better on the battlefield with higher weapon skills (Marnid seems to be fight more smartly now), my damage is much, much more influenced by horse charge skill, weapon damage, power strike and (maybe?) strenght.
The only skill wich seems to have any actual usefulness is Archery.
Xbows: as above they do not gain anything with skill. The main problem, is that with 25 xbow skill, you aim fast and perfectly just like with 180 skill. In the beginning of the game with just 25 aiming crosshair (is the correct term?) closes completely to minimum, with 180 skill the only difference is that you do it 2/10th of a second faster (or maybe it's just because my Agi is higher?). This contrasts with archery that *does* gains benefits from higher skill, and makes xbow overkill in the beginning of the game, where you can just sit and slaughter hordes of slow-walking pirates climbing on horse when they're too near.
Also, I've noticed that shooting a too near target (expecially when you're on horseback), always misses him, because the arrow actually goes *through* him without dealing damage. I think it's a collision problem.
Mounted lance: as someone else already said, it's overkill. You can fight with a 2h weapon while on horseback and deal lots of damage, still you're never sure if you will kill your foe or not if he's armored, and hitting him is still somewhat difficult as he can parry you (and if he's an archer it's a very dangerous business). With a couched lance, he cannot parry, damage is over 100+ (ergo instant kill, always), it's easier to aim, and you can wield a shield while charging. Cheesy.
Swords: they are actually too similar to each other to have any real usefulness. I mean, what's the purpose of so many swords (nordic, arming, broad, long, falchion, scimitar, nomad...), if they all do the same damage? Why don't you make them more "personalized"? So maybe a falchion has a higher damage rate (let's say 32-33), but it's shorter range and slower speed is limiting, while a nomad sabre has even more speed with less damage. For example a 1h axe has no reason to exist: same damage as scimitar/nomad sabre, with shorter range and speed. At least give it a much longer range, better damage (30-31), and slower speed. This opens up choices.
Polearms: give it some more damage, they're too weak by now to have any usefulness. Also give them substantial edge against mounted foes (eg. damage bonuses, can't be parried, can be "planted on ground" to destroy a charge impaling horse and horseman, etc), actually that's the principal reason they were used on real battlefields.
Blunt weapons: as above. They do too little damage, and they're *way* too slow and short to be useful. Also 2h hammers weight a *ton* adding insult to injury, as you are also very encumbered when wielding a warhammer.
Pickaxes: what's their purpose? They're slow, do less damage than swords, have shorter range and can't even be used to capture prisoners.
Balanced vs Heavy: it's a good idea, but make the difference more noticeable. Actually it's just a +1 dmg +1 speed for balanced vs +2 damage for heavy, very little difference indeed. It would be nicer for example a +1 dmg +3 speed for balanced, vs +3 damage -2 speed for heavy. 5 speed points make a difference, just 1 doesn't make up for the additional +1 to damage.
Capture Prisoners: as someone said, useless skill, a nice idea I've read so far is that you sell prisoners 150 denars/Prisoner Managment skill. So a 5 skill is 7500 denars for 10 prisoners, wich is a good amount of money even later in the game.
Surgery: may it even give a chance to save horses from crippling, just like it saves people from dieing?
Thrown weapons: Npc with thrown weapons are idiots. I mean, throw weapons need no aiming reticle, they aim instantly. Why NPCs keep aiming for 10 seconds when throwing things? This make this kind of weapon crap when used by NPCs, while they're very useful when used by a PC. Seeing Marnid raising his throwing axe for 10 secs when an horseman is charging him is quite frustrating, btw.
Black armors: you did a GREAT job with armor apparel. They're really awesome, and as an historical weapon collectionist, I can add they have a distinct feeling of real armors, and that's awesome. But... Black armors are really silly. Chars wearing them seem funny drag queens playing badass in a LARP
.Maybe it's the palette that's unbelievable as metal, or just the way they look, I dunno. But they kill game's atmosphere. Plate mails instead makes you feel much more *powerful*.Purple padded coif: why it's purple? I mean all other padded coif you wear under many kinds of helmets, and even the padded coat are coloured with a very nice light-brown palette that feel "dirty and unclean". Why the coif is this silly *purple*?
Female mouths: why I can't change them? They look like horribly siliconed models, lol. Like playing a middle-aged game with baywatch pinups!
Chop-off body parts: I've read somewhere you already built a physics engine to calculate object rolling and applied it to shields. Why don't you use it for meat-chopping? It would be really *huge* when you deal a massive 60-90 damage to a feet or the head of a naked footman, to see his head rolling over. How many times you did a ton of damage with a huge 2h axe while mounted, and you hit your foe squarely in the head or (when he's uphill) in the lower leg, or his raised arm? Limiting chopping to huge damage single blows, will keep body parts scattered a limited amount, without weighting on slower systems.
Fall on back: all enemies dead fall backward. While a ragdoll physics is out of the way, I know, why don't make them die sometimes falling frontally? Just to avoid the silly show of 15 bandits looking at the sky like a New age picnic
I know that's long but I hope developers will spend a little time reading it
Thanks for your patience.
