Observations upon coming back to M&B.

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Big J Money

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Well, it's been a while since I've played M&B, but it seems that there have been enough updates lately, that it would be a good time to come back and start testing again. I haven't gotten past the trainer yet, though. Here are a few, very fundamental suggestions from seeing the game "for the first time" all over again:

Combat AI has the enemy sticking himself to the player too much. I think it would be appropriate to see the enemies back off a little more often, and prepare for a new attack. The way they stick to the player, you'd think they were trying to grapple or something. Not only does this make it hard for the player to get off a good blow, but you'd think it would make it hard for the AI to get off a good blow, as well.

It might also be kind of neat to have a few different, basic AI combat mentalities for the AI, (examples): Insane, Aggressive, Balanced, Cautious and Cowardly.

I am in love with the new manually aimed defense moves. I would suggest maybe that when a player selects this option, though, that the AI take a hit to their percantage chance of blocking as well. Now that I see how much of a challenge it is to get a good block, it seems the AI is a little too good at it! This is not referring to shield blocking, of course.

As stated several months ago, I'd REALLY, REALLY like to have the attack direction indicator centered on the opponent's head, not their torso. I still find it exceedingly difficult to get thrusts in at close range. I tried the other attack modes, and they were good for slow attacks, but I found it hard to get quick attacks off with them. I think I'll stick to classic mode, here.

In case anyone feels like doing some reanimating, it would be nice to have the one-handed and/or two-handed thrust animation changed a bit. It doesn't look at all like a thrust, so is very hard to defend against. It looks like the person is pulling back to make a sideways slash. They really should be tucking their elbow in while pulling back, twisting their torso a bit more. For the one-handed animation, it really should look as if they are pulling their weapon back while keeping it concealed behind their shield.

Okay, we'll see if any of these ideas get a noticed, but good job on all the updates, so far. With this new blocking system, it's like having a whole new game to play!

=$= Big J Money =$=
 
And to add to the AI suggestions... it would also be great if the AI mentalities were dynamic, such that when you go against those 40 sea raiders, they might have the "aggressive" mentality, but after you've butchered 35, the remaining 5 would turn cowardly and try to run.
 
jrawlings said:
And to add to the AI suggestions... it would also be great if the AI mentalities were dynamic, such that when you go against those 40 sea raiders, they might have the "aggressive" mentality, but after you've butchered 35, the remaining 5 would turn cowardly and try to run.

Hell yes! Some kind of morale dynamic would be awesome, you can just imagine them breaking and running while you ride them down like dogs. It would have to be implemented for your own men as well though, that could turn nasty..

How about a 'common sense' AI on the world map? As in 'Yeah, we river pirates are 20 strong and that party's only 18, but hmm, they're all mounted and in metal armour, let's *not* follow them all the way across the world. And back.' And perhaps if you've just wiped out a unit of, say, 60, hostile units on the map within sight of the battle smaller than that but still bigger than your party would stop chasing you..
 
Roach said:
jrawlings said:
And to add to the AI suggestions... it would also be great if the AI mentalities were dynamic, such that when you go against those 40 sea raiders, they might have the "aggressive" mentality, but after you've butchered 35, the remaining 5 would turn cowardly and try to run.

Hell yes! Some kind of morale dynamic would be awesome, you can just imagine them breaking and running while you ride them down like dogs. It would have to be implemented for your own men as well though, that could turn nasty..

How about a 'common sense' AI on the world map? As in 'Yeah, we river pirates are 20 strong and that party's only 18, but hmm, they're all mounted and in metal armour, let's *not* follow them all the way across the world. And back.' And perhaps if you've just wiped out a unit of, say, 60, hostile units on the map within sight of the battle smaller than that but still bigger than your party would stop chasing you..

Also, maybe certain units would get a boost depending on where they were on the map... for example, steppe bandits get a speed/morale boost when in steppe, same for mountain bandits in the mountains, forest bandits in the forest. And this could affect whether or not a unit will pursue/attack another... So a forest bandit party of 20 might take on your group of 30 in the forest, but would run from your group of 15 if you were on the plains.

Taking into consideration unit type is also an excellent idea...
 
i do believe armagan is planning on implementing some type of morale into the game, though how exactly that would work im not sure. i dont believe i have read anything on that.
 
I agree that units should have morale based on the terrain, however I would not make them to much better acording to terrain.

Also, your soldiers should have morale acording to place, soldiers and mercenaries should have some discipline and have a similar morale in all places, but peasants, bandits from a particular terrain, sea riders should be more confortable in their respective zones.

Also, swadians and vaegir partys should be more carefull when entering the enemy territory, now they go to the fartest city into enemy territory.
 
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