Ranting to follow.

[Jhaerik]

GAH....

My last 9 matches in the tourney are as follows.

4 Unmounted 2 Hander
3 Mounted 2 Hander
1 Unmounted Sword/Board
1 Mounted Sword/Board

For the Unmounted 2 Handers each time there was a Mounted Archer.
1 time I was killed before I moved 2 steps.

1 time out of the Mounted 2 Hander I ended up with a Mounted Archer and a foot archer, was killed before my horse started to move. Another 1 Lancer, 1 Mounted 2 hander, 1 foot archer. The last 1 Lancer, 1 Foot Archer.

Was against 2 Mounted Lancers. 1 charged and knocked me down, the other hit me for 130ish

2 Lancers, 1 Foot archer. My horse was lanced, then I was charged, and head shot for 83 by the female hero-champ.

I was coming off 7 straight wins. I'm not broke, seeing as I was betting 30 a go.

Did I mention? I'm a foot archer.......


::::EDIT:::: OK, this is getting ridiculous.... Last 4 fights...

Fight number 1: S/B and 2Hander on my side, 2 Mounted Lancer on their side. My NPC pal died in the first charge, and it went down-hill from there. Damn you Dranton...

Fight number 2: I was 2Hander NPC pal Horse Archer, them Mounted 2 Hander Foot Archer. My guy didn't nothing but riding in a circle away from the Mounted 2Hander, and the archer put me full of arrows.

Fight Number 3: Honestly, I think you get my point bu now.....

Did I mention I AM A FOOT ARCHER?

I mean the touney really needs to tell you more info about the fight before you begin, and if you turn it down you need to wait until the next day before you can enter a different fight.

 

[Blackspirit]

lol, sometimes you just get a bad run.

I've noticed in the latest patch, the tourney heros, eg Dranton are a lot more powerful.....

And when their a foot archer, and you have no shield, your pretty much stuffed.

I like it though, a bit more of a challenge, it used to be that you'd win just about every time you went to tourney

Even if you are a foot archer, it allows you to get your other stats up, its a good leveling tool.

 

[katank]

What are you talking about? Tourney used to be much harder.

You'd never survive on a gallant charge against a hero foot archer without a shield in .632 anyhow. Now, if you sneak up on them, a good two whacks could take em down while otherwise they can keep dancing circles around you even after 4 or 5 whacks before.

 

[Jhaerik]

I'm not saying anything has changed....just venting.

And while it takes ya 2 whacks, it takes them one arrow from 150 yards, hehe.

 

[mazzadude]

hmm i love fighting on foot against mouted lancers cus u just run the other side of the couched lance then they r screwed then u chop the horse

 

[DaLagga]

I agree, if you've got a 2hander or a bow vs 2 lancers or 2 mounted 2handed guys, you actually have the advantage. No matter your level they shouldn't even be able to hit you if you time it right.

I mean the touney really needs to tell you more info about the fight before you begin, and if you turn it down you need to wait until the next day before you can enter a different fight.

So...you turn it down, then have to waste a day resting at the inn to "refresh" the trigger? No thanks... I like the randomness. Sure, you may get kind of screwed in a fight, but the same happens to your opponents just as often. I'd like to see more weapons added though. Also, people often complain that it is just too hard. But tell me, can you name another rpg where a level 1 character has any chance against a level 40 guy like Dranton? In 99% of all rpg's, a level 1 doesn't stand a chance in hell vs a level 10 even.

 

[Garth]

I haven't lost in the arena for the past 50 or so matches, and the only time I have a doubt is when I'm an unmounted 2-hander and the other team has an unmounted archer.

You've just got to be well-rounded. I raise or train all my weapon skills to at least 100, and figure out all the little techniques of what works and what doesn't work. I agree with DaLagga though, the arena does need more variety.

 

[Handel]

The most common match for me is unmounted 2-hander. Almost always dead meat (I am a horse archer specialist). Being unmounted 1-hander/shield is almost the same. If my teammates don't kill the enemy first, of course. The only way to win when unmounted is being an archer Usually some poor sod tries to charge me this giving me his horse.

 

[Jhaerik]

No, I turn it down go kill some sea raiders, and come back the next day. '

I see it kind of like this, someone trained in the use of a bow, should at least be able it opt out when its something insane like a foot archer, and a mounted archer, vs. you and your soon to be dead 2Handed friend.

What I'm saying it it needs to be more about skill than about luck, I'd like to see the tourney more fleshed out, with another dozen or so named combatants, but with more control over the type of match.

 

[Blackspirit]

What are you talking about? Tourney used to be much harder.

You'd never survive on a gallant charge against a hero foot archer without a shield in .632 anyhow. Now, if you sneak up on them, a good two whacks could take em down while otherwise they can keep dancing circles around you even after 4 or 5 whacks before.

Weird, I'm actually finding it harder. I took a bit of a break between .632 and 7, so maybe I just suck

 

[NikkTheTrick]

Now, melle fighters in arena are more dnagerous but archers have been weakened.

 

[Jhaerik]

Strange place to post this, but might as well, hehe.

Just got my first 10.5 difficultly shot, I'm happy.

 

[jrawlings]

Early on in the game, the tourney is a rough go for sure. As it should be. Some interesting points have been raised though:

1. I like the idea of having a choice in the weapons/scenarios. Maybe you don't get the choices you like, but at least you may get to choose between being a 2 hander or an archer. That way, you could do multiple tourneys in a day and not have to sleep at the Inn so much (unless they start giving a tourney discount).

2. Conversely, I also like getting stuck with a weapon/shield mount/unmounted combo that I am not accustomed to. It does add a challenge to the game!

3. Here is a suggestion that has been made in other threads... Let's make the tournament a real tournament... with brackets and everything! Maybe you need to win so many random arena fights before you can qualify for the tournament... There could be tournaments for each type of fighter too, so you could enter in the big tournament as your favorite type and be the big bad grand champion at the end.

Just some thoughts

 

[Sir Saladin]

The best thing that ever helped me was when some guy said that if you are on foot with a two-handed sword against the last surviving horseman with a lance was that you can back up against a wall a whack that baillif to death after stepping aside of his charge, other than that I don't know how to help you.

 

[Poil]

But tell me, can you name another rpg where a level 1 character has any chance against a level 40 guy like Dranton? In 99% of all rpg's, a level 1 doesn't stand a chance in hell vs a level 10 even.

Gothic 2, fighting is based on skill there too. At level 0 with a wooden stick you can still block the attacks of (and hurt) the hardest sword fighters in the game. Of course you swing your weapon too slow to keep up with them so they will win eventually, but you can hurt and block them. level 1 versus level 10 is not too hard.

 

[DaLagga]

Well, i remember some people on the forums talking about Gothic, so i downloaded the demo to try it out. I think it was Gothic 1 though. I found the game controls nearly impossible, and combat clunky and uncontrollable. And fighting two guys at once?...forget it. At first i thought that maybe i just suck, but when i looked up a walkthrough the "experts" were saying the same things. In any case, if it weren't for the poor controls and mountain of bugs, it might have been a good game. I'm guessing they resolved some of those issues in the sequal? If so i'll have to give it a try. But speaking of rpg's that require loads of personal skill, anyone heard about Twilight War? Its a MMO but won't be out for a while, but looks very promising...provided you like fps's/rpg combos. Plus it is using the source engine, so you gotta know its going to be great!

 

[Poil]

The second is a lot better. Combat is quite easy once you get a hang of it (just like in M&B). Right near the start there's a cave with three goblins (with similar health and damage to yourself) and I can take them all out and only get hit once or twice, if at all.

M&B has more advanced melee combat though. Since you have 4 ways of hitting as opposed to 3, and opponents have to start swinging before you can block. Just too bad you can't summon a mighty demon that tears apart man and beast alike (unless it gets zerged, just like in M&B) in M&B.

 

[Narcissus]

Plus it is using the source engine, so you gotta know its going to be great!

Sorry for going off-topic ... but have you ever played Vampire: Bloodlines?

The source engine is good, but only after it has been tweaked to death for each particular game. Just look at HL2, CS: S, Vamp: B and DOD: S.

HL2 is awesome and CS: S, while seriously lacking, is still good. The other two could have been done using virtually any engine and been as (if not more) impressive.

Narcissus

 

[DaLagga]

Well, i guess there's no harm in going off topic. I feel the need to defend source anyway. Now, i have played and beaten Vampire:Redemtpion, but not the sequel. However, while the original was pretty good, it fell short of great IMO because it was programmed by monkeys. It was kinda buggy, the movement/pathfinding/camera angles left much to be desired, and it was poorly balanced. So, it stands to reason that if the sequel was made by the same team, it too would make the source engine look faulty, when the fault in fact lies in them (although my assumptions may be entirely incorrect). But when it comes to CS:S and DOD:S, you are probably right, they could have been created with any other engine. This is because these are not new games in the slightest...all they did was take the original and convert to the new engine. In effect all they did was increase polygon count, which wasn't very hard to do since those games are 5+ years old. So, put simply, it is natural that when you attempt to modify a game with the sole purpose being to add poly's that gameplay will suffer. Just look at all the unique mods being made with source, not to mention entire new games. Source is very stable, can render an enormous variety of environment types, looks great, and more importantly runs great (unlike those PoS engines EA creates). I would even go as far to say that every single FPS to be made in the next year or two would benefit greatly from using source, as IMO, all other engines pale in comparison. It's not perfect, but it is the best all around engine ever to exist, for now anyway. Ok, i'll step off my soap box now.