Sui Generis

[Adorno]

But like, these people surely have day jobs. Do they just spend hours after work coding and bugfixing? Do they have part time jobs and have to drop them whenever the lead dev wants to make a nee change?

As a developer in Brytenwalda Studios I can tell you that's what you do: spend hours after work. We all have other income from either full- or part time jobs.
The most common reason for small indie developers to crash is that they make too big a project to begin with. It takes too long and they run out of cash.
However, Exanima brings income so they can afford the luxury of taking their time, unlike other start-up game companies. The kickstarter money must be long gone now.

 

[Nahkuri]

So the last time I played this on a friend's computer a bunch of times I enjoyed it a bunch, but I had issues. I was wondering if they'd done anything about these?

* You couldn't zoom in enough. This game constantly gave me eye strain because I couldn't fill the screen with the action, but had to look at most of the grey arena. Can you zoom in more now?

* The combat controls weren't the most intuitive. My biggest beef being that you can't do and alternate swing with a press of a button like a normal right-to-left swing. Have they updated in the ability to put that attack behind a bindable key, like the right mouse button?

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

Just checked. No, and No.

 

[Nahkuri]

I guess I'll continue not buying Drunk Fights: Middle-Earth then.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

I've been playing this game a bit recently just to get to the end of the practice arena again. After some nonsensical wins and losses I now know why the combat sucks so much.

- There is no way to get around blocks. It's completely passive. You just wait until the AI lowers its guard, and it's never clear exactly when you can do this, because the animations are fluid.
- There is so much inertia in the physics system that it's like you're playing in molasses rather than air. This is what people mean when they say it looks "drunken"
- The combat is so shallow that the AI is forced to be retarded just to give the player a chance to score a hit. When you do score a hit, it feels hollow, like you didn't really earn it.
- There is no attack aiming (besides simply ducking and attacking, or being tall) so some enemies will score lucky headshots taking away 70% of your health. This is mostly random as the vertical alignment of an attack is at the whim of the physics.
- The "tutorial" sends you right to the start if you die, doesn't allow you to pick enemies, and thus makes it extremely time consuming to try out different tactics.
- The developers are from the "realism = fun" school of game design:

Welcome to Exanima. One of our core philosophies is that the game is not player centric, but things are the way they are because it makes sense. Death and darkness are a thing. Bad things happen and light doesn't shine out your♥♥♥♥♥♥ It's also still in early access, and things like NPC visibility mechanics, along with many other things, have not yet been fully implemented.

If you don't like indie games, don't play them. People actually find different things interesting, even if they are sometimes uncomfortabe, and they don't invariably digitally stroke your ego. We're not interested in victory without loss, or light without darkness. Convenience is hollow and utterly flavourless.

it is not quite everyone's objective to make a game that appeals to everyone for the biggest profit. We're doing what we like, that is why we do it, it's the only satisfaction we gain. If you want some of this game's more unique features without the others, I'm afraid you're out of luck, it's a complete package.

Hilariously this game is the most fun with cheats. You stop worrying about losing progress and try out new things. I might actually do a full run of the main game like this.

 

[Age of Empires ¶ Densetsu]

The combat is indeed mostly terrible, but fun can be had if you're in the right mood. I find the lack of any variety/depth in the combat quite amusing, it's almost like a joke.

 

[Vermillion_Hawk]

It makes it all the more amusing when they have such grandiose aspirations for something that is essentially only a cut above QWOP.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

If they ditched the "MUH REALISM" and just made a goofy physics game it would be a lot of fun, but the developers are borderline deluded and desperately want their game to have the reputation of Dark Souls or Cuphead. You always know something's wrong when lead developers are arguing subjective opinions with players in the steam forums and calling them names.

 

[Age of Empires ¶ Densetsu]

When it doubt, make Gang Beasts.

 

[Patchouli Knowledge]

Remake Die by the Sword.

 

[Bluehawk]

Treyarch would rather remake Die by the Dew, and have been remaking it over and over since 2005.

 

[Nahkuri]

If they ditched the "MUH REALISM" and just made a goofy physics game it would be a lot of fun, but the developers are borderline deluded and desperately want their game to have the reputation of Dark Souls or Cuphead. You always know something's wrong when lead developers are arguing subjective opinions with players in the steam forums and calling them names.

Wait, they do? I always assumed it was just a matter of "we're making this game exactly the way we want it to be. Popularity and reputation are irrelevant." Otherwise I agree with everything you said.

Remake Die by the Sword.

Yes please.

 

[Duh]

Git gut, peasants.

Spoiler

Srs post doe

There is no way to get around blocks. It's completely passive. You just wait until the AI lowers its guard, and it's never clear exactly when you can do this, because the animations are fluid.

That is... wrong. You can feint to overcome blocks, you can position yourself properly and "dodge" the block or use a weapon that gets around it and you can also get through a block if your footing is good and you hit the enemy right.

There is so much inertia in the physics system that it's like you're playing in molasses rather than air. This is what people mean when they say it looks "drunken"

Any faster and folks would likely not get over the learning curve. While it may add to the "drunken" feeling, I feel that is much more dependent on the way movement works - i.e. the player needs to learn to take into account the current motion, stance, etc. when choosing the next one. Otherwise he may fall flat on his face.

The combat is so shallow that the AI is forced to be retarded just to give the player a chance to score a hit. When you do score a hit, it feels hollow, like you didn't really earn it.

How is the expert/master AI retarded? Zombies gonna zomb, but the rest doesn't feel particularly stupid.

Spoiler: Also interesting, AIvsAI

There is no attack aiming (besides simply ducking and attacking, or being tall) so some enemies will score lucky headshots taking away 70% of your health. This is mostly random as the vertical alignment of an attack is at the whim of the physics.

See the first video. If you get into the control schemes enough, you can aim the attacks/hit what you want to hit.

The "tutorial" sends you right to the start if you die, doesn't allow you to pick enemies, and thus makes it extremely time consuming to try out different tactics.

The arena allows you to pick enemies and try different equipment. (You do need to buy ****, though.)

Either way, the next patch is currently in closed beta. It is supposed to hit public within a couple of weeks... but we all know how SoonTM works.  It is supposed to bring overhauled AI (dialogs, social behavior, combat), some new and some redesigned dungeon level, improved motion synthesizing and items (I guess). May not be all, but that's what caught my eye.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

That is... wrong. You can feint to overcome blocks, you can position yourself properly and "dodge" the block or use a weapon that gets around it and you can also get through a block if your footing is good and you hit the enemy right.

An opponent can turn to face you much faster than you can get around them. The AI is usually quite aggressive but when it's more defensive and passive there's nothing you can do to break the stalemate.

Any faster and folks would likely not get over the learning curve.

The speed isn't the problem I have, it's the inertia. Warband is slower than this at times but the animations don't look sluggish. There's a "wind up" period of about half a second, while Exanima's is sometimes nonexistent due to the way physics work. I get the impression they added inertia to make the animations look more fluid at this distance, or to simulate the "wind up" phase that is the basis of all animation, but the result is basically a 1 second input delay.

How is the expert/master AI retarded? Zombies gonna zomb, but the rest doesn't feel particularly stupid.

I should clarify that I don't think the AI is stupid, but that it's gimped. If the AI was just programmed as-is it would be impossible to score a hit, so they make sure the AI makes mistakes. Most, if not all of the hits I score are because the AI let its guard down at a stupid moment. You can put up your guard much quicker than an attack can be initiated.

The arena allows you to pick enemies and try different equipment. (You do need to buy ****, though.)

But that's a fully fledged game mode and not the tutorial. It's not clear where you learn how to play, and if you want to try out a specific fight with a specific weapon you have to sit through 15 minutes of fights just to get to the one you want, and you can't repeat it. If I want to fight against a shielded opponent to test the mechanics I have to endure at least two fights every time I try it.

 

[Scully]

I love it when bad players try to make grand statements about how **** the combat is. Reminds me of reading old Mount & Blade reviews.

The AI definitely has two modes, defensive and aggressive, and it switches between them very predictably. The easiest time to land an attack is to predict or force out the aggressive mode (with feints). If their shield is up you can tap crouch to land a hit on their legs.

 

[Age of Empires ¶ Densetsu]

I have never actually played this game or watched any videos of it, I just wanted to join in because I have crippling depression and loneliness.

 

[Scully]

I  had that once. NOT recommended.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

I love it when bad players try to make grand statements about how **** the combat is. Reminds me of reading old Mount & Blade reviews.

I've completed the practice mode several times over and I was doing well on both story mode and the arena mode until they bugged out. I use feints pretty often and I can generally predict how the AI is going to behave. I'm not a "bad player" by any means, unless you count "not playing the exact way the developers intend" as bad play. I've got enough hours in Exanima that the things that frustrate me can't just be chalked up to "git gud lmao". The combat in this game definitely has a lot of problems to overcome before I can take the adjectives "deep" and "challenging" seriously.

 

[Scully]

**** frustrates me too, it's far from a perfect combat system. The block system being automatic and unreliable for example.

there's nothing you can do to break the stalemate.

^ This however does seem to suggest you still have a lot to learn.

 

[Duh]

I have to agree that there is still a lot of room for improvement. But that is too be expected with a... well.. truly new system (as far as I can tell). And supposedly the patch will bring just that - amongst other things.

But the claim that the game is shallow and only works cause of gimped AI... is just not true or fair. Also what scully said about the stalemate.