Combat Feedback

[HR-Trevor]

I'd like to gather feedback from everyone who has an opinion on it please. Specifically, recent changes and how they affect you. In addition, I'm trying to assess areas where problems lie, and need specific information from you about your combat experiences.

If you're having trouble in combat is it:

- Getting hit too often?
- Getting hit too hard?
- Balance problems?
- Fatigue problems?
- "Walk in" deaths?

If you would like to post a response, please try to post something more useful than "everything is wrong" or "all of the above". Also please don't just post "I'm not as good at combat now". I need specific problems encountered.

Likewise, I also need positive feedback as well. It's very important that we have a challenging yet fun and balanced system.

Finally, I'd like to mention that I and probably many of us believe the ES (engagement system) implementation is central to fixing some of these problems. However, at this time it's not ready and Marduk's dev time is limited. We do intend to put it in as soon as we can.
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." -- Plato

-- Trevor Rage / Rich Mondy

[Deblaeju]

fatigue has been my big problem that i've noticed so far.
not with deblaeju. not sure how he fairs haven't hunted lately with new changes with him.

somewhat low on stamina (tho for his level not bad), but still being only able to kill one critter maybe two than have to sit out for while well gaining back my fatigue. tho could use potions guess. this is with unarmed combat if that makes difference.

[Kit]

Since the combat changes, I've actually been hunting better I think. I hunt more around my level now, got some really nice armor, some nicer weapons, and have been taking down borkin hunter.

I play a 25th -- 26th tommorrow sometime -- technician if that helps any.

I find that I get knocked down a WHOLE lot. Just about every 2 hits I get knocked down. I also found that having a nearly full set of cybergear helps hunting because I can fix myself...and I don't lose vitality from most hits.

All in all, I like the changes. It took awhile to get use to it, but I figured out the best way for me (Kit) to hunt. My Tracker, though, is still having some problems, but luckily, she just likes to forage.

[TheTrackerChick]

The only thing of all those, would be what you know. And that is engagement. Once that happens, most likely all those you're asking about will have to be revamped anyway. So until engagment does happen, I'm not having a problem with any of combat. Well, except for what wasn't mentioned. Which is ranged. Part of engagement and why I'll wait for it.

Oh, and I haven't hunted in about a week, and have no clue about the walk in kill at this point either. That would be the only thing that I was having a hard time with previously. I feel with what I've trained in, combat is pretty fair towards my main character.
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All explorers are seeking something they have lost. It is seldom they find it, and more seldom still that the attainment brings them greater happiness than the quest.

[SolitaryTurnip]

One of the things that I don't like (and it could just be bad luck) is that when I get hit, which isn't too common, I get hit really, really hard. It's almost always either a parry or some stun/bleeding/painful hit that makes me run away as soon as I become unstunned. Is it supposed to be this way... I mean... if you have high defenses (compared to what you're fighting), is almost every hit that gets through going to be really painful, or is it just bad luck?

Another thing that I'd like - not saying things are bad now, but I'd like it this way - is to make full-blown can't-move stuns very rare, but very bad. I don't like how something can be on the ground and stunned and I can still punch him in the leg when I go for the face. It'd be cool if there were two "stuns"... one is the real stun where you're totally out, and that would be as good as dead, basically, unless you woke up before the guy swung again. The other would be more like a "dazed" sort of thing, like you see spots and you have a headache and it'd be hard to hit things, but you could at least try to retreat or run to another room or something.

I guess this is because of the recent changes, because now I actually do get hit *grins*. My second point hasn't been affected too much by the recent stuff. Well, besides stuns being toned down. My point was the half-stunned "dazed" thing. I like that stuns are less common, though. Okay, I'm done editing.

[HR-Trevor]

Thanks guys. Here's my viewpoint currently on a couple of things mentioned, just to give you an idea of how it looks from my side of things:

Fatigue: I think overall we're "okay", i.e. acceptable, on this issue right now and I'd probably do more harm than good if I touched it. However, long term -- and long term probably being live -- I think the ideal solution is a graduated series of attacks one has access to which require more and more fatigue expenditure to use. This is because low level players will almost always have far less stamina than higher level ones so if you apply a single rate of fatigue expenditure to them both, either you have newbies tired all the time, or higher ups who have way more stamina than they are capable of using.

Knockdowns: I think I'll wait to see what the feedback is on the stun changes before I touch knockdowns. If it's favorable, I'll tone down knockdowns too.
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"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." -- Plato

-- Trevor Rage / Rich Mondy

[HR-Trevor]

[soundless]

i do rather decently in combat (considering Yaru's hardly built for it).

i think i'll be complaining a lot once i can't use blood siphon anymore, though. that's turning mage only, right?
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A bright-eyed Thekko Ku Kalla dressed in a dapper sailor suit takes to flight and careers through the air toward the Modan Kucho and slams into him!
With a high-pitched cry, The Modan Kucho collapses in death.

[SolitaryTurnip]

[HR-Trevor]

[soundless]

rats. i need to invest in some vit points or start getting more cyber limbs.
_________________
A bright-eyed Thekko Ku Kalla dressed in a dapper sailor suit takes to flight and careers through the air toward the Modan Kucho and slams into him!
With a high-pitched cry, The Modan Kucho collapses in death.

[soundless]

this is more pvp related but...

hiding melee is beyond silly. heck, i don't see how someone can hide at pole range.
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A bright-eyed Thekko Ku Kalla dressed in a dapper sailor suit takes to flight and careers through the air toward the Modan Kucho and slams into him!
With a high-pitched cry, The Modan Kucho collapses in death.

[Tugor]

Combat seems to work great to me.
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It is better to be pissed off than pissed on.

[Dzynna]

I've only had one walk-in death since the changes you made previously...and the creature didn't kill Dzynna with the first hit (I believe you coded around that). It just got a really lucky critical/stun in and then proceeded to hit her two more times before she came out of the stun, killing her.

This particular issue I don't consider to be too much of an issue, since an engagement system would alleviate it (at least for her), and it has only happened once for me playing either of my characters.

Dzynna doesn't get hit often, and the majority of the time (note every time except the example above) it is at most a bruise.

Fatigue isn't an issue for her, and balance doesn't seem to be either.

The two things I really would like to see finished/looked at is

1. Engagement system.
2. Archery: Exp from archery/Damage from archery/randomness of ammunition breaking.

I'll go into a little more detail with 2. And since I'm currently the top nskill person for archery I believe I've had the most practice with it. ::

1. Experience: She can hunt at-level or even above-level and either way she doesn't learn much at all. Unless she goes into the hunting ground with a 'full mind', she'll never hit red. I've taken her in with a completely empty mind and she's never gotten above the first level of brown (and that is from skinning). This is with a 2 RT for load, 2 RT for aim and 1 RT for fire.

2. Archery damage: I've tried this with her starbow and with her V-bow, and the V-bow seems even worse. Damage seems off. I've tested even on something as low as chith, and it took 9 shots to kill it. That's a total of 45 bolts. Hunting at level/above level is even worse, I've had creatures get hit with over 100 bolts and still be standing. Cannot aim at a specific body part either. Even with chiths it seems to just randomly hit wherever.

[HR-Trevor]