PC Gamer: Lord British's rough new world

There are evades and blocks in-game already.. the block is more of a defensive stance than a true block, and the evade is actually an evasive maneuver, you can also evade by pressing the A key twice or the D key twice, but there is a skill that does it for you, when you hit the skill, it evades for you.

 

I like the part of the article where the writer says "stomp around like Godzilla"

 

This was on PC Gamer two days before that article, :>

http://www.pcgamer.com/i-played-shr...d-the-cult-of-lord-british-is-alive-and-well/

EDIT: Sorry wrong date. It was back in June.

 

What does "evade" do, exactly?

All of the skills that I'm familiar with simply give you some type of temporary defense, which equals less DPS for your opponent. That's not a block or a counter, it's a DPS reduction.

Again, at it's core, the entire system is two people with fluctuating DPS. There's some skill involved in that, but it's minimal and often the best build wins the majority of the time.

Where as if I could truly block attacks, that would require people to change their tactics and their build would become far less important.

 

Sorry, I read the date wrong apparently, or got the date from the wrong place. That was back in June :>

 

I'll stop replying. Don't blame me for the way the forums work though. If I make a comment that IS on topic and someone quotes it and creates a tangent conversation, I'm allowed to respond to that.

I'm sorry if you're confused by the replies or don't like where the conversation went. It wasn't my intent to derail the tread, only to reply to people that asked me questions or continued the conversation.

 

Only if your intent is to KILL.

Incapacitation does not equate to murder.

I have "skillfully" escaped many encounters on my rogue characters via blinding and stealthing away in shadows and many more on my mage characters by using webs and slows to lock the character(s) down.

So, no, its not a DPS race unless that is the only blunt instrument someone can develop.

 

Which brings up another topic we haven't discussed for a while...when will they allow non-death outcomes for combat, quests, puzzles, etc. Why can't I incapacitate all MOBs in the Challenge Dungeon as a successful outcome vs. having to kill everything to advance?

I would also love to see a Stealth Challenge Dungeon, where you have to escape via pure stealth.

 

It's a very blunt and accurate summary of the game in its current state. I just can't wait to see the game more complete (and upgraded to shiny U5 :3 )

 

I'm sorry but the author is right and you are wrong on this; the sound matters because a large part of "feel" in any combat comes from sensations outside of the usual floating numbers. The right animation, and a nice hefty CLANG sound will do more to convey a visceral sense of weight and damage to a blow than the pure stats. Get that right and you can have either your bug bear toe to toe DPS swapping, or any other form of combat you wish, and it will at least be convincing at an emotional level. The problem with Shroud combat right now is it sounds more like someone sucking an errant hamster up their hoover pipe than life or death struggle... and the disjointed animations further remove that sense of engagement.

Still the Devs themselves aren't concerned with that for now I expect, because it's such an early alpha and they've got to get the wider combat systems running first before worrying about polishing the presentation. There's no getting away from how daft it feels currently though! And any reviewer who tried to deny that would ruin their credibility far, far more than being caught pushing a particular agenda on how the game should be designed; a biased reviewer is still useful for testing your biases against, but one who can't objectively report on what's right there in front of his eyes and ears is no use at all.

 

Drocis, you took what someone said in an article negatively about a specific combat system and then went off on a tangent on how all combat systems are the same (which they are, because they ALL have D&D roots).

My suggestion for you, is to keep this kind of thing out of threads they don't belong in. While I think it would be neat to stab someone in the chest and have them die because they did not block or counter my attack, that's not this game.

Sooo yeah, with the off topic stuff, its enough really.

 

It was nice of him to mention the helpful community

I did feel his review was overall a friendly one, unlike the Rock Paper Shotgun review and comments.

 

I would have liked to have seen how the other writer (who did the Ultima Legacy article) felt about the game, as he seems more aware of the series on which this game is coming from.

 

Not necessarily true. Just because there are common elements doesn't mean they came from D&D. It's rather more basic than that. Combat has to be entertaining and that means there has to be more to it than a one hit kill. It doesn't matter if it's D&D based or not. Even D&D must work on this principle.

 

Well said.

 

True. When I want pretty I'll take a break and play Star Citizen (well, until my PC melts). When I want relationships, crafting, role playing and the ability to run my own unique business I'll play SotA.

 

I know we are all enthusiastic about this game succeeding but we can't blame a reviewer for not having the same enthusiasm. Looking objectively at the game alot of his points are valid.

 

A reviewer is no different then a forum poster other then he has a larger audience.

 

I disagree completely. We have more emotional investment in the project. Think about how many poor quality early access games this man has reviewed, he probably has reason to be negative and since he has been quite kind in contrast I think it's a pretty good review for this current stage in the game.

 

This is about as good of a review that SotA could expect in it's present condition and it does a great job level setting potential backers about the true state of the "game" I think it was fair and complementary in tone.

Off topic...
@Drocis Fondorlatos I think you have some great points and some non-relevant points, also I disagree with people trying to silence you, ALWAYS speak up, your only motivation is a better game, we should all respect that.

But I think at this point it's beyond vague suggestions like "block" and "counter" and DPS races. I think getting the Dev's to change direction at this point will require a solid plan, that will not cause too much disruption to the exiting skill tree format (basic functions not implementation). Scrapping the paper map was easy (and thank god), scrapping the combat system at this point I bet would cost upwards of 500k+.

Do you have a thread were your combat ideas are detailed? Please point me to it, if not let's make another one .

As far as RPG's go I would currently rate SotA's Combat about a 6, Sadly I not sure how to "Fix it" also, and it goes beyond sounds and animations. (but yes, I know they also MAKE a big difference and I totally understand what the PC Gamer reviewer was getting at)

SotA: Combat Report Card:

Pros:
-The combat bar is exciting at times, waiting the the right skill to pop in to get that kill...
-PVP is fun and engaging
-Power curve stays relatively flat while leveling

Cons:
-Spend WAY too much time looking at the combat bar
-Being a mage/wizard/magic user SUCKS (at this point, balancing I know)
-Spending points on multiple copies of the same skill does not feel rewarding or satisfying during leveling.
-Current system promotes min/maxing
-Heavy Armor (and damage reduction skills) are OP (at this point, balancing I know)
-Many weapons (and armors) will never be used because of min \ maxing (is a halberd really more deadly or do more "damage" than a hunting knife in the hands of the capable)
-PVE combat is boring
-Only small sub set of builds seem viable for PVP

(Please add to the lists...)

To me SotA seems "revolutionary" and "refreshing" in almost every way except combat (ok maybe not graphics also but I don't care about that, I want amazing game systems), will admit was hoping for something better combat wise...still have hope, but we need a solid cost effective plan or I can guarantee they are going to stay the course.

my 2 cents... (Sorry for getting off topic)