Since launching out of early access I've received a lot of feedback on the combat system. I've spent the past few days working on some combat improvements and I'm happy with what I have so far and wanted to share it with all of you. I made a build for the test branch so you can try them out if you are interested.
The changes include...
When attacking, you can now hit multiple enemies per swing. As long as they are in your front arc and close enough, you will hit.
The new system still uses a "target" system but for the most part your target doesn't matter other than special attacks like Dash Attack and the Sword Power Attack. I may remove the concept of a "target" entirely.
When testing you should turn Auto-face target off. Being able to change your facing while attacking not only feels better in this new system but also allows you to change your facing to keep multiple enemies in your front arc. If I leave in the concept of a target, I will enable auto-facing as an option for those that still prefer it. For the test I want to see what you all think as I feel it works much better with auto-facing turned off.
The Hammer Power Attack has been updated to knock enemies back. This attack does the slightly smaller amount of damage than the normal attacks to all enemies nearby, even if they are not in your front arc. This knockback doesn't last as long as a Kick or Shield Bash.
The Axe Power Attack does more damage to enemies in your front arc and has a chance to stun them. The damage from this attack has also been increased.
The Sword Power Attack damage has also been increased a bit.
Monsters have more hit points (since you can hit more than one at a time) and also attack a bit more often.
Some other things I am considering that I if I work on, I will add to the test build in the coming days.
- Allow you to put weapons in the hotbar so you can quickly switch between them. This would allow you to use your Hammer or Axe against a group of three monsters and then switch to the Sword when down to only one enemy. This also gives you a meaningful reason to craft all three weapon types.
- Allow enemy spellcasters to be affected by status effects like the knockbacks and stuns. Maybe add a way for spellcasters to break melee as well. Bosses would likely be immune to these.
- Allow better shields to block monster special attacks and potentially block spells.
- Increase damage from the Shield Bash skill based on shield.
- Having better shields give a small damage reduction benefit when hit by an attack.
- Monster levels minimums and maximums. Right now monsters pretty much scale evenly with your equipment. This change would mean eventually lower level monsters like Goblins would cap at a certain number of hit points, while higher level monsters like Elementals and Orcs would have a minimum hit point, meaning they'd be much tougher if you encountered one while using copper, iron, or jade.
For now I'd love to get some feedback on the changes to the core system once you've had a chance to try them out!
If you would like to check out the new combat, you can get it by doing the following:
1. In the Steam Client Library where it lists all of your games, right click on HammerHelm
2. Click Preferences
3. In the window that opens, select the "Betas" Tab
4. Enter the password to download this build - CombatTest2021 - and click Check Code
5. You should get a message that the code is correct
6. Click the drop-down box and select BigUpdateTest
Steam should immediately start a new download with the test client. The new game should be called "HammerHelm [bigupdatetest]". Once the download is complete you can launch the game and you should see "1.7.0" in the title screen.
Note this build is 100% compatible with current saves. So you can safely use any save you want with this test build.
To get back to the main build:
1. In the Steam Client Library where it lists all of your games, right click on HammerHelm
2. Click Preferences
3. In the window that opens, select the "Betas" Tab
4. Choose “None” from the drop down
5. Steam should then revert back to the main client
Thank you everyone!
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]
- My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
- Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco