Reply To: Combat feedback (angry and annoyed)

[Meeky]

As another long-time player, I’ll contend some of these points but also agree with one.

Cross bows are the main offender, just tooo OVERPOWERED… you can move and shoot in the same turn??? and at melee range as well? Why not just make them AUTO HIT aswell.. we can all just use crossbow for everything from now on, because when I do that, I win every fight EASILY.

Well, crossbows are kind of really good, yeah, but they’re not game breaking. They’ve got a high bonus to hit (which fades the more distant the enemy is) and a nice bit of armor penetration. That’s their specialty historically, too: punching through armor and killing a dude with relatively little training required.

You can fire crossbows in melee range, yes. You cannot, however, reload them there. So, you can fire a shot from face distance, then swap to another weapon and start pounding.

You can move 3 spaces and fire with a crossbow, or you can move 2 spaces and fire with a bow. Both weapons have “move and fire” options. Reloading takes 6 AP, however, so don’t expect to move far if you’re out of range after reloading (1 space is all you can move after reloading).

I’d say the crossbow is stronger, but the bow remains very useful for dealing with lightly armored opponents. Nothing mops up a crowd of injured ghouls quite like a hail of arrows.

How come the enemy can deploy their men anywhere on the map in very good positions but all my men are randomly placed? Give us squad deployment phase, this is very frustrating!

This IS something that needs to be changed, and I believe it’s on a to-do list for the devs. One day at a time, though. One day at a time.

But yes, I hope this change comes sooner than later.

Why does AI chose to kill itself to make sure it kills one of my men???? NO-ONE does this in real combat, its dumb as hell. “Oh, I am in trouble here.. should I shield and go defensive?? NO! I will turn around and hit someone else who I am not even fighting instead…” JUST NO

Ranged enemy AI….. “I will move away if they come towards me, then I will move forwards again if they don’t follow me…” at INFINITE…endless chase dance. If as the player, you follow, you take fire every turn and get to them out of stamina and on low life. If you don’t follow, the game just repeats and you waste time………no play loops please, its bad game design.

I’ll be honest: neither of these scenarios seems like bad design to me.

The former situation actually WOULD happen in a real fight. You don’t always think clearly in a fight. Once you get your head knocked around a little and have bled, you sometimes resort to your instincts, which includes sticking the other guy with the pointy end. Not only that, but it forces the player to think about worst case scenarios. “If the enemy attacks, I COULD lose a guy. I need to either be able to wipe out the enemy REALLY QUICKLY or have defensive specialists ready to play crowd control.” THIS is the sort of thinking encouraged by having AI that lashes out.

There are solutions to fighting ranged enemies, too. Buy wardogs if they annoy you that much. Personally, I try to outshoot them or let them run away. Archers typically don’t have the best gear anyway. Another option is to break through the enemy’s shield wall and send someone into the archer line in the same turn. You can typically get a couple archers caught off-guard that way.

5 guys hitting ONE enemy from different sides…. does he get a defence penalty for being attacked or surrounded? Hell NO, he dodges/parrys all of them….THIS IS NOT ACCURATE to real combat even just 3 vs 1 you can no longer defend most attacks.

Actually, there IS a penalty for being surrounded by lots of guys. It’s called “Overwhelmed.” It makes the character who is overwhelmed less likely to avoid hits, meaning even the most nimble of warriors can potentially be defeated by a large enough crowd.

The game would be a lot worse if Overwhelmed didn’t exist, but it does. Next time you’re about to attack someone while they’re surrounded, select the attack ability you want to use, however the mouse over the enemy, and wait for the data on the enemy’s HP/armor/fatigue to come up. You’ll see a modifier called “Overwhelmed” with a green + by it. That means he’s taking penalties to defending himself thanks to being surrounded. (I think you need… 4+ guys for this modifier, though? I forget.)

As for some of the proposed changes…

Cross bow CANNOT be fired after moving and may not be reloaded in melee combat.

MASSIVE ACCURACY penalty for anyone who tried to use ranged weapons after moving at all, on the same turn (yes javlins, hand axe..everything).

Crossbows already can’t be reloaded in melee combat. It SHOULD be able to be fired after moving because firing a crossbow is really easy. You point, you aim like with a gun almost, then shoot. Bam.

Throwing weapons already kind’a suck. Crossbows… I covered that. Quick shot already is way less accurate than Aimed Shot. I see no issue.

No fatigue cost for moving if not leaving or entering melee combat that turn.. so you can chase with gaining fatigue..because otherwise chase dance is game breaking.

You regain fatigue every turn. Unless you’re moving through awful terrain (swamp, elevation changes, forest) you’ll actually decrease in fatigue as you charge across the map. If fighting in difficult terrain… Dude, it’s DIFFICULT TERRAIN. It’s working as intended.

And again, there are already solutions to the chase. Out-shoot the archers, releasing wardogs on ’em, chasing them with a guy that has Pathfinder (works well in difficult terrain)… Yeah, it’s kind of annoying; but they also will actually flee the field once their side has been obliterated. The only possible exception I can think of to this rule are skeleton archers.

Difficulty rating for enemy your mission is putting you against….. its NOT FUN to take a mission and then find the enemy is 5/6 levels higher than you with swap and stuff… I would not take this mission if i knew. All your doing is FORCING me to save-scum your game to make it playable.

I kind of agree, yet then again I kind of… I dunno. See, I can see the merit of your complaint; you sometimes get contracts that are just gonna be too difficult for you to complete. But you have the option of running to the edge of the map and then hitting the retreat button and taking no losses. You can often also see how big the enemy army is before you engage (not always true), and you can break contracts that are gonna be too hard to complete.

I’ll do another ironman run before I dismiss this complaint. You’re not the first to say this.