Oh I see what you are saying. I did think there way some localization (like an arrow to the head does more damage than the toe) but i could be wrong. This would definitely help as well. I think this would be much easier to implement by modders than my suggestion.
You don't need anymore buttons. Dark messiah was released on PC and 360 and controlled just fine. First of all, I don't advocate the kick function because I felt it was overpowered and didn't add anything to combat enjoyment in dark messiah. Secondly you can easily attack with either handed weapons as it stands now, I am not suggesting changing that somehow, only change the way enemies react to being hit.
Well I know for a fact that an arrow to the face is more likely to stun your character than one to the gut, I have been hit by an arrow to the face and staggered with almost all my health still there, but then I took an arrow to the knee. But seriously, also the kick function was slightly overpowered when in one on one, but became extremely useful on higher difficulties when facing huge mobs. I just wish weapons were more unique in their power by which I mean how they hit, great weapons should stagger an opponent way more than a dagger would and possibly knock them down while a dagger should be able to penetrate armor better and a standard sword would be flexible. The hit should also visually show.
If I swing an axe at someone it would be nice to feel some drag to it when it came back out, doesn't make sense for an axe to make a clean hit through a person wearing nothing but animal fur. maces should do greater damage to armored opponents and stagger them especially if hit in the head, all sharp weapons should have a slight effect of bleeding or continual damage. Something like dark souls has where certain weapons are so sharp that the wounds continually bleed. Weapons should be attuned to the lore of the materials they are made from, an elven sword should not weigh more than an iron or steel sword since lore wise I assume the material is a lighter more flexible smelting process to smith with.
The Elven variety should be lighter and faster on the swing than iron or steel but slightly weaker in damage to balance the speed, while iron or steel should be heavier and slower on the swing it should also deal more damage than an elven weapon and cause opponents to stagger more so as well. Daggers should always have the fastest attack speed but deal the least damage as well as have unique attack animations, you cant swing a dagger the same way youd do a sword and get the same effect. Also daggers shouldnt be able to pierce heavy duty armor such as Ebony Daedric Dragon and Orcish instead the damage should be reduced. Dwarven Steel and Iron should receive normal damage from a dagger while all light armors should take higher damage from daggers since the original intent for a dagger was to penetrate lighter mails and armor as it was traditionally a stealth weapon.
Maces should do a slight bit more damage to heavy armor than a sword would however swords should have a better effect on lighter armor in return. Greatweapons in general should also have stopping power that varies with weapon type, a great hammer should be able to knock back enemies more often and also knock them down much more efficiently than a greatsword while battle axes should be in the middle. Also armor should have been balanced to be effective to different things, taking an arrow to the gut should be harder on a lightly armored pc compared to a heavily armored one, however a heavily armored pc should take more hits than a lightly armored one solely on mobility and maneuvering. Hits should also register in the sense that if I hit something armored the hit could be deflected by the armor depending on my weapon of choice as well as my attack patterns from thrusts to slashes or even sweeps. Armor weight should also affect your attack speed, a heavily armored person should be fatigued more often when swing wildy than a lightly armored person.
As for full on contact if I hit an armored opponent with a mace, he should show some signs of trauma as IRL. Depending on where they were hit. If hit in the head they should grab their face as a mace blow to the head IRL would be fatal so show that they may have had skull fractures or a neck injury by having the opponent stagger while clinging to the part that has been injured. They should also bring in the dismemberment from fallout to a certain degree, by this I mean the crippled limbs feature. If i hit an enemy in the arm with an axe or mace enough, the bone should shatter, this should in turn reduce movement speed if its the legs or attack speed if the arms, if the torso they should take more damage, if the head they should loose focus now and then even to the point of losing battle presence and forgetting they are fighting for their life, even if just standing there dazed. Cripple both legs and an opponent should slow down to a limping crawl clutching walls as they try to flee instead of speed limping like was done in fallout 3 and NV. After a while as well this is already in but needs to be explored more since its not so common. Enemies should cut their losses and flee, what do i mean? If i just killed 4 or 5 of your buddies with no trouble, you would probably start running for safety or even beg to be let live. What i dislike about how it was done in Skyrim is that they will get back up after a second of being on their knees and just continue attacking, now this is understandable for maybe undead daedra or a wild animals like sabre cats, but even they should flee from time to time and not return, I have seen some wolves i have fought leave only to come right back and die to my hands, this needs a bit of a fix. No animal, no matter how dumb would continue to fight once it sees its life is in danger, i want to see a dragon flee, maybe come back once it fully recovered yes but not within an inch of its life, wolves should try to limp away from you, same for bears. Giants should try to outrun you, and bandits should have their fight or flight response switch to flight once they see the hopelessness of the situation. Thats my two scents.
Also yeah enemies should definetly act like they have been hit by a weapon of death and not a feather. If I am hacking away at you should take maybe 3 hits depending on the speed to stagger you, not like 10 or 20 because after 10-20 hits IRL most of us would be on the floor bleeding to death especially from a battle axe.
» Thu Jun 07, 2012 2:36 am 
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