There has been a patch, recently the first patch, and hit detection IS FAR BETTER THEN BEFORE, and it is something they are constantly working on.
It has gotten better (I’ve been playing almost daily since day 1), and they’re still doing pretty decently for a 3-4 week old game, but I’m just pointing out that there’s still a lot of room for improvement.
And almost entirely in the hit detection/collision/pathing department.
I’ve also noticed (and been infuriated by) Archer weapon switch problems. Specifically, and these are probably all just one simple problem with cludgy animations/interruptions:
–Getting hit from range while drawing my bow: causes a stagger, which is fine. However, my character then attempts to draw the bow again, and incompletely draw it at that before I can do anything else with my weapon - whether it be draw it for real, or switch to melee weapon.
–While fighting someone who’s closing with me, if I get hit either with a long weapon from them or from range while drawing the bow, pushing ‘2’ for melee weapon switch does not register until the above-mentioned buggy-incomplete-fakedraw of the bow has completed. This often results in not being able to pull out a melee weapon and all, and subsequent defenseless death.
The solution to this? Fix it so that if you push ‘2’ (and I am always mashing ‘2’ just as fast as I can) during your stagger, it doesn’t attempt to draw the bow. My hunch is that the faildraw is caused by holding M1 and being interrupted, and the stagger does not properly clear what you were doing when you got staggered. And because of human biology, you won’t release M1 until a split second after you were staggered and the game will thus think that you still had M1 down, and thus attempt to draw the bow again immediately after the stagger ends. Only then will you pull out your shortsword, but that’s 3-4 seconds later, and you’re usually already dead.
Also, in general, I think that the arrow velocity penalty for aiming at a higher angle is too high. It makes archers just a little too ineffective at decent ranges, unless they are elevated, which leads to them needing to get closer, which leads to a higher frequency of the extremely infuriating stagger/faildraw/weapon switch problem I’ve detailed above.
Other than that and agreeing with optimal range being needed (especially for the long-shafted weapons), which are both really minor fixes as you can adjust your play to cope with the unrealism ( ;) ), the most frustrating issue I have with this game is OHMYGOD THE COLLISION MODELING IS HORRIBLE. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been stuck on a rock, unable to get off even by kicking (which shouldn’t be necessary to get yourself unstuck from the side of a hill in the first place), while I get shot to death by an archer. Or how many times I’ve been backing up to my teammates, only to get stuck on a 3-inch twig sticking out from a tree and not be able to back up any further - even if I am also side-stepping while backing up!
Which reminds me of one other infuriating detail: shooting people who are interacting with a siege weapon, battering ram, etc., is extremely buggy. From the side or at an angle, they are often not actually where the game displays them to be. I can’t tell you how many arrows I’ve seen disappear into a knight’s chest while he was working the battering ram at the gate, only to not get a hit. He’s stationary and I aimed carefully, following the projectile with the camera, and it just disappears into his body. He takes no damage from that arrow, nor any of the 3 that follow. And don’t tell me it’s because I’m just bad at the game - I’m not so bad at archery that I miss a target that hasn’t moved in 5 or 15 seconds, multiple times. I will admit that I have sometimes missed with the first shot, but that’s how I know the following shots should have hit :P .
If I knew how to take a screenshot, I’d demonstrate.
Print screen [PrtScn] or press F12 in-game for a Steam Screenshot.
Can’t you just count the numbers of each class? You can find a player’s class by looking at the small icon next to their name in the scoreboard. I can see them quite clearly. If this is too difficult, then I don’t know what you’re looking for.
I run dual monitors and full screen my games on my primary, which is what I think prevents my print screen key from working properly. It just comes back with a black primary monitor if the game itself doesn’t support PrtScr functionality (off the top of my head, Skyrim and Sins of a Solar Empire work with my PrtScr key).
The trouble is that it takes too much time to look at each icon and determine which class somebody is, because the icons aren’t easily distinguishable. You could miss a respawn timer - or worse, waste a life because you spent too much time looking at the scoreboard.
He’s talking about showing a summary like (now this is my interpretation so the hope is I’m not wrong and don’t come off like a tool, but meh);
Imagine half of the current scoreboard, the below row would sit at the top
Archer(s): 99 | Man at Arm(s): 5 | Knight(s): 6 | Vanguard(s): -3
rest of teams usual scoreboardI see what Matti’s saying, the current system shows you what you’re looking for (it’s just not a one-glance thing).
I would prefer just more recognizable class icons, even just the class letters by them selves rather than that silly shield.
More recognizable class icons would be a great start - even just color coding them. Archers, red. Knights, purple. Vanguards, blue. Men at Arms, green. Or whatever.
Your example is pretty much what I was talking about. A summary up at the top that goes:
Archer - 2 Knight - 4
Vanguard - 3 Man-at-Arms - 12
I agree, a part of the scoreboard should show which team got how many of each class. Probably through class symbols and an attached number, but the current classsymbols are not easily recognizeable so we’d need new ones.
Still, they got a lot of work to do and this sounds like medium or low priority to me. At least, you can see what your own team has at one glance during class selection (‘m’).
On the other hand, medival knights didn’t have a scoreboard which showed them what the enemy got xD
It’s such a quick graphics/coding fix, though…. Color coding the class icons would take what, 30 minutes? Maybe 15!
They do have a lot of work to do, but they released quite a solid game from the start. And once you have a solid base, it’s all the little UI things that add or detract from the feel of the game so much more than major features of it.
Ideally, it would end up being color coded on each team list (as I rattled off above), and the same icons/colors would also be repeated either above or below the team list with totals.
Everybody’s had those games where the enemy team just has too many men-at-arms or archers, and your archer-self or vanguard-self is just getting beat up. Or maybe your team is just getting tossed and you want to try to salvage the match by switching classes.
So you try to look at the enemy team and determine which class would be best to switch to….but it’s really hard, because the icons for each class aren’t that distinctive and there’s no “Class Total” line on the scoreboard. Ick.
I propose adding a line on the scoreboard, or perhaps a section up near the “Score” totals for each team, that details how many Archers/Men-at-Arms/Vanguards/Knights are currently playing on each team. Quick and easy, and would make picking a class so much easier.
If I knew how to take a screenshot, I’d demonstrate.