Hello fellow Wicked Enjoyers, Happy Wednesday. I’ve put around 35 hours into the game thus far and have thought of a few different points of feedback that will range from Combat Mechanics to UI.
I’ll start with UI;
User Interface
For starters, I’ll give a bulletpoint list of suggestions, and then tackle why I am suggesting them in order.
-We should be able to View the Numerical counts of Health and Focus, instead of just vague bars.
-We should have the option to enable a Stamina bar above/below the health bar in the top left of the screen.
-Add Preview icons to consumables, indicating what they do, and for how long if a duration is tied to them.
-Clarify within the UI What Elemental (Heat, Cold, Electric, and Plague) Resistances do
-Clarify within the UI What Armor actually does
-Clarify within the UI How Poise and Poise Defense actually work
-Provide an indicator as to how much an attack from a given weapon consumes, with either a percentage or numerical value
-When a percentage benefit or detriment is stated on an item, put within Parentheses how much that actually impacts you. For instance, if you have an item that has +10% Health, clarify that 10% is 10, out of 100, looking like this: " +10% Health (+10)."
-Add descriptions to what Runes actually do within the UI, instead of you having to use them actively to see what they do or how they work. with numeric values for their effects. (For Example, Heal Aura heals +35 health.)
Much of these suggestions are just in the thought of UI Clarity, so the player has an idea as to what the effects of what they are doing or equipping are.
The Numerical Aspects of many different items and effects in the game are not clear at all, such as Resistances or Runes, and sometimes can’t be realistically tested anywhere due to their effects being too small or too specific to consistently view. (+5% Armor, +21 Plague Resistance as examples.)
The UI States That a player has a given armor value, but doesn’t actually tell you how much that helps you. This leads to players like me just thinking, “Oh, so more armor = good, less armor = bad,” and going about my business.
When I see a gear upgrade of +5 Armor, I think “That’s fine,” but when I see an upgrade of +60, I think “Thats HUGE,” with no actual correlation to either of those things being true.
Other games have similar mechanics, and lead to similar questions:
-Are there damage breakpoints regarding enemy damage?
-How does Armor reduce damage, is it a chart of Percentages or a flat reduction?
-Is there a softcap to HOW damage is reduced, such that a player can never achieve full 100% Damage reduction?
-Does Armor apply Before or After Elemental Resistance?
-How does elemental resistance even work in the first place?
These are all questions that should be answered SOMEWHERE in the UI.
Moving on,
Combat
Similarly, I will give bulletpoints and then backup my suggestions afterward in order.
-When viewing a weapon, add a preview or description of their Default, Charge, Sprint and Roll contextual attacks so that you can have an idea as to how the weapon might function before you invest in actually using it.
-Allow us to flow between more attacks more fluidly depending on weight class, with lower weight meaning more access or quicker execution of certain attacks.
-Allow us to cancel certain Rune Attacks midway through with Dodges or other attacks, at the cost of stamina.(For Example, the “Spin” rune on a sword should be cancelable before the second hit, perhaps depending on weight class.)
-Give a substantial bonus to focus gain on Heavy Attack hits, rewarding the commitment more
-Allow certain weapons to perform Heavy Attacks out of Sprint, such as Spears, Daggers, or Twin Daggers.
-Allow certain weapons to Reposition while charging Heavy Attacks, such as Scythes and Two handed Swords by dodging, then attacking
These changes I suggest are mostly to add more versatility to the playstyle of certain weapons, instead of the gameplay formula being purely “Dodge, Attack, Dodge, Attack.”
More options to move and cancel attacks would go a long way to the gameplay feel, as well as aid certain weapons being just straight up worse than others.
Games I think do this very well while maintaining some difficulty are Warhammer: 40k Darktide, Hades, Elden Ring, Dead Cells, and Monster Hunter: World. The Common trend between those games is versatility within reason with weapons, there typically isn’t a hard-limitation to certain animations, which makes the combat feel rewarding to pull off, while still punishing you when you screw up.