You will also see roll, block, heavy attack, stagger if you pay attention. In some devs duels where both are evenly skilled at melee, you see a lot of this, especially in the early stream where Miguel fought with the intern.
Yeah, I saw that. If you feel that's enough for an interesting melee gameplay, have lots of fun with it. I'm not going to touch it. I have much better examples of skill-based melee gameplay and they are still tons of fun to play even though some are more than 10 years old. In EC everyone are evenly skilled at melee simply because no skill can possibly emerge from such an overly primitive combat mechanics.
On top of the early stuff, you can also look to LS13. It showed a lot of the current development strategy, the 3 blocked attacks to remove guard, combat roll and power attack too. Bottom line, it's a process and I agree that it doesn't need to be over complicated but they are tweaking it. Right, onto the pragmatic side of the melee equation: This ain't a game where close combat can continue for more than a few seconds on average. Between two well geared and balanced melee specs (offense and defense say Chainsword and Storm Shield) then the fight should be a prolonged event but in general, it's a no no. Ranged combat being what it is (fucking devastating) melee classes have to match that EC metric of 1.5-2s TTK with a hitscan system otherwise what's the point ? It's a team-based tactical game. Someone will end up with HB shells where their spine used to be if it takes too long and that's the major takeaway: This isn't small scale warfare. 1v1 duels should not ever be the defining balance metric and if melee is much more complicated than ranged for the same reward then it suffers as a playstyle. Note that aiming/reloading a Bolter isn't complex but it does take a level of skill that we should consider a benchmark. On the other hand it should be interesting and you do see that emerging more from Alexis' work in LS13 but it's a skeleton around which the rest of the melee combat will be balanced, the RPG system alone will suck if the system is too complicated before it can be implemented. We still have 20+ melee weapon types we've never seen, we don't know if pistols will be viable in EC as they are in TT/lore, the accessory list for items that boost/reduce evasion and guard aren't even close to being in.
The fact is that it is still really simplistic (I know it is PRE-ALPHA) and still consists of 3 buttons (attack, heavy attack and block, even though there is the combo to kick when attacking whilst blocking) I would like to see a more dynamic combat system, faster and including more mobility (that is essential for the banshee) I would like the possibility to choose from which side I'm going to hit (stab, right, left, vertical, etc...) and have the possibility to roll backwards and then jump straight forward to stab my enemy and close the gap Being able to jump over my enemy (as a banshee) could also be cool I talk allot about the banshee because for me it is the class that must have a well polished combat system as it is based on mobility and speed (but dies damn fast)
Banshee is going to be a beast and it needs to be talked about, SSs too. We already know it's intended to deflect rounds with it's sword ala Lore (and Warframe ) but not much else. I really think the Banshee needs the leap back/sideways ability of the current Jump Pack Assault classes have with added finesse. But I also want to raise something no one has mentioned for a while, Devs or community: Ages ago they talked about holstering your ranged weapon to focus on a pure melee stance. Atm it's the 2 bumpers for melee combat (on a controller) plus whatever hold/charge power attacks and evasion. If holstering is still the plan then that does free up the 2 triggers for 2 additional melee oriented skills presumably ... Although focused melee does leave you open to some twat leaping back and emptying a Plasma Pistol into your eye lense, but hey, that's not new.
I wouldn't mind a style similar to Mount and Blade, but speeding it up would be nice. I imagine Assault classes would be cool to have extra mobility options would more shooty classes would have less. But most importantly, I want it to be Bloody, fast and deadly.
Do we have that many buttons? I dont think people understand, this game is supposed to work with a controller, and it also has to support the ability to switch seamlessly between melee and ranged. We cant have dark souls style combat because it will take up way too many buttons and there wont be many left for melee, we cant have mouse controlled melee attacking, because its clunky and not that many people actually enjoy it, not to mention that the game is (fast paced as you said) and the system is slow and, I'd say downright silly unless its a first person medieval game like chivalry. For things like, rolling then attacking, thats possible, they have that working for sprinting. But anything more technical just wont really work for it. The ideal setup: X=Melee RB=Block A=roll A-X=roll then attack (sweep attack Left Trigger=Aim Right Trigger=Ranged weapon/shoot Y=Kick B=use/enter D-Pad=weapons Start=menu Back=map (This transitions over to keyboard) Of you combine more than one button to do something (like A-X=roll then attack) then that can work, but I dont see how you can get any further than that.
Agree to disagree, the combat mechanic like in M&B, Skyrim, Jedi Academy definitely won't fit in this game. Like everybody says, you're gonna die in 2 sec if you run around swinging your sword, it doesn't feel W40K either. In lore, most melee fight is quick, brutal and abrupt, there is no swinging sword back and forth, fight is decided after 1 or 2 slash at best. And imagine a SM running back and forth swinging his chainsword like a mad man, how anti-climatic that would have been.
You left out the Power Attack button but actually that's very close to the controller setup on the media pre-alpha version that @S3dition snapped in August. Note that the Power Attack wasn't in there at the time of course. I really can't think of many console games that have such a split focus on melee and ranged as EC . GOW is probably the closest I've experienced, not being a console fan and rarely using my gamepad for anything but DS2 and DA. Actually I'd keep both bumpers for melee (Fast & Power) and stack the Kick much like the Charge; have it bound to (LS Up + LB), where (LS Up + RB) is probably going to be charge, make RStick=Block perhaps ? Using the stick buttons doesn't work for some people, but I don't mind the RS being Block in Warframe. Warframe is actually a pretty good example of the breadth of control we're looking for in EC, even though again, it only has a single melee button (out of melee mode). Goes to show we need mapping customization . I really want to know if they are still planning a focused melee mode and how exactly you switch to grenade pathing mode, Y works as a blind throw I guess but holding Y doesn't sound ergonomic to me. Tapping Y toggles in and out of Use mode ?
