Combat

[Boog7]

Like alot of people my initial impression of combat was that it was sloppy and involved too much flailing. After adding a few points to dex and practicing the different manuevers, rolls, flips , ninjitsu etc things got alot easier and actually fun.

Still though, the sense of scrambling when attacked by groups, which is the norm for this game, was still there. Eventually it dawned to me, having strafe and bkwd movement so severly restricted, forces you to either run fwd or use flips or rolls to avoid being surrounded. This means you have to continually realign a target and imo makes the whole group fight scenario hairy since this has to be done quickly and repetitively. If strafe and bwd movement speeds were increased to 75% of the fwd run speed, instead of the 10% or so they currently are, combat would have a much more controlled feel since it would require much less effort to avoid being surrounded.

[Emulated]

i would agre with speeding up back and side to side movement
marrowind combat is very easy i think partly due to mobility so if this game was anyhting like that for movement it would be better than what it is now
ofcorse you can just use a spell like the fire nova one to kill everyone around you ;)
mobility of side to side and backwards needs to be improved no doubt about that but after playing as a fighter in demo i found it easy to kill amost anything and the mobility wasent much of a big problem but i can see why it should be better :)

[onewolf]

backflipping and lateral leaps are both pretty quick. i like being able to subtly readjust when needed, and leap back or to the sides rapidly when needed. more flexibility that way, and more realism as well. not to mention the lateral leaping is more rapid than even the forward movement is, and can be chained for covering some serious ground.

if you are facing in a direction (in reality), moving to the sides or straight back makes you quite a bit slower too, since you have to focus on looking ahead and not tripping at the same time.

[Boog7]

Hey Onewolf,
You think rolling through an opponent or backflipping 6 feet in the air is realistic? Tell you what, lets have a RL contest.... You roll your way sideways and I,ll strafe and lets see who wins by a large margin..Same goes with running backwards lol
Bleh.....Anyways we're talking "Video Game" so reality can be tossed out the window. All I'm suggesting is that if they increase the lateral and bkwd speeds it would help those of us who find combat too restricting. Also, I can't recall any other game I've played thats had near this limiting strafe and bkwd motion. As they are now why even have them?

[onewolf]

i was referring to the lateral jumping, since the rolling requires a bit of recovery time. also, i read that backflipping isn't allowed at first (in retail, i'm saying), and it is possible that some of the other acrobatics won't be either. these are abilities you gain by adding points to the general skill "athletics".

in terms of realism, when i think of strafing i don't think about doing it on a nice level field or on a mat. i am thinking of strafing on rough terrain where you can't just blindly charge in a direction you aren't facing. on the same note, you can't roll well on sharp rocks or tangled brush either....

i guess the more i think about it, the more i would see the strafe/reverse motion speed being influenced by your athletics skill, since either one would be tough in reality (especially with a full helm on).