horse combat looks unbalanced

[Scryar]

horse combat looks unbalanced

Anybody else think that horse combat looks extremly OP?
The only scene which looked kinda ok was the one against the Ghuls in the "first 15min" min vid. The horse fear level filled up rather quickly and the ghul didn't die from one hit. Geralt would have been dropped off the horse anytime soon.
In all other fights against humans the horse combat looks ridiculiously overpowered. Geralt onehits every human enemy and the reason is not because he outlevels them. In the "first 15min " demo, Geralt was level 1 and the enemies were level 2.
The horse fear level bar barely increases when he is close to human enemies and he just needs to ride a few meters away to get it back to zero.

In this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi8tdetuz90 at 10:22, there are 4 human enemies close to Geralt (and some more a little bit farther away). Geralt kills 2 of them with one blow of his sword ,the horse fear level doesn't even reach 10% while doing so and 2 seconds later it''s almost down to zero again. Geralt could probably easily kill the whole group with a simple hit&run tactics


Usually I would have faith in CD Project Red, but both previous games had a horrible balance, although they were linear games, which are much easier to balance than non-linear games. Igni and Aard ar op as hell in Witcher 1, so are Quen (not even mentioning pre-nerf Quen) and roll spamming in Witcher 2, which makes both games to a cakewalk even on the highest difficulty.

Edit: And forgot to mention the (it seems) infinite slow motion, which makes hitting enemies very easy.

 

[moonknightgog]

Yes. The unlimited slow motion can allow you to do a perfect hit every time.

 

[Lieste]

Cavalry against unformed infantry should be 'overpowered'. It is why cavalry remained in service until very recently... only against machine guns, barbed wire and tanks did cavalry lose it's shock troops status. (Even then there were significant actions such as Beersheba, 1917, where cavalry accomplished much against prepared defences - (ok not technically cavalry ~ the lighthorse were mounted infantry, but they engaged decisively in a mounted charge).

Where cavalry from this era would fare badly would be against formed bodies of steady infantry armed with spears, pikes or other polearms, or bows used en-mass. Bandits in small numbers armed with swords and axes are easy pickings.

 

[TheEvilChris]

The few seconds of mounted horse combat shown in highlight videos are not fully indicative of the entirety of mounted combat as a whole. In much the same way that the deathblows Geralt has dealt on foot are not the entirety of sword combat.

 

[McGregg]

You are Witcher! You're riding horse... Your unnatural skills (sword master, perfect balance, being extremely fast) make you overpowered 95% of the time...

This is not I don't know Total War or Mount and Blade title... you have huge advantage... as for slow motion.... just don't use it....

 

[Scryar]

The few seconds of mounted horse combat shown in highlight videos are not fully indicative of the entirety of mounted combat as a whole. In much the same way that the deathblows Geralt has dealt on foot are not the entirety of sword combat.

I don't see how it would be different if there is shown more than a few seconds. You don't need more than that to see how it works or were there any special circumstances that every human enemy gets onehittet by a single blow when Geralt is on horse?
And why does the horse fear meter fill up so slowly even if there are 3 human enemies close to him? Geralt kills 2/3 of this small group in the video I posted and the horse fear meter didn't even reach 10%. And 2 seconds later it would have been back to zero again.
Please tell me I'm overlooking something like that Geralt get's dropped off the horse after being hit. Because otherwise I don't see how this could be not OP-

 

[Shakewixx]

considering that against humans a witcher will always have the upper hand it is fine lorewise. personally i have not seen enought to point is is op yet the fear meter will drop slower against a human becouse it is something known to the animal, considering also the dark aura that emanates from monsters i also think it is as it needs to be.

 

[Jimbob_2.1]

Cavalry against unformed infantry should be 'overpowered'. It is why cavalry remained in service until very recently... only against machine guns, barbed wire and tanks did cavalry lose it's shock troops status. (Even then there were significant actions such as Beersheba, 1917, where cavalry accomplished much against prepared defences - (ok not technically cavalry ~ the lighthorse were mounted infantry, but they engaged decisively in a mounted charge).

Where cavalry from this era would fare badly would be against formed bodies of steady infantry armed with spears, pikes or other polearms, or bows used en-mass. Bandits in small numbers armed with swords and axes are easy pickings.

That's true but realism isn't a priority here. Just look at Geralt's fighting style, the swords on his back (impossible to draw), the dismemberment... CDPR are obviously prioritizing fun, and I agree with OP, from what what we've seen it seems Over powered. Having said that though, I don't see what more they could do to balance it and i'd rather have it OP than not in the game. I'll simply avoid it if their's a problem.

Edit: also it seems like it's only a problem against human opponents.

 

[Aes Sídhe]

I always got the impression the horse combat was just to get you into the fight, with a shock, and the devs don't have the idea that we're all gonna witcher from our arses, physically AND virtually, now.

 

[Vincentdante]

I doubt a couple of bandits could stand up to a horse riding swordsman charging at them anyway. Unless one of them was very good with a bow.

 

[Phalzyr]

And why does the horse fear meter fill up so slowly even if there are 3 human enemies close to him? Geralt kills 2/3 of this small group in the video I posted and the horse fear meter didn't even reach 10%. And 2 seconds later it would have been back to zero again.

Weak enemies compared to Geralt's level? and 3 is a low number... Why fear only 3 enemies

 

[DukeAlmighty]

From what I seen it looks kinda OP, with systems like that you can easily clear high level bandit camps using hit&run tactics, but of course we don't know how easy is that on hard difficultly setting.
So who knows ?

 

[Asmodean778]

I'd imagine these gameplay elements are 'boosted' for demonstrational purposes. The guys are rightfully proud of these elements - and want them shown off. That doesn't mean every person you engage in combat with is going to be cut in half, nor slowmo killed from horseback.

Gotta stop taking everything literally ;p

Geralt too OP? Challenge eccepted!. *Clicks Dark difficulty* proceeds to get one-shotted by everything.

 

[Phalzyr]

So who knows ?

Maybe youtubers will clear this up after 27th... As is we just don't have enough info..

 

[BiggusD1]

I wager against spears it would be different

 

[SystemShock7]

And why does the horse fear meter fill up so slowly even if there are 3 human enemies close to him?

Horses who are normally around humans don't fear humans.

---------- Updated at 09:00 PM ----------

That's true but realism isn't a priority here.

Then you have stuff like Geralt's beard growing... a level of realism never hurt.

Just look at Geralt's fighting style, the swords on his back (impossible to draw),

That has been discussed before, at length... with video postings showing one can, others showing one can't... and I believe the books state Geralt's sheaths have a mechanism for quick access to the blades.

 

[dasega]

The few seconds of mounted horse combat shown in highlight videos are not fully indicative of the entirety of mounted combat as a whole. In much the same way that the deathblows Geralt has dealt on foot are not the entirety of sword combat.

Yeah, have to play game first and than give opinion otherwise this website will soon look like wccftech.com ;D

 

[Arius87]

I wager against spears it would be different

I would consider this.
And we haven't seen mounted combat against foes with shields too. Hopefully it's not that easy and some kind of challenging.
And maybe enemies with crossbows are more accurately in shooting Geralt off the horse than enemies with bows because of the shooting speed.
But the slowmo time still looks a bit long, especially in the newest quest video "precious cargo" where Geralt has ridiculously long time to chop off the fleeing soldier.

 

[BlackWolf500.298]

Just look at Geralt's fighting style, the swords on his back (impossible to draw),

To be fair, those 2 points draw directly from the source material (the books), they are told to be exactly that way in the books.

Also, remember demo difficulty is "normal" most of the time rather than "hard" or "dark". And to be honest enemies did drop pretty quickly on normal in both TW1 and TW2.

Also, it might be that for demo-purposes the chance for a critical strike is heightened.

As for the fear meter of the horse, of course it does not go up that fast. Monsters are scary and horses are not used to them, I remember that one point in the first book where Geralt had to cast Axxi on Roach to calm him down, because it was becoming hectic, probably due to uncertainty and felt proximity to monsters. A horse feels differently than humans, and even though it might feel some fear from death and attack around it - even by bandits - it is more used to that than to monsters, which will therefore fill the fear meter a lot quicker.

Those bandits are merely meant to be an obstacle in the way. Also this is the tutorial area, where according to press and CDPR themselves the enemies are still "mostly on one level with you", which means that they are probably easier than after the tutorial. The same was in the tutorial of TW1.

 

[thislsmadness]

It seems like the Horse's fear level varies based on the enemy. In the IGN video its shoots up extremely quickly when he's up against the Ghouls. I do agree that the slow motion window seems a bit long. I wonder if difficulty level shortens the window at all or at least introduces AI that has enemies diving out of the way.