Harsh but true. I got a feeling that game became so popular because of 2 things - emotional story and (fake) feeling of skillful battle. You are constantly dodging, slashing, evading and from side it looks like Geralt is flowing between enemies like it looks in many action films. But like in actions films, enemies don't attack main hero simultaneously, they are moving in different random directions waiting for something. Imagine that instead of direct attacking, enemies will be wandering around in other games - their difficulty will turn to cakewalk.This game is good by has very terrible gameplay design(the leveling, loot scaling and combat is all terrible).
Become far deadlier (deal more damage), not so much longer to kill.
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And that hesitation turns TW3 Death March into a Cake Run. If those bandits and ghouls will approach in some pattern, try to surround Geralt and then simultaneously attack from different sides it will be cool and challenging. Instead they are slowly moving around, wave their weapons, and give you easy time to select most vulnerable and kill it. In Skyrim bandits use their stamina to charge and run, even bears are charging your horse when you try to evade them. In TW3 they are roaring and slowly crawling, creeping, groveling, I don't know how to call their behavior.No...It is not "fearless", it is completely uncoordinated. Everything...EVERYTHING, just rushes and starts smashing/casting. This makes every single strategy exactly the same: stagger, slice, slice, stagger, slice, slice.
AI must have "hesitation", because instead it turns group combat into "leashing" strategy and spamming AoE abilities. But there must be a pattern to their group movement that the player can read and attack in between.
I am not comparing Skyrim's stealth to mechanics of games based on stealth. But bandits, draugrs, falmers - at least half of them are moving, yes those patterns are simple and repetitive but they still exists and add to gameplay variety. I.e. if there are 3 bandits in the room, one walking, one sitting, one sleeping - you may wait and crouch and kill them one-by-one with a simple dagger or a bow without losing hp. But if you just rush into the room with same bow or dagger you will be killed or crippled after that attempt (until lvl 40+ when you are becoming invincible). So it is simple but it is working. And there is no any stealth in TW3 in comparison.No, they stand in single place and have no complex or interlooping Ai routines. Level design is linear and unsuited for stealth. All basic parameters are extremely simplistic( shoot an arrow to a wall, and they rush to check it). AI resets after 30 seconds and the player has no additional tools, or techniques other than crouch+move forward. It is both the simplest and at the same time poorly designed stealth in modern video games, embarassing in comparison with even mid-tier stealth games more than two decades ago.
And that hesitation turns TW3 Death March into a Cake Run. If those bandits and ghouls will approach in some pattern, try to surround Geralt and then simultaneously attack from different sides it will be cool and challenging. Instead they are slowly moving around, wave their weapons, and give you easy time to select most vulnerable and kill it. In Skyrim bandits use their stamina to charge and run, even bears are charging your horse when you try to evade them. In TW3 they are roaring and slowly crawling, creeping, groveling, I don't know how to call their behavior.
I am not comparing Skyrim's stealth to mechanics of games based on stealth. But bandits, draugrs, falmers - at least half of them are moving, yes those patterns are simple and repetitive but they still exists and add to gameplay variety. I.e. if there are 3 bandits in the room, one walking, one sitting, one sleeping - you may wait and crouch and kill them one-by-one with a simple dagger or a bow without losing hp. But if you just rush into the room with same bow or dagger you will be killed or crippled after that attempt (until lvl 40+ when you are becoming invincible). So it is simple but it is working. And there is no any stealth in TW3 in comparison.
as for the OP... just open geralts w2anim files, there are literally hunderds of different combat animations... each one can be played with the command:
thePlayer.PlayerStartAction(PEA_SlotAnimation, animName);
just make a function like this in a new empty scritpt
exec function pa (animName : name) {
thePlayer.PlayerStartAction(PEA_SlotAnimation, animName);
}
and then call it from the console with pa( the animation name you want)
http://pastebin.com/2nN0k39u
heres the dump of some geralts combat animations...... have fun with the ~800 animations....
After playing on DM in Velen, I'll agree that there is some AI in TW3. Especially if group of bandits have 2-3 archers, they take defensive position and it is rather tricky to take them, because those archers always hit you if you'll stand in one place for a more time that it takes to shoot. Though alt. Yrden solves this, in early game it means that you don't have enough points to raise your sword damage, and so there a lot of monsters whose armor you can't pierce.This game was definitely a learning experience for CDPR...so AI and their patterns have a wide margin in quality. Humans, I agree, in particular are far too passive, however there are great examples of group combat done right...al ghouls, spiders, boars, etc. Even at their weakest, I still consider it above Skyrim's mindless aggressive charging at player...where there are no tactics or observation to be had. .
I find it soo werid how people have radically different opinions on this games combat. People either love it and call it smooth while others call it a clunky, janky and a terrible mess.
I never had the SLIGHTEST problem with the Witcher combat system, it is cinematic and awesome and superstylish ...
... the combat in Witcher 3 is superb, cineastic sword moves, awesome finishers, the best motion capturing ever made in any game can be enjoyed in Witcher 3...
Ugh, watching it instead of playing it apparently increases the strength of that "why wasn't there a trigger warning" moment, in my case. That was bad just now. Really bad. [EDIT: I was referring to my emotional reaction to that "fang bite" = "oral rape" cutscene, not to the performance of the player during the fight!]Anyway - boss fights like the last one against Dettlaff will linger in my memory.
That was bad just now. Really bad.
Max, I meant something different. The cutscene in which Dettlaff jumps at Geralt, pins him to the ground and basically does an oral rape has some trauma trigger qualities. I cringe when I play it, but watching it was worse. Far worse. Which is... interesting. And Ugh.Interesting, Lytha. I would like to learn from you. If you are playing the game on hard (or harder) and without cheats, mods etc.: Pls, make a video. I would enjoy it very much, I'm sure.
Staying tuned
Max.
Max, I meant something different. The cutscene in which Dettlaff jumps at Geralt, pins him to the ground and basically does an oral rape has some trauma trigger qualities.
... except getting hit a bit too often in the blob phase
I hope that clears this up. I meant no offense, I wrote that above while still majorly distressed, and should have waited a bit, @MaxStrauss.
Arkham games which had braindead combat
Good video on showing why the combat sucked. Even the Arkham games which had braindead combat felt very fluid and had precise targeting. The TW3 combat is a clunky horrible mess.