Greetings, Warriors!

Last week, we forecasted some significant changes to the Gloria Victis combat system. We were collecting your feedback and analyzing the combat data for quite a long time before we decided to make them, as the proper solutions and improvements had to be thoughtful.

As during testing we have found implemented solutions more intuitive and better, we are aware that you will need some time to get used to the new combat interface and rules, and we will be happy to gather your constructive opinions after you check and try the changes for a few days. The new system removes some UX flaws the old system had, speeds up the combat, and makes it more dynamic, thanks to changes in the weapon block system.

It is heartwarming to see our playerbase grow once again, and that we are reaching the highest peaks in player numbers recently, so we are welcoming all the newcomers and wishing them the best in their adventure. You all are more than welcome to join our official Discord and say hello to other players and Dev Team :)

And now, let’s get to the details and explanations of today's update.
See you in battle!


The screenshot’s authors have been awarded. Elielepro, Lenny Letto,, and Neqster – check your Ambers!

Changelog v.0.9.9.0 Beta

Combat improvements – Weapon block resistance!

For quite some time, we could observe situations, where the fights could stall when one of the players refused to uncover and blocked endlessly with a weapon. Skill cap in weapon block – easy to achieve – and the lack of flaws in the style of the turtle made the fight unnecessarily prolonged. And it needed to be addressed.

As there is a counter to shield blocks, and shield blocks have their resistance, we are not changing them. We are adding similar solutions to weapon blocks.

From now on, weapon blocking also has its resistance, as does shield blocking. But there’s a twist. Our strikes on the enemy regenerate our block strength bar for weapons. This makes the fight more dynamic because we are encouraged to try to hit the enemy, instead of only blocking. The strength of the block with the weapon and the shield are two separate statistics. After the shield strength is depleted, we can still block with the weapon, and similarly, when our weapon cannot block anymore, we can use the shield and defend with it.


You will be able to test the new combat on the new Valley of Death tournament map soon!

Each weapon has 600 block resistance, which regenerates 6 points per second and 90 points with each hit landed on the opponent, regardless of whether it dealt damage or got blocked/chambered (hitting 3 opponents at a time using a two-handed weapon gives us three times the number of regenerated strength points of the block).

In this system we are adding a benefit for perfect weapon blocks (blocking incoming attacks with a weapon in the first 300ms of our block duration), which will increase skill cap and be more rewarding for hitting the perfect timings:

– Performing a perfect block will take up to a maximum of 50 points from our weapon block resistance.
– Performing imperfect block, so blocking attack between 300ms to 3 seconds of our block duration will take up to a maximum of 70 points from our weapon block resistance.
– If we block longer than 3 seconds, each blocked attack will take up to a maximum of 100 points from our weapon block resistance.

Remember that like before, the number of resistance points taken is also related to damage and strength of the blocked attack, that is why we are giving the maximum cap that can be taken out of the resistance when blocking, but the numbers may be lower in real combat.

And at the end, some other important information:

– You can now block attacks without having any stamina. Before the changes, you were unable to block. Now, you can still block attacks, but those will take more of your weapon block resistance – up to 100 points (same as blocking for longer than 3 seconds with stamina.). Shield blocks resistance loss remains the same as before.
– Chambering with the weapon is not taking our weapon block resistance. Using that mechanic will be even more effective and meaningful.
– Hammers and axes aren't more effective against weapon blocks, as is the case with these weapons against shields.
– Perks buffering the strength of the shield do not affect the strength of the weapon.

We believe changes in the weapon block system will make the combat more dynamic, faster, and interesting. We have already seen some opinions that introducing such a thing to the game would be nice, so we hope you will be satisfied with it.

Combat improvements – Increasing attacks speed

The change in attack times was motivated by the fact that it is now very difficult to deal damage to a player who has reached at least an average level in combat. The blocking skill cap was at a really low level which makes some fights very long and tedious. Thus, we facilitate dealing damage, but at the same time, we are not increasing the possibility of spamming attacks.

This goal will be achieved by reducing the time from the execution of the attack action to dealing damage. So, when you release an attack, the swing will be faster. But no attack we've changed will be faster than left swing with a single-handed weapon.

It may seem that faster attacks are associated with potential attacks spam, so to avoid this, we need to make sure that after a failed attack, the opponent has a larger time window to start his attack sequence again and give us an opening for a counter. Increased attack speed applies to all weapons except Lances and knives. At the same time, the ability to deal more blows in the time scale is given to two-handed weapons except for two-handed swords, and lances. Two-handed swords are still powerful enough to be one of the best weapons for group fights.

Changes in attack speeds and damage capabilities mean that weapon damage and armor reductions also need to be changed to maintain the right balance in the game.

Armors

Two-handed hammers have the greatest popularity among weapons, and with the changes explained above, they get a boost through the ability to deal damage faster. Therefore, in order to prevent creating an overpowered type of weapon, we raise the blunt damage reduction on armors. Light armor gains the largest buff, medium armor gets an average one, and heavy armor the smallest one. These changes are in the range of 15-5%

One-handed weapons

One-handed weapons receive a significant bonus to the damage. As two-handed weapons will be now closer in terms of speed, and one-handers are not allowing to hit multiple targets with one attack, we believe it is needed to maintain their usefulness in combat. Those weapons are being used in tank builds, which do not have bonuses to damage from abilities or attributes, and have the lowest kill and damage ratio across all weapon types, so it is reasonable to increase their efficiency. As a side bonus, as you can throw those weapons, it will be also more viable.

Spears, Guisarmes and Lances

Recently we brought back faster versions of two-handed spears and guisarmes, and after reducing their range, they deserve a slight damage buff too, to match their damage output with berdiches. Lances – slower sisters of two-handed spears are also receiving damage buff.

Berdiches

Berdiches themselves have long deserved to be distinguished more from two-handed axes. Therefore, their stab attack receives a type of piercing damage (until now it was blunt damage, although the models of weapons indicated that they should be able to stab.)

Combat improvements – Interface improvements

We changed the combat interface a little. The old system forced players to look at different parts of the screen, and it was causing misunderstandings and was unintuitive. So, looking at the other games with similar combat, we decided to put information related to combat in the middle of the screen, on which players are focused during the fighting. Veteran players may not need such parts of the UI as indicators of the direction of their attacks and blocks, this is because their muscle memory and knowledge of timings mean that they do not need feedback when they attack or block, so our goal was to create a UI that would not interfere with the gameplay for veterans, but at the same time will be intuitive and helpful in learning for new players. Those who feel experienced enough have the possibility to fully turn off the attack indicators.

Placing information in the center of the screen on which they are focused, should make it easier to understand the mechanics of the fight, and make the learning curve smoother for them, which should have a positive impact on players' retention.

Quality of Life:

– Throwables like eggs and tomatoes now leave decals on surfaces after the collision. Decals stay for 5 minutes and after that fade away. For now, you can see them on terrain, static objects (environment), and dynamic objects (i.e. castle walls, doors, gates). Sadly, due to technical limitations, we are unable to show them on players.
– Saturday State of War deactivation system has been improved. Players will now see a percentage of the completion instead of points, gathered points are now scaled with balance systems, server activity, and population, and we added new events and activities to the pool of things you can do, to contribute to SoW deactivation.

Fixes

– Fixed an issue causing the angle for mounted attackers fighting with AI opponents to prevent the player from hitting the AI enemy unless it was placed in front of the mount.
– Fixed an issue where snow footsteps were appearing on the terrain under walkable models (wooden fortifications, bridges).
– Fixed an issue where top cavalry perk Momentum was causing mount slow when receiving a red powerbar hit from an animal.
– Fixed an issue that allowed it to perform full attack animation without doing damage while using the feint button.