Melee combat off and floaty feeling!?!? Possible fix!!

Xspearo

So I been thinking about this and also heard a few people mention that combat feels off and floaty like there is no weight be hide melee combat. I think its mostly because the speed of the melee combat. You cant really feel/see the emphasis of the swing and impact when the characters are swinging so fast it seems like there isn't any effort. So maybe if combat was slowed down a bit you could feel the weight of a swing more.

ilisfet

I don't think that's the issue. Fast attacks can still have weight to them, but it comes in the followthrough/recovery. The aftermath is where you experience the weight of such a strike.

What I feel APOC's melee combat is lacking is hit feedback. Namely, hitstun, twitch, and other indicators of damage dealt on the target. The attacks themselves feel good and are largely snappy (chain enders are so long as to feel unresponsive). There's even audio cues for when a hit connects and a particle effect, but we need more.

The audio cue needs to be more distinct, devs could watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmMlaasm8wk to get an idea of what to do. My main take away was to give "hitmarker sounds" their own frequency range, distinct from every other sound in the game. It currently overlaps with the sounds of attacking, so it's not as distinct. Getting hit by ranged attacks is pretty distinct, though. There's a very clear sound effect when hit by a sceptre or a clear tracer when shot by a bow. What Intrepid needs to be careful is those sounds getting drowned out in battle.

Visually, APOC needs some kind of hurt animation. Without one, even the heaviest blows can feel weightless as the enemy doesn't even react to the damage taken. The absolute best in conveying damage dealt is hitstun: an animation that both interrupts and locks the target in a flinching animation. The issue with this is stunlock in group fights. Without some method of breaking out of stunlock, hitstun isn't a very good solution to melee's hit feedback problem. So, a step down is a twitch. Dark Souls 3 and ESO have twitch animations; animations played on top of current ones and not interrupting or locking the target. A twitch would look like a torso jerk in the direction of the strike. It's something noticeable but isn't rooting. The other thing APOC can do to increase hit feedback is blood sprays. Rainbow Six Siege has huge clouds of blood shoot out of the target whenever shot, so it's very easy to tell when a bullet lands; Dark Souls 3 has hyperbolic blood sprays in the direction of the strike, also easily noticeable and used in tandem with twitch and hitstun animations.
bloodspray and hitstun

bloodspray and twitch

R6S blood spray

Xspearo

Dont get me wrong I enjoy APOC and I also agree with what you are saying, but I think with current speed of combat does this allow receiver of attack to stumble and such?

Good idea bringing dark souls up, as you see attacks are not as fast as APOC so you see the pull back and attack which is the strength, energy, and weight put into the attack and the enemies feedback from being hit by the attack. I think with APOC speed of attacks you cant really see or feel that because its all happening so fast.

ilisfet

I think twitch still works for APOC's attack speed, but hitstun definitely won't work from a balance perspective. Since the twitch animation isn't interrupting anything, it can be layered on without cooldown. It is hard to find a GIF demonstrating the twitch reactions at high frequency, but Dark Souls 3 does have attack speeds rivaling APOC, even if only on a select few weapons.