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Combat is confusing


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I actually enjoy the combat loop of running back and forth in Don't Starve and Don't Starve Together, but it has some problems that make it very unapproachable to most players. My friends haven't defeated anything more dangerous than a spider on their own, and from what I gathered talking to them, it's because when they tried to learn how to fight they just got confused and gave up.

I honestly can't blame them. A pigman and merm will punch in front of themselves, but not only can they hit you twice as far as their arm reaches, they will also get you if you're to the side of them. I think having a larger update that would make hitboxes more precise and maybe tweak the animations to better represent what's actually happening, would do a lot to make the game more accessible. There's a ton that can be improved without remaking the entire combat system.

I may get some hate for it, but I also think that some monsters are too strong. Not in that they deal too much damage, but in that the timings when you fight them are a little too tight, which is more visible in Don't Starve Together since you also have to account for lag. I think this is best shown by tentacles.

To hit a tentacle, you have to wait out the first attack, approach during the second attack, hit, and then run during the stagger animation.

It's very easy to start running at the tentacle too early, causing you to run into the second attack. You can also stop to attack too early or too late and get hit, and if you want to run away after hitting a tentacle, you have to press the button during the attack animation of your character, or you likely won't make it back in time.

I don't think I've ever killed a tentacle without getting hit, and I tend to spawn monsters and fight them on a private server just to brush up on combat. Giving players just a tenth of a second more time to react against some monsters would make the game feel much more consistent.

Other potential ideas include:

  • Make it so that using a weapon always works as if you press F by default, since the press and hold option just can't accomplish anything anyway. New players often don't realize that they're supposed to use a different button when attacking than when using tools.
  • Scale the amount of HP Giants have depending on the number of players on the server. This would make a great optional setting, and help out on servers that often see three or fewer players online at a time.
  • Display the player's attack range when holding a weapon. Should also be optional, as many players now have a feel for it.

 

I don't know what ideas Klei may have for combat, but I really hope some updates to it will come soon. With new monsters and bosses being added regularly, I wish the combat system was more welcoming to players.

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This game isnt like others were you can play with 100 or 120 ping without problems. Few ping makes it so hard to play it properly. I try to avoid +50ping servers

 

Combat, except for ctrl+F near certain structures, works fine. 

F hits enemies that just wanted to atack you and ctrl+F the nearly mob near you.  The range and timing is something is learned with practise. Be afraid of being stunlocked increase a lot the chances of surviving at fighting for new players

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Once you get used to higher ping it’s totally playable. Sometimes when I’ve been playing a lot on high ping servers and then go back to a solo world without lag I have a bit of trouble. You just get used to things like clicking away before an animation is complete, kiting differently, and the fact that many activities will simply take a bit longer.

Don Giani has 300+ ping in this day 14 fuelweaver speedrun with Helicalpuma.

Spoiler

 


About the original topic, I find the attack range to be more clear from the animation when your camera is rotated so that your character is to the right or left of the enemy.

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23 hours ago, Well-met said:

Ping is honestly the biggest factor. It seemingly doubles mobs attack range.

play the game offline and then you realize stuff have pretty short ranges

Yes, offline game mode solves the ping problems but it is in a horrible state. You cannot even play as dlc characters yet alone the skins are not available. And you cannot change it to online mode after you've created an offline world.

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7 minutes ago, Talep said:

Yes, offline game mode solves the ping problems but it is in a horrible state. You cannot even play as dlc characters yet alone the skins are not available. And you cannot change it to online mode after you've created an offline world.

wait, you cant play wurt or wortox or walter? that is really stupid

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38 minutes ago, Talep said:

Yes, offline game mode solves the ping problems but it is in a horrible state. You cannot even play as dlc characters yet alone the skins are not available. And you cannot change it to online mode after you've created an offline world.

You can make lan servers without playing offline with 0 ping

Choose it when you create a world

31 minutes ago, gaymime said:

wait, you cant play wurt or wortox or walter? that is really stupid

To preven piracy. Is fair since you can play local meanwhile you keep being connected

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39 minutes ago, gaymime said:

wait, you cant play wurt or wortox or walter? that is really stupid

You can play Walter, since hes a free character, Wurt and Wortox nope because the game needs to connect to Kleis servers to check if you have those characters unlocked.

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3 hours ago, gaymime said:

wait, you cant play wurt or wortox or walter? that is really stupid

Yes, right. you cannot play as wurt wortox and wormwood.

3 hours ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

You can make lan servers without playing offline with 0 ping

Choose it when you create a world

I'm pretty sure you are incorrect, sir. It is not 0 ping. I'm experiencing ping in online LAN worlds.

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8 minutes ago, Talep said:

Yes, right. you cannot play as wurt wortox and wormwood.

I'm pretty sure you are incorrect, sir. It is not 0 ping. I'm experiencing ping in online LAN worlds.

im playing with that configuration many years and never had more than 0 ping

if you create a lan world online, you are conected to klei servers to check your inventory as hornet said but your world is land so there is no ping

i can post screenshots if you dont believe me

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My main problem is the fact you can be hit when behind an enemy. Especially annoying when it's a enemy that was hitting one player but "retargeted" another  player behind them as soon as the original target went out of range. Don't know if it's as much of an issue for everyone else but it happens to me all the time.

Is anyone else capable of leaving the range of a mob, then returning before the damage gets dealt (and attack animation finishes) untouched? I feel like some mobs have this property but I haven't tested it out.

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3 hours ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

did you tried to play with this option? it makes it local so there should be 0 ping

Untitled.thumb.png.243fec07c635dd6682af8b0bee860c81.png

if the sensation of lag persist might be a performance problem

ye i have that setting on, i think it auto sets it too if you set players to 1

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