Quick Update:
Been working on combat and level design.
Thanks to a blender plugin posted in the Game Developer thread level design iterations are now much faster.
Generally I'm following the
11 step approach (naturally it takes me more than just 11 days to make a region, since I create my own assets), however Blocking out was always kinda bothersome with UE4's standard tools, so that plugin really helps a lot. There's also
Mesh Tools, but I haven't tried that yet. I imagine combining those two plugins might work out nicely.
So the general approach is blocking out, placing items/enemies, playing it, fixing it, replaying it etc etc.
Once an area works out gameplay-wise I add details/lighting/and so on.
With regards to combat I've mostly tweaked animations and character states:
(Lock on is fully optional by the way)
Other than that most changes happened in the background.
It's not entirely implemented yet, but technically combat works like this:
You have a base attack value, made up of a Slashing/Bludgeoning/Stabbing percentage.
Your enemy has a base defense value, made up of the same. The formula for damage is relatively simple at the moment: Damage is the sum of all attack values reduced by their respective defense values.
Whenever you hit an unsuspecting enemy it is a critical hit.
Critical hit modifiers depend on the weapon and their respective purpose. Meaning, with a dagger a critical stab is "more critical" than a critical slashing attack.
I might still introduce an additional modifier for attacks from behind. Still gotta experiment with that since it might have a strong impact on balance. It could work out nicely if armor weight actually has a (strong) impact on sneaking. The sneak attack is supposed to give the Thief playstyle an advantage over enemies to compensate for their lack of armor. Another thing I was thinking about was combat noise, where daggers are very quiet, while maces or hammers are very loud. That doesn't make all that much sense but it might add a nice component gameplay wise. I also have to experiment with that.
Anyway, every regular weapon can parry. However, the weight of the weapon determines the result. You can't parry a heavy hammer with a measly dagger. Or at least not very well.
The bigger the weight gap between your and the attacker's weapon, the more punishing parrying gets. This goes from losing precious stamina to basically having your defense broken from a single attack.
Parrying being rather punishing is also the reason why dodge jumps exist, which can be seen here:
This is actually an older gif without pain stun animations. I should note though: Only "full" attacks can pain stun enemies. Every attack costs a certain amount of stamina. Technically you can also attack if you are out of stamina. However those won't be full attacks (and have reduced damage). At the moment you need to bring up at least half the stamina for an attack to produce a pain stun.
There are minor and major painstuns.
Minor painstuns are just a small animation when the enemy is hit. They can delay attacks. They can't interrupt an attack.
Major painstuns are longer animations that interrupt attacks. They only occur when the enemy is out of stamina.
Blocking is essentially a better/less punishing form of parrying.
Stamina costs for blocking depend on the shield's stats and your defense can only break open if you run out of stamina.
Having your defense broken results in slower movement and being unable to counter-attack for roughly a second.
One thing I might still add is a strength bonus for blocking as well as a dexterity bonus for parrying.
And now to put all of that into an easily understandable tutorial area, without adding "that one quest" where some bozo shows you how to fight.
