Weapon special attack balance

[coolAlias]

Hi guys,

First off, let me congratulate you on the release of yet another gem of a game. I have been enjoying the heck out of it so far, but I've noticed that using the weapons special attacks seems to be a very poor tactical decision (so far - I am around lvl 9 and have explored about 5 areas fully, and it seems all the special skills do double damage + ignore some armor, with possible secondary effects).

Basically, in the time it takes to charge up the special attack and execute it, which may miss either due to accuracy or just my poor judgment of the enemies motion, I could have instead had every one of my party members execute some form of attack, including casting spells, and be starting on round 2 of everyone attacking. One potential big hit is never worth it when you can attack 4+ times in its place, especially when you consider the party is usually still mobile during those 4+ attacks vs. standing still while charging up that one potential big hit.

I do like that I can choose when to use the skills, but I think they would benefit greatly from having a drastically reduced charging time.

Just my two cents

Thanks for the great game!

[Boeroer]

I agree and saw it coming. I suggested an alternative form of charging a year ago that would have solved this problem:

http://www.grimrock.net/forum/viewtopic ... B6r#p64351

But besides that: great game! You can have lots of fun without special attacks. Just pretend they were never invented and skip the fighter class.

[Chimera005ao]

I found some enemies didn't give you time to attack with more than two people, else you'd get hit.
And some of the charged attacks had other useful effects, like leech life, or chance to knock the enemy back.
Had one that did multiple swings, on my rogue. Could get about 4-5 backstabs before the enemy knew I was there.

[sergregor]

I agree with the above. Some of the attacks are borderline useless but there are some really good ones as well. You can charge them up ahead of time then jump in at the right moment, it just requires timing.

[Claude P.W]

Well all the special attacks fulfil different needs, maybe you just haven't found ones that fit your playstyle is all. Using strafing differently and charging up a stun attack can be useful for Barbarians that go all out on health with little protection or Evade for instance.

Basically they are just to add some flavour and make fighting certain enemies cooler/different options for beating them, Ignoring armor on a heavy blow vs a knight compared to thrusting at an evasive enemy. Just a tool to play the game with

Maybe they aren't balanced but for some people that isn't the centre of the game, my backline fighter probably would randomly throw his spear then be left a little useless if he panicked and got flanked if I was roleplaying them. A Knight (Paladin) that saves his flaming sword charges only for undead while getting beat up by mushrooms earlier.

Anyways hope you still have fun despite the terrible special attacks system

[Disasterrific]

Nah, special attacks are great! Good addition for tactical combat, plus you can always charge them up as your first/last strike.

[steelsoldier]

I would love if you click to charge and click it again to release the charge attack so you wouldnt have to keep it toggled and then release

[Boeroer]

Yeah... See my link above.

[coolAlias]

I admit that there are some skills that are useful (e.g. stun, flurry), and I don't mean to imply that I am not enjoying the game due to my impression of this one mechanic, it's just that the timing required to land one of these special attacks, after having to charge up for quite some time, leaves them as hardly desirable, in my opinion. Sure, you can use them, and sometimes maybe even to great effect, but the majority of the time, it's just not worth trying for.

Maybe I'm just too poor a judge of how long it takes to charge vs. where the enemy and I will be when it finishes, but more often than not, unless I'm standing toe-to-toe with the enemy, I am quite likely to miss. Now, if you could charge it up but decide when to unleash it, like you can do with magic, then we'd be talking.

[Saice]

The way I use special attacks is I fire off everyone in the party then charge the special while everyone is on cool down. It works well enough that I use specials now and then. But yeah if you try to use more then one special attack it just gets counter productive.

And yeah it is not worth taking a fighter for the bouns at all. Maybe if he had a charge up boost so he could fire them off faster instead of cheaper he would be worth it.