What was the design decision in having contact damage?

[Ancient Toaster]

I mean...this is one of the most annoying game mechanics dating back to the 8-bit era and I really don't understand why this is in a survival horror game.

[goka9696]

To avoid people just running through enemies or even pushing them out of the way, which was possible in RE and SH.

[Bankai9212]

Originally posted by goka9696:

To avoid people just running through enemies or even pushing them out of the way, which was possible in RE and SH.

You could be body blocked, there is no reason for contact damage this isn't a 2d metrodvania.

[Muscarine]

That's one of the two designs i don't really like, especially when you might come out a door with an enemy right behind it and take instant damage

Other one is not really a design, more like jank, sometimes your aim lock just switches target on its own, which can put you in a really bad spot

[Ancient Toaster]

Originally posted by Muscarine:

That's one of the two designs i don't really like, especially when you might come out a door with an enemy right behind it and take instant damage

Other one is not really a design, more like jank, sometimes your aim lock just switches target on its own, which can put you in a really bad spot

My main issue is exactly what you stated, coming through a door and just running into an enemy that is close by.

There have been a couple occasions early in the game (BTW I'm playing this on Gamepass PC, just so anyone is curious) and I've had to take contact damage which just doesn't make sense.

[Bankai9212]

Especially when they are reviving.

[RIG-801]

Stop sprinting everywhere and alerting all the rooms. Wait a bit for enemies to clam down and go back top their patrol routes.

[Darkside99x]

Originally posted by goka9696:

To avoid people just running through enemies or even pushing them out of the way, which was possible in RE and SH.

Which is or rather was a staple of the genre, you have limited resources and evadiing enemies to save them or choosing to expend the resources is supposed to be part of the challenge.

From what I've played so far we have enemies that are very hard to avoid in the tight confines and they can reanimate later forcing double the ammo usage and god help you if you killed them in front of a door.

[goka9696]

Originally posted by Darkside99x:

Originally posted by goka9696:

To avoid people just running through enemies or even pushing them out of the way, which was possible in RE and SH.

Which is or rather was a staple of the genre, you have limited resources and evadiing enemies to save them or choosing to expend the resources is supposed to be part of the challenge.

From what I've played so far we have enemies that are very hard to avoid in the tight confines and they can reanimate later forcing double the ammo usage and god help you if you killed them in front of a door.

You can still run around enemies, what I mean is running right into enemies tanking their hits with no care and / or pushing them out of the way.

[Iris Heart]

Enemies can be pushed. If you have no weapon in hands and run up to an enemy (not close enough to get hurt) and press left click, your character will push an enemy and enemy will get staggered. While it is staggered (about 2 seconds I think), it doesn't do contact damage and can be safely ran past.

[Doctor TacoChocolate]

Originally posted by Iris Heart:

Enemies can be pushed. If you have no weapon in hands and run up to an enemy (not close enough to get hurt) and press left click, your character will push an enemy and enemy will get staggered. While it is staggered (about 2 seconds I think), it doesn't do contact damage and can be safely ran past.

You're kidding. I had zero idea this was a thing, that's awesome.

[neo2157]

I think they wanted to have like grab attacks similar to how a zombie grabs you in RE but that was allot of extra work for two people to do so they just put contact damage in its place.

[sling_shot]

Originally posted by AncientToaster:

My main issue is exactly what you stated, coming through a door and just running into an enemy that is close by.

Then kill it.
If and enemy you already know it's there, being where you don't want it to be is an issue, kill it.

[sling_shot]

Originally posted by Iris Heart:

Enemies can be pushed. If you have no weapon in hands and run up to an enemy (not close enough to get hurt) and press left click, your character will push an enemy and enemy will get staggered. While it is staggered (about 2 seconds I think), it doesn't do contact damage and can be safely ran past.

Awesome, it works!

Fun fact, the Re8 DLC has about the same feature, and of course the game won't tell you you can do that

[Olga 1987]

Originally posted by Iris Heart:

Enemies can be pushed. If you have no weapon in hands and run up to an enemy (not close enough to get hurt) and press left click, your character will push an enemy and enemy will get staggered. While it is staggered (about 2 seconds I think), it doesn't do contact damage and can be safely ran past.

I also did that when I had a weapon with no ammo.

[Denpa]

If we're using older survival horror games as a basis then having contact damage be dependant on certain types of enemies would make more sense. But I think the top down perspective makes it a bit harder to perceive depth for when it comes to more complicated attacks.

In particular I'm thinking of the closer from SH3, it was a lot of fun to frantically dodge and weave between different enemy types whilst rubbin skins.

But Signalis is really reliant on tight spaces so it's probably for the better. Even on hard it was very easy to stockpile so a bit of chip damage was probably necessary.