Hotkey for Shield Wall?

[ThatDarnDog]

Anyone got a hot key list?
I was just trying things out, and couldn't figure out the hot key for the warrior's first action slot, 'Shield wall'. Intuatively, I assumed it would be 'q', but that doesn't seem to be working, and I can't for the life of me figure out what key it would be.

[NateSwap]

Hey Kero Frog, it's spacebar actually. This will use all movement abilities such as Tumble and Blink. Going to be adding this info into the game for tomorrow's update

[ThatDarnDog]

Ah, okay, Space makes sense since it's an easy to access, primary key. I couldn't for the life of me figure it out at the time.

[ThatDarnDog]

I should note too, that shield wall doesn't feel responsive enough. If I try to engage it during attack animations, it doesn't seem to regestor, but it can be hard to tell if it's 'up' in the heat of battle. So, a lot of the time I hit and hold spacebar, but it's not 'up' leaving me open to attack without relizing it until I've already been hit for full damage.

Double tapping space and holding feels like it works better, but, it really should just go up and stay up when used. I think if it could some how 'over ride' your current animation, that's be more ideal. Like, if your in mid swing with a sword, it just stops the attack and instantly puts the shield up. because, well, when you want your shield up, you really want it up, yknow? Everything else kinda feels secondary to that. XD

Just my 2 cents.

[NateSwap]

Thanks for your feedback! Yea I know what you mean about raising the shield. That's a good idea about double tapping and over riding the current animation. I agree that would be a nice addition. We were thinking of making the player be able to attack while holding block, to be more like how shield bearing warriors historically used to fight.

[ThatDarnDog]

I think there had been a slight misunderstanding, I am saying that currently, double tapping o hold with space works better. Not that its a feature to add later, but that it works better with current controls.

As for historical shield fighting, the problem with your current controls and the attempt at emulating proper shield fighting, is that typically, shields were basically fought around actively. There was not 'active and up' and 'inactive and down' like your current system. Shields were always 'up' and the weapon was fought around its 'up' state... I hope that makes sense.

Vikings, like many other peoples for a very long time, used center grip boss shields. Its important to note we have no historical manuscripts dictating how these shields were actually used, howere there are some interesting hypotheses from Roland Warzecha involving the active use and mobility of the viking shield worth looking at.

https://youtu.be/hJQjvyxdnpo
* This is not Roland Warzecha, but his videos typically show slower, more contolled blows and I think this rant by TheignTrand shows off the 'feel' of how a viking round shield was used a bit better to a first time observer.

Still, I'm not asking you to change your entire system around to suit these sorts of ideas. The current system of 'up' and 'down' I think is a tried and proven fighting system in terms of games. I added the Roland Warzecha thing simple because I think its cool and interesting and may provide some insparation for you to use as you see fit.

But, back to what's in the game right now. I think shield block needs to be given priority over attacking. Allowing for pin point 'parry' like blocking that allows skilled players to maximize damage output by activating the block right at the moment of an incoming attack, before actively going back to attacking.

Again, this is just constructive feedback.

[ThatDarnDog]

I apologize for these long ass posts just to make a simple point, btw. xD Brevity has never been one of my strong points.

[NateSwap]

Ah ok thanks for clearing that up, and that's a great reference video thanks for sharing it. I 100% agree with you and will be addressing it

[ThatDarnDog]

NP. Let me know if you want to see any more viking related videos.

[NateSwap]

Sure actually! If you know of more I'd love to see them