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Combat: What Am I Doing Wrong?


LaughingMan008

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Okay, so after many many years I have finally sat down to start playing Dark Mod missions. And overall I'm having fun. With one exception.
The combat. Now I know, this is a stealth game and you are supposed to avoid combat, but still, its there, and I even played a mission that had a "boss fight" in it against a haunt. Good thing I had a fire arrow, else that mission wouldn't have gotten beaten.

The problem is.... I can't. With this combat. Now Ive played first person sword games before, and when it comes to Thief 1 and 2, Im even pretty good at combat, but this game...
Well, 99 out of 100 of all my attacks seem to whiff harmlessly, I can NEVER block an attack, even though I have parry set to auto, and backstabbing? Forget it. I have never managed to successfully perform one yet. How on earth do you people do ANYTHING in combat in this game? I mean, Ive seen video evidence that swinging a sword enough times at a thing is supposed to make it fall down but I can smack at a haunt through 10 health potions and get nowhere.

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6 hours ago, LaughingMan008 said:

Thomas Porter 4: Transaction

To be fair, that particular mission is perhaps the only one I've seen out of the 100+ available missions in which you HAVE to fight and kill someone in order to progress. From what I remember from the mission's forum thread, it was a bit controversial having forced combat but the mapper felt it was worth it since most players avoid direct combat and so it presented a unique challenge.

I guess what I'm trying to say is don't use that mission as a representation of how the game typically plays out, since it's the one mission in the entire mission database for which sword combat is mandatory (someone correct me if I'm wrong). All other missions allow for ghosting, knockouts, and other methods for dealing with enemies. The sword is when you have no other options, and I believe supposed to be clunky to avoid players using it as the first resort rather than the last.

Edited by Xolvix

A word of warning, Agent Denton. This was a simulated experience; real LAMs will not be so forgiving.

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The  Transaction mission is certainly the only one where you are forced to fight against this skeleton, although at least I did not have great problems to eliminate it with 2-3 blows of the sword, luckily the fight skill of this AI seems very low, although the mission is played on the maximum difficulty.

The alternative would be to visit the church first, to get the jars of holy water to use them at a distance with the water arrows against the skeleton.

Edited by Zerg Rush

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That forced combat annoyed me too. It's just not something I enjoy in a stealth game, and IMO you shouldn't feel bad or guilty about just skipping that mission and moving on to the next one.

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6 hours ago, Zerg Rush said:

The alternative would be to visit the church first, to get the jars of holy water to use them at a distance with the water arrows against the skeleton.

So even here, it seems you don't have to swordfight, because there is an alternative solution

Edited by datiswous
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Well as I said, I had a fire arrow. That took care of him just fine, thankfully. XD
I don't mind the idea of forced combat, as long as the combat is... well... functional. And very often I feel the combat in this is not. Like Ive said before, I used to take on hordes of Haunts in Thief 1 and 2. It was fun. But I just cannot get the hang of the combat in The Dark Mod so far. One of my very few complaints with it.

It would be nice if I could figure out how to do a backstab too. LOL

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22 hours ago, LaughingMan008 said:

[...] this is a stealth game and you are supposed to avoid combat, but still [...]

If you ask me, the Developers (intentionally or unintentionally) got combat 100% right: you aren't a swordsman, don't even try. I tried a few times and failed, never to try again. I don't even want to train or learn because I fear that if I discover tactics to take opponents down, I would feel too powerful and dislike the game.

In any case, I think TDM would have done better job if the protagonist had a dagger instead of a sword.

EDIT - It would do the trick even if only aesthetically, the sword gets replaced with a dagger.

Edited by snatcher

TDM Modpack 4.0

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1 hour ago, snatcher said:

In any case, I think TDM would have done better job if the protagonist had a dagger instead of a sword.

EDIT - It would do the trick even if only aesthetically, the sword gets replaced with a dagger.

I don't think this would work if the fighting animation stays the same. I personally never learned how to fight in TDM too, but then I never kill anybody except when a goal demands it. Otherwise I'm quite happy knocking everbody out instead :)!

Edited by wesp5
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44 minutes ago, wesp5 said:

I don't think this would work if the fighting animation stays the same. I personally never learned how to fight in TDM too, but then I never kill anybody except when a goal demands it. Otherwise I'm quite happy knocking everbody out instead :)!

Ahah! So that's why you made that mod. You're a knock out fanatic like me! XD

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  • 1 month later...

Remember that in this game, unlike in Thief, it actually matters where you hit the AI. In combat, hitting them in the head or the face does the most damage. Watch out for helmets though, hitting the helmet does _no_ damage. Also the AI in this game are pretty quick to switch from an attack stance to a block stance. Even if you have auto-defense switched on, you have to be quick about it and counter before they start blocking.

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