Addressing Melee Range

Ffastyl

Melee range is rather unintuitive, attacks having a range of 5m or 7m, longer than the graphical reach of weapons and their swings -- much longer in some cases. While the range of engagement can be intuited from experience and light attack range is marked by the crosshair closing in, the mismatch between perceived and actual range can be jarring. This mismatch can be used to the advantage of attackers, lulling the player into believing an attack will whiff by striking at the edge of melee range, adding a layer of depth to combat.

Would you rather...

Ffastyl

Change animations to match melee range.

Changing animations to match melee range would entail adding advancing steps to the attacks or shockwaves/ripples to show the extended range of the swing, much like in flashier action games.

Scheneighnay

Change animations to match melee range.

I would like a little bit of both, but that would probably be expensive.

Kattemynte

Leave the system as is.

If you match the melee range to the reach of the weapons that would totally nerf stamina users as you have to be much closer to your target. Yes, IRL you need to be close enough to hit but this is a MMO, take away that extra range and most people will just play ranged. Tanking would be horrible, it would almost force you to use the magicka taunt.

Ffastyl

Change animations to match melee range.

Having the perceived match actual creates a more satisfying experience, knowing what you see is what you get. To that end, I think changing animations to match melee range by adding advancing steps is the solution. With advancing steps, the attack range is still the reach of the weapon wielded, plus the length of the advancing step. This actually preserves the deception of reach we have in the current system while maintaining a sense of realism to physical combat. The issue with adding advancing steps is how to play out the animation with a) animation cancelling and b) a combat system that allows free movement while attacking (in other words, attacks moving the player were not taken into account save charges). For example the standing power attack for bladed weapons in TESIV: Oblivion takes an advancing step forward and then returns to the starting spot. How can that animation be handled when the player is allowed to move while the advancing step is happening? Overlaying attack movement over normal movement could be off cycle, creating a weird animation.

An example of how advancing steps maintains the deception of attack range is the Longsword from Dark Souls 2. A one-handed R1 takes a large advancing step while slashing, making the effective range of the attack double the length of the blade. I will post a video below if I can find one showcasing this attribute adequately.

The issue points (a) and (b) raise are janky attack animations. (b) can be solved by treating all melee attacks as short distance charges and shortening melee range to match the animation. That way the range of each attack is still 5m or 7m but the attack will only connect when it graphically connects, rather than have this phantom range (barring latency/lag). (a) is trickier, but might be sorted out by the solution to (b), as the attack will be canceled/whiffed if animation canceled too early.

Forestd16b14_ESO

Shorten melee range to match animations.

dtsv217_ESO wrote: »

If you match the melee range to the reach of the weapons that would totally nerf stamina users as you have to be much closer to your target. Yes, IRL you need to be close enough to hit but this is a MMO, take away that extra range and most people will just play ranged. Tanking would be horrible, it would almost force you to use the magicka taunt.

No not really it just be a long over do "change" to wrecking blow.

ElliottXO

I believe this is a ping issue. If you shorten melee range people with 100ms and above might have a hard time hitting a moving target and swing into nothing even if it's a 'hit' on their screen.

GreenSoup2HoT

Shorten melee range to match animations.

I would take this one step closer and to reduce all gap closer's to 10 meters.

tplink3r1

Change animations to match melee range.

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

I would take this one step closer and to reduce all gap closer's to 10 meters.

Then the next step is to remove melee from the game and rename ESO to Elder Casters Online: Magicka Unlimited.

silky_soft

Buff Jesus beam another 60m

GreenSoup2HoT

Shorten melee range to match animations.

GreenSoup2HoT wrote: »

I would take this one step closer and to reduce all gap closer's to 10 meters.

This is coming from a stamina nightblade. I hate seeing people fly around with crit rush or ambush for example. It's kind of stupid.

Ffastyl

Change animations to match melee range.

I would rather see charge skills as free aim column AoE travel skills, similar to Bolt Escape. But that is a topic for another thread/poll.

Vangy

Change animations to match melee range.

Great.. Another nerf stamina in disguise. How about we just delete melee from this game? That way, I can free up 2 of my toon slots.

khele23eb17_ESO

Leave the system as is.

Do we really need more stamina nerfs?

Ffastyl

Change animations to match melee range.

@khele23eb17_ESO There's a lot of things I'd rebalance about the game if I could, but one topic at a time. Too much to look at when trying to rebalance everything at once.

Necrelios

Change animations to match melee range.

Ffastyl wrote: »

Changing animations to match melee range would entail adding advancing steps to the attacks or shockwaves/ripples to show the extended range of the swing, much like in flashier action games.

Pretty much this right here. I've seen some games with some pretty nice effects like shockwaves or ripples or something similar to light reflecting off a steel blade just going by really fast that give you a good sense for the range of the melee attack. It makes a huge difference.

khele23eb17_ESO

Leave the system as is.

Ffastyl wrote: »

@khele23eb17_ESO There's a lot of things I'd rebalance about the game if I could, but one topic at a time. Too much to look at when trying to rebalance everything at once.

That's the thing tho. You pretty much have to look at everything at once to balance things properly.

Duiwel

Shorten melee range to match animations.

Obviously when I use WB I love the range... but lets be real tea here, everytime you have an enemy with 2H behind you and you didn't see him / her because you are fighting other things and the range is just out of your screen and you get hit it's insta death... It should not be a range, also with the fact that you have gap closers like:

Teleport Strike / Ambush /Lotus Fan
Crit Charge/ Crit Rush/ Stampede
Shield Charge/ Invasion / Shielded Assault

You really don't need "range"...

olsborg

Only melee skill I have an issue with the range, is wrecking blow. It hits when theres freaking 5 meters of air between you and the tip of their sword. You think, "well I got out of range now for sure, dont need to dodge again" but no, it hits from stupidly far away.

carlyon91

Leave the system as is.

If you use daggers you'd always have to be standing on top of the enemy to ever have a chance to hit them if you make it so the range matches that of the sword. I think the system is okay

mr1sho

Leave the system as is.

As a melee player leave my range alone I would say more but I don't want to get in trouble on the forums again so LEAVE MY MELEE ALONE