Shove and Stumble (Patreon)

The first is “Shove.” This is an action that can only by the player via pressing the LMB while holding down the RMB (for now). What it does is that it pushes back nearby (weak) enemies. It also grants a “parry-like” state for some frames that can deflect blows made by (weak) enemies as well. 

The intent behind Shove is to give the player additional options versus mobs. It’s a relatively safe AOE push that can be used defensively or to create openings on a group. However, it is balanced by it’s relatively high stamina cost and does no damage, so the player better make those openings count!

The next mechanic is “Stumble.” It is basically a staggered state that also have backwards momentum by the victim. Animated too so it’s doesn’t look awkward with the character sliding backwards. (In the first iteration of combat, there was only one staggered state, and that one kept the victim in place.) This new pushing backwards stagger is what Shove causes. 

For clarity, there are 4 possible states after being hit by an attack:

• Resisted - action is not interrupted at all
• Staggered - action is interrupted
• Stumbled - action is interrupted and character is pushed back
• Aired - action is interrupted and character is knocked into the air 

I also changed Guard to make it more powerful against mobs and more rewarding for precise timing. How it worked before is that a normal block would protect you from damage, but imposes no penalties to the attacker. A timed block/parry would stagger the opponent (the weapon flinging backwards animation).

Now, Guard imposes penalty that is one level higher than before against weak attackers. That is, regular blocks causes stagger, and timed block/party stumbles the attacker. What I found is that it really wasn’t worthwhile to use Guard against mobs, because it’s hard to block everything (this is by design) and even those successful blocks does little to improve the situation, because the enemy will just swing again. So the guaranteed stagger (promoted to stumble on party) is there to give the player more breathing room when blocks are successful.