I don't really wanna be that guy, but... I'm gonna be him anyway.

There were nothing I disliked about the stream or what was shown, from the chanting and how that was weaves in to the mechanic of bloodlust and how it seemed to increases your attack speed while using it.

basic feedback, because I just liked it... :)
 
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the slide animation, though not exactly part of the new mechanic featured would be the one thing I would like to see improved. Everything is just locked into place as he slides forward. maybe something to where he speed runs / dashes forward. or disappears / reappears with a cloud of smoke or some other means would make the animation for it more pleasing.

more of a technical question but...
As far as the new mechanic is concerned we don't see the bloodlust gauge go down, how and when does it go down? via taking damage, using abilities? And how would that affect the audio itself.
If say the meter was half full and the audio track had already started playing then you quickly maxed out the gauge and then spent all the bloodlust... are we still listening to the middle fill version, the full version or did it just do a hard stop?

basically, how "real time" is the audio for the sound. will it adjust on the fly or will it have to wait for the next "loop" to change?
 
I'm worried about the information clutter on screen, is Dance Macabre such a core card to the gameplay of any character that uses it, that it requires to have most of the attention in the HUD?
There's only one ability and we have a bar filling up, the audio changing to a louder chant and blood splatters on the screen.
That aside, I love the theme of the chanting beeing related to the flow of combat for the vampire, it's like having a cool combat soundrack but it's linked to what's happening in the game.
 
Hey guys,
It's awesome to see this interest. I'll answer what I can as directly as possible. Keep in mind that all features are in active development and may change drastically over time.


As far as the new mechanic is concerned we don't see the bloodlust gauge go down, how and when does it go down? via taking damage, using abilities? And how would that affect the audio itself.
Currently, there are two ways that the Bloodlust goes down. If you spend a few seconds without engaging in combat (attacking or being attacked), your Bloodlust will start to wither. The second way is feeding. If you drink blood, your Bloodlust is reset.

If say the meter was half full and the audio track had already started playing then you quickly maxed out the gauge and then spent all the bloodlust... are we still listening to the middle fill version, the full version or did it just do a hard stop?
When you feed, the Bloodlust swiftly dwindles until empty, as it does so, all the sounds associated to it are proportionately muffled, until completely muted.

I'm worried about the information clutter on screen, is Dance Macabre such a core card to the gameplay of any character that uses it, that it requires to have most of the attention in the HUD?
Danse Macabre is a Tarot Card exclusive to the vampire. It actually takes the same space as any other Tarot Card, which is 1 slot in your Tarot Hand (your currently-equipped Tarots). The Bloodlust system is separated from the Danse Macabre, but it does have specific relationships with the Tarots. Any damage you inflict on the enemy increases your Bloodlust, but this is not exclusive to Danse Macabre, as any other damaging Tarot will also increase your Bloodlust.

The plan is for Bloodlust to modify certain Tarots. For Danse Macabre, that makes your attacks faster. It also allows you to dash at your enemies after a certain threshold.


basically, how "real time" is the audio for the sound. will it adjust on the fly or will it have to wait for the next "loop" to change?
The Bloodlust chanting improves as the meter is filled. The words are announced as you fill the symbols, and the chanting itself begins when you reach halfway through. Once it passes that point, it currently enters a loop. This may be changed in time.

There's only one ability and we have a bar filling up, the audio changing to a louder chant and blood splatters on the screen.
There are more abilities in store for everyone. :)
The blood splatters are currently a result of executing your enemies (dismemberment).

Answering some questions from the stream:

- "Are there any keys locked behind moondoors?": I feel confident that there will be many secrets for the players to find in the game, some of which might be connected to the astrological aspects of the game.
- "Tarot Cards": They are acquired through various means. Danse Macabre is the first Tarot any vampire acquires, as it represents the basic combat functionality. Some Tarots may be acquired through leveling and exploring, others as rewards, and others as secrets.
- "Waves": There idea is that you cannot trigger more than 1 wave at a time. Perhaps that is something we should allow in the future. :)
 
Thank you for the clarification, I had misunderstood an important part.
I know there are more abilities planned what I meant to say is that with just one ability we already had an extra bar and chanting, which would mean once there are more abilities there would be too much clutter on screen. Of course this was all because I didn't understand that the bloodlust is a feature of the vampire and not a feature of Dance Macabre.
 
First off...let me say that the music..is amazing. Games seem to have recently started making dynamic music in regards to what is happening on stream at any given time (example FF7R) others have been doing multiple audios depending. (Spider-Man: Peters vocals are different if he is walking or running/swinging) Its a really nice touch to any game.

DHS however is taking that even a step farther and incorporating it into the mechanics..and it just gives the sense or fulfillment. I love it and cant wait to see more of it as time goes on.

My only point of feedback at the moment is the blood. I love the blood splattering all over the arena. Im not a huge fan of the blood splatter on the "camera" IMO it breaks the immersion that you are already experiencing while in the combat with the music and such. What might be a really cool alternative...would be blood splatter on the HUD instead. Borders around the Health Gauge or Mini Map..or other things that might be on the screen. Nothing to block any kind of view (unless a reason could be made for that) but just something to add a little more to whats on screen without it being "on" the screen.
 
I'm in two minds about the bloodlust mechanic. On one hand it features great audio and the effects planned for it seem to be great, it changes the mechanics of the cards little bit and it offers a risk vs reward system for dealing damage while at low health. On the other it seems that the main attack comes down to just one button turbo clicking without any more depth to the attacks like rhythm, timing, combos or verticality and is something that you would see in an isometric action RPG rather than in a third person one which is a bit disappointing.
 
I'm in two minds about the bloodlust mechanic. On one hand it features great audio and the effects planned for it seem to be great, it changes the mechanics of the cards little bit and it offers a risk vs reward system for dealing damage while at low health. On the other it seems that the main attack comes down to just one button turbo clicking without any more depth to the attacks like rhythm, timing, combos or verticality and is something that you would see in an isometric action RPG rather than in a third person one which is a bit disappointing.
Thanks for the feedback!At the moment the moment the mechanics are still being flushed out. We will let the team know your thoughts.
 
First off...let me say that the music..is amazing. Games seem to have recently started making dynamic music in regards to what is happening on stream at any given time (example FF7R) others have been doing multiple audios depending. (Spider-Man: Peters vocals are different if he is walking or running/swinging) Its a really nice touch to any game.

DHS however is taking that even a step farther and incorporating it into the mechanics..and it just gives the sense or fulfillment. I love it and cant wait to see more of it as time goes on.

My only point of feedback at the moment is the blood. I love the blood splattering all over the arena. Im not a huge fan of the blood splatter on the "camera" IMO it breaks the immersion that you are already experiencing while in the combat with the music and such. What might be a really cool alternative...would be blood splatter on the HUD instead. Borders around the Health Gauge or Mini Map..or other things that might be on the screen. Nothing to block any kind of view (unless a reason could be made for that) but just something to add a little more to whats on screen without it being "on" the screen.
Thanks for the feedback, this is definitely something the team could take a look into doing.
 
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Thanks for the feedback!At the moment the moment the mechanics are still being flushed out. We will let the team know your thoughts.
Well, it was obvious that in the gameplay we saw the character was made unkillable since he didn't die even after the physical bar got empty (and the others didn't start dropping). With that in mind, we can assume that button mashing like koldin or Mike did in the gameplay we saw will leave you extremely vulnerable even when going only against simple legionnaires, so you probably can't do that, and the depth will come from using your other tarrot cards to avoid the damage. After all, dance macabre is a card that offers offence not defence right? And that's what we saw on the last stream
 
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According to the stream Bloodlust is a vampire mechanic that will affect different abilities in a different manners. The increased attack speed and the ability to glide towards a distant opponent are the unique ways it affects Dance Macabre.
 
(...) in the gameplay we saw will leave you extremely vulnerable even when going only against simple legionnaires, so you probably can't do that, and the depth will come from using your other tarrot cards to avoid the damage. After all, dance macabre is a card that offers offence not defence right? (...)
You assessment is correct. Danse Macabre is an offensive Tarot Card, and a lot of depth does come from the other Cards you pick for your Hand, some of which are focused on defensive abilities. Cards can be further modified, often mixing between the offensive and defensive realm. There will be more information on that coming in the future. I believe it's safe to say that not all engagements will be purely mindless mashing, there will have to be planning involved for success to be achieved.
 
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You assessment is correct. Danse Macabre is an offensive Tarot Card, and a lot of depth does come from the other Cards you pick for your Hand, some of which are focused on defensive abilities. Cards can be further modified, often mixing between the offensive and defensive realm. There will be more information on that coming in the future. I believe it's safe to say that not all engagements will be purely mindless mashing, there will have to be planning involved for success to be achieved.
I gotta say that i still have a question. What happened to the old combo system? As far as i understood, in previous builds you could do different moves with different combination of left/right mouse inputs depending on the type of weapon u wielded. I kind of liked that idea and i think it could go well with having your tarrot cards being keybord keys and weapon combos being activated through your mouse, with weapon combos being the think you would usually use the most (combared to abilities, not to suggest that you shouldn't be able to spam abilities) and having your weapon combos and abilities be different things but it seems like that was dropped? with your ability to assign a tarrot card in your left and right mouse buttons? i don't understand how that works.... Are heavy attacks abandonded too? Judging from the fact that a tarrot card was assigned to left mouse button. would be a shame tbh....
 
I gotta say that i still have a question. What happened to the old combo system? As far as i understood, in previous builds you could do different moves with different combination of left/right mouse inputs depending on the type of weapon u wielded. I kind of liked that idea and i think it could go well with having your tarrot cards being keybord keys and weapon combos being activated through your mouse, with weapon combos being the think you would usually use the most (combared to abilities, not to suggest that you shouldn't be able to spam abilities) and having your weapon combos and abilities be different things but it seems like that was dropped? with your ability to assign a tarrot card in your left and right mouse buttons? i don't understand how that works.... Are heavy attacks abandonded too? Judging from the fact that a tarrot card was assigned to left mouse button. would be a shame tbh....
Weapons vs. skills we still have to reveal as well the paper doll system (armor/rings/weapons etc...). Right now, the video was limited to the left mouse button, the right mouse button had Zorin Maw equipped (this was also not shown):

Zorins Maw

which is a de-armoring attack. We have not shown the armor system yet either. We will discuss all of this and more in upcoming streams. So it is not possible to understand the combat system in a holistic manner yet.

So upcoming reveals:
  • Tarot System V2
  • Weapons Systems
  • Paper Doll Systems
  • Armor Systems
  • Formation Systems
So much more. I hope this helps somewhat.
 
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I am really confused right now. So a skill slot can be both assigned to a weapon or a card and you have a main weapon that works with the cards in general that is not assigned to a slot? And still - will there be different combos or types of attacks with a single weapon bound to a single button in some combination of timing and the direction buttons?
 
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Weapons vs. skills we still have to reveal as well the paper doll system (armor/rings/weapons etc...). Right now, the video was limited to the left mouse button, the right mouse button had Zorin Maw equipped (this was also not shown):

View attachment 1025

which is a de-armoring attack. We have not shown the armor system yet either. We will discuss all of this and more in upcoming streams. So it is not possible to understand the combat system in a holistic manner yet.

So upcoming reveals:
  • Tarot System V2
  • Weapons Systems
  • Paper Doll Systems
  • Armor Systems
  • Formation Systems
So much more. I hope this helps somewhat.
it does help, thanks Denis. I did except all my questions to be answered in upcoming streams, so i wasn't even expecting a reply, i was just expressing some thoughts
 
I am really confused right now. So a skill slot can be both assigned to a weapon or a card and you have a main weapon that works with the cards in general that is not assigned to a slot? And still - will there be different combos or types of attacks with a single weapon bound to a single button in some combination of timing and the direction buttons?
Sorry, please give us time to go over the systems and explain how they work on the streams - we will do our best to not be confusing.