Good luck, everyone. It has been an honour to follow the development of Mordhau long before the Kickstarter. I hope you win all the Game of the Year awards, because you certainly deserve it.

@Christian2222 said:
Clearly I have never played REAL LIFE?! LOLL!!! I mean in real life you have 180 degree view if not way more. This community though xD, a riot.

On the internet, no one knows you are a pigeon.

Despite the title making it seem like an off-topic thread, this appears to be everyone's wishlist for what they would like Mordhau to be. Here is my vision of the game:

• Active parry is brought back with a visual glimmer for indication
• the emphasis is taken away from feints and morphs (animation breaking meta), and placed on clashes and chambers (aggression meta)
• third person is removed
• binds are removed
• weapons are rebalanced so that they differ mechanically, not in terms of numbers; for example quick, spammy weapons are no longer able to perform ripostes. Heavy weapons like the maul cannot be parried by much smaller ones like the dagger.
• animations are always the top development priority, and by extension eliminating instant attacks, gravity-defying drags, and indecipherable morphs

Horde mode is fun, but it lacks direction, and can be mindless at times. It reminds me of Team Fortress 2's Mann versus Machine, and could use some inspiration from it. MvM lets you purchase upgrades to your character that make you much stronger than is possible in other modes, taking advantage of the fact balance is not important since you are not fighting other players. In TF2 this means the ability to fire ten rockets in a second or to build several sentries. In Mordhau's case you could make it so 'super' perks can be purchased, doing things like making you sprint twice as fast (which would be invaluable given the size of the map), making you fire several bolts or arrows at once in a single shot (without expending additional ammo), making you swing your weapon much faster, and so on.

It should also be possible to purchase things like revives for teammates or fortifications, such as spikes that automatically get built around the encampment every wave, or ballistae that get manned by friendly bots. The mode could use a tower defense element. Something that gives you a grander purpose than just seeing how long you can last.

A few pertinent issues:

• It can take a really long time to find the enemies. If enemies are too far away, make them teleport closer. As long as this happens at enough of a distance for the player not to notice, it is desirable.
• Everything looks brown, which can make it difficult to distinguish between teammates and bots in the midst of battle. Team colours would make more sense here. You could have team colours be forced only on the players, while the bots can be anything, as long as they cannot be mistaken for a teammate. For instance, I have yet to see a single blue enemy, so make blue the colour of the team.
• The shield enemies are not challenging, they are an obnoxious brick wall that only wastes your time. Rethink them.
• Players that join a game in progress start with 0 gold. This results in them being underprepared and struggling to survive, while being useless to their teammates. Going back to MvM, players that join a game in progress are given an amount of gold relative to how many waves have passed. The amount is less than one would have earned if they were present from the beginning, but enough to get equipped and contribute.
• Your actions during a wave should be rewarded with gold. You should at least get a bonus for surviving the wave. You could also get a bonus for killing 20 enemies in a single wave, or not taking any damage.

Splendid, another opportunity to have my idea for an emblem included.

Bug #1: Opening and closing the server browser after dying in BR makes it impossible to select "spectate" or "main menu" from the rewards screen.
Bug #2: Sometimes I connect to a server with an ongoing game and am immediately assigned as a spectator. Others have mentioned having this issue as well.

I really like that you leave as soon as you die, because it results in every match being composed of different players. I do however wish it would automatically queue you for another game as soon as you die, so that you can spectate the current game while waiting to be matched. It feels like an unnecessary hassle to leave and queue up after every single match.

I also find it needless for there to be a loadout dedicated to BR. Here is a better idea - have each player spawn with a randomised appearance, voice, and clothing, as long as the player has unlocked said clothing.

As for the mode itself, I think the circle should converge quicker, and that it should converge on the courtyard, not the actual centre of the map. Sadly what weapon you get matters very little, since most players die in two hits anyway, and since the outcome of a duel is decided too strongly by cheese. Stretching the animations to their limit is still too effective and really undermines the entire idea of having an advantage since you are better equipped than your opponent.

The tutorial is excellently paced and covers everything necessary, while also having a lot of charm. Its sense of humour along with some relatively minor changes such as red and blue team having distinct names and emblems gives the game a lot more personality. Now that the lore is starting to encroach upon the game experience, Mordhau is starting to feel far more alive.

I am pleasantly surprised you included an option to see other players without team colours forced upon them. I think this is crucial for a lot of players' experience, but it is incomplete without another option to toggle from the menu - a tiny icon that hovers above teammates. It alleviates the problem of making it difficult to distinguish allies from enemies while still allowing the player to view the creativity of everyone else. And now that there are plenty of hovering icons above things like ammunition crates, and that it is evident they do not take away from the aesthetic of the game, I better not hear excuses about icons over teammates' heads being undesirable for aesthetic purposes.

I must say that even with the FPS nosediving on Frontline, it was still very enjoyable to be present on such a large battlefield with so much chaos. I can see it being a very popular game mode, and it definitely captures the feeling it is trying to create. Great job, everyone.

@idiotgod said:
As someone who uses 240 only, do you think you would you benefit from being able to use "Alt" strike to reverse the 240 angle? Say, for instances when you MUST be turning right, but require a swing from the left?

It is probably not something I would use since I am so used to moving my mouse in the desired angle no matter my positioning, but I was surprised when I discovered the key for reversing attack direction works only for binds. In fact I recall people voicing their desire to use it with the 240° system in the past. There is no reason not to have it; It is just an optional convenience for some.

Stubbornly, I still use the 240° system exclusively. Using a mouse with a flawless sensor (Zowie FK1 with Avago ADNS-3310), I estimate that I only perform the wrong attack 1/500 times. With that said, a perfect sensor should not be required just to control your character as intended.

The advantages of the 240° system are that it uses only one button as opposed to 6, and that it feels - when it works - as though you have far greater control over your attacks than with a more primitive input method like binds. These are strong enough reasons to improve the system rather than remove it.

Prioritise improvement of the angling algorithm, followed by improvement of the dynamic crosshair. The dynamic crosshair was a feature I was really looking forward to, but all you have done with it is created a tiny arrow that jitters too much and skips the deadzones which are not even indicated. Make it bigger, make it display more information such as a circle with the deadzones and bind angles marked, and people will start to prefer the 240° system.

While we are on the topic of the dynamic crosshair, the only other information it displays is when you are parrying. This is arguably the state most clearly conveyed by the animations. A UI element was certainly unneeded, but what is needed, is an element for things such as feint / morph windows, flinch, lockout, and so on.

I am not thrilled to see absurd drags and accels make a return this patch. Some Chivalry tier ridiculous drags have been made possible, and the phrase 'instant attack' has once again become pertinent with ripostes lasting only a few frames in some cases. I should not have to tell you how heavily this deters new players, both in being visually unappealing and in requiring hundreds of hours to discern drags and accels from normal attacks.

Another reason I dislike it is because it has further shifted the meta into the Chivalryesque "show me your least readable attack and I will show you mine" where, rather than trying to overwhelm the opponent with aggressive attacking and chambering, player A sits patiently while player B does his string of feints, morphs, and drags in an attempt to bait a parry until finally committing to an attack, and if player A managed to read all of it correctly, it is now his turn to try and skewer the animations in the hopes his opponent parries.

Do not get me wrong, patience and the ability to read your opponent should definitely have their place in the game as skills, but I feel you have strayed from your original vision of the game being all about aggression and overwhelming your opponent as both players rush to get an attack in, out of a fear the top players will cry gambling and be bitter over their inability to drag absurdly like they could in Chivalry. Rather than making this into Chivalry with a new coat of paint, let it be its own game. Stick to your original vision, as it is a thousand times more gratifying; Chambers being preferrable to parries; Chamber morphing; The focus being on aggression as opposed to confusion.

Voice commands

• Triggering the flesh wound perk does not prevent you from using voice commands, allowing your character to speak while also screaming.

A relevant issue is that one-handed weapons are too strong, resulting in shield users being no less of a threat than non-shield users, but that issue deserves a discussion of its own, so let us disregard it for the time being.

Held block is definitely an issue, and while it could be rectified through some penalty like having it drain your stamina until you lower your shield, I would rather get rid of it in its current form, and replace it with a quick parry that can be extended slightly at the cost of additional stamina. So you could parry normally like you would with a weapon, or you could hold down RMB for a parry that is a second longer, but costs additional stamina. This will make shields much less of a bother to deal with, while preserving their role as a beginner-friendly tool. It will make them good against drags and flash feints, but still encourage the user to parry normally, as extending a parry too frequently would eat up your stamina.

Something else I would do is increase the size of the shield's hitbox. I believe shields should be superior to two-handers when it comes to the size of the parry box, not the timing of the parry. The advantage of using a shield should be not having to aim your parry that much for a successful block. This will rule out the option of dragging around a player's shield, which is good, because it looks absolutely hideous. Instead you will have to outstam the shield user, and that is no longer a bad thing, because either they will use short parries and it will not be very different than fighting an opponent with a two-hander, or they will use long parries, and it will not take long for them to drop their shield.

Lastly, I believe shield users having such strong offense is purely due to one-handed weapons being overpowered, and would be fixed by making one-handers less blindingly quick and less draggable. If for some reason you are adamant against this, you could instead reduce the turn cap of shield users. This will make shield users less lethal due to not being able to drag much, and would also introduce a unique reason to use one-handed weapons without a shield. With the increase to shield parry boxes I mentioned, the reduced turn cap would not hamper their defense, just their offense.

Bind Right Upper Strike to MouseWheelDown; Bind Right Strike to LMB; Bind Right Stab to MouseWheelUp. You now have Chivalry binds. You can even hold ALT to reverse attack directions. Just be sure to do as @Duckalot said and unbind both Strike and Stab, as those are the 240° versions.

Stellar work, Trix. The effort you put into this really shows, and such videos would go a long way for retaining future players' interest.

@Ectoplasma said:
Can anyone explain to me what drags and accels are and is there a video showing how to do this?

Your mouse dictates where your attack will land and how quickly it will do so. The first kind of dragging is where you manipulate where your attack will land - we can call this spatial dragging. It is as simple as it gets: move your crosshair to your opponent's legs, start a stab, and then move your crosshair to his head. Your attack will initially be pointed at his legs, but will instead hit his head. You could use misdirection like this to get your opponent to parry in the wrong location.

The second kind of dragging is what most people mean when they say drag - the act of moving your mouse in the opposite direction of your attack so as to slow it down and make it hit later than it would have (a delay-drag). If you start an attack and your opponent is about to parry it, you can do this to make your attack outlast his parry and hit him afterward. You could also speed up your attack by moving your mouse in the same direction as your attack - an accelerated attack, an accel.

@Ectoplasma said:
It seems to me people use pretty fixed formulas for attack: slash, feint, stab, morph, drag, stab, slash, feint, slash. Should I just adopt a fixed flow and hope for the best in early stage or is there really more to it (I know many 100 hour+ players would say yes, but I feel I am always fooled by the same tricks in different order).

Just the opposite. Repeating the same steps over and over makes you predictable, and therefore easy to defeat. There are no preset combos in the game - the focus is on how creative you can get with the ways in which you string together different actions, so be careful not to fall into the habit of repeating the same sequence of attacks just because it seemed effective the last time. Confusion and unpredictability are two very big factors in the outcome of a duel, and you should not give your opponent a chance to guess what you will do next.

Though I will say even good players unwittingly initiate duels in the same manner nine times out of ten. That is something to look for: if you notice someone starts his duels the same way every time, chances are he is unaware of it, and you can use that to your advantage.

@Ectoplasma said:
What can I do better. How can I learn to not totally suck other than 100'ds of duels with similar outcome?

It is a bad time for newcomers to learn. The only players are ones with literal thousands of hours in the game (+Chivalry), and the tutorial system required for this type of game has not yet been made. For the time being, yes, you can learn only by losing over and over. But it also pays to spectate good players, and see how they perform certain techniques or how they deal with a given situation. There are a lot of different playstyles, and all of them can teach you something.

@Kantrul said:
Whats the conversion to euros?

Sorry I dont know math

Im a peasant :(

The answer is one Google search away, as is often the case. $30 amounts to €25, but since the game will be Steam only, you are going to pay €30 instead. Why? Because Steam still refuses to implement a proper dollar-to-euro conversion for prices. Instead, if something costs $60 in the USA, they make it cost €60 for Europeans.

@Jax said:
No Runagate, we'll be releasing early 2019. We ended up talking about it and while there's a chance we get Frontline and more maps in this year, we won't be satisfied with the level of polish and we won't have the extra things we need to implement like cosmetic progression, FL matchmaking etc.

It sucks but it's the best course of action for the game.

Releasing without matchmaking and an in-depth tutorial system would be catastrophic for the sales of the game. With no matchmaking, the newcomers are going to get slaughtered by veterans, and without a tutorial system to explain every mechanic and allow the player to practise on a bot, newcomers are going to be very confused by fights. Both would result in a very sour first impression and cause people to avoid the game based on others' first impressions.

But now is the time to release the devblog. Every day that passes without it hurts the future sales of the game too. People without alpha access think en masse the game is no longer being developed or was a scam. For those people it is very hard to obtain information about the game, so it would be best to release a devblog going over every major addition to the game since the alpha's launch; Not as gruelling and exhaustive as the patch notes, but in-depth enough for them to know what they have missed and the current state of the game.

And for the sake of every single person interested in the game - with alpha access or without - go over what the current plans for development are, update the roadmap, shine a light on the future of the game. What happened to female characters? How many more maps can we expect? How many modes? When are we going to hear more of the soundtrack? Say where the game is heading so that we may know before we reach it.

• The game feels so much more fluid now. When attacking it no longer feels like your movement slows down to a crawl, and the increased effectiveness of matrixing is absolutely beautiful. Ducking under swings or sidestepping them is such a great feeling. The severe decrease in tier 3 armour further adds to that great feeling of speed.
• I love the perks. Flesh Wound is a lot of fun, and I have been using Rat to sneak up on archers and take them out with a stealth playstyle. It is so satisfying. I disagree with having a perk that gives you more stamina per hit, since in most cases you would be forced to take it.
• There are so many amazing new systems in place: dynamic wounds, dynamic flinch reactions, weapons getting caught on armour. All of them add so much to the game despite being purely cosmetic.
• The voices are great. Excellent job with them; but I am not a fan of how much the pitch can be raised. It sounds like there are smurfs amidst us on the battlefield. Still, I am really looking forward to hearing the female personalities.
• Voice commands are 5 per page while emotes are 9 per page. Make it consistent. I know it is likely because there are Frontline-related commands currently missing in the live build, but I thought it worth mentioning anyway.
• Allow us to choose emotes per character rather than having all of them. There are too many; most go unused; a lot of them are unfitting for certain characters; and it would only add to the customisation of the game by allowing you to curate your character's behaviour in a sense.
• Now that kicks no longer stun, allow players to kick when holding a ranged or throwing weapon. It feels very unintuitive to be unable to kick because of what you are holding, especially when an enemy is chasing you and you have to switch to a different weapon just to kick open a door.
• The dynamic crosshair is a great addition, one I had been looking forward to for a long time. I know you have removed some of its functionality so as not to overwhelm the player with information, but it would be perfect if the crosshair turned green whenever you begin an attack and remained that way for the window during which you can feint and morph. It would also be great if it turned red whenever you are in lockout. There is not enough feedback for these states, making them seem kind of arbitrary even though they are not. I strongly advise implementing this suggestion.
• Expanded Camp is wonderful, and so are the changes to Grad. The maps are beginning to take shape and become more complex, and I am glad as I was worried the maps would remain too linear.
• I have come to the conclusion no one's character looks good on team modes. In Free For All everyone has some distinct, good-looking design, and then it all gets drowned in a shade of red or blue once the game mode changes, and no one's character looks good anymore. At this point I would prefer everyone having an out-of-place icon hovering above them to convey their team, as long as it meant they get to look the way they actually created their character. Maybe there is a more appealing solution. Maybe everyone could look the same but have a red or blue armband to signify their team. With the UI already indicating if you are staring at an ally or foe, I do not think a lot of clarity would be lost, and those game modes would look so much better.

EDIT:

• Kicks no longer have a headshot bonus yet kicks to the head trigger the headshot sound, which could be misleading.
• Make the emote menu a fixed list that, rather than changing based on your weapon or lack thereof, displays unavailable emotes in greyed-out text.

Now is a good time to bring this thread back.

I assume there will be a lower bound on how quickly a note can be played after another, to prevent spam. Assuming one note lasts half a second at the least, one could play up to allegretto (~120BPM tempo). This allows for an unexpectedly large amount of lute works to be played.