Fighting

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# Introduction

**Legendary Tales** is a sword-fighting VR game. In order to play this game, you have to learn how to fight with swords and other medieval weapons. In the game you have a variety of weapons, including: One-Handed Sword, Two-Handed Sword, Dagger, Battle Axe, Bow, Shield, Buckler, Mace. Each has specific uses based on weapon and primary damage type. Some basic tactics come in handy when playing, giving you the ability to finish fights much faster and take advantage of fighting several enemies at once.

# Offense

Unlike the real world, the first thing players learn to do is **attack**. The main principle of attacking is *"you need to have speed when you swing"*. The mechanics allow you to perform both light and heavy swings; effectiveness may vary by weapon. But the wider your swing - the more chances to perform heavy attack you have. Each weapon has a secret **weight** stat which affects the speed of your swing. Small and short weapons, such as daggers can be handled with ease, but long swords will follow your movements with a great delay. This brings us to another mechanic - **two-handing**. This mechanic makes any weapon more maneuverable when held with both hands. For two-handed swords it makes them both controllable and useable, as for one-handed swords -they feel light as daggers.

When choosing your preferred weapon, its worth mentioning **grabbing adjustment**. The game allows us a lot of manipulation when grabbing weapons. Every part of your sword is a weapon, including the point, each edge, the handguard, and the pommel. You can handle weapons in many ways, but some weapons have limitations. Weapons such as daggers, bucklers, shields and bows have limited handle positions.

When you know how to grab your weapon, it is time to get into attacking mechanics. The game gives us 3 basic damage types: **Slashing, Piercing,** and **Bludgeoning**. These attack types have different approaches with different weapons, from *reverse dagger grip,* to *bare hands*. It also means that every weapon has its own **specialized attack type**. This mechanic means you deal more damage when a weapon is used as it was designed. For example, Axes deals more damage with **Slashing** attacks than with **Blunt**.

Another part of your final damage is **Heavy attacks**. This game mechanic means the player deals full damage only when you attack at a slower pace. Heavy attack charge time is always 1.5 seconds for one handed weapons and .8 seconds for two handed weapons and cannot be modified. Your weapon is always "charging" a heavy attack after a swing. Any attack within the charge time will reset the timer. Non-heavy attacks deal around 20% of maximum damage. This system is to prevent players from slashing too fast, but it gives you a chance to finish a really low-HP enemy fast.

> *Check out Character Stats page for more information about Critical damage.*
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## Slashing

The first and most basic attack type is **Slashing**. *It is performed by making a wide swing from any position*. This attack is most commonly used with swords and axes. The main benefit of these attacks is that you can easily defend yourself while performing one, and can easily build an attacking rhythm.

## Piercing

The next basic attack type is **Piercing**. *It is performed by thrusting and can be done from multiple angles*. This attack is most commonly used with daggers and swords. The game also counts bow's arrows as piercing damage when shot. The main disadvantage of stabbing is that you become very vulnerable when attacking, so it makes sense to do so after parrying or when an enemy hasn't detected you, when your enemy is most vulnerable.

## Bludgeoning

The last basic attack type is **Bludgeoning**. *It is performed by hitting with your hand or the non-blade parts of a weapon from any position*. This attack is most commonly used with maces, shields and hands. The main disadvantage of this attack is that you have to be very close, which is easiest when your enemy has been parried or stunned.

# Throwing

Throwing weapons can deal decent damage from a VERY long range. Legendary Tales has an aim assist for throws done correctly. With a one handed weapon, it's easiest to underhand toss the weapon at the enemy. With two handed weapons, nearly perfect accuracy can be attained by holding the weapon horizontally in front of you with both hands around shoulder length apart, and gently tossing the weapon towards the enemy. The weapon will go FLYING when done correctly. [Video/GIF to come]

# Defense

After you learn to attack, you can dive deeper into sword fighting technics with learning how to guard. When fighting an enemy, you have plenty of time to react to its movement. In combination with several other mechanics, it allows you to win a fight without taking damage at all, and is the only way to efficiently battle the horde of enemies. The main principle here is *"to reflect or avoid enemies attacks and use it to your own advantage"*. Legendary Tales is built on an HP system (see: Character Stats), which means you likely need several attacks before defeating an enemy. Also consider the specific in-game enemy animations - you have significant limitations in your attack/defense patterns, meaning that building your defense tactic will help you to survive more enemies.

First of all, there is **No Blocking** in the game yet. The core mechanic of defending is built on **Parrying**. So even if you use shield to protect yourself, keep that in mind and perform a countermove. To make your life easier, the game introduces some buffs to basic, well known parrying moves. But first, it defines if you performed a **Hard Parry** or a **Light Parry**. Depending on some variables, it will trigger the **Parried** animation of the enemy.

> *Try not to use static sword blocks. Only countermoves will prevent an enemy from landing a hit on you. If you just put your sword straight and still, it will only bend your arm and deflect the enemy's sword swing a little.*
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Another way to plan your defense is your own positioning in battle. This is the main part of real-world fighting tactics. A combination of distance, tempo and enemy's actions will guide you in battle naturally. Moving correctly can help totally avoid an enemy's burst or make parry moves easier. The most vulnerable position for you is to stand still. Some champions (see: Mobs) even take advantage of it.

## Light Parry

The first parry type is **Light**. *It is performed by making a slight counter swing to enemy's blade*. This parry can be performed with any weapon, but never with bare hands. When an enemy is light parried, it stops the attack and gets in a defending position. Most commonly they build distance and/or take a guard position. Attacking an enemy after light parrying is hard due to their repositioning after it, but still possible while the animation is playing. Keep in mind that enemies have no inertia and will likely attack you right after a light parry move finishes.

## Hard Parry

The Second parry type is **Hard**. *It is performed by making a wide counter swing to enemy's blade*. This parry can be performed with any weapon, but never with bare hands. When an enemy is hard parried, it stops the attack and does a stunned animation. Most commonly they stay in the same place they got parried for a couple of seconds. Attacking an enemy after a hard parry is easy due to their stun animation which makes them more like a dummy. You can get roughly 2-3 free hits while an enemy is confused. Keep in mind that enemies have no inertia and will likely attack you right after hard parry stun finishes.

# Enemies

When you finally know all about defending and attacking, its time to learn how the game's enemies work with them. There are several types of enemies in game (see: Mobs), but all of them have similar behavior patterns. These patterns are made to simulate a battle tactic performed by AI. Just like a player waiting to counterattack, the AI makes decisions about when to attack and when to stay back.

Enemies have a bunch of animations to simulate different behavior. The most obvious one is attacking. These animations are built according to real world analogs, and use the main principles of them. The first is **angle of attack**. We know 8 basic angles of attack, starting from straight down, to left, top and right, with diagonals between them. Each angle has a set of animations to create some variability. So when enemy wants to attack you, the AI defines from which angle this attack should be.

And the last point is their reaction to your actions. The common animations occurring while parrying were discussed before (see: Parry). The basic one is **pathfinding** which is the enemy approaching the player from a distance. This animation is for the general purpose of enemy walking, but you can trigger enemies to walk towards you from longer distance by using magic (see: Spells) or bows (see: Bow). Another important part of enemy's behavior is their **positioning**. Enemies will always play a little game of checking the distance to player, to find the best possible time to attack. So when the AI chooses an attack angle and animation, it also takes into consideration the distance to the player. Another part of positioning is **mocking** animations. They trigger rarely, when player is breaking fighting distance too much, so opponents can't reach each them, or it can be triggered when enemies find a difficult obstacle, which the player tries to use as an advantage. From the AI's perspective, it can be activated only when the enemy is at a safe distance from the player.