Combat

Combat in medieval times was a gruesome affair, men had to be within close quarters and personally deliver the killing blow, personally watch their foes choke in their own blood. However the sword also brought honour and riches to those skilled enough to take it. In Gloria Victis, the skill of the player plays an integral part in the outcome of fights where simply mashing the keyboard will not suffice. We aim to capture the grit, the gruesomeness of medieval combat as well as splendour of tournaments. To this end, Gloria Victis operates on a non-targeted combat system where the player must attack in the correct direction as well as from the correct distance. There will be a plethora of combat options available to players whether it be jousting, single combat, hunting or grand campaigns in realm vs realm wars.

## Non-Target Based System

One of the conventions of games these days is the delegation of combat to a simple mouse click which locks onto the target and the proceeding mashing of the keyboard. Gloria Victis will be breaking that convention in giving players full autonomy over their attacks. The player would have to swing in the right direction or you would be slashing nothing but air. The player would have to attack when the opponent’s guard is down in order to make a hit connect. Conversely the player would also have to block at the right time and in the right direction to protect themselves and also move around agilely to dodge blows and frustrate the efforts of the attacker. In this combat system, the reflexes and skill as a player play quite a major role in the outcome of fights.

## Stamina

As realism is one of the greatest considerations when developing Gloria Victis, we feel that it is unrealistic that a character be able to swing a heavy sword all day long without tiring. As a result managing stamina is vital to the success of a fight. Taking any actions such as running, striking, parrying or simply holding your weapon up in the air in preparation for an attack or anticipation of parrying consumes stamina. A character who runs out of stamina in the middle of a fight would be in quite a predicament, resulting in having his sword easily batted away by his opponent and a swift yet gruesome death. Stamina consumption varies depending on playing style. For instance a player that chooses lighter armour would have a slower stamina drain whereas a more heavily armoured character would have less stamina as the weight of the armour will have a negative effect on dexterity. A player might choose to gamble the outcome of a fight in a flurry of blows expending most of their stamina in the opening portions of the fight in the hope of overwhelming their foe, or a player might choose to play slow and steady, parrying only the necessary blows and waiting for their foe to make a mistake or leave their guard down for a killing blow. Whatever the choice, managing stamina is a vital part of combat, using techniques for instance consumes more stamina than normal attacks due to the intricacies compared to the former.

## Techniques

In additional to the basic directional attacks, the players will be able to spice up combat sequences with the addition of weapon techniques. Each weapon will have its own specific techniques based on medieval combat manuals, the sword for instance would have techniques such as feints. Techniques operate in the sense that anyone can pick up a blade and be able to slash at objects, but that person will be fundamentally different to a soldier who has been taught tried and proven techniques. Techniques also require the player to be facing the right direction and be at the right distance in order to connect with the opponent. Techniques too can be blocked, but players will find them a much greater threat than the typical attack and must have superb reflexes to successfully avoid them. Due to the greater physical exertion as well as complexity of techniques, they expend greater amounts of stamina compared to normal directional attacks. Techniques will likely operate on a conditional basis where they are only effective or usable in certain situations or fulfill certain conditions.

## Player vs Player

There are wide ranges of activities available for players to test their prowess against one another. Whether it be in the same confines of an arena with blunt weapons or a duel to the death for the hand of a fair maiden, there be an option that will appeal to all. However the most epic in terms of scale will be sieges, battles for villages, towns, castles, cities and even capitals. It is in these battles that the true gruesomeness of battle will be captured where hundred if not thousands will fight and die on the walls, where every street will cost the blood of many. In these fights, those that take up the engineering profession will be relied upon to build great behemoths of war machines, calculating the trajectory of trebuchets, in these battles arrows will fall like the rain where skill and prowess as a warrior could mean the difference between life and death. The scale of realm wars can only be paralleled by the majesty of the mounted joust, where it is as much competition as ritual. How will you seek fame? As tournament champion or the marshal of vast armies fighting for the glory of your nation?