Hello there, I think this may be my first actual post, although I've been following CoC since...well, it only had Forest, Deepwood, Lake, Desert, and Mountain visitable when I first started playing. I've always preferred CoC over TiTS for the fantasy setting but CoC2 has one major problem. Well, it has a few but that's largely due to not having a lot implemented yet. The main problem I want to talk about is the combat. Between the party and class/skill choices, it's pretty clear that CoC2 wants to enhance the gameplay aspect of the game, which is great! But thus far the combat is easily the weakest out of all the games on the site. And the root of all of these issues is the same: we have no control over our party. And before you bring up the as of yet unimplemented tactics system, no. That will not address the core issues. Before I go in depth on this, I'd like to apologize if I come across as being too harsh. I want this game to be good and I'm trying to make a a proper critique here. So please don't just dismiss this as a ranting hater.
Issue 1: Combat is too long winded.
There can be as many as, and often are, 8 actors in a single fight, possibly more in the future although based on the UI it looks like 8 will be the cap. This results in a LOT happening in a single turn. The second the player takes an action, they're given either a massive wall of text explaining everything that happened or having to click through 7 little blurbs. This makes every turn take a notable amount of time as there is a lot more data to process during every given action. This also takes away from player engagement as there is much more delay between when the player can actually interact with the game. Finally, because there's so much going on every turn, it becomes significantly harder to follow. Party control would let the player break down combat into much smaller pieces, making it easier to understand the flow.
Issue 2: Combat is too swingy
As a direct result of everyone acting at a single button press, a LOT of things happen at once, which makes combat feel incredibly random and swingy. I've had fights where after my first action I was suddenly on death's door. I've had fights where the enemy party was almost completely wiped out after the first turn. Turns like this are very common. It makes combat feel less like a test of skill and more like a roll of the dice. Party control would break down everything that happens into smaller pieces, allowing the player to better understand each change, making the fight much more cohesive, as well as react faster if things are going south.
Issue 3: Player has limited agency in fights
This is connected with Issue 2 but I want to discuss it individually. Because the battlefield changes so much in a single action, the player has very little control over the outcome of a fight. When I play, I barely feel like I'm even interacting with the game. Even if the player is notably stronger than everyone else, their one action can't outweigh up to 7 other actions per turn. As a result, combat is largely out of the player's control. While one could argue that that's more realistic as one fighter has comparatively impact on a group battle, that's also simply not fun. Party control would give the player more control over the game, make the game more engaging and make fights feel much more skill based rather than up to chance.
Based on the way the game is set up now, I'm under the impression that full party control will not be implemented. I want to know if (hopefully) I'm wrong on this. If I AM right and party control is not on the design docs, I'd like to ask why. I honestly can't think of anyway that this improves the game aside from making the coder's job easier and I can think of a great many reasons why it makes the game worse.
So, is full party control planned at any point in the game? If not, why not? Thanks for reading and again, sorry if I come across as overly hostile.
Issue 1: Combat is too long winded.
There can be as many as, and often are, 8 actors in a single fight, possibly more in the future although based on the UI it looks like 8 will be the cap. This results in a LOT happening in a single turn. The second the player takes an action, they're given either a massive wall of text explaining everything that happened or having to click through 7 little blurbs. This makes every turn take a notable amount of time as there is a lot more data to process during every given action. This also takes away from player engagement as there is much more delay between when the player can actually interact with the game. Finally, because there's so much going on every turn, it becomes significantly harder to follow. Party control would let the player break down combat into much smaller pieces, making it easier to understand the flow.
Issue 2: Combat is too swingy
As a direct result of everyone acting at a single button press, a LOT of things happen at once, which makes combat feel incredibly random and swingy. I've had fights where after my first action I was suddenly on death's door. I've had fights where the enemy party was almost completely wiped out after the first turn. Turns like this are very common. It makes combat feel less like a test of skill and more like a roll of the dice. Party control would break down everything that happens into smaller pieces, allowing the player to better understand each change, making the fight much more cohesive, as well as react faster if things are going south.
Issue 3: Player has limited agency in fights
This is connected with Issue 2 but I want to discuss it individually. Because the battlefield changes so much in a single action, the player has very little control over the outcome of a fight. When I play, I barely feel like I'm even interacting with the game. Even if the player is notably stronger than everyone else, their one action can't outweigh up to 7 other actions per turn. As a result, combat is largely out of the player's control. While one could argue that that's more realistic as one fighter has comparatively impact on a group battle, that's also simply not fun. Party control would give the player more control over the game, make the game more engaging and make fights feel much more skill based rather than up to chance.
Based on the way the game is set up now, I'm under the impression that full party control will not be implemented. I want to know if (hopefully) I'm wrong on this. If I AM right and party control is not on the design docs, I'd like to ask why. I honestly can't think of anyway that this improves the game aside from making the coder's job easier and I can think of a great many reasons why it makes the game worse.
So, is full party control planned at any point in the game? If not, why not? Thanks for reading and again, sorry if I come across as overly hostile.
