This week's Question of the Week: "Should Age of Chivalry strive to become less like half-life in terms of movement, or should we keep it familiar?"
An old church looms above a treacherous cliff side and has defenses around it that would be more at home in a fortress than a church. But today the Agathians will need these high walls, they will need every arrow slit and tower they can to pelt down upon their ruthlessly advancing foes, because the crown brings with it great influence and power over the other nobles of the land and each side will push harder than ever before to ensure their own team's victory.
A defense of the crown here means the currently en-route Prince will finally be reunited with his crown and the message will be sent to all the lands that the true heir and new king is here, for the Agathian knights, this is everything to gain and everything to lose. Losing the crown would be a devastating signal to the truly weakening force of the Agathians, with the Crown in their possession the Mason order would be free to crown their leader and tighten their grasp on these lands. Few things are more awe-inspiring than a golden crown resting upon a great champions head, and both men know this well.
This next chapter of our story takes place in the map, aoc_monastery which is an early morning Mason assault of a fortified old church that rests atop a cliff side. The Masons have their work cut out for them as they will be forced to scale this cliff side while the defenders rain arrows and lob spears down at them in an attempt to halt their advancement. This is where true bravery will be needed as the Masons will face a serious disadvantage to the defenders who hold both the fortifications and the high ground.
Monastery is a unique map, in that the objectives are not nearly so linear as most of the others. Instead of forcing bottlenecks of players in various areas, we have instead opened this up a little to allow players to make their own strategies and use teamwork to achieve their goals. Basically, monastery is a "Capture the Relics" game mode, in that the Mason Order will need to infiltrate the church and capture a golden gross, buried in an old grave and a manuscript that tells of the location of the fabled crown in the church.
Once they have brought both of these artifacts back to their waiting boats, they will be informed of the location of the crown and will once again have to infiltrate the monastery and retrieve it, bringing it back to the final boat and winning the map. The manuscript and cross can be taken in any order, which forces the defenders to be careful and wise about their plans and allows the attackers some variety in their tactics to overwhelm their opponents and claim victory.
Add to the mix that at any time the attackers can choose to assault and capture the bell towers to gain a closer spawn and the fact that there are at least three possible entrances to the monastery, and you have a ton of options and decisions that need to be made. No longer is it about running towards the single objective and using brute force to take it over, but now it is also about being wise in your assault, working together and attempting to disorganize and throw off your enemies with your attacks.
aoc_monastery is the most open-ended and tactics encouraging map that is on the roster for our game. Add to that the incredible importance it will play as the sequel to invasion and the next chapter of the storyline, and you will quickly see why we're so excited about bringing this map to the public.
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Stay tuned next week when we take a look at the 5th, "mystery" map to be released with CR1. Yes we're serious, five maps.
You should be happy to know we made the Top 100 for the Mod of the Year contest over at Moddb.com. This means we've made the second round of voting and need you guys more than ever, help us out by sending a vote our way!
Tibberius Bane - Age of Chivalry Marketing Coordinator
I think AOC should "strive to become less like half-life in terms of movement" for realisms sake. Jumping should be eliminated b/c it is unrealistic to be jumping in combat with armor. A climbing system should be implemented like the one in the HL2 mod Resistance & Liberation.
The climping animations are great.. Buuuuut, Idon't think they will get them made for this mod.. It requires a very skilled animator..
Yeah jumping is useless when there's nothing to jump onto, and it gives mappers the useless-ness of "stacking boxes" so players can get to an obj. AoC really doesn't need the function but a possible sprinting jump for a wide gap option for mappers, that EATS stamina for breakfast when used.
AoC really doesn't need a freeclimb but it can be a plus to many games, thought it doesn't fit AoC's heavy armor scaling walls thing. (Jeez everyone wants a system like RnL now, realism ftw :D).
Definitely strive to be less like Half-Life is terms of movement.
Sweet map, As for movement, I don't like it when mods remove jumping for realism. Sure it would be difficult to jump in a full suit of armor. But there is often little places like entry stairs that you can jump onto from the side to make a shorter route and save time running some where.
Great, new maps coming out soon :)
I agree with AJrichie, I think that PVK should move away from the arcadey movement style of hl2. Maybe have the knights should have like slower turning speed or just delayed similarly to Resistance and Liberations movement. I think they did a great job with head bob and camera movements syncing with player movement. A new movement system would make people less think of it as a mod and more of a standalone. Either way the mods amazing, you people are amazing... keep up the great work =D
This newest update is going to rock; some really nice visuals in those maps.
Map looks kickass.
Regarding movement, how about sorting out those dodgy siege ladders? :-)
Obvious stuff aside, how about having a momentum system? I mean, if a knight is charging up to someone at full pelt, surely with all that armour on it's going to take him a second or two to come to a complete halt? This would go some way to elminate the corny 'backwards and forwards'/u-turn gameplay that prevails in the current build.
I agree with changing the movement system slightly, but I don't agree as well. I don't want accelerated movement as it will feel more or less like your on ice skates, and most of the time the skill of the players rests on how well they can move.
If you make movement more "realistic" in turns of turning etc... your killing off some of the skill since movement is a huge part of how well people can play in AoC.
You're not killing off the skill, you're applying it to new rules of engagement. I'm not proposing that we add momentum without tweaking other areas to balance the gameplay.
I agree, movement is a huge part of how well people can play AoC, so let's add another dimension to spice things up a bit and improve immersion while we're at it? Let's be honest, the way it's coded right now, it's more like ninjas in chainmail! >_<
This is particularly noticeable when a footman clobbers you with his bloody great polearm, does a 180 and legs it in the opposite direction before you can return the compliment! Ok sure, that takes a certain kind of skill to execute successfully... the kind of skill that requires a firm grip on the mouse and some reflexes. As it stands now, melee combat's all about lurching back and forth to call each other's bluff, with little forethought involved. It can only stay interesting for so long. You see instances of footmen making a dash for the objective, ducking and weaving like rabbits running a gauntlet (I know I've done it often enough), when it ought to be about working together to hack and cleave your way through the opposition.
With momentum, if you move to engage someone, then you're committing to that engagement as you would in a medieval scrap, win or lose. I think if it's done with some modesty and restraint, then it wouldn't necessarily have to feel like 'knights on ice'. I mean, you ought to feel as though you're really wearing a suit of full plate if you're going knight class, in which case, zig-zags and u-turns don't make a whole lot of sense.
Knights were the medieval equivalent of tanks, they should play as such. As it stands, they feel like footmen with an aversion to speed. Beef up their armour and damage to compensate for reduced mobility...
Ok, as an alternative, how about this?
Movement speed proportional to stamina? By this I mean maximum run speed at full stamina, reduced to 1/2 run speed at 0 stamina? Obviously, you could tweak this for different classes, but it makes things harder on the 'guerilla' warriors that dominate the servers.
You want momentum?
Add horses :-D
XD
I've got Mount & Blade for my fix of cavalry action, thx :D