How many foes would you like to face?

Basically, would you prefer fighting hordes, or more 1:1 battles? Obviously excluding party vs 1 because I would assume that would be mostly boss battles.

 

I would personally like a mix, but I'm really hoping that they have plenty of hordes, as I love throwing my characters into the mix, and killing as much as I can while doing what I can to simply survive in the onslaught. Anything to make it more war like, makes me happy.

Hordes are cool, granted that they don't spawn in multiple waves of identical enemies out of nowhere and mostly behind your second line (caster/ranged).

Don't forget about the KS tier to 'design a rival adventuring company'.

 

2 full parties consisting of all PC classes and abilities could make for some epic moments when it his the fan. Fireballs flying around, stealth/sneak/backstab, warriors crossing blades; what more could you ask for?

Basically, would you prefer fighting hordes, or more 1:1 battles? Obviously excluding party vs 1 because I would assume that would be mostly boss battles.

 

I would personally like a mix, but I'm really hoping that they have plenty of hordes, as I love throwing my characters into the mix, and killing as much as I can while doing what I can to simply survive in the onslaught. Anything to make it more war like, makes me happy.

 

Depends on how smart the enemy AI is and what "class variety" PE will have for enemies. (I'm assuming by 1:1 you mean 6:6.)

 

DA:O = Boring as all bugger because the Darkspawn were boring and there were basically only three enemy classes. So they added quantity, which was still boring.

 

BG = Enemies were still stupid but at least I had to worry about that enemy party having a dual-wield fighter, whack-a-mole thief, cleric, mage, and berzerker. Of different races (that didn't seem to matter as much, but I'd like to see it matter more).

 

A party of six smart and diverse enemies is waaaaaay more interesting to me than 20 of the same basic thing with the same abilities.

A lot of 1:1 battles but some unbalanced battles here and there.

 

Maybe an ogre-sized monster wearing armour that takes your whole party to fight. Or you might be further through the game and your party is very strong and well armoured and tons of men wielding nothing at all or just small weapons (axes, clubs, daggers) attack you.

 

Maybe some times where for every one of you there are two of them and you have to tactically decide who is going to fight what and etc.

 

depends on the gameplay mechanics we still don't know how the levelling up is and if the game is going to be realistic or massive amounts of health or whatever

I would love more one-on-one battles, but sometimes I like those huge fights where the corpses pile up and I have to mouse over a pile a couple times to make sure I get everything.

I can say what I do not want, Dragon Age two style seemingly endless waves of enemies dropping from the ceiling.

 

Infinity Engine games are a good example of what works well, they should stick to that.

A mixture. I like the adrenaline rush of a bigger, more frantic battle but I also like some of the strategic options a smaller fight may entail.

Mostly I'd want variety.

Single deadly opponents, parties somewhat equal in size to your own and then the occasional Very Large Horde.

 

But! If there's a horde, I don't want them spawning from some source*, I want them all there from the beginning.

And I'd like the horde to be big, like war party of 150 goblins coming to you all at once.

 

*Unless it's something meaningful, like begin the fight and after some while a bunch of reinforcements would appear from the barracks.

Agree with LadyCrimson, but also what I really like to see is a lot of tactical variety that requires more thought than just running up and bashing foes. Those situations are usually easier to implement with mixed groups of enemies than with single foes, but a single, powerful enemy could always gate in some allies and complicate matters.

Edited October 4, 2012 by rjshae

 

And I'd like the horde to be big, like war party of 150 goblins coming to you all at once.

 

Hmmm, like in the Lord of the Rings (movie style) when they get swarmed just before the arrival of the Balrog!

Hordes of creatures that you can cut to pieces with ease just like in neverwinter nights

Vary it up all the way from facing one super powerful foe to a multitude of smaller foes. One of the many really disappointing things about Dragon Age 2 was how each battle was essentially the same: Encounter a group of enemies, dispatch said enemies, bunch more of the same enemies magically spawn all around you. Lather, rinse, repeat. Even boss battles followed that same pattern (Boss appears, bunch of smaller mobs spawn all around you, kill smaller mobs, more smaller mobs appear all around you. Lather, rinse, repeat). Make encounters different from one another. In one encounter you may get trapped in a pass, pinched in from both sides by highwaymen. In another maybe you could be the one with the potential to hold a strategic pinch point where enemies funnel through. Maybe another could be in a wide open space with just one or two powerful enemies that are highly maneuverable and super quick making your melee troops less effective (as they spend a good deal of time chasing said enemies).

 

Basically, what Jarmo and Aedelric wrote.

Edited October 4, 2012 by Keyrock

Depends on the type of enemy, obviously. When being attacked by something like kobolds I want to be swarmed, but on the other hand I'd never want to see multiple dragons or higher demons at the same time. Unless I activate that "spawn enemies from all difficulty levels at the same time" expert mode, in which case I pretty much asked for it.

Quality over quantity, wherever possible, please.

I want enemies to be strong, but few in number. It feels weird slaughtering dozens at a time...

Balance in all things.

I want enemies to be strong, but few in number. It feels weird slaughtering dozens at a time...

 

Indeed, and my problem with 'horde' enemies is that it usually follows from a simplified worldview of mindless good/evil, which doesn't fit with the more complex world I imagine PE to be--will there be a "demonic" or "demon spawn" race of significant number? I hope to heck not. Lord of the Rings: goblins and orcs. Dragon Age: darkspawn. D&D: all manner of 'evil' things. Blah blah blah.

 

In narrative, a large battle such as forcing your way through a well-organized bandit stronghold might work better, or defending a small village against a coordinated attack (more coordination than a pile of orcs and goblins, at least).

 

Perhaps there will be plenty of 'horde' combat in the mega dungeon with undead, for example, but I'd rather such things be very rare in the 'open world'. Unless PE has some kind of "soulless husk infestation" plotline going. (Ehhhhh.....)

Edited October 4, 2012 by Ieo

Happy with a range, but one thing that would be nice with hordes is more resolutions than "you kill them all". IE games had certain weak enemies freaking out and fleeing if you killed enough of their kin, but that could turn into hunting them across the map until you got a good shot off, or they cowered in a corner with no escape. If you can rout weak mobs (with experience, so it's not like you "miss out" on anything) that'd be a nice touch. Of course a less... forgiving... party might then just freeze them in place and cut the lot town.

 

There should be some point at which even the weakest could overwhelm, though. A party of 6 attacking the 100 000 strong undead army in a full-frontal assault shouldn't be a viable option.

I just don't want them to DA2 style spawn out of nowhere or with the most contrived justifications possible. What they are, or how many, should be sensible and practical to the content in which the encounter takes place.

I want enemies to be strong, but few in number. It feels weird slaughtering dozens at a time...

 

Indeed, and my problem with 'horde' enemies is that it usually follows from a simplified worldview of mindless good/evil, which doesn't fit with the more complex world I imagine PE to be--will there be a "demonic" or "demon spawn" race of significant number? I hope to heck not. Lord of the Rings: goblins and orcs. Dragon Age: darkspawn. D&D: all manner of 'evil' things. Blah blah blah.

But what if the "horde" are the Many-As-One?

An assorted collection, and even the same kind of baddies should be of great diversity.

Great numbers of foes, as in endless hordes pouring out of rabbit holes, is not my cup of tea, fewer foes that make for exciting encounters is what makes me tick.

This is my idea of the perfect combat encounter.

 

millions and millions so I can layeth the smackdown on their candy asses

I dont like to fight hordes in waves from the ground, i want to fight real enemies that i can count.

 

The onli Exception of fighting waves if i see an army or something like that and im in the middle of combat.

but in a Dungeon or something like that i dont want waves.

 

One of my biggest problem with Dragon Age 2 was the Fighting waves of enemies.

 

I want tactical combat, when i have to think of my resourses and what to do with what i have fighting waves of enemies defears the prupuse. A couple of fights like this is OK for the usertenty of the Fight but if its done fight after fight its not what i would like.

Edited October 4, 2012 by ReyVagabond