Viking: Battle for Asgard - Now Chivalry Thread Due to Popular Demand

[Toonces]

Which do you like better, Jarhead (Chiv or WotR)?

[Jarhead0331]

Which do you like better, Jarhead (Chiv or WotR)?

Haven't tried WotR yet...maybe this weekend if I get a chance? Chivalry is fun, but so far have only played against bots.

[Gusington]

If we could get a small group of 4-5 together this game looks to be tons of fun.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I bought them both on sale.  WOR has a lot more customization options and more depth when it comes to levelling and designing the type of character you want to play, but I just find Chivalry to be more fun.  The maps in Chivalry have multiple, staged objectives whereas WOR is limited to just capturing control points.  I played one chivalry map where my team had to burn out some fields that archers could hide in, then push a petard up to a castle gate, the breach the gate, get inside and kill the other team's king.  Lots of fun.  I also find the melee in Chivalry a lot more visceral and satisfying than WOR's.  Nothing like lopping someone's head off and kicking it down the stairs.

(the decapitation cam is kind of funny when it happens to you, too.  I get kind of dizzy watching the world spin around me as my melon tumbles down a hill).

[Nefaro]

Definitely sounds like fun.  Maybe not so much the getting decapitated part, but yeah.
;D

Speaking of fun..




Here's a blank one for you to use.. give it a swing!

[Nefaro]

[Nefaro]

Sorry for the Speech Bubble Spam.  It gave me something to do while Chivalry is downloading.

Yes, I buckled like a worn-out belt!  ;D

with a bit of luck his life was ruined forever.  Thinking that just behind some narrow door, men in red woolen shirts are getting incredible kicks from things he will never know."

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Ack. Yet another game I'm going to have to get, I'm afraid.

You should definitely pick it up if Steam or GG has it on sale again.  I'm having a blast with it despite the fact that I am absolutely terrible at it.

As Toonces has pointed out in other threads, it does have some flaws.  Since I've been singing the game's praises so far, I should probably look at some of the shortcomings. 

There's not a lot in the way of customization.  Apparently, you eventually get the ability to choose from various helmet types.  I haven't reached that level yet though, so I can't say.  And that's pretty much it.  Other than the weapon you carry, there's no way to distinguish you from anyone else with the same character class on your team.

There are only 4 character classes:

1) Archer.  (Missile combat is definitely the weakest part of the game.  Everyone hates archers.  They are more of a threat to their own team than they are to the enemy.  Most people who play archers are just plain bad people.  They have an uncanny ability to plant a shaft in the back of your skull a micro-second before you land a killing blow.  They also like to stand in the middle of a corridor to snipe, especially if the corridor is the only one leading out of the spawn zone so nobody can get past them).

2) Man-at-arms. (light infantry.  They're fast, they can dodge, and they have a shield they can shield rush with.  I can't play this class at all.)

3) Vanguard.  (assault infantry.  Medium armour, no shield.  Two handed weapons with good reach, massive damage, but slow recovery after a swing.  Dangerous but if you get inside their weapon's reach, they're dead meat.  I usually play this class.)

4) Knight.  (Heavy infantry.  Good defence with heavy armour and a shield.  Can switch out to a two handed weapon.  They don't do as much damage as the vanguard but can take more of a beating.  Slow moving but faster weapons.)


Each class gets three weapons, one from each of the following classes: main weapon; secondary weapon; missile or special weapon.

Each class has different choices for each class of weapon.  For example, I usually play as a vanguard class. 
The main weapon choices for the vanguard are:  spear, greatsword, or pole arm.     
Secondary weapons choices are: short sword or war axe
Missile weapons are : throwing axes, throwing knives, or smoke pot.

The main and secondary weapons each have three tiers, unlocked by getting kills with a weapon.  For example, if you choose two-handed swords as your main weapon as a vanguard, you start with a greatsword.  Then you progress to a claymore, and finally to a zwei-hander.

Progression is quite rapid.  I've only been playing for a few days and I've already unlocked all three swords, 2 of the three pole-arms, and the 2nd tier war axe.


The game could do more to promote teamwork.  As it stands now, much of the game devolves into individual combats.  I just got out of a game with Nefaro.  Our team was doing nothing to achieve the objectives.  Everyone was just out to get kills so nobody except me and one other guy were trying to complete the objectives.  As you might expect, each time we tried, we were cut down almost immediately as we had no support.

IDing other players can be difficult.  You have to get quite close and hover your cursor over them.  As there is almost no character customization, it can be hard to find your buddies.  There's also no in-game chat so you have to go through TS of Steam VOIP if you want to play as a group.


Friendly fire is bloody deadly in this game.  When you melee, you have three basic attacks.  A side slash, a thrust, or an overhand chop.  (you can also charge and chain up combos).  Most guys seem to favour wild side slashes and in a close melee, you can expect to get a a lot of friendly whacks in the back.  In my last game, I died 11 times. 5 of those were from friendly fire.

Finally, you don't really get a lot of feedback while in-game.  You have to open up a sub-menu to see how much time you've got left to reach your objective.  There's also no way to check your overall stats.  You do get levels (I'm now level 6) but there's no information I can find as to what exactly this means if anything.



 

[LongBlade]

Cool. Thanks, SDR.

[Nefaro]

Yeah, it does seem a little sparse.  Fun for some quick multiplayer hackery I suppose. 

The friendly-fire is definitely a regularity.  Even being careful, you're gonna end up hitting a friendly at times.

Unfortunately, all the Unreal-engined games can still make me a bit queasy even after cranking up the FOV.  I can stomach it longer than those with low-FOV, however, but I can see that I'll be limited to doing a couple-three matches before having to exit out for a bit.  :-[  My days of first- and third-person gaming looks to be numbered if everyone's using the Unreal engine.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

From what I could see of your score in the game we were both in, it looks like you were doing very well.  I think you had 9 kills and 6 deaths last time I saw.

As for control in a group melee, you can greatly limit the chances of killing guys on your own side by using thrusts and kicks and avoiding the big slash attacks.  Not that it matters because some mouth breather playing an archer on your side will still insist on firing straight into the melee and killing you anyway.  Stupid archers....

BTW, quick tip for fun.  If you see one of your archers up on a wall, sniping away from the merlons, running up behind him and punting him for a field goal is an immensely satisfying experience.  He may spaz out and try to vote kick you, but a quick explanation that you were merely archer punting will sway the vote in your favour.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

New content coming in January.

Duel mode.  Both combatants agree to enter a duel.  This prevents other from dog piling and back stabbing.  (back stabbing is how I get the few kills I do manage per round.  Booo!)

New map with capture the flag mode.  (Lame.  I want more maps where the objective is to cut down filthy peasants or launch diseased corpses into the castle.)


And the big one, new weapons.  The flail and the pole hammer.   Flail looks awesome!

[Gusington]

Just ran through all the tutorials. Butchery!

[Nefaro]

From what I could see of your score in the game we were both in, it looks like you were doing very well.  I think you had 9 kills and 6 deaths last time I saw.

Yeah.. I really didn't do too bad.  Those were my very first two matches, and I somehow managed to get 11 kills in the first one (to 8 or 9 deaths) IIRC.  So I started off pretty well, using the Man-At-Arms class.  Probably because they are the fastest hitters with the mace/club. 

As for control in a group melee, you can greatly limit the chances of killing guys on your own side by using thrusts and kicks and avoiding the big slash attacks.  Not that it matters because some mouth breather playing an archer on your side will still insist on firing straight into the melee and killing you anyway.  Stupid archers....

I generally prefer to use a thrust when striking, especially near friendlies, as it feels like a faster, more accurate strike that can get the jump on someone attempting to close with you.  Dodging feels like crap and rarely even works for me when I try to dodge backwards/sideways to get some room; not sure if that's a game, lag, or user issue. I've tried to finesse it some, but have had mixed results as a fast & hard onslaught seems to be the best approach in many cases.  *shrug*

BTW, quick tip for fun.  If you see one of your archers up on a wall, sniping away from the merlons, running up behind him and punting him for a field goal is an immensely satisfying experience.  He may spaz out and try to vote kick you, but a quick explanation that you were merely archer punting will sway the vote in your favour.

LOL!  Poor archers. 

Alas, I think half my deaths in those games were to enemy archers.  They can be downright deadly if you don't weave & bob - and sometimes even that doesn't save you!.

I'm not sure what to think of the map modes yet.  I've not played enough to get an idea, but thus far I've been pretty MEH.  It sounds like some of them are pretty good but that 'Burn The Fields' scenario just ended up with both teams hacking & respawning in the middle of it for the most part. 

I still need to try out the other classes, too.  The only one I'm not terribly excited about trying is the Knight class just because their shield tends to block so much of my vision that it is hard to see when, exactly, I should be hitting RMB to block with it (not being able to see my enemy's weapon being swung in his right hand).  So I regularly find myself flailing shield block blindly, and actually doing worse than just parrying with a weapon instead.  :-[  I suppose they use a two-handed sword anyway, so if nothing else I can just not bother using the shield with him.


EDIT:  Question!--

Is there a feature where you can see in which games your Steam or Chivalry buddies are playing?  I just happened to get very lucky in choosing the server you were playing on, SDR.  It was random chance.  :o

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I'm not sure about but I think you have to manually add each person to your "friends" tab in-game if you want to find and join them.

Yes, the objective map modes are a lot of fun provided the teams actually try to complete the objectives.  On the public servers it often seems like everyone just ignores the missions and tries to slaughter one another instead.

Got eight kills with one blow today!  (granted, the blow came from a catapult I was manning and three of the eight were on my team, but they were just archers so they don't count.)