Confused About the Combat System in Divine Mortality? Well, so is Everyone Else!

By Erika "Yorginasia"

The recently released and quickly rising “Massively Online Adventure Game”, Divine Mortality, has brought many players into their world. But do any of them actually understand how the combat system in this game works?

Many players who are currently jumping into Divine Mortality come from a wide area of gaming. There are the players who could be described as your typical MMORPG or even MMOFPS player, most of them are merely trying this game out before (likely or unlikely) returning back to their original game. However, there are even more players are arriving from a general background of singleplayer open-world RPGs, whether it is western or eastern in style. Then there are the players who are arriving from the many other popular multiplayer games, whether it’s an action FPS or an open world survival. But the key similarity between us, everyone that is trying out Divine Mortality for the first time, is…we don’t understand how this game’s combat system works!

How was this combat system even made?

Whether Divine Mortality is a “MOAG” or a “MMORPG” is still up for debate amongst the community, but either way it cannot be denied that Divine Mortality shares most of its structure pretty much alongside other MMORPGs. However, it would seem that the combat is certainly not the same. This is where many players from other MMOs have gotten surprised at, when they realize that this game’s action is very different from what they’re used to in most other MMOs. So, if the structure of the combat system in this game is not alike to MMOs, then what is it? Surprisingly, according to my own research and from several of the interviews with the developers, the base combat system in this game is most similar to open world survival sandbox games. Yet, while there are some elements of sandbox in Divine Mortality, at its core, it’s not a sandbox. It so happens that Divine Mortality is a mixture of an MMORPG combat system and a classic CRPG combat system (computer role playing game). It is because of this mixture of two somewhat radically different combat systems which has resulted into how Divine Mortality's combat statistics operate. But it does not end there. An obvious and crucial factor about Divine Mortality, while it isn’t necessary to play it, is that the game is first and foremost a Virtual Reality game. And, as many of us know, the best thing about virtual reality games is how interactive and immersive they are Yet, Divine Mortality’s combat system still doesn’t operate very similarly to many of its virtual reality counterparts. Why? It is because the developers have connected VR gameplay and MMORPG/CRPG gameplay together, and with a bit of balancing and downgrading to support the game for keyboard and mouse, Divine Mortality’s combat system was born.

What even is this combat system?

So, we have gotten past the origin of how a combat system like this was designed. Now, how does it work? Well, it is at this point in the article where I must officially announce a apologize to you because I also don’t understand most of the combat system. Even most of the developers admitted that they do not fully understand it themselves, and those weren’t just simple animation artists! So, everything from this point on in the article should be taken in a grain of salt, and probably sometime in the future we can all look back at how wrong I was about so many things.

As of now the game is almost a week old since its launch. According to even the most hardcore players, who are hard to communicate with because they’re so busy progressing, the high tier and even middle tier of this game is not in sight. What do I mean by high tier and middle tier? I am referring to sections in the game which would traditionally be referring to as the end game or end content. Of the many features that have been promised by the developers (and are still promising that it exists), few of them have been founded or operated by the players so far. The very exciting “government” mechanics haven’t been unlocked yet, but the classic “professions” have been unlocked and already played by many players. The point is, that the developers have purposefully left much of their game to mystery and speculation. Even parts of the optional tutorial only explain the basic and casual sections of the game. According to some players, they’ve unlocked certain features in their UI which is invisible to most players. However, the developers left enough content and interesting gameplay (as well as the immersive design of the game) which have kept players interested as they continue to battle against the darkness. When the game and the community is in this type of situation, how could anyone possibly know the secrets of the combat system?

Well, I am here to list out some details related to the combat system for you. These are things that are fully or almost fully understood by the community, so we are confident they are true.

What we know:

The player’s movements and actions in VR is similar to most other VR games except there is a noticeable fluidity and fidelity in the actions performed by a player. So, unlike other VR games, the player doesn’t need to worry or will ever notice the rough aspects of VR combat Physical and magical melee combat exists. physical and magical ranged combat also exists. Support roles possibly exist as well, whether as part of magic or its own thing The weight, speed, and size of the attacks all matter in determining the damage dealt. However, the type and quality of the weapon will always do a certain range of damage at the base level (EX: thrusting a spear that does 5-10 dmg will always do between 5 to 10 points of damage if every spear thrust is the same). Of course, you’ll need to make some trade offs when gearing up and fighting. Should you focus on speed over damage output? The level of your attributes plays a major role in determining the capabilities (damage, survival, outmaneuvering) your player is able to perform in combat. Attribute levels also seem to play an important role outside of combat, but their importance is more crucial in combat. Autoattacks exist in the game, but most players prefer playing with manual combat because it seems to be more efficient and effective in fights. The difference is between auto and manual, is that your gameplay will basically become more like a medieval FPS versus a traditional MMORPG combat experience. Along with the weight, speed, and size determinations which were mentioned earlier, there are many different angles of attack. And the difference between the angle you should strike from depends on what type of weapon a player is using and whatever is best for the battle. Ranged combat (both magical and physical) works differently in that it becomes a literal first-person shooter depending on what weapon is used, such as a bow. We aren’t sure about the specifics of magical combat yet. There are different types of mobs. Depending on their intelligence and type, they will react differently when fought. “Zombie” mobs are creatures who behave like normal beasts in video games that generally exist to be in the way of the player, they tend to be pretty mindless AI. So far, a good example of this would be a “Moskevel” which is basically a humanoid moss monster that attacks anyone in the range of a tree which they’re hugging. However, most other mobs encountered in the game are part of the “Creature AI”, which basically makes these creatures more realistic and mindful of their role in the environment. In terms of combat, it means that they are always automatically hostile. They are also definitely smarter than “zombie” mobs but they could also be less effective when attacking a player. It’s hard to say the exact differences among these types of mobs because Creature AI mobs are simply any intelligent creature. It could be dog, it could be a sheep, or it could be a wyvern. They all have their own purpose and goals in the world, similarly to NPC AI. So, if a wolf’s purpose was to guard a territory, then they’d become much more ferocious in a fight if they’re inside their territory. While the game supports traditional controllers and keyboard-mouse playability (with or without a VR helmet), there is a noticeable difference in the abilities between players who are using VR controllers and those who aren’t. So far, all the differences are far from major problems. Instead, there are many slight variations in how capable a player is depending on what devices they use to play the game. In fact, some players seem to favor this uneven scenario because it makes things more interesting for them. Also, the developers had already balanced out the differences between devices all the way to the point where it seems to have reached a pleasant middle ground. Where the game has retained a primary VR focused experience while still offering more than enough support for non-VR players. The developers released a simplistic concept chart of the way they see equipment organized in their game. This was released yesterday to help players get a better grasp of what their available routes are. It is very helpfully, especially since there aren’t any complete classes in the game, so a major part of your character’s role can be seen from something like this equipment chart. At the end of their message post after revealing this chart, the developers hinted that there is much more than meets the eye. So, it is safe to say that there are more “classes”, weapons, armors, skills, and abilities (both combat and non-combat related) in this game than whatever we currently know about. Here is the chart:

Light

Heavy

Magic

Specialist

One Handed

Short Sword, Dagger, Rapier, Hand Axe

Sword, Club, Mace, Heavy Sabre

Wand, Orb, Tome, (general weapon enchantment)

Blunt, Slash, Pierce

Two Handed

Longsword, Battle Stave, Spear,

Warhammer, Greataxe, Pike

Staff, scrolls, (general weapon enchantment)

Blunt, Slash, Pierce

Ranged

Javelin, shortbow, throwing weapons (knife, axe, etc.)

Longbow, Crossbow,

Magic lances, blowguns, (general weapon enchantment)

Power, Agility

Defense (armor and shield)

General light armor, small shields, less covering

General heavy armor, large shields, more covering

General armor enchantment, scrolls, banners/tabards

Protection, Mobility

Again, this is a simplistic chart made by the developers while they were concepting these features into the game. So, it’s likely that there a wide variety of things that exist in the gmae which we have no idea baout! Such as the "blowguns" listed under magic.

So what about the things we don't know much about? Well, that's pretty much everything else! I can go on and on about it. I will say that if you are not currently a player of Divine Mortality, then you should be! If you have the money, equipment, and the time, then you should really try giving Divine Mortality a shot!