Contact damage - why should I like this?

I have heard from the devs on other forums that the re-introduction of contact damage was done so because it fit better with the new combat mechanics. After playing the unstable build for a decent amount of time, I have to disagree.

The contact damage as it is now feels rather cheap. Even if it's the same but with a small attack animation thrown in, that element of realism makes things more believable. Simply having the sprite run into you takes away some of the immersion of the game, and it devolves combat into a bad game of tag, where the only attack from most animals is, "stand on player until dead".

All this is made more so now that (apparently?) every creature is hostile on sight. Even the tiniest, most benign-looking things that just bounce about still hurt you if you so much as brush up against them. Even if it's supposed to make the combat better, it doesn't feel genuine.

Are there people who enjoy contact damage? Could you please explain why you like it? I'd like to hear a point of view from the other end.

 

I enjoy contact damage because it keeps me on my toes. PLus wiht the new special attacks system there is no shortage of methods to keep enemies at a safe distance.

 

I greatly dislike contact damage for the reasons listed. I would be okay with limited contact damage if my opponent had some kind of animation that they could inflict damage on touch, like an arching electricity, dripping poison, etc. I also want fewer "unique" creatures shared between worlds and more random-generation monsters that can be "neutral" instead of attack-on-sight 99.9999999% of the time. Chucklefish made bad decisions with their changes to enemy aggression this time around - the problem before was not that there was a lack of creature aggression, it was that there was too much aggression and spawn patterns were too predictable (Always 4 hostile creatures and 2 neutral ones). Shared "unique" creatures between biomes and an almost complete lack of randomgen creatures make each biome even more repetitive...

 

If I wanted collision damage in a game I played, I'd play games like Contra. Starbound never struck me as the kind of game that needed collision damage to enhance itself in any way, unless the goal was to see who can mod the best way to get rid of such an awful design so quickly.

 

I feel contact damage is needed because in the current state, a lot of attacks with a charge up delay can be bypassed by running through them, which results in a hit, but usually minor damage, blockable, and more prefereable that dealing with the charged attack, which usually hits for more and has other properties. Trading attacks like ancient flame, chromatic purge, and flesh splatter for a mere bash is simply gamebreaking, and favors melee combat.

Contact damage also gives multiple opponents or pack situations an additional threat. While this was more common during the earlier nightly builds, in tight situations you again could take adavntage of the mobs initial "hop" of aggro to run through them and get into a favorable position, or use the hop to get in attacks.

With contact damage, while still having the delay in reaction, many mobs are now in a better position to deal damage to the unwary, while their attacks can be further tweaked to facilitate rushing the player.(stunning and binding moves, for example)

 

I thought I wouldn't like it, but I do. More challlenging and more fun.

 

To be very honest, I never noticed the difference in the combat experience. I suspect Chucklefish made the change entirely so that they don't need to make as many animations for mobs. Since blink techs and trail dash abilities seem to grant I-frames and mobs used to hit you repeatedly anyway if you found yourself on top of them, the only major effect is on the visuals and how we think about the monsters. So far, I have been rather disappointed by the combat update, but I honestly think the contact damage is a relatively minor issue to gripe about. Just my humble opinion, as requested.

 

i to hate this contact damage. now melee combat is even more difficult than it already was. why chucklefish, why have you done this.

 

Touch damage would be fine if it were simply one of the many creature parts that had moves tied to them (remember this feature?). Give that hopping turtle thing spikes or give a bird a flaming head and you clearly communicate towards the player that they should poke at this thing from a distance or armor up. Global touch damage across all creatures is garbage game design.

 

Yeah... Contact damage is lame. If I wanted to play Koala I would torrent that version. Honestly this entire update feels like a step back in the wrong direction. There are a few cool things like armor dyes and vehicles. But mostly just bleh. Still love the game but there is gona be allot less playtime for this update for me.

 

Global contact damage would be fine if the creatures still had the old ai and actually tried to attack you with, you know, an attack. The current system where they just run at you and try to stay on top of you is horrible though, it feels like a real step-backwards over the previous AI.

 

I'm not a huge fan of contact damage. I will say it makes sense to keep people form barreling forward through piles of enemies (which was a pretty effective strategy).

 

What I found lame is the new "Stone" enemies.

They duck into the ground and they are invincible... but they still hit you if you touch them which is just stupid, because lots of times they spawn in areas where you can't SEE them very well and you take damage for no reason. And sometimes they are in difficult to get around places and you have to wait...... and wait....... and wait.......and wait... for the stupid thing to be vulnerable again, meanwhile other enemies are coming in and you just want to get on with what you were doing..

 

I hate contact damage. It's really really irritating, honestly. I thought the game had gotten past that stage already. But now it's back to Koala touch damage. I mean, some mobs would be good with touch damage. Like Gleap. It's a slime that jumps around. It makes sense that it would do touch damage because of the kind of enemy it is. But every single mob doing touch damage when aggroed is horrible and not fun. Like the snail and Rock mob. If you can't hit them when they're in their shells, they shouldn't damage you either.

 

I'll admit on my first planet I wasn't a fan of contact damage at all. But that was because it seemed like all any mob did was dash at me, despite any abilities it might have to attack otherwise. But once I explored some new planets and saw some of the more diverse mobs I noticed that they all don't just dash. If you're fighting something and you make contact with it, it should hurt (at least a little). As long as the mob AI varies and has different movement, contact damage works. Fire squirrels in the bone biome, for example, don't rush/dash at you. The ghostly looking mobs there also don't dash at you, but amble toward you at a set pace.

Terraria had contact damage too. The difference was each mob had movement patterns. Too me it's more a matter of mob AI than contact damage. As long as mobs have various movement patterns and attack strategies, and don't just try to "make contact with you", it should work fine. I'd like to see mobs that actually attempted to stay at a distance using range to attack, thus forcing you to be the one to have to close the distance.

That said, I need to play quite a bit more to form a more solid opinion.

 

After reading others opinions and comparing my own to theirs, I have to say the following; why not have both? As unsubRedun said it
"Touch damage would be fine if it were simply one of the many creature parts that had moves tied to them (remember this feature?). Give that hopping turtle thing spikes or give a bird a flaming head and you clearly communicate towards the player that they should poke at this thing from a distance or armor up. Global touch damage across all creatures is garbage game design." -unsubRedun

Having certain monsters only able to attack with their arms in an animation styled attack would communicate to the player to get up, close, and personal with them. (Think adult poptop. Running into it as it flanged heavily forward would result in dodging its specific attack, then allowing you to shank it repeadly as it attempted to charge another attack.) This is positive gameplay because it 1.) Encourages strategity, using a spear here would result in it getting an attack off on you because of its long ranged melee attack. 2.) Encourages different weapon usage. Currently, I feel you can play the whole game using a specific weapon or two, that being a shotgun and an assault rifle. Why? The weapon alternate abilitys give you the opportunity to have a grenade launcher, and a knockback function as well using blast shot. With different weapon usage, it makes the game interesting by having to think of different weapon combinations that go well together, and what weapon combinations don't go well together. 3.) It makes the game more fun because it encourages longer playtime in an appropriate way. You want to explore fiery stars to find that rare energy swirl spear to complete your combat set, or to find that secondary sticky grenade launcher that is in line with your other grenade launchers functions.

Another example why having contact damage would be great for gameplay reasons; some monsters you do not want to touch. Think of the volcanic crab, that thing must be very hot and sharp. It would make sense to take damage as you stepped on it/brushed it. Signifying that it does do contact damage would be very important, give it some sort of 'signal' that after encountering other monsters that have contact damage you would be able to tell if you payed attention.

Anyway, that's my opinion. It's alright, but it needs improvement.

 

One thing I will say is that a lot of the weapon abilities I've discovered allow for passing through mobs without being damaged. It does add more strategy to combat. Nobody seemed to complain about any contact damage in Terraria, so what is the difference? Is it combat damage itself or an AI issue?

Here's the thing for me...if a mob only has to touch me to damage me (doing damage without attacking), why can't I damage it without attacking? If I miss with a melee attack I can't just run into a mob to hurt it. But, of course mobs also don't have these super duper awesome weapons like I do.

Maybe they should have some of the mobs dash PAST you (without doing damage) in order to attack from the other side.

Overall, I don't really find it game-breaking at all. There's enough mobs that have different movement patterns outside of dry humping your leg.

 

I thought that I will not like it but after few hours in game I found out that contact damage is really low and I don't really care about it. Feels like special attacks for monsters were boosted and acid lightnings that monsters projectile vomit at me all the time is much more dangerous then contact damage.

Still would be nice if monsters had certain amount of damage that they can swallow without being knocked back because spear is now my ultimate weapon.

 

Spears.

Anyway, if the mobs had up close aggressive attacking moves in addition to contact damage, what would you think(it could be possible due to the smaller i frames when hit for light damage) Would it be too hard to manage? Because it looks like, with the exception of breath weapons, there are fewer quick short range moves (or they have charge up time, like that "space lion" in the bone biomes) other than running into you.

 

I haven't really much qualms with contact damage. It is fine. What I have qualms with is something someone else mentioned, which is when creature goes into a defense immunity state. Shouldn't for some of them the contact damage be turned off, when in that state. Like the rock creature for example:

It would be more of a surprise to land on one or a few if it did nothing while they look like rocks. They all of a sudden they get up and the contact damage is turned on, as they are attacking; if they are the aggro type.

Another one, the snail I see which is pretty slow and when it is in its' shell it does not make sense why touching its' shell mode I would get damage. No visual sign. Like the snail the spikey shell mob which reminds me of a creature in Mario brothers; that one makes sense visually why touching it would cause damage, Although I have not seen that one do what the snail does. Those ones are more determined...

Anyway it is more I have qualms with the visual parts of it, as a few in certain modes makes no sense why it would still be active with touch damage. As long as when it has that type of mode and visually has danger on it, it would make sense. I have not met too many enemies within this update, but the two I mentioned are the ones that kind of bugged me with a bit of reasoning.

I actually enjoy it as much as I did in Terraria. Then again it is quite a different experience and approach, even if the same mechanic is used; there are other things that make it feel a little different, secondary attacks for one. I want to collect them all....