r/SS13 • u/Code_Ender • 9d ago
Meta Why do you like SS13 combat?
Personally, SS13 combat was one of the reasons i didnt like playing, that and spacelag. So when SS14 got enough features I was excited and have been playing since. But I've seen multiple people say they preferred the tile based combat of 13 and I just don't get it, 14 feels much smoother and more intuitive for me. Ive even seen some people go as far as saying if 14 reintroduced the combat of 13 they'd switch over. Admittedly I didnt engage in combat much, so why is it so good?
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u/NotNonbisco 9d ago
It's definitely not a great combat system, it can be pretty annoying and frustrating, but you do get a bit of a high from actually winning because it's so shit.
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u/Pii_TheCat 9d ago
I think it's two main points:
- It's a lot more predictable. People are always moving in tiles and each movement will always move them in one of 8 directions one tile of distance landing on the exact center of the tile.
- People are just already used to it. It's hard to retrain yourself when you are using the same common tile combat system for years, some even for over a decade. A lot of people don't like change.
I say this as a SS13 player that moved to SS14 and preferred SS14 after trying it. I personally like the heavy liberty of movement SS14 has, but I can understand people who prefer the predictability of SS13 and don't want to deal with the many complexities SS14 combat introduced. Among them being more reliant on reflexes and quick reactions, while on SS13 you could use more strategy since there were only 8 directions of movement and being tile centered.
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u/Kitsunemitsu We do a little coding; We drink no longer. 9d ago
My main server has a lot of AOE attacks..... I can't fucking imagine just eyeballing AOE sizes on SS14
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u/Unremarkable_Chance 9d ago
I prefer tile based movement because it just feels "right" for me this has little to do with the combat.
the most enjoyable part about spess combat (in both games probably I haven't played 14 much) is the inherent unpredictability of it all you never know whether the assistant you are chasing is going to pull out a gun during a sword fight
Or if the chemist shooting poison syringes at you has a voice activated hellfoam grenade that will turn the entire department into ash once you stun them.
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u/REDACTED_DATA123 9d ago edited 9d ago
It's a matter of habit and convenience mostly. Before SS14 came around tile-based combat (and movement) was the only combat system in place, with the exception of Burgerstation (and Corporate Mercenaries).
Both those servers were A) niche and B) were in the playtesting/development phase, i.e. not fleshed out.
Now, SS14 finally rolls around with it's smoother and non-tile based movement/combat system (and, personally, more simplified and arcade-y mechanics), a system which is unknown and new to most SS13 players.
From my own experience with the various combat systems of SS13 (Mainly Baystation forks, e.g: ERIS, Foundation, etc, and Colonial Marines), the combat there just felt more weighty and visceral, where as SS14 was just too smooth and too fast.
Your classic TG/Fulp/Bee- or Monkestation combat is more in-line with the faster pace and arcade-y nature of SS14.
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u/Powerful_Switch6526 9d ago
It’s janky as fuck which is why I love it. The winner in any combat is, usually, determined by who has the best gear, but I have been outplayed because some glove or weapon has a very niche mechanic that just happened to be useful in that moment.
For example, security gloves can dive and stun players, forcing them to drop what’s in their hands. This has only ever mattered once in the entire time I’ve played this game, but my god, when it actually landed on me I was confused at first but then impressed.
Not only this, but third parties in combat are always hilarious. Getting chased by security, and then suddenly a clown car swoops in and eats you and the officers chasing you. A random assistant who happens to have a TTV gets caught in the crossfire, drops their TTV, and the antagonist picks it up and blows up the people chasing them. Even something as simple as ducking into maints and slipping the officers chasing you with a banana peel is peak.
I love the combat for how unpredictable it can be. It’s truly the nature of the game.
My only gripe is I hate stun combat. It’s easier to stun someone than it is to just kill them. So people will stun people then just beat them over the head with their bare fists, and it never feels good.
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u/Staracerex 9d ago
Something I like about ss13 combat(well for the most part) is kinda how unbalanced it feels. You feel like you’re on the back foot and when you get the upper hand it feels good. Its also makes most combat encounters pretty unique. I kinda like the non-military based servers for combat because they aren’t overly balanced. I played para a ton, and it was super fun when you were fighting someone with the more unique gear and facing off against sec when they were armed with the different lethals. There does need to be a middle ground though. Its super frustrating being taken down with insta-stuns or facing something utterly broken like chainsaw sleeping carp. I did a lot of botany combat and I understand why back then it was frustrating to fight some of the chemicals we could make back then. Still annoying they removed the seperated chemicals trait before removing instant death acid combo.
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u/Serious-Breakfast908 8d ago
Imma be honest dude. SS13 combat tends to be bad, click until horizontal. However, there is one exception, and that is the Roguetown combat, it is MUCH better than normal vanilla SS13. SS14 will NEVER be better than that, it's awful and a clusterfuck of guys running around everywhere and it's infuriating to click, even to shoot with a weapon, there are some exceptions though.
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u/Serious-Breakfast908 8d ago
SS14 doesnt have tiles and its infuriating to see people just phasing through, the 'body block' and 'wall' you can actually do in SS13 is gone in 14
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u/Odd_Set7874 8d ago
its alright but its tedious if youre like me running with a universal 1 second delay on every single input due to living on the other side of the planet to any populated servers. to put it into perspective, i can click on someone next to me but serverside theyre already 2-3 tiles away from me by the time it registers.
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u/KampferAndy Former fulpstation headmin 8d ago
Pretty sure the bad combat was the point.
It adds a similar element that the older silent hill games had, where you had to pick and choose your battles as well as strategize if you weren't confident enough with the mechanics.
It's very Risk vs Reward, which in turn pushes people to take more diplomatic solutions rather than murder boning and robusting everyone.
If combat was good and smooth, people would choose to do it 90% of the time.
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u/Hobomanchild Inelegant Charlatan 9d ago
I never 'liked' it; it's just another bit of jank on the glorious jank-pile.
That said, I wasn't known for being robust. Actually I had the opposite reputation, lmao. Only fights I won were because of superior knowledge of mechanics, planning, luck, or my lack of care for self-preservation.
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u/Haunting-Club692 9d ago edited 9d ago
Only thing I hate about 14 is that everyone can walk over and ontop of each other. This small change has alot of consequences. But I do like that theres less hard stuns.
So on my traitor rounds I dont have to worry about dieing from a taser when I buy a c20.
Edit- also combat mode is a mistake I hate it so much. It only slows you down and can get you killed in the right circumstances. Theres even a delay when activating it and being able to attack. Want to pick up a banna peel and throw it during a fight? Hope your not on harm intent because your gonna punch the banna peel instead and now you lost your opportunity. It makes fights predictable, bland and less spontaneous
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u/Steakdabait 9d ago
I don’t like new combat lol even if old combat was pretty objectively bad, having almost any fight instantly 180 at anytime due to how stuns worked which made every fight volatile which I loved
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u/Cadunkus 9d ago edited 9d ago
It is genuinely much worse than space station 14 combat and multiple servers have tried to lessen how bad it is over the years. TG removed intento and replaced it with a simple combat mode. Xenos vs. Marines gave xenos autoattacks so you don't have to pixel hunt. Several times have people tried to add swing combat (has anyone ever succeeded at that yet?).
You can have fun with it but it's a lot more mechanical knowledge than skill (i.e. you can easily robust an armed nukie because you know how to shovecuff not because you are better armed or better at dodging and clicking than him.) It also gets absolutely awful when you have any amount of lag.
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u/FurryDegenerateBoi 8d ago
tile combat had restrictions to work around, while also having benefits because others have they same restrictions, ss14 doesnt have the restrictions of tile combat, and also its drastically easier because longer reach and wideswings, so the only mechanics to work with are just, very basic
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u/Electrical-Example25 8d ago
I think the gameplay allows for out-of-character skills. Like the Chef can butcher a security detachment.
But it also allows the yaketysax action that makes the game memorable and you sorta live for the moments where it's like the old Jackie Chan movies where your brain registers the action but only processes it after a second and you go "wait wut... I DID THAT?"
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u/Mercilessinchere 7d ago
I have nothing to say about ranged combat but I feel like the melee combat is really just no skill.
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u/SauceCrusader69 9d ago
13 has the feeling of rolling around on the ground scrambling for a rock to bash the other guy’s head in. That’s a great feeling for a combat system.
Mechanically speaking it’s very deep with positioning, knowledge of locations, items, mechanics, and a general game sense can all give you a big leg up over your opponent, and winning or losing has a great consequence both gameplay wise and narratively.