Enhanced Difficulty

Experimental

U11 introduced some changes to the combat system. I, for one, found these to be a very good step in the right direction. And while it is definitely fun to feel like an unstoppable force, I wanted to try to bring it down to earth a bit more.

While I've tried to increase the base difficulty overall - easy enemies now have access to slowed down versions of thrust attacks, for instance - I wanted to try and make the difference between easy and hard a bit more pronounced.

Enemies are harder to stagger and stun-lock - especially during their attacks. This means the player should never let their guard down even when attacking. I wanted to try and make historical techniques make sense to use.

I've also attempted to reduce the recoil enemies get when you parry them, to allow for easier weapon binding and redirection. With light one-handed weapons you will have to use leverage by catching your opponent's weapon on the strong of your blade.  Very experimental

It should be harder to blow through the enemy's block with sheer power as well

A number of waves are added to try out the changes under the "Enhanced Difficulty Hard" category:

-1v1 Unarmored

-1v2 Unarmored

-1v3 Unarmored

-1v1 Medium Armor

-1v2 Medium Armor

-1v3 Medium Armor

-1v1 Heavy Armor

-1v2 Heavy Armor

-1v3 Heavy Armor

These waves use a more aggressive AI. They leave you little room to attack, so you have to pick your moment to strike while never letting your guard down. You want to stab? make sure it counts, because your victim might just skewer you back if you aren't quick to retract your weapon to a guard position.

These guys also spawn in Outpost