As a kid who loves ravenfield more than me virginity, it is safe to say this game has lots of potential if marketed to the right community, which I believe is the ravenfield community. Ravenfield modders are very talented people, they have managed to add lots of things into the game but the one thing all have failed at is the addition of realistic sword fighting/melee combat. With mods, this game can achieve things way beyond ravenfield and this is the reason, I think this game has huge potential, played it for a few hours and absolutely loved it.
However, though it is great for a very early version of the game, there are very big issues that need improving, one of them is the fact that unlike fps games, bots in this game can equip both melee and ranged weaponry (and of those melee and ranged weapons, their uses vary greatly)therefore I believe a class system should be put in place to make it a more fun and realistic experience. Also, I find it strange that every soldier is either a knight or a archer, knights are elite soldiers, often mounted on horseback and very heavily armoured so they shouldn't be that common in a battle, archers are lightly armoured units very poorly trained in hand to hand combat but can unleash devastating volleys from behind friendly lines. (However, in battle archers behave more like soldiers, charging in with the huge amount of knights)
Classes will also allow certain weapons to be implemented more effectively, here's a rough example that I made for this game's bots
Melee
Soldier/infantry
Health 100, uses sword/spear as those were cheap to make a readily avaliable in medieval times, they move in larger groups of 3 and attack/defend points to achieve strategic victories for their team.
Beserker
Health 150, uses round shield andmorning star/axe as these heavier weapons would deal much more damage in the hands of strong, battle hardened men, these men are also more resistant to damage than the soldier and will charge into battle kicking and brawling, they focus on dealing the most damage rather than capturing points.
Knight
Health 200, uses sword and shield with team coloured cross through it (like a coat of arms), knights usually fought on horseback so as many of them will spawn as the number of horses avaliable. They wore heavy armour and valued chivalry and fought for honour, so a shield with team coloured cross makes more sense. They are also highly skilled fighters.
Ranged
Archer
Health 80, uses longbow as these were preferred for their range and accuracy, archers of the medieval period often didn't have any melee weapons and were very lightly armoured, so they would be easy targets if infantry were to smash into their ranks, as a ranged unit the damage they deal will be maximised if they work in a large group to unleash volleys and stayed behind the melee action (but just in range of their weapons).
Crossbowman
Health 100, uses crossbow and will have slightly more armour than archers as these men were more valued (I saw crossbow tab in the weapons section as being empty so thought they will come soon). Crossbows dealt huge amounts of damage to cavalry in the medieval period, rendering most knights' armour nothing more than cardboard against their bolts. They will also fire into enemy ranks from distance (within the range of their weapons) and they will spawn less commonly than the archer.
Mage
Health 150, uses magic staff as they are magical/fantasy units, I saw the wands and staff tabs in the weapons section and they were empty, hinting that future updates would add them. Though I am still unsure how staffs and wands will work in this game, I have a few ideas, one is that they deal damage to enemy units using magical powers like summoning fireballs, icy winds or lightning bolts, or that they will be able to heal friendly units that are in range of them.
Weapons
Many of the above weapons I have listed are not in the game right now, but I have noticed tabs for them so I included it in my suggestions,
Longbow- I really hope this will be added as the shortbow's range is absolutely dogsh*t, add a longbow with greater range and accuracy but nerf it so that the cooldown between each shot is longer (4 seconds)
Crossbow- Deals huge amounts of damage (200), capable of killing knights and beserkers in one well placed shot, however, very long cooldown time (reload speed 10 seconds) leaving the user vulnerable to fast moving infantry charging in and killing them with a few strokes of the sword.
Axe- Deals huge amounts of damage, easily killing an infantryman in two attacks or one heavy attack, however, it has a longer cooldown (2 seconds) and every swing takes much more time than swords and spears.
Staff- Can summon fireballs, icey winds, lightning bolts or continuously heal alies around you based on the type of staff you use.
Wand- Works that same way as a staff I guess?
Distinguishing between classes
The base skin for this game looks sick and should be kept standard for each class, however I believe that the helmet should be changed for each class so as to easily distinguish between them.
(I drew a diagram to show it more easily)
Some last comments
Important things to add would be slow motion, more settings, the ability to play on the red team and of course more game modes and maps.
Other than that, I'm excited to see what dragons will bring to the game and wish you the best of luck in your developing!
