One of the main features distinguishing the combat system in GORE is the possibility of advanced edition of units in your army. In this article I will try to describe the basic mechanics associated with this aspect of the game.

Main assumptions.

The primary goal of gameplay design in GORE is to provide countless opportunities to customize your army parameters to the style of gameplay preferred by the player, mainly to provide diverse experiences during multiplayer battles.

For this reason, each unit in the game has its own unique development tree and several equipment variants that it can use. I will show you the principles of that system on the example of the basic unit of the empire faction, ie Footman.

You have full control

The footman, as a basic unit, is supposed to form the backbone of your army. This is the first and the cheapest military unit that you can recruit to your ranks, so it is very important that it meets the tactical assumptions you set for it. The game gives you the ability to customize both the weapon and the armor of the unit, so that its parameters suit your needs as much as possible.

Remember, however, that each modification of the unit’s equipment affects not only its parameters, but also its price. Therefore, in the early stages of the battle, it is worth considering having poorly armed infantry to later have funds for higher-level units.

It’s time to dress up

In terms of armor, we have three equipment variants, light, medium and heavy. Their main task is to protect the unit from injuries. However, when choosing the armor, you must take into account the composition of your opponent’s army, because the type of armor is not only the amount of additional defense points but also the level of slowdown of unit movements and different types of vulnerability to attacks.

Light armor – It is the cheapest form of unit armor, but also does not give virtually no bonuses, except a significant increase in the speed of movement. This choice is ideal for players who want to quickly create a large number of units with high mobility. However, you have to watch out for enemy archers because your troops may not survive long enough to reach them.

– It is the cheapest form of unit armor, but also does not give virtually no bonuses, except a significant increase in the speed of movement. Medium armor – This is an intermediate version between light and heavy armor. It provides a bonus to mobility and armor, but you can not say that your soldiers feel immortal in it. Good choice if you want to use your infantry as support units that are able to reach the battlefield as soon as possible, and survive on it long enough to deal damage to the enemy.

– Heavy armor – Heavy armor is a great choice if you want to focus the main force of an enemy attack on your infantry units, it also provides the largest possible reduction of damage caused by arrows. However, this is the most expensive option of arming your soldiers. It also causes the speed of your infantry to be significantly reduced, making it vulnerable to flanking.

Hatchet to the head!

When we get dressed, it’s time to choose a weapon for our soldiers. According to the basic assumptions of the combat system, we divide melee weapons into several categories.

Swords – A weapon that provides a reasonable attack speed, the most effective in fighting light and medium armored opponents.

– Hatchets – Just like swords, they deal secant damage, which is why they are best suited to fight against medium and lightly armored opponents. However, at the expense of reducing the attack speed, they allow you to deal more damage at once.



Hammers and maces – The type of weapon with the highest damage, at the cost of a very slow attack . They also have a bonus to fight against a heavily armored opponent.

– . Spears – This weapon is doing best in the fight against a big opponent ( such as cavalry or large monsters ). In the fight against a large amount of enemy loses its properties, because its attack speed is not the highest. If the opponent does not get on your spears during the charge, you are in trouble. In addition, spears only occur as a weapon requiring the use of both hands, so you can forget about the additional protection provided by the shield.



Speaking of the other hand…

In GORE we remember that an army consisting of one-armed bandits is not particularly efficient. Therefore, the combat system also allows you to choose what your unit has to do with the other hand.

There are three variants:

Shield – If you care about even more armor, the shield is a very good choice. It will give you a big bonus to defend against enemy range attacks, as well as the chance to stun the enemy in close combat. However, it will slow down your attacks because a good shield must be heavy.

– It will give you a big bonus to defend against enemy range attacks, as well as the chance to stun the enemy in close combat. Dual-wielding – If you are a fan of “glass cannons”, this choice should appeal to you. A weapon wielded in the other hand will not be as effective as a weapon held in the basic hand, but it is always an additional option to inflict more pain to your opponent in the same time interval. In addition, the second weapon does not have to be the same as the basic weapon. Nothing stands in the way that instead of two swords in one hand to hold the ax and mace in the other. The decision is yours .

– Two-handed weapon – Both swords, hammers and axes have their own two-handed versions. Like any “big gun”, they deal much more damage than their one-handed counterpart, the downside of such a choice is the significantly reduced attack speed of the unit.

Well, now the balance.

As you can see the possibilities of adapting the unit is quite a lot, you may worry about how to reconcile it now to avoid the problem of game balance.

First of all, through the testing period.

Many developers love to publish their games when they are not yet finished. Thanks to our game publishing system based on crowdfunding, we avoid one key problem related to the computer games industry, that is publisher pressure. Thanks to this we do not act under time pressure and we can refine every aspect of the game. It is obvious that some changes in the gameplay balance will be necessary at the alpha and beta stages of testing, as well as after its release. However, thanks to the community supporting this project, we can avoid a situation in which we are forced to publish a version of the game which is far from being completed.

Thanks to each of you adding to the pool with the amount of funds that it considers appropriate, no one is treated as a worse category player. All bonuses associated with larger donations are purely cosmetic and offer respect among players instead of the pay-win situation.

Therefore, I sincerely encourage you to consider your support for the project within the Patreon service, or through shopping in our merch shop.

Best regards!

Matt