A bit of criticism is in order though. Barring changes in development, the current iteration of the combat system is a bit cumbersome. I was actually expecting a turn based combat similar to Baldur's Gate (that was the promise wasn't it?) but found a hex based map with a multitude of not really well explained mechanics. Now, this is not a deal breaker for me, but there should be a brief introduction to the elements of combat. This combination of armor, multiple body parts to target, cards and buffs/debuffs is quite staggering at first. I can imagine some people getting frustrated. Half the time I wasn't even sure what was going on.
The devs have already replied, but there's another point they "forgot" to mention.
Gameplay is still work in progress. This means that if they made a tutorial to explain how combat works now, that may not apply anymore in the future. Given that tutorials take quite a bit of time to make , this would equate to a loss in productivity for... not that much, honestly. You can easily test what works and proceed with the game despite not knowing the full depths of the combat mechanics. It IS an "early release" after all.
That said, a few thoughts. I think forbidding players from choosing the limb to attack would be a good idea. You have some skills that can only target Torso or Arms for example. It'd make these skills more valuable since you would know what you're hitting. For instance, spear lady has a skill that targets legs. Except Samara's basic skill deals as much damage (or more?), can target anywhere and costs less... making the legs-only skill useless. Besides, after finding out the way it works, I'd mindlessly bash their torso in until death ensues. Go on, catch your breath while I'm stabbing you.
I'm also confused as to why until a limb is maimed, the character takes no HP damage. In effect, that makes "Limb Armour" and "Limb Health" the exact same, slows down the pacing of the game... and doesn't make a whole bunch of sense. Mind you, I get that you have "blunt" damage that can't inflict HP damage. This could be kept, with slightly higher damage ratios than "deadly" ones, BUT can't inflict HP damage even when hitting "Limb Health". As for "dull", it'd then inflict HP damage when hitting... maimed limb or limb health. It depends on what you want players to do: break more limbs? HP damage on limb health only, forcing them to switch limbs to target. Otherwise, on maimed limb. That'd give you:
blunt - Limb health: no hp damage / Maimed limb: no hp damage
dull (break more limbs) - Limb health: inflicts hp damage / Maimed limb: no hp damage
dull (alternative) - Limb health: no hp damage / Maimed limb: inflicts hp damage
deadly - Limb health: inflicts hp damage / Maimed limb: inflicts hp damage
Limb Armour would prevent any kind of HP damage.
Last thought, the "enemy deck" thingamajig is very confusing. I still don't really get it, and it's hard to know what the enemies actually are doing. It might as well be "Attack" "Attack" "Attack". Not too engaging
An idea: each time you see a new card used by one kind of enemy, "revealing" that card in the deck of all enemies of that kind. That way, you can quickly check what skills they have. The game would also automatically remove/grey out the cards already used until it reshuffles. (Obviously you wouldn't know which card they want to use, but you'd know what they can do/still do).
Just food for thought anyway, a bit of brainstorming. Figured it could help spark new ideas. Feel free to ignore all of this if you've already planned out what you want for your combat mechanics!
