Melee you can read, and answer

The first alpha told us something we half knew already: fighting in melee was dull. You clicked an enemy, your character swung on a timer, numbers came off both of you, and whoever had the better sheet won. That is how Ultima Online fought, and it was fine in 1998. It isn't enough now.

So melee has been rebuilt. The timeline is still there, the world is still the battlefield, and nobody needs fast fingers to play well. But a fight is now a string of choices you can see coming.

Strong blows you can see coming

Every weapon has a class, and every class has two techniques: strong blows that cost stamina and take a moment to wind up.

• Swords and axes Cleave (the target and both tiles beside it) or Lunge (two tiles in one dash, then strike).
• Daggers and spears Puncture (through half the armour, and the wound bleeds) or Feint (it looks like a heavy blow and lands early).
• Maces, hammers and staves deliver a Crushing Blow (huge, and a guard only halves it) or a Concussion (knocks the target back a tile and breaks off whatever it was casting).
• Halberds Sweep a full circle or Hook a target a tile closer, guard and all.
• A shield adds Shield Bash, quick enough to stop someone mid-swing.

While a technique winds up, the tiles it will hit glow on the ground and fill up until the moment it lands. That glow is your cue.

A guard you hold, and a dodge

Hold E and you guard: blows from the front lose a good share of their damage, paid for in stamina. Press it just before a blow lands and you turn it aside completely: the attacker staggers and you gain momentum. The better your Parrying, the more forgiving that moment is. Press Space and you dodge a tile, untouchable for a moment. Both work even while you are still recovering from your own swing, at a small cost in time.

Fighters now face what they fight. A blow from behind hurts more and goes past the guard, so fighting two people at once is a real problem, and fighting alongside a friend is a real help.

Break them, then finish them

Hard blows, parried attacks, a slam into a wall or a fence: they all shake an enemy's poise. When it runs out, the enemy is broken: staggered, guard down, open. Step in and Execute for triple damage. Land your techniques and parries and you build momentum; seasoned fighters can spend three pips of it on an empowered technique that no guard can turn aside.

Knockbacks matter too: shove someone through a fence and the fence breaks with them.

Monsters fight this way as well. Orcs bring their crushing blows down, wolves lunge from a few tiles away, skeletons feint, trolls sweep. Learn what they do and when.

One skill: Melee

Late Ultima piled up weapon skills and fighting disciplines. We are going the other way: one skill, Melee, covers every weapon from bare fists to halberds. Tactics is gone too; your weapon skill now does its job. What sets a fighter apart is the weapon they carry and what they do with it, which also means carrying a mace for skeletons and a sword for wolves is a real choice now. Techniques unlock as Melee rises: the first at level 2, the second at 4, Execute at 5, empowered techniques at 7.

A grid in a fight

When a fight starts, a faint tile grid appears around you. It marks the tiles you can't walk on and outlines what stands in the way, coloured by how much cover it gives. It fades again when the fight is over, and the settings let you keep it always on or always off.

The keys

Z and X are your weapon's techniques, V is Execute, G is Shield Bash, E held is your guard, Space is a dodge. The spells keep 1 to 7. The new technique bar above your vitals shows what each key does, what it costs and when it is ready, and it lights up when an Execute is possible.

It is all new and the numbers will move after the next test. We would like to hear how it feels, especially the guard timing: tell us in the comments.