Mercy? Surely such a romantic notion has no place on the battlefield?

In Star Vault's Mortal Online they've handed that decision, to you.

The combat system for this hotly anticipated title is still in development and no doubt some changes will be made, however let's have a closer look at what we know is proposed, step by step.

Targeting

Whether attacking or defending, targeting is achieved by hovering your targeting cursor over your intended target and pressing the target button.

Don't expect a raft of info when you do this - there won't be statistics displayed for target health, endurance or mana as with many other MMORPGs, you'll get a target box but no numbers. The "target list" itself will contain some basic information on the targets you've added, their status (criminal/murderer/friendly etc.) but little else. Star Vault seem to be going for essential information only, possibly due to an attempt to keep the player's interest on the combat, rather than on statistical nonsense. So what happens once you get inside melee range?

Incoming!

Switching to the Combat Stance, leaves you with two options - attack or be attacked.

The left mouse button (LMB) when pressed charges your attack, holding the button down will allow you to delay the attack, releasing it will instantly unleash your fury. This rather neat change from minding clicking allows the player some control over timing, which frankly, is rather sweet!

Here's the downside, after making an attack, your open for a counter attack for a short time, so be careful as you can't parry or block during this vulnerable period.

Mortal Gold seems to be encouraging the berserker in us all, at least a little, maybe just a tiny bit, OK I'm looking for an excuse. I can see me using their charge attack a lot, whilst running into combat if you attack you'll unleash the "power stike" with the LMB. This drains a huge amount of your stamina, but I bet it's a lot of fun!

The action of charging strikes before attacking, negates any benefit from button mashing, it pushes players to think tactics during combat, Do I try to take him down now and risk a counter? Or wait until he attacks, block and cut his balls off with a counter of my own? Reading your opponent will be key and this will only come with experience, probably of dying a lot but we'll cover that gory detail later.