From Bannerlord videos, I've gathered that the combat system seems the same as in M&B 1.
I think the system could be improved significantly. It is easy for newbies, yet also easy to master. The system update I'm proposing, should be about as simple for newbies, yet include much more variety, and depth for master-level play, maybe even beauty.
I'm proposing to add more strike directions, 16 instead of the current 4 directions. BUT WAIT. Every one of the 16 possible strikes can be parried with only 3 directions, as in real-life swordsmanship. So the basics should be easy. But the depth should give more opportunities for skilled players to shine, as in any lastingly popular mainstream game. M&B's current system is so easy to master, that after feints are mastered, there is nothing else, and the skill caps at there. The system is not deep.
I'll begin showcasing my imagined system:
THE GUARDS (or postures with the sword):
The Italian sword-traditions have catalogued practically every type of strike the human hand can make. Divided into CUTS and THRUSTS, 1 of each from each of the 8 major directions, they call these hand postures which prepare each strike, the “guards” (or “guardia” in Italian).
I’ll let the following 2 pictures speak for themselves. They include practically the full variety of strikes one can make:
Note that because the guards reflect sword-positions, some of them work as parries, against those strikes you’d expect. There is no need for a special “parry button”, because all the parries one can make are included within the guards.
The Italians also realised that making a cut from 1 direction, naturally ends with you in a guard at the opposite side; cutting is basically a change from 1 guard to another. So the system holds together even along a sword-fight; your hand is always in 1 guard or another, or transitioning between them.
M&B's current 3 cuts become 8, 1 thrust becomes 8, making spears much more dangerous, but swords retaining an edge in versatility because they can also cut effectively.
The “parry button” is replaced with the 2 or 3 “guard” buttons.
With this full catalogue of weapon-positions, we can already begin seeing how various sword-interactions, strikes and parries, work in real life, and to make sure our system works the same way.
From the system, I’ve replaced cut 4, which would strike with the “true-edge (front edge) of the blade” from below directly upwards. Why? Because this cut is difficult to make, doesn’t contain much force or speed, and I’ve never seen it used in serious swordplay. Instead, cut 4 now features the “Guardia di Testa”, which is the only guard I couldn’t otherwise include in the system without needlessly adding a special button for it. Guardia di Testa can be used to block overhead cuts (cut 8 ) by looking up, and to quickly parry thrusts by timely switching to the proper thrusting guard.
I thought the in-game controls could work like this:
Cutting guards are directed by mouse-movement, when a button is pressed, eg button “C”.
Thrusting guards are also directed by mouse movement when you press e.g. “V”.
Each SKILLED real-world CUT consists of 3 phases, but one does not need to make skilled cuts; newbies can merely keep pressing mouse1 and hope to succeed. Skilled players, instead, try the following:
1) The “initial guard selection phase”, where you move your hand into 1 of the cutting guards. Eg press C, direct mouse toward cutting guard 3…
2) The “gathering momentum phase”, where you move to a different cutting guard, eg keep pressing “C”, direct mouse toward cutting guard 7…
3) The “actual cutting action”, where you cut and move into a different guard along the way. Eg press mouse1 to strike from cutting guard 7, which transfers the sword into thrusting guard 3 (the opposite of 7).
Here’s a catch: after “initial guard selection phase”, you can actually transition your hand to cut from any direction, THOUGH not all directions are equally good (more later). So any newbie can cut, but masters know the details.
It requires 1 click to cut, which seems very playable. There are other ways the controls could be done; I currently prefer this.
Here’s a picture to clarify, poses by Ilkka Hartikainen. The text in the picture is an outdated control system… Anyway:
Here I've listed some sword-mechanics, giving examples which showcase the possibilities of the system in use:
SWITCHING BETWEEN GUARDS TAKES TIME.
It takes more time to switch guards, the farther your next guard is. So moving your hand from 1 to 5 takes longer than moving it from 1 to 7 or 3, and so on.
This creates the strategy of striking where your opponent takes the longest time to parry.
In the next example, we initially hold our sword in thrust 5, which along with thrusting guards 3 and 4 is the safest and most common guard. Why? Because your hand is fairly central. From a central hand-position, you can most quickly adopt your required guard. Additionally, thrusting guards 5 and 3 are both already parries against cuts from their respective sides. And all 3 have good thrusts prepared, and discourage the opponent from running into you.
CUT-STRIKING MOMENTUM:
The next example: We are still at thrusting guard 5. Now we want to cut from 7. If now simply pressing C + mouse movement + Mouse1 to directly lift and cut from 7, using the sword in a hammer-like manner, then the cut isn't going to be as strong as if we had gathered momentum from cut 1, as in the picture. Our hand will have traveled a slightly lesser distance, but because we have to push against our own momentum toward 7, the cut takes as long or longer to perform. Less force, equal time. There could be a slight player grunt to indicate working against own momentum.
So here we already see skill in action: the competent swordsman swings his sword around his back via cut 1, and cuts with equivalent gathering-speed but greater force than the hammerer.
The closer you gather to where you're cutting, the faster but weaker your cut is going to be; the farther you gather, the slower your gather but stronger your cut. So if striking from 7, speed of gathering goes 8>1>2>3, but strength goes 3>2>1>8.
Gathering from a direction adjacent to where you'll cut, is almost as weak as gathering like the hammerer. The next direction is already significantly more powerful.
So you see, the system has already realistically implemented an easy ability to choose how strongly or quickly you cut from your chosen direction.
To tie your cut with the momentum of your gather, ie to make your gather and strike into 1 motion, would require you to press C+mouse_movement, then Mouse1 as your gathering cutting guard is fully adopted.
Note that you can cut from any cutting guard directly without gathering, for a strong cut. The problem is, you expose yourself to strikes more, in cutting guards. And if you went from thrusting guard 5 to cutting guard 3 and cut from there, without gathering into cutting guard 7, you'd work against your own momentum which goes from 5 to 3, to the left, instead of upwards and right, so your strike would be slower to execute. If you held cutting guard 3 for a while, and then cut, the cut would not have opposite momentum, hence it would be strong.
CUT-PARRYING MOMENTUM:
Using the momentum of an opponent's cut, to make your own riposte (counter-cut) faster.
Example: your opponent tries to cut you with a well-gathered 1, which comes in from your 7. You parry it with thrusting guard 5, which knocks your sword slightly, to 4, or maybe to 4½, or 4,75, or so on. Now your sword has left-directed momentum, so you continue the movement via left-side cutting guards 4, 3, 2, or even 1, and riposte with added speed from e.g. 7, which is undefended as long as your opponent doesn't change his guard.
FEINTS:
Feints would be done by switching your guard before your cut strikes the opponent's blade or shield, just like M&B does now. Feints are possible with thrusts also.
Example: you make thrust 5. Seeing the opponent parrying it with thrusting guard 3, you tap V and pull mouse toward 3, which quickly pulls your sword toward your own thrusting guard 3. After your sword is withdrawn to the other side of his, you tap mouse1 to make the thrust. Zig-zag, you've just fooled your opponent with a thrusting feint. If you want to execute this perfectly, you actually transfer your 2nd thrust into thrust 6 to prevent any counter-attacks. But this requires 1 more mouse-movement to 6, and so more skill.
CONTINUING YOUR ATTACK AFTER OPPONENT'S PARRY:
Example: You cut from 7, and your opponent parries with a low-looking thrust guard 3. Instead of artificially making a "cooldown" before you can act again, like M&B now does, you can switch to thrust 6, which changes your sword from pointing outside, to pointing right at the opponent and thrusting him if he doesn't "look up" (in thrusting guard 3) or switch to thrusting guard 2 (which pushes your blade outside his silhouette).
IMMEDIATE COUNTER-ATTACK:
Example: Your opponent cuts a 7, coming in from your 1. You want to play it aggressively, so you switch to cutting guard 3 and look up, which parries his strike sword-point down. Then you continue your momentum and cleave his head in two with a cut 8. This would create a surprise-effect similar to the now-used "same-sided strike parries" mechanic.
SWORD LEVERAGE:
Basic leverage. If your swords are crossed, and his blade is closer to your handle than yours is to his handle, then you've got the leverage-advantage, allowing you to control his sword with less effort than him. So switching guards to push his sword away is faster, the better your leverage-advantage.
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2 ADDITIONAL SWORD-CONTROL MECHANICS:
By adding these 2 features into the game, swordplay would gain considerably more depth than already possible with the 8+8 striking system.
1) Switching the angle you hold your sword at, from "narrow" (the typical angle) to "wide".
This switch could happen by pushing a button, e.g. "B".
Using the "wide" angle enables at least 3 new mechanics into swordplay:
1st) You can parry strikes with your sword-point down, essential against strikes to your legs, and facilitating different ripostes than parries with your point up.
2nd) You can more clearly invite your opponent to make an attack.
3rd) The "wide" angle is great for preparing false-edge cuts.
4th) If stamina were ever introduced into M&B, then you could rest your hand at the "wide" angle.
2) Cutting with the false-edge.
Like the picture shows, many swords have 2 sharpened edges. The "true-edge" is what you usually cut with, but the false-edge has its uses, especially in quick cuts to the opponent's sword-hand. You can also make wonderful parries with the false-edge, such as parrying the already-familiar "cut from 7" by moving into cutting guard 7 with your false-edge forward. This enables a nice throat-slashing riposte with a true-edge cut 7 after striking the opponent's blade away, but requires competent timing, as compared to parrying with thrusting guard 5 where you merely set your blade on the way.
Note that while I replaced the upward-going true-edge cut 4 with Guardia di Testa, being in a "wide thrusting guard 4", pressing the false-edge button (e.g. "B"), cuts from 4, a vertical upwards-going cut with the false edge, especially dangerous against sword-hands.
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There are many more details which could be mentioned, a lot of play-testing to be done for sure, a challenge to the developers. But if the system would work in a polished version, it could actually revolutionize sword-fighting games. Imagine playing a computer-game and LEARNING REAL-WORLD SWORDSMANSHIP!
Some examples of further details:
1) You can actually parry an overhead cut (cut 8 ) with the thrusting guard 8, by looking up. The opponent's cut lands on either of your sword's quillons, and you can move his sword around with yours, for a good riposte.
2) There is a type of cut called the “stramazzone”, where you move practically only your wrist, gather from your “inside” (belly side), and cut. It’s quick, and good for continuing a series of cuts. The controls could be set so that if you gather from cut 3, and cut (mouse1) immediately from cut 1, 8, 7, 6, then the cut is made as a stramazzone.
3) I've kept Mouse2 free of any controls up till now. In my most-perfect system imaginable, Mouse2 initiates a grappling-action with your off-hand against the body-part closest to the center of your screen.
3b) With shields, Mouse2 would shift and bash the shield around (change its "guard"), and you would no longer have to look at your feet to cover them from arrows. Shield fighting would prioritize strikes from the right side, because left sided guards would turn the shield away from the front, exposing the combatant. Presuming here a left-handed shield. It should be interesting and realistic if handedness could be changed. The techniques required against lefties are different.
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End of my post. These are the main-features of the system I’ve imagined. It probably takes some skills and patience to program, but I like its possibilities. Would certainly like to try this one out.
