Changes to kicks?

[okiN]

Kicks are an ok feature. They look strange, and the idea of kicking someone through armor and shield is bizarre, but it's a decent analogue for, say, a shove. But I don't like how they currently work. I've put some ideas about how I think kicks might be changed on the poll. What does everyone else think? Please post your views.

 

[Zues]

The only real beef I have with kicks is that they can be done repeatedly in a short amount of time. Adding a larger cooldown will fix this.

Blocking while kicking is, IMO, overpowered, but only with a shield. If you're going to kick someone, you shouldn't be able to have a shield in your face so there is no way to stop that kick. At least blocking with a 2H or without a shield, you can swing in any other direction to get around that block.

The whole chamber blocking with kicks seem to happen less frequently now. More often than not I go to kick someone, the kick misses and I die. Kick chambering only seems to happen if you kick and attack at the same time at the perfect angle.

 

[Ronan]

If kicking did no damage and you couldn't block while kicking, I'd be quite satisfied.

 

[Skyrage]

Kick whilst blocking still does occur so it needs to be fixed.

Spamming is much less frequent thank god. Seems that the russkies are on the genocidal. A slight longer cooldown would finish off these annoying polka-dancers once and for all.

The kick ought to push back the victim slightly further backwards, but only ever so slightly, for the benefit of long weapon users.

 

[Kleidophoros]

Kicking shouldn't give you a free hit, it should just be used to keep distance that's all.

 

[CryptoCactus]

Two things aggravate me about kicks:

1) They don't seem to register with the animation. So many times, someone will kick, I'll watch them miss and then I move in again, and then it lands and I'm all staggered, which probably leads to:

2) Kick = freekill. This is so aggravating. 80-90% of the time, when someone kicks me, I am completely unable to stop their next attack. Neither backpedaling nor blocking works in time to save my skin. So at the very least it's a free hit, and quite often a free kill. For a 0-skill, minimum-risk, spammable attack, which you can't even tell if it's really going to hit you or not.

 

[okiN]

Yeah, it's true about the animation, I forgot to mention that. Kicks seem to linger far longer than they should. That should probably be reported separately as a bug.

 

[Yoshiboy]

I think it was best when you had to take down your shield to kick. This made kicking more dangerous and also gave non-shield users an advantage when using kick which I thought was good. Also the reach should be shorter.

 

[Lord Rich]

The free hit after kick is the only thing that's really wrong with them now. The rest isn't so important (although they could still do with more cool down imo).

 

[ScientiaExcelsa]

I voted for "No change" AND "Other", because, while I like the current effect of kicking, it gets monotonous and boring.  I think kicks should be swapped out for a shield bash when the player is using a shield, and maybe a shove when the player is wielding a polearm.  It could have the same effect, or different effects for different shields and weapons.  Either way, it would make combat more colorful and interesting.

 

[DanAngleland]

I voted for longer vulnerability and no prepared attacks and no blocking whilst kicking. Kicking should mean I can attack the kicking leg at the very least, that is what bothers me the most.

 

[CtrlAltDe1337]

The current system is pretty good.  The only change I would like to see is possibly a longer cooldown.

 

[superhit1000]

The whole purpose of the kick is to make your opponent unable to defend against your attack. The current system is fine i would probably just make the kicks a pinch longer.

CryptoCactus i think it's just your internet or your playing in a server that is far away from you, im not sure about everyone else but the kick animation does register for me.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Kick has several problems I think. For one, a kick is not a short range attack, and would really not work at all for "creating distance" once the enemy had closed right up into your face (lifting a leg seems unwise when faced with grappling). For another, if someone does move right up into your face, simply pushing them (with arms, shoulders, or legs) probably won't make distance, even if you could bring your leg up to do so, because it'd just be your force against theirs and you'd probably end up grappling. I'd say the way to keep distance is to prevent the opponent from closing in the first place (a kick might work for this sometimes), or to redirect them and shove them off in a different direction as they move in, probably moving to one side as you did it.

As something to stop face-hugging in the game though, I don't mind it too much, even though I'd prefer a shove. My main problem with it is that it does not suffer a delay after a blocked attack. You can attack with a weapon and immediately follow up with a kick, even if your target blocks the weapon attack. The kick was introduced to stop face-hugging, not to subvert the delay caused by a successful defence.

 

[Orion]

My main problem with it is that it does not suffer a delay after a blocked attack. You can attack with a weapon and immediately follow up with a kick, even if your target blocks the weapon attack. The kick was introduced to stop face-hugging, not to subvert the delay caused by a successful defence.

Quite true. I think the kick cooldown isn't so bad as-is (you can't kick spam on your own unless someone is backed into a corner), but there's no wind-up time. After a swing you shouldn't be able to immediately kick, as this means you have a constant offense (attack, kick, usually a free hit and they're dead). Opening up a shield user to a free hit is OK with me, otherwise if their reflexes are decent you have to destroy their shield to get a hit in. That's quite hard with a sword against a Huscarl's shield. Anyways, if kicking took planning instead of reflexes I'd be happier with it. Currently you take a swing, and you check if you're close enough for a kick. If you are, they're busy blocking your swing so you kick and stagger them so you can follow up with another swing before they even had an opportunity to swing back.

It even beats chamber-blocking when you do that (which is a no-no as chamber-blocking is much more difficult to do and should earn you a reward if pulled off properly). You could chamber block their first swing, but the kick is already coming at you by the time your swing is completely ready. Now you're staggered and they get the free hit anyway!

 

[jhuseby]

Not sure if this was addressed in the new update or not, but I don't like how you can chamber block with the kick. 

 

[Ursca]

Well, what's the intended function of kicking? It was implemented to let a player control distance from an enemy without just backpedalling. I'm fairly sure it wasn't intended to grant a free attack, but you never know.

As such, I feel that kicking currently fails at its main function. The knockback distance is very small, so it requires that you kick and then back off anyway. I think the way to improve it would be to:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Let a player block during the stun.
[*]Lower the damage
[*]Make kicks cause more knockback
[*]Increase cooldown time slightly
[/list]
I think that would give them a more tactical element rather than a straight offensive one. I also think a shove or a shield bash animation would look better and be more appropriate, but that's just an aesthetic preference.

 

[okiN]

Well, looking at the poll, I think it's pretty obvious that kicks need to be changed, since only 13 people out of 70 profess to like them as they are. Mixed opinions on what to fix... personally, I'd like to see every option on the poll get implemented, though the devs would have to be careful with the top three so as to avoid making kicks useless by overbalancing. Lower damage for kicks would definitely not go amiss, either, and I probably should have had that one up there as well, but it's a bit late to add it now as we can hardly expect all 70 people to re-vote.

Devs, take note!

 

[Rhade]

As something to stop face-hugging in the game though, I don't mind it too much, even though I'd prefer a shove. My main problem with it is that it does not suffer a delay after a blocked attack. You can attack with a weapon and immediately follow up with a kick, even if your target blocks the weapon attack. The kick was introduced to stop face-hugging, not to subvert the delay caused by a successful defence.

Agreed.

More often than not, lately, people use kick as a catch all just in case their offensive attack is blocked, and instead of blocking themselves, they simply kick the enemy while he's counter attacking.
Personally, I feel that kick is deciding too many fights, and something that decides so many fights and is so vital, it shouldn't be so easy.

Kick = Free win, and it really doesn't require much skill.
I don't like how spammable it is, how long you're stunned after being kicked, and how the kicker still gets chamber block at least 75% of the time. I'm not a big fan of CC (Crowd Control, IE Stuns, etc) in FPS's, and the only thing that frustrates me more than dying to a random kick + bastard sword swing is massed archer spam.

 

[Apthorpe]

The biggest two issues that must be removed are the ABOMINABLE KICKSLASH and KICKCHAMBER. Once those are gone, I'll feel a lot better about kicking.