Discussion about spears

[Hengist]

Well, then I guess you need hard practice to be successful with it.
Maybe ask Einherjar_Absalon how to do it. 

 

[Davee]

Self-quoting time!

<...>

About breakable weapons. It's something we've been thinking about, but we need to discuss how it would work exactly and how it would impact gameplay. So no guarantees.


Spears in pike-mode: Sounds like a good idea, we'll try it out. As for making the overhead stab count as an overhead attack - I'm working on it. So far I haven't been able to change it from a stabbing attack, but I still have one more thing to try.

<...>

Also, the reason we changed swing damage from blunt to cutting was because we didn't want spear swings to be the premier anti-armour weapon. I don't know how many times I've beaten up an unsuspecting tank in Native with nothing but spear-swings - his armour was useless.

If we don't go through with changing the type of attacks allowed to the same as for a pike (stab and overhead swing), we might lower the swing damage a bit.

 

[Garrett_]

隐藏

Self-quoting time!

<...>

About breakable weapons. It's something we've been thinking about, but we need to discuss how it would work exactly and how it would impact gameplay. So no guarantees.


Spears in pike-mode: Sounds like a good idea, we'll try it out. As for making the overhead stab count as an overhead attack - I'm working on it. So far I haven't been able to change it from a stabbing attack, but I still have one more thing to try.

<...>

Also, the reason we changed swing damage from blunt to cutting was because we didn't want spear swings to be the premier anti-armour weapon. I don't know how many times I've beaten up an unsuspecting tank in Native with nothing but spear-swings - his armour was useless.

If we don't go through with changing the type of attacks allowed to the same as for a pike (stab and overhead swing), we might lower the swing damage a bit.

Having breakable weapons is a good idea only on paper(or screen in this case), from my experience of playing 1257ad I can say that weapon breaking is very annoying, and it's single-player mod, in competitive, multiplayer enviroment it have potential to become true nightmare, and severly reduce fun from gameplay while only slightly increasing realism.
As for the topic of spears, I think swings could use some decrease of damage, and maybe slight speed reduction; for example long spear is nearly unusable in very close range because of the low speed, other spears could be brought to similar speed levels, that way to win spear duel you would have to keep your distance from the enemy, which would be nice feature balance and realism - wise.

 

[Harkon Haakonson]

Easy to say keeping distance Garrett. It's what spearmen try regardless so as to keep an edge in combat, but in this game, if you have shield you can just run into the spear guy while blocking and get in close range to stab him. If they got nerfed in close combat they'd lose viability. If you don't have shield, well, just run in without trying to attack immediately and parry their first attack, bam, you're now in close range with them.

 

[Garrett_]

Easy to say keeping distance Garrett. It's what spearmen try regardless so as to keep an edge in combat, but in this game, if you have shield you can just run into the spear guy while blocking and get in close range to stab him. If they got nerfed in close combat they'd lose viability. If you don't have shield, well, just run in without trying to attack immediately and parry their first attack, bam, you're now in close range with them.

Never said it's going to be easy , right now spears are a bit over-the-top, best dueling and support weapons(except 2h swords but that won't last as we know), one weakness of spear in rl is that after bypassing certain range it's much harder to use them effectively, which is not reflected very well in warband, because of the fast side-swings, decreasing speed is one way to reduce this a bit, other may be disabling this direction of attack, which I would not want personally.
Oh and there is also yet another way - making weapons breakable, then spears could be cheap but fragile weapons, alas I would want to spare my fellow players from horrors of weapon-breaking .

 

[reignlief]

Im a great lover of spears on this mod, they have to be my favorite weapon, just for the fact that you can keep your enemys weapon out of reach of you.

But one mistake I see alot of people doign is taking on swordsmen/axemen one on one with spear and shield. I find that this is a big no-no. you get one stab and then he is on you, if you try to swap weapons he will kill you, if you try to go two handed, he will kill you, and he is generaly too close for you to attack back.

With spears it works best if you have a partner, my main goal is always to stab the enemy in the side or back.

 

[Hengist]

With spears it works best if you have a partner, my main goal is always to stab the enemy in the side or back.

Quoted for truth.

 

[NaglFaar]

This discussion made me think about this vid:

Clicky-clicky!

 

[STARik]

This discussion made me think about this vid:

Clicky-clicky!

Spears r OP!

 

[Zah]

His shorts are amazing, must get.

 

[Æthelwulf]

I want to throw spears from a tower in my front garden! Skewer a few youths for the good of the nation. Alas however, I feel I wouldn't be worthy to don those shorts. I'm just not man enough.

 

[AWdeV]

That boar spear looks amazing for hunting car doors and phone books. Just what I needed!

 

[Davee]

We did some testing yesterday on the spear overhead stabs. It would appear that we can't make them count as overhead attacks at this moment. The only way of doing it now that I can think of would be to replace an animation that we don't use that much, two-handed stabs for example.

 

[Mammoet]

We did some testing yesterday on the spear overhead stabs. It would appear that we can't make them count as overhead attacks at this moment. The only way of doing it now that I can think of would be to replace an animation that we don't use that much, two-handed stabs for example.

Aww that's really a shame! But there are no two-handed weapons in use right now are they? Just Polearms, right?

 

[AWdeV]

Swords in their alternate mode are two-handers and use the aforementioned thrust.

 

[Shoep]

But they lose the aforementioned 2H mode next patch

 

[AWdeV]

That works out neatly then!

 

[Amon]

I wonder what these guys do with all this meat afterwards, Nagl. Maybe there is a correlation to the pants...

 

[NaglFaar]

The meat is dead enemies, and they eat them ofcourse.

 

[Azrooh]

I saw this here, and was wondering: Aren't spears a bit short? Not the actual spears, I'm sure you have that down, but the stabbing motion just doesn't look right. According to this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klOc9C-aPr4&feature=related

An 8-foot spear (267 reach in-game) used in an underarm lunge will (according to him) have a reach of about 15 feet (500 reach in-game), but in the mod you're not likely to hit someone from even 267 reach.

It'd be nice to get a new animation that exploits that length, though it's really not that big a deal.