MP Getting hit while switching weapons cancels the switch

[mobotium]

As per the title, if you currently get hit while switching weapons, you simply don't switch weapons. This forces one to click the button / roll the mousewheel again in order to switch weapons, which is a huge pain when wielding any ranged weapon, and sometimes just leads to you being spammed to death without being able to defend yourself.

This was not a thing in Warband, and honestly I don't understand why it was changed. I personally don't see any reason why it should work this way.

 

[CarefulDeath]

I believe it's a way to punish ranged weapon users for either poor positioning where they were too close to the Melee or spot the enemy could easily reach, bad decision making by the ranged weapon user to keep his ranged weapon out going into melee distance, or punishing poor teamwork for teammates not protecting their ranged units. I don't mind that mechanic, as if you're wielding a bow or a Crossbow you should always be looking for an optimal time to switch to your melee weapon, and I think when the enemy is upon you and striking you, it's too late. In Bannerlord you also switch weapons a lot faster than in Warband. So I believe this is a way of kind of balancing it by putting the pressure on the Archer themselves on deciding when to actually pull out their Melee weapon.

 

[mobotium]

While that might be the intent, in practice it becomes an annoyance that just forces you to die in several situations. Usualy when you press a button, you expect the action that button is bound to to activate, and your brain is literally not wired to expect things to just not do anything because you happened to get hit by some dude right after you switched weapons.

As it stands, this does indeed punish people for poor positioning. It also punishes people for getting randomly hit by a javelin or arrow when trying to switch to a melee weapon to defend themselves from incomming melee combatants, punishes people who get surprise atacked from behind (took too long to switch to melee? Your oponent's attack just canceled your switch), and is ultimately an annoyance by sometimes rendering helpless agains melee combatants if you happen to misjudge a weapon's range and switch too late. It's also a incredibly lame way to die. Numerous times have I been facing some melee enemy while holding a ranged weapon, switched to a melee weapon, got hit by some other enemy / ranged weapon / random horseman / etc, and just gave the enemy a free kill out of sheer confusion on why my blocks were not working.

While I see your argument, if that was indeed the dev's intention, the mechanic is just a terrible way to go about doing that.

 

[CarefulDeath]

I understand your reasoning, it can be frustrating, yes. But if some random projectile is hitting you while trying to switch weapons, your team has failed you or you stopped giving an enemy an opportunity, and are getting punished accordingly in those situations by either poor decision making, overconfidence, or bad teamwork, or just plain bad luck.

I should state that I don't think the system as it is in now is the best way to portray a mechanic like that, I think it could be improved to both give the ranged player a chance to defend himself from just a plain old oopsie moment, as in a battle you can't predict everything. They could implement things to make for a less frustration or janky experience. Maybe getting hit slows the speed in which you can pull out your weapon but doesn't cancel it completely leaving room to recover is you're quick on your feet or can get away from a bad situation. So it's something that can definitely be improved for sure.