Qs: shield and islands

[neofit]

Hi,

I've just played this mod for a couple of hours, and one thing I don't understand is the way the shield works. I sometimes seem to be able to block - my toon is raising the shield properly as in vanilla and other mods I have tested, sometimes he does something like a shrug instead - raising both hands a few degrees only. I checked the "realism menu", disabled fatigue, disabled shield bash AI and PC just in case, yet my toon shrugs instead of raising the shield most of the time.

It seems to me that my toon does raise the shield properly when the camera is right behind his back, but if I turn it a bit to the side to make a left or right swing, or just to look, then it starts doing his shrugs. Is this intentional, as in "making the combat more sucky", or am I doing something wrong?

Another thing, I've read in the "beginner's guide" thread an advice to start in Ireland if I wanted to do some initial training against bandits instead of trading. So I made an Irish toon and started there. Then looked at the map and figured that there was no England. Does this mode feature two separate "worlds", or is there a way to sail between Ireland and Anglia?

 

[Herbiazors]

I only understood a bit of this, but the shield problem i've never encountered, and You can sail from isle to isle by just pressing on a main town that has a port, ofcourse there has to be sea splitting you apart. And you will rent a boat for 10 scillingas per hour or something, or day. Don't really remember. Not as fast as normal boats, but it gets you there

 

[geala]

Also never had the shield problem.

You can cross the sea by simply clicking on a town or village in the other "continent". Your troop marches to the coast, enters a boat and sails over the sea. It's rather slow and expensive, 60 every few seconds, so you should go to points were Ireland and the rest is next. It's best opposite of Gwynedd imho.

 

[neofit]

Here, I made a short video showing the shield issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhxZRN_Glhs

So unless I am looking at my toon from directly behind, and thus having him hide the enemy I am fighting, the blocking animation is barely noticeable. I am not even sure 100% a real block happens during this "shrug" type of block. And it is certainly difficult to notice whether I am blocking or not with such an animation during combat, when my toon and enemies are moving all over the place. Has the shield moved to a block, or did I misclick or mistimed and it is just a normal movement of the left arm when I hit sideways with the right?

I managed to fall in love with the mod right away, great atmosphere, the skill progression is very slow (like peasants not turning into elites within a few days, you have to really work), but I can't block properly and keep dying and dying to weak bandits, which never happens in vanilla nor other mods.

 

[krisvk]

yeah i had the same problem it seems that there's something wrong with the new shield animations

 

[Adorno]

Here, I made a short video showing the shield issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhxZRN_Glhs

Looks correct to me. To avoid the shield covering the eyes the new shield animation only raises the shield a little.
Notice how the 'shrug' happens when you look down. You can still raise the shield up high by looking up.
The 'shrug' does block - at least it has done so in all our tests, and in the game I'm playing now.

 

[Angus S]

But when you lift it up out looks like your shoulder is dislocated. Apart from that I like the new animation. I think the hitbox on the shields is too big though, it's improve to hit someones head and feet

 

[Idibil]

Mm, problem is that native animation hide eyes. Idea was change it for do more usable.
It shouldnt give problems.
However, it is easy back to native. Mayber you like do a poll?

 

[Angus S]

I think the animation just needs some tweaking

 

[neofit]

Here, I made a short video showing the shield issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhxZRN_Glhs

To avoid the shield covering the eyes the new shield animation only raises the shield a little.

This does not make sense. So as not to have the shield block the eyes (something that is never a problem in 3rd person mode), the new animation makes me move the camera to a position where my body is covering the whole enemy? Why not keep the native animation but tune it to raise the shield a bit lower, instead of the current sideways gesture, like a Sopranos "eh, whatcha gonna do" ?

To me animation is not just a way to show cool moves, but should provide meaningful feedback to the player, as to what the toon is doing. The current shield animation does not provide sufficient feedback IMHO. Let's say I need to keep my eyes on two guys in front of me plus my toon. This is not a shooter so there are slight delays after each control input, and this is not an MMORPG so there is no command queuing. So for instance I swing my weapons sideways to the guy to my right, then pan the camera to the left to block an incoming hit from the guy to the left. I don't see my shield being raised, just a slight movement from the left arm. What was that, the residual left arm shake from my right swing animation? My arm shaking from me suddenly swinging my body to the left? A block? Really? Did my RMB even register or did I mistime the button press? This is what I mean by "not enough feedback", the new "block" is not much different from regular arm movements.

If the native animation is bad for first-person players then please make the new one optional. I know it's a free mod and nobody cares, but the current animation is a game-breaker for me. I have died more often in the few hours I've played this mod than in the days/weeks/months that I've been playing M&B and its mods and expansions.

 

[JuJu70]

The new animation is illogical because while of course the shield was held like that, the arm holding it IRL was moving around and the position was changed to what it is in native. However now it's doing some really weird things when you try to block some hits. I think this should be an option which animation to use, or at least some instructions given on how to change it back for those of us who hate the new one.

 

[neofit]

I just uploaded the same video but without the subs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50FYEzeLLMc

It goes like this:
Block
shrug
shrug
shrug
Block
shrug
shrug

I don't know about other people, but without the subs I would never have thought that these "shrugs" were actual blocks and not just some ambient animation.

 

[lsk]

Here, I made a short video showing the shield issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhxZRN_Glhs

Looks correct to me. To avoid the shield covering the eyes the new shield animation only raises the shield a little.
Notice how the 'shrug' happens when you look down. You can still raise the shield up high by looking up.
The 'shrug' does block - at least it has done so in all our tests, and in the game I'm playing now.

when i stand the hill,I  always  took  arrows in the knee.

 

[Uhtred Ragnarson]

Here, I made a short video showing the shield issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhxZRN_Glhs

Looks correct to me. To avoid the shield covering the eyes the new shield animation only raises the shield a little.
Notice how the 'shrug' happens when you look down. You can still raise the shield up high by looking up.
The 'shrug' does block - at least it has done so in all our tests, and in the game I'm playing now.

when i stand the hill,I  always  took  arrows in the knee.

*facepalm* haha