so you think you can stance?

Can you use stances?

  • I can use them well.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I can understand when my opponent has a stance advantage over me in combat.

    Votes: 3 3.9%
  • both 1&2

    Votes: 3 3.9%
  • I don't use, think, or care about stances

    Votes: 56 72.7%
  • I try

    Votes: 15 19.5%

  • Total voters
    77

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there you have it folks, take from this poll and @Terco_Viejo's poll what you will but i think its safe to say the majority of the people on the forums (that took part in the two polls) 69% and 82% don't understand and/or don't like stances, at least how they are implemented currently. if @MArdA TaleWorlds or @Callum could pass this info along to the appropriate devs that would be great :smile:

thank you to everyone who posted, i feel like i have a far better understanding of stances coming out of this and hopefully as a team (community and the devs) we can all work towards making bannerlord the game it deserves to be through communication, honesty, and transparency

Just curious if many people actually use stances or are mindful of them in combat? After playing a lot of mp I've never bothered to learn a thing about it and don't think i ever will.

Do INF players at competitive level regularly use them?
 
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I think most people value positioning and correct blocking/feints over stances, atm there is no point learning to integrate stances since people are waiting for servers/modes/mods to make the time investment worth it.
 
I think most people value positioning and correct blocking/feints over stances, atm there is no point learning to integrate stances since people are waiting for servers/modes/mods to make the time investment worth it.
ik its hard to guess but how much time and effort would you say it takes to get stances down and is it something only someone who dedicates numerous hours to actually understands? I thought that after 300 or so hours of mp i would learn stances just through playing but all i really know is that if someone spins around me just the right way while spamming a specific attack with a fast weapon i have no way to retaliate besides kicks and even then i walk away because i don't want to fight them anymore, its just not fun spinning in place. (i think its counter clockwise, left stance, left swing or vice-versa but i could be wrong)

There's people who have little idea about who's using what stance, and there's people who lie about knowing who's using what stance.
so you're saying in your opinion even at high levels of inf play there is little to no understanding of stances?
 
Switching stance def a big deal in thai boxing - it weakens our defense when we switch but also throws off the opponent and opens up new attacks. I like that they added the nuance but should be more controllable via a toggle key or something
 
I don't understand stances. But I've never tried to understand stances, from my horse they never seem too important and when I'm dismounted I'm usually too busy with my warbanned honed footwork instincts to think about bannerlord stances. Maybe sometimes I pull them off by accident (just like sometimes I chamber by accident), when I swing in those unique ways slightly faster? I dunno. If people who like inf would prefer to toggle stances I'd support that, I want inf to have fun playing too.
 
(just like sometimes I chamber by accident), when I swing in those unique ways slightly faster? I dunno.
i feel like chambering is in a similar boat except that it is so hard to use that even in very high levels of play you don't often come across someone that can do it reliably
i dont get why two possibly great ways of mixing up this boring combat have such high skill ceilings that even the "pros" cant utilize them
 
so you're saying in your opinion even at high levels of inf play there is little to no understanding of stances?

People know what stances are, but people have little idea about knowing who's using what stance at what point in time, unless it's plainly obvious (like with a 2H sword, you hold your sword on the side of your stance), but even then people don't really use them, or pay attention to what their opponent's stance is.
 
Do INF players at competitive level regularly use them?
No. Simple as that. There's no one. At most, people use it to keep track of the stance's favored direction to switch to from stabbing. But in infantry fights with shields, stances don't matter at all. Believing that there's someone out there who keeps track of their opponents stance is even more insane.
 
Switching stance def a big deal in thai boxing - it weakens our defense when we switch but also throws off the opponent and opens up new attacks. I like that they added the nuance but should be more controllable via a toggle key or something


Exactly, I always imagined this system under a control button as we control the weapon function (press x / javelin- spear mode, 1h-2h) or so I interpreted it when I read “[...] In Bannerlord we have quite a few more variations than in Warband. Combatants can be in a left or right stance, which means there are two versions of each and every animation. [...] " in Dev Blog 21/12/17.

Of course I never imagined the excessive complexity of the parameters that subordinate and condition others.

edit: a button to switch stance like this (just visual - no parameters formula)

 
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No. Simple as that. There's no one. At most, people use it to keep track of the stance's favored direction to switch to from stabbing. But in infantry fights with shields, stances don't matter at all. Believing that there's someone out there who keeps track of their opponents stance is even more insane.
+1


17% voted "I can understand when my opponent has a stance advantage over me in combat."
Guys tell me:
HOW????
 
+1


17% voted "I can understand when my opponent has a stance advantage over me in combat."
Guys tell me:
HOW????
Probably the moment most people realize the disadvantage is the one I described where some oaf spams the right way and you realize oh no his stance makes it so I cant attack back. I seriously doubt 5% of players would understand what's going on and be able to react if someone used stances in any valid strategic way
 
Just curious if many people actually use stances or are mindful of them in combat? After playing a lot of mp I've never bothered to learn a thing about it and don't think i ever will.

Do INF players at competitive level regularly use them?
Enable the option to let us see who voted on what, i beg of you
 
I know of a "trick" (read: useless gimmick) that only works with two handers in the left stance, so when I try to use that I pay attention to my own stance. Outside of that it's never been of consequence to me, and like Fietta said: it's basically impossible to see when you're not using a two hander anyway.
 
It’s not hard to realise what stance your opponent is in based on movement... (Not like you have to react in any particular way anyway) The same way it is not hard to utilize stances in fights to some extent, though they are super minor outside of 2h gameplay.
 
I can definitely feel when people are using their fast strike stances. I reckon the higher level players than me who use it go for a few feints but will commit to a strike with the same attack and movement direction in a similar pattern, several times. I like the idea but it feels a bit jenky
 
You can clearly see what stance people are using/are in by looking at their feet, and how the animation follows. If you experiment with melee combat footwork by not blocking for a few dozen hours, you can figure out the impact that the small range and speed difference from the correct stance has. It's almost like being able to see the difference of a person that simply uses a 1h left swing in Warband, and a person that uses a 1h left swing, right rotation, right-forward step. The two look extremely similar, but when you've adapted to how the speed/animations and footwork function, you can see pretty clearly when a person is turning at the correct rate for the attack, and when they're not, based on their success.

Stances are less clear and apparent with 1h+shield, though.

I seriously doubt 5% of players would understand what's going on and be able to react if someone used stances in any valid strategic way
Nobody can use stances in a valid way (I don't think?), since they're often counter intuitive. That's probably why it's so difficult to test, since you have no real control over what stance you have other than footwork, and only an idiot is using footwork for the sake of specifically the stance itself(other things are much more important). But when your footwork, positioning, attack timing, and stance all line up, you have a small but noticeable advantage over someone who happens to be in the wrong stance. It's about as significant in as having a weapon in Warband that's a few points faster, a few points longer, and 1 extra damage, so it's not super significant most of the time, but you can get plenty of examples where it is relevant. That's why it feels contrived and often like you're being held back by random mechanics outside of your control. It's like the swords your opponent are using have all the same models, and yet have different speeds/lengths/damage and you don't know which it is, and it actively changes over the course of the fight. You might be able to figure out one or two particular moves where you bait the opponent into a specific action, allowing you to line your footwork, positioning, attack timing, attack movement, and stance into perfect alignment, but that's only if your opponent plays along, which most of the time they're not. There should be a stance change button, so you can decide what stance your character is in, and lock it in, so you know just how long and fast your weapon is at all times.
 
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