The way stances work at the moment is, in my view, far from ideal. They're supposed to add depth to combat, however offering very little control to the player, and not very meaningful advantages, they only end up adding a layer of inconsistency, a feeling of randomness that is antithetical to a skill-based combat system which should be as consistent as possible. They are controlled by moving left or right, the switch isn't always immediate which adds to the difficulty and contributes to make them unreliable. Currently stances affect attack speed, marginally blocking speed, damage reduction to shields, which leg you kick with, and movement. The former two are very small differences and barely perceptible, not worth the effort to try use them, however that small difference can at time manifest itself and make it a frustrating experience, as well as, again, making it feel random and inconsistent. Most importantly, since stances are tied to movement keys, they force you to disregard your footwork to control them, or to disregard stances to keep good footwork.
Of course, if the opponent is inexperienced enough to give you space and time, you can take the chance to move in the required direction and attack making use of stances, however fighting anyone with a grain of experience won't always allow you such freedom, and you'll be forced to change directions to adjust to their movement, or move to have your attack land as quickly as possible, or to bait them into an attack, try to get around them, attempt to outrange and so on. Essentially, most of the time you will need to move in directions that go directly against stances, especially so in situations with multiple opponents, and you'll forget about them to prioritize your more important movement. This is how most players fight, ignoring stances completely apart from maybe that one odd moment, perhaps to switch the thrust side. Most importantly, stances change your upper body rotation (either left, or right), and your movement speed is strongly influenced by the upper body rotation, which means that for instance, if you hold a block while in a right stance — and holding a combat action such as a block or attack will lock you into that stance regardless of how you move — your upper body will be rotated towards the right more, so moving left will be much slower than moving right. Try it, you will notice the difference very quickly. This is a big factor in adding to the inconsistency, without a real purpose.
The way I see it, stances could be addressed in a few ways:
I'd certainly like to read more suggestions to improve them if you have any. I firmly believe that it's necessary to, one way or another, change the way stances currently work to make combat as consistent as possible.
Of course, if the opponent is inexperienced enough to give you space and time, you can take the chance to move in the required direction and attack making use of stances, however fighting anyone with a grain of experience won't always allow you such freedom, and you'll be forced to change directions to adjust to their movement, or move to have your attack land as quickly as possible, or to bait them into an attack, try to get around them, attempt to outrange and so on. Essentially, most of the time you will need to move in directions that go directly against stances, especially so in situations with multiple opponents, and you'll forget about them to prioritize your more important movement. This is how most players fight, ignoring stances completely apart from maybe that one odd moment, perhaps to switch the thrust side. Most importantly, stances change your upper body rotation (either left, or right), and your movement speed is strongly influenced by the upper body rotation, which means that for instance, if you hold a block while in a right stance — and holding a combat action such as a block or attack will lock you into that stance regardless of how you move — your upper body will be rotated towards the right more, so moving left will be much slower than moving right. Try it, you will notice the difference very quickly. This is a big factor in adding to the inconsistency, without a real purpose.
The way I see it, stances could be addressed in a few ways:
- Remove any effect they have on combat and keep them exclusively as animation differences, it could come in handy to control feints while dueling, but that's about it. This would retain the animation differences but eliminate all of the unnecessary inconsistency that originates from stances and plagues combat. This would obviously be the most simple solution.
- Allow the player to control stances separately from movement, perhaps with a hotkey. This would allow you to utilize stances regardless of your footwork, and for instance, use one stance while moving in the opposite direction. Keep the effects very small to avoid creating a large gap between those that put in the effort to control them and those who don't. Naturally this option would bring its downsides, and in some situations it would still be difficult to control stances, however certainly a lot more manageable. That notwithstanding it could retain the feeling of inconsistency when fighting without paying them attention.
- Same as the above, however with more tangible and evident effects. Needless to say this would create a huge gap between those that don't know about stances or haven't put in the practice to use them correctly and those who do.
I'd certainly like to read more suggestions to improve them if you have any. I firmly believe that it's necessary to, one way or another, change the way stances currently work to make combat as consistent as possible.
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