[suggestion] Decreasing attack arc for side strikes.

[Night Ninja]

The side swings on Warband seem to cover a lot of ground and aren't very efficient. This also contributes partially to that helichoppa spam thing that people love to do since it's so easy to hit by just swinging blindly.

I've noticed that in actual fencing, attacks are always directed straight at the enemy. Attacks that come in from the side do not take a giant arc through the air like it is in Warband now. If the attack arc of the side strikes were to be decreased and generally just improved in efficiency, they might put an end to the relentless spam that's currently troubling so many players by forcing them to aim their strikes and place them judiciously.

This video (from the 1:10 mark) gives an idea of what I'm referring to. The cuts are directed at the opponent in a linear fashion, with the lever action of the hilt and the passing step providing most of the power.

 

[Urist]

They already put in a heavy negative speed modifier for hitting while turned too far with a side swing.
But I agree, the (deadly) arc area is still too big.

 

[Merlkir]

I'm confused. Before, everyone was like "zomg, no range, increase range!". And now it's the opposite? O_O
I would suggest you try the new Fiore animation mod for 1.011, it tried to do something similar. The animations are crippling, suddenly it's hard as **** to hit anyone, you have to be facing your enemy precisely and stand in the precise ideal distance to do any kind of damage.
The fact that you can't fully control the angle you're swinging at and the height of the swing is controlled only partially makes hitting even harder. With Warband in the early versions, it was exactly this. The range of side swings was very short and if I imagine the angle would be different as you seem to suggest. Boy, would that make it hard as balls. (also, imagine hitting horses with swings angled as these)

And sure, hard might be good, encouraging people to learn skill. It might also end as terribly frustrating and impossible.

This is one of the issues where I'd take artistic license and gameplay over hardcore realism.

 

[Skyrage]

Reason it's so hard to hit is because the players zip around at very high speeds.