The main thing I want to accomplish with this suggestion is to encourage people to block early and jam their opponent's attacks while they're being charged. To do this, I was thinking that we could have a system when blocking the opponent's weapon early in their attack arc gives the opponent a very slight amount of stun.
There'd also be a penalty for blocking late i.e. at the optimal point of the opponent's attack arc. The defender should receive a small amount of stun, and if the attack is sufficiently powerful or the block was very late, the attack will blow through the defense and inflict a significant wound (the dreaded block crush).
This makes complete sense (and is commonly used) in RL swordplay, and it makes sense from a gameplay perspective as well. It rewards a more proactive defense rather than waiting for the last minute to avoid committing a block against a feint. As an added incentive, getting the crap stunned out of them should be ample disincentive for people who love to turn into their attacks.
Another possibility is imparting a bonus to the defender if he blocks and steps in the direction of his defense. This could increase the threshold needed for the attack to blow through, since the weight of the defender's body is behind his sword as well.
I'm not sure how hard it'll be to implement (my guess is that it'll be pretty bloody hard), but this could go a long way towards making the defense less passive. Right now a competent manual blocker can stop an attack at any point in its arc and not suffer penalties for it, which I think is bloody ridiculous.
EDIT: ****ing spelling error.
There'd also be a penalty for blocking late i.e. at the optimal point of the opponent's attack arc. The defender should receive a small amount of stun, and if the attack is sufficiently powerful or the block was very late, the attack will blow through the defense and inflict a significant wound (the dreaded block crush).
This makes complete sense (and is commonly used) in RL swordplay, and it makes sense from a gameplay perspective as well. It rewards a more proactive defense rather than waiting for the last minute to avoid committing a block against a feint. As an added incentive, getting the crap stunned out of them should be ample disincentive for people who love to turn into their attacks.
Another possibility is imparting a bonus to the defender if he blocks and steps in the direction of his defense. This could increase the threshold needed for the attack to blow through, since the weight of the defender's body is behind his sword as well.
I'm not sure how hard it'll be to implement (my guess is that it'll be pretty bloody hard), but this could go a long way towards making the defense less passive. Right now a competent manual blocker can stop an attack at any point in its arc and not suffer penalties for it, which I think is bloody ridiculous.
EDIT: ****ing spelling error.