A strong sword advocate

We are at a point where I dunno where they will go with things, quite a bit less predictable these days, it'll be interesting to watch over the rest of the year

to me it's never bothered me, use whatever, I'll use whatever

I never lose because of what others do in my mind, I lose because of my decisions throughout, my performance throughout, and the random parts that are out of my control.

I've always been a sword user.

@tesiccl said in A strong sword advocate:

@wolfmanbush

I've always been a sword user.

As have I. But I’m very curious to see where their next changes and decisions take us. Could really shake things up, I hope it does.

QoL improvements will be minimal for players that struggle with pvp or don't enjoy pvp

It'll largely be same outcome with new frustrations to replace to old ones. Skilled players stay skilled.

The only real improvement in qol will be the minority of adventure fights that are comparable skill and compatible style and that's really just a small part of random hostility.

I've never viewed combat as a strong part of SoT anyway so it doesn't bother me much if they change fighting specifically. I'm a supporter of pvp but the experience of combat itself has never been a selling point imo, as someone that has fought literally every day of playing. It's never felt great to me, it's the risk and the encounters that are exciting, I've always found it to be more frustrating (performance wise) than fun, going years back. Not at the fault of opponents.

I'll take anything that isn't so luck based. Stuff working consistently is far more important to me in combat.

@tesiccl said in A strong sword advocate:

@wolfmanbush 100% agree.

I never understood how the game even had a community that took pvp super serious, the only reason I deal with it is because I have been strict pve/pvp the entire time so it's just a part of the experience.

I honestly have no idea how the people that only pvp skilled players (not a whole lot of them but they are out there) have stayed motivated through it all. I get the community part but that's a real rough pirate's life when it's the only focus in the game with as many combat issues as there are.

I truly think to help balance the combat situation with our current weapon choices, every player should be made to use the sword as weapon 1 as melee only, and then a gun of their choice as weapon 2 for a ranged weapon.

Allow me to explain the benefits.

Everyone will have access to the sword lunge

We’ve all done it, we have 2 guns on us and we get mad cause we forgot to switch back, we have to wait for the mermaid, and by then, we’ve sunk. Not fun, not cool.

You won’t run out of ammo

You’re shooting your opponent, you both run out of ammo, instead of running away from each other to reload, you're whipping the sword out and continuing the close combat action instead. This also extends into many PvE scenarios too.

These two are both just things to help 'forgetfulness'. That is not a reason to remove an entire playstyle. If you've been playing long enough, switching loadouts should become a force of habit and not an issue.

If they ever add the axe, you can switch your sword for an axe

Imagine, they add the axe as another melee weapon, suddenly, you can switch from sword to axe and then whatever gun you want. The combinations could be really powerful.

That's an enormous if.

There would be no “meta” regarding combat

This a huge gripe I see regarding using 2 ranged weapons, that it’s essentially the highest damage dealer, so therefore should be the meta. Even if you had sword + blunder, you’d be putting yourself at risk for long range combat, forcing you to adapt in every combat scenario = a smaller skill gap between players who know how to use all the weapons properly and actively swap their load-out.

The 'meta' is to board, camp and sink, regardless of loadout.

I know this may get some die hards who’ll refuse to learn or adapt because they think the game should be treated like an fps, sot isn’t that no discussion, but I truly think a forced weapon load out would do wonders to the overall community who loathe and despise people who double gun. It causes toxicity, bad behaviour, and doesn’t make newer players feel welcome.

Many players seem to forget that the skilled double gunners who dominate everyone will continue to dominate everyone with the sword. This changes nothing other than forcing everyone to use a janky, unreliable weapon that is as inconsistent as firearms at times. Lets not go around forcing loadouts until PvP works as intended.

Thanks Ted for my talk!

Ted Talks always appreciated :)

@tesiccl I can back this, You know my stance on double gunning and this would just be a better solution to my suggestion of only double gunning w/ pistols only.

Problem is I feel like Rare has no interest in tweaking the combat.

We have been asking for combat balance since last Arena patch I think? Maybe even longer.

@tesiccl said in A strong sword advocate:

@a10dr4651 oh yeah every weapon would need to be ‘fixed’ before introducing something like this 100%.

I don't see significant improvement happening with weapons/combat beyond casual play.

There has never really been consistent or dramatic improvement to performance of combat in the game.

This season has people recording some of the worst "hit reg" issues yet and we are 5 years in.

The thing about this game is that it's heavily recorded in the more accurate parts of the community, so some will say things are improving but that is just not reflected in recorded gameplay beyond casual play and combat performance doesn't improve at a casual level either it just stays more consistent.

Lots of changes but not a lot of improvements with combat/performance imo

Something I am concerned about is how many long time pve/pvpers are being driven out. They can try to get new players to stick around with dramatic environmental changes and changes to combat, that's all fine and dandy but there is fixin' to be a real activity drought in season 10 when the people that take risks and produce consistently are off playing other games and doing other things while the social side of pvp is giving escalating negative feedback due to their frustrations.

I've always been torn on the double gun question. I know this is a GAME and not REAL but having 10 shots load so quickly always felt too much. Having the animation cancellation quick swap is just too much of an exploit imo. I lean toward a required sword-gun combo, or a perhaps double gun combo option but with 5 ammo total between two guns before needing to reload.

@pithyrumble said in A strong sword advocate:

@tesiccl

Making my usual suggestion of 3 weapons. Sword required, pick 2 guns, 5 bullets between the two guns.

No one's mad at double gunners or sword Lords when we're all sweaty double gunning sword lords.

I think if they changed it and went this route it would easily be the highest qol choice.

Sword/sniper with pistol/blunder would make this game so much more enjoyable as a pve/pvp player