RED ALERT: Sword Combat has become even worse now as of this new patch!

Revert the changes.

+Only make the 2nd and third swings slow your movement down
+Make it possible to stunlock mid-air opponents
+Charge attack is now the same as [Block+Charge attack]
Just let the sword catch mid-air opponents, and make the first sword attack forgiving, but constant swinging punishing

There is no point in complaining about the sword if your solution is so weak it actually adds nothing.

The only thing that is decent there is having charge attack have less movement penalty, which ties into something you touched upon but didn't address as a possible addition which was:

This did not take account of blocking which slows you down, but has you stand still when blocking. The man swinging at someone blocking is at an advantage and can run around and jump around the person who is blocking (who is Forced to stand still).

Basically the problem isn't how attacking works, but rather how blocking isn't effective.

You have several ways of going about it.

1. Add different melee weapons with different properties

Adding variety to melee combat could counteract the power of the cutlass by creating tools that are designed to counter it, for example let's say they add a rapier. A rapier wouldn't have the same swiping strikes as a cutlass, boasting a mediocre area of effectiveness, being mostly a good weapon to strike at a good distance and for spacing but the highlight of the rapier is the power of the parry that replaces the standard cutlass blocking. Any singular melee attack succesfuly "blocked" with a rapier is parried instead stopping the combo and triggering a brief stagger animation that slows the affected player down, which would open up for the rapier special held down attack that is a flurry of strikes in quick sucession.

That is just one example, other weapons may forego blocking altogether for a defensive buff while held that prevents staggering or stuns, or a powerful blade that has an impenetrable defense, list goes on.

2. Rework blocking

If the cutlass turns to be the only weapon we have, then blocking needs changes. Not only does the ark of defense that will trigger a succesful block needs to be increased but also perhaps adding rewards for blocking a strike at the right time to trigger a parry to stop a combo of attacks. Blocking also needs to have it's movement penalty removed, this should also buff the quickstep, but if attacking is so strong, defense needs to be improved to counteract this.

3. The boring way out

Revert everything back to how it was and pretend it was better due to some pseudo techniques only absolute delusional people think had any depth when in fact it was as spammy and aimless as it is now, only guns dominated more until they were nerfed and the sword tweaked.

@crafek

the previous sword combat was much more defined in more of its functions

It wasn't. Old sword combat didn't have any nuance that was achieved through it's natural machanics, most of the deeper parts of the sword combat were unintentional design that rare left there because they felt it was a good compromise due to the lack of variety we had for options.

Now that sword was changed, reverting back is admitting rare has absolutely no idea where to go with melee, listening to people that want the boring way out is a terrible call for rare. it's better to listen to a person like me, that is always right, about things like this.

Adding variety and improving upon the existing mechanics, like blocking, is not something that needs to happen just because sword got a buff, you made a huge mistake stating that, this was necessary way back before even the launch of SoT, I've been waiting for new melee weapons and intended mechanics ever since the alphas, but thus far we only got buffs and tweaks.

Also don't forget this is not just a PvP game, the sword changes also affect PvE positively, you still get punished for playing poorly against it and the sword isn't always reliable, but the overall tweaks are an improvement.

So, I agree the mechanics of the sword aren't perfect, but we shouldn't be asking them to go backwards to an arguably worse combat system. We should ask them to improve blocking first and foremost, and that should be the only change untill we see how that effects the meta. Side note, Joe neate has said multiple times that the combat changes are being done in phases. This allows them to get feedback on very specific changes. Expect the sword combat to improve, not revert to a system that didn't work before.

@crafek

It was more defined because it was much less random in nature. Current sword combat is very flimsy and mindless and more inconsistent.

Word salad. Way to say nothing by writting a bunch.

The only reason current sword combat rewards constant attacks is because the only viable counterplay is underpowered and does not do what it is intended to do effectively, which is counter the standard cutlass combo. The movement penalty removal allows for circle strafing and jump attacking to be less punishable by blocking, simply reverting the change makes it go back to how combat was but old combat was not good either, it's trading a piece of garbage for a cup of sewage. Improving upon the new mechanics by adding proper intended counterplay and variety is better than a reversal, it will be better in the long run if we get new melee weapons as well. Up until this point my suggestions end up being implemented in the game one way or another proving how much I'm always right, so it's not wether or not I'll convince you that my solution is better, it's just a matter of time until it's in the game so just get used to the idea.

@urihamrayne my thoughts exactly friend :-) it's good to discuss where improvements should be made, not really useful talking about how good it used to be. We should focus on what's good about the changes and what could be improved on.

@m1sterpunch

Have two players swinging at the same time connect swords and do a bit of damage each and stagger both a little bit instead of rewarding one player for 0.03ms faster key press and stun locking them to death in a combo.

That is a cute idea I haven't considered before, good call.

@galactic-geek

The stun-lock didn't exist [for blocking]

I know I am conceited, but I'm an honest jerk.

I do like the addition of this new "quick-switch", if only there were some mechanic in this game that added a delay to switching to a gun...

@galactic-geek Because you still drill on about some non-existent depth in that fantasy land of yours where sword combat was good, which never was. I already explained what's wrong with that but you choose to live there anyway, you do you. I have the right to be a jerk, the dan backslide avatar is not just a fashion statement.

And also stun lock on blocking is not a thing, still works as it did before, only more hits go through blocking because it is slower than attacking and vulnerable to basic circle strafing and netcode interpolation abuse.

@galactic-geek

Disagreeing with me doesn't give you the right to be rude.

I claim that as a birthright, it doesn't need a terrible argument from you. I will need some video evidence of what you are claiming though, it's a good opportunity to prove me wrong, which I've been eager to happen for a long time, new year new me.

oh and I should comment that its rich that you of all people are complaining about a "quick-switch" when one of the "techniques" you miss so much from the great game that was SoT pre DGE was the quick-draw. Sure different things, but it tickled my funny bone.

@crafek I actually really like it tbh

@galactic-geek

I can no longer play the older version to make a recording.

You can show the stunlock with the new system, there are probably videos from last year that can show how people moved while blocking (or not), your part is showing me how it works on the new. If this is actually a thing it would be interesting to consider wether or not it has value being in the game, if anything I'll try to figure it out on my own if you are onto something or just on wonderland juice.

Each patch, people say it's worst than before.

@galactic-geek

You can test it yourself

I'll do my best. The question is wether or not this is good for the game.

@galactic-geek I don't seem to die as much