Sword Styles: A General Discussion

[Avenguarde]

I've been playing Warframe for nearly a year now even though I took a break of a few months, and while I do enjoy using my Ash to tear-up with a Galantine build currently, sometimes it feels rather one-dimensional. Now, I'm no expert on sword styles but I have practiced some basic kendo and I can say the moves are rather simple strikes amplified by speed.

 

To the point: the current style of sword arts is very static and repetitive due to the nature of melee in this game and the modeling. I think that this can be done better in time. What I would like to open is a discussion on possibly allowing a sword to have multiple style selection choices we can use from the arsenal menu, possibly even the ability to mix strikes from styles.

 

Now, this could apply to the charged strikes, but I believe it would be better for the game to keep charged attacks as a static form of attacking, with only one variation per weapon. This is because of the sheer power of charged strikes, and also because I believe that the charged strike's arcs are already perfected for the role of the weapon in most cases (except for some of the newer weapons which still need tweaks, but that's besides this point).

 

Some reading this may ask "Why should we want more options with melee, to the point of complete customization, when the current system already is functional?" Simply put, because some players who like to use regular melee attacks may want to design a style that fits their preferred movement. Some may want to use piercing stabs (which I believe should have either physics impact or serrated blade damage applied) at the cost of speed, while others may prefer to use quick rapid strikes on a single target rather than attacking a group of enemies at once. Or maybe a player wants to use a weapon that normally only attacks one target to quickly switch between targets at high speed to engage more than one enemy. 

 

Finally, I believe that this will bring a revitalization to melee combat and possibly open up the very remote possibility of having players become extremely creative in their customization to the point of holding contests with nothing but melee styles in PvP to determine which is the best. I would love to see this as the melee mechanic is what I most enjoy about the game, and seeing an evolution of it is a small dream of mine.

 

So, for now, I ask all who have read my words through to the end to give their honest opinions on my suggestion and maybe even suggest combat styles for the existing weapons that you want and will complement them. And to the Development Team: Sorry if this makes you guys have to work harder on the software coding and motion frame development (etc., I know how hard your job is, keep it up!). 

 

Thank you all for your time and consideration.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Avenguarde

[khimera]

This is...debatable in nature. If you could call the current style of melee combat 'default' it would have to be very broad much like the animation idles we have when combat styles are introduced. As such we would likely see 'agile, refined, piercing, heavy blow, etc'. Some weapons, of course, would not have access to certain styles due to shape or way you fight with them. Each weapon in and of itself represents a certain style to a point.

 

Heavy swords, particularly the Galatine, have a different animation from the Scindo or Fragor. Dual weapons almost always share the same animation set regardless, and I haven't seen a back-handed style dual weapon yet though that would be neat. The Kama and the scythes are very different from other types of weapons and have arcing, circular slices. The fist weapons and Kogake are definitely different and probably some of the hardest to play with because of the sheer proximity to enemies you need to have in order to hit them.

 

If you want a particular style of fighting what I'm saying is right now you can just go choose a different melee weapon to fight with. I do, however, understand the desire to fight with the same weapon in a different style which is what I think you're getting at more than just different fighting styles in general.

 

I feel that for long swords the possibility of an Iai Strike style would be nice. The first blow (the drawing blow) in a combo would deal a greater amount of damage than subsequent blows, growing weaker as you simply spam the melee button to a point. The charge strike I could see you sliding forward a short ways extending the range of your attack just a bit kind of like Zantetsuken in Kingdom Hearts. (If you know what that is. Generally it accompanies the screen with a flash of light and suddenly your character is behind the enemy and said enemy falls over dead or is dealt great damage etc. etc.)

[Avenguarde]

I apologize for not making it clear as khimera did, I would like to see different stances and styles with each individual melee weapon. While we can choose weapons to try and fit our style better, this does not always mean we will like their overall performance in a battle. Plus, being able to select what you do on each actual swing is something that could be done with a patch to the current animations and a UI change.