Blocking head attacks

[Stove]

This is something that I've had a problem with for ages, and I haven't figured out the answer to it yet. Blocking in this game has always been wonky, just because there's no block button and you have to count on the game automatically raising your weapon to block attacks. This generally gets the job done, and in fact adding a block button would probably throw off the feel of the game as it is. The problem that I'm having is, as the title suggested, blocking head attacks.

When you go to block attacks, you twist your weapon downwards and use it to deflect attacks angled towards your body. This works great... for body shots. The problem is when the enemy swings at your face. You simply will not defend your head against normal sized opponents. If you fight a giant enemy like the golems in the adventure mode, you can see that there is a block animation that involves you moving your weapon towards your head, angling it upwards, and deflecting the attack. There IS an animation for defending against head attacks, but the automatic blocking simply will not utilize it against normal sized foes.

The effect of this is that A. You'll occassionally get whupped upside your head and take major damage for seemingly no fault of your own, and B. Polearms become even more overpowered than they already are, because they also have the unforseen side effect of being the only weapons consistently able to parry headshots, because the length of the shaft extends high enough when you go to parry that it also covers your head.

[Solinarius☕]

Headshots can be pretty dangerous to counter with an active defense. Something I've noticed, especially with smaller shields, is if you want to fully depend on parry/block defense, you must let your weapon return to its rest position. Also, there's no need to completely rely on the auto parry. You can actively position your weapons to intercept attacks or impede the enemy. This leads into the very powerful tactic of controlling your opponent's weapon(s) with your own.

Come back on Discord, if you like. I'm there.

[D.Cub3d]

After having taken a break for a while, I have noticed that blocking is just wildly inconsistent. I usually just dodge like literally 90% of all incoming attacks and hardly relied on any blocking, and even when I use a shield my guy rarely feels like actually putting it in the path of the swing. So unless they swing right into my shield they usually hit. Its a little funny when I watch the AI throw up overhead blocks on every attack, block attacks from the other side of their body with the shield (This one to me is the most hilariously ridiculous part of shields, the AI can cover literally like 90% of their target with them), and absord dual wield flurries that go on forever. I don't think I have ever broken their defense and seen them unable to block.

And yeah, blocking anything above the nipples is impossible with like almost every weapon.

It would be nice if we were able to block as proficiently as the AI can, but unfortunately it seems they have either superhuman tracking or are getting artificial boosts (which they claim the AI doesn't). I just don't really see the point in ever getting good with playing a parry/riposte style when blocking can be counted on as if you rolled a d20. It just feels wildly out of place when the rest of the game is basically purely player input but blocking just seems to be highly random. Sometimes you do block up high, but most of the time even when being right on, and overhead still gets through no matter the weapons size differences.

And on the other hand theres also the absolutely ridiculous part that Mauls are able to whip around and block dagger strikes like its nothing if aiming good, and then in turn a dagger can block every maul swing so long as they aim good and blocking works right. Weapons have no weight behind them with blocking either, so you have mauls being stopped in their tracks by a dagger which is just bad. Theres too much inconsistency in blocking and honestly for the msot part I will be gonig back to just playing a dodge heavy playstyle and avoid blocking at all costs. Which is a shame because I really wanted to play a parry/riposte style but its just too inconsistent to play that way reliably.

To add to this, today's been even worse. No amount of focus on blocking (I have fought about 20 matches without ever swinging, only blocking) and it's become even more apparent to me just how random the blocking is. After playing normal I'm noticing the AI able to block attacks from a pretty large amount of angles without ever having really square up like the player has to in order to reliably block. I've also been noticing the ridiculous shield across the body to block an attack from the shield users weapon side, often stopping well placed neck shots in their tracks.

I'm not really sure why the player feels so much more limited with blocking than the AI, but overall for both player and AI it's pretty random. Attacks that should land somehow don't do anything (happens to both player and AI) And are seemingly blocked by something. Though often it seems like they just put the hilt and their hand in the way at the last second and voalla defended.

On a semi related note I also noticed in this "testing" I did, that the AI also gets shots out of the clinch seemingly from nowhere. No chambering of the attack, no tell, nothing. When you think it's safe youll slide out and catch a blade across the neck out of nowhere. I can't ever seem to generate enough power to ever reliably do damage out of the clinch but the AI seems to almost always no matter their weapon (outside of long pole weapons and 2 handed axes).

[Solinarius☕]

Just a short reply for now: all most of the things you've mentioned are nothing but a grave misconception. For instance...

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

On a semi related note I also noticed in this "testing" I did, that the AI also gets shots out of the clinch seemingly from nowhere. No chambering of the attack, no tell, nothing. When you think it's safe youll slide out and catch a blade across the neck out of nowhere. I can't ever seem to generate enough power to ever reliably do damage out of the clinch but the AI seems to almost always no matter their weapon (outside of long pole weapons and 2 handed axes).

I can perform all of the 'oddities' described here almost at will. In fact, I've practiced in-fighting with most weapons for substantial amounts of time. It's like I was saying in my first post, about how controlling your opponent's weapon is a very strong technique. Think of a clinch as a game of tag. While your weapons are touching or obstructed, it's a draw and neither of you can act, but the one who manages to make the last touch—especially gain some kind of geometrical advantage or leverage over their opponent's weapon—can gain the initiative and make a free attack. I guarantee you are underestimating the scope of Exanima's physics.

[Castlestormer]

Maybe they should make a skill that really improves your blocking other than deflection.

[D.Cub3d]

Originally posted by Solinarius:

Just a short reply for now: all most of the things you've mentioned are nothing but a grave misconception. For instance...

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

On a semi related note I also noticed in this "testing" I did, that the AI also gets shots out of the clinch seemingly from nowhere. No chambering of the attack, no tell, nothing. When you think it's safe youll slide out and catch a blade across the neck out of nowhere. I can't ever seem to generate enough power to ever reliably do damage out of the clinch but the AI seems to almost always no matter their weapon (outside of long pole weapons and 2 handed axes).

I can perform all of the 'oddities' described here almost at will. In fact, I've practiced in-fighting with most weapons for substantial amounts of time. It's like I was saying in my first post, about how controlling your opponent's weapon is a very strong technique. Think of a clinch as a game of tag. While your weapons are touching or obstructed, it's a draw and neither of you can act, but the one who manages to make the last touch—especially gain some kind of geometrical advantage or leverage over their opponent's weapon—can gain the initiative and make a free attack. I guarantee you are underestimating the scope of Exanima's physics.

I can assure you I am not.

I understand the physics of the game, I too can get meager cuts on draws out of the clinch, but I never get 3/4 health neck slices that literally come from nowhere. The wind up is not there, there's no action of motion, the blade just magically becomes active while leaving the clinch but I have yet to have it happen to such,a degree as the AI is able to pretty reliably. They also have no geometrical or angle advantage on me, we simply both step back and the tie up leads to them damaging me, it happens far more often than it should and I know for a fact (as I have to always hit them multiple times after) that I do not generate this type of damage from these drawing cuts. There's no sliding no nothing, the weapon hardly even touches me, nor is it even a swing, it's after it recoil off eachothers bodies when we are trying to gain position advantage in the clutch and then back out. The only time I get these types of damaging hits is when I hit them after we have left and I get them on the retreat, but never as a slide out from the clinch, those are only minor wounds at best, because you can't generate enough torque from your body to deal that type of damage and drawing cuts aren't implemented quite correctly yet (though I suspect they'll stay about the same as they are, because the clinch would just be a bloody mess if there was more instances of drawing cuts).

Also, the "oddities" you're trying to dispel (you truly are the definition of white knighting these forums btw) are not something you would want to replicate..... you're telling me you can replicate the fact that blocking is random, thanks for making my point?

The fact is the fact, blocking has been, and is highly random in a game based purely on player input. The AI also has an innate tracking advantage as it's AI, they will always track better than a human unless you just make them super sloppy (I'd rather them be where they are than a sloppy mess). The problem is that blocking is so highly random and requires you to position yourself as well that it leads to the players blocking experience feeling like it's somewhat out of their hands. Which based on the entire games experience everywhere else, this is the polar opposite of the games flow.

It's like you read that bottom part and took it for me saying the AI cheats. I want to make this very clear, I in no way think they cheat or have unfair advantages per say. I'm simply bringing up what I've noticed over the last week or so of playing this game after not being at peak performance.

When I was at my peak, I hardly ever blocked, I was able to avoid nearly every strike so I never really noticed how random the blocking was. But having tried to make an almost exclusive parry/riposte playatyles char, I've coke across some interesting things about blocking, mostly with weapons.

The problem I'm seeing is that in order to block the player must align their body to absorb the blow with their weapons (that's a given, I wouldn't expect defense to come from just putting the weapon out there), but because the player has to actively do this and the AI does it naturally through their tracking algorithms, they have a natural "advantage" you could say. I'm not really complaining, again I'd rather them be this than stupid.

I'm not really sure how you'd "fix" it, hence why I haven't made any suggestions only posted my findings on the subject. Though a lot of blocking is just broken as I've stated in my long winded post, it's literally inconsistent in almost every way.

I personally don't like that parrying is so effective. But it's a game and compromises must be made to not impede on the fun factor and just pile on unneeded difficulty. I'd rather weapons play a large role in their defense ability. A maul should not be blocking anythijng really. I'd love to see someone attempt to block several attacks from someone using any legit martial weapon while using a maul/sledgehammer. It's just impossible to bring it around to block much other than telling strikes and maybe overheads. But anyone with any decent practice with a weapon will make quick work of someone trying to block their attacks with a heavy sledge hammer...

I'm also really not interested in defending the fact that blocking is unreliable against a fanatically blind fanboy (Not necessarily accusing you of being such, but this forum is infested with them or the polar opposite blind haters, hardly any in betweens), so if that's what you're leading into, save yourself the breath. I've been here for a couple years and have a couple hundred hours into the game, I know what I'm seeing. I probably wouldn't have put so much into the posts if they were just frustration posts, they're more so what I've found in my specific testing of only defending attacks for nearly 2 dozen matches straight with a couple different weapon setups (sword n board, dual world, single weapon, 2 hander).

This also isn't to bag on the game, simply point out flaws. Most of the really good players avoid most strikes anyways because they know it leads to easier offense than trying to deal with tangled weapons and close distances easy to rush and break momentum. But this leads those same players to not notice the inconsistencies of blocking, just like I didn't until I literally focused a playstyle around it.

This also isn't the first time blocking inconsistencies have been brought up, this topic has been discussed a lot in the past years.

[Mtcheeeew]

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

I can assure you I am not.

I would rather see a video of your gameplay than take your word for it because i agree with Solinarius and this is definitely a case of "thinks he is good but actually needs to git gud", patients dont even know when they are infected, nasty stuff.

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

When I was at my peak, I hardly ever blocked, I was able to avoid nearly every strike so I never really noticed how random the blocking was. But having tried to make an almost exclusive parry/riposte playatyles char, I've coke across some interesting things about blocking, mostly with weapons.

Here is one of your problems, you learnt a style that did not rely on blocking, you hardly ever used it, and we all know that without practice in exanima you will never learn.

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

The problem I'm seeing is that in order to block the player must align their body to absorb the blow with their weapons (that's a given, I wouldn't expect defense to come from just putting the weapon out there), but because the player has to actively do this and the AI does it naturally through their tracking algorithms, they have a natural "advantage" you could say.

Blocking is a skill you as a player are in charge of. What silly natural advantage? I can easily actively block and parry and do it much better than the a. I. whereas they are more consistent because a. I. Is cleaner. The a. I. Doesnt block for you, you have to actively position and maneuver blocks and parries to be effective. I believe you may have a fundamental misunderstanding of how blocking works in this game.

Your second and probably bigger mistake is you already think you are right that the system is broken. This state of mind makes sure you disagree with anything else even if it is correct, you have closed yourself up to learning.

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

I personally don't like that parrying is so effective. But it's a game and compromises must be made to not impede on the fun factor and just pile on unneeded difficulty. I'd rather weapons play a large role in their defense ability. A maul should not be blocking anythijng really. I'd love to see someone attempt to block several attacks from someone using any legit martial weapon while using a maul/sledgehammer. It's just impossible to bring it around to block much other than telling strikes and maybe overheads. But anyone with any decent practice with a weapon will make quick work of someone trying to block their attacks with a heavy sledge hammer...

Ermmmmm... This is how it works in the game... Once you... git gud... I use mostly swords and a maul simply cannot keep up with me, it is very easy to score hits on an npc using a maul,stabs,cuts,feints>cuts in opposite direction, the opportunities are endless. The parrying in the game isnt perfect but I think your skills are broken.

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

I'm also really not interested in defending the fact that blocking is unreliable against a fanatically blind fanboy (Not necessarily accusing you of being such, but this forum is infested with them or the polar opposite blind haters, hardly any in betweens), so if that's what you're leading into, save yourself the breath. I've been here for a couple years and have a couple hundred hours into the game, I know what I'm seeing.

I would suggest you record gameplay footage and share so that we may guage your skills. I have videos already online including the tutorial video on left - 2-right swings. I will happily record a 5min video for you where i do not swing at all but block 95% of swings, not dodges, blocks, but I would like to see your video first... just you know, to see for myself.

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

This also isn't to bag on the game, simply point out flaws. Most of the really good players avoid most strikes anyways because they know it leads to easier offense than trying to deal with tangled weapons and close distances easy to rush and break momentum. But this leads those same players to not notice the inconsistencies of blocking, just like I didn't until I literally focused a playstyle around it.

Please name these "really good players" and where they have said that they avoid most strikes.

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

This also isn't the first time blocking inconsistencies have been brought up, this topic has been discussed a lot in the past years.

Because apparently even long term community members can misunderstand the system even after years. This is not an insult but fact, because it is obvious you do not fully grasp blocking in exanima. Right now 2 players are telling you you are wrong, i have had exanima b4 steam i know that even years after i have learnt and understood new things, this is not an attack on you, this is just to say you are misunderstanding. I know it comes off sounding condescending but you kind of asked for it. Peace out, waiting on your videos, pls dont type a wall without proof or I just wont be able to take you seriously.

[Luzilyo]

i mean, i definitely try to avoid things rather than parrying, but i would also absolutely not call myself a good player at all, so i guess that doesn't really mean much. lol

[D.Cub3d]

Originally posted by Who Do Voodoo:

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

I can assure you I am not.

I would rather see a video of your gameplay than take your word for it because i agree with Solinarius and this is definitely a case of "thinks he is good but actually needs to git gud", patients dont even know when they are infected, nasty stuff.

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

When I was at my peak, I hardly ever blocked, I was able to avoid nearly every strike so I never really noticed how random the blocking was. But having tried to make an almost exclusive parry/riposte playatyles char, I've coke across some interesting things about blocking, mostly with weapons.

Here is one of your problems, you learnt a style that did not rely on blocking, you hardly ever used it, and we all know that without practice in exanima you will never learn.

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

The problem I'm seeing is that in order to block the player must align their body to absorb the blow with their weapons (that's a given, I wouldn't expect defense to come from just putting the weapon out there), but because the player has to actively do this and the AI does it naturally through their tracking algorithms, they have a natural "advantage" you could say.

Blocking is a skill you as a player are in charge of. What silly natural advantage? I can easily actively block and parry and do it much better than the a. I. whereas they are more consistent because a. I. Is cleaner. The a. I. Doesnt block for you, you have to actively position and maneuver blocks and parries to be effective. I believe you may have a fundamental misunderstanding of how blocking works in this game.

Your second and probably bigger mistake is you already think you are right that the system is broken. This state of mind makes sure you disagree with anything else even if it is correct, you have closed yourself up to learning.

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

I personally don't like that parrying is so effective. But it's a game and compromises must be made to not impede on the fun factor and just pile on unneeded difficulty. I'd rather weapons play a large role in their defense ability. A maul should not be blocking anythijng really. I'd love to see someone attempt to block several attacks from someone using any legit martial weapon while using a maul/sledgehammer. It's just impossible to bring it around to block much other than telling strikes and maybe overheads. But anyone with any decent practice with a weapon will make quick work of someone trying to block their attacks with a heavy sledge hammer...

Ermmmmm... This is how it works in the game... Once you... git gud... I use mostly swords and a maul simply cannot keep up with me, it is very easy to score hits on an npc using a maul,stabs,cuts,feints>cuts in opposite direction, the opportunities are endless. The parrying in the game isnt perfect but I think your skills are broken.

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

I'm also really not interested in defending the fact that blocking is unreliable against a fanatically blind fanboy (Not necessarily accusing you of being such, but this forum is infested with them or the polar opposite blind haters, hardly any in betweens), so if that's what you're leading into, save yourself the breath. I've been here for a couple years and have a couple hundred hours into the game, I know what I'm seeing.

I would suggest you record gameplay footage and share so that we may guage your skills. I have videos already online including the tutorial video on left - 2-right swings. I will happily record a 5min video for you where i do not swing at all but block 95% of swings, not dodges, blocks, but I would like to see your video first... just you know, to see for myself.

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

This also isn't to bag on the game, simply point out flaws. Most of the really good players avoid most strikes anyways because they know it leads to easier offense than trying to deal with tangled weapons and close distances easy to rush and break momentum. But this leads those same players to not notice the inconsistencies of blocking, just like I didn't until I literally focused a playstyle around it.

Please name these "really good players" and where they have said that they avoid most strikes.

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

This also isn't the first time blocking inconsistencies have been brought up, this topic has been discussed a lot in the past years.

Because apparently even long term community members can misunderstand the system even after years. This is not an insult but fact, because it is obvious you do not fully grasp blocking in exanima. Right now 2 players are telling you you are wrong, i have had exanima b4 steam i know that even years after i have learnt and understood new things, this is not an attack on you, this is just to say you are misunderstanding. I know it comes off sounding condescending but you kind of asked for it. Peace out, waiting on your videos, pls dont type a wall without proof or I just wont be able to take you seriously.

You contradict yourself quite a lot. Not really sure where to start as this is a lot of contradicting points. Also, way to put words into my mouth, I never once said I was good or anything related to my skill level. More misinterpretation, but sure I'll give this one a go as well.


"Blocking is a skill you as a player are in charge of. "

Except it's not, it's been stated by the developers that you don't have full control over bblocking. Why do you think you can't block a head attack from a long weapon? Why do you think your character automatically brings up his defenses when a swing is incoming.... because it's not fully player controled....


"Ermmmmm... This is how it works in the game... Once you... git gud... "

Not trying to be an was but did you even read what I wrote? This has nothing to do with player skill and everything to do with the blocking mechanics at it's core.... the fact that a maul can be stopped in its tracks buy a dagger is all in going to say, you can not defend that in any way shape or form so please try to.


See you ask for video proof because you and one other person disagree about blatant game mechanics being badly implemented currently. See I'll record video, but then it will become about everything other than blocking. Which is what this is about. The basic core mechanics, but since you didn't really read what I wrote of course you missed the point and tied it directly to my skill. It has zero to do with skill, before I bother recording anything to prove to you, you first will actually read what I wrote. Since you can't do that I don't have any reason to bother on my end. You aren't interested in an actual discussion, you just want to white knight the game just as the previous poster.

What's funny is you guys think it's like an attack on the game or something, when it's a simple observation of basic game mechanics being out of place in comparison to the remainder of the game...

This is the last blind defender I'm going to respond to, unless someone can actually discuss the pints I talked about (and not bring it to skill, which this has never been about). Seriously actually read a post before posting. It's that simple. If you want to attempt to have a discussion, you have to understand the other persons position. You both haven't even attempted, you read one sentence and both got triggered like I'm calling the game out.

It's funny whwn people don't read whole posts then try to quote them to look like they did. Or you really should have been paying more attention to the whole thin and not the parts that you wanted to retort. You grab sections to take everything out of context and make it about players skill whwn this is before players skill comes into it, but you skip over all those parts and conveniently choose which parts you respond to. It's quite funny really. In fact of you actually read what I posted you'd have known that many of these inconsistencies are prevalent with the AI as Well. But that requires you to read the whole of both my posts (which I suggest you do again, you took the time to respond but clearly didn't take the time to read my posts, I kindly ask that you go back and do such).

You asked me to waste my time with recording footage of these things when you can't even use your time to read my posts, so no offense but why should I bother with proving you wrong if you couldn't even bother to read what was the actual issues. You took some things I noticed as things I said were broken. I never once said that the AI had some crazy advantage, simply that theyllalways be better at tracking than a human, it's simply the truth, they don't have human error to calculate for, they don't have to see, process, and react with key presses, it's just happens as the AI moves through its stages and behaviour choices. Seriously, read what I wrote before posting and asking me to waste even more of my time.


And i don't care if you take me seriously or not, you didn't read my post obviously as I have shown. So you are the one who shouldn't be taken seriously. You demand things from others but can't even be arsed to read a post. No thanks, I have nothing to prove to you, not until you can prove you can actually comprehend what you read in my posts.

Edit: sorry about the few spelling grammatical errors, phone autocorrect, I'll try and fix them if I notice it.


Meh, said I wouldn't defend myself against blind fanatics and here I am, defending myself against a blind fanatic. This is the last one, if you can't read my posts then I'll just slip over them, i won't be bothered with your posts if you can't be bothered with actually reading.

[Solinarius☕]

Transflux, almost all I can do now is facepalm. Maybe you didn't notice that I quoted and replied to a single part of your post in my second paragraph. Maybe you thought I was trying to insult you. Instead of being an ass and assuming things about me, you can take what I write at face value. When I see someone make claims about the combat that I know to be inaccurate or misguided, I'm going to chime in. When someone claims that I'm a white knight, I'm just going to laugh. I'm solely here to share in the community of my favorite game, and I prefer to be analytical and fair. I'm aware Exanima isn't perfect, and I even have some unyielding criticisms with it. Shocked?

[D.Cub3d]

Originally posted by Solinarius:

Transflux, almost all I can do now is facepalm. Maybe you didn't notice that I quoted and replied to a single part of your post in my second paragraph. Maybe you thought I was trying to insult you. Instead of being an ass and assuming things about me, you can take what I write at face value. When I see someone make claims about the combat that I know to be inaccurate or misguided, I'm going to chime in. When someone claims that I'm a white knight, I'm just going to laugh. I'm solely here to share in the community of my favorite game, and I prefer to be analytical and fair. I'm aware Exanima isn't perfect, and I even have some unyielding criticisms with it.

Except you quoted something that I ven said was basically unrelated. You had nothing to say about anything else. Jumping in and defending the game by saying

"Just a short reply for now: all most of the things you've mentioned are nothing but a grave misconception."

If all anyone wants to do is grab onto the unimportant aspects of the post, then so be it, youre not reading my post. Your defending the game based on feelings in that post. I have no doubt you are analytical and fair, but can you rally say that your defense was either? While you did contribute to the clinch part of my post, that really wasn't what I was trying to discuss, hence the footnote and the on a semi related note.

Voo Doo then went on to do the exact same thing, missing the entirety of the issue I had posted about and grabbed at the stuff that was relatively unimportant. Constantly going back to player skill when what I am discussin is before the players skill is even involved. I can even quote you as saying that defending head shots is iffy, right here in this thread.

Originally posted by Solinarius:

Headshots can be pretty dangerous to counter with an active defense. Something I've noticed, especially with smaller shields, is if you want to fully depend on parry/block defense, you must let your weapon return to its rest position. Also, there's no need to completely rely on the auto parry. You can actively position your weapons to intercept attacks or impede the enemy. This leads into the very powerful tactic of controlling your opponent's weapon(s) with your own.

You just said that blocking headshots is unreliable, its well known that the characters block with the weapons turned upside down to block their body and largest target.

I know you have watched attacks be stopped dead in their tracks by shields from across their bodies as I have seen this happen in several exanima videos I have seen. I know you have also seen a maul be stopped dead in its tracks by a dagger, as it happens all the time, and again in several exanima videos. See the problem is, the defense comes from negligable points of my post and the meat or important parts are glossed right over. Because I said that the AI has a natural advantage over a player in that they will always be able to track better than a human, in fact Voo Doo even somewhat agreed after trying to refute this point.

"What silly natural advantage? I can easily actively block and parry and do it much better than the a. I. whereas they are more consistent because a. I. Is cleaner."

He contradicts himself nicely here btw. You can't be better at something but less consistent, better includes being consistent....

This is why I say there is white knighting, the defense of the game is nearly irrelevant (which I have no problems with people defending the game, but im not attacking it. I am simply stating obvious facts and then following it up with observations of other thigns that naturally happened due to the testing I did). You don't get to pick a tiny nearly irrelevant aspect of a post, then make demands (not pointed at you Solinarius as you didnt demand anything).

Simply put, if poeple are going to continue to not read the posts then I have no reason to give them anything in return. Many of the things I have pointed out are things that have been known for a while, but its not like we have had an update in a long time so of course these thigns are still here.

Blocking is not in the players hands completely, unlike every other aspect of combat. Blocking isn't even in the hands of the AI. It's an automated system, you simply direct where you intercept and how your body is facing. You have no say in if you'll defend your legs for low sweeps, or face, your torso, any of that. This is all done automatically to alleviate the player of more actions (I don't want to have to actively block like that tbh, it would completely break the flow of combat for the player). This is inconsistent with the rest of the game, and as I had already said; in not sure how you would fix it to make the combat experience entirely in the hands of the player. This is literally what I've been saying the whole time. The decision of what to block isn't yours, only the direction you put your weapons possibly in the path and how you're squared up. The most glaring case of this, is if you crouch in the middle of a slash and attack the feet, the AI has no possible defense outside of trying to dodge, but if they attempt to block they will take damage every time because the blocking doesn't account for that. Coupled with the physics inconsistencies I have stated about momentum and weight and shields across the body, there's an obvious disconnect between blocking and the remaining combat actions.

[Mtcheeeew]

Short for now, I read all your "novelsc and i am telling you that what you call fact and a broken block system, i call lack of player skill and misunderstanding on your part. I asked for a video not to prove you are skilled, but to guage your skill so I can point and tell you exactly what your problem is. I never claimed you are a skilled player instead you noted that you have had years with the game. Again, you think you are right, but I can confirm that i can block 95% of hits.
In no way have i contradicted myself. You can be very smart in math but another student can be consistently better by average. Better at reading opportunities =/= consistently cleaner blocks. Please stop twisting my words.
You are also discussing 3 seaparate things. You as a player unable to rely on block as well as daggers stoppibg mauls, and finally shields able to block across the body. 1 is your lack of skill, fact unless you can prove otherwise with a video. 2 is a known issue(means devs are aware) and is a work in progress. 3 is again lack of player skill because this is totally normal and i am wondering why you are complaining that a shield can block the weapon arm.

I said you need to actively control your block, it is your responsibility, i never said you could avtivate particular blocks, why are you talking like You dont know that the game actively attempts to parry and it is you the player that actively uses this maneuver.

Please stop wasting our time and post a video of your gameplay so we can solve this thing.

[Solinarius☕]

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

Except you quoted something that I ven said was basically unrelated. You had nothing to say about anything else. Jumping in and defending the game by saying

"Just a short reply for now: all most of the things you've mentioned are nothing but a grave misconception."

Now that I have more time to write...

Originally posted by Transflux Ethical Hunter:

After having taken a break for a while, I have noticed that blocking is just wildly inconsistent. I usually just dodge like literally 90% of all incoming attacks and hardly relied on any blocking, and even when I use a shield my guy rarely feels like actually putting it in the path of the swing. So unless they swing right into my shield they usually hit. Its a little funny when I watch the AI throw up overhead blocks on every attack, block attacks from the other side of their body with the shield (This one to me is the most hilariously ridiculous part of shields, the AI can cover literally like 90% of their target with them), and absord dual wield flurries that go on forever. I don't think I have ever broken their defense and seen them unable to block.

And yeah, blocking anything above the nipples is impossible with like almost every weapon

Consistency is a problem only if you are making idle defenses. To quote myself: it's always up to the player to achieve practicality and finesse in their avatar's form. The AI tends to have very good form to accomodate their defense. If not for this, the AI would be even more of a pushover now than they already are for experts. Indeed, the AI's defensive capability is best displayed with how easily they can subtlely avoid or block standard overhead strikes. If you observe the AI, you may notice that they are constantly at rest, and like I've mentioned many times, the AI is almost purely reactive. All that said, I don't really have a problem hitting around the AI's guard (shield or no shield) with overheads, horizontals, or thrusts. The colossal kite shields can test test my patience at times, though.

To me, dual wield = I get to more easily strike at the inside of opponents and counterattack like mad. Blocking, parrying, and riposting could use more work, but I believe they will always be unreliable if your technique is below par.

It would be nice if we were able to block as proficiently as the AI can, but unfortunately it seems they have either superhuman tracking or are getting artificial boosts (which they claim the AI doesn't). I just don't really see the point in ever getting good with playing a parry/riposte style when blocking can be counted on as if you rolled a d20. It just feels wildly out of place when the rest of the game is basically purely player input but blocking just seems to be highly random. Sometimes you do block up high, but most of the time even when being right on, and overhead still gets through no matter the weapons size differences.

Parry-riposte is incredibly strong with polearms. Players that focus on those weapons and that develop good parry-riposte techniques will mop the floor with you, especially if you use polearms too, and if you aren't, you're using shorter weapons that will require you to actively defend if you want to win. Dodge and dance all you want, an expert player can counter maneuver to assert their reach advantage far better than the AI can.

And on the other hand theres also the absolutely ridiculous part that Mauls are able to whip around and block dagger strikes like its nothing if aiming good, and then in turn a dagger can block every maul swing so long as they aim good and blocking works right. Weapons have no weight behind them with blocking either, so you have mauls being stopped in their tracks by a dagger which is just bad. Theres too much inconsistency in blocking and honestly for the msot part I will be gonig back to just playing a dodge heavy playstyle and avoid blocking at all costs. Which is a shame because I really wanted to play a parry/riposte style but its just too inconsistent to play that way reliably.

BM is very timid about this case. Madoc has said more than once that it would be trivial to correct this silly feature, but it's not preferrable at the moment. Shunning blocking, parrying, and ripostes because you don't understand them will only deter your own development.

I'm not really sure why the player feels so much more limited with blocking than the AI, but overall for both player and AI it's pretty random. Attacks that should land somehow don't do anything (happens to both player and AI) And are seemingly blocked by something. Though often it seems like they just put the hilt and their hand in the way at the last second and voalla defended.

Players have more control than you're crediting. See second paragraph.

On a semi related note I also noticed in this "testing" I did, that the AI also gets shots out of the clinch seemingly from nowhere. No chambering of the attack, no tell, nothing. When you think it's safe youll slide out and catch a blade across the neck out of nowhere. I can't ever seem to generate enough power to ever reliably do damage out of the clinch but the AI seems to almost always no matter their weapon (outside of long pole weapons and 2 handed axes).

Behold, an example of me performing your described anomally (though, not while clinched). It's due to some kind of animation glitch and tension on muscles which causes the attack to be launched without prior momentum. Replicating the glitch is not easy, but tensing muscles to make attacks launch without swinging can be done fairly easily during a bind or via a parry-riposte action.

@1:00
https://youtu.be/HrnUGjcG_eg

A similar glitch. @0:02
https://youtu.be/sWHEyuteZy0