cRPG

cRPG => Beginner's Help and Guides => Topic started by: Thucydides on April 02, 2011, 09:22:10 am

Title: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Thucydides on April 02, 2011, 09:22:10 am
I've done test using my Masterworked GLA, a Danish GS, a Heavy Great sword, and a LHSM. I found that even though my GLA has one speed point higher than a Danish, and the fact that i have 138 wpf in polearm and 0 in 2h, i find that i can only complete 56 swings per minute compared to a danish's 52. This is not a significant difference considering the wpf i have in both weapons. Also, the heavy great sword completed 54 swings per minute (roughly, more like 53 but i did it in 30 second intervals) while my LHSM did 58. This is a disturbing fact that i've recently noticed while playing with my GLA: even though my speed rating should allow me to be competitive vs other 2Hs, i routinely find myself being unable to retaliate after an initial block even though the opponent was not in an advantageous situation where he could hit before me.

For example, I was playing in the Seige server and i fought Spookisland. He probably had a 18/21 or a 21/18 build and i noticed how FAST he was able to swing his masterwork danish, so fast that he could hit me twice without me able to retaliate. So i picked up his danish to try it out, and to my horror i was actually faster using that danish than my GLA, even with 0 wpf in it.

So 2h have the reach advantage, the speed advantage, and the lolstab. How are polearms suppose to compete against this? Do we have to be that much better to even compete?

as a note, next gen i will be heirlooming a German Greatsword and going a 2H build, i missed my GLA for a long time because it was easy to get kills, but now, i just don't know anymore.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Noble Crassius on April 02, 2011, 09:37:14 am
It's long been known 2hands have a better animations giving them a subtle speed bonus. Your polearm has better length use it!

imo 2h better for duels and 1 on 1 situations polearms=more battlefield variety of uses. Hope this helps!
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Thucydides on April 02, 2011, 09:40:09 am
It's long been known 2hands have a better animations giving them a subtle speed bonus. Your polearm has better length use it!

imo 2h better for duels and 1 on 1 situations polearms=more battlefield variety of uses. Hope this helps!

nope, my GLA is actually shorter than most 2H, especially with lolstab. Only long, unbalanced, or limited weapons have a reach that is longer than a lolstab like the pike, swiss halberd, or long volgue
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Dravic on April 02, 2011, 09:57:43 am
What all of you miss, is:

you test by fighting with air. Test your weapons by fighting with opponent, by swing - block, swing - block.

You will see, how fast your weapon is. Oh, and you will NEVER get 100% accurate info about speed of your weapon, because there is something like stun in this game ;)
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: [ptx] on April 02, 2011, 03:12:09 pm
Maybe you just fail at timing your attacks to maximise your attack speed?
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: kongxinga on April 02, 2011, 06:58:09 pm
There is a hidden 5 speed bonus on 2 handers due to animations. There is also a hidden 22 length nerf on polearms due to the grip. Polearms however can rear up horses. There were a few threads on the taleworlds board that detailed these findings, as well as the relative lengths of each attack. the information was accurate before the big item degradation patch.

For example, 2 hand 'lolstabs" were discovered to be very long, leading some to call the sword of tears the sword of spears, since it was pretty much the best anti cav for all horses but the most armoured. It was so long it was longer than the length bonus from one handed polearm stabs if I recall correctly. I believe only the pike wielded 2 handed and the bamboo spear wielded with shield had a longer but much weaker thrust.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Christo on April 02, 2011, 07:06:41 pm
Aye, that lolstab had a +80 range on thrust attacks.

Current lolstab is shorter, but faster. In a trained lolstabber's hand, it's deadly.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Thucydides on April 02, 2011, 07:24:45 pm
What all of you miss, is:

you test by fighting with air. Test your weapons by fighting with opponent, by swing - block, swing - block.

You will see, how fast your weapon is. Oh, and you will NEVER get 100% accurate info about speed of your weapon, because there is something like stun in this game ;)

except thats exactly how i began to suspect that 2h has a significant speed advantage. My fight with spookisland routinely breaks the attack-block paradigm because hes so much faster than me
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: chief on April 02, 2011, 07:29:52 pm
Anyone else find the fact that wpf makes such little difference in speed scary?
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Christo on April 02, 2011, 07:34:33 pm
Anyone else find the fact that wpf makes such little difference in speed scary?

Scary? No.
Weird? Yes.

Problem is, that the patch Killed specialists. the +5 points in your Melee WPF is about 50 in a ranged type of weapon, or other.
Pure classes like me got nerfed like hell, while the SS/Huscarl/Throwing guys got buff because of this, plus the OP-ness of throwing and the Huscarl/SS combo, but that's another story.

WPF Should mean something, to make specialization viable.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Baldr on April 02, 2011, 07:41:23 pm
I find it strange that I can out spam people on Nanna archer with a 2h (0 WPF) it takes 2-3 hits to kill someone with my longsword and 5-6 arrows (not headshots) to do the same job and I am a archer a agi archer with low PD but still... its strange
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Death_Dealer on April 02, 2011, 09:05:23 pm
Scary? No.
Weird? Yes.

Problem is, that the patch Killed specialists. the +5 points in your Melee WPF is about 50 in a ranged type of weapon, or other.
Pure classes like me got nerfed like hell, while the SS/Huscarl/Throwing guys got buff because of this, plus the OP-ness of throwing and the Huscarl/SS combo, but that's another story.

WPF Should mean something, to make specialization viable.

you are totally right. i was putting all my points in polearm when i start but all wasted. now im thinkin about using pole/xbow/throw lol.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Keshian on April 02, 2011, 09:25:13 pm
No hafted blades and glaives and knobbed maces and elegeant poleaxes are pure spamming material faster than almost all swords.  Youa re just using wrong polearms.  They are faster longer, polearm stun, hit harder, pretty much every advantage except whiff in close wquarters against walls.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: woody on April 02, 2011, 09:32:43 pm
What utter crap.

Try the long hafted spamming stick - I love it.

The great maul is slower than any pole I've used.

Great bardiche is slow - but it should be.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: justme on April 02, 2011, 09:35:08 pm
maybe because of weight of polearsm regardin 2h?
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Zisa on April 02, 2011, 09:47:08 pm
polearms.. slightly easier then 2h.

numbers.. basically you are looking for the placebo effect.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Torp on April 02, 2011, 10:02:23 pm
Polearms are better vs. peasants in battle

2H's are better vs skilled players in duels

That is what i feel, take a polearm if you just want to farm kills on the battle server, but take a 2H if you want to duel with the best.
The sole thing that makes 2H so much better than polearm for that purpose is the lolstab.
It has epic range, crazy animations, super speed and high pierce dmg. There is simply no other attack in this game that matches the lolstab.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Dravic on April 02, 2011, 10:22:27 pm
There is simply no other attack in this game that matches the lolstab.
There is, Torp. Throwing lance with 13 PT. Srsly, I have screens of guy who was great at throwing lances enought to have 5 kills with 5 throws.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Christo on April 02, 2011, 10:30:39 pm
Indeed. Whenever I fight a 2h guy, I feel like the underdog, like I am at a disadvantage.

Basically if I'm not aware, 2h user will start to kite me until I die.. quite frustrating, I say.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Kalam on April 02, 2011, 10:44:09 pm
Try fighting LUBU. Ultimately, I think you'll find that your results will be about the same as it would be against SpookIsland, except you'd have more losses. Does this have anything to do with the weapon?

In part, yes, but you're also discounting timing and ping. Spook has sub 30 ping, last I checked, and LUBU has sub-20 on most days. You've got...what...60-80?

I'm not blaming it on that, that's just one small factor amongst others. For instance, Spook has a tendency to left click faster than most while using his keyboard to avoid your hits, and LUBU combines that with his right clicks. There's dozens of factors in any given fight that lead to the results we see, and your weapon is just one of them.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Thucydides on April 03, 2011, 12:03:37 am
I've fought lubu, i can actually get a decent fight going because i can block his polearm attacks and it ends up as both of us manual blocking and feinting until one of us fucks up or gets taken out by another person (mostly me).

I've fought Dexxtaa as well, and even with a 95 speed bec i can block without breaking the attack block paradigm.

Now when i fight cyranule, with that masterworked LS and AGI, i might as well just drop my weapon because he can spam me for all eternity unless i move into his swings and hope he doesn't recover.

I don't have the same problem with one hander for some reason, since polearm stun gives me a slight advantage if i don't get hit. But once i do they get a free hit because of stun lock. But rarely do they break the hit block paradigm as much as 2hers do.

my ping is 30-70 given the time of day and traffic, so ping is negligable imo
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Thucydides on April 03, 2011, 12:07:58 am
polearms.. slightly easier then 2h.

numbers.. basically you are looking for the placebo effect.

how is it "slightly easier"? I've done a 2h before and the only reason why i didn't like it was because i had to do a dance around shielders. This was before i realized that i can run away from shielders and aviod those situations. Other than that, polearms are inferior to 2h in everything except for specialty weapons and variety.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: CarlSagan on April 03, 2011, 12:48:54 am
Also, if you are relying on WPF/weapon speed to out swing someone, you're doing it wrong. It's about timing, fainting and more importantly, swinging into your killing blows. Swinging into an attack is going to add speed/damage. The trick is fainting this. A good player will be watching for you to swing into an attack and try to use that to their advantage. If you can faint a killing blow (releasing an attack, swinging into it and then blocking to cancel the attack and change direction) and then do something unexpected, you will win duels.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Noble Crassius on April 03, 2011, 01:24:05 am
Ah so this is another why can't I beat X? X's weapons, Y, must be OP WHINE thread. Got it.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Tomas_of_Miles on April 03, 2011, 02:19:36 am
2h feels easier to me... I switch between lots of builds each gen, to be able to be empathetic on the battlefield, and 2h is the strongest melee weapon, the best all rounder. Polearms struck me as teamplay weapons, pike some dude to give him a downblock to think about whilst hes dueling someone... etc.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Felagunda on April 03, 2011, 02:32:46 am
No hafted blades and glaives and knobbed maces and elegant poleaxes are pure spamming material faster than almost all swords.  You are just using wrong polearms.  They are faster longer, polearm stun, hit harder, pretty much every advantage except whiff in close quarters against walls.

and you just listed all the pole arms that people cry about and want to see nerffed

btw I just fought Givi_the_swords_man he was using a 2x long sword in 2 hands.  I was using a 3x long hafted blade.  He has 140 WPF in 2h & 15 Agi.  I have 139 WPF in pole & 12 agi.  Givi trys to overhead me.   I chamber it and before my weapon can even come down on his head he blocked it.  That sir is fucking bs to me.

Anyway I hate to bitch about stuff but w/e.  I am a huge fan of pole arms and always will be.  The stutter they gives kicks ass but what I like the best about them is the versatility of the different types.  To bad pole arms lost the looney toons axe & boulder on a stick though.  At least we still have the pike.  If people would have their way though they wanna make a pike not even overhead swing! WOW!  Some people are just bad right?

Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Zisa on April 03, 2011, 03:02:25 am
how is it "slightly easier"? I've done a 2h before and the only reason why i didn't like it was because i had to do a dance around shielders. This was before i realized that i can run away from shielders and aviod those situations. Other than that, polearms are inferior to 2h in everything except for specialty weapons and variety.
All the good pole axes, i.e. elegant, great axe on a stick, poleaxe, are not unbalanced.
The only 2h anti-shield that is not unbalanced is fighting axe. Oh you want to avoid them? why? who are you actually going to fight then?

I really could not tell you what the numbers mean, they bear no real relationship to comparing the weapons by using them.
I find polearms block better, 2h feignt better.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Thucydides on April 03, 2011, 05:29:01 am
All the good pole axes, i.e. elegant, great axe on a stick, poleaxe, are not unbalanced.
The only 2h anti-shield that is not unbalanced is fighting axe. Oh you want to avoid them? why? who are you actually going to fight then?

I really could not tell you what the numbers mean, they bear no real relationship to comparing the weapons by using them.
I find polearms block better, 2h feignt better.

What does balance matter when you can just get an extra axe on your back to break shields then switch to swords? I find the great axe to be equal to the Axes in the 2h, even though they are unbalanced. I've actually managed to kill people in similar amounts with my sarranid battle axe compared to my great axe, even though my GLA is suppose to be faster and balanced.

I never used the axes as secondary because i was a cheapo when i did my 2h build, because i had no money. Now that i'm caking i don't care much for money so i can actually afford to be strategic rather than simply cheap.

Anyways, this isn't a whine thread. Its a legitimate concern, and frankly the fact that there are two different standards in speed ratings means that polearms are only given a fake sense of equality in speed compared to 2H. Its decieving and should really be addressed in some manner. If something told me that polearms are noticably slower than 2H, irregardless of speed rating, i would have not made this thread.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Zisa on April 03, 2011, 05:57:26 am
What does balance matter when you can just get an extra axe on your back to break shields then switch to swords? I find the great axe to be equal to the Axes in the 2h, even though they are unbalanced. I've actually managed to kill people in similar amounts with my sarranid battle axe compared to my great axe, even though my GLA is suppose to be faster and balanced.

I never used the axes as secondary because i was a cheapo when i did my 2h build, because i had no money. Now that i'm caking i don't care much for money so i can actually afford to be strategic rather than simply cheap.

Anyways, this isn't a whine thread. Its a legitimate concern, and frankly the fact that there are two different standards in speed ratings means that polearms are only given a fake sense of equality in speed compared to 2H. Its decieving and should really be addressed in some manner. If something told me that polearms are noticably slower than 2H, irregardless of speed rating, i would have not made this post.
It matters a lot to people who don't want to carry a lot of well, baggage.

I do not get your last paragraph, and please, do not ever use the non word irregardless ever again. You'll thank me for it later.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Thucydides on April 03, 2011, 06:37:00 am
How do you not get the last paragraph? It is pretty much a summary of what this thread is about.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Zisa on April 03, 2011, 06:39:30 am
How do you not get the last paragraph? It is pretty much a summary of what this thread is about.
Your last sentence totally confuses me.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Thucydides on April 03, 2011, 06:41:26 am
Your last sentence totally confuses me.
replace post with thread, i'll make the edit.

thanks for the grammar check
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Zisa on April 03, 2011, 07:05:55 am
Anyhow, we shall have to agree to disagree, there are certain polearms that seem very fast to me, and some 2handers that seem snail like, regardless [ :) ] of the displayed or advertised weapon speeds. My favourite polearm has a gimp range it seems, as it can pass through opponents without effect at times, though this is kind of common in polearms.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Memento_Mori on April 05, 2011, 06:17:59 pm
btw I just fought Givi_the_swords_man he was using a 2x long sword in 2 hands.  I was using a 3x long hafted blade.  He has 140 WPF in 2h & 15 Agi.  I have 139 WPF in pole & 12 agi.  Givi trys to overhead me.   I chamber it and before my weapon can even come down on his head he blocked it.  That sir is fucking bs to me.

omgz blocked your chamber xD its no special ability to be able to block chambers I mean if you've been chambered the attack is most likely coming in the same direction you just swung unless they're trying something tricky.

I like this thread.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Hannibal on April 05, 2011, 10:07:03 pm
Mori is right about blocking chambers. Thucy, I remember your post about improving from good to very skilled. Next time I see you let's head to duel and I'll help you work out some general and pole specific fighting techniques.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Kophka on April 05, 2011, 11:16:17 pm
Not coming in here to whine, just pointing out the forgotten fact that 2handers really do get an animation increase to speed, (you'll have to check the Warband Bug Tracker, I cba at the moment), and polearms really do get a decrease in length (again it's in the bug tracker somewhere). Both things have been noted, and responded too as "working as intended" or "would break the game to fix".
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: MouthnHoof on April 06, 2011, 05:08:16 pm
The main difference I find between the animation of 2H and poles is the smoothness:
2H animation is much more smooth - the motion is constant and about the same movement rate throughout.
Pole (swing) animation is jumpy - it seems like there is a longer delay between the chamber and release and then faster movement to compensate for that.

The result is about the same total time for continuous swinging, but the polearms animation is more surprising to the defender. When already in the chambered position, the polearm release looks more sudden - the defendeer does not know if the delay is intentional or not. As the polarm user, I find this delay annoying since it always messes up my timing. 2H animation are just more "pleasant" for me and this is the main reason I switched.

The thrust is the opposite - the polearms have a smooth, continuous  thrust while the lolstab is very sudden (and with no delay).
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Konrax on April 06, 2011, 05:17:55 pm
The 2h stab is so fast is made the "lightning fast" 1h stab almost obsolete against 2h users.

Maybe all 2h swords should get a 5 speed reduction to bring them back in line? If it has an inherent bonus that would make weapons like the Katana and Longsword WAY faster then anything in the 1h line.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Keshian on April 06, 2011, 05:24:34 pm
Not coming in here to whine, just pointing out the forgotten fact that 2handers really do get an animation increase to speed, (you'll have to check the Warband Bug Tracker, I cba at the moment), and polearms really do get a decrease in length (again it's in the bug tracker somewhere). Both things have been noted, and responded too as "working as intended" or "would break the game to fix".

Polearms like the bardiches, glaive, hafted baldes actually ahve some extra invisible range because of the curved part of the blade so they actually extend farther than the given range.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Camaris on April 06, 2011, 05:28:04 pm
Tbh Stab is in my opinion a very weak attack if you dont use it right.
Everytime a 2H-User or Polearmuser is coming to me i beg for a stab as his first attack and most of them will do it that way.

Stabs are so easy to chamber that +50% of enemy stabs result in a chamber and oneshot of my enemy because i make and overhead
and crush his head. In addition actually im using a morningstar most of the time which even has no stab itself and i really dont miss it very much.

The fastest weapons ingame which have a useful range to spam are 100% polearms. Tbh my masterwork heavybastard is a spammachine too but
it has a very limited range in comparsion to those.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: WaltF4 on April 06, 2011, 07:25:57 pm
Polearms like the bardiches, glaive, hafted baldes actually ahve some extra invisible range because of the curved part of the blade so they actually extend farther than the given range.

The mesh does not determine what a weapon will hit. You can set some of the Native weapon to 1000+ length if you would like to test this yourself.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Zisa on April 06, 2011, 07:30:18 pm

The mesh does not determine what a weapon will hit. You can set some of the Native weapon to 1000+ length if you would like to test this yourself.
So would setting the coliders to better match the meshes be a good thing?
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Kophka on April 06, 2011, 07:58:41 pm
Polearms like the bardiches, glaive, hafted baldes actually ahve some extra invisible range because of the curved part of the blade so they actually extend farther than the given range.

Actually, I don't think that is quite true. Crappy paint illustration :

(click to show/hide)

I don't see how it makes the attack any longer. It may make it hit before you eyes say it does, but I don't see any added length.

Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Immolarian on April 07, 2011, 11:49:54 am
2h swords always have an advantage over polearms because of the stab animation. /thread
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: El_Infante on April 08, 2011, 04:15:49 am
The "phantom reach" of curved weapons, is due to how hitboxes work.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: WaltF4 on April 08, 2011, 06:05:47 am
Do we know if the weapon colliders are different shapes for weapons of unusual geometries (picks, curved swords, etc.)?
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: MouthnHoof on April 08, 2011, 10:56:53 am
All weapons are treated as if they are a stick with the length of the "reach" parameter coming out of your right palm. The 3D mesh of the weapon in game is independent of the hit detection.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Kafein on April 08, 2011, 07:49:59 pm
So that's probably why axes and bardiches seem shorter than they look like. The collision axis must be in the prolongation of the wooden stick, thus negating the range supposedly added by the size of the blade, if I draw an axe like this :

_
 |
 |

we see that the distance between the lower right corner and the upper left corner should be the range, and it's not.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: kongxinga on April 08, 2011, 07:54:08 pm
Not coming in here to whine, just pointing out the forgotten fact that 2handers really do get an animation increase to speed, (you'll have to check the Warband Bug Tracker, I cba at the moment), and polearms really do get a decrease in length (again it's in the bug tracker somewhere). Both things have been noted, and responded too as "working as intended" or "would break the game to fix".

This is the summary. I like how everyone conveniently forgot that 2 handers have a secret speed bonus from their listed speed of +5 due to animations. It is well known quirk of the engine, and is not really up to debate. Just like how polearms get a hidden decrease of 22 length to their stated book length due to grip.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Gafferjack on April 09, 2011, 04:42:27 am
I like how everyone conveniently forgot that 2 handers have a secret speed bonus from their listed speed of +5 due to animations. It is well known quirk of the engine, and is not really up to debate.

I bought a Bamboo Spear and a Shortened Military Scythe (90 speed weapons) and did overheads for 60 seconds with each of them; they had the same number of completed attacks. Afterwards I bought a Two Handed War Axe (95 speed) and did overheads for 60 seconds; it completed more attacks than the two 90 speed weapons. All in-game variables were constant.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: kongxinga on April 09, 2011, 04:31:30 pm
I bought a Bamboo Spear and a Shortened Military Scythe (90 speed weapons) and did overheads for 60 seconds with each of them; they had the same number of completed attacks. Afterwards I bought a Two Handed War Axe (95 speed) and did overheads for 60 seconds; it completed more attacks than the two 90 speed weapons. All in-game variables were constant.

 Constant if you want them to be. Its hard to test this with overheads by yourself since you might not be releasing it on the same moment. Some hidden bias might creep in since you seem to have a foregone conclusion that values are constant, although the effect is easier to see with side swings.

This is really not up for bringing up personal anecdotes. As kophka pointed out, it is a well known bug/feature. And this bonus does not mean that 2 hand users are less skilled due to reach and speed bonus, because I sincerely believe these bugs/features are known to the balance team, so they make the values with these in mind. Thus all is good as long as you keep these quirks in mind.

That being said, there are a lot of people who are not aware of these bugs/features, as can be seen in this thread. Or in balance threads where we can see people completly forgetting the very obvious -22 length nerf on polearms to justify some broken stats, usually on 2 hands. As in, "my 2 hand may be cheaper, more damaging and quicker, but that polearm is 10 points longer." No it is not, the polearm is 12 points shorter, thus that one item is broken.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Grey on April 09, 2011, 05:19:21 pm
but weapon swing speed control animation speed of the RIGHT HAND

So polearms have much faster speeds than those shown, and the 2h also have this, but I think both 2h and polearms need a huge speed nerf, at least the 2h longer than Longsword. Historically, Longsword was the most effecient and best of all swords used in medieval combat. Note that historically, the longsword is anything sword longer than a broadsword but short enough that it could still be used in 1h if nescesary.

Realistically, the swing speeds listed for polearms and 2h is a joke. Physics of weapon length applied to the speed of the hand have the weapon "tips" travelling muchmuch faster.

There is limited options now to make weapons act like their models, since the ARE all just stick shaped hit meshes. Giving axes and bardiches their blades would make them deadly, but also all "axes" would need a much lower blunt dmg mesh for all hit with the staff of the weapon....2h swords, at least the longest ones, are currently swung at wrist breaking speed aswell, add WPF boni in there....
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Gafferjack on April 09, 2011, 05:47:11 pm
Constant if you want them to be. Its hard to test this with overheads by yourself since you might not be releasing it on the same moment. Some hidden bias might creep in since you seem to have a foregone conclusion that values are constant, although the effect is easier to see with side swings.

That's because the in-game values were constant. (same AGI, same WPF, same STR, same armor on, same weather, same everything.) It's not terribly difficult to test whether or not a particular weapon speed is faster than another, just map a key to the attack function; if you're curious about my times, they were 50 attacks for the 90 speed weapons and 53.5 attacks for the 95 speed two-hander that I used. Now if the "two-handers get +5 speed from animations" theory was correct, wouldn't the 90-speed two-handed weapon be faster than the 90 speed polearm? Or are you saying that it doesn't affect overheads?

This is really not up for bringing up personal anecdotes. As kophka pointed out, it is a well known bug/feature.

Just like one point of Agility giving +0.5% increased attack speed, that was a well-known feature; except it was completely false. You can even look in the bug tracker where they fixed the tooltip.

That being said, there are a lot of people who are not aware of these bugs/features, as can be seen in this thread. Or in balance threads where we can see people completly forgetting the very obvious -22 length nerf on polearms to justify some broken stats, usually on 2 hands.

It's always been my understanding that there's no 'master penalty' for polearms just because of how it's gripped; the weapon length penalty (or bonus, in the case of the polearm thrust) is specific to the animation.

Edit: Fixed typo.
Second Edit: After using a Maul and War Axe (86 speed weapons) in each attack direction for 60 seconds, three times for consistency, I came up with: 48 attacks in each direction, every time.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Sean_Drew on April 09, 2011, 06:37:37 pm
I find it strange that I can out spam people on Nanna archer with a 2h (0 WPF) it takes 2-3 hits to kill someone with my longsword and 5-6 arrows (not headshots) to do the same job and I am a archer a agi archer with low PD but still... its strange

Thats right .... i kill people with my 2h axe , with 0 wpf and power strike 1 in 2 hits , but my strong bow needs more hits even with 9 ( ! ) Power Draw and 124 archery. That´s strange ... i thought about throwing the bow away and run around as 2h with 0 wpf ;-) No .... i don´t , but it´s  a little fit frustrating , that 2h with 0 wpf is equal to bow with 9 power draw and 124 wpf.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Thucydides on April 09, 2011, 08:38:05 pm
but weapon swing speed control animation speed of the RIGHT HAND

So polearms have much faster speeds than those shown, and the 2h also have this, but I think both 2h and polearms need a huge speed nerf, at least the 2h longer than Longsword. Historically, Longsword was the most effecient and best of all swords used in medieval combat. Note that historically, the longsword is anything sword longer than a broadsword but short enough that it could still be used in 1h if nescesary.

Realistically, the swing speeds listed for polearms and 2h is a joke. Physics of weapon length applied to the speed of the hand have the weapon "tips" travelling muchmuch faster.

There is limited options now to make weapons act like their models, since the ARE all just stick shaped hit meshes. Giving axes and bardiches their blades would make them deadly, but also all "axes" would need a much lower blunt dmg mesh for all hit with the staff of the weapon....2h swords, at least the longest ones, are currently swung at wrist breaking speed aswell, add WPF boni in there....

the whole point of this thread is to show that polearms are actually SLOWER than the speed listed.

One handers actually have weapons that equal the length of some high end polearms because of the stab animation. They are also quite faster. That being said, one handers are fairly balanced compared to the 2h/polearm speed difference. If you nerf 2h and polearm anymore, all you'll see would be shielders and range.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: kongxinga on April 09, 2011, 08:51:55 pm
That's because the in-game values were constant. (same AGI, same WPF, same STR, same armor on, same weather, same everything.) It's not terribly difficult to test whether or not a particular weapon speed is faster than another, just map a key to the attack function; if you're curious about my times, they were 50 attacks for the 90 speed weapons and 53.5 attacks for the 95 speed two-hander that I used. Now if the "two-handers get +5 speed from animations" theory was correct, wouldn't the 90-speed two-handed weapon be faster than the 90 speed polearm? Or are you saying that it doesn't affect overheads?

Just like one point of Agility giving +0.5% increased attack speed, that was a well-known feature; except it was completely false. You can even look in the bug tracker where they fixed the tooltip.

It's always been my understanding that there's no 'master penalty' for polearms just because of how it's gripped; the weapon length penalty (or bonus, in the case of the polearm thrust) is specific to the animation.

Edit: Fixed typo.
Second Edit: After using a Maul and War Axe (86 speed weapons) in each attack direction for 60 seconds, three times for consistency, I came up with: 48 attacks in each direction, every time.

So are you saying, sometime recently this +5 stealth speed bonus to 2h was removed? Testing speeds is a lot harder, since the whole spinning mouse thingy may have an effect afaik.

Secondly, as much as I would prefer WYSIWYYG, the stats are definately not WYSIWYG like you are claiming (constants are consistent across classes). An easier and more visible test would be the effective length of the spear versus the spiked shaft. On paper the spear has 130 (iirc) length with the spiked staff 110. So on paper the spear should out range the staff. But try overhanding both weapons with a partner as a target, and the spiked staff will hit first (as effective spear length is -22 for 108). Length is easier to test. If only that old forum post did not disappear, because it was proven, confirmed without a doubt that 2 h had hidden speed bonus. Testing speed is a lot harder than how many attacks per minute.

Yet then, as is now, there were 2 hand users jumping in to defend their weapon, as if a discussion of game mechanics is an attack on their class. Someone would have to shift through all that mess to see if this was fixed. I won't be overly surprised if this was fixed, as the devs have done some sneaky fixes/nerfs in the past before.
Title: Re: Why is 2h faster than Polearms regardless of the speedrating?
Post by: Gafferjack on April 09, 2011, 10:34:15 pm
So are you saying, sometime recently this +5 stealth speed bonus to 2h was removed?

Yes; or it never existed in the first place.

Testing speeds is a lot harder, since the whole spinning mouse thingy may have an effect afaik.

If you're talking about spinslashing, I don't see how that has anything to do with the listed speed stat of a weapon; any weapon that has a left-to-right or right-to-left swing can take advantage of it.

Secondly, as much as I would prefer WYSIWYYG, the stats are definately not WYSIWYG like you are claiming (constants are consistent across classes).

I was only implying this for weapon speed; I'm aware that weapons have different lengths based on their animation. I'd also like to note that the type of weapon you're using is irrelevant for determining their actual length, the only thing that matters is the animation. See the flamberge for an example (3/4 of its attacks use polearm animations).

Testing speed is a lot harder than how many attacks per minute.

The only thing that I could think of that wouldn't be reflected in total attacks per minute would be the time needed to swing a weapon to center versus the time needed to spam another attack. If you had something else in mind, please explain.

If only that old forum post did not disappear, because it was proven, confirmed without a doubt that 2 h had hidden speed bonus.

This (http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?topic=118906.0) is the only thread like that I've been able to find that is similar to what you're talking about; I've never personally seen any definitive testing on either forum explaining that two-handed animations had a hidden speed bonus. The thread also lists the Native weapon animation lengths under Myth #7.