cRPG

cRPG => Suggestions Corner => Topic started by: Strudog on May 16, 2014, 06:45:53 pm

Title: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Strudog on May 16, 2014, 06:45:53 pm
Just a tiny buff please, either speed, or Dmg, the class is rare these days and now cav dominate EU1.

Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Lannistark on May 16, 2014, 07:02:47 pm
Bring back 360º roflcopter with poles.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Strudog on May 16, 2014, 07:22:07 pm
at least you had to be somewhat skilled to use the class.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Macropus on May 16, 2014, 07:22:55 pm
Just a tiny buff please, either speed, or Dmg, the class is rare these days and now cav dominate EU1.
Bring back 360º roflcopter with poles.
Well... that escalated quickly.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Lennu on May 16, 2014, 07:39:12 pm
Good idea imo, even tho I like being the one holding the longest pole on the battlefield most of the time.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: 722_ on May 16, 2014, 07:50:34 pm
the most recent pole thrust changes really seem to have been the last straw with killing off anyone who used these weapons, they just seem to glance way too much now
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: San on May 16, 2014, 08:05:58 pm
If there's an issue with pole thrust, that's not something that changing the stats would do other than alter the internal balance. It's consistent as you trade length for damage, speed, and utility from the pike to the long spear, bamboo spear, long awlpike, ashwood, etc. I believe that cav dominating the server is reason enough to bring one sometimes, assuming its defensive power against cav is still good.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Grumbs on May 16, 2014, 08:12:28 pm
1 hand stab was way too quick with long range and 2 hand stab has been a bit too good. But I don't think they should have just done a straight nerf to all stabs when some stabbing weapons only have 1 or 2 directions.

Maybe if they don't want to change the stabs again they could reduce the movement speed penalty with longer polearms, that might make it glance less
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Strudog on May 17, 2014, 09:21:07 am
If there's an issue with pole thrust, that's not something that changing the stats would do other than alter the internal balance. It's consistent as you trade length for damage, speed, and utility from the pike to the long spear, bamboo spear, long awlpike, ashwood, etc. I believe that cav dominating the server is reason enough to bring one sometimes, assuming its defensive power against cav is still good.

Yes its still a good weapon against cav, but it lost that advantage when most pole arms were buffed to stop cav, considering now pole arms such as the spear can now stop cav, its pretty useless to bring a longs spear for that purpose, considering how bad it has become against infantry.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Macropus on May 17, 2014, 09:46:01 am
Long Bardiche for example, is a much better anti-cav weapon if we consider "anti-cav" as something that kills it instead of just scaring it and keeping cav players away from you.

PS: bought a Pike recently, need to test it.  :twisted:
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Kafein on May 17, 2014, 09:46:54 am
Pikes and long spears are where they should be in terms of anti-inf.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Teeth on May 17, 2014, 09:59:18 am
Honestly the biggest problem with playing Pike and Longspear is the low amount of players and complete lack of cohesion displayed by melee most of the time. You can sort of duel with a Longspear, but with a Pike getting isolated is usually gg. This used to be no problem as you just stick with the group, but these days there often is no group at all. So you are left sticking with 1 or 2 guys which usually are completely oblivious that both their and my performance gets boosted if they help me out and can desert you at any time or go duel 1 person instead of target switching to save me.

The removal of 'pole freeze' and the tightening of the stab sweet spots made Pike a little trickier to play, but I don't mind. It forces me to be on the ball with my timing and play more careful. Most importantly, it made the weapon harder so I can laugh at all the scrubs failing utterly when trying it and bask in the glory of my own ability. Pike is a great weapon still. Longspear when I first tried it after the sweetspots change felt really gimpy, but I have seen Yaroslav facehug stabbing like the old days and after trying it a bit myself it still works fine. You just need to time it a little better.

What did hurt these weapons significantly, at least the Pike, is the gradual speeding up of the game. Many weapons are very fast now and the stab stun has not been adjusted accordingly. Attacking anyone who is within potential reach of attacking you is so risky as I can mostly not block their attack because I get stunned on hitting almost anything. If these weapons need a buff it is a reduction of stun chance or duration in my opinion. Also, the awkward blocking of a low speed weapon could get adjusted if you ask me, I don't really get how it works mechanically, but god I hate blocking with my Pike.

Oh yeah and on the subject of anti-cav, with the removal of low damage rearing a lone pikeman in a field is an easy target for a horseman. Just go in slow to reduce damage of the first hit and then stab him in the face at close reach while he isn't able to rear you or damage you significantly. With the heavy horses around a pike can stop horses yeah, but hardly kill them because apart from the horse stopping hit, it deals fairly low damage.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Gravoth_iii on May 17, 2014, 11:27:15 am
Remove turnrate nerf!
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Molly on May 17, 2014, 12:41:56 pm
I have to say No simply cuz Teeth is ripping apart the whole enemy team with his pike whenever I see him playing as piker.

Based on that I have to say instead: Learn 2 play scubs!  :twisted:
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Grumbs on May 17, 2014, 12:48:58 pm
Good players doing well doesn't = balanced. Need to compare effectiveness to other weapons with average skill levels. A good player can make most stuff look balanced or OP
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Molly on May 17, 2014, 12:57:48 pm
That would mean that you consider the pike a weapon which should work when fighting infantry, maybe even be a proper duel weapon?

That's nonsense in my eyes. There have to be weapons for experts in a niche. Pike should be one of those. I am divided about the longspear.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Grumbs on May 17, 2014, 01:12:46 pm
I'm more bothered about 2d poles and hoplites getting nerfed just because they screwed up with buffing the 1 hand stab so much. Should have just made the 1 hand stab less ridiculous than nerf a whole class of weapons at the same time
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: 722_ on May 17, 2014, 02:30:06 pm
I actually find the the pike is too long for fighting cav, its better for catching unaware players with its reach but once you stop a horse you cant do much. long awlpike and long spear are better for me at least
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Nightmare798 on May 17, 2014, 02:41:48 pm
Good idea imo, even tho I like being the one holding the longest pole on the battlefield most of the time.

Makes you feel like you are totally not overcompensating for something eh?


EDIT: Just fix the block barrier of cav and it will even out.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Elio on May 17, 2014, 03:14:44 pm
Give ability to pike/long spear to couch weapon:

Pike Brace Animation :

Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Relit on May 17, 2014, 03:19:25 pm
I will only comment on the Pike because its all I use:

I agree that the block stun should be looked at a bit, a little pole dancing can save you a bit but having to constantly be aware that sometimes you are going to get hit because the game will not let you block is a bit off-putting to newer pike users. I also think that the blocking on horseback needs some looking at.

the most recent pole thrust changes really seem to have been the last straw with killing off anyone who used these weapons, they just seem to glance way too much now

I have barely noticed any more glancing. I think people were turning a bit too much while stabbing and got used to that style. I think if people would go back to the basics and go for the lower armored parts of the enemy (typically head and foot) they would find more success. Most players have always been swerving around and spinning with the Pike and the recent changes effected those kind of players the most.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Kafein on May 17, 2014, 04:21:59 pm
That would mean that you consider the pike a weapon which should work when fighting infantry, maybe even be a proper duel weapon?

That's nonsense in my eyes. There have to be weapons for experts in a niche. Pike should be one of those. I am divided about the longspear.

This.

I'm more bothered about 2d poles and hoplites getting nerfed just because they screwed up with buffing the 1 hand stab so much. Should have just made the 1 hand stab less ridiculous than nerf a whole class of weapons at the same time

Don't worry, polestabs are still leagues better than anything 1h can achieve since the last nerf. Facehug stab with a 150 length polearm ? No problem. Do that with a 95 length 1h and you'll enjoy a nice bounce. The nominal damage of some very dedicated 1h stabbing swords is better than that of some polearms, but that's not relevant when the time window during which you can use that maximum damage is 3 frames, and anything outside of that window produces pitiful damage and bouncing.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Teeth on May 17, 2014, 06:04:35 pm
Kafein, the point still stands that if you would put as much effort in your 1h stabs as long polearm users put in their face-hug stabs you wouldn't glance either. Polearmers that stab at facehug reach with long weapons practiced stabbing at close reach because they need it. Just because most 1h do not need it and haven't put any effort in learning to do it, does not mean that they can't. 1h stab can stab easily at any reach. 1h stab is fucking great, Kafein, if you disagree l2stab I guess.

I can agree with Relit that the latest change to stab sweetspots did indeed not affect the Pike much, unless you try to do late stabs, which wasn't that effective before anyway. Didn't really have to modify my playstyle at all.

I'm more bothered about 2d poles and hoplites getting nerfed just because they screwed up with buffing the 1 hand stab so much. Should have just made the 1 hand stab less ridiculous than nerf a whole class of weapons at the same time
Hoplite stab has been adjusted together with lance stab since the polearm stab change and is OP as hell, once again.

Give ability to pike/long spear to couch weapon:

Pike Brace Animation :

(click to show/hide)
This would be terrible and you should feel bad for suggesting it, all it takes is one thought about what bracing would accomplish on EU 1 and you can discard the entire idea.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: San on May 17, 2014, 06:22:10 pm
Does the long spear have the same problem with stunned stabs as the pike? If so, increasing the speed wouldn't really help even if the speed is increased to the 70s, then, assuming speed helps with these things.

I do agree that pikes are easier to fight against on (heavy) horse, wasn't sure how many others shared that opinion. This situation occurs mostly when they're isolated, though, since they're still tough if they have a teammate backing them up. Many people, including me, forget at times that horses still have 0 armor at the legs. Pikes still don't have the damage to down most horses by itself, but a pocket military fork would help.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: BlueKnight on May 17, 2014, 06:42:39 pm
Give ability to pike/long spear to couch weapon:

Pike Brace Animation :

Killed by ranged...
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Strudog on May 18, 2014, 10:09:57 am
Does the long spear have the same problem with stunned stabs as the pike? If so, increasing the speed wouldn't really help even if the speed is increased to the 70s, then, assuming speed helps with these things.

I do agree that pikes are easier to fight against on (heavy) horse, wasn't sure how many others shared that opinion. This situation occurs mostly when they're isolated, though, since they're still tough if they have a teammate backing them up. Many people, including me, forget at times that horses still have 0 armor at the legs. Pikes still don't have the damage to down most horses by itself, but a pocket military fork would help.

The Longspear does get stunned sometimes, and its bloody annoying, what i also find that normal stabs against a person tend to bounce more than lol stabbing, i tend to find my self atm at any length i will lol stab because i have a higher chance of not glancing off the player.

Cav have an easy time at the moment for me, reason being that there a very few pikes and longspears and even if they manage to run into one, you need at least two other team mates to bring it down, if not the horse walks away with more than half its HP. Would there be any way of making the Longspear/Pike stab more deadly against horses, more like 1 hitting the horse if it is at full speed and runs into a pike?

Your idea of a pocket military fork is kind of flawed when both of the weapons take up 3 slots and military fork is 2. And plus you should think that the Longspear/Pike should do the job in the first place, something it was designed for IRL.

Also why bring a Longspear or a Pike when weapons like the Military fork and others do exactly the same job but better.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Gurnisson on May 18, 2014, 10:29:11 am
Your idea of a pocket military fork is kind of flawed when both of the weapons take up 3 slots and military fork is 2. And plus you should think that the Longspear/Pike should do the job in the first place, something it was designed for IRL.

Military Fork is 1 slot, not 2. I carried a +3 military fork on the back when I was piking, but very rarely as I found it easier to kill people with the pike in 1v1. :lol:
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Kafein on May 18, 2014, 10:30:25 am
Kafein, the point still stands that if you would put as much effort in your 1h stabs as long polearm users put in their face-hug stabs you wouldn't glance either. Polearmers that stab at facehug reach with long weapons practiced stabbing at close reach because they need it. Just because most 1h do not need it and haven't put any effort in learning to do it, does not mean that they can't. 1h stab can stab easily at any reach. 1h stab is fucking great, Kafein, if you disagree l2stab I guess.

I doubt you have played much 1h stab since the latest sweetspot changes. I don't pretend I'm the authority in 1h stabbing, and it's still fucking great compared to what it was in 2012. However, it got doubly nerfed at its intended role with the sweetspot changes and the start delay. Both nerfs only had a minor impact on other stabbing weapons, which are intended to be good at longer ranges than 1h, and are indeed much better at that.

The problem with the statement
Quote
Kafein, the point still stands that if you would put as much effort in your 1h stabs as long polearm users put in their face-hug stabs you wouldn't glance either.
is that it takes much more effort and accuracy to do that with 1h weapons. The 1h animations stay active and in their sweetspot for just a few milliseconds, all while traveling by far the shortest distance of the three animations. Hence with the kind of lag that we have, turning into them to face an opponent with undefined coordinates is almost a sure miss or glance. Think about your ferret-inspired motion-sickness inducing playstyle and take that to power 11, and you get what it takes to reliably land 1h stabs at close ranges nowadays.

I believe the reason people got so mad at 1h stabs when they were good was that it combined speed with range unheard of for 1h swords. For the first time 1h weapons had effective range reflecting their animations. Now they are back at being shite both up close and far away. Even though now using 1h stabs at maximum range is completely random and particularly infuriating against heavy armor, at least it makes sense. That 1h stabs got so bad at close range however, is just stupid.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Switchtense on May 18, 2014, 03:07:07 pm
I am playing pokey polearm 95% of my time playing, then about 4% 4D polearms, the rest 1h.

When playing 1h I can easily facehug stab, no matter if it is with a 105 reach weapon, or a 95 reach weapon. I just stab the way I do with my polearms. Look up in the sky, then thrust tilt down stabbing the opponent's head most of the time.

Anyway, I guess I am part of the "Average player"-group, rather than someone exceptional such as Teeth or Chase or whatever. So I will toss in my 2 cents.

I am playing Long Spear a lot, used to pike a lot, too, but not anymore really, because facehug stabbing doesn't work with it, unless you jump etc.
But I think duelling with the Long Spear works perfectly fine. Obviously if you go to EU3 and duel someone there it is really tough to win, but when meeting someone on EU1 or EU2 they are easily outplayed cause they think you are an easy kill (Unless the enemy is a very good player)

Long Spear stabbing at facehug range works perfectly fine as well. It is a lot more difficult after the sweetspot change, but still doable after getting used to it.

The only thing that really winds me up about playing Pike or Long Spear is the stun when being blocked or when glancing.
I stab someone, he blocks and there is literally no way for me to block his next hit because I am just stunned.
My footwork is not good enough to just dodge the hit, so especially when the other guy is a str whore I am usually dead, or very close to being dead after he blocks me.

I wouldn't mind if it actually is possible to block a hit after being blocked/glancing when getting the timing right. But so far I have never managed to do so.
If I am just too bad, so that I have never managed to get the timing right, then ignore this one point :D
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: San on May 18, 2014, 03:43:44 pm
Quote
Your idea of a pocket military fork is kind of flawed when both of the weapons take up 3 slots and military fork is 2. And plus you should think that the Longspear/Pike should do the job in the first place, something it was designed for IRL.

If you stop a medium to heavy horse with a pike without the proper support nearby, I doubt you can kill it without having to switch to a more powerful weapon. Stop horse->switch to military fork. That was the only situation I was really focusing on there, since the spear, shortened spear, and quarterstaff would be a more suitable all-around 1 slot weapon against other classes.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Mr.K. on May 18, 2014, 04:14:14 pm
Pikes are quite strong still, I don't see a point in buffing them. As long as you have teammates around, it's really really effective. Combined with heavy armor and lots of IF makes me a tank and is prolly quite frustrating to enemies. Against cavalry, Awlpike has always been the best weapon imo. Enough reach to fight anything but a heavy/great lance and those you can outmaneuver with enough agi, or just block if you fail and that damage... Long Awlpike might actually be even better, but I don't have that one +3 :rolleyes:

Pike is a support weapon and works wonders in that context. 1 on 1 you're pretty much done, unless you're very experienced with the spinjumpstabbing kicking and blocking. Nudges are amazing though, with 30 strength I can throw people five meters back possibly giving me enough room to run to team mates :)

Edit: nerf->buff
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Tydeus on May 18, 2014, 05:26:10 pm
I doubt you have played much 1h stab since the latest sweetspot changes. I don't pretend I'm the authority in 1h stabbing, and it's still fucking great compared to what it was in 2012. However, it got doubly nerfed at its intended role with the sweetspot changes and the start delay. Both nerfs only had a minor impact on other stabbing weapons, which are intended to be good at longer ranges than 1h, and are indeed much better at that.

The problem with the statementis that it takes much more effort and accuracy to do that with 1h weapons. The 1h animations stay active and in their sweetspot for just a few milliseconds, all while traveling by far the shortest distance of the three animations. Hence with the kind of lag that we have, turning into them to face an opponent with undefined coordinates is almost a sure miss or glance. Think about your ferret-inspired motion-sickness inducing playstyle and take that to power 11, and you get what it takes to reliably land 1h stabs at close ranges nowadays.

I believe the reason people got so mad at 1h stabs when they were good was that it combined speed with range unheard of for 1h swords. For the first time 1h weapons had effective range reflecting their animations. Now they are back at being shite both up close and far away. Even though now using 1h stabs at maximum range is completely random and particularly infuriating against heavy armor, at least it makes sense. That 1h stabs got so bad at close range however, is just stupid.
Polearms actually travel the shortest distance.

The second (or perhaps third) part of my thrust change proposal that was passed late last year, was to increase the duration of the 1h and pole thrust's release animation by 100ms (.1 seconds). Two-Handed weapons have had a .7 duration for ages now, while the 1h and pole duration is about .6 seconds. This change would cause the weapons to hit about 5-10ms(before stats get applied)later in the animation, yet widen the duration of the sweetspot by about 20ms, while keeping everything else the same. Sweetspots wouldn't change and you still wouldn't see any hanging thrusts(all the frame data stays the same).

This hasn't been done since I wanted to see whether or not it would even be necessary. Perhaps it would be good for 1h since their weapon speeds are so much higher on average, but for poles, I can't help but blame the animation itself for nearly all the problems it has(from both a user and enemy perspective).
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Turkhammer on May 18, 2014, 07:37:29 pm


Yaroslav facehug stabbing like the old days and after trying it a bit myself it still works fine. You just need to time it a little better.


Why should he be able to facehug stab with a pike or long spear?  That's a mechanic that should be stopped.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Macropus on May 18, 2014, 07:44:26 pm
Why should he be able to facehug stab with a pike or long spear?  That's a mechanic that should be stopped.
He's facehug stabbing,
And this is crazy!
It should be stopped
So ban him maybe.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Switchtense on May 18, 2014, 07:46:09 pm
Why should he be able to facehug stab with a pike or long spear?  That's a mechanic that should be stopped.

Why? Because it is not realistic? About 90% of cRPG is unrealistic.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Turkhammer on May 18, 2014, 08:00:49 pm
Why? Because it is not realistic? About 90% of cRPG is unrealistic.

That's partly a reason for it.  Besides that however it takes away from role diversity in the mod.  Each weapon should have a role and something it's good for.  Allowing a 12 foot spear to fill the role of a 2 foot sword destroys that.  I think that players should be faced with a decision about how they will fight when they choose a weapon.  I don't think all weapons and classes should be able to do all things.  Allowing face hug stabbing with long spears and pikes is an especially egregious example.

Even if your figure of 90% is correct, why would we want to make it 95%?  Why not make it 85%?
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Macropus on May 18, 2014, 08:39:39 pm
That's partly a reason for it.  Besides that however it takes away from role diversity in the mod.  Each weapon should have a role and something it's good for.  Allowing a 12 foot spear to fill the role of a 2 foot sword destroys that.
Long spears don't fulfill the role of swords in any way at all.
And if you think facehug stab is not realistic... You can block this 12 foot spear by just downblocking, don't forget about that.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Turkhammer on May 18, 2014, 08:49:20 pm
Long spears don't fulfill the role of swords in any way at all.
And if you think facehug stab is not realistic... You can block this 12 foot spear by just downblocking, don't forget about that.

Sure they do, at least partially,  if they can stab from 2 feet away. 

Why should a spear man have a range of 1 foot to however long his weapon is?  Doesn't that seem unbalanced versus a one hander who has a much shorter stab range?

I don't have a problem with down blocking a piker, but why should I have to from 1 foot away?

Explain how this mechanic is desirable for the game.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Macropus on May 18, 2014, 08:53:55 pm
Explain how this mechanic is desirable for the game.
Easy: class balancing reason. If you take away this little part of longspear gameplay, this weapon which is already barely used would be completely abandoned.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Turkhammer on May 18, 2014, 09:21:25 pm
Why would that be a problem?  If a weapon doesn't have a role, it shouldn't be on the battlefield. 
I don't think the classes should be balanced.  If a spearman wants to fight up close, let him drop the spear and go to his secondary weapon. 
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Mr.K. on May 18, 2014, 09:37:05 pm
Before someone implements the aformentioned (http://forum.melee.org/suggestions-corner/longspears-and-pikes-need-a-little-love/msg1007721/#msg1007721) brace (couch) animation for pikes and long spears, they will likely stay as they are. Imo it would be great to have the ability for pikemen. You could defend tight spaces and corridors with just a few pikemen representing an actual pikewall formation. And against one pikeman you can still chamber the "couch". The angle or turn speed has to be limited of course not to make it too stong, but it already seems to me that the lance couch has a really slow turn speed, especially with the great lance, so I guess that would be possible.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Teeth on May 18, 2014, 09:48:19 pm
Why would that be a problem?  If a weapon doesn't have a role, it shouldn't be on the battlefield. 
I don't think the classes should be balanced.  If a spearman wants to fight up close, let him drop the spear and go to his secondary weapon. 
Why would you completely remove an extremely important aspect of melee combat historically because longspears can hit closer than they should? In a game where every polearm can hit closer than they should and any stab can hit at face hug reach. A longspear does have a role, it is a support weapon and if you think a longspear offers even remotely as much utility as a 2h up close, you are mad and clearly never tried a longspear yourself. Hitting up close is easily countered with downblock, deals crap damage and requires a lot of effort. Besides, it is extremely hard to fix. The pike can't do it, it can stab straight through objects and teammates instead, yay.

If this is a realism argument then I got a counter for you. The thing about long spears in real life is that they can keep opponents at bay, they are always solid objects able to push and stab. In Warband they are not solid objects and can only stab, something which can be defended against much easier against than in real life as well. As soon as you downblock there is nothing to stop you from facehugging the longspear user. The only reason people use facehug stabbing techniques is because closing in on them is unrealistically easy.

Before someone implements the aformentioned (http://forum.melee.org/suggestions-corner/longspears-and-pikes-need-a-little-love/msg1007721/#msg1007721) brace (couch) animation for pikes and long spears, they will likely stay as they are. Imo it would be great to have the ability for pikemen. You could defend tight spaces and corridors with just a few pikemen representing an actual pikewall formation. And against one pikeman you can still chamber the "couch". The angle or turn speed has to be limited of course not to make it too stong, but it already seems to me that the lance couch has a really slow turn speed, especially with the great lance, so I guess that would be possible.
I literally do not understand how you can see bracing as a useful thing in cRPG. People would just walk around you or shoot you in the face. Why would you willingly abandon all movement to become a wooden stake? For realistic pike use, you should be able to brace it while moving but I don't think the engine supports that kind of hit detection. Thank fuck MBG will.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Mr.K. on May 18, 2014, 10:00:47 pm
I literally do not understand how you can see bracing as a useful thing in cRPG. People would just walk around you or shoot you in the face. Why would you willingly abandon all movement to become a wooden stake? For realistic pike use, you should be able to brace it while moving but I don't think the engine supports that kind of hit detection. Thank fuck MBG will.

It could be useful in some situations like protecting a door on Siege or a small passage/bridge on Battle, with more than one pikeman of course. It shouldn't be the only option for the weapon of course, just an addition, same way as the lances have the option.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Turkhammer on May 18, 2014, 11:29:02 pm
Why would you completely remove an extremely important aspect of melee combat historically because longspears can hit closer than they should? In a game where every polearm can hit closer than they should and any stab can hit at face hug reach. A longspear does have a role, it is a support weapon and if you think a longspear offers even remotely as much utility as a 2h up close, you are mad and clearly never tried a longspear yourself. Hitting up close is easily countered with downblock, deals crap damage and requires a lot of effort. Besides, it is extremely hard to fix. The pike can't do it, it can stab straight through objects and teammates instead, yay.

If this is a realism argument then I got a counter for you. The thing about long spears in real life is that they can keep opponents at bay, they are always solid objects able to push and stab. In Warband they are not solid objects and can only stab, something which can be defended against much easier against than in real life as well. As soon as you downblock there is nothing to stop you from facehugging the longspear user. The only reason people use facehug stabbing techniques is because closing in on them is unrealistically easy.


Well the real problem is that the mod is not made for historicity.   It is made so each individual can be a Paladin. 

I play a hoplite build, so I am familiar with the limitation of the stab vs 2H. 
 
I see your point about not being able to keep people at bay with pikes.  They can never work as intended if people can just walk right past the tips, even if massed.
Does the engine allow for making pikes and spears solid objects?

Note, I never said that spears did not have a role.  I said that in their present form they are allowed to perform the role of short melee weapons in addition to their support role.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Teeth on May 18, 2014, 11:46:47 pm
As far as I know  the engine does not. Even if it does implementing solid spears would create a host of other problems that require a lot of dev attention. Wiggling your camera around with a solid pike, mowing everyone of a wall, lol. This engine has never done any justice to stab based weapons combat and I think we can only hope on new melee combat games for anything better. In that regard I would put my hopes on Melee Battlegrounds rather than Mount and Blade Bannerlord.

Note, I never said that spears did not have a role.  I said that in their present form they are allowed to perform the role of short melee weapons in addition to their support role.
Using that logic a 1h sword can perform a support role in addition to their short melee weapon role because they can support people with their long and accurate stab. Yes, they are crap at supporting compared to a longspear, but a longspear is much more crap at performing as a short melee weapon than a 1h sword. Ah well, the entire discussion is moot anyway as it is too tricky to fix even if desired. So as long as you don't assume a longspear is harmless up close and throw the occasional block in there you should be able to live with it.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: 722_ on May 19, 2014, 12:05:13 am
Pikes are quite strong still, I don't see a point in buffing them. As long as you have teammates around, it's really really effective. Combined with heavy armor and lots of IF makes me a tank and is prolly quite frustrating to enemies. Against cavalry, Awlpike has always been the best weapon imo. Enough reach to fight anything but a heavy/great lance and those you can outmaneuver with enough agi, or just block if you fail and that damage... Long Awlpike might actually be even better, but I don't have that one +3 :rolleyes:

Pike is a support weapon and works wonders in that context. 1 on 1 you're pretty much done, unless you're very experienced with the spinjumpstabbing kicking and blocking. Nudges are amazing though, with 30 strength I can throw people five meters back possibly giving me enough room to run to team mates :)

Edit: nerf->buff


Long awlpike is the perfect anti cav weapon, its long enough to outreach any cavalry weapon unless you mis-judge the attack. if you rear a horse it can do a good amount of damage to it while it is stationary, unlike the pike and longspear. its also very good support weapon for fighting infantry too. the regular awlpike is much better for 1v1 and close combat though and the better option for siege.

long awlpike is the weapon i use and since the thrust changes it glances more at max range which is a little disappointing. the whole point of the weapon for me is the reach. but it still works very well and it could just be my play style that needs to change after using it so much pre patch
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Kafein on May 19, 2014, 12:41:27 am
Polearms actually travel the shortest distance.

That really surprises me. Ever since the turn rate nerf, it feels like polearm stabs connect based on a point that emerges from the hands and goes towards the tip of the weapon as the animation progresses. Facehug stabs that before the change would just not connect, now they do. So there's definitely something happening. The point is that neither high or low range work reliably for 1h, whereas 2h can hit stabs at maximum range with no penalty whatsoever, and polearms can somehow facehug stab better than 1h do (that's my personal experience comparing playing awlpike and LEE mostly). I feel the previous sweetspot values were better balanced and much, much, much more fun.


The second (or perhaps third) part of my thrust change proposal that was passed late last year, was to increase the duration of the 1h and pole thrust's release animation by 100ms (.1 seconds). Two-Handed weapons have had a .7 duration for ages now, while the 1h and pole duration is about .6 seconds. This change would cause the weapons to hit about 5-10ms(before stats get applied)later in the animation, yet widen the duration of the sweetspot by about 20ms, while keeping everything else the same. Sweetspots wouldn't change and you still wouldn't see any hanging thrusts(all the frame data stays the same).

This hasn't been done since I wanted to see whether or not it would even be necessary. Perhaps it would be good for 1h since their weapon speeds are so much higher on average, but for poles, I can't help but blame the animation itself for nearly all the problems it has(from both a user and enemy perspective).

I think that current stabs should be a little bit slower before becoming active. Honestly facehug stabs are definitely too fast when they don't bounce, which is just a buff to armor. But stabs should also be a little bit easier to use once they become active, and not be restricted to such a small time and range window.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Tydeus on May 19, 2014, 01:16:08 am
That really surprises me. Ever since the turn rate nerf, it feels like polearm stabs connect based on a point that emerges from the hands and goes towards the tip of the weapon as the animation progresses. Facehug stabs that before the change would just not connect, now they do. So there's definitely something happening. The point is that neither high or low range work reliably for 1h, whereas 2h can hit stabs at maximum range with no penalty whatsoever, and polearms can somehow facehug stab better than 1h do (that's my personal experience comparing playing awlpike and LEE mostly). I feel the previous sweetspot values were better balanced and much, much, much more fun.


I think that current stabs should be a little bit slower before becoming active. Honestly facehug stabs are definitely too fast when they don't bounce, which is just a buff to armor. But stabs should also be a little bit easier to use once they become active, and not be restricted to such a small time and range window.
The emboldened statement is how it works for all weapons all of the time. A collision "bar" gets extended from the right hand following the orientation of the weapon, with its length being decided by the weapon's 'length' stat. The thing with the polearm thrust, is that the first part of the animation, unlike 2h or 1h, has the weapon hardly moving at all. This causes people to think "he just hasn't released his thrust yet" when in fact, he released .1-.15 seconds ago. So it seems like it's an instant thrust, but it's actually not.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: korppis on May 19, 2014, 09:34:58 pm
The emboldened statement is how it works for all weapons all of the time. A collision "bar" gets extended from the right hand following the orientation of the weapon, with its length being decided by the weapon's 'length' stat. The thing with the polearm thrust, is that the first part of the animation, unlike 2h or 1h, has the weapon hardly moving at all. This causes people to think "he just hasn't released his thrust yet" when in fact, he released .1-.15 seconds ago. So it seems like it's an instant thrust, but it's actually not.

I have much more trouble with instant 1h stabs. Or does it have something to do with how the weapon is held (1h starting up closer or something)?


But about the original topic: If only there was this 'overhead' stab... even if it would be just animation change and still down blockable. The point being that spears should be able to stab past/over friendlie's shoulders without having to lolstab every single time, that's especially not too easy atm. I'd imagine that would make long spears much better support weapon, and shield walls actually usable.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Joseph Porta on May 19, 2014, 11:23:20 pm
They are OK, i do fine with 5 ps. The reason wy no one plays pike is because its boring as fuck to play with, the damage is OK. LONG SPEAR, IMO, COULD USE A DAMAGE BUFF, PLEASE DONT BUFF THE SPEED THOUGH, IT IS a support weapon, theres no reason for it to be viable in 1v1, neither does that make sense for the pike.

The previous roflcopter long spear was a fucking joke, and you are a fucking joke if you deny it was retarded.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Dalfador on May 19, 2014, 11:26:47 pm
1 more damage on both wouldn't be that bad. Maybe 1-2 more speed along with it.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Switchtense on May 19, 2014, 11:42:21 pm
Remove the block-stun, or shorten it, and it would be perfect!

No damage or speed buff needed really.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Gurnisson on May 19, 2014, 11:57:56 pm
The reason wy no one plays pike is because its boring as fuck to play with,

Heresy! It's by far the most fun and challenging class in the game 8-)
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Joseph Porta on May 20, 2014, 12:00:50 am
Heresy! It's by far the most fun and challenging class in the game 8-)

Challenging certainly but it's the patience that I lack :twisted:
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Jack1 on May 20, 2014, 02:44:30 am
First off, I think of polearms in general as specialty weapons that all have a niche to fill. Becs for tight areas were you need to swing, English bills for long ranged combat with more than one direction, awlpikes for murdering horses, and pikes/longspears for long distance warfare along with "you must block down or get hit". In NA I believe polearms are much more viable being that in a 40v40 server there is always a group of 25 on each team that whomp sometime in the round. The way I am hearing it is that EU is mostly skirmishing people, and of course, pikes should not be viable, let alone any polearm, in any skirmishing situation.

An example of pikes being used effectively is on NA a few nights ago when there were about 7 or 8 ravens on. they had 3 pikers, 1 hoplite and the rest strength sheilders with things like heavy battle axes or military sickles.  If you were not blocking down you were getting stabbed, if you were blocking down you got mobbed by fast hard hitting shielders. The situation was helpless and if you got one kill on them you were lucky.

Pikes and longspears get used very well in NA, perhaps you just need to find the right teammates in the server or get your friends to play more cohesively in EU. Pikes, let alone long spears, should be left alone and be kept as-is in my opinion.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Switchtense on May 20, 2014, 12:04:14 pm
You barely see Long Spears or Pikes on EU in general.

As far as I have noticed, Yaroslav, Pikeman and I are the only ones using them regularly. Then a few people like Teeth, Kenda or one or two others I don't know the names of use it every now and then. (Sorry if I forgot someone)

I don't really mind since I hate fighting Pikes and Long Spears in a clusterfuck :D Those weapons don't need any buff at all, all it takes is gettting used to them.

Duelling with a Long Spear takes a lot of effort, with a Pike even more so. And I guess people want it the easy way so they just don't touch them.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: jtobiasm on May 20, 2014, 12:31:34 pm
I've been using the pike for the past 2 days, first time I've ever levelled a melee alt up to 30. The only problem I have is that on eu1 there is 0 teamwork. Big clans like seljuks Mercs eques byz never seem to stick together. Even if there is a commander people don't listen or either bother following a battalion. If there was constant teamwork I think a lot more pikes would be used. I don't think a buff is needed, just more teamwork.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Strudog on May 20, 2014, 12:44:06 pm
You barely see Long Spears or Pikes on EU in general.

As far as I have noticed, Yaroslav, Pikeman and I are the only ones using them regularly. Then a few people like Teeth, Kenda or one or two others I don't know the names of use it every now and then. (Sorry if I forgot someone)

I don't really mind since I hate fighting Pikes and Long Spears in a clusterfuck :D Those weapons don't need any buff at all, all it takes is gettting used to them.

Duelling with a Long Spear takes a lot of effort, with a Pike even more so. And I guess people want it the easy way so they just don't touch them.

I dont think expressed myself properly in the OP, my issue is, that the Pike and Longspear have become somewhat a novelty item, there are much better weapons that do the same job and more.

Take for example the awlpike, does more dmg, better for killing cav, better in melee combat, in ganking situation i would rather have an awlpike.

Another example the Poleaxe.


And i think you get the idea....

There is niche in which the Pike or Longspear fill, it has no individuality, what i would like to see is that the pike can 1 shot horses riding into it  at full speed and so on, something to make it individual and give people a reason to take it.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Mr.K. on May 20, 2014, 12:45:49 pm
I've been using the pike for the past 2 days, first time I've ever levelled a melee alt up to 30. The only problem I have is that on eu1 there is 0 teamwork. Big clans like seljuks Mercs eques byz never seem to stick together. Even if there is a commander people don't listen or either bother following a battalion. If there was constant teamwork I think a lot more pikes would be used. I don't think a buff is needed, just more teamwork.

I fully agree. I've played this gen as a pikeman with one of my pole alts and whenever you get a decent teamwork and you can hide behind your two-handers and shielders, you can easily wreck the whole enemy team with well timed pokes. When the enemies get frustrated, they rage charge you through the lines and after you block them a few times, friends can kill them easily. If every team would have 3-4 pikemen people would quickly notice how valuable they are, but even now it's perfectly viable and imo a lot of fun as long as you try to stick with the main group.

There is niche in which the Pike or Longspear fill, it has no individuality, what i would like to see is that the pike can 1 shot horses riding into it  at full speed and so on, something to make it individual and give people a reason to take it.

Imo the bracing animation could be this individual addition. May not be useful most of the time, but it would be something special.
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Switchtense on May 20, 2014, 12:55:41 pm
I dont think expressed myself properly in the OP, my issue is, that the Pike and Longspear have become somewhat a novelty item, there are much better weapons that do the same job and more.

Take for example the awlpike, does more dmg, better for killing cav, better in melee combat, in ganking situation i would rather have an awlpike.

Another example the Poleaxe.


And i think you get the idea....

There is niche in which the Pike or Longspear fill, it has no individuality, what i would like to see is that the pike can 1 shot horses riding into it  at full speed and so on, something to make it individual and give people a reason to take it.

Well, there are better anti cav weapons, yes. But the length of the Pike and Long Spear make it perfectly viable as an infantry support weapon.
Stand behind your teammates and poke the enemies. You basically cannot get hit if you do it properly.
Also the length makes it really great against cavalry. If a rider charges you from behind and you turn around he obviously tries to dodge you, but with your reach you can still rear him easily if hes using a heavy horse that is not very manoeuvrable. Once he is reared all teammates and their mothers will crawl out of their holes and start ganking him.

I also have often managed to insta kill a rider or his horse using a MW Long Spear with 7 Power Strike. Guess they have not been full health but still.
A damage or speed buff would make everybody use it again which would be too much.

I think it is the way it should be - Either you love it, or you hate it :D
Title: Re: Longspears and Pikes need a little love
Post by: Sniger on May 21, 2014, 10:57:07 pm
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