Rethinking halfswording
As it stands in cRPG halfswording is underused, underpowered, and altogether underwhelming. You exchange range on the thrust for power, lose both power and range on swings, and lose the overhead completely. Secondly, it uses an entirely different wpf than in primary mode, discouraging use amongst the vast majority of people who actually carry two-handers namely people who invest in two hander proficiency. As it stands, the only reason to halfsword is to perhaps stop a horse.
That's what I see wrong with halfswording. Id like to see if other players agree or disagree with this assessment of its general uselessness more than the response to what I will propose below. With that said, the following are some (probably poorly thought out) ideas to improve halfswording. As a disclaimer, I am a polearmer and am not arguing for the improvement of any equipment I use.
1. Use two hand wpf while halfswording
Encourage use amongst the principle owners of weapons that can be halfsworded; remove the silliness of using polearm wpf for something that is not a polearm
2. Have both right and left swings use a halfswording animation while in that mode (decreased range and damage)
Ensure that the benefits are mitigated by certain disadvantages; make halfswording only beneficial situationally
3. Keep the same halfswording thrust (decreased range, increased damage)
Same reasoning
4. Use Mordhau, striking with the pommel while holding the blade, as the halfswording overhead (greatly decreased damage but using blunt damage type, decreased range).
No overhead makes the weapon feel extremely awkward; makes halfswording versatile at a price
Picture of Mordhau from the Wallerstein fechtbuch
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login5. Remove horse stop stab
Its for polearms and halfswording shouldnt turn your weapon into one. Halfswording was also not used against horses in reality; though thats a lesser argument, I feel that a degree of realism should be applied where possible.
Halfswording was meant for close infighting where full swings were not possible or advantageous and against heavily armored opponents where the added stability of a hand gripping the blade would allow you to more easily penetrate armor (or bash him with the pommel). While historical veracity is not always the best guide for game design in terms of fun or balance, I believe the enumerated changes could enhance both. You would lose the deceptive and smooth two-hander animation, a large amount of range (on all attacks), and damage on anything besides thrust. You would gain the much more obvious but crisper (for lack of a better word) animation of the hands-apart grip, varied damage types (swing-cut, overhead-blunt, thrust-pierce), and a larger sweet-spot relative to the striking surface beyond the leading hand (though not to the entire weapon).
Some separate musings about the system Ive proposed that Im not sold on.
Use the ability to halfsword to differentiate between similar weapons (e.g. Great Sword can halfsword while Heavy Great Sword cant). Maybe increase the price of the one that can.
Make one of an exceedingly similar pair of two-handers halfsword exclusively.
Introduce a couple new two-handers that halfsword exclusively, while removing halfswording from all or most of the old ones.
Remove halfswording from a bunch of weapons that currently have it (Sword of War, Heavy Great Sword, etc.).
Give Mordhau knockdown. Mordhau would already hugely decreases range and damage with the only benefit of blunt damage-type. Possibly overpowered, though.
The Mordhau animation might be very difficult (maybe even impossible) to make. If so, replace with a regular overhead or a shortened halfsworded overhead (not sure how realistic this is).
Ignore everything I wrote and remove halfswording as a separate mode and just have some more swords use the halfswording thrust animation normally, like the Langes Messer and Flamberge do.
Anyway, just some thoughts. Id love to hear yours on the subject.
