I have been reading all of these threads closely. Last night, I made a third revision (the second hadn't even gone live yet) to the right swing, based on the feedback found in these threads as well as my own perception in game. While I understand your reasoning, I have to say I still believe you're overreacting due to the fact that, with the right camera orientation, the new animation has the longest effective reach out of any of the 1h right swing animations.
How is this figured? Easy, weapon length is a
static thing that can only be changed by altering the weapon’s Length stat. Since none of the 1h weapons have had their length stat altered, that means effective reach is being decided by orientation, and arm extension. So, weapon length is irrelevant for figuring out the effective length change, just so long as you’re using the same weapon in your comparisons. With that being said, here are images comparing effective lengths.
The longer one you see there, is the new right-to-left animation (the one on the servers right now). This isn't some camera trick, this is what happens when you look for effective length. That is, when you take Geometry into consideration. Just because something is farther forward, doesn't mean it's further away from your point of reference. Meaning, when you're able to turn your camera, the new animation will have significantly longer reach.
Before going further, you should keep in mind that Warband blends between frames. Here are two pictures just to reinforce the point that when the weapon is directly in front, the length is almost identical(if not actually identical).
Still, as explained in another thread, its at the natural(facing your opponent) 2 o'clock/3 o'clock position where the old swing will have longer reach. To counter this, I have lowered the angle of the sword at this frame, as well as
slightly increased the speed of the swing. It will still be the slowest swing, but will make-up for the fact that the older swing was better for hitting (earlier, at the 2-3 o'clock positions). Effective speed should be much, much more similar after the next patch.
