Here is the announced video:
The Espada thrusts would have all hit or dealt significantly more damage before the turn rate nerf. That was what made this weapon interesting and tricky to use. The overheads I used in the video aren't very well timed and look weird, which is probably because of the artificial situation of a completely stationary enemy. It is still obvious that the weapon is much much much much faster than the maximum turn rate of the character. It makes sense to move an arm faster than the whole body, but in real life, you can move your arm however you want, and in Warband, only in 4 different ways. A faster turn rate for swashbucklers who do not restrict their movement with a shield or a large weapon makes sense, in my opinion, and it would compensate the limited attack directions with a more responsive camera. The point of the right swings, which hit Patoson but glance, or barely miss, is to show that the right swing is still, even with the new animation, an attack that requires good aim and timing when you do not want to glance (especially with a weapon like Espada). Good aim and timing are impossible when the right swing is started from afar and the turn rate is low, which makes the right swing another attack of situational use for swashbucklers: Perform it only when you have the enemy centered on your screen, but do not try to get any tricky timing done.
The Hand Axe part looks really ridiculous, and it seems like I am missing on purpose, but I am not. With such a weapon, it should not be impossible to move fast and hit swings from a far angle, because this weapon is fast, compact and light, and it should allow better movement than a greatsword or an awlpike, for example. Even though my character is standing directly next to Patoson, it is sometimes impossible to turn to him fast enough to hit with the Axe. Similar with the Knife.
Allow me a weird comparison: cRPG characters behave like a StuG III casemate:
In regards to armoured fighting vehicles, casemate design refers to vehicles that have their main gun mounted directly within the hull and lack the rotating turret commonly associated with tanks. Such a design generally makes the vehicle mechanically simpler in design, less costly in construction, lighter in weight and lower in profile. The saved weight can be used to mount a heavier, more powerful gun or alternatively increase the vehicle's armour protection in comparison to regular, turreted tanks. However, in combat the crew has to rotate the entire vehicle if an enemy target presents itself outside of the vehicle's limited gun traverse arc. This can prove very disadvantageous in combat situations with no clearly drawn front line.
If they had the agility of a shifting dune, I would not mind. But you
can have builds with fast running speed, fast weapons and high wpf, without a shield or large weapon to restrict your movement, and you
still can not even land hits that require more than a tad bit of turning.
P.S.: Sankyu Patoson for volunteering your time and your bandwith
