Yup… Those of you who’ve upgraded to the V1.0.5 Taketori Katana have probably already found the bit of debug code I had in there for the benefit of my beta testers, and which I should have taken out before releasing a general update. I know that a few people have already reported (why only a few? What’s up with that?) that when they kill an opponent with the Taketori they heal to 100% no matter how low in health they were during the duel.
Now, in my defense, I’ve got a couple of things to say about that. Firstly, it only works if during the duel you only had one opponent; This is determined by the number of people that attack you from the time you draw the sword until the time you die, and during a free-for-all you only get the standard 25% heal.
While it’s possible to be very careful to only get hit by one opponent in a 3vs3 match or a free-for-all, it’s highly unlikely. It is, however, a definite problem for the King-type matches where one person takes on all comers one at a time, since they’ll heal to 100% after the first opponent (but not thereafter).
Secondly, it has long bothered me that the only way to force an upgrade on users was to upgrade all C:SI weapons so that old versions would no longer work with newer versions, and with all of the talk lately about the Taketori being unbalanced (which I am not at all convinced of, by the way) I decided that this could no longer be the case for my weapons, and put in a "remote disable" feature that allows me to permanently disable any old versions.
Pobody’s nerfect, as this post aptly demonstrates, and there has to be a way for me to be able to distribute new weapons with the confidence that I can fix any balance issues that are discovered and people will upgrade to the newer, more balanced versions rather than simply continuing to use an older version.
THE PLAN
So, what I’m going to do is this: I have already taken out the code that is responsible for the problem, and I’ll work in a couple more update-worthy changes (like the ability to hide and show the tsuba) and will distribute another update in the near future. After that update is released, I will give it a few days and will start to announce reminders that upgrading is mandatory. After a couple of days of such reminders, I will permanently disable version 1.0.5 so that people will no longer have the option to use it.
The updates will still be sent to those who may be on vacation or for whatever other reason have not had a chance to see the announcements, so nobody will get left without an update. In other words, even if you log in six months from now and try to use V1.0.5 you will be sent an upgrade to whatever version is current at that time and the 1.0.5 version will cease functioning.
So, in the meantime, I think that it can be fun and convenient to heal 100% after a duel (remember, that does not work in 3v3 or FFA battles) but don’t get too used to it, because it won’t last long 
12 Comments
The update feature is actually really nice idea and it would neat to see it get implemented by the other devs for their weapons as well.
As with everything else I do, I intend to make sure that it works first, so that I can present a working solution to the other devs. I’ve done it this way in the past, and they are very open to accepting new ideas that way. So, hopefully I can prove it works well
I promised myself to try to not peek in too much on C:SI stuff, but I thought I should follow up that IM I sent about the Taketori.
“…and with all of the talk lately about the Taketori being unbalanced (which I am not at all convinced of, by the way)…”
My nontechnical opinion is the Taketori might be working better than the other 3 makes of katana, in that it responds to user intentions more consistently in varying conditions because of your lag beating thing you did (with the back up signal for all the strikes). At least I think that’s what’s going on *if* its not faster (you said something about having numbers to show it isn’t). That might explain the range of feeling about it; its so well made, and handles so nicely, that even if people with the system sensitivity to tell a difference are less bothered by it because it feels “right”.
The reason that I thought it might still be fast was because of the last time I sparred, with Silver in Bloodlines. I lost the first three while I used a Musashi. I was unable to counter most of the kicks (which is usually an easy thing to do while taking vs a katana) and the follow up slash I couldn’t block. So everything she did was a step ahead. I could tell it was a sword issue right away, so switched to my Taketori. I won the next 2. The difference was very obvious, it was like “oh, that’s how she was doing it”. So point was I couldn’t keep up until I switched to a Taketori, and the difference was really unmistakable.
But again, it might be just that the Taketori was handling better in the lag because of your solution, and the Musashi could not keep up (even though the pace did feel distinctly faster than what I expect in a katana vs katana spar). So if its not faster, it is at the *very least* faster in some conditions relative to a Musashi (and probably the same with an ashes or arch katana).
Much more subjectively, I think it makes a lot of sense for the other developers to do what you have done with their models, since the Taketori does handle so well. It might not make sense to make yours as clunky and inconsistent as the other weapons for the sake of balance, especially when balance has become a marginal concern in the community.
That’s pretty well put
As for the other devs using the same idea… I’m not so sure that it’s been a net positive yet. Or, at least, nothing else I’ve done has generated quite as much polarization. I’ve had some more thoughts on how to make this a bit more solid and less quirky that I want to try out this weekend, and if I’m right it does work correctly then of course I’ll happily share everything with the other devs and evangelize it as much as possible.
But the method used in the Taketori has known quirks, and possibly unknown ones, and until those are resolved I can’t feel perfectly comfortable trying to convince the others to use it. Did that make any sense?
I know you can’t really comment on this… but… why are half of the C:SI devs involved and concerned and the other half totally absent? Like the discussion about problems with the Nagi are approaching their one year anniversary… every responsible sensei in C:SI tells their students to stay away from the duals unless you want to challenge yourself… and there is no indication from either of them that they have any awareness or concern about it. I know you can’t acknowledge this but you and Esprite are the only ones that don’t seem to be completely indifferent and out of touch. (Just had a couple glasses of wine so I’m letting it all out, sorry, lolz).
I agree if, and I do mean if, there is any imbalance with the Tak it’s far less than the Nagi. I just won’t fight against Nagi hardly at all anymore. Any weapon that increases your kick range is definitely a problem. Very unrealistic.
Cian’s latest blog post is : Cast and Crew
I wish I had the code for the nagi so I could verify this. Esprite says the nagi kick range is the same as a katana, lots of people seem to disagree, and I don’t get to see Archanox much to ask him myself (his schedule is worse than mine, haha).
re: nagi kick.
I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s due to the animation. I can slash a kick from a katana and rarely ever miss. I might be late but my aim is fine. On more than one occasion I’ve tried to slash a nagi kick and failed while the nagi user was still able to connect with their kick.
Well I just tried sparring against a Taketori with my Musashi Black Rose. I was able to counterslash just fine. However I could not reliably use a slash-block sqeuence against a kick-slash-block from the Take. My block would simply not beat the Take counterslash very often. Is this a speed issue with the Take? Um…it really reminds me of when i sparred kasumi a long time ago using my HoD against ehr Eternal. Same issue. I could slash her kick but could never get my block up in time to negate her counterslash. WHen she changed to her HoD, I had a mush easier time with the countering and tanking. In this context, I think the speed of the Taketori in the tank is not an issue of balance but one of sword to sword variation.
Additionally, I heard about some kick range testing going on in Bloodlines recently and tried it myself. As was reported to me, I also found that the nagi slash and kick distances were the same as the ranges of the HoD, Black Rose, and Wave. Is this an H4 finding? Makes one wonder.
Well I can guarantee the Nagi has a longer kick range. I was sparring the other day and my opponent could land kicks on me when I could not do the same. I’m not sure which sword I was using it might have been the Dynasty or the Take. Can’t remember though.
Cian’s latest blog post is : Cast and Crew
I’ll look into this as soon as possible
Last I heard Archanox was just insanely busy, but if I can find anything out I’ll send him a notecard or something.
Ok, one last thought on the nagi ranges. Might it change depending on what sim one is in and the version of the physics engine that is running. *puts pinky to mouth like Dr. Evil* I’m starting to get those “the sim you are entering is running a different blah blah blah” meesages on TP again.