As some of you are already aware, I’ve been working heavily on a new weapon lately (pictured at right). What I haven’t mentioned much is that my intention is to make it a dual-wield weapon, and I expect there will be a very mixed reaction from the community about that.
I know there are a lot of people out there that dislike dual-wield weapons for one reason or another, and I had originally planned to present some thoughts on the various issues regarding dual-wield that had been rolling around inside by brainpan for a while now, but I had the unfortunate luck to wake up this morning with a headache the size of Texas. I really don’t feel like trying to write something interesting when the simple act of writing what I’ve already written thus far makes my head feel like it’s full of broken glass and mud 
What I’d like to do instead is ask you about your thoughts on dual-wield weapons. I’ve heard many widely differing opinions, some wildly enthusiastic and positive, and some strongly negative. Certainly balance is one of the biggest issues with weapons that are significantly different than a standard katana, and I know that some of you have put a great deal of thought and testing into determining whether each weapon is balanced, and why or why not (hi Kasumi!).
Whatever your preferred fighting style, whether you are a toe-to-toe tanker or a surgical-strike-and-move fighter, if you have an opinion you’d like to share about potential pitfalls I should try to avoid, or thoughts about what makes a dual-wield weapon great, etc., I’d love to hear it. Feel free as always to leave a comment here on the blog, or send me an IM or notecard in-world any time.
19 Comments
Muahahahaha! *cracks knuckles* Did you know that it’s been almost a year since a new weapon has been out? In August the Ronin was released… Will YOU, Takuan, be the one to hear the cries of the forgotten?! Dun. Dun! DUNNNN! lol ANYwho! The one thing I do remember about the dual katanas is that people were saying that you don’t get the damage equal to two katanas. Which would make sense. You do have TWO katanas. I do like Ayame’s special for her katanas. It’s my fav in a large FFA or KOTH. I know Moondance is real good with the Suzumi Naru Shi too. As for the BD’s? Yeah, ask Malachi about those. He’s a demon with them. lol :3 Good luck Takuan!
BTW! I’ve seen the full blade and it looks smexy! >:)
This particular weapon is a kodachi, rather than a katana
I know there’s going to have to be a compromise between speed and damage, and I’m working on animations now, so I’m really hoping to get some great feedback on those!
I thought the Kodachi was a single handed weapon?
Right, it’s a lot like a wakizashi in the sense that it’s smaller than a katana and is wielded with one hand.
What I meant was that, I thought you use the kodachi by itself. Not like, dual kodachis. You should make a katana with a wakizashi combo next time.
No…. That would take two years! lol jk jk :p :3
Oh, okay, gotcha. Yes, you *could* use a single kodachi, but why would you when you have two of them
I’ve been meaning to make a dual-wield weapon for over a year now. I’ve been putting it off, but I really do want to stretch my animating muscles a bit.
I would like to finish my jian next, but I just haven’t been very inspired to work on it lately. I know it would be popular, and I’m sure it would be fun to use, but…
ok, I want someone to explain to me way the dual katanas are hardly used and the BloodDrinkers (BD) are seen alot? I know that the BD’s have a lot of prims and some think that is one of the reasons it used, to lag your opponent? Or is it becuause the BD’s have the extra movement in them that make them popular? My understand of the two weapons is the speed, damage and the double stamina strikes are the same but what makes one more popular than the other, besides the prims, extra movement … oh, and the special!
Julie
I think part of it is just people tend to buy weapons because they see others using them. So everyone sees people using blood drinkers and no one using the dual katanas and they buy the blood drinkers. Why was it like that in the first place, though? I remember when Ayame’s dual katanas first came out, everyone bought them. They could drain your opponents stamina really quickly, and they soon were branded as unbalanced and a cheat. As a result, people stopped using them. I think Ayame updated them to fix that problem, but they never really got popular again.
Nope, the dual katanas still do the same stamina drain as a katana and since there are two of them, it double stamina drain. I think every new weapon that I have seen in the last 2 years is branded as a cheat when it first comes out. Look at the thread on the Ninjaken for example, once the darling … anyone could win using it, was the comment. Now.. no one does. Or hardly does.
Even today, I heard someone say the kick on the Tak has a longer range than any other katana?? WTF? What’s up with that?
Anyways, I’m straying off topic. I dont think the BD’s are new anymore and they are still popular. I will uses them when someone pulls out the Ninjaken for example. Since there is no really tools to measure balance, perhaps that is what we need becuase everything else is speculation is my point.
Julie
It’s true that every new weapon is called unbalanced by someone, and often by quite a few people. In some cases, it’s even true
Those comments really underscore the importance of the first impression, and how it’s critical to do our best to release the most balanced version as possible from the get-go. This is not so easy, as I’m sure you can imagine, but we do at least try
One thought I’ve had regarding my new dual-wield is that I don’t really want to make it faster. I already think that C:SI weapon speeds are too fast, pretty much across the board except for the naginata, and it’s incredibly difficult for an amateur animator such as myself to make a decent-looking animation that looks like a full attack in the amount of time allotted.
I also don’t want to mess with the amount of damage caused, if I can avoid it. I sort of see changing either the speed *or* the damage as a magnet for headaches. Since I don’t get the kind of regular fighting experience that many C:SI fighters do, and probably never will, it’s almost certain that I’m going to miss something critical and release the new ‘newb weapon’ or have it be woefully inadequate compared to… Well, something.
In addition, I’ve never been a ‘tanker’, so I don’t make weapons targeted for tanking. To be honest, I’ve never liked that fighting style, as it seems very static and nearly turn-based among evenly-matched fighters. It’s just not as fun for me, though I know that it is the most popular and prevalent fighting style around.
Because of this, I often seem to underestimate the importance of the ‘first strike’ speed, or the ‘block to strike’ speed, or the ‘strike to block’ speed. You get my point, I’m sure.
So my current thinking, which I have yet to test in practice, is that all of the first-level attacks will be the same speed and damage as a standard katana. This should, I hope, enable these weapons to work very similar to a standard katana when it comes to all of those things I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
I might play around with the second-level and third-level attacks more, but I understand that those first-level attacks can be absolutely critical, and that’s probably where I’m in the most danger of botching things up if I try to get creative.
Does that sound logical?
As I understand it, the Ninjaken first attack is not faster than a regular katana and the second attack is where the speed is. Or at least that is what Esprite told me when it first came out. I would suggest you talk to him to confirm it.
Julie
Oh man! I’m so commenting… Just not now… It’s 5:35AM and I am so going to sleep for a while. XD BBL! dun dun dunnnnn! lol
I’m awake! lol
Reasons why BDs are more popular than Duals:
1. It’s a Musashi Blade. Vets have always had a problem with Ayame never addressing the jump slash issue. I’ve asked her about it and she basically feels that since the jump slash isn’t supposed to be part of the weapon, it doesn’t need fixing. (BTW I’m not in any way or fashion “bashing” on Ayame’s weapons. I happen to like, and use, the duals in FFAs.)
2. The BD’s are different. What I mean is, everyone uses katanas. Having two is cool but they’re katanas. The are no other weapons that look like the BDs.
3. They’re NOT Japanese. I think they’re Middle Eastern.
That’s my top three! There are some other reasons why I think people would like the BDs over Duals but, I think three is enough. :3
Progress update: I’ve got the ready pose, the draw and sheath (back-mounted) anims, one of the kicks, and six of the attack anims done. Well, at least for the first iteration, though they will almost certainly need tweaking once testing begins.
I still have six more attack anims, the blocking pose, draw and sheath from hip, and the special attack. I’m not going to wait for the special attack to be done before I allow BETA testing to start, though. With that one I want to try out several ideas I’ve had, and I don’t want to feel rushed.
Then I plan on using the Wave Katana script for the base code, and tweaking it to match the new weapon. I’ve thought a lot about this, and I’ve decided that the Taketori codebase is a dead end in it’s current state, and will probably not be used on future weapons unless I find a way to address what I feel are fatal flaws in the design.
I think that at this point it’s realistic to say that it will not be less than two weeks before I have a usable BETA version, though I will of course make every effort to get to that point as soon as I possibly can.
I don’t really think you can categorize the BD into a certain country or region. I’m not aware of any culture that’s ever had blades which absorbed the life force of the people it was used against
lol Colin, you haven’t?! Surely you’ve heard of the famed Mahad Durage? It is said to be a set of daggers that would suck the life energy out of it’s victims! Much like a vampires! O_O! lol
The only weapon I know of that can suck life energy is marriage.
and ex-boyfriends