Weapons are being revamped in AO. This is very much needed, since right now they just aren’t viable in pvp or pve for that matter.
Now, currently, nothing has been announced as to what the revamp would entail. I’m sure that Vetex has an idea of what he wants to do with weapons, but I’d like to put forward some of my ideas for the revamp and how I think the revamp as a whole might work. Please note that I am using the ancient art of inferring, meaning that I don’t know for sure how some things might work, but I am taking my best guess as to how they will.
And hey, if this stuff is already planned, then cool! If not, then also cool! If anything, this will just be a nice little idea that may or may not be overshadowed by another.
One last thing, this is gonna be a long one. So grab a snack or something. Or some water. Or that Easter chocolate that you have stashed away somewhere, I know you still have some shoved into your secret hiding space in your room. Don’t lie to me.
Part one, regular melee attacks
One thing that currently makes weapons next to useless is the fact that you cannot hit anyone, because your weapon swings have a very small hitbox and your opponent is usually in the air. I propose to fix this by having your character dash forwards slightly every time you swing. This could even propel you midair. In essence, air stalling that moves you forwards slightly.
Now, you might be asking: “But Robin! Air stalling is a big ol’ issue in pvp! Remember AA?”
If it really is a big issue (I wouldn’t know because I’m not much of a pvper, I just know the basics). Then I have a solution!
Every weapon will have this little thing called a ‘combo’ stat. Now, the combo stat will determine how many times a weapon can use it’s basic light attack before it starts a ‘cooldown’ phase. In the cooldown phase, your weapon’s light attack will no longer be able to air stall or propel you forwards. This will limit air stalling and prevent excessive spam.
Btw, I may have stolen/reworked this idea from this wonderful suggestion.
Massive Weapon Combat Changes
But Vetex commented on this, and his main concern with this specific part was that it would cause air stalling. The combo stat should (In theory) fix this. The combo stat will also help with managing the slight stun (Also mentioned in the suggestion linked above). Oh yeah, your weapon also won’t be able to stun when it is in it’s ‘cooldown’ phase
Now, you’re probably thinking: “But Robin! How will the combo stat work?”
I’m glad that you (presumably) asked! The combo stat is actually really simple! Each combo stat point will allow you to attack one additional time. Now, weapons may have more or less combo stat points that others, for example, daggers would have a higher combo stat than a greatsword. Because they are lighter and easier to wield. The combo stat would be a very small stat. You wouldn’t get many extra combo stat points, since you could easily stun lock and air stall to your heart’s content if you had a large amount of combo stat points. Thus, combo stat points will be few. You can get slightly more combo stats by: using lighter weapons, upgrading your weapon (Extra combo points will pop up on occasion), and progressing in the weapon stat (As mentioned on the trello. Again, combo points will only pop up occasionally at Vetex’s disclosure, I cannot stress that enough).
Now, I’m sure that you’ve all just realized the very same thing that I have: “What if we switch between weapons while one weapon in partway or all the way on cooldown?”
Well, much like high jumps. If one melee weapon is on cooldown, then they all are! Please note, that the cooldown doesn’t apply to weapon skills. Those are different. If one melee weapone is partly on cooldown (I.E you’ve used 1 out of it’s three combo points), then the rest of your melee weapons will be on full cooldown (As if you’ve used all of their combo points) and they will not come off cooldown until your first weapon has fully recharged. Please note, that your weapon’s combo points will recharge very quickly once you stop attacking, and you’ve hit the ground.
Oh, and one more thing for part one. When dashing forward with any melee attack (Including the heavy attacks in part two), if you dash vertically instead of horizontally (There could be a function that checks whether you’re aiming past a certain threshold to determine what counts as ‘upward vertical’ or ‘horizontal’ dashing) then the distance that you travel will be significantly reduced. Y’know, to prevent you from flying upwards.
Part two, Heavy attacks
Heavy attacks should be fairly simple compared to part one. A heavy attack will propel you forward a lot more than light attacks, but you can only use a heavy attack once before it goes into the same ‘cooldown’ that light attacks go into. Meaning that you can no longer dash forwards with them until the cooldown elapses.
Part three, Ranged weapons
Bows are currently useless. That is fact, but I may have a solution to fix this issue. Bows and other ranged weapons will not (in my mind) have a combo stat. Instead, I’m asking that we buff bows and other ranged weapons by giving them a bit more damage and by allowing us to move while we shoot them. However, if ranged weapons get skills like melee weapons do, then we may not move while using special skills. Only when using regular shots will we be able to move while attacking.
@NoBanana made a very good point. They pointed out that you could just fire attacks over your shoulder with a bow while you run away. To fix this, they suggested that using a bow should slow you down a little bit so that you can’t run away easily, which I think is an excellent idea.
Okay, I think that’s it. If you have any questions, then feel free to ask them in the replies. Like I briefly mentioned in part one, I’m a dumbass that can’t realize if something’s overpowered or not. So feel free to point out anything I missed or anything that I explained poorly, Because I don’t want a repeat of that one alignment suggestion I made.