Just wanted to talk a little about the progress on the new sword, which has been "under development" for far too long…
This sword has taken me far longer than any previous weapon I’ve made, for a number of reasons. Probably foremost is the fact that I’ve just not had the time to devote to getting it done faster, but other reasons include the fact that I had decided that this new weapon absolutely required new animations.
Since I made the Wave Katana I’ve learned quite a bit about creating Second Life® animations, and I felt that I could do a far better job this time around. Previously I had tried to give a more "real-life" feel to my animations, which were inspired by my own real-life study of kenjutsu, but the animations I ended up with didn’t really convey the dynamism that such simplistic and direct movements have when performed by a real-life master such as my former instructors (or this guy).
This time around, I thought that it would be good to exaggerate the movements and make them more "Hollywood-style", which I hoped would convey more of a feeling of power and speed. While I still have a great deal to learn about animating and am far from an expert (hey, animations are hard to do well), I’m fairly pleased with the anims I’ve got this time around, and it’s very gratifying to me to be receiving so many compliments on them.
Another thing I’ve done this time around is spend a great deal of time playing with the control code, perhaps even too much time. I’ve tried a few other melee combat systems in Second Life, and while C:SI is already the most dynamic and responsive in my opinion, I just really wanted to try out some ideas to see if I could get a more consistent responsiveness profile across a wider range of sim conditions. It’s still kind of unproven whether I’ve achieved anything worthwhile in this area, but those people who are beta testing have good things to say for the most part.
Making most of the weapon out of sculpted prims didn’t help it get done any faster either, of course. This sword was my opportunity to really see where I can go with Second Life’s new sculpted prim type, and although I’m far from an expert 3D modeller, I think I’ve managed to do a few things on this sword that I’m pretty proud of.
So what’s left before I can put it on the market? There are several things that still need to be done, here’s what comes to mind right away:
CRITICAL ISSUES/TASKS
- Fix the "kick bug". Linden Lab has thus far not been helpful in resolving the issue with Havok 4 breaking the push on kicks, so I guess we’ll need to explore this ourselves to make up for the lack of assistance or relevant information.
- Figure out just what I’m going to use for the special attack on this blade. I’ve had several ideas banging around in my brain, it’s time to settle on one of them and get it done.
- The customization code needs to be heavily tweaked for this new weapon, and it’s possible I’ll have to redo some textures to make them more "colorizable".
- Create an update server. This is pretty easy, but is necessary before putting anything out.
"NICE TO HAVE" FEATURES
- I would like to be able to resolve the problems with the block-rolls and moving slashes, and have made some progress in this area.
- Better drawing/sheathing animations. The ones for the Wave are just not good enough, but it’s not absolutely necessary to do this, could change them in a future update.
- I would love to do a new product box. Mine are the plainest in C:SI, and I’d love to do something more imaginative than what I have, but again this is not a "must have".
- I’m sure there are at least another 50 things I can put here, but it’s taken me too long to write this post and my RL boss just called
This is probably a good time for me to point out that the prototype that people have been using is NOT an update to the Wave, but rather is the anims and scripts for the new sword in a Wave body just to make it quicker and easier to get a prototype out to testers. The final product will be an entirely NEW sword and new product, not an update to the Wave. I’ve had some people recently buy a Wave thinking that they are seeing my testers using an update about to be released, and it’s an entirely different product.
I have moved the existing scripts and animations over to the new sword and sheath builds this morning, and everything appears to be working correctly. Those of you who are beta-testing the prototype and are providing me with regular feedback can expect to receive a new sword sometime in the very near future.
It’s coming, I promise
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Woooooo! Awesome! I can’t wait to try it out! Yah, lots of people have asked me what blade I’m using when I’m testing the beta and I’ve been *very* careful to let them know that it looks like a Wave and smells like a Wave but *isn’t* a Wave. Like…I’ll even put my Wave on to show them the difference. xD
And as far as the special…how about a shower of splintered bamboo pieces or tiny gold nuggets? LOL
But yah keep up the awesome work but don’t let it get in the way of RL! Cuz we love you but don’t stress over getting us our new toys! xD *hugz*
Aimee Congrejo’s latest blog post is : Leaving Yakuza and going clanless for a while
Robby,
Anything worth whiled takes time. There is no rush here. I think Aimee has some good suggestions. The Taketori Katana takes it shape from the bend seen in bamboo trees. The color of a bamboo forest is green but the Japanese call the color “Blue”, meaning immature and new. The color green has very little importance in Japanese life. So anything that is called young is Blue. So you may want to start with that color for the sword hilt. I know that traditionally its black but if you do a history card with the katana, it may be something kool!
I like the bamboo pieces that Aimee suggested for the special, but I’m not sure how the gold nuggets fit in?? I like the idea of a bunch a bamboo knifes shooting out!! I was wondering if there is a way to make the special jagged cracks at ground level but I am concerned about what happens when someone initiates it in mid-air.
Anyways, JulieAnne waits patiently for new sword!
The nuggets of gold come from the story that (sorta) inspired the katana, the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter :
I am, of course, hoping to find a nugget of gold in this sword, lol. Okay, not really, though I *am* hoping that it’s popular and sells well
Then sign in, you silly
You have one waiting for you as well.
This is just the very first attempt at adding everything to the new sword build, and it’s far from done (as I said above), but testing to make sure I didn’t screw things up is absolutely critical before proceeding further.
Well the day before the H4 rollout, I was set to send my opinion about the block rolls. I kept getting the rolls when I wanted to counterslash off of my block. Apparently even though I was releasing my finger off the block before depressing the slash, I was still rolling at my opponent, who was like, dude, why are you rolling at my kicks? lol. It’s the same feeling I get when I win a spar on a slash and I back up to give the opponent some space, and I accicentally kick em when they’re down. (BTW this happens so often people are now like, “Don’t bother apologizing, s’okay.”) BUT!!! First time I tried the prototype in H4, I found that the rolls were more controlled…and I have 20083161900…a relatively old version. I could counterslash when I wanted to and not roll!! I have no idea if this matters, but that infamous Musashi jumpslash “bug,” wherein one gets stuck on the ground when attempting to jump-attack, and then springs into the air after the release of the mouse button, is also better in H4. I’m not sure by incorportating H4, that somehow SL is able to more quickly recognize when a button is or is not depressed. But, my one big criticism of the protoype was solved in my hands by the H4 rollout. GO figure!!! Regardless, great job Robby.
Hmmm, I like visions of wind thruogh a bamboo forest. Perhaps a swirl of wind around the special-user with bamboo leaves and wind gusts flying at the opponent? Keeping in the elemental theme of the sword I think.
I’d love to be able to do something like that, unfortunately it is very hard to do a decent wind without post-processing, but it’s something to consider
I’m so happy now! Our sim is coming very soon. You’re coming out with your sword. (Swords? Remember? *wink wink*)You’re working on the kick. All is well with C:SI> XD I read the story about the bamboo cutter and agree with the special being a bamboo related attack. Maybe one day the special can be a defensive special instead? But, yeah, a bunch of bamboo splinters and leaves flying towards your opponent sounds awesome. Oh, and about the gold nuggets… WTHeck?! lol Maybe butt nuggets flying out your rear? XD Sorry Aimee! :p
How about a compromise, and have gold nuggets flying out of Aimee’s rear?
So far I love Taketori Katana 2008-04-03! Beautiful! Like right down to the belt hook and the fuzzy padding inside the sheath! xD And in high quality mode zooming in and out doesn’t do anything weird like you mentioned a while ago about how the woven wraps on the hilt would get weird. In low quality mode tho the woven wraps sometimes disappear and reappear when zooming.
And it’s shorter! Some blades look almost as long as I am tall when I’m wearing them. LOL The shorter sheath fits the Aimee better! LOL
But like I gotta bash on it a *lot* more to see if I can find any issues. Cuz H4 changed *everything* and has changed my style. Only two things kinda stand out from the spars I did last nite…
First, gesture channels. I like the style of wearing two blades and usually wear Wave and Cursed. When I wore both the Wave and Taketori sheaths the Wave gestures sheathed and unsheathed *both* blades at the same time. So like maybe change the Taketori channel so you can wear both Wave and Taketori and still have the gestures work for each?
Next, running double jump is still borked but you know about that already. xD
But Kasumi brought up a concern last nite about the speed of the Taketori. She said that W slash to block was way too fast cuz she couldn’t outtank it with a counterslash and it was Ninjaken or Blood Drinker speed. But…is that a bad thing? Taketori is shorter than Wave and Cursed so is it a light blade? Cuz I hear people classing blades as light, medium, and heavy now.
Aimee Congrejo’s latest blog post is : Leaving Yakuza and going clanless for a while
Woahwhatnow about my rear? ROFL
Aimee Congrejo’s latest blog post is : Leaving Yakuza and going clanless for a while
“W slash to block was way too fast cuz she couldn’t outtank it with a counterslash…is that a bad thing?”
Yes I think it’s a very bad thing. With H4 dampening the aerial tactics, tanking and countering is foremost strategy remaining relatively unchanged from H1. If the Taketori slash to block does not allow for reasonable counterslash, then you have an imbalance. Read this as *dramatically reduced chance to return equivalent damage.* This was hard enough with the Wave, but one could get used to it. If the Taketori slash anim is even shorter than that of the Wave, then we’re pushing the limits of the opponent reaction time, as was sort of discussed with a previous post here.
This is the problem with the Drinkers and with the Ninjaken, but more so the Drinkers. True, this does change the way in which we will spar. But lots of people now refuse to spar against BDs or Ninjakens with a kat. Seems many people are happy to go BD vs BD. We’ll have to see in post-release testing. I’m really encouraged by the fact that Robby listens and responds to user opinions. We’ll have to see what happens in the wash.
Ahas lemme expand on my thought bubble a little bit. xD I meant that *if* Taketori is a lighter blade, does it do less damage with faster hits and a faster block. xD Don’t wanna start a tangent of something that’s been discussed just bringing up what Kasumi said. ^_^
*But* Kasumi and I were testing tanking and counterslashing last nite and an interesting thing is I was fast enuf on the keys to get back into block and she was fast enuf on the keys to counterslash that we got the wrong sound bug like half a dozen or a dozen times.
I’d W slash then *immediately* block. She’d counterslash. I’d see the bloodspray and hear the squlorch sound but I’d take mana and not health.
Aimee Congrejo’s latest blog post is : Leaving Yakuza and going clanless for a while
Flying nuggets out Aimee’s butt! WOOO!
*Announcer*
Now with every purchase of a Taketori Katana, you’ll get a FREE Aimee avie with “butt nugget” action!
*disclaimer*
User discretion is advised. RobbyRaccoon and Shindo are NOT responsible for any damages done with butt nugget action. Nor responsible for any “stains” or “odors” that, that action may produce. The sword will NOT come with an actual Aimee avie but, a look alike. Butt nugget action is subject to change at anytime.
o.O
Aimee Congrejo’s latest blog post is : Leaving Yakuza and going clanless for a while
I remember once as a child, on a road trip with the family, driving past a farm. It stunk. Lots of animal poop and fertilizer, compost, etc. When I remarked upon the smell, my dad replied with a laugh “What are you complaining about? That’s the smell of money”.
Remember… Those nuggets are gold :
And thanks to the feedback I’ve gotten from both of you (perhaps the most detailed so far by the way, thank you) I’m working on the issue. I’ll keep everyone posted.
Oh, as to the physical size of the sword… It looks small for an SL sword, but that’s only because I copied the sword’s measurements from a real sword, like one of the ones on the Nihonto Antiques site. Probably not the exact one I linked to there, but definitely one from that site.
So, the sword isn’t small in any way, SL is just too damned big
Awesome! Yah I agree that SL is too big…everything from 8′ tall avies that tower over me to railings and counters that are taller than me to walking into a house with 40′ tall ceilings. XD
Aimee Congrejo’s latest blog post is : Leaving Yakuza and going clanless for a while
Have you seen the really giant avatars?
Ha…nupe! That’s awesome! xD
Aimee Congrejo’s latest blog post is : Leaving Yakuza and going clanless for a while
The potentially unbalanced nature of the Taketori that Solace talked about worries me too. I have fought against a number of people using the beta, and find it awfully difficult to counter against — harder than the Wave for sure, which I perceive to be the toughest katan to counter against so far. Since I rely heavily on countering, this may mean that a lot more of my blood gets spilled. Okay you may say, that is a good thing (;-))! Perhaps, but it won’t do the community much good if there is the perception out that, warrented or not, that the katans are becoming unbalanced. In my limited experience I have actually found it harder to counter slash the Taketori beta than the Ninjaken (but not the Bloods, which are a total beast).
Ok I was wrong. I still get the rolls when I want to counterslash. Of course, SL was borked last night when I tested again. And I’ve got an old version, and as I understand it, Robby’s already taken a stab at this issue. No pun intended.
Thanks for the comments Judo.
Yes, you have an old version, Solace. Current beta versions do not have rolls at all, actually. I am not sure when they will be re-introduced (if at all), but I needed to remove them at least temporarily in order to focus on some other issues.
As for balance issues, I’m trying to do a full write-up on that right now, but am having trouble making my brain work today
Ok thanks Tak. I remember we had discussed this in Mt Emei before you gave me the version I have. I’m glad they are out for several reasons, even though they were beautiful anims. I remember getting vertigo the first few times I used it and wasn’t aware at that time how the rolls worked.
On a related note. I have heard some people comment on how they don’t like to spar against the Taketori sweep-kick, as it also drops one from the line of sight. However, I think that it’s pretty easy to get used to it, if one understands that it’s the only remaining animation on the Taketori that dramatically changes the effective height of the user. If someone is indeed “dropping out of sight,” I think an appropriate action would be to counterslash, as it could only have been the sweep kick.
I’ve recently begun to really appreciate the importance of multiple “fighting styles” when testing the weapons. My own fighting style and usage patterns miss some pretty important details that other people would surely notice, whereas I’ve seen issues that nobody has yet reported that I attribute to the fact that they just don’t use the weapon in that way.
As for the sweep kick being a problem… I just can’t decide the best way to deal with that right now. I know it can be harder to see, but I also think it’s something that is easily countered. Ask any good fighter whether can tell, usually, when someone is likely to kick and I think they’ll answer “yes”.
Feedback on my “Human Reaction Times” post is overwhelmingly on the side of anticipation rather than straight reaction, and I think the sweep-kick is a good example of how training can be applied to mitigate the issue.
I’m still thinking on it, but today I have a headache the size of Texas, and am not likely to try to address such issues until I can think properly
Oh Tak, no no. I think the sweep is very exciting. And if you spar against the Taketori a few times, you get used to the new body language. In fact, i think most advanced fighters don’t even bother to look at the sword. As is true hand-to-hand combat, it’s arguably more important to look at the body and shifts in weight. Given enough practice, most people can tell the difference between a true kick and a “fake.” Therefore, there should be really no issue in people learning how to recognize the sweep as quickly as they do other styles of kick. Case in point, many fighters use CNTL + ALT + SHIFT 9 (cas9), wherein prims are not rendered. It’s ALL about body language there. And as we know, the counterslash will land regardless of whether the kick is standing or sweeping, because it deosn’t matter where the avatar is rendered.
On another side note, JulieAnn and I were having some fun with the jumping sweep-kick in Mt Emei a coupla days ago…I looked like flying saucer with my leg swinging around in the air.
Still a kick I like very much, and primarily as a tank/counter-strike type of fighter, I find the sweep is certainly counterable.
Okeys…controversial Aimee opinion time. xD But like I’ll start by saying I know that people have different skill levels and different speed computers and I understand that not everyone can adapt or buy like 10 different blades for every situation. Really.
But like…I used to suck. Really suck. Mouselook used to actually make me motion sick. So I’m not just some natural gamer cuz SL and C:SI is the only game I play. I *used* to be a total noob so I know the pain of losing. A lot. Heck I *still* lose a *lot*.
So here goes…please don’t hurt me. LOL
Combat isn’t fair.
xD So it’s just my opinion but like I welcome getting beat. I welcome getting the snot kicked outta me. Cuz it helps me learn new techniques and get better! I pick fights with anyone and everyone I knew is better than me so I die and learn how they killed me.
And if an avie is shorter than you or drops out of view…look down. Simple as that! Cuz there’s only one place they can be! And all you 8 foot tall avies literally go invisible when I’m tanking you chest to chest and I gotta look straight up into the air. LOL
If an avie is too fast to hit learn how to track in mouselook better. Some people refuse to fight me cuz I move too much. Uhm…duh I don’t want you to hit me so of course I move. LOL
If a blade seems unbalanced find a different way to beat it. Cuz I find that it’s not *blades* that I have trouble beating but certain fighters using certain blades. If a blade goes into block too fast to counter then change yer style. Simple as that. Like I have a totally different style fighting against Naginata than Katana.
But yah…I agree with balance to a point but the system would be boring if every single blade was 100% balanced and even. Each blade has a style and if I have trouble beating someone I switch blades and styles.
Like Wave and now Taketori…they’re my main blades. I love them but there are some people I just *can’t* beat with them so I switch blades. I switch style from Hyperjumpkitty to Hypertankkitty or whatevs.
So yah…rant over. And like I said at the top I know not everyone can buy a bunch of blades like I did to switch it up so that’s why this is *just* a rant and it’s *not* me saying anyone is wrong… ^_^
Okeys you can stop ignoring me now. *hugz*
Aimee Congrejo’s latest blog post is : Various Inworld Issues? Duh.
That’s kind of the point of the day isn’t it? If there is a serious advantage to a weapon without a counterbalancing disadvantage, there might be a problem to be addressed by devs. Otherwise, if it’s really up to us to get used to the new weapons, just as it’s up to us to get used to new tactics we have not seen before. Fighting Aimee (+any weapon), JulieAnn (+Ninjaken) and Kasumi (+Eternal), I have had to shrink my 8 foot tall avi to make it easier for me to see them. It works for me, and it gets a good laugh, and they kill me pretty good anyway.
It’s hard to see what is an actual imbalance that needs to be addressed by the devs. For example, there are weapons that are really really difficult to counter in tank. Does that mean that anyone who uses them is unbeatable? Heck no. So what we mean by imbalanced night actually reflect the tastes of the user. Is there customer satisfaction? Of course, it’s usually the opponent of said user that is dissatisfied, but then you get into situation where people won’t spar against certain weapons. I’m thinking that isn’t the intent of the devs. It’s really hard for me to call something a right out imbalance because I always have to consider that I just plum have not found the right way to counter someone.
“If a blade goes into block too fast to counter then change yer style. Simple as that.” - I don’t think in principle we’re going to agree here, although i personally don’t think there is anything wrong with the timing of the Taketori as I’ve seen it thus far. I do believe in having the expectation of being able to fairly react to an attack. Shidji just brought up the point last night of the Ninjaken not being able to be stunned properly when its combo slashes a block. One could just say, why bother to fix that in an update? Just avoid the Ninjaken combos and expect to disregard the stun you think you generated. Similarly, if there is no way that one could counterstrike a frighteningly quick kick anim, the lesson could be to just try not to get kicked. It’s really the expectation of things working a certain way for me as a user and paying customer. Not only am I paying for my sword, but I’m buying into the ability to be able to enjoy my experience with a co-customer.
It’s a spectrum to me from commenting on a true problem vs just b*tching, and there’s a lot of grey in the middle. What is an imbalance vs I’m just being ignorant about being able to adapt against a weapon’s feature? I’m fascinated by the plain fact that when the Dynasty Flame came out with the new special and new anims, people were mostly appreciative and excited, and lots of people bought it and tried to adapt to the new features. It’s a very hard sword to counter too, but few people complain about sparring against one. In contrast, there seems to be very vocal concern about other weapons, wherein several very good fighters have voiced that there are situation where they feel basically helpless to do anything at certain points of a spar against these weapons. These are very different reactions…and I think the differences are meaningful.
And as I hit Submit, I’m sure I’m going be chewed out…
LOL nupe Mal…just a really good well thought out opinion and response to my opinion that I figgered I’d get chewed out for! But I guess I’m just a masochist when it comes to C:SI.
Cuz like I fight within the rules and etiquette and honor but I welcome people to exploit against me. I *want* an unfair fight. I *want* to have everything tossed at me be it fair or unfair. I have the most fun fighting against people who spacebar and use physics exploits and those exploit attacks against me!
I guess it’s just cuz of my RL…I *welcome* an impossible challenge. ^_^
But yah Mal I agree with you about there being a gray area between telling fighers to just suck it up and telling the devs about a bug. I guess my personal and easily-ignored opinion is block isn’t that big a deal. ^_^
Aimee Congrejo’s latest blog post is : Various Inworld Issues? Duh.
It is sometimes very difficult indeed to determine what is or is not “in balance”.
Case in point : Ayame and I chatted briefly the other day about the new weapon she is making, and she mentioned that she’d discussed the issue of balance at length with Archanox, and they still weren’t 100% sure whether the proposed constraints would result in balance.
I can assure everyone that all of the C:SI devs take balance very seriously, it’s just not possible to foresee all of the things that will affect balance, and that’s where feedback is so critical; You guys tell me a weapon of mine is imbalanced, and why you think so, and I look into it. We discuss it here on this blog, and in the C:SI forums, etc, and hopefully eventually arrive at a consensus and then resolve the issue.
C:SI a living, evolving system, and that means that we need strong and bold opinions, and lots of feedback! Even outright arguments, if done constructively, can help us make the system better over time
LOL Aimee.
“I guess my personal and easily-ignored opinion is block isn’t that big a deal. ^_^” - You actually told me that once. You said something like, “I guess I should block more, but meh.”
“I welcome people to exploit against me. I *want* an unfair fight.” - Your posts make way more sense to me now.
Oh LOL I’m dumb…I read Solace, my brain said Solace, but Mal came out of my fingers. Stoopid brain. *waves at Solace*
Aimee Congrejo’s latest blog post is : Various Inworld Issues? Duh.
btw, who’s “Mal?”
Malachi!!! lol
And there I was thinking that Aimee had just outed Solace as Mal’s alt!
This reminded me of something from The Unfettered Mind so thought I would dig it up…
I really don’t think the kick is an issue, just as Aimee pointed out the avie size differences. These kinds of things are simple matters of adaptation and are so small that they aren’t that significant in my opinion. Besides, my avie is 5′6″ tall, which is my RL height, so I don’t feel bad for all the 7′ avies out there =P
I agree with that, but by balance I think its more about for every strength is there an accompanying weakness that makes each weapon the same strength as any other weapon *on the whole*, accounting for the variations of styles those unique strengths and weaknesses require.
I started C:SI in mid-August, and the Nagi was never very popular until about the summer of 2007. Prior to the spring I thought the Nagi was imbalanced toward being too weak if anything. But they did three things to the system in the spring of 07:
So you add this up, and the katana user has less of an advantage in tank cause of the new slower speeds (which by itself would have been fine), and the range advantage of the nagi user is now supplemented by a kick, that combined with its new higher damage, new longer range, and the push that kicks have, meant that the range advantage became way more strong than it had before. So the new trick to using Nagi became to maintain your range advantage with kicks and movement, and IF a kat user doesn’t take a done of damage just trying to gain position within striking distance, the slower speed means you can probably get back out of their range without taking much damage yourself (it seems like kat counters versus nagi need to come at the beginning if the hit, before the damage of the nagi strike, since it goes immediately back to block after the bullet strikes, meaning the kat user is now way more open to taking more damage than they can dish while tanking despite the (now smaller) speed advantage.
I still find some regular nagi users relatively easy, but its because they do not know how to use the sniper kick to maintain their range. If you fight with Meludo or Hibiki, those two have perfected it to the point where they can make 4-5 major errors and I can make 2 and I still don’t think Im getting them below 50.
One stat I used to use that worked was jump slash spams with the ashes, but considering Havok 4 has made those spams less effective (one awesome thing about H4 at least, lolz), and since I felt guilty using any kind of spamming strategy (which wouldn’t even work vs Hibiki cause he does almost nothing but air moves himself), there really isn’t a position of power available to katana users anymore, the nagi user is ALWAYS in a power position so long as they maintain range with their kicks. The reason the kat user can’t be considered to have an advantage when they do close the range is they inevitably took enough hp and stam damage just getting into range that if they DO get some hits while tanking (so you are not trying to catch up on the damage you’ve already taken less than trying to actually get ahead), the timing is now much harder and inevitably brief since the nagi user Ive described is not going to sit there close with you very long.
And one more thing about the challenge issue. I will sometimes spar versus the imbalanced weapons for that same reason, or use the Musashi duals vs a kat user to make it more of a challenge, but I would much prefer that the challenge come solely from the raw skill of the opponent. There are some people I can win with maybe 10 hp and/or stam taken from me at the end, and when they switch to BDs I am suddenly barely able to win and start losing some, and this is AFTER I’ve gotten out of cruise control and start really trying my best to compensate. Yes its more fun to be challenged in that way, but it bothers me cause its occurring for the wrong reason. I want to be challenged by their raw skill, not how well they can manipulate the imbalance of their weapon. Its a bit like levels in other games, where if you are at a level 2 and someone is at a level 20, they might be challenging, but so what, lol. SL is my first “game” too, but I haven’t found anything nearly as fun as C:SI for that reason, its traditionally been so centralized and determined by user skill and merit instead of artificial stuff like levels or which weapon you happened to buy.
Anyway, sorry Robby for taking over your blog with my babbling, lol.. not going to bother proofreading so sorry for any typos.
Very well put Kasumi. I’m going to try to boil the last 15 posts into a two points:
1. The Taketori sweep kick has no inherent imbalance. And it looks awesome.
2. The BDs are whack because someone who picks it up for the FIRST time has the ability to tremendously change their win/loss ratio against someone to whom they previously lost a great deal. As silly as it is to have to point this out, this is NOT the same as getting better through training. And so the BDs are different from all of the other C:SI weapons thus far.