[SUGESTION] Change the Katana? (Page 1 of 2)

Very weird that you've failed to add the by far most common suggestion:

Changing so you keep your momentum after slicing. The fact that doing a slice completely stops your movement for half a second is the reason the katana isn't viable. That shit just don't work in any mid- or high- level game.

Hum... now that you mention it, I do remember people complaining out that. Ha sorry.
Gah, it won't let me change the voting options... Just [+] Chi11y's post if you like his idea.

This is the most disadvantage of the katana. But the katana is a strong weapon for fighting. If you combine it with high hooking skills it's very difficult to defeat the katana player even if both players are on the same level. It have a high dps and you can attack and evade with fast and short slice.

[x] Other (explain in comment)

I like the katana and want to see it as a regular weapon which can be switched like the other weapons. But I think the katana must be a little weaker then.

The reason why ninja is disabled on most of high-lvl games is not a lack of power.

Then please rid me of my ignorance and tell the real reason, I base this completely on my personal experiences. For me the katana has always seemed as an underpowered weapon. Sure it has good damage, but its movement-stopping side effect just totally breaks its value in attacking, where you need very fast movement to just stay alive.

I think both you and Blue are actually agreeing with Chi11y's suggestion. Being able to retain speed after a Katana slice is probably the solution  to getting high leveled players to use it again.

But what I really want to know is what the developers think is the solution... and then fix it.

replace developers with teeworlds guru replace that with matricks and listen to the awsum quote he did not so far ago @ irc:

I honestly feel there's nothing wrong with it. I don't like chi1's idea because ... if someone gets it, they can just spam it to gain crazy speed.. not good o.o

a very good argument on this topic is to make the speed increase more gradual, because the sudden speed increase right now makes it very confusing. It seems... a bit jittery. Make the animation a bit smoother. Also, can you make the sound like the DDrace sounds for katana (can't believe i'm saying something like this!)? The sound right now has some kind of ninja sound, whereas tees don't seem to make that sound. The "Shing!" sound is better, I think.

Considering high level gameplay, I think it is removed on most cases for a similar reason. On most games, the katana is used to rack up a large amount of kills in a matter of seconds. This isn't so good in CTF... and also, the high level players don't like the fact that if you collect it on accident, you can't switch to your original weapon.

I really don't like it when a bunch of noobs kill me with it. Leave it as it is though. Just make animation better.

I mean... make the sudden speed increase from a click of katana to a gradual increase of speed.

BTW: Would be cool if you could hold it to fly (imagine tees flying around ctf2)

No, this isn't the case. The katana is worthless in any mid-high level game. In ctf2, I've never seen anyone get more than one or two kills with it, and then dying, and on dm1, when there was a duel community, it was seen as a death tile: if you, by accident, picked up the katana, that meant the other player pretty much got a free kill on you since it's impossible to dodge rockets with it.

No it reacts to it in a way of slowing down or immediately slowing down but the katana gets faster and further thrust so there's a way to counter it while someone has it but so it isn't too easy to kill him.
But there's also a way to improve it so it makes it a complete new weapon like the hammer but that it does more damage (ca. 4 hearts) but slower fire rate and thrust so you can hunt the flagger or someone who's running away from you without using the pistol or laser.

the katana is useless in ctf some maps dont  have it like ctf5 and ctf 4 but ctf 4 has it and i never seen anybody use it for recovering the flag..etc so i think it should be removed atleast in ctf and in tdm but i dont know about dm

I'd guess the following would make for a good balance at all skill levels:
- Minimum Speed is current Katana Speed; but if the player is already going faster, his current speed is taken instead.
- New direction for all of it is the Katana swipe direction without loss of total momentum, regardless of the direction the player was going in before.
- This can be balanced by adjusting the length of a katana attack. Make it depend more on space to favour weaker players. Make it depend more on time and strong players can swipe trough lots and lots of enemy hordes by going really fast. Something like: total_swipe_distance = sqrt(default_distance * (default_time / current_player_speed)) could be neat. Someone had to try that ingame though... hard to imagine how it'd work out in a real match.

I think this wouldn't give too much of an extra advantage to lowskill player, as it should be sort of hard to handle - especially when changing direction - and you can't get above Katana speed by just spamming or even hold that speed unless you're good enough with the hook for it anyways.

For better players, it would allow to at least retain their speed while they run though rows of enemies. And with some practice the possible sudden change of direction without loss of momentum should allow a head hunter or flag carrier to outmanoeuvre pretty much every player on the same level. That's what ninjas are supposed to do, isn't it?