I know this topic has come up many times, but it still feels unresolved — chain weapons continue to feel like metallic bats for a good part of their movesets for which the chain feedback just isn’t there, particulary the chainsword.
Suggestions:
Any move that makes a chain weapon “stick” to an enemy should show a proper latching/sawing animation. It’s essential for selling the fantasy. The esvicerator does it well where you have the latching animation only if you hit the max mass the weapon can go through
Special attacks should leave visible sawing decals on enemies — it’s weird that the unrevved attacks leave marks, but the revved, supposedly more brutal attacks don’t. This should apply to chainsword, chainaxe and eviscerator
The impact sound on flak-armored enemies needs love too — the current “bonk” doesn’t match the fantasy a chain weapon should bring.
To be fair, the chainaxe and eviscerator feel closer to what they’re meant to be, as they latch on some of their normal moveset even though they still bounce on other moves and has the bonk sound.
If Fatshark doesn’t want to change entirely the feel of the chainsword for those that don’t like the latching, could we get a blessing that adds shreds to the normal movesets and maybe cleave to the reved moveset ?
Chain Weapons also completely lose their Cleave on Activated Attacks for some reason. Why do non-Activated Attacks that swing horizontally/diagonally have more Cleave than Activated Attacks with the same swing pattern? It’s not “fun” to use a horizontal/diagonal Activated Attack just to get your Chain Weapon lodged in a singular Poxwalker.
I have 2200+ hours in the game and the Chainsword is one of my most, if not THE most played melee weapon by me.
I definitely disagree to give most attacks a shred function, as this would be horrible with the constant camera lock and those attacks that don’t stick are mostly designed to cleave through hordes. The attacks of almost all chain weapons are good designed as they are imo.
The only exceptions are the heavy 1 and 2 on the Chainsword MK XIIIg variant, where the character does a 2 handed overhead attack that is rather weak for a single target attack this slow. For these 2 attacks I would agree for a short shred with slightly higher damage.
As for the sound on Flak armor, I can only imagine you meant the sound of the MK XII Chainaxe (newer variant) light attacks. This actually bothered me too, as the engine sound of the weapon sounds like it’s barely even revved up and it’s used as a club. The sounds of the other chain weapons sound fine to me.
Logic wise why non special attacks have more cleave as activated ones, you could say it’s because of the direction of pressure the character puts on the weapon after the impact. Either going for a fast swipe or a heavy wound on a single target.
That’s all well and good, but why would they do this to trash mobs? Chain Weapons need the Mk II Thammer treatment. An Activated Attack should go right through a Poxwalker or two in order to prevent them catching on the first Poxwalker that they come in contact with. This’d make Chain Weapons more reliable for both horde clear AND single-target revving when facing mixed clusters of Enemies. It’s just unsatisfying as is.
I barely ever had a problem with trash mobs catching my special attacks because pretty much every saw worthy enemy being larger than the horde, but then again there really isn’t any argument why you shouldn’t be able to swing through 1 or 2 small ones to shred an elite or special.
Yeah, the sound of the MK XII chainaxe definitely needs a rework — but I was actually referring to all the sounds of chain weapons hitting flak-armored enemies. For the most part, they all have this dull, bonky feel.
Take, for example, the light attack combo of the basic chainsword on a Moebian Bruiser, or the heavy attacks of the basic eviscerator (I think that’s the one that no longer shreds).
Regarding your first point: I was talking about the attacks that stick to enemies to shred — like the overhead attack, where the chainsword latches on and stays on target for a second or two.
As for cleave attacks, I’d say either leave them without shredding or make them work like the eviscerator, which only shreds once you reach its fairly generous cleave limit. That said, I don’t think cleave shredding is necessary — just adding shredding effects to single-target attacks would already go a long way in selling the fantasy of chain weapons.
The idea of blessings changing how the weapon feels — if that’s technically feasible — could be the best of both worlds. Players could choose between the more vanilla feel of chain weapons or a more pronounced, visceral version like the one I’m envisioning.
That leaves players vulnerable to attacks from other enemies during the animation. A long drawn out latching and sawing animation sounds great, looks great on Warhammer animated shorts, but is it practical for Darktide melee combat?
At game release, the shredding would lock you in place, meaning using the special would make you eat hits and overheads.
They released an update fairly early post-launch that allowed you to dodge out of the animation with the first rework of the esvicerator.
However, I don’t think they ever made it possible to dodge while still keeping the damage ticks active.
You could, you could dodge left or right but the camera stays locked onto the target, which is why I think the newer change is worse for chain weapons.
Yeah it was also a lot easier to slide into enemies with dodge to latch them after an opening. Now when I try that a lot of the time I just hit them with a single tick and cancel the move. Definitely not a huge fan.
I’m not sure but i suppose you can add fake-revv? Sligthly less aggressive sound and chain speed, no changes for damage profile and camera behaviour. It’s pure sound/animation thing why chain weapons feels bonky.
Because with high enough speed, sharpness, power and proper angle chainsaw won’t get stuck. So you can have that fantasy slashy attacks don’t stuck while being revved.
Chainswords are not subtle weapons, and wielding one is a statement in its own right: they are horrific tools of war, designed to bite, tear and eviscerate where more primitive blades merely cut and slice.
