Well now that I've actually had the time to try out the new combat system I can only say that it has improved significantly. There is no more need to spam the attack button and switching stances can actually be done now without always going out of the stance because you're out of range. I also like that you can only hit your opponent when they are infront of you.
I do have some remarks for improvement though:
- The big red texts:
Saying "You're out of range" or "You must face your opponent." ... at least make it so that they only appear once and don't spam the screen. Personally I wouldn't make them appear on the screen at all. A simple notion in the systems tab is more than enough for this.
- Mental stamina:
It decreases constantly from the second you enter combat ... even when you're not hitting anyone or anything because you're too far away or aren't facing in the right direction. This isn't very realistic and it makes sure that your mental stamina runs out very fast. I would like to see mental stamina only being drained when you actually launch an attack. This means you're within range and you are facing your opponent. It can still be that your attack misses or is blocked but at least you attacked.
- Running in combat:
Now this is one that will most likely find a whole lot of opposition but I'm still going to suggest it. Disable running in combat. When I dueled my opponent was running around like crazy so I was forced to do the same. The result is a very unrealistic and chaotic fight. In reality you don't run around like crazy in battle because you'll tire yourself out and you won't be able to place a single good hit.
So my suggestion is to either disable running completely from the moment you enter a stance. The only thing you can do is walk backwards, forwards, jump/hop/dash (with the space keyby default) short distances and strafe (faster than it is now but not too fast). Or even better would be that running is still possible but from the moment you run, you stop dealing any damage but are instead completely vunerable to incoming hits. Basically automatically switching to a bloody stance but without attacking.