MORDHAU

MORDHAU

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On the subject of Pointysidepolehammerblood
By retro
This Guide is a manifesto on the upmost blatantly unfinished weapon in the game, the Polehammer, and its staggering shortcomings regarding skins and in-game appearance.
   
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Introduction
Ever since the Polehammer first released with patch #18 in the Summer of 2020, i have had an almost unnatural obsession with it. I always hoped that one day, this great arm would make it into the game, and just like that, my wish was granted! The days of me maining the maul were over, and a new, golden era hath begun.

It's brute force and uncontested, undebatable 2Htk have always amazed me, coupled with great sounddesign this makes for a fun and devastating weapon. The limiting turncap, high windup speed and wonky stabs make for a challenging, yet very rewarding weapon to use, not to mention the alt-grip that allows to send even T2 helmet users into their grave swiftly.



Yet there has been one crucial fault that has been overshadowing this absolutely beauty of a beast for years, one drop of poison in the chalice of sweet wine against which I plan to brew the antidote to.
The issue
Right after the release of the pach #18 and the addition of the polehammer, I noticed one fatal flaw, which you, the reader, will probably be very aware of already:
The alternative mode (commonly known as alt-grip), which allows the weapon to be held the other way around, utilizing the spike end and dealing heavy damage to helmets and lower tier armour.
However, doing so ironically doesn't feel great at all, it almost feels like the developers wanted to discourage the usage of the alternative mode altogether by letting the following happen:

THE POINTY END DOESN'T DRAW BLOOD

I have slain countless foes using it, and yet the spike refrains from getting sprinkled with blood. Why is that? - This issue is unique to this weapon, any other works fine (I shall get into deeper comparisons below), and the developers even acknowledged it, but seem to straightout ignore it, regardless of its gamebreaking nature. My immersion gets ruined every single time I use it, and it just feels straightup awful.
All are affected
Not just one of the Polehammer skins is affected by this bug, but all of them refuse to get bloody!

  • The basic Hook end,











  • The Stake end,










  • The Crusher end,










...all share this major issue.
Comparison with other weapons
As pointed out above, many other weapons have alternative modes which do, in fact, draw blood without any issue.

The Warhammer is the closest look-alike to the Polehammer, for it basically resembles a one-handed version of the other. Its pointy end gets bloody flawlessly, even on the (newly added!) skins, the blood accumulates without a problem.






The Halberd, has a spike too, which works fine. The blood begins to cover it after a couple of hits, rendering it gritty and badass-looking. It also cleaves after a hit, a feature I would absolutely love to see on the polehammer alt-mode.








The Poleaxes blood effects work fine, too. This is proof that not only are alt-grips for weapons in the range class of the Polehammer well able to get bloody, it also proves that even more complex shapes are able to get bloody without a problem.
A light on the horizon
After a great amount of effort, I finally managed to recieve an answer from one of the developers in one of the weekly feedback threads on reddit (Weekly Feedback/Discussion: 8/10 - 8/16), who, when questioned if the polehammer was to recieve, and I quote, a "Pole Hammer flex skin", aswell as a fix for the blood coating issue, answered the following:



This was a great read! Now, I was not only looking forward to the fix for my issue, but there might just be the possibility of a few new, awesome skins making it to the game.

Thus, with high hopes, I waited patiently for the following patches and hotfixes, relentlessly reading the patch notes, desperately hoping for a "Polehammer alt mode now draws blood".
Devs remain silent?
Yet I should not be able to rest in peace, for no such action was taken. The Polehammer remained unfixed.

I recently posted a reminder in a weekly feedback thread, and Jax responded to me:



This is to be taken with a grain of salt, I however am in high hopes that the issue will finally be addressed.

UPDATE #1:
As of patch #25 they STILL haven't been addressed and I am now slowly sinking into the soft arms of insanity.

UPDATE #2:
As of patch #26 they STILL haven't been addressed and my last will to grasp onto hope is gradually letting loose.

UPDATE #3:
As of patch #27 they STILL haven't been addressed and I am appauled by the ignorance the devs are showing in this case.

UPDATE #4:
As of patch #28, we have recieved a NEW paid for polehammer skin. But guess what - Pointysidepolehammerblood STILL remains missing, not even the DLC polehammer skin has it.

UPDATE #5:
As of patch #29, they STILL haven't fixed it. Most of their staff has been rotated out and they brought new people on, even a new Community Manager, so I now have to convince the new people to patch the holes their predecessors left.
3 Comments
ßαsταrÐ 30 Jul, 2022 @ 10:25am 
i know it's been a little since you made this but since you updated for last patch i figured it'd be worth saying something. i'm honestly the same way as you, being bothered by some of the littlest details imaginable!

elaborating as concisely as possible...this behavior you're noticing in the polehammer is related to the materials it uses. as you so astutely observed, there are several fully-functioning examples of weapons that properly "bloody" through use in both regular and alternative modes of use.

basically, there's a "mask" texture that the renderer can read to determine which parts / areas on the weapon should be covered in blood, as well as which stage it has accumulated to (out of three)
ßαsταrÐ 30 Jul, 2022 @ 10:25am 
there's a trick the devs use for weapons with alternate modes that involve striking with a different part or surface on the weapon. the artist can "erase" parts of the mask texture -- the material properties for weapons are set up to interpret that in such a way that alt mode use is tracked separate from default mode use, and the two can become "bloodied" independently.
ßαsταrÐ 30 Jul, 2022 @ 10:24am 
we see this in full effect on weapons like the poleaxe, warhammer, and halberd, as you highlighted -- as well as in the usage of the mordhau technique with the longsword and estoc.

the polehammer isn't set up right for this behavior to work, be that because of a simple oversight or, as you suggested, just being "unfinished."

i'm sure you'll be delighted (and disgusted) to hear that this should be incredibly easy to correct. i mean, as literally as simple as clicking a checkbox and possibly hand-editing the blood mask, if need be...which really could not be more than 10 - 15 minutes.

in any case i'm going to see if the sdk doesn't facilitate this. with any luck i'll have a polehammer fix mod for you in no time!