Is a quick stab actually a faster attack than slow swing?

[Crowley]

The weapons in Ultima VII and Serpent Isle can be set to quick stab, slow stab, quick swing or slow swing. This affects how many frames the attacking animation does. With quick stab, the game just uses the frame with the weapon pointing forward, and with slow swing it goes through the weapon behind, swung to the side and then pointing forward. However, does this actually make attacking with a weapon faster? I tried setting a melee weapon from a slow swing to quick stab in Exult Studio and then fighting with it. I did not really notice any increase in the frequency of the attacks.

[marzo]

The animations with fewer attack frames have a faster attack animation; if two characters with different weapons attack simultaneously, the one with the faster animation will hit the other first (and, if the opponent dies from the attack, he won't het hit at all). The actual frequency of attacks is determined by the character's dexterity.

[Crowley]

Given the default 5 fps speed of the game, shaving off two frames from the attack animations would only give you a 0,4 second speed increase. I guess a better way to make a fast-hitting weapon is to have it give the character a dexterity bonus.

[marzo]

The animation bits is to better emulate the original games, as is the dexterity difference in attack speed. And I wonder why is 5 fps still the default for Exult given that the originals run at 10 fps...

[Wizardry Dragon]

Someone looking to emulate how it played on a 386 maybe?

Cheers,
Peter M Dodge