If you spam fast attacks against human opponents all you're going to do is quickly ruin your sword by clashing steel against steel as they will usually keep blocking your blows until they run out of stamina allowing you to get a regular hit or two in before they start blocking again(or sometimes they interrupt and counterattack your spam), all the while you're exposed to others during those spam attacks. If you instead played the game as intended by parrying human opponents just like you dodge monster opponents(the way the tutorial explained and loading screen tips repeatedly state) you'd immediately create those attack opportunities without having to move around(changing enemy engagement priority) or ruin your sword and you can parry multiple opponents at the same time leaving them all exposed simultaneously(juggle attacks between them), and if you buy the counterattack skill (or even the counterattack mutation) then a single parry->counterattack will do the damage of multiple regular attacks(or even kill them in one blow) which is far more efficient, engaging, and fun than spamming fast attack until their stamina wears down(or having to take stamina regen pauses in between spamming attacks).
In a 50 second fight against 5 melee opponents and one archer I counted a single parry, no counterattacks, arrows blocked or reversed, never kept your guard up, not a single block. Instead I counted at least 10 dodges(usually 2 in a row) and 3 rolls (which you used for crossing distances rather than evading attacks, so much for stamina management). You only stayed relatively still/put for 2 seconds in a fight that lasted 50 seconds, where you spent most of the time dodging/rolling and yet you only ran out of stamina when you pulled off a whirl(just like it would in vanilla), which didn't prevent you from then immediately pulling off a parry and a dodge. It really doesn't seem particularly more tactical or composed than vanilla.
As I have mentioned in my first post, the modded game plays very different depending on your armor type. I was originally going to make two videos of drastically different playstyles, so I was trying to rely on dodging and quick attacks as much as possible to highlight. I recorded multiple runs, including a few where I took no damage, but decided to use one where I made a lot of mistakes to show not only the combat style but also the enemy and toxicity damage (I guess I felt that ending the fight on a last-second white honey pop was thrilling because I'm weird like that, plus nailing the crossbow headshot on the poisoned arbalist gave me an erection). There were a lot of times in the video where a well-timed parry would in fact allow me to deal much more damage and I took a lot of unnecessary damage due to an over-reliance on attack spam (although I did parry at a crucial moment which was right after my whirl ended and I knew I had no stamina for a dodge, as you noted). Light armor is by far the most forgiving over stamina mismanagement but the fact that I took as much damage as I did - to the point of nearly dying - illustrates that inefficient play is punished.
Without the softlock, the optimal way to fight in light armor is to aim your step dodge so that you simultaneously avoid the enemy attack and also land to their side (or ideally behind them for sweet crits) and are able to counter-attack while simultaneously re-positioning yourself out of the thick of combat. Ironically, I didn't do a very good job of showing those off either in that run due to not fighting efficiently, so perhaps I should produce a new video, a close to perfect fight this time. On the other hand, parries and counters coupled with deliberate, well-aimed heavy attacks is the way to go when using heavy armor, as stamina costs of spamming attacks and dodges in heavy armor are very severe. I would love to record a video of heavy armor fighting in the near future as I also find it to be a much more "tactical" playstyle compared to the vanilla game, the process was somewhat delayed due to my PC shitting myself for the past few weeks. After I get that under control, I just need to pick a good combat encounter that is accessible from one of my saves from last playthrough to show off the heavy armor playstyle.
It should also be noted that enemies are far more aggressive in this mod than in vanilla, so there is much more emphasis on repositioning over standing still. The difference is that its more efficient to step-dodge in light armor while heavy armor users can move just as swiftly using the momentum of their (heavy) attacks, at least with the softlock off. Maybe that is a confusing explanation, but hopefully its easier to see in practice if/when I get that video out.
The combat system's real flaws are related to its qualities as an action game, the attack animations(yours& the enemies'), hitboxes, required reaction times, that kind of stuff. The problem with dodging isn't that it doesn't cost stamina, you wouldn't run out of stamina in souls games or nioh either if you just stuck to dodging attacks, the problem is that enemy attacks are so slow, with such predictable windups, the dodge window so forgiving and the enemy attack hitboxes so meaningless you can dodge anything while half asleep. There's no difference between dodging a drowner's swipe or a fiend's antlers, just press the dodge button in any direction during a 1.5 second window. You're not in any danger unless you start attacking. And those issues are something that would take a lot more than spreadsheet number changes in order to truly fix.
I mostly agree in regards to the lack of variety in enemy movesets and their forgiving nature - you are right that it cannot be fully fixed through by merely fucking around with numbers. However, I maintain that adding stamina costs to attacks and dodges helps with the fact that the player is pretty much invincible even during fast attack spam thanks to animation cancel (as long as they have rudimentary timing) due to the fact that one cannot dodge nor attack after exhausting their stamina bar. Its not a definitive fix but it does punish mindless spam, which I still argue is not punished enough in vanilla.
Which mod was that? I also wish there was a bigger difference between day&night both in terms of atmosphere and in terms of mechanics/enemies but I find there are already too many critters roaming the land during the day, people couldn't possibly survive all those dangerous predators living that close to their villages. I'd love to see most random enemy spawns only show up at night.
It is Random Encounters by erxv (
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/785/). I configured it to only spawn certain monsters and only during the night, but you can also do crazy stuff like generate Wild Hunt ambushes every five seconds if you so choose. However, the latest version comes with a bug that causes over-leveled Alps and Bruxae to spawn in friendly towns as early as Crow's Perch and ambush the player even when the option is turned off. This should be fixed in my pack but if get the mod from anywhere else you might encounter that issue. I suppose you could just grab the mod folder from my pack and not use the rest of it. Do read the original mod's installation instructions there are other peripheral files you need to copy over, too.
Is that the loot rebalance standalone mod? Definitely want to use it.
Unfortunately it isn't but I guess I can create a standalone version. Might not be ready for a few days, though (not that it is a long or difficult process, I'd just rather not do it on a workday). If you are familiar with how to cook and merge mods, you can just just take the two def_loot_containers.xml files from the archive/The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt/Merged Bundle Content/gameplay/items AND items_plus, then cook a separate mod and merge it with whatever other mods you use.
What this mod is lacking is the removal of all the useless video effects.
No mud screen, no water droplets, no dirty lens etc etc
Just look for mods that remove those specific things and install them over the pack. There shouldn't be any compatibility issues.