Shield Poll

[Just A Bill]

I love how the "like it" option was worded.

It will bring balance to the force, Ooops we mean the game. We all saw how that worked out.

In all honesty, I can't tell how it will affect the game until I know how much they turned shields down. If its only a small change (5-10% of current shield absorption values, not percent damage), than things will probably be ok, if its much larger, there could be problems. I really don't intend to get one of my characters hit to find out...

[Nixit]

I don't care about this particular change.

[Junesun]

Rather than shields saving less, I'd like to see weapons weighted up against shields or animal attacks weighted down. Having more diversity in weapons effect, e. g. some weapons do less damage but have a better chance of getting through the shield, would also help.

My opinion is based on two beliefs:
- an iron shield shouldn't make you invincible, even if the 5 thugs you're faced with don't have exceptional skill
- with the lowered shield value, wild animals have a good chance to kill even seasoned characters in the foreign language areas, and do so before the characters in question have the chance to gather enough healing food to even make up for one of the attacks. Also take into account that iron is still rare in most foreign language regions, that even spawn towns haven't been able to eradicate dangerous animals and that healing food usually tends to be found in the wilderness, where there are plenty of wild animals.

Here's another idea: an old shield that had to suffer lots of attacks should block less damage than a new one. Hence if you link the deterioration of shields to the actual amount of times they had to block an attack, and link the shields' ability to block to their condition, you should have a good effect.

[black knight]

i think the change is good....
as bill said. it should'nt be a problem if they have'nt lowered the values too much... if we link detoriation to effectiveness of the shields, they will be useless as detoriation rates are insane... once they get fixed, it might be a good idea...

[Surly]

- an iron shield shouldn't make you invincible, even if the 5 thugs you're faced with don't have exceptional skill

I think a large part of why I oppose this so strongly, is that an iron shield doesn't make you invincible. Since combat skill was introduced, I have no characters above the old average, and 15 below it. In fact I have aroun 9 characters at below the "45% of the old value" that Jos stated as the bottom limit for skills. Since the shield ineffectiveness idea, and tiredness, and now with the combat skill the idea that iron shields make you invincible is outdated.

5 of my characters now save 0% with an iron shield. There is absolutely no way someone can convince me that's good. By all means allow combat training to increase attack, but at least allow weaker characters some kind of defence. I can't see how this would encourage people to use the combat system more at all, rather I think it would be the opposite.

[Ovault]

- an iron shield shouldn't make you invincible, even if the 5 thugs you're faced with don't have exceptional skill

I think a large part of why I oppose this so strongly, is that an iron shield doesn't make you invincible. Since combat skill was introduced, I have no characters above the old average, and 15 below it. In fact I have aroun 9 characters at below the "45% of the old value" that Jos stated as the bottom limit for skills. Since the shield ineffectiveness idea, and tiredness, and now with the combat skill the idea that iron shields make you invincible is outdated.

5 of my characters now save 0% with an iron shield. There is absolutely no way someone can convince me that's good. By all means allow combat training to increase attack, but at least allow weaker characters some kind of defence. I can't see how this would encourage people to use the combat system more at all, rather I think it would be the opposite.

ha, yea. No one uses shields any more ... not very many people at least

[ephiroll]

I can't see how this would encourage people to use the combat system more at all, rather I think it would be the opposite.

Actually, this shouldn't have any affect at all on how many people enter their chars into combat, because if they did base it off this info then it would be a CR break.

That being said. I also agree that the shield values have been decreased a little too much, but I would rather weapons values decreased to balance things back out and just leave the shields where they are. However, it is a better balance then what existed before.

[Floyd]

The reason i made such a silly "Indeifferent" Option is because this is a major issue, that i thought everyone would have an opinion on, obviously not though

[Jos Elkink]

The reason i made such a silly "Indeifferent" Option is because this is a major issue, that i thought everyone would have an opinion on, obviously not though

I chose 'indifferent' ...

[west]

Rather than shields saving less, I'd like to see weapons weighted up against shields or animal attacks weighted down. Having more diversity in weapons effect, e. g. some weapons do less damage but have a better chance of getting through the shield, would also help.

My opinion is based on two beliefs:
- an iron shield shouldn't make you invincible, even if the 5 thugs you're faced with don't have exceptional skill
- with the lowered shield value, wild animals have a good chance to kill even seasoned characters in the foreign language areas, and do so before the characters in question have the chance to gather enough healing food to even make up for one of the attacks. Also take into account that iron is still rare in most foreign language regions, that even spawn towns haven't been able to eradicate dangerous animals and that healing food usually tends to be found in the wilderness, where there are plenty of wild animals.

Here's another idea: an old shield that had to suffer lots of attacks should block less damage than a new one. Hence if you link the deterioration of shields to the actual amount of times they had to block an attack, and link the shields' ability to block to their condition, you should have a good effect.

Yay Junesun!

Especially the bolded text...that's exactly what I think.

[Floyd]

The reason i made such a silly "Indeifferent" Option is because this is a major issue, that i thought everyone would have an opinion on, obviously not though

I chose 'indifferent' ...

Cheeky

[Floyd]

So 28 votes? Is that all we can expect? 'cos it's still pretty unanimous...

[Ovault]

Take this poll down!! Jos is gonna fix the changes!!!! yay! >.<

[Floyd]

No! i think i'll leave it as a testiment to how things can be changed by moaning loudly enough

[Ovault]

No! i think i'll leave it as a testiment to how things can be changed by moaning loudly enough

okay