Weapon specialization

[AoM]

I'm tired of everyone wanting to wield a claymore or a crossbow automatically just because they deal the most base damage.

Not everyone irl has the right proportions to wield a claymore properly. But that same person could be quite adept with a lighter blade.

People like to specialize in certain weapons. Some people are good with swords, others are good with bows, and some are good with nunchucku. But this skill doesn't carry over into every weapon.

Thus, I suggest weapon specialization. Wherein a character might begin as novice with weapons X and Y, but they could begin as efficient with weapon Z.

This would give people serious about the weapons trade reasons to stock up on more variety than claymores and crossbows.

Now there are two ways that I could see this happening. One could be that every weapon has a different skill assigned to it. The other way could be to break the weapons down into categories, based upon the type of weapon it is:

One-handed swords (spatha, sabre, scimitar)
Two-handed swords (bastard and claymore)
Axes and hammers
Pole-weapons (spears and halberds)
Aiming weapons (bows and xbows)
Thrown Weapons
Bare-fists and small weapons (daggers and bagh-nakhs)
Shield-bashing (targes)
Miscellaneous (whips)

Having people being better at specific weapons or weapon groups would give a valid reason for seeing more variety of those weapons in game. We have a whole sticky topic for weapon requests, but none of these new weapons are any good to us unless some characters find that they have a distinct use for them.

I apologize in advance if this idea has been brought up before. I did a cursory search and did not see this mentioned.

[formerly known as hf]

this is a brilliant idea - I agree, it's annoying to see armies that look like clones - all carrying claymores and targes... And I like this as a way to avoid that

[BlueNine]

Sounds good to me!

[Leo Luncid]

Dang! I was about to suggest that! Oh well; this would be especially helpful for characters who want to be bare fisted martial artists!

[MrPenguin589]

yes, yes, YES! WE NEED THIS!!!!11one!1!

[Pie]

ALRIGHT!! ITS UNANEMUSE!!!! LETS ACEPT IT!!!!

[Agar]

Whoa up.

You want to add another whole dimension to the skills we already have because you don't like the aestetics of cantr armies emulating real life armies?

It's unnessecary bloat to the database, it's further complication to the already ambiguous skill system, and it adds chaos, not realism, to the simulation.

I don't like this idea, and certainly don't want another change to be made to skills that would reset all our values again.

[kabl00ey]

I like it. The chaos would be welcome. And as far as realism goes, if it followed the equation of...:
base_fighting_skill * weapon_skill (where 'effecient' was weighted as 1)
...then this would create a model where a good overall fighter (good balance, dexterity, planning etc.) with a poor handling of the particular weapon (too heavy, little quality training etc.) would result in a moderate overall result.

It'd certainly be better than the current system whereby all someone has to do is look at one's weapons, and wait until they attack someone to see their skill and know everything there is to know about their fighting ability.

[Pie]

And, this time, lets just have it for newspawnes.

It would be a welcom change to some, but, as you know, some people alredy have there wepons of coice. so, only newspawnes.

[AoM]

I don't want a reset of the values for everyone. If someone is an expert fighter right now, this shouldn't hurt them.

Perhaps, it could instead be a change in the rate of improvement for a certain category.


So let's take the example of a person who is naturally good at bare-fisted fighting... Overall, he's an awkward fighter in our current skill system. If he trains with his fists, he will get better at bare-handed fighting, if he trains with a bow, he will get better at shooting a bow. BUT, the specialization means that he will improve his bare-handed fighting quicker than he will improve his skill with the bow.


I will readily admit that I do not know how easy this will be to implement, and I would frown upon it if it required that the skill sets be randomized once again. But I really don't think that should be the case, since my idea doesn't change the overall ability of the character, just the rates in which they improve.

It also makes it so you improve only what you practice. If you start off as a novice fighter, and you train up to expert with an axe, if you pick up a halberd you will only attack as a novice again.

*******

As for how unnecessary this change is, I really don't view it as any different from some of the other requests about the skill system. How much of a "bloat" is it really going to be on the programming end? Can someone from PrgD give us an idea?

According to the way I've tried to explain this, it shouldn't require a skill reset. As I said at the top, if you're an expert now, you'll still be an expert after the specialization change. It's not going to throw your character identities into chaos again like the original skill implementation did. We already have a base system in place, this would be tweaking it, not rewriting the whole thing. (I hope.)

[kabl00ey]

The implementation of this idea I suggested wouldn't reset the skill levels, although it would alter them a bit. If you were excellent at fighting before, you'd be excellent after - the only difference being that you'd now be a bit worse than excellent in some weapons, merely excellent in others, and better-than-excellent in yet other weapons.

[Pie]

oo.. so your saying, since i am expert at attaking, i will have some things that i stink at, some things that ime good at, and some things that i am expert at?

BUT ALL I HAVE FOR A WEPON IS A BONE CLUB!!!!

[creepyguyinblack]

If this did happen, I'd like there to be few enough groups of weapon skill sets to have a few weapons in each category, especially enough variety through material levels so if you happened to be be better at improving a specific class, there should be at least one weapon in each category that can be made from the very basics, as well as a weapon that is fairly useable at the upper range.

[Seeker]

How the hell? There must be something in our water, I was thinking about suggesting this too! I even thought of the whole categories thing...

Well, anyway, this is a great idea. With categories we can have people specializing as archers, fighters...and a few other odd soldier type people.

[wulf]

I'm not keen - I like playing in a game that is a society simulator and I don't want to end up surrounded by uber-munchkins trying to max out their skills six different weapon groups.

Wulf