Armor Piercing Weapons

[rklenseth]

As you all will notice, I have added a new weapon called the pilum, a throwing spear used by the Romans to pierce through the armor and shields of enemies. We already have other armor piercing types of weapons like the claymore in the game.

One major improvement to Cantr combat I would like to see is the ability to have a greater chance of piercing through shields (and eventually armor) using certain types of weapons. The way this could work is already you have a certain chance of by passing the shield. Just allow certain weapons to have a greater chance of going through certain shields and armors. This could also lead to different types of metals like bronze whose effectiveness would be less against stronger metals like iron and steel.

[Revanael]

For true accuracy, you'd want the pilum to make the shield unusable. And to be one-use only.

The basic idea behind the pilum's design was that it has a long, soft, iron head, that would pierce straight through a shield and then bend and stick there. The shield, having a long length of iron and wood sticking out of it, would become very difficult to wield. The other benefit of the bending is that the pilum cannot be thrown back.

[rklenseth]

Yes, true but I'm just starting out basic right now. What would be easiest to program. I gave Jos a while back my whole big idea for armor and how it would work but that would require a lot of programming. Jos seemed to like it but they were working on other things at the time. In fact, I'll post those ideas here in a minute as soon as I can find the pm.

[rklenseth]

I have been thinking about how we could implement armor into the current system. And I have come up with an idea that might or might not work.

Well here it is;

We all know how certain weapons have a certain type of damage like slash, blundgeon, and stab. Well, I was thinking we could add in armor as clothing and then add in some new programming that determines whether or not that clothing protects against a certain type of weapons. Like regular clothing would have not protect against any damge type except perhaps the silk against stab damage. Harden leather armor would have percentage of a chance of blocking against a certain type of damage or even a certain type of weapons.

For example:

Leather Armor

Has 50% chance at blocking stab attacks
Has 20% chance at blocking blundgeon attacks
Has 40% chance at blocking stab attacks
Has 30% chance at blocking light weapons
Has 0% chance at blocking heavy weapons


Plate Mail Armor

Has 70% chance at blocking stab attacks
Has 60% chance at blocking blundgeon attacks
Has 80% chance at blocking slash attacks
Has 90% chance at blocking light weapons
Has 40% chance at blocking heavy weapons


Weapons would have to have a few programming option added to them like;

Longbow

Attacks Allowed: *Stab 100%*
Weapon Type: Light, **Ranged 50 yards**

*This to determine type of damage; some weapons might have more than one type of damage. Also it will determine effectiveness of attack such as some weapons are designed for a certain type of attack but can always be used another way but it won't be as effective as doing it the way it was designed for.
**For later use when Ranged and Melee weapons will be different

Claymore

Attacks Allowed: Stab 70%, Slash 100%, Blundgeon 30%
Weapon Type: Heavy, Melee 5 feet


These are just some ideas I've been working with and I wanted to know what you thought.

[west]

west likee.

[rklenseth]

For true accuracy, you'd want the pilum to make the shield unusable. And to be one-use only.

But we techincally can do that with deterioration. Put the use all the way so that it can be used only once because on the first use it would be destroyed.

The shield unusable part would be great but right now would require a lot more programming than what we have.

[Revanael]

Oooh. Nicey!

Though... There's also the fact that armour will lessen some damage and block blows completely only rarely...

That could be relatively simple, though... Would it work if, say, a certain type of armour reduced it's percentage of the damage, and then had a chance equal to half (or some other simple portion) of the percentage of blocking the blow completely? Or would it be necessary to have two separate values?

[Solfius]

I think that, after the intial chance to ascertain if the armour has the chance to block, that a weighted percentage of damage reduction is applied (random percentage plus a constant, and the constant could depend on quality - I see potential for a quality system here or at least making it easier to implement)

I like this idea.

[rklenseth]

I think that, after the intial chance to ascertain if the armour has the chance to block, that a weighted percentage of damage reduction is applied (random percentage plus a constant, and the constant could depend on quality - I see potential for a quality system here or at least making it easier to implement)

I like this idea.

My thoughts exactly. First it would determine whether you actual hit the person or not and whether or not the person blocks with a shield or a weapon that has the ability to parry (which is already somewhat programmed in). If the person misses then no need to do determine anything else but then it would determine weapon vs. block (shield or weapon being used to parry) and if there isn't any block or if the block fails then we would determine weapon vs. armor. And finally we would get what kind of damage if any is dealt to a person.

[Nick]

This sounds more like I had pictured the violence system would evolve into.
But there are already so many things that the programmers have to do.
And they're volunteers.

[nitefyre]

Yeah, the long term agenda looks promising. If, as Nick mentioned, the Programmers could do it.

Nice work, RKL. Or thinking.

[SekoETC]

But on close distance and with a longish weapon, it's pretty damn hard to dodge anything...

[Solfius]

perhaps in about 5 years time when I'm in my 3rd or 4th year of a Masters degree in computer science I could produce Cantr 3 for my individual/group project, I think that constitutes a "major undertaking"

hmm...*muses*

[JoeF]

I can't wait for this. I was going to add a point but everything has been answered already!

We already have other armor piercing types of weapons like the claymore in the game.

Sweet, my Stone Knight has a Claymore! I was thinking though... Isn't Claymore a 2 handed sword? Surely I wouldn't be able to carry a shield and a Claymore? Not that I'm complaining! But once armour is in, maybe you should make weapons like this 2 handed by making the shield void...? The sword will have a chance of a parry anyway won't it?

[Solfius]

I never heard of the hand to hand weapon before it was put in game. I thought they had implemented anti-personnel land mines