Shields

[eggplantboy]

Hello all,

Pardon me if there is a thread that addersses this question but I could not find one. I heard a rumor in another thread that shields may have been implemented recently. Is this so?

-Thanks

[sesmi]

Shields have been implemented for about a year now :|

[stfrn]

What sesmi means is that you can buy and wear a shield, but you get no more benift from it. Infact, since you attack with both hands when empty, you do worse in combat when you are holding a shield. This is not how things should be working of course, but what combat is an area of code that has proven to be tricky to change.

[Gripen]

Hmm. I do recal this being in another thread.  I do not know of the implementation a year agon--I wasn\'t here, and I find nothing of it.

I do know that when I started this year, there were threads about shields being a waste of time because they don\'t work. However, since then, there was and update that made shields effective--not for attack, but for defense.  Of course, I\'d assume--as with everything else--that one would need skill in the use of shields in order for them to be anything more than extra weight.  this is what the update Iread was about, that shield skill was now activated and so were the shields, and armor. (Supposedly, before the only armor skill that worked was light armor.)

We do attack with both hands, and we can defend with weapons--if our skill with that weapon is sufficient and so is our strenght to carry it.

Of course, changes are always happening, and where you get your updates seems to also affect what you are working with in client.  Therefore, not being a developer, I could be w-w-w-wrong.

[Pestilence]

In these days we experienced many problem on the server side, it was quite unstable. Most issues have been identified and it should be better from now on.

In the meantime we dedicated some time to improve the combat rules, after your comments about the stats (strength,...) not influencing much combat. We retested the whole system and come up with a solution that we deployed into the production server this morning. Now higher stats should make a lot more difference than before in the final damage resolution. The change took some time due to the number of features present in the system:

Every weapon category has different effect based on the armor type it hits. A broadsword will damage differently a chain mail armor compared to an axe.

When in combat you can change the \"combat stance\" to focus more on attack or defense.

At every hit the opponent can block your hit with his weapons, with his shield, or with his skills. We also have in place values for counter hit, giving a change to stop the counter attack. Each weapon type has different values.

Armor worn and other equipment counts also as maluses to your agility in combat, so wearing an heavy armor with little skill, will not protect you much, because you cannot move easily into the armor.

Many of these features are probably not so easy to identify, but are there and you can take advantage of those testing with different weapons and armors.

Let us know if the tweak we made to the rules are better or worst.

This is the only official announcement I can remember suggesting shields work.