Dual Wielding, does it have an effect?

[SkeleRanger]

I searched the forums and all I found was some old wish-list threads. Equiping two weapons looks cool, obviously, but does it have an effect, positive or negative? I tried it and I seem to be landing less hits than otherwise. Thanks and sorry if I missed something in the manual.

[Gilrond]

It does have an effect - you hit twice. However it doesn't allow one to use shields, so the defense is sacrificed.

[SkeleRanger]

Ah, thanks. It doesn't cause any attack penalty though?

PS: I also just realized my weapons have been worn down, so that's probably why I was getting such poor results.

[LigH]

The weapon itself has its own penalty: Attacking with weapons is slower than attacking barehanded, you hit less often.

But of course you will deal more damage per hit with weapons, unless you are a Melee expert, or your weapons are already dull and need a repair.

[Minks]

And another hint: People who train the weapon repair skill will often happily repair your weapons for free, because they have trouble finding training objects. (Same goes for armor.)

[Mordaan]

Add to that, with the Google Summer of Code project, this is one of the areas being looked at, so maybe by the end of the summer we'll see some enhancements here.  In this writeup there are several references to dual weapons and how it could be handled differently.  

Particularly this quote
"    * make single wielding and dual wielding matter, for instance a dual wielding attack may do half the damage per hit, or maybe even less but give a better chance at a special effect? "

It will be interesting to see what comes of this.

[Gilrond]

* make single wielding and dual wielding matter, for instance a dual wielding attack may do half the damage per hit, or maybe even less but give a better chance at a special effect? "

This doesn't sound reasonable to me. However left hand / right hand difference is more to the point. In general dual wielding is a master technique. I.e. it's not suitable for beginners. So may be it should be restricted to higher skill levels also. But making half damage has really nothing to do with it. And surely wielding two huge battle axes / claymores is not realistic, unless the char is a Kran probably.

[Aramara Meibi]

there are right and left handed (and ambidextrous) people in RL, why shouldn't there be so in PS?

I do think there should be a restriction for heavier weapons (anything >= longsword, really) in that you can only equip one at a time. I think those should be considered two handed weapons, meaning you need to use both hands to wield one.

[Sarras Volcae]

you can't dual wield longswords. not efficiently, at least.

for dual wielding, the strength behind each attack should be considerably less than a two-handed attack. you're not able to use your whole body in the attack, so the force you exert is obviously less. if you don't get this, have someone pitch a baseball to you. swing with both hands. then try swinging with one hand while holding another bat in your non-dominant hand. you'll see the difference.

would be cool if this was actually implemented. 

[LigH]

Claymores should be two-handed weapons. Quarterstaffs probably too.

PlaneShift does not yet support two-handed weapons by blocking the other hand, or even special animations, but this will certainly be a target for development.

[Karlyle]

Is quartestaff training even implemented yet?  Unless I am wrong, it is part of spear training correct?

[LigH]

Yes, the skill is called "Polearm and Spear", IIRC; but I am not sure if it is implemented regarding practice – at least a theory trainer may be available.

[Sarva]

I believe quarterstaff can be trained using mace and hammer skill.

[Karlyle]

Oh really, thanks