thoughts on weaponry

[Antigrav]

To the point: Swords are way too heavy. 10 pounds? I realize there are game-balancing reasons for this, but it strikes me as a bit silly. I had a two-handed sword with a 48" blade that weighed a hefty 4.5 pounds, and that was regular old steel. An idea: Bludgeoning weapons should be the heaviest by far, and as compensation for this, they could practically ignore armor. Swords, on the other hand, could be more accurate but more limited in their damage. Axes could be a compromise between the two, doing more damage to armored opponent than swords, but also easier to wield than a big ol' hammer.

Thoughts?

[Kreador Freeaxe]

The problem is that real world weapons are a lot more complex than your breakdown. For instance, both a staff and a hammer are bludgeoning weapons, but a staff is light and not terribly useful against an armored opponent, except in getting him off his feet, whereas a big old hammer will do a lot of damage, but is much slower and heavier to use. Swords come in lots of varieties, depending on the particular method of combat, from rapiers to claymores, with distinctions for things like scimitars, that are cleaving weapons in reality but still in the sword category. Axes are damaging, but terribly difficult to use properly in a fighting context, and there's a distinction between the poleaxes, which are terrific in a phalanx battle style or against mounted opponents, and the various kinds of battle axes, and even tomahawks.

For game purposes, it's just better to keep it simple. Humans are far too adept at figuring out ways to use things to kill each other for a game to easily keep up.

[Unclever title]

Out of blatant curiosity how does weapon weight play into the battle mechanics? This question I guess applies to both Books I and II (and eventually III when it becomes more relevant).

I know it it works as an inventory limiter and has appropriate limitations on casting in Book I, but does it play into the damage an enemy receives? Is it a counter-effect to strength?

Seems to me rather than bother making the weapon type distinction weapon weight can be broadly applied to armor bashing, then afterward specialized weapon type distinctions could be applied such as an Axe be a more efficient method of perchance getting a critical hit against an armored foe.

Though, I am with Freeaxe (appropriate user name for the discussion I might add) here on going too far into the complexities of weapon mechanics, particularly for Eschalon.

Though Basilisk Wrangler has brought up a game idea separate from the Eschalon series (currently hypothetical as I understand) that would focus on such weapon complexities. But that's for another time.

[CrazyBernie]

From my understanding of Eschalon's gameplay mechanics, item weight only affects your carrying capacity. Higher quality weapons/armor = higher weight. This is so you don't have high level mages with a Strength of 10 running around with full plate adamantium armor and an adamantium two-handed sword. It's a fairly simple system. I've mentioned changing it to BW before... but don't expect it to happen by the time B2 comes out. I think it'd be a bit too much work at this point considering the nature of the random loot generator... especially with the increase in loot planned for B2.

[The Noid]

I always liked the way Angband did things, where attack speed is a function of strength and weapon weight.