OLYMPIA: Melee Weapons From: morrow@romulus.rutgers.edu (John Morrow) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1992 01:14:04 +0000 Taking a quick look at the market reports, I notice a sever imbalance between the number of melee weapons and missile weapons. That imbalance, specificly, is that there is one melee weapon, the longsword [10] and no less than 3 missile weapons, the longbow [20], the crossbow [9], and the javelin [14]. I am sure this has been pointed out before. I offer the following suggestions: Three more melee weapons be added as follows: ITEM BUYS SELLS WEIGHT dagger ~5 ~8 2 wpn 4 axe ~10 ~13 5 wpn 7 two-handed sword ~28 ~32 14 wpn 13 Add one more missile weapon with changes as follows: ITEM BUYS SELLS WEIGHT shortbow ~10 ~15 4 wpn 10 longbow ~18 ~22 6 wpn 12 Each item weapons, armor, and others, be given a "break percentage". Every time a unit holding the item goes into combat (or, perhaps, every round), the item is checked to see if it will break. This is realistic when applied to weapons and armor (allowing them to wear out) and is also suitable for horses (dying in combat) and other items. This would reduce the "once you buy it, it exists forever" feel of things. If the above idea is implimented, you could have broken items converted into a new item called "broken X" such as "broken longsword". These could be "DISCARD"ed or "DROP"ed (new command) or... Reimplement Weaponsmithing [117] as well as Bowyer and Armorsmithing. Weaponsmithing would work something like shipbuilding. You would get a level of fixing and then a level of making as follows: LEVEL EFFECT 1 Fix daggers 2 Make daggers 3 Fix axes 4 Make axes 5 Fix longswords 6 Make longswords 7 Fix two-handed swords 8 Make two-handed swords 9 Fix enchanted weapons 10 Make enchanted weapons The input for making weapons would be metal ore + lumber (forges and assesories) + time. The input for fixing weapons would be a broken weapon + time (and, perhaps, lumber and metal ore). If you add another missile weapon, bowyer would be similar. You have 5 types of armor that I am aware of but I am sure armorsmithing could be squeezed in easily along the same lines. You would need to create an item, leather, for leather jerkins. I would suggest simply having "metal ore" and not worrying about the difference between bronze and iron for the rest. Keep the production rate for making fairly low and this shouldn't upset things. The idea here is to add a few more options (more melee weapons, a couple of skills) as well as the realism of weapons and armor and horses wearing out after a great deal of use. I think this would be relatively simple to implement and, by having things wear out, it would not create an economy where things are created but never destroyed (unless sold -- sort of). Once equipped, an army need never outfit again as things stand now. I think that is unrealistic. In addition, those of us in the new world have been stuck with longswords being available in only one place. I think a variety of melee weapons would solve this, much the same way a variety of armors and missile weapons has solved this problem in those areas. On top of that, for the people who don't want to deal with it, the only thing they will HAVE to deal with is replacing broken weapons. So, what do you think? John Morrow ( Varian [856] ) morrow@remus.rutgers.edu Referenced By Up