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Nothing works with shield animations. Or mounts

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Swords (and all other melee weapons) are unrealistic is just about every video and role-playing game with “stats” for Strength and Agility etc.

Just about every weapon benefits from both being strong and for being agile. Most martial artists aren’t exactly bulky guys, but they can swing swords, axes, maces etc. with ease. On the other hand, if you’re strong but clumsy, you end up missing your swings with axes and maces, or hitting at an angle that gets deflected by armor.

Another point that is often neglected is that two-handed weapons actually need less strength to use properly than one-handed weapons. The leverage and control are a lot better when you have both hands on the hilt.

And yes, as LostBrythunian said, most swords are pretty useless against any form of armor. Or at least you’d need to grab the sword at the blade and smash the enemy with the crossguard or pommel - just as most medieval swordfighting manuscripts instruct.

The greatest advantage swords have over other weapon types is - they’re cool. That’s why they’re ubiquitous in all fantasy and mock-historical fiction. The only historical army of significance that armed its soldiers with swords as their main weapons, rather than backup weapons, was Rome (and one might argue the even for them, the shield was the main weapon and the gladius was just the tool for killing). And the Legions were optimized to fight in tight formations against mostly unarmed barbarians, and they struggled mightily when facing other heavily armored armies such as Scythians or some elite Gauls.

Spain also tested using rodeleros with swords and shields to support pike formations and to flank enemy pike formations in the 15th and 16th centuries, but the rodeleros turned out inefficient and too vulnerable and were phased out pretty quickly. They had better success fighting against lightly armored native Mexicans as what became known as Conquistadors.

But when we see movies or games where heroes are in focus, they’re usually wielding swords, cutting through armor and bone like wet tissue paper. Conan, Aragorn, Geralt etc. all use swords, and they’re really cool. But it’s fantasy.

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It would be cool if they were reversed, so swords had 0 AP and cause bleed, and axes shield-smash and had amour pen.

Or even that they had no main weapon but rather a “soldier’s tool kit” made up of shield, gladius and pilum.

A hisorical wargamer I knew once explained it to me like this: there’s soldiers and warriors. Warriors are highly trained to be dangerous individuals. Soldiers are highly trained to be part of a dangerous unit. An army of soldiers (i.e. Roman legionaries) usually ends up winning over an army of warriors, even if a lone warrior may have the advantage over a lone soldier.

I’m bringing this up because you could say that a longsword is a tool for a warrior, but a gladius is a tool for a soldier. I think it’s an interesting way to look at it. Our characters are warriors, and generally in PVP shortswords are much worse than longswords.

I do like the OP’s idea though. Pre 3.0 I was hoping 1H swords would use whatever was the higher of your two combat attributes, but I like how it is now too.

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This one would add another advantage for swords.
They are extremely convenient to carry.
For a weapon of war, they are rarely optimal.
For a tool of personal defense, a pre-modern daily carry so to speak, they excel.
Armour is rarely worn off the field, the narrow profile makes for easy wearing and readying. The wide area that is sharp/dangerous makes it versatile enough to use in a press or in an impromptu duel. They are also fairly durable.
For those who like status, we can double down on the cool factor.
For many sword designs, it is extremely easy to add bling to the item without interfering with it’s usability. That goes a long way for showing off status, or informing hostiles that this person is a valuable hostage to be sold, not an annoyance to be dispatched.

For field use, without going into mordhau, there are a few other main weapon cases, but they were almost universally used as part of a unit.
Doppelsoldern, Landsknecht who used Zweihänder/Beidenhändern(anachronistic terminology) had the joy of being deployed against Pike.
Likewise, throughout history, China and Japan both used significant anti-cavalry swords. Altho the line where sword ends and polearm begins can blur.

Back to game…
This one would very much like the ability to apply illusions from any one handed sword to any other, including Shortswords.
Likewise, all two-handed swords, great swords and Katanas being able to wear each other illusions would be nice.
However, this one understands it may hit a technical limitation and would definitely be a concern in PvP (then again, Godbreaker armour that looks like hobo rags is already top tier trolling).

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i just want the old 1h sword combo animation back

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I’ve been meaning to test to see if I could make a katana look like a great sword. I guess that’s a no? :face_with_diagonal_mouth:

They are also very frightening to be faced with. More so than a pointy stick or a club.

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I think it has some merit…but I would say light attacks are agility while heavy attacks are strength. No hybrid complexity for bonuses. You got agility light attacks and bonuses therein and strength heavy attacks and bonuses therein. This makes some combo armors mean something more but isn’t abused to mix max

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I don’t remember how it looked, but I don’t care, bring it back!
Now it is so wonky, especially with a shield, the sword does not even go that direction where the crosshair is. It goes left, it goes right, so wrong.

With all respect, PLEAEE NOOOO!
But out of curiosity: what would their animations be? The moveset would remain, or the illusion’s moveset would be applied? We already have “illusioned” weapons such as the Lying bastard or the Strange mace. Those are okay, but no more transmog :cry: .

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True. I know some people who call the greatsword a “sword-shaped polearm”, and some glaive-like polearms are really just two-handed swords with a longer hilt. I guess I can understand the argument about the greatsword, as many of the techniques used with it are quite different from what one might call fencing or swordplay.

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Would be nice if Swords (or other weapons) can be either Str/Agi base or maybe add new ones of the same weapon grade.

Example, the Black Ice:

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just an idea that this could gives more builds variety.

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I think he means the moveset would remain. So there could be straight bladed 2-hand swords with the katana moveset and vice versa.

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Moveset would remain the same as the base weapon. Just the looks change.
Stance, attack, and controlling attribute all remain as per the base item.
Literally only a skin.

For actual weapon types that use alternative movesets or stats, this one would confine that to legendaries.

Also, this one would very much like a Black Ice Shortsword and Black Ice claws.

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Count me on this too!

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The more I think about it, I like my idea (bias? what’s that?) of light attacks are agility and heavy attacks are strength. That way all weapons are accessible to the whatever build you want. Do you want quick small attacks that do less stamina drain or slower more damaging attacks that drain your stamina more or do you do a little of both? I would also make Shield a strength based item and bow agility based so that there is overall balance in it.

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The more I think about it, the more I like your idea, too. Some weapons are naturally more suitable for agile use and some are more suitable for smashing, so making the light/heavy attack division the deciding factor would be elegant. That way they could use the animation speed and damage modifiers to encourage a certain style, but it would not lock people with the wrong attributes out of using a weapon altogether. Some weapons could have combos with which it might be more advantageous to utilize attacks of the “weaker” type in between the stronger attacks, depending on the animation speed, reach, AOE and effects.

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How would you address “special” attacks?
Such as the great sword over head chop, the shortsword retreating strike, kicks, katana Iaijutsu rush, ect?

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My immediate would be to not include them for bonus but a more appropriate would be half the average of strength and agility bonus.

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