What with the new "dynamic combat" thats been hinted at, it seems as if an overhaul to the vanilla damage/damage resistance should be done, it's quite an archaic system. I balled around this idea with friends and it seems like it would be a good numerical-based damage system that would improve the damage and armor values. it's somewhat similar to the New Vegas armor system, but is greatly modified to apply to melee weapons and medieval style armor.

Instead of the basic "damage" for everything and the basic Damage resistance that armor provides, perhaps there can be new "Damage Type Modifiers" for each weapon; Piercing, Blunt, and Magical, to be exact. light, medium, and heavy armors would keep the normal damage resistance curve, but along with that, each weapon and piece of armor has it's own damage type multipliers or damage type resistances. Piercing damage could create a raw damage multiplier, but also multiply the opponents DR value and reduce the amount of fatigue damage the weapon does. Blunt damage causes a negative multiplier effect and the weapon does less raw damage, but does more damage to fatigue, gives a chance of knocking opponents down, and negates a percentage of armor value. Magical damage could negate armor values all together, simply being neutral damage.

All weapons could have varying degrees of damage type multipliers, each type of attack for each weapon could receive a certain damage type ratio. For example: A longsword's default attack could offer a more balance ratio between piercing and blunt damage, wheres a thrusting power attack or cleaving power attack would either add a bias in favor of piercing damage or blunt damage. As objects get larger and heavier and higher quality they have a more balanced and higher ratio. Small maces could have blunt force only, but when you get to spiked war hammers they can have quite high blunt and piercing multipliers, and depending on the type of attack you perform, it changes those ratios. A cleave with a sword would be biased more in favor of blunt damage, wheres a stab or thrust would be biased in favor of piercing damage.

I always thought it was a bit weird that an ebony warhammer does like 3x the damage of a steel one. If they used damage type multipliers instead, you could simply give high quality weapons a higher multiplier so they simply perform more reliably and effectively in combat based on the type of armor they are facing, penetrating cheap armor with ease and knocking opponents off their feet frequently. Where an iron long sword would often bounce off of mid-range heavy armor and the user would barely feel the impact, an ebony or daedric long sword will come crashing down on the armor and penetrate it, causing both fatigue damage and penetrating some of the armor causing some sharp damage.

Like weapons, armor could have their own damage resistances. Light armor (or no armor) could be susceptible to piercing damage multipliers as sharp, stabbing attacks easily penetrate the armor, but be resistant to blunt multipliers as users can slip away from the momentum of the blunt attack. Heavy armor could be very resilient to piercing damage as swords simply slip or bounce off their heavy armor, but be very susceptible to blunt modifiers as blunt weapons come crashing down on their heavy armor. If a user wearing heavy armor is hit with a blunt weapon/attack, the magnitude of the blunt multplier will increase the chance of the user losing their balance, and likewise it will make them more susceptible to fatigue loss as the momentum of the blunt attacks cause them to move around in their heavy suit. People more skilled in certain types of armor will gain natural damage type resistances while wearing the type of armor they are skilled in. A master of light armor will easily be able to duck and dodge and spring off off blunt attacks, while still being resilient to sword attacks, and masterful heavy armor user has a good sense of balance and agility so they will be almost entirely resilient to piercing damage, and they will be able to retain balance when being hit with blunt objects better than before.

The general idea would be to give each type of armor it's own benefits that the player can use to their particular playing style. When fighting slow moving, brutish opponents, agile sword wielding characters will need to focus on fatigue-draining attacks and aim for weak points or unarmored areas on the person's body, whereas the slow brutish opponent will need to focus on sharp, piercing attacks to fight the agile and lightweight opponent.

I agree completely with the view of how a weapon's material shouldn't give it such an obscenely higher base damage. You're still using it largely the same way.
As for the rest, I like it.

You have some good ideas but I disagree with blunt weak against light armor and strong against heavy armor. Ever drop something heavy on your foot? You come to like your steel toe boots when that happens.
A little off topic, I would be thrilled if the developers used some high quality sound effects. I want my heavy plate armor to ring when it gets hit by a blunt object.

Like Runescape, basically?

What about slashing weapons?

:goodjob:

I agree with having different damagetypes and resistances/dmg thresholds accordingly. I think there needs to be a difference between using diffrent weapons/means to cause damage. A balanced implementation can be tricky, but in no way is it impossible or something that shouldn't be even attempted. It would add much to the combat of the game over the tired system of "one damage - one resistance - regardless of used weapon".

Well, the idea would be that you can move your body quickly to lessen the heavy blow.

If you're standing there in a 100+ lbs suit of heavy, rigid armor, the thing is going to take the full 100% momentum of the blow and that blow is going to put the heavy suit into motion. War Hammers were actually deigned for such a purpose, to cause blunt force damage against hardened armors. The general idea would be that agile characters and agility-based armors would be less susceptible to blunt force since they are lightweight and mailable, ergo they disperse the kinetic energy of the blow or they dodge it just enough that they never even take much of the blow to start with. It could always be made so lightweight people are more likely to get knocked down by heavy blows; but I think that people in heavy armor should get their fatigue drained by heavy blunt impacts, and if they get knocked down they should be in real trouble.

Also, the lightweight armor is made of soft material and will absorb the impact, whereas heavy armor is completely solid and will ring like a gong when it's hit.



I played that when I was like, 13, so I don't know. I didn't understand the ins and outs of armor and weapons. Either way runescape isn't deserving of such a fine idea