Shattered Kingdoms

They were kamas at first. I know because kilia had a swashie in the druids back then when I had a char in and she had them. Then they were changed. Unfortunately, it was only one of the few wimping changes.

Again with the wimping, jeez.

You say SK is full of OP items that make melee OP.

I didn't say that, I don't think anyone did since many of them were saying how these "elite" weapons are the same as their steel, tanso steel counterparts as far as damage is concerned.

Your idea reeks of failure.

Besides you're saying make less elite loot and make more elite loot at the same time.

Just look at the spiral wires. The damage they do is inferior because they are the rapier subtype. Even though they have scripts that make them very attractive, swashbucklers don't tend to use them because the damage the rapier subtype outputs is utter trash. Give an increase to the bottom tier and a decrease to the upper tier, a pinch, really, and more experimentation and a wider array of weapons will be used.

Adding scripts isn't going to make a weapon more attractive when it already sucks.

It's ELITE vs elite.

If the spiral wires are energy and kamas, they are ELITE.

If they are rapiers and mithril, they are elite.

Why is none using them?

Because there are enough kamas out there anyway.

So limit the amount of good material khopeshes/kamas/battlespears(not necessarily by changing everything that exists, simply don't add more), and the elite ideas that you have for weapons' scripts, let them be implemented in less attractive subtypes. If there are only 2 good material khopeshes in SK and 2 mithril ones, do you think that all people will use them? Probably not. Will they seek them out as they did with the old mottled lance? Probably yes.

The two fundamental changes which I see in this thread are those of limiting the size-bonus to damage to races, rather than purely size, aswell as removing the bonus damage from bash.

I agree wholeheartedly with those.

The buff to mercs/barbs was made in response to casters being absolutely overpowered following the implementation of art, and what I believe that we should be careful of now is to not usher in a new era of caster-domination. That is why I agree that this nerf to melee classes (which is direly needed, I might add) is done gradually. Some of it has to do with loot, but that is a very minor factor, because as someone pointed out, a giant merc with a steel khopesh is still horrible dangerous - especially to casters, because that steel weapon won't break on the fur hide of your pet.

I recommend removing the two instances that I mentioned in the opening paragraph, the bash bonus and the artificial enlargement bonus. After that, a month or so can be reserved for ... feedback. (Although I believe that the result will be the same, even medium-sized warrior classes can deal out horrendous amounts of damage with little or no preparation)

ADDENDUM: The primary problem with auto assist seems to be the double rounds of attacks, though I must confess that I have not played a melee character for some time and I do not know whether this has been fixed. As has already been mentioned, Finney's suggested change to the auto assist system severely problematizes the working of sanctuary, which are central to both PvP and PvE as it is.

Regards,
Konge.

From my few weeks that I played a merc, the auto-assist thing seemed to be completely broken, I wouldn't get a double round, I wouldn't even get a normal round, using a battle-whip I spec'd with, whenever I was auto-assisting, the first round I would get 1 and only 1 attack.

Removing the bonus damage from casting enlarge on someone and eliminating the +damage from hitting someone who is resting would wimp warriors a fair amount I suppose, but the larger issue is making adamantite spears do more damage than tanso steel ones.

I disagree. The maximum potential of warriors should be limited, not the miminum one.