Shattered Kingdoms

The Weapons System has literally brought very little to the game other than taking quick balancing issues out of builders hands and causing detrimental boom/bust in different weapon "types".

Damn near everything worked better before the weapon system was created, most of the tie-ins are just as horrible. Haste change. Third/Fourth attack not actually giving four attacks anymore. Spec wars. Go down the list and you'd be hard pressed to see anything more "fun" about the new system.

You could even salvage the few good things about the system pretty easily.Spec could be saved by making it a single spec in a weapon type such as sword or axe, and giving each one a different benefit. Create the ability for builders to give a reach flag to weapons. Done. You've successfully taken all the good things that came out of the weapon system.

Just like the recall change of years past, this among other things should really stop being band-aided over and over and just be relegated to the garbage bin.

Good luck with this one. I don't think you've got a snowball's chance in hell at getting this rollback.

The change to haste was much needed as that spell was completely overpowered.

I don't see a problem with these so-called "spec wars." It is just an extension of tactics, and you can't help it if people hype a particular thing.

Fourth attack also only had about a 50% chance of firing off on the old weapon code. Most mercs and barbarians were relegated to having only 3 attacks a round, while now they are capable of getting 5 attacks.

It's also sped up leveling because you don't have to worry about getting a level 50 weapon to hit 200 damage a hit.

Personally I kinda like the weapon system because it makes you think more about what weapon you want to use based on do you want more damage or do you want more speed and so on.

I would however agree that you should be able to spec in a weapon class such as axe and sword instead of just one specific weapon because with the constant tweaking of weapons, it's almost dangerous to spec into what is a good weapon at the present time since it maybe changed into something that isn't that good, or other weapons could be changed into something that is better and you are stuck with what ever you speced in since there is no refunds.

Spec Exotic

(Bandalore, Kama, Sickle, Orbs, etc sick weapons)

I think dulrik should make a random spec changer, where every monthly reboot all the subtypes change!

A lot of this information just flat out isn't true.

Haste was very powerful, however it wasn't widely used at all because of the whole lose a year for every use bit, if people started using it too much it could only have easily been tweaked to be less likely to be used. Instead a wide array of NPCs were horribly wimped, and now haste has become the new giant strength pushing the game even further towards buff wars.

The problem with spec wars is that there is very little middle ground. Either every weapon is exactly equal in terms of usefulness, or there are always going to be weapons that are favored over others. So what happens? Less of those inferior weapons are made by builders. So weapons like short swords or machetes for instance whose only advantage realistically would be their sheer number will always be harder to find than whatever weapons are better than them. This is damn near unresolvable. That's completely ignoring the fact that any balance issues basically require the single coder to put time into weapon balance instead of coding new features, instead of just letting the builders tone down the specific weapons that are a bit overpowered.

I don't know about you, but considering most of the weapons that fourth attack users used on a regular basis there is no way unbuffed that fourth attack fires more often now. Most standard Merc/Barb weapons require haste to even think about getting a fourth attack.

Even the serrated swords/barbed shortswords did more damage on average than everything except perhaps great axes. That's not even talking about anything better than that which there was plenty.

Haste was used by necromancer and sorcerers, not by the melee classes that could have benefited from it most. It offered no penalty to charmable NPCs or controllable undead which would kill other less efficient PCs through sheer volume of attacks. Your assertion that it wasn't widely used is false, because it was used, just not frequented by the classes that actually depend on weaponry.

I'd never be for returning to the old style of haste as it was one of the contributing factors to spellcaster superiority over melee.

I don't even care about spec wars. It's just like everybody wanted the mottled lance or Hammer members wanting the HHL. These things will never change.

Just change it so all weapons have to equal 0 between the three attributes.

IE, set a baseline for dmg/acc/speed (say 7) and anything under 7 is minus that number, anything above it is + that number, and 7 is zero.

So there would be no best. The average would always be 0 (it must be zero), and thus, you would no longer have a best overall, but bests in certain situations and it'd even out this whole thing.

I would like to suggest that material and level of weapon should increase its overall damage, however. So the damage done now by a level 50 merc with a level 5 wooden spear would be less than what he'd do now, but a level 50 merc with a level 50 adamantite spear be the same as it is now with any spear.

This way, still elite weapons, but its not a 'must have'.

There's already a damage bonus to certain materials.

And I'd still prefer an adamantite spear over a tanso steel spear.

Maybe if Dulrik would fix the economic system the differences in materials would be more evident.