Shattered Kingdoms

I'm almost positive if you have MP on your breastplate for example, and you get hit in the chest area, the MP on your breastplate does reduce the damage from the hit.

If your hit in the feet, and your boots do not have any MP then no dmg is soaked...

Concerning normal weapons I believe Lakir is right, but, with magical damage, I think just like a spell, it factors in all of your MP(for the magical half of the damage at least, since all magic weapons are 50/50 or whatever)? I could be mistaken, but that's the impression I've been working with.

This is pretty much the same argument that Algon made, with that argument being that melee damage has always been this high, but that in the past it required an elite weapon and now it can be done more easily because of weapon sub-types.

This is not really accurate. Before the addition of weapon sub-types and specialization, it was quite common for attacks to miss or get dodged, parried or blocked. It was also fairly common not to get full attack routines. However, with the bonus to accuracy and speed provided by specialization, getting blocked, dodged, or parried is very infrequent. Furthermore, with my specialized weapon, I always get three attacks and usually get four - unhasted.

So while the potential to do this type of damage has always existed, it almost never happened in practice. In the "old" days, you didn't always get your full attack routine and you would miss (blocked, dodged, parried) a lot more than you do currently. Therefore, to say that damage has always been this high is not accurate. You were far more likely to survive multiple rounds in the "old" days than you are today - because defensive skills actually helped you avoid damage better than they do now.

It's not that people have higher standards for their weapons now. Its that all weapons are the same standard, and enchanting is a joke. Back in the day it was hard to get a good weapon because A. their were only a few, and B. they had to be hella enchanted. Getting weapons now though is a complete joke. People don't stop at 5/5 because they know that no matter waht they can just replace it with a tanso steel weapon thats for nearly all intensive purposes just as good as adamantite. In the old system those of us who weren't ballers actually had to worry about their weapon blowing up. Nowadays I blow up ten weapons a day.

MP already soaks up damage from magical weapons.

Weapon damage enchants don't help very much. I used an epee with +10 in damage to test these things and the damage output was less than stellar. Even with the speed bonuses provided with it being quicker, it simply doesn't compare with weapons like a flamberge or landsknecht that do massive damage with each hit.

These arguments from Algon and Dark-avenger are just red herrings.

The upper damage cap for weapons really needs lowered and the minimum damage needs increased.

I'm also of the thought that bonuses to damage needs a lower multiplier.

Wimp the loot then.

Don't add more adam/energy/water/diamond khopeshes for example. Especially if they have phat scripts. No more battlespears either. Start adding less "elite" subtypes, and give them good materials and scripts. This will force people to make mercs specced in these types of weapons. What swashie wouldn't consider using dual energy epees if they had a script similar to the coils of enslavement? What merc wouldn't consider using an adamantite bullwhip that gave him shield/sanctuary/frenzy?

I was saying that a few years now, but builders always wanted to change everything to what is really elite. Do you remember when the archangel swords were longswords and lighties QQed and turned them into khopeshes? Do you remember when Iron Citadel was changed? The spiral wires were kamas then and khopeshes with HP regen scripts were added.

Generally, SK has lost a lot of its playerbase. The loot that is around is enough to decently(at least - usually it's superbly) dress everyone's main character. None is left lootless.

The attack enchant actually helps more than the damage enchant. When I get my weapons enchanted, I mainly do it for the attack buff.

??? @ Muktar? You mean the to hit bonus?

Muktar, do you play melee classes???

I wish the spiral wires were kamas, hehe. They're rapiers though.