First complaint: What’s the point for even making shields costing several ingots if they’re immediatedly ditched at level 2 for a weapon - the pike - that is also extremely cheap? Additionally, the pike as it is looks much more like a one-handed spear (the shield’s weapon par excellence), why not make it into one?
Second: the pike (or spear) and the iron mace could as well switch level and damage, the iron mace right now is another army item with a terrible usefulness/expense ratio (realism-wise, an iron mace isn’t better than a bronze mace, but that’s another matter entirely).
2 Likes
It used to be a one-handed weapon. Anyways, I agree that bronze and iron shields are pretty useless, as knights have better ones and footmen prefer other weapons. Honestly, we might as well ditch shields all together and give the footmen’s armours 1 extra armour point. Easy.
Historically it was knights who ditched shields in favour of bigger weapons when armour became good enough to protect all by itself; a more realistic army setup would be footmen sticking to 1H and shield, upgrading to knight at level 6 (and the knight would be just plainly better, having as only limitation its cost).
History aside, the shield can work as training wheels for footmen (the added chance to block decreasing their chances of getting slaughtered early on), but if they ditch it at just level TWO…
EDIT: Also, protecting the head is much more important (and cheaper too) than the rest of the body (see: construction workers and bikers). I would prefer if caps and helmets were unlocked before chestpieces rather than after.
1 Like
You’re absoultely right with the knights and two-handers, I raised this point in another thread too. I think this won’t happen though, as then knights would just be WAY better than footmen^^
I just started working on a mod aimed at increasing realism; I don’t know if I’ll be able to build a balanced combat system, but the experience will be useful nonetheless.