Is it fair?

[Ghost]

Does not it bother you when you see shields crack so easily?  None of my PCs favored the shields, I kind of like the idea of offensive combatters, but I observed shield users are getting them repaired pretty offen.

The reason might be that the shields are absorbing some damage, but so does all of the armor pieces.  Up to now I only had one armor piece that needed a little repair and that was because I got too many absorbs with that piece and too many 50+ damages where that covered.  But I saw shield users getting them repaired even after two combats sometimes they getting damaged with training weapons.

The reason shields absorb, parry blows and they are used of bone/wood/leather..etc so they can be broken pretty easy, should also apply to the other armors.  And even weapons.  Up to now, I only sa one sword shattering.

So I think, the rate of getting damaged shields and armors should be close.  Either the armors might get damaged more often, or shields might get less damaged.

[Tmp]

I know you're asking whether it's fair or not, so I'm going a bit off topic, but the armour repairing people in Allanak always seems to quote an absurdly high price for repairing shields but charge you quite reasonably when you redeem your ticket.

[SpyGuy]

Good idea  

[sarahjc]

A shield is used to take the brunt of most blows.. Also keep in mind that Shields are normally made of some kind of wood. I would a assume that a Chitin Shield would hold up better, but be heavier. Plates of wood will damage and crack easily if it's being hit all the time, it has no give.. Where your leathers might. I think it would e unrealistic if sheilds did not crack and break.

[SailorMars]

Without getting too IC, the best shields deteriorate rather quickly under the right circumstances.

I agree though with the original post. Would be nice to see 'virtual' damage done to other locations over time, as is done to the shield. That is, you're not seeing a message that it got hit, but it is taking damage. Or just make shields tougher.

[Clegane]

I may well be wrong here, but as I understand, someone with a good working knowledge of shield use is using that shield to block a -lot- of blows. A lot more blows, in fact, than are landed on other portions of armor.

If an actual body location absorbs a blow, you are always going to be told about it. The shield, however, absorbs a lot of blows that (I think) give the same basic message as parrying.

Again, I could be completely wrong about this, or it may have changed since it was explained to me ages ago. But I think that is how it works. In which case it would make perfect sense that a shield deteriorates long before any other piece of like-material armor.

The material of shields makes a huge difference. Wood shields will get cracked by sissy humans, while a very nice shield can take a beating from a mul before it will crack. Also if you are parrying with the shield I don't think it'll go down as fast or at all unless  they actually hit it with the shield absorbes the blow or the damage to shield location message. The way I see it as going is that if you parry the blow you use the shield to deflect the attack with as little damage as possible, if they hit the shield or it absorbs the blow then you fucked up and had to sacrifice the shield to save yourself.

[Dan]

I've had a -ton- of experience with shield use these last few months.

I've had shields go from new to cracked during one sparring session while never once seeing the message that I absorbed a blow with it.

I also noticed that shield degredation also takes place when you use the bash skill, success or failure doesn't matter.

It is far that they break so fast simply because it is really easy to repair them, a few game hours is all it takes and a handful of coins.

[Ghost]

Well, It might depend on the type of the material, but it still is breaking annoyingly often.  I have seen a **** shell shield which got damaged within three fights or so.  
Well, the shield absorbs, deflects and parries blows, but so does the other pieces of armor.  I cant count how many times my body armor absorbed those kicks that would deal 15+ damage.  And really, I have seen quite often that same piece of armor got 40+ damage over and over.  Yet it only got bloodied.
Weapons also parry -many- blows, but they get no damage at all (Or at least, to our observation)

[Pungee]

Well, I have to speak about the armor thing. Most people in the known world seem to wield bladed weapons of some kind, axes, swords, daggers, etc. Very few actually use heavy, blunt weapons.  Now, I'm not going to talk about attack types vs armor types or anything, but as someone who has played a gladiator back in the days when you could play them, I've destroyed others armor and had my own destroyed very easily by simple blunt weapons. I believe it's a matter of strength since the persons usually fighting with my mul were HGs. Not exactly weaklings. We seemed to annhilte armor very efficiently.

[Tlaloc]

Just as a note: The 'Armor Repair' skill works pretty well for some armors and shields.

Just thought I'd mention this, since I notice it seems to be a very underused skill. The skill could probably use some expansion, as well as some changes/fixes/updates...but its there, and works. I suggest people give it a try, and post/submit ideas for expansion, and ways to make the skill better.

One idea I had was to use the Analyze command to allow people with the 'Armor Repair' skill to see what might be used to fix a broken piece of armor.

[Pungee]

One idea I had was to use the Analyze command to allow people with the 'Armor Repair' skill to see what might be used to fix a broken piece of armor.

That's actually really handy. Linking analyze with armor repair would allow staff to expand Armor Repair to be more than just whatever generic material makes up the most of the shield or armor. Just add in some variety, that sort of thing.

[X-D]

And nobody seems to have noticed that the better you are with the shield skill, the less damage your shield takes While still deflecting many blows.

[Agent_137]

And nobody seems to have noticed that the better you are with the shield skill, the less damage your shield takes While still deflecting many blows.

that's one thing I like about arm.

Generally, things make sense.