Shields as worn item - On left forearm

[Pariah]

Has there ever been any thought to having shields as a worn item with use?

Most depictions of shields I've seen (granted I'm no shield expert) they wore it on their forearm and gripped it with their hand, sometimes they had it just strapped to their forearm.

I've always viewed wielding or holding something as you're holding a stick.

Plus I'm always misplacing my shield in game so there is a little of a selfish bend on why I'm posing this.

Right now you can wear shields on your back, but that's better suited for other things, like your glasshacker or whatever.

Just curious if any thought had been made to more wear locations or possible functional wear locations for shield use.

[mansa]

The codebase is Diku, and the way that combat is calculated uses specific hit locations to generate damage.

(https://gdb.armageddon.org/index.php/topic,54534.msg1029857.html#msg1029857)

Those hit locations are:
Head   
Neck   
Arms   
Waist
Wrist   
Hands   
Body   
Legs   
Feet   

These hit locations are pretty popular amongst most RPG games.  Even World of Warcraft have these locations, with "arms" being turned into "shoulders".

If you wear a shield on your wrist, you will benefit from the armor value provided, but you will not benefit from the "shield_use" skill.

[Riev]

There are, or were, bucklers you could wear on your wrist.

As Mansa said, however, they do not provide any coded benefit to shield_use, it is just an armor piece.

The way the code is designed, you have to be holding or wielding a shield object for shield use to come into play. That said, it would be interesting to see what happens if the code allows a WORN shield to act as a real shield, and the sudden new Salarri Fashion is "a solid, grey buckler-vest" and "a solid, grey pair of knee-bucklers"

[creeper386]

I think if there were worn shields it should be restricted to forearm. And probably bucklers that maybe have a block penalty.


Except when against someone unarmed. I'd love to see special emotes bout ducking your head and them punching your helm.

[Qzzrbl]

Historically bucklers were worn at the hip.

Anything much larger than that was only broken out when you were expected to rock up to a battlefield.

That said, having used shields extensively over the past couple of years, I can tell you having a shield strapped to your arm and not in a way that can be achieved with "hold shield" would big mondo get in the way of everything forever. There's really not a huge benefit to wearing a shield on your person if you're not actively using it in my experience.

[Filthy_Grey_Rat]

...a solid, grey pair of knee-bucklers...

You know, Kurac sells knee-bucklers in the Pleasure Den. No coded benefits.

[Pariah]

Yeah I asked a dork...guy I work with who does medieval fairs and blacksmiths his own armors and stuff, he showed me a few youtubes where they actually tested that out, the shield on the forearm versus grasped in the hand.

It actually caused more damage than good, sometimes injuring the blocker on a solid block due to the way the weight is distributed on the forearm.

Yeah, this is a bad idea.  Don't do it haha.

[tiny rainbow]

...a solid, grey pair of knee-bucklers...

You know, Kurac sells knee-bucklers in the Pleasure Den. No coded benefits.