Before I start, I would like to specify a few thing: First, I mean weapons breaking only during battles and still appearing in your weapons slot after; no one wants to have to buy a new weapon after every battle. That would be tedious. Secondly, this is not about having "realism" in the game. And finally, although I mean this to be about fighting, the more I thought about it the more a realized this can fix smithing.
The concept of thing breaking isn't new: shields break, horses die, and bows run out of arrows. these features are there to add an "attrition" to the these weapon. Otherwise battles would be simply spamming projectiles against infantry that can't ever be harmed so long as they have their shields raised and cavalry being able to do devastating charges with the fear of being dismounted. Yet there is nothing like this for melee weapons. this has lead to players gravitating toward a select few weapons that can to stupid amount of damage with few to no drawbacks (Rhomphalia, short bill, executioner axe, lengthened glaive, etc.). This causes most other weapons in the game ignored, especially spears and laces, which are only used when cavalry are involved, and even then player will favor ones that can crouch. This spills over the broken smithing system as players can craft weapons that cost very little to make, do a lot of damage, and can be sold for hundreds of thousands of denars.
I suggestion to fix this the developers add "health" to weapons by making a damage threshold; weapons can only do so much damage before they breaks. as an example, spears/lances can have a range between 600-1200 damage before breaking, a one-handed weapons 800-1500, two-handed 1000-1600, and a throwing weapon can do a measly 100-200 before breaking. This won't seem to change much since in most battles players and individual AI troop rarely does that much damage. However, what would changes are these overpowered weapons, since they will probably break since they do so much damage. This will cause players to have a secondary weapon and encourage well roundedness rather than using mainly one weapon for most of their games. (as a side suggestion, since lances can break, the developers can allow you continue couching rather than forcing your character to lift your lace up as soon as it hit someone. this could indirectly add proper shock cavalry to the game)
having weapons break can also fix the smithing system, as it adds an other way to calculate the cost of a weapon: Giving javelins low heath can make them cheaper to sell and buy, and lengthening a weapon to increase its damage can also lower its health.
The concept of thing breaking isn't new: shields break, horses die, and bows run out of arrows. these features are there to add an "attrition" to the these weapon. Otherwise battles would be simply spamming projectiles against infantry that can't ever be harmed so long as they have their shields raised and cavalry being able to do devastating charges with the fear of being dismounted. Yet there is nothing like this for melee weapons. this has lead to players gravitating toward a select few weapons that can to stupid amount of damage with few to no drawbacks (Rhomphalia, short bill, executioner axe, lengthened glaive, etc.). This causes most other weapons in the game ignored, especially spears and laces, which are only used when cavalry are involved, and even then player will favor ones that can crouch. This spills over the broken smithing system as players can craft weapons that cost very little to make, do a lot of damage, and can be sold for hundreds of thousands of denars.
I suggestion to fix this the developers add "health" to weapons by making a damage threshold; weapons can only do so much damage before they breaks. as an example, spears/lances can have a range between 600-1200 damage before breaking, a one-handed weapons 800-1500, two-handed 1000-1600, and a throwing weapon can do a measly 100-200 before breaking. This won't seem to change much since in most battles players and individual AI troop rarely does that much damage. However, what would changes are these overpowered weapons, since they will probably break since they do so much damage. This will cause players to have a secondary weapon and encourage well roundedness rather than using mainly one weapon for most of their games. (as a side suggestion, since lances can break, the developers can allow you continue couching rather than forcing your character to lift your lace up as soon as it hit someone. this could indirectly add proper shock cavalry to the game)
having weapons break can also fix the smithing system, as it adds an other way to calculate the cost of a weapon: Giving javelins low heath can make them cheaper to sell and buy, and lengthening a weapon to increase its damage can also lower its health.
