Ok someone explain this....

[annallia]

I could have sworn there were 2 things about the shield on back that I knew to be true.

#1 that it only counted for missile attacks, not melee

#2 that you were the only one to get the bonus, not the AI.

That being said I am wondering what is going on here. I switched to spear recently because there are a few castles/towns in swadia that I can be really cheesy with the AI on but I need the reach of a spear. At the end of a field battle I pull the spear out of my chest and start chasing down the few remaining sharpshooters and routing troops to get a few easy quick points in proficiency. While riding down one of the sharpies who had his shield on his back I thrust and instead of hearing a slice and watching my thrust go straight through I hear *thwack* and my thrust recoiled.

I circle around and come at him from the front and get the satisfying slicing sound but he lived so I came around again from behind and *thwack*

At this point I just got out my crossbow and shot him in the back of the head... But this completely threw me because I had never seen anything like it before.

Some sort of crazy glitch? Or possible that my proficiency with polearms is so low and the spear I have at the moment being so crappy (was picked up from loot) that I just did so little damage that the shield actually had an effect?

 

[SAUS]

It might have been improper timing of the attack. If you hit too early in the thrust, it basically does 0 damage and makes a more "thud"-like noise. You can see it happen a lot in Praven tournaments with dismounted enemies - it is awkward to get good hits with a lance while grounded and AI does not know how to do it lol.

Iirc, #1 is true, but #2 is not. If you shoot and enemy in the back with a ranged weapon, I'm pretty sure it says some special message and does less damage (can't confirm because I've played with all the messages off for a long time now lol). Anyway, the reduced damage appears to be there, since troops that would normally die in one hit don't if I shoot them in the back with a shield there (also hard to confirm due to lack of messages lol). So, if memory serves me correctly, #2 is false.

 

[annallia]

I never see the message about it, but then again outside of shot difficulty I too play with them off.

Every time I start to think that it does make a difference (usually when fighting the Khergits for some reason) I wind up sticking 3 arrows in one guys gut while his friends all went down in 1 so I figure just bad luck on the damage rng and or variation in equipment.


While I don't want to say it wouldn't happen. I am pretty good with a spear, I actually like playing with them so I use them a lot. Usually when I do hit poorly and it does no damage I get a *thud* sound not a *thwack* also my thrust just stops, it doesn't get repelled.

 

[SAUS]

I never see the message about it, but then again outside of shot difficulty I too play with them off.

Every time I start to think that it does make a difference (usually when fighting the Khergits for some reason) I wind up sticking 3 arrows in one guys gut while his friends all went down in 1 so I figure just bad luck on the damage rng and or variation in equipment.


While I don't want to say it wouldn't happen. I am pretty good with a spear, I actually like playing with them so I use them a lot. Usually when I do hit poorly and it does no damage I get a *thud* sound not a *thwack* also my thrust just stops, it doesn't get repelled.

Ya, I'd have to see. Maybe it really was just too weak of a spear and did so low damage that it bounced off lol. I haven't really seen this happen because I tend to use 1h or 2h swords and crossbows, only dabbling with other weapons for tournaments or in specific other runs.

 

[Ghost of Razgriz]

Could be a weak spear or it could be, in the worst case scenario, you just whiffing multiple times in a row.  Believe me, I've done it too with a Balanced Heavy Lance while going full charge on a Hunter into someone that's on the ground.....and my lance bouncing off of their face because I mistimed when to release the attack.

Just to clarify the shield on back thing, you are right on the first point in that it's ranged only.  It does affect the AI as well as I've shot people in the back with a shield.  I know what the damage should roughly be after using a bow for a long time after fighting similarly armored opponents.  I've seen my damage reduced because of the shield as well.

Also, your shield will block random ranged shots that are fired towards you in the vicinity of your shield, so if it's in the way, it'll block it.  So much better than what it was back in the original M&B where your shield did nothing to ranged shots when it's just hanging there.

 

[annallia]

I could very well be thinking of the original M&B when I was thinking of that it only helped you and not the AI.

 

[Ghost of Razgriz]

Forgot to mention my last thoughts were when the shield was equipped, not hanging from the back - -

And there might be a chance the lowers back damage from ranged attacks might be a player only thing in the original.  It's been forever since I last played it, so I can't really remember for the life of me.

 

[Lord Brutus]

I know I've gotten the in-game message, "Arrow hit shield on your back."  I assume it protected me a little bit.