Shield skill and the forcefield effect.

[Puerkl8r]

I know this has been a heavily debated subject for the multilayer aspect of the game for a long time, however I have never seen anybody want to get rid of it in singleplayer.

I can see why you would do it, more realistic and idk if setting the max to 0 is just a short-term thing till you decide a better way to deal with it, however there are a few reasons why i think this could be a bad choice.

One is that the way the devs explain the force-field and it makes sense to me, is that the force-field represents the ability of a person to quickly react to incoming missiles and blows, moving the shield to intercept them, which isn't something that could be done manually in the game. It's not a perfect implementation but it is better than not having it.

Two is that the force-field effect is only half of what the shield skill does, the other half increases the durability of the shield which I find is pretty necessary in the game for most battles. You might say its more realistic but I don't think it's realistic how fast some of the shields in the game can break, and if were going for realism the steel shield should be completely unbreakable.

Third is that I personally always find it a bad idea to completely make an aspect of the game something unusable rather than try and alter it to work how you want it to.

Basically I understand that the mod is going for realism, however, for the sake of gameplay i think this is one thing that should just be ignored, or at least a different way to address it should be pursued.

 

[othr]

Well, I think it made game play better.  You can rotate your shield, it allows NPC archers to score some hits which goes nicely with the reduced bow damage.  Shields were too resistant to damage before, they would never break, add the shield skill to it and the resistance was way too high.

 

[DrTomas]

I like that theres no more forcefield thing, now I find myself covering my face with a shield when runing towards and archer or I'll get an arrow in my eye, something I didin't realy need to do before.

However I'd still would like if the skill would only add durebility to the shields.

Two is that the force-field effect is only half of what the shield skill does, the other half increases the durability of the shield which I find is pretty necessary in the game for most battles. You might say its more realistic but I don't think it's realistic how fast some of the shields in the game can break, and if were going for realism the steel shield should be completely unbreakable.

Steel shields in the battlefield would not be realistic in the first place.

 

[Kinsume]

I also prefer not having the force-field effect. Basically the only thing that could break a shield in this game with it would be an axe. Archers pretty much could never even land an arrow on an advancing infantry line of top tiered units because their shield skill was so high.

 

[Puerkl8r]

Well, I think it made game play better.  You can rotate your shield, it allows NPC archers to score some hits which goes nicely with the reduced bow damage.  Shields were too resistant to damage before, they would never break, add the shield skill to it and the resistance was way too high.

While the player can rotate their shields to some degree, though you have lower ability to do this on horseback, the NPCs do not. I read that you decreased the accuracy and damage of archers and maybe that will balance it but otherwise it seems like it would be really easy to just head-shot every NPC you see in a siege. Unfortunately I haven't been able to try the new version yet.

 

[Klund]

I prefer the way it works now. NPC's still use the shields rather well, covering their heads quite well unless you have a height advantage obviously. On foot it becomes almost necessary to flank larger groups of infantry or use a 2h weapon to bash shields, on horse back it adds the additional skill of aiming for the tops of heads above shields as you ride by or flank them.

Only way I could see to still keep this balance and improve on it is if it were possible to modify the skill to increase durability as others have mentioned though if this were done I would decrease the based durability of all shields in the game now. I think the base shields break in a rather realistic manner and the thick/reinforced shields don't break soon enough in my opinion.