Shields should be revamped for bannerlord!

[Scarf Ace]

With Bannerlord's darkage-esque theme, shields will probably be even more common, and so it would be a great opportunity to revamp them.

Most games including all M&B's so far have shields be toggleable. What I mean with this is that when you're not pressing some sort of block button, they do nothing to protect you against melee attacks, and typically you can't attack while blocking the shield.

This doesn't represent the way shields are used IRL at all though. Shields don't turn into gas when you're not holding them up. They don't create invisible blade repelling forcefields around themselves either, and they don't just stop you from attacking when you defend with them.
It would be way more interesting to depict shields in a more realistic or at least believable fashion. For example, instead of pressing RMB to block, shields should instead constantly block, and you use RMB+Mouse to change the angle at which you hold your shield to prioritise certain areas. It would also mean that shield skill wouldn't increase the area it (magically) covers, instead perhaps the speed at which you can move your shield.
This of course means that you can attack while still getting protection from your shield, however things like shield size and angle might restrict your attack options or perhaps an attack might momentarily require you to move the shield in a way that will expose you.

Of course this needs downsides too. One obvious one would be to restrict the mobility of guys with large shields, especially in terms of rotation. So for example a guy with a massive board shield or so might be a very tough nut to crack from the front (aka when he's in formation), but 1 on 1 a guy with lighter protection could run circles around his defenses and give him a good whack. That way every shield type would have its place, from huge pavises and scuta to tiny little bucklers.

Revamping shields would also create an interesting contrast between 2 handed and weapon+shield fighting, with the 2 hander user relying on speed and range vs the shield user's ability to attack and defend simultaneously. In a shield vs shield fight the dynamic would be totally different, as you'd now be trying to hit your enemy and stop his attacks at the same time, I imagine that would be pretty intense.


tl;dr instead of attack>block>attack>block, sword and board fighting should look more like this shot of 2 dorks from 4chan playing toribash:
http://imgur.com/NDygBH3

 

[YourStepDad]

Don't fix what is not broken.

That said, more ways to use a shield would be welcome.

 

[Oliveran]

If you can both block and hit, you'd need a very heft penalty to the attack while blocking. Which means that they'd have to revamp the damage, or you risk basically bouncing (doing 1 or 2 damage) on each melee attack, instead of getting a use of it. Just leaving shields as they are, but with protecting while it being down would be great though

 

[Scarf Ace]

If you can both block and hit, you'd need a very heft penalty to the attack while blocking. Which means that they'd have to revamp the damage, or you risk basically bouncing (doing 1 or 2 damage) on each melee attack, instead of getting a use of it. Just leaving shields as they are, but with protecting while it being down would be great though

Damage shouldn't be affected at all, that's a very gamey sort of drawback that belongs in a turn based RPG or so.

The downside should be mobility. The heavier the shield, the more it affects your rotational speed and acceleration, to such a degree that a guy with a massive board shield would be too immobile to really fight properly 1 on 1.

In addition, attacking would either expose certain parts of the body because you need to move the shield out of your weapon's path, or the attack's arc would just be limited by the shield's size.
Ideally small bucklers and stuff would have their own animations because there isn't exactly much to get in your weapon's way, so while you would have to be more precise with your blocking (perhaps more precise than when blocking with a weapon?), you would never have to worry about your buckler moving away from its intended position or your attacks having tiny arcs.

The idea is to make shields and bucklers very useful and most importantly varied, with different types for different purposes. In Warband the difference is often mostly aesthetic, the way you use them doesn't change really.

 

[Stiler]

I agree with you, especially in regards to giving shields different speeds at which you can move them to block incoming attacks and other things that make each type different (not necessarily "better" but just different, with advantages and disadvantages to each for certain things).

I am a huge fan of sword and buckler fighting and they have never really been treated right in any movie or game that had them. There's a reason that bucklers lasted longer in the middle ages then other shield types (they even found one in Jamestown).

Bucklers were quite different then larger shields, mainly for the fact that you didn't strap them to your arm like most shields and instead held them in your hand with a grip. The main advantage a buckler had was it's speed and it's offensive capabilities.

Bucklers were quite varied they had a large variety of different ways to be used. You could have a spike that protruded from the bosse, serrated edges to the boss, spikes or other things that stuck out around the shield (this was great for catching the enemies blade and binding) as well as both concave and convex designs. Also since you merely held it with a grip you could let go of it if need be, whereas a shield strapped to your arm if someone grabbed it or such it could be use dto throw you off balance.

If I had to choose any shield to use when fighting in melee combat it'd be a buckler above any other for it's use as both offense and defense.

However bucklers aren't as good as other shields when it comes to guarding against arrows and other things where a shield with a larger coverage area would be more handy to defend with.

I'd love to see bucklers get some good offensive capabilities or other things, just to give you more options for shields and reasons to use one for certain situations.

 

[Alfredthegreat]

I think the shield skill and strength should make it so that you can put the shield up fast. and be mobile.

 

[Cordor]

I Think it should be like on dark souls or something, you hit someone's shield your sword kinda bounce back making your guard open

 

[redwood36]

I like the OPs suggestion.