Weaponloadout

[halfdan]

Hi!
U'm an indie Gamedev and have a Question, maybe someome can help me.

In most RPGs the Player can have 10 different Weapons like Swords, maces, shield axe, Dagger etc and switch them whenever they want to.

I would like to go a bit realisticer Way. Maybe with Classes like:
Archer - Cloth or Leatherarmor, in Rangedstance Longbow, in Meleerange a short sword/Dagger etc

What combinations work/were realistic?

Did a medieval Soldier(or Sellsword) Carry multible Weapons or just One like their Sword?

 

[Vaporo]

If you want any sort of realism, I'd completely clear my mind of any "knowledge" gained from RPGs. Their rules are often arbitrary and based purely on having fun rather than realism. And that's fine, but it spreads a lot of misinformation.

 

[pmmg]

Hi!
I'm an indie Gamedev and have a Question, maybe someome can help me.

In most RPGs the Player can have 10 different Weapons like Swords, maces, shield axe, Dagger etc and switch them whenever they want to.

I would like to go a bit realisticer Way. Maybe with Classes like:
Archer - Cloth or Leatherarmor, in Rangedstance Longbow, in Meleerange a short sword/Dagger etc

What combinations work/were realistic?

Did a medieval Soldier(or Sellsword) Carry multible Weapons or just One like their Sword?

I think you are at the beginning of this question, and have a bit of research to do. One of those questions has to be how much did RPG's get right? Well, in some instances, there are a great reference, in others....probably not. For example, an RPG might show a world where some have Rapiers and others have Gladius's. While these swords both existed, they were not prominent in the same periods of time. The technology of one would over come the technology of the other, and one would fall away from use. Add to this other factors, like lifestyle of the times, laws, customs and culture, and the weapons and accoutrements some might carry depend less on what makes the most sense, but what was what people believed at the time to be good.

Ask other questions like did leather armor even actually exist? (and if I could find one of Maliks posts on armor, I would link to that), and you are starting to actually get into it.

And then I must ask, are these standing armies, or pieced together armies? Do they have wealthy benefactors. Ask, how many cows must I kill to equip an army all in leather armor vs how much flax do I need to put them all in cloth armor that is equally effective? How much does it cost to give each man a sword vs how much to give them all a spear.

What kind of war am I expecting to fight? If my enemy tends to hide and skirmish, and avoids melee....would it be useful to equip everyone with top of the line melee weapons?

And then to the individual? If I am a mercenary, what would I want to carry? I think the answer falls along the lines of what is most useful for the job at hand. Do I have it? What might I want to carry if I need versatility as the job at hand is usually an unknown?

If I was constructing an army, and I had an okay mind for it, I would probably want lines of men with different functions. Those in front with shields and melee weapons or spears, those with polearms for when that would be useful, those with bows to kill at a distance, those with horses to run people down, those who could work siege weapons for when that came up. If I have all of those, do I need my archers to have swords? Maybe not...not if the ones in front do their job. If I was an archer, would I want a sword...probably. Can I get one? and is it supplied?

I find the answer to this question requires a bit more definition from you. And ultimately, its only one you can answer. The real answer is, what do you want?

If you want any sort of realism, I'd completely clear my mind of any "knowledge" gained from RPGs. Their rules are often arbitrary and based purely on having fun rather than realism. And that's fine, but it spreads a lot of misinformation.

I have to offer that I do think RPG's do try to base there game play rules on what seems realistic about them. I have found them to be a good source on many aspects of medieval objects, and many statistics on how things might work. Such as...how far does a horse go in one day? Well, the RPG folks have tried to figure that out, and have given their best answer. I would not wholly discount them.

 

[skip.knox]

Do you want realism or fun? If reality were fun, we'd not be inventing games.

But there were typical kits for medieval fighters. A great resource are the Osprey books. Note I say typical. Exceptions to everything can be found, so you are free to bend traditions to your game. Nobody's going to squawk.

 

[Corwynn]

Accuracy and realism are never a bad thing, but when designing a game, fun and user-friendly gameplay must always take precedence. Realistically, a warrior would only be able to carry two or three weapons at a time. While this would be fine for, say, a shooter (and indeed most modern shooters use this rule), it wouldn't really work for an RPG, because loot is a big part of it. It would be frustrating if you had to drop one of your weapons every time you picked up a new one, since you couldn't sell weapons gathered from a dungeon without making hundreds of trips.

An easy way to add realism is to check your terminology. A lot of RPGs would have you believe that a broadsword is a two-handed weapon, and a longsword is a one-handed weapon, when it is the other way around for the most part. Likewise, you should never use the term "plate mail", or "anything else mail" except chainmail; and even the term chainmail is a bit redundant, chain or mail will do.

On the other hand, some things are not realistic, but are still fun, like dual wielding for example. Apart from a few rare instances (such as rapier + parrying dagger), dual wielding was not done in real life, because most people do not have the balance and coordination to pull it off. Even so, I think dual wielding is awesome, and I enjoy using it games when I can.

P.S. Any of the above is acceptable if you are deliberately evoking old-school RPGs. Although not accurate, those terms and tropes have a corny charm to them, sort of like 1950s sci-fi movies.