Weapons Mastery for Minotaur

[Choko5]

For now, choosing an weapon is not very interesting decision.
At the beginning, we choose an weapon type based on base damage and availability, maybe reaching and cleaving. And that's it.
The point is, it's fixed at the beginning and not going to change.

Crosstraining don't help much on making decisions about weapons, since changing weapon type means waste of exp anyway.
For a melee character, even if you found a +3 demon trident of flaming at d:8,
it's unlikely that you change your weapon type from axe or long blade to polearm.
Because you already spent quite an exp on your weapon skill, and will find better one anyway. Maybe on the floor, maybe gifted by Oka/Trog.

I'd like to suggest
Weapons Mastery instead of Weapons Skills(LB, SB, Axe, PArm, M&F, St)
for Minotaurs(or Tengus) since they are weapons masters.

Maybe choosing an appropriate weapon type for situations can make the game more interesting
than choosing an weapon type at the beginning and not changing at all.

Or if this is a too much change, maybe we can tweak heroism buffing weapons skills to follow the highest one.
I believe oka don't want his gifts to be wasted.

[cerebovssquire]

You say it's unlikely to change weapons. This is a mistake, myself and other players frequently change weapons. The case of the demon trident on D:8 would motivate many of my characters to change weapons. In addition, it is frequent especially on early levels. Started with a falchion? Found a spear of venom or whip of elec on D:1 or D:2? It would be a mistake not to change. And since your proposal is based on the premise that noone swaps weapons...

Aside, in the long-term players would still use very few weapons because ?EW scrolls are sparse and should not be spread out over more than 2-3 weapons across the course of a game (usually).

[yogaFLAME]

1) check out ash

2) if anyone needs help switching weapons, it's certainly not berserkers (et al). They are awash in excess exp.

[mad]

Agreed with CS.

My first and only win (as a bad player, no less) was a MiDK who switched from a polearm to axes after finding a nice axe of elec that carried him through most of the game.

Then he switched from Yred to Zin, just for laughs. (and rMut)

[palin]

With Be and Fi I switch weapons all the time. Last DsBe I won with I started with axes and switch to long blades after I found a nice randart... and I've been plagued with Trog axe gifts all the way

[omegasean]

I disagree with your proposal also.

You think Minotaurs need a buff ? heck no ! they already have retaliatory headstrike and massive HP combined with good melee / armour aptitudes.

also I like where the dev team is going with weapon diversification / special effects, no need to add a whole new system for 2 races.

perhaps improving Oka's god gifts is a good idea, but him giving you a weapon that is your highest skill seems too good.

[rchandra]

it's rare, but enjoyable when a quick gift in a new type makes me switch types (HaAs of Trog, was planning to needlestab and maybe use some long blades but got a lajatang of speed early)

[jejorda2]

It might make races play more differently if in addition to impacting how much experience it takes to gain a level in a skill, aptitudes were added to skill levels when calculating weapon damage, spell power, and so on. So a hill orc with 10 axes skill a +3 axes aptitude swings an axe as fast and hard as a human with 13 axes skill and +0 aptitude or a high elf with 15 axes skill and -2 aptitude. This makes it easier for some species to pick up a good find and go with it.

I don't know what to do about negative skills or skills over 27. Clumsily bash, and keep increasing damage?

[cerebovssquire]

It would certainly make species play more differently, but not in a good way, because it would decrease variety within the species. DE would become even more of a "pure caster" species, HO would become even better at melee, etc. - whereas the current situation allows many relatively strong different builds for each species.

[Choko5]

It might make races play more differently if in addition to impacting how much experience it takes to gain a level in a skill, aptitudes were added to skill levels when calculating weapon damage, spell power, and so on. So a hill orc with 10 axes skill a +3 axes aptitude swings an axe as fast and hard as a human with 13 axes skill and +0 aptitude or a high elf with 15 axes skill and -2 aptitude. This makes it easier for some species to pick up a good find and go with it.

I don't know what to do about negative skills or skills over 27. Clumsily bash, and keep increasing damage?

Negative skills shouldn't happen. Low(or minus) apt weapon skills should just grow slowly.

For instance, a species with +4 polearm and -2 M&F will have
0 Polearm and 0 M&F at the beginning
12 Polearm and 7 M&F at XL around 9~11 if spent whole XP in weapons skills
20 Polearm and 13 M&F
27 Polearm and 18 M&F

if you want 27 M&F, you can spend more XP on weapons skills. it will end up in
27 Polearm and 27 M&F

Species will have more options when trained in weapon skills. Even for DEs, this is a buff.

[ebarrett]

Since we already have color coding for people who consistently give good advice, can we also implement color coding for members who consistently give horrible ideas? This is a serious question. I can nominate a few standouts if anyone needs help implementing this, though I assume there's enough obvious cases for a first batch.

[Jabberwocky]

Since we already have color coding for people who consistently give good advice, can we also implement color coding for members who consistently give horrible ideas? This is a serious question. I can nominate a few standouts if anyone needs help implementing this, though I assume there's enough obvious cases for a first batch.

Horrible ideas meaning well only or horrible ideas that are obviously trolling as well?

[TwilightPhoenix]

Since we already have color coding for people who consistently give good advice, can we also implement color coding for members who consistently give horrible ideas? This is a serious question. I can nominate a few standouts if anyone needs help implementing this, though I assume there's enough obvious cases for a first batch.

That would go to a long way to causing drama, disruption, and many other issues in the forums.

[BlackSheep]

That would go to a long way to causing drama, disruption, and many other issues in the forums.

Read between the lines.

[njvack]

Since we already have color coding for people who consistently give good advice, can we also implement color coding for members who consistently give horrible ideas? This is a serious question. I can nominate a few standouts if anyone needs help implementing this, though I assume there's enough obvious cases for a first batch.

It's already implemented; the color is green. Also, this thread is locked.