Underappreciated weapons and armor in games
A thread for types of weapons and armor that you want to see more of in video games - or want to see depicted in a different way. Longbows that are actually longbows, spears that can be used together with shields and so on.
Personally, I think it's a pity that slings so seldom make an appearance in games. NWN and the IE games being an exception of course. Though I always found missile weapons in general to be pretty useless in Neverwinter nights, unfortunately.
Personally, I think it's a pity that slings so seldom make an appearance in games. NWN and the IE games being an exception of course. Though I always found missile weapons in general to be pretty useless in Neverwinter nights, unfortunately.
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And I always laugh at how people always walk around fully armed and armored too. In BG2, I like to imagine that it's because Athkatla is just that messed up of a city. First the drunks brought knives to the Copper Coronet, so the bouncers put on leather armor. And suddenly you have drunks swinging halberds around and bouncers with helmets and splint mail to counter it.
How about daggers? Those killed an insane amount of knights. Once full plate was developed in the late medieval/early modern period, very few weapons could actually kill a dude decked out in it. You could use heavier weapons to knock him around and get him on the ground, then beat on him till he couldn't fight back. That's when you'd drop your heavy weapon, pull out your dagger and stab him in the eye slit.
What about padded armor? It's almost always listed as the weakest armor, but against slashing and blunt weapons, it's better than leather. While on the subject of armor, chain mail should be a lot more prevalent, it was the best armor you could until the tail end of the middle ages.
And short bows? The Mongolian double recurve had greater range and stopping power than the Welsh long bow, but was small enough to fire from horse back. It was just that much more efficient with the extra curves at the ends and being made out of composite layers of different materials to produce a super springy bow. The only issue being they were only good for a few months before they rotted.
Another good thing with padded/cloth armor is @Permidion_Stark s point - you don't look quite as much as a nutter when walking around town in one of those!
The ahlspiess is literally unheard of outside of Germany. Ever saw a military fork inside any video game? I haven't. Or the sovnya? Not even The Witcher has shown this Russian polearm. The greatest shame of all is that the "spear-club" hybrid weapon known as plançon a picot has only ever been included RPG's one, single time: inside Mount & Blade.
I think it's probably more that crossbows and firearms caught on in the West not long after the period of Mongol supremacy. While inferior in a lot of ways to long bows and composite bows, they required a lot less training and practice to shoot accurately. The Mongols held China for quite a long time including regions that are a lot moister than the steppes, so I don't think the rot of their bows was the limiting factor. I'd blame the amount of training it took to be good with a bow. You could spend your entire life to be competent enough to fire bow accurately, or you could spend a few months with a crossbow or arquebus and be able to hit things most of the time.
It was completely common for someone to just wear their gambeson (padded armor) in cold weather. Those would actually make great winter coats.
And clubs remind me that I always find it unfair that the lizardmen in Icewind dale seem to be wielding kanabōs. Why can't I, the player, have two-handed clubs?
Crossbows were in use as early as the 10th century in France. They were also used at the Battle of Hastings by the Normans in 1066. So they had been around for a bit before the long bow started to die out, and even had been around well before their peak usage at The Battle of Agincourt in 1415.
And real spears that function like spears, whenever I see a spear being held like some kind of baseball bat it makes me cringe.
Swordstaff would be cool too! another polearm, but unusual. I have no idea how prevalent it was, but the genius idea of putting a sword on staff is too good to pass up on, hehe. This would be one of the few more unusual and perhaps "fantasy" like ones I'd actually appreciate.
Also swords that actually are like real swords, a longsword actually being like a longsword (like in Witcher), a great sword being as big and unweildy as the real version. And kriegsmessers! Kriegsmessers are the coolest looking swords of all time (except the handles ofc). I think the dueling swords of PKM might be based on kriegsmessers.
I'd trade this for ridiculous "mauls" or "warhammers" with 500 pound tops any day of the week. Real warhammers are so much cooler than putting a blob the size of a small elephant on top of a often too short stick.
Oh yes, another D2 reference, the falchion! The real kind I mean, not the "machete" chopper that have been in a few games.
Sabres that are not scimitars and cutlasses, hangers and other similar more navy oriented blades would be cool. China had a couple of cool blades as well.
Oh, and the Falx! I don't think I ever seen that in a RPG or similar game. I'd take that over a sickle please.
OK, I'll stop now before I bore you all to death, hehe
Introducing the Goedendag: the spear-bat of choice for any Flemish footsoldier.
What about skirts? The Roman legion wore them, generally made of leather, but could be made of metal.
Why does nobody use hardened linen as a stage of armor? The Greek hoplites that couldn't afford a solid bronze breast plate would wear a breast plate made of hardened linen. Makes way more sense than having glass or ebony armor as stages in your armor progression.
This might be a little out of the scope of the thread, but what about chariots? It might be hard to believe, but they predate mounted warriors. It makes more sense when you realize horses were originally much smaller and had to be selectively bred to be large enough to ride. Plus, nobody had really thought to get up there and just ride on top of one. Hooking up a horse to a chariot or cart was a logical progression from using oxen for carts and plows, figuring out that you could just ride right on top of the horse was actually a real innovation. Most people also don't realize bronze working predates the wheel. Wrapping the wheel in bronze and making it with spokes made it light, plus you really needed metal to secure the axle to chariot/cart. The scythed chariots never worked out well whenever the Persians tried to use them, but as mounted platforms for archers and spear men they did pretty well up until people started doing the same from horseback.
We got into this in another thread awhile back, but flails could get more love, especially as a peasant's weapon. They're totally the nunchaku of the West. In fact they were originally 2 sticks with a joint between them used to beat wheat. For a weapon, it could be 2 sticks or any other heavy object lashed to a long handle with rope, leather or a hinge. They weren't necessarily the expensive balls chained to a handle. A rock or whatever heavy object you could get, lashed to a handle with a rope or leather would make a perfectly good peasant's weapon.
I think I would just hurt myself trying to use one of those!
It looks like the Swiss Army Knife of melee weapons...
It kind of is, it can be used as a throwing weapon, it can hook onto people, slice, stab, be used like an axe while all looking so freaking impractical lmao.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mambele
Kinda the pole arm equivalent.
Boomerangs (asides from Zelda, obviously). The Celts in Gaul reportedly had returning throwing sticks by Roman accounts and some have been found Egypt. They weren't exclusive to Australia, they just had fallen out of usage for so long that they were unique by the time Europeans finally got there.
Actually, I think there are also mambeles in Age of Empires. The Malians' unique unit throws them in the second game.
That's because it is a mambele
Oh right, derp, always think of it as hunga munga. Gotta stop drunk posting
So bayonets rarely get love in games, I think fallout 4 was the only game I can think of where they were really around. They're not as useful when you have weapons that can hold lots of ammo and reload fast, though. They were definitely a big deal when you only had one shot before having to reload.
Early hand cannons from 13th century China.
Pepperbox Revolvers from the 16th century.
A gun powder launched spear thrower from China
It saw some limelight in PnP Pathfinder. As well as being featured in very few mods (noteably Blade & Sorcery). But beyond that? Nothing. Both Conan Exiles and FFXVI had shields named "latern shield". But they were just mundane shields with "lantern" in their name. Bah!