Arms and Armor Recruiting

[Ambaryerno]

Arms and Armor is an ambitious mod for Dragon Age that aims to make sweeping changes to the weapons and armor in the game, many of which will bring a greater sense of realism to the game. Among those planned updates are:

 

1) Replacement of all weapon models in the game, both for aesthetic purposes, and to correct significant scaling issues. Seriously, the game's 1H sword is over 50" long! And the giant whack-a-mole mallets got to go.

 

2) Expanding and correcting weapon classes: longswords will become a 2H sword, (because they ARE) with a new class of 1H arming swords in their place. Falchions, 1H hammers, and 2H maces will also be added. Future developments may include the addition of polearms.

 

3) Entirely new Talent tree for longswords and greatswords, drawn from the German school of swordsmanship

 

4) Armor effectiveness based on damage type, rather than generic penetration rating of the weapon. IE, mail will be decently effective against cutting weapons, but highly vulnerable to piercing and blunt.

 

5) Revision of armor types (there is no evidence of splint having ever been used for torso armor, nor scale as lower leg or arm protection. Studded leather armor doesn't even exist).

 

The Arms and Armor team will be looking for volunteers from a number of different skill sets. However at the moment, our greatest need is for modelers and texture artists. There's some 70+ weapons that need building, and this is an overwhelming task for our team's sole modeler (me).

 

Full project details are available here:

 

Arms and Armor Project Page

 

Please contact me either there, or via this thread if you are interested in helping out. An example of our work is below, and more can be seen on the project page.

 

http://social.bioware.com/uploads_project/project_gallery/1000/415/98/1055.jpg

[Aria C]

4) Armor effectiveness based on damage type, rather than generic penetration rating of the weapon. IE, mail will be decently effective against cutting weapons, but highly vulnerable to piercing and blunt.

 

I have allways found it annoying that developers just throw weapons in assign some damage and pretty much leave it at that. I may be wrong but I cant recall any developer ever trying to base damage dependancy on the weapon vrs armor type. Forcing the player to swap weapons to be effective, for example long swords were not effective against those wearing plate armor (what would be called massive armor in DA.)

 

Things like the war hammer, battle axe, lance, and the larger two handed swords were. Even Englands longbowmen had trouble and needed to use a specail arrow head known as a bodkin to punch through that armor. And even then thanks to an italian design those arrows were deflected alot if they did not land square something that was hard to accomplish on armor designed to deflect the very arrow your using.

 

So I'm looking forward to this mod it should a great deal of immersion to DA.

[Ozisl]

longswords will become a 2H sword, (because they ARE)

 

Will you also be accurate to the point that short swords are thrust weapons?

 

I may be able to make a model based off my sword here, but I don't have the software (yet).

[Ambaryerno]

Aria,

 

In the case of longsword vs. armor, it was a matter of technique. You wouldn't attack someone in heavy plate at full extension. Rather, you would use a technique called "half-sword." This involved gripping with one hand out on the blade. Your range is shorter, you don't have the same power in the cut, but your accuracy is greatly improved and you can put a LOT of force into the thrust. This will be one of the longsword Talents: Piercing damage and increased Attack at the cost of some power. Even the large greatswords were used in this fashion against heavy armor.

 

Oz,

 

As of yet I don't have plans for a "short sword" class. Mostly because of the fact that "short sword" is a modern classification never used historically (as opposed to arming swords and longswords). And if you're referring to the gladius, bear in mind that it did INDEED have a serviceable cutting edge, and in test cuts performs admirably (yes it's short, but it's a relatively broad and heavy blade).

[Bridgepiece]

Id love to help, provided I can use Google Sketchup to make the models (it can export in all the 3ds flavours..)

 

As for 'longswords', imo, I dont think they are 2H weapons.. A male without a father sword or great sword would be considered a 2H wep :) Longswords are usually accompanied by a shield or buckler etc

 

Anyways, Id love to see these changes! and perhaps new models as well :) keep up the excellent work!

 

Bridge

 

EDIT: lol, 'male w/o a father'? I just love these forum filters!

[Ambaryerno]

Bridge,

 

Yes, a longsword was a two-handed sword. Some of the smaller types could be used one-handed as well, but the martial art for these swords was primarily two-handed. A b@stard sword was a later, smaller variety that was an intermediate between the dedicated one-handed arming sword and the primarily two-handed longswords. Most longswords had a blade exceeding 36", (m own are 40" blades) and all had hilts that were sized for full two-handed use

 

Anyway, use whatever program you want. I use AC3D myself, it's just the export format that matters. :-)

 

Sign up at the Bioware forums and drop me a line on the project's (link in the original message) discussion board and I'll add you to the group. You can also take a look at the models so far to get an idea of how things will be looking.

[bilwit]

I'm a texture artist willing to help. I posted on your forums but thought I'd leave a word here too. I must warn you though, I am very good.

 

Here are some samples of my most recent work:

 

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/5070/bilwittmp1.jpg

 

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/789/bilwittmp2.jpg

 

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/5603/bilwittmp3.jpg

 

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/9438/glorfindel.jpg

 

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/2213/theodenfinal.jpg

[Ambaryerno]

You're hired! :woot:

[LHammonds]

EDIT: lol, 'male w/o a father'? I just love these forum filters!

You're welcome. hahaha. ;D

 

LHammonds

[Ambaryerno]

*BUMP*