Dalthid
29-04-2007 11:21:19
**This is NOT happening yet, I'm just getting the word out early**
As usual, I've taken criticism to heart and listened to the VIABLE complaints and suggestions. Concerning Dual Handedness and the ACC, I must say - after all this time - I have to agree; it's pretty freaking complicated. I only reached that decision over "time"; that is - I couldn't see it right after I had written the policy because it was still fresh in my head. So, I gave it a month or so without any interaction with it; then of course we had all the DB stuff, the DCM selection, the CHL's and all of that so I lost the time to get back to it. That of course ended up being a good thing because as recently as just before the RoS I tried to get back to the DH policy and was like "what the f**k was I doing?"
*Backtracking a bit* The whole reasoning behind dual handedness was to attempt to honestly convey the skill of a fighter where ambidexterity is concerned. Despite the beliefs of some, ambidexterity is not a given - and it should never be. It is a skill that must be learned in many cases. Yes, some individuals are more adept than others as far as natural skill is concerned, but that doesn't mean it can be/should be a given for them either; especially where weapons are concerned. After all, that *is* what we're talking about - not the ability to effectively pick your nose with both fingers, in both nostrils, simultaneously
As with most of the ACC changes, this isn't really something that lends itself to attrition - the nature of the CS's and battles and all, but we'll try. I highly recommend that, when we kick this off, that you look at where you stand on battles and, if possible, just kick over your CS to the "new" system. As best as I can explain, below is how its going to work. Keep in mind that we do plan to make these 'coded' changes, in the future (hopefully with the new dossiers), but for now they will be manual adaptations to your character sheets via the custom slots.
The "new" system will incorporate two very important things (thanks to the ACC staff who were involved in the initial discussions); 1) the way a fighter's "hands" are considered and 2) the way the weapon types/skills are considered; Stay with me here...
PART 1; THE HANDS
We are going to incorporate the terms; "strong hand" and "off-hand". These are common terms to define which hand we are referring to. On the CS, where you select "hand" (right, left or don't know), this is your 'strong hand'. It should go without saying that those who select 'don't know' will be seriously screwed in this system, LOL. In addition, for the slow folks, if you choose "right handed", then the "left" becomes the off-hand by default and vice versa
CODE VERSION: when coded into the CS, the 'hand' section will be changed. It will be replaced with 'handedness' which will have two sections beneath it; strong hand and off-hand, which you will need to allocate points to. These two sections "may" look something like this (the 'select' being a drop down box):
Handedness:
Strong Hand | 0/5
Off-Hand | 0/5
The points you have to allocate to each hand will be derived from the skill points that you're given at the outset. In the coded version, a selection of hands and points allocated to them will be mandatory, i.e. the CS won't process unless you fill those in, but this only goes for the 'strong hand'; being ambidextrous (i.e. placing points in the off-hand) will not be mandatory. So you could end up with this if you only had five points to spend;
Handedness:
Strong Hand | <5> (5/5)
Off-Hand | <0> (0/5)
Or this
Handedness:
Strong Hand | <3> (3/5)
Off-Hand | <2> (2/5)
The first denotes a fighter who is very skilled in his strong hand only, the second depicts a fighter who has the ability to dual wield weapons. This scale will have explanations, don't worry - a '0' will not mean that the arm hangs dead by your side Equally, a 5 will not mean you're a deity.
Here's a fake example of what it might look like: DH Screen (code version)
***
NON-CODE VERSION: This would be how we incorporate this system if we were to do it right this second, by using the custom slots of the character sheets - like some of you are doing with DH and DH2 now. At present, with daggers for example, this is what you're manually putting into the custom slot:
Dual Handedness: (5/5)
The ability to wield dual weapons of the same type.
Dual Handedness/Weapon Type: (5/5)
Dagger/Vibroshiv: The dual handed skill for this Dark Jedi applies to the use of weapons that fall under the 'dagger/vibroshiv' skill/type and are normally single-handed in their nature. The dual handedness skill does not apply to any other weapon type.
In this format, the ONLY weapon this applies to is daggers - that's retarded, I know; that's why I'm fixing it The basic premise of daggers and swords, for example, are somewhat the same, so why would you be restricted to a type? Meh - it sounded good at the time
What you will do now is this; you will address 'Strong Hand' and 'Off-Hand' and you will do it like this;
Handedness, Strong hand: (0/5)
Handedness, Off-Hand: (0/5)
Here's a fake example: DH Screen
[We "MAY" accept something like this (undecided) one-liner for those who don't want to dual wield
Handedness, Strong Hand (5)/Off-hand (0): (5/5)
- this would be to decrease the number of custom slots one needs to use
- the points for each, noted in parenthesis, would be added together for the total allocated points. The example says that the fighter is a "5" in strong hand and a "0" in off-hand.
- of course, if the math is wrong, or the numbers in parenthesis total more than 5, we'd decline the CS
- also, many of the weapons will have 3/3 or 3/4 requirements, so a on-liner version would make it impossible for a character to dual wield ]
That’s it! No definitions, no weapons or any of that. So, what about the hand at the top of the CS? As I mentioned in the beginning; you will have to select a hand, be it right or left - that will be your strong hand; the other will "become" your off-hand by default.
- What about the folks who refuse to pick a hand? There's one of two ways we could go with this; 1) decline the CS during administration -OR- 2) the selection of 'don't know' for a hand automatically negates the points one has spent in handedness. That means, that a fighter will be penalized if they dual wield any weapons in a battle while their CS reads "don’t know" for hand at the top of the CS. The former is the best way, but because we are not perfect, and we miss stuff, the latter will probably be the 'rule'. Dunno yet...
- What about folks who don't want to dual wield? Good question - unfortunately, all I have is a crappy answer which spans the different types of CS's out there. Some avidly keep track of their CS, some just have it cause they thought they needed to and have never fought in the ACC, some used to fight but no longer do - so, we had to come up with something that fit that whole spectrum. So, here's the skinny - dual handedness or not (keeping in mind that you can have '0' for off-hand); if one fails to allocate points, they will be assumed a "1" in their strong hand and a "0" in their off-hand (beware rifle and pole weapon folks). So, it is in a person's best interest to "at least" do a strong hand (3), off-hand (0) as "3" is the generally accepted "trained" number of points.
- Okay, but what about the weapons? Are we still limited to types? Good question - the answer is "no" you would NO LONGER be limited to types by virtue of Dual Handedness itself; the skill required of the weapon will now decide. The Weapon Databank has been re-formatted into single hand, dual hand weapons. All of which have point requirements (to include the lightsabre + whatever, stuff). Now, don't get too excited - the standard weapon types will still have a cost and you must meet that; for example
To dual wield Blastswords, you will need at least the following
- 5 points allocated to the "Sword" category
- 3 points allocated to Strong Hand
- 4 points allocated to Off-hand
So, if you are missing one of those (maybe you haven't gotten enough points yet), then you can't wield dual Balstswords at the same time. Lets say you only have 3 points left to put into Off-hand, you either need to choose a weapon of lesser requirement, wait until you get the other point or dump something else to free up the points you need.
Mind you, this does not apply to those who want to carry just 1. As always, the root type needs skill points (i.e. sword, whip/thethered, blaster etc.) and, as mentioned above, your handedness skill is considered a 1/0 if you don’t allocate points. This will all make sense in part 2 when I cover the meaning of the types if you're confused
BIG NOTE: Perhaps the biggest change to the whole thing WILL effect Rifles and Quarterstaff/Pole weapons. These can NEVER be dual wielded (you can keep throwing out the Rambo excuses and I'll keep ignoring them) and now have a MANDATORY skill requirement to even carry 1. It only makes sense - how can you wield a quarterstaff if you have no skill in your off-hand? Like a bumbling fool, perhaps, LOL. As of now, both have mandatory requirements of 3/3/3 - root skill (rifle/pole) 3; strong hand 3 and off-hand 3.
End Part 1... (I think)
As usual, I've taken criticism to heart and listened to the VIABLE complaints and suggestions. Concerning Dual Handedness and the ACC, I must say - after all this time - I have to agree; it's pretty freaking complicated. I only reached that decision over "time"; that is - I couldn't see it right after I had written the policy because it was still fresh in my head. So, I gave it a month or so without any interaction with it; then of course we had all the DB stuff, the DCM selection, the CHL's and all of that so I lost the time to get back to it. That of course ended up being a good thing because as recently as just before the RoS I tried to get back to the DH policy and was like "what the f**k was I doing?"
*Backtracking a bit* The whole reasoning behind dual handedness was to attempt to honestly convey the skill of a fighter where ambidexterity is concerned. Despite the beliefs of some, ambidexterity is not a given - and it should never be. It is a skill that must be learned in many cases. Yes, some individuals are more adept than others as far as natural skill is concerned, but that doesn't mean it can be/should be a given for them either; especially where weapons are concerned. After all, that *is* what we're talking about - not the ability to effectively pick your nose with both fingers, in both nostrils, simultaneously
As with most of the ACC changes, this isn't really something that lends itself to attrition - the nature of the CS's and battles and all, but we'll try. I highly recommend that, when we kick this off, that you look at where you stand on battles and, if possible, just kick over your CS to the "new" system. As best as I can explain, below is how its going to work. Keep in mind that we do plan to make these 'coded' changes, in the future (hopefully with the new dossiers), but for now they will be manual adaptations to your character sheets via the custom slots.
The "new" system will incorporate two very important things (thanks to the ACC staff who were involved in the initial discussions); 1) the way a fighter's "hands" are considered and 2) the way the weapon types/skills are considered; Stay with me here...
PART 1; THE HANDS
We are going to incorporate the terms; "strong hand" and "off-hand". These are common terms to define which hand we are referring to. On the CS, where you select "hand" (right, left or don't know), this is your 'strong hand'. It should go without saying that those who select 'don't know' will be seriously screwed in this system, LOL. In addition, for the slow folks, if you choose "right handed", then the "left" becomes the off-hand by default and vice versa
CODE VERSION: when coded into the CS, the 'hand' section will be changed. It will be replaced with 'handedness' which will have two sections beneath it; strong hand and off-hand, which you will need to allocate points to. These two sections "may" look something like this (the 'select' being a drop down box):
Handedness:
Strong Hand
Off-Hand
The points you have to allocate to each hand will be derived from the skill points that you're given at the outset. In the coded version, a selection of hands and points allocated to them will be mandatory, i.e. the CS won't process unless you fill those in, but this only goes for the 'strong hand'; being ambidextrous (i.e. placing points in the off-hand) will not be mandatory. So you could end up with this if you only had five points to spend;
Handedness:
Strong Hand
Off-Hand
Or this
Handedness:
Strong Hand
Off-Hand
The first denotes a fighter who is very skilled in his strong hand only, the second depicts a fighter who has the ability to dual wield weapons. This scale will have explanations, don't worry - a '0' will not mean that the arm hangs dead by your side
Equally, a 5 will not mean you're a deity. Here's a fake example of what it might look like: DH Screen (code version)
***
NON-CODE VERSION: This would be how we incorporate this system if we were to do it right this second, by using the custom slots of the character sheets - like some of you are doing with DH and DH2 now. At present, with daggers for example, this is what you're manually putting into the custom slot:
Dual Handedness: (5/5)
The ability to wield dual weapons of the same type.
Dual Handedness/Weapon Type: (5/5)
Dagger/Vibroshiv: The dual handed skill for this Dark Jedi applies to the use of weapons that fall under the 'dagger/vibroshiv' skill/type and are normally single-handed in their nature. The dual handedness skill does not apply to any other weapon type.
In this format, the ONLY weapon this applies to is daggers - that's retarded, I know; that's why I'm fixing it
The basic premise of daggers and swords, for example, are somewhat the same, so why would you be restricted to a type? Meh - it sounded good at the time What you will do now is this; you will address 'Strong Hand' and 'Off-Hand' and you will do it like this;
Handedness, Strong hand:
Handedness, Off-Hand:
Here's a fake example: DH Screen
[We "MAY" accept something like this (undecided) one-liner for those who don't want to dual wield
Handedness, Strong Hand (5)/Off-hand (0):
- this would be to decrease the number of custom slots one needs to use
- the points for each, noted in parenthesis, would be added together for the total allocated points. The example says that the fighter is a "5" in strong hand and a "0" in off-hand.
- of course, if the math is wrong, or the numbers in parenthesis total more than 5, we'd decline the CS
- also, many of the weapons will have 3/3 or 3/4 requirements, so a on-liner version would make it impossible for a character to dual wield ]
That’s it! No definitions, no weapons or any of that. So, what about the hand at the top of the CS? As I mentioned in the beginning; you will have to select a hand, be it right or left - that will be your strong hand; the other will "become" your off-hand by default.
- What about the folks who refuse to pick a hand? There's one of two ways we could go with this; 1) decline the CS during administration -OR- 2) the selection of 'don't know' for a hand automatically negates the points one has spent in handedness. That means, that a fighter will be penalized if they dual wield any weapons in a battle while their CS reads "don’t know" for hand at the top of the CS. The former is the best way, but because we are not perfect, and we miss stuff, the latter will probably be the 'rule'. Dunno yet...
- What about folks who don't want to dual wield? Good question - unfortunately, all I have is a crappy answer which spans the different types of CS's out there. Some avidly keep track of their CS, some just have it cause they thought they needed to and have never fought in the ACC, some used to fight but no longer do - so, we had to come up with something that fit that whole spectrum. So, here's the skinny - dual handedness or not (keeping in mind that you can have '0' for off-hand); if one fails to allocate points, they will be assumed a "1" in their strong hand and a "0" in their off-hand (beware rifle and pole weapon folks
). So, it is in a person's best interest to "at least" do a strong hand (3), off-hand (0) as "3" is the generally accepted "trained" number of points.- Okay, but what about the weapons? Are we still limited to types? Good question - the answer is "no" you would NO LONGER be limited to types by virtue of Dual Handedness itself; the skill required of the weapon will now decide. The Weapon Databank has been re-formatted into single hand, dual hand weapons. All of which have point requirements (to include the lightsabre + whatever, stuff). Now, don't get too excited - the standard weapon types will still have a cost and you must meet that; for example
To dual wield Blastswords, you will need at least the following
- 5 points allocated to the "Sword" category
- 3 points allocated to Strong Hand
- 4 points allocated to Off-hand
So, if you are missing one of those (maybe you haven't gotten enough points yet), then you can't wield dual Balstswords at the same time. Lets say you only have 3 points left to put into Off-hand, you either need to choose a weapon of lesser requirement, wait until you get the other point or dump something else to free up the points you need.
Mind you, this does not apply to those who want to carry just 1. As always, the root type needs skill points (i.e. sword, whip/thethered, blaster etc.) and, as mentioned above, your handedness skill is considered a 1/0 if you don’t allocate points. This will all make sense in part 2 when I cover the meaning of the types if you're confused
BIG NOTE: Perhaps the biggest change to the whole thing WILL effect Rifles and Quarterstaff/Pole weapons. These can NEVER be dual wielded (you can keep throwing out the Rambo excuses and I'll keep ignoring them
) and now have a MANDATORY skill requirement to even carry 1. It only makes sense - how can you wield a quarterstaff if you have no skill in your off-hand? Like a bumbling fool, perhaps, LOL. As of now, both have mandatory requirements of 3/3/3 - root skill (rifle/pole) 3; strong hand 3 and off-hand 3.End Part 1... (I think)