The Shield Problem(s)

**pike master** · 01-27-2007, 00:16

the romans actually trained to use their shields to kill kill along with their swords. although i didnt live back in those good ole days when you didnt get cavities because you was too poor to find the treats.

but i figure the shield could be used to push someone back like riot police do.

it could double as a weapon if you lost your sword(like wrestlers do folding chairs :)

or to push your way into the effective weapon radius of a long weapon to deliver the gut splitter with the tip of your spear which you hold at the middle of its length so it will balance better.

but im all talk and no sword play

**dopp** · 01-27-2007, 02:26

Originally Posted by Ulstan

Also somewhat counter-intuitively, good plate armor could turn arrows that would go right through wooden shields. The 'shields = missile defence only while armor = melee defence only' paradigm is a false one that must be dispelled :)

Honestly, I'm quite surprised that people would consider shields useless in melee. Might as well say swords are useless in melee as well, and that armor is there solely to handicap you and give the other fellow a fighting chance. I've used the lighter modern riot shields (about the size of a Medieval shield) a little in crowd control practice and I have to say that they are indispensible. When some bloke shoves at you, you'll be glad to shove back with it.

**Praetorian308** · 01-27-2007, 03:12

So, the higher the shield stat the worse a unit does?

**Foz** · 01-27-2007, 04:15

Originally Posted by Praetorian308

So, the higher the shield stat the worse a unit does?

Bingo. It subtracts from melee defense, so every point makes the unit progressively worse...

**pike master** · 01-28-2007, 03:27

has anyone tried entering a negative number for the shield value?i mean a value with the negative sign in front of it

**dopp** · 01-28-2007, 03:44

Then missile fire would be borked.

**Foz** · 01-28-2007, 04:30

Yeah, exactly. And since there's no way to give the unit defense that applies to missiles but not melee except for the shield, if you make the shield negative there is absolutely no way to make the unit's missile defense go back to being correct, at least not without adding extra melee defense TOO due to upping the armor stat. So while a negative shield value could theoretically make the unit work right in melee, it leaves no recourse for fixing the missile defense that it will have broken. Coincidentally, several people reported in this thread that a negative value won't stick for the shield anyway, the game sets anything negative to zero instead.

**pike master** · 01-28-2007, 16:40

interesting if it did work for melee

**nameless** · 02-03-2007, 00:03

Never noticed this bug until someone mentioned it so I think until CA releases a patch I'll stick with the other stuff.

However,
If you add in say a shield value of 1, how bad would it affect the unit? Would it still provide at least some defence against missile attacks without harming the unit in hand-to-hand?

**JCoyote** · 02-03-2007, 00:16

Originally Posted by nameless

Never noticed this bug until someone mentioned it so I think until CA releases a patch I'll stick with the other stuff.

However,
If you add in say a shield value of 1, how bad would it affect the unit? Would it still provide at least some defence against missile attacks without harming the unit in hand-to-hand?

Considering that melee is more quickly lethal than missiles, it would hurt them more in melee than it would help in missiles.