Posted by Soren(VIP) on May 12, 2000 at 16:26:31:
In Reply to: Re: Just wondering something... posted by Necthryn on May 12, 2000 at 13:49:18:
> has always been a point of contention for me. Being a mace spec on CF, I was constantly amazed at the weight of some of the maces I used. 15-40 pounds for the maces and hammers on average! Now, I happen to be something of a history buff, so out of curiosity, I did a little poking around and found out some interesting things... Your average big blacksmith's hammer, used towards the end of the smithing procedure to pound the cooling metal into its final shape and ensure the sharpness of blades and such, weighs on average 12-15 pounds. I have picked one of these up and even swung it around a few times... Let's just say ouch! My shoulder and forearm were sore for a few days and if I were to hit anybody with the thing, it wouldn't matter if they were wearing a good thick helmet or not. Scrambled brains, anyone?
>
> Now, a brief look at flails... The balls on the end of the chain very rarely weighed more than 5 pounds, giving the weapon an overall weight of about 7 pounds. The momentum built up by swinging the flail was such that more weight would often cause the chain to break. Your average flail had a spiked, 2 pound ball on the end, and that was enough to break bones, split skulls, dent suits of platemail and still break the bones underneath said suit of armor. Again, ouch!
>
> Now, swords... As Takashimi mentioned, 8 pound blades are sufficient to cause broken bones even on a movie set. The two handed William Wallace claymore weighed not much more than 12 pounds. Now, think about swinging that 50 pound claymore on CF. I can see giants doing it but your average human is going to look for something a little more "manageable".
>
> Now, I know that when weight on weapons is considered, they take into account how much people can carry. For instance, I know I would not want to run around carrying 200 flipping pounds in real life. I do good to walk around in clunky boots and not get overly tired. It is all a matter of perspective. Don't agree? Well, let's perform a little test... Figure out the weight of what your character on CF is carrying just in his/her backpack. Now, go fill up a backpack with the same amount of weight and haul it around for an hour and see if you can run real fast or play dodge ball for 20 minutes.
>
> I'm surprised that you are surprised that the weapons are so heavy... What about the food??? 2 pounds of beef jerky!?!? I get full eating a quarter pounder for Pete's sake!
>
> Necthryn