@Malais

You may see me as being hostile and am not trying to be. In all fairness the CoE community is equally hostile to anyone who does not take everything SbS says and does as gospel and agree with everything they chose. You may not see it but touche. I have yet to downvote anyone for anything they have said and enjoy the conversation. Its my nature to question everything.

You cant tell me that people spending tens of thousands of dollars arent going to be in the best position in expo and after launch to be the leaders of the arms race we will all find ourselves in. Or that the dukes and counts that are equally as stacked in EP wont also compound that research. Those people attract more power, EP, and sheeple who dont want to be on the wrong side of the war or sneak in during domain selection. Or that those superpowers arent trying to sway the politics right now in their favor for when they come calling.

You cant tell me that those superpowers are going to be stopped dead in their tracks me sheer skill alone in the face of superior numbers, superior research, and superior armorments.

Sure reserch takes a long time but when you have solid foundations to stand on it makes it much easier to streamline reserch and lead the bleeding edge of the arms race when expo/launch happens. Unless those powers suffer multiple catastrophic setbacks they are going to pull years ahead of other people.

I also agree that all weapons have killing potential from a rock, to a wooden bat, to a baslista. Anything can potentially be picked up and used as a weapon that could ko or kill someone.

What I am getting at is the efficency of making bone, wood, metal or stone weapons/armor and how their durability stacks up against opposing materil constructions. Each have their strengths and weaknesses. It is my hope that if a tribe like the Dras prefer stone age tools as their means of combat that at some point materials match up to the quality standards you would expect them to perform.

Which means if the Dras or any other race choose such weapons that there will be periods where those syles are more efficient for them and other times they fall out of favor when other weapons are higher in quality until the next breakthrough.

What I don't want to see is that just because the tribe uses them that they are automatically on par with every other weapon just for the sake of keeping that tribe around and alive. In their own biome environment their tools might suit them but it should not by any means make those weapons on par with anything else they encounter.

I expect metal weapons to be better than stone weapons but the difference is probably not so much that an inexperienced fighter can beat an experienced fighter with an inferior weapon.

CoE won't have a system where an item can have like "+3000 strength". And a stone weapon can do just as much damage to you as a steel one (armor may or may not be slightly better at stopping one type of weapon over another, but shape of the weapon matters more than the material).

The biggest problem with stone weapons is that stone weapons will tend to be less durable. But it's not like you can just cut a properly made wooden sword with stone edges in two either using a sword or even an axe. It's going to take multiple strong blows to destroy a wooden weapon. Sure, the wood will eventually give way, but by that time you may have already won the battle and just make a new weapon.

Posted By Halvgrim at

It looks like some tribes will use weapons made of metal, whereas the others will use weapons made of stone. As an example the Dras have acces to bog iron, but their tribal weapon is a stone age sword. (Thank you for the correction Lumnios)

This leads to some questions:

• Are metal weapons inherently better than stone age weapons, or will the tribal weapons be balanced?
• Can a warrior from a stone age culture gain an advantage by using an imported metal weapon?
• Can warriors from a stone age society use metal weapons effectively without having to retrain their skills?
• Can you make a fortune by exporting metal items to a stone age culture, or do stone age NPCs prefer to use their traditional stone tools?
• Should we expect stone tools to be a technological dead end, or can a stone age toolmakers also invent new methods to improve their craft?

It will highly depend on a lot of factors in all honesty. The strength of the tools construction being the top. If a steel used is stronger, it will inherently be better. That said, it would also need to be made better. If a metal hammer has a wooden handle that isn't bound together - it can break. Perhaps someone's stone hammer has been bound better? Likely it's a better tool due to durability/sustainability.

There is a huge variation also depending on the stone and metal composition and tensile strength of the materials in question. There could be an extremely strong stone and a weak metal; or a weak alloy -- or a strong alloy.

A lot will depend on the progression of each Tribe; but I imagine we will all have access to tools of different qualities, etc. A Hrothi pickaxe might be superior to the Kypiq - well there's a great quest for someone to undertake - bringing Hrothi pickaxes to the Kypiq masses... Why would we need pickaxes is beyond me, perhaps for bopping Janoa? Hmm... but I digress!

I should have read page two before replying. :P