Probably not the right forums, but still a good question.

I would think, to a degree, both.

If a heavy fast moving object hit a shield you were holding, there is still a fair chance that your arm/shoulder/body would be injured, depending on mass, velocity, angle of impact, etc.

In addition to that, the shield itself would probably receive some degree of structural damage.

I don't know that CoE will get that complicated with it, which is why, ultimately, they may just go with "damage reduction", and an associated durability loss.

There is currently little too no information on combat or warfare generally, certainly little in the way of official information.

I would assume, and vote for, damage reduction based on type and amount of damage you would have received. Obviously durability drops on use too.

But for example, if someone was going to slash you with a sword, and it would have caused idk.. 20 slashing damage. And someone else was going to hit you with a hammer and it would have caused 20 blunt force damage,

I would expect the shield to reduce the 20 from the sword more than that from the hammer due to the type of damage. Slashing damage doesn't transfer through the shield well, but blunt damage likely still takes it's toll on the person defending.

Like everyone else is saying though, we may not know this at this time. Sounds like a good question for snipe though in case he wants to share his thoughts on the matter.

Yeah I'd assume it to be true to everyone's response here.

Hopefully it does get fleshed out, as I am in aaagreement here.

it'll be very interesting if they add in physics. a hammer does x force over its surface area, likewise a sword or a pick. however, if the energy is the same, the pressure is much higher a the point where the pick hits or the edge of the sword strikes, compared to the hammer. Assuming identical materials.

Now if the the mohr hardness, bittleness, etc of one's material is much better than the other's, then severe damage or even catastrophic failure could occur to the weaker of the two

I would assume you will receive reduced damage or no damage depending on:

• The state of your Sta, your age, your level vs. theirs. your weight, location/environment and whether your char is more prone to a hot or cold environment, etc., overall health, and your defensive/offensive/resistance abilities at the time of being attacked

PLUS

• The type of armor/weapons that you are wearing + state and stats, and/or defensive/offensive special effects (if any) associated with what you wearing at the time of being attacked,

PLUS

• Whether you were able to parry, riposte, block successfully or not,

PLUS

• The type of weapon you are being attacked with: e.g the stats and special effects (if any) on weapon, type of damage (if any e.g heat vs cold and whether you have the defensive abilities against that type), level of the weapon and min/max damage the weapon can inflict...

• And I am sure I left out few things if they want to get even more into details when it comes to damage making or reduction... such as the tribe you belong to vs. the tribe they belong to, or perhaps whether you are on foot or mounted or vice versa at the time of being attacked, etc. and then in general when it comes to combat there are other factors to consider such as your ping vs. their ping and so on...

So am not sure just having a shield will be sufficient to measure damage reduction or no damage at all?

I think they should very effectively block/nullify damage. Shields were very effective, they were used for thousands of years, still are today if you include riot police and what not.

The balance for how effective they are should be the weight and encumberance of carrying the shield.

This game isn't going to be like WoW where you could carry 60 shields in your bags: actually having a shield on your character should fatigue you, use up an arm if being wielded or take up room that could be used for a larger backpack if worn on the back for travel etc.

The following should give you an idea of what the devs are thinking of in terms of how things in between your body and a weapon will affect you:

Note: From Discord, so may change

So would leather be effective against arrows or something and metal armor against swords and stuff?
21 MAY 18 D-CCR

That's closer to the truth. Different armors offer different levels of protections to different types of damage. Those protection levels are in turn altered by the properties of the armor imparted to the armor during crafting.

06 SEP 18 D-CCR

The attacks you execute, alongside weapon you use, dictate the "type of damage" that is transferred to whatever you hit. Armor, based on material and construction type, is better at distributing different types of damage so that it doesn't transfer to your person. You might shrug off a slash against plate, for example, but a powerful piercing attack with an appropriate weapon or a strong crushing blow delivered with a bludgeon of some sort will transfer through more effectively. Also Where that attack lands makes a big difference. Hit the armor and its properties will matter, hit where the armor isn't, and it won't.

Does that mean that, as an example, hitting someone in the breastplate with a handaxe would completely negate the attack, or that the handaxe would still deal damage and it'd be pseudo-blunt for all intents and purposes
06 SEP 18 D-CCR

Some amount of the damage will be distributed across the armor (in essence the armor will take some of the damage) but the rest will transfer through to the player. If the axe penetrates the armor, that will be one form of damage, but if the armor remains intact it will be another (bludgeoning damage)

In an interview with Bicycle Walrus, Caspian had this to say:

"In general, this is a game where if you hit somebody 3 or 4 times, they’re gonna die-- or at least they’re going to become incapacitated."

Caspian also said:

"As I mentioned with the combat system before, headshots in targeted locations do significantly more damage. A headshot with a composite longbow from 50 to 100 yards, that will probably drop you."

and this:

"A well-placed shot to the head, whether or not it would be a ranged attack or a well-placed plunge, one good headshot is probably enough if they’re not wearing any kind of head protection or any kind of armour is probably enough to incapacitate somebody. "
17 JAN 18 D-CCR

Still accurate.

So from all of this we can know that:
1. There is positional damage
2. There is positional damage mitigation by having armor in that location
3. Damage is determined by damage type versus protective armor type
4. Damage type received is dependent on whether the armor breaks or not

And so we can reason the following:
If an attacker strikes your shield, depending on what damage type (slashing, blunt, etc.) of weapon is used against what protective type (different materials are better at protecting against different types of damage types) of shield is used, will pass damage of a particular type onto your hand/arm with what type depending on whether the shield breaks or not. If you also have armor on your hand/arm, then the damage that passed through the shield will also have a check against the armor of your hand/arm to see if the damage (and what type) is passed on to your hand/arm.

Based on some quotes I've saved and the ones Protey brought up here, my read on it is:

-> Object strikes shield (spear : pierce damage : 20 damage)

-> Damage is blocked (20 damage blocked : 4 chip damage transfers through the block : x stamina consumed)

Then with the other important details, it comes down to weapon types, shield strength, attributes, combo attack power etc. Like perhaps - with high enough strength and stamina attributes - you can remove damage reactions. Or if you've been overpowered by a pike user with enormous strength, perhaps you'll get knocked on your ass.

But the primary take away is I think it's mainly damage reduction (a fairly standard and familiar system), albeit a huge one, at the expense of your stamina. And if the conditions are right (attributes etc) you can possibly ignore incoming damage entirely. As a side note, Caspian has said in the past that even sheathed shields should block incoming damage if it strikes the shield, which I think is huge. But who knows if that's actually true and will end up in the game.

I'm personally really liking the sound of using a shield in CoE's combo based combat system.