Some sort of system to track familiarity with specific weapons as you use them

Yes, we already have the bash,stab,slash damage types to level up, but I’m thinking that just because you know how to use a Machete in a fight, that shouldn’t translate directly to using a sickle (for example), without at least SOME loss in efficiency. Or just because you know how to use a tonfa, that doesn’t mean you should instantly be an ass kicker with a sledge hammer.

Thoughts?

I’ve brought up an idea about splitting Melee into One-handed Melee and Two-handed melee during this past week
[sup]surprise, surprise- it didn’t excite anyone.[/sup]

There aren’t that many melee weapons out there, separating them into several different groups would severely restrict the weapon choices as you progress.

as it stands, You could think of it as your Melee skill governing all your close combat capabilities and the cut/stab/bash merely multiplying the damage output.

However it may be worthwhile if someone was to come up with an additional set of perks for each weapon type ( And created a reasonably large collection of weapons to introduce )
[sup][sup]Or seperated the existing perks ( stamina drain, stun chance, attack speed & etc which are based on weight and volume which are all handled automatically - doesn’t seem too worthwhile imo )[/sup][/sup]

I personally feel like the specialized progression you speak of is already represented by melee-compatible martial arts anyway.

Going the path of tracking each and every weapon negates the need for more general skills.
You could have synergies maybe.
The real question is, though, how much extra work doing that causes.

And basically the fundamental question here is wether the player uses what he feels like it or what he must beign used to it and having skills to back it up.
Most, if not all, rpgs take on of the following stances into combat:
You get quite general skills, like D&D
You get weapon groups, like one handed slashing, two handed, etc
Or the full monty with every weapon havin the skill of it own, some going EVEN far enough to seperate the hitting and blocking.
I strongly belive, that the level of details is up to the devs vision of how the things should be presented, fluid, but open to debate or highly realistic no nonsense.
Kinda prefer the current it beign believable enough, but it could do with a bit of extra detail, mainly counting the amount player uses which weapon and granting a bonus after long enough use.
Seperating things to say one and two handed really doesn’t give anything before we get to use BOTH of our hands (or tentacles/hooves/paws).

Tracking how often you use a particular weapon and giving a famiarity bonus when it passes some threshold would be totally trivial to do, anything involving categorizing them or applying synergies based on use of other weapons becomes a lot more complicated really fast. I’m generally in favor of a famiarity perk, but haven’t gotten around to adding it.

Likewise, I’d be in support of a familiarity perk too, though I have to admit, it’s partly because I name my weapons and get really attached to them.