Researching Awl Pike

Last time...

In my previous commit, I had the pleasure of studying the guns and their ammo and how they are reflected in the world of Cataclysm-DDA. This time, the some members of the community were buzzing about a 3-meter-long pointy stick called awl pike.

Awl Pike

The awl pike is basically an extra-long spear designed specifically for use in a formation attack. A formation of 3+ ranks hold the longest possible stick at their disposal and poke the enemy that stands in front of them or charging at them. It is very powerful weapon against things that stands in front of them, but due to the need for formation and the shear unwieldiness of the weapon, it is not very versatile and adaptable to changing circumstances. In a one-on-one combat, the weapon would be very difficult to stay effective. How do I know all this? Well, there was the entire discussion about it in the issue page. Like I said, this kind of games brings out the geeks from their closets and provide the floor to spread their enthusiasm and knowledge.

Issue

The game apparently played with the game mechanics by setting the weight to an unreasonable amount to somehow simulate the inefficiency of this weapon. At some point in time, more comprehensive means of representing the weapon was introduced, but awl pike stayed the same.

Fix

This bugfix aims to set the awk pike characteristic to better reflect the real-life counterpart by decreasing the weight but also decreasing the to-hit chance. This fix also tinkered with the damage to keep it more consistent with other similar weapons.

Conclusion

This was also interesting. I got to watch a YouTube of a weapon specialist explaining the advantage and disadvantage of a pole-arm weapon and its demonstration. It was interesting to imagine how such a weapon can be used and how such characteristic can be represented in a numeric fashion to mimic its effectiveness in the world we are helping to shape.