In the next release it will be possible to dual-wield weapons. In most roguelikes dual wielding has a lot of restrictions; the attack sequence may be slower than normal and/or the offhand attack may be less accurate. However, for dual wielding to fit into The Ground Gives Way’s design and simple mechanics I have decided to make the rules very simple. This makes dual wielding very powerful but very rare.
Rules for Dual Wielding
- You must find two identical one-handed weapons in order to dual wield.
- When dual wielding you automatically attack twice per turn, with the same chance to hit.
That’s it. So if you find two knives you can wield both of them and thereby attack any target twice per turn. Note that the items has to be exactly the same type. For example, you cannot equip a club of fire and an unenchanted club. But you can equip two clubs of fire (however, it would be very very unlikely that you’d find two clubs of fire in one run). Another thing to note is that you don’t get the equipment bonus twice when you wield dual weapons, so if a weapon get you +1 to melee, it doesn’t mean that you will get +2 to melee when you equip two of them.
This means that you need to be quite lucky to be able to dual wield, but when you can, it is quite powerful!
About to equip a second knife.
Two knives are equipped, giving two attacks per turn.
This sounds like a great idea! And well balanced for TGGW’s mechanics, too. Wish I had more time play around with this again. In a few months when I’m less busy I definitely want to pick this game up again. So much awesome 🙂
Thank you! It’s an idea I’ve had for a long time but wasn’t sure it would fit, but now when it’s implemented I see that it really does 🙂
I understand your busyness (hard to be both playing games and making games!), it must be really exciting to have Cogmind close to alpha release!
Exciting aaaaand tiring at the same time ;). But at least I still plug TGGW whenever I see a chance!
True, though, making games is so time-consuming that it’s difficult to both make and play them. It would be easier without a family to care for, but as is in the short term I can only pick one and do it!
Anyway, you keep up the good work, too, so that when I do get to start up the latest version again there’s even more content and features than before–looking forward to it 😀
Interesting. But I have to try it to understand correctly.
What about rusted weapons? What about coated weapons? Do they count as the same type? And what happens when you have two identical basic weapons equiped, and then: 1)coat one of them with potion; 2)enchant one of them from scroll; 3)enchant or dissenchant one of them from enchantress service; 4)upgrade one from weaponsmith service; 5)get one of them rusted from water? Also, would scrolls of ‘enchanting’ and ‘destroy weapon’ work on one or both of them?
As I got from screenshot, weapon requirements don’t stack either (you only need 1 mana to equip both knives), is it right?
>Another thing to note is that you don’t get the equipment bonus twice when you wield dual weapons
It reminded me, that I have question about ‘of skill’ enchantment. I’ve had longspear and boots of skill equiped one time, which both provided me with ‘closed combat’ ability, and their bonuses kinda stacked. I mean, my melee attribute raised a bit more, when I equip another item with ‘closed combat’ bonus in a corridor. Is it intended to work this way?
And the last one. Do enemies not allowed to open golden doors? Because I’ve chased a scared goblin one time, he stoped at a golden door outside a golden chamber and just stood there frozen, looking at it and doing nothing.
About the dual wield:
First of all, thank you for pointing out all these combinations, many of them I actually haven’t thought about! I will need to think about it a bit before I give a straight answer… 🙂
Stacking closed/open combat is intentional but not so transparent. There are degrees of closed/open melee, but this is not a visible stat. I may change this though, thanks for pointing it out.
No, monsters can’t open or close golden doors, so this is a bug in the AI routine, thank you for reporting that!
Thank you very much for this very useful comment Zennaris!
Now when the implementation of dual wielding is almost complete, I will be able to answer your questions better 🙂
In most cases the effect will be like you are wielding one weapon: services will upgrade/enchant both (for 3/2x the price), if you want to upgrade/enchant only one you have to unequip it first. Anything that causes or removes rust will affect both weapons. Coating will coat both weapons. Scrolls of enchant will enchant both weapons. Things that breaks weapons (scrolls, grindstones) break only one.
Awesome. Can’t wait to try it. Does dual wielding work with counter attack too, so you strike 2 times with your daggers in return?
And how do feel about confusion exploit? It is possible to use confused state in your favor while fighting a monster. Because swaping your equipment doesn’t cost an action, you can do it as much as you want, but it still counts as turns of confusion, so eventually you or confused monsters will stumble and change position. It means you can shoot them with ranged weapon or escape safely.
Right now counter attack + dual wield means two counter attacks, I am still evaluating if it is balanced, but I think it is: If you are dual wielding daggers, you could potentially get 4 attacks in one turn (two attacks dual wielding + two counter attacks) assuming you and the monster have equal speed. However, dual wielding daggers also means that you will probably have low block, so your counter attack won’t activate that often (counter attacks works best when you have a shield).
About the confusion, yeah that’s a glitch… confusion shouldn’t do anything when doing free actions. I will see what I can do about that. Thank you!