I’m a pretty big fan of warhammers myself! I’ll give you the TL;DR version first which is probably not (though it’s not set in stone). But I’ll also include a needlessly detailed reasoning of why that is.
—
There’s two big reasons of why I decided to go with swords. The first comes from a story perspective — the story follows the steps of transformation, meaning it’s about the journey changing the MC from who they were. How much that is depends on choices (e.g. the choices regarding Zhaki and Noxya nearing the end of Chapter 3), but the taking of a sword represents a minor step away from being a Hunter, Woodcutter, Smith or Alchemist.
This is also why I made sure the initial fight had your family of choice’s preferred way to go about it, up to including a separate beginning for attacking at range: the transformation would be meaningless without first experiencing the familiar. The tournament (Chapter 2) was made with swords to show that the character also has a familiarity with how swords work, so it wouldn’t just come out of the blue, and because it’s nearing the transformation’s tipping point (village setting - tournament, not typically associated with it - abrupt life change).
The second big reason comes from the coding perspective. It’s somewhat of a long explanation that may not be readily apparent, so bear with my rambling for a bit.
I’m not a big fan of do-or-die in IFs, which is why there’s a health pool. It ensures that failing a stat check has some consequences, but still keeps the flow of battle moving. As a result, there’s at least two descriptions for each stat check, one for success and one for failure. Frequently, they share a common root that then differs at some point.
Example of how this coding looks, blurred for spoilers of Zhaki’s fight:
#Tripping him with a well placed kick on his ankle.
*gosub_scene utils graceful_increase 5
*temp graceful 100 - brutal
*gosub_scene utils stat_test {graceful} 65 "graceful"
You flank the orc, standing at his back when he advances upon ${partnerFightingOrc} relentlessly. There's a timing to be had that will happen shortly before his actual attack, and you keep attention to his feet to know when that will come while they circle each other.
You see the creature firming his feet and then stepping forward. That's when you strike.
*if graceful >= 65
A swift and precise kick to the side of his foot makes him trip over his own leg. Having built up speed to strike, the orc is unable to stop himself from falling straight to the ground. Your sword is swift to follow, plunging into the creature's chest.
Blood spittle comes out of the orc's blackened lips as you twist the blade inside. Once more, though, the orc surprises you as his hand reaches for your blade and grips it. Blood flows down his fingers as his hand gripped the sharpness without any care, staring at you with his lip pulled up in a snarl.
You barely have time to brace yourself before the headbutt comes, sending you back and out of the orc, pulling your sword on the way back. Stumbling and unbalanced, you check yourself, but it's unnecessary—${partnerFightingOrc} charges as soon as you're back, kicking the orc while he's down. That gives you enough time to recover, sword in hand as the orc manages to get up, pushing ${partnerFightingOrc} off of him and readying his axe.
*else
You strike hard and fast, but unused to such swift precision, your kick hits the knee rather than the ankle as you had initially planned to trip him. Though the force of the kick undoubtedly wounded the orc, it's not what you had in mind and your follow up stance was wide open, unprepared for the backhand.
*if (partnerFightingOrc = "Amara") and (not (isAmaraDepleted))
*gosub ch3_orc_fight_counter
*else
The orc's fist smashes against your face and you feel your jaw crack as you're sent to the ground. Scurrying to get up, you crawl away from the orc as he advances upon you, rolling on the ground as the creature had his axe up. Fear ripples inside, but @{(partnerFightingOrc = "Agrien") two arrows come from the edge of the room, lodging on the orc|${partnerFightingOrc} rushes against the orc, shoulder slamming him and sending the creature stumbling, off-balance,} before he's able to descend the axe upon you.
*gosub_scene utils health_check 2 "ch3_mines_orc"
It's just enough time for you to get up, sword in hand again.
I could, for example, make a variable called ‘weapon’, but the descriptions would have to be fundamentally different for each type. The trip in this example could still happen, but the thrust is senseless in the case of an axe or a warhammer, unless they end with a spike.
Even if they end with a spike, allowing me to make thrusting descriptions, the subsequent headbutt becomes senseless because they wouldn’t thrust so long into the orc that you’re so open to a counter.
Due to my tendency to make overly descriptive actions in battle, this becomes increasingly more jarring when it comes to the style of fighting. You don’t fight the same way with a sword, a spear, a hammer, an axe; they have different overall approaches, and parrying is also different due to the concentration of mass, etc.
Now, I’ll say it’s not entirely necessary to include so much overt detail on the descriptions, and there’s an argument to be made that it’s not necessary to overthink these approaches to fighting, but that would bother me because (1) I really enjoy these descriptive wordy writing, and (2) overthinking is just a thing that I do.
—
Hopefully you understand why I made that decision!
Just wanted to report a bug, in the scene where you’re investigating the goblin tracks you can infinitely increase your survival stat when you go back to review the evidence (I think through the 3rd option?)
I’m glad you’re enjoying the passages about magic. It’s great fun for me to write them and make magic to be this powerful, addictive and dangerous force.