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Merlkir

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Everything posted by Merlkir

  1. Merlkir
    Pattern-welded steel, remember. There are other great videos on that subject, just look in the related videos bar.
  2. Merlkir
    Yeah, do that. Don't forget to have the other person fight you with it. Get someone who knows how to use a polearm. Also post pictures of the hacked up bloody corpse. )
  3. Merlkir
    Pretty much this. We tried it while drunk once. Ouch.
  4. Merlkir
    All manner of polearm weapons actually were primary weapons for men at arms and even knights. Swords were sidearms. There were of course exceptions when some considered pole weapons to be glorified peasant tools and rather stuck to knightly swords and maces. And of course, all of this changes a lot with fashion and trends in warfare. BTW, I'd seriously love to see someone cut a shaft of a polaxe with a sword. They were made so that you couldn't do it, even without steel reinforcement, cutting tough wood like that (when it's moving in the hands of your enemy) is nearly impossible. Maybe with an axe if you pinned the polaxe down. Also "blocking" with polearms isn't that difficult (not more difficult than with a sword), nor are they defenseless when the opponent gets too close. There are techniques to deal with all kinds of stuff.
  5. Merlkir
    There seems to be some kind of sabre in the latest video, so there probably will be eastern looking stuff.
  6. Merlkir
    :D Hmph. ))) Slings are ok, I've used them quite a bit, but excuse me if I'll base my sling assumptions on tests I've done rather than a fairytale book. (slingshots make quite terrible wounds btw, very deep and quite wide. I used to have a link to a Roman material on how to treat these wounds so that they heal properly, it's very gruesome. I'll see if I can find it.)
  7. Merlkir
    I wonder how useful one would be in a situation where a normal sling suffices. IIRC they were mainly a siege type weapon, with the staff added for range. Adventurers would use slings for hunting, most likely. Knowing slings were in the Infinity games, they might appear in PE, which'd be neat.
  8. Merlkir
    You could probably also make it into a staff sling. I never thought of that.
  9. Merlkir
    Yeahm. You could train your soldiers to attack in teams of three - they take the target to the ground, one holds him down, another aims a hardened metal spike and the third man hammers it in with a massive maul. Giving them all poleaxes is just easier. :D edit: I'm a swordophile, but I think I'll be making an exception in PE, if it does have polaxes.
  10. Merlkir
    Because codpieces don't weaken the integrity and stability of the breast plate like boob armor does. Weakening armor just for style and fashion is strange. Actually, they're kind of the exact same thing, except in your groin. Boob plate is not all evil, read my blog post about it.
  11. Merlkir
    That's Toby Capwell's custom made suit. There's a whole album of photos of it on Flickr. (you can also see him run and fight in it in that museum documentary which has been posted a few times on here. "Mounting a horse and etc...")
  12. Merlkir
    I really like the craftsmanship, but the design has quite a few holes. Ehm.
  13. Merlkir
    Nah, I fail to see how wanting my females characters to look aesthetically pleasing is silly or unreasonable. I would argue you are in the minority in wanting ladies in PE to look like tin cans? There's a big difference between "aesthetically pleasing" and "sexy". You are fine with guy armours looking like "tin cans", those don't have to be "aesthetically pleasing"? I paint armour for a living, I know what makes a kickass, or even good looking armour design. Armours in a game for men and women can look badass without being sexy, certainly what has been presented here is in no way a "tin can". I feel silly for even arguing with you, I previously played a devil's advocate for the boobplate, because I can imagine that being used for a purpose that makes sense for a female character in a specific setting. But no, just no. Showing skin, cleavage, midriff, any kind of stupid nonsense like that is not aesthetically pleasing. Go jerk off to "Pirates", I will be a selfish bastard and say I don't want your kind of bullpoo in PE.
  14. Merlkir
    Yeah yeah, that's a really really stupid argument repeated over and over. You want female armours to look sexy, pretty, or "good"? Watch some porn. Seriously, there's fantasy DnD porn. Jeez.
  15. Merlkir
    Hm hm. They should've included reconstructions of the Aztec warrior costumes. Everything looks a bit silly in the codex style of illustration.
  16. Merlkir
    You know, there's no need to speculate. It's been tried out, we know that plate is pretty much piercing-resistent. At absolute best, with a stationary target, a good halfswording grip and the perfect landing angle, you'll get a very very tiny hole. You'll get in far enough to perhaps poke the padding underneath. You won't stab the person wearing the armour, period. Even the often cited "can openers" like military picks or poleaxes didn't penetrate deep enough to hurt too often. Tests suggest that a heavy hit from a poleaxe would likely damage the wearer by sheer impact and shock wave going through armour and body, without actual penetration.
  17. Merlkir
    I can't really think of any. Once you reach a certain standard of protection technology, it makes little sense to go assymetrical.
  18. Merlkir
    This is not even funny. Police brutality? Yeah, I know one case like that. I actually JUST read about it, because it happened yesterday, near the town I was born in. A gypsy family was having a drunk dispute and one of them called the cops. The cops showed up and the family joined up against them, beating the cops who came to help them. The police don't dare raise a finger with gypsies around, it's just not worth it. A friend of mine is a cop in Ostrava, one of the most gypsy populated cities. He has a lot of stories to tell, he clearly doesn't like gypsies. But not once did he tell us about anything even remotely resembling police brutality specific to gypsies. In fact they avoid getting physical with them like the plague. (your career is not worth a kick in the ribs, however satisfying it may be)
  19. Merlkir
    My slightly jaded take on it (in the CZR): 1) Confused and well meant (yet destructive) approach of a liberal government after the velvet revolution. The previous socialist regime wasn't free, but it forced everyone to work and not working was illegal. This helped integration somewhat. (ie. everyone was in the same ****) 2) The reality that gypsies can (and do) live off of welfare and criminal activity. Not all of them, of course, but a large portion of them does. They don't have a reason to change their lives. Why send kids to school? It's much more useful if they become pickpockets. (can't be charged, cops just let them go) This lifestyle and our approach of letting it happen grows and grows in rumors and only reinforces hatred from the white majority. There are many myths about gypsies which are absolute nonsense. But seeing what actually does happen gives you ground to believe the ridiculous too. And it just keeps on going. Gypsies don't want to go to work, because people won't hire them and they manage quite fine without it. People don't want to hire them. Because if they actually employ people in their business, they have likely been forced by the employment office to take on a few gypsies before. And very likely it didn't work out. (supply stealing, going to work every other day or not at all etc.) 3) If I knew, I'd be rich and happy. I think a complete revamp of the "gypsy issue" funding is quite necessary. These funds are very often received by companies who run away with the money after pretending to do something (useless Gypsy Culture courses, counseling etc.), while the actual gypsies rarely see a dime of it. As with any other cases of bigotry, I think it's extremely important to encourage positive examples. Push for mandatory education (just like everyone else), cut the fake wellfare recipients (they're 30 and their backs supposedly hurt so much they'll never work in their life). And most importantly, we need to see racism where it actually appears, and stop fearing we'll be accused of racism if we enforce laws the same way for everyone. edit: it's true the gypsy culture is very much based on family (rather extended family) and customs. Some of the families are living all across Europe and their top people are often involved in organized crime. It's hard to integrate into society you (supposedly) live in, if you daily reality is a huge family with strict rules against working for a living.
  20. Merlkir
    We do? You know, this is exactly the type of bull that doesn't help anything. The other side of the problem, really. You like the term "institutionalized racism", let me tell you - the racism deeply embedded in the institutions here is of the reverse kind. Talking about hanging gypsies being not that long ago, wow, that sounds pretty horrible. (when was it again? early 18th century? That's almost yesterday.) The reality is - gypsies get preferential treatment from the government, in spades. Why? Because the people in power are pooping their pants about losing face with their pals from the EU and of course from the US. The gypsies are not cynical about it. They're used to milking the racist card, so they do it, because it works. Most of them couldn't care less about the overall situation and the need for integration. You also seem to love this idea of minority underdogs toughing it out, biting their teeth and getting on with their difficult lives filled with white racism. There are no opressive structures to be dismantled, not in the way you imagine. I actually agree that taking away all the pro-gypsy racist institutions would eventually help the situation. It's tough being poor and having no work. What's even worse is being poor and having no work, because you're getting just enough to live almost-comfortably from the people who hate you. It's like aid for Africa in a way, the manner in which we're trying to help people is actually damaging them far worse.
  21. Merlkir
    You're not going to find much support around here, I reckon. Gypsy situation in Europe is a pretty complex subject, sadly many people don't think about it much and simply stick to: "well, they're just this way, they've always been like that, they always will be.". It's a clash of very different cultures. Their culture is that of nomadic people who were forced to settle down, live among people with very different values. So they adapted. In gypsy culture stealing and fraud are the easiest and therefore the proper way of life, living off of welfare the stupid gadzo give them too. Those who work for a living are mocked, beaten and outlawed in the worst cases. Integration is the desirable solution (imo the only one that works), but it's difficult, because the vast majority doesn't want to be integrated. It's a pretty vicious cycle of racism on both sides, European Union only pouring fuel into the fire by weighing in on the "discussion" with ignorant statements and "evaluations of the situation". As someone mentioned, racism and other types of prejudice are born out of experience. Sometimes it's experience we actually had, other times it's "what everyone knows". Racism against gypsies is deeply rooted in bitter experience, sure. But to simply bundle up a whole ethnic group of people (technically they're "white", so not a real "race" problem) in a bag labeled "BAD" is not justified at all.
  22. Merlkir
    The assymetry and shield substitutes were indeed present mostly in jousting armours, pretty specialized stuff. Your common combat suits were far more plain and "ordinary" looking. Another thing is - despite manuals teaching various stances and martial arts of today teaching one sided stances, you'd never stand only (or even mostly) one side towads the enemy. Even in longsword duels you'd go through various stances with each leg being the leading one sometime.
  23. Merlkir
    Says someone belonging to a gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation least likely to ever experience the negatives of such an arrangement. Yep. I'm happily self-employed, thank you very much. Once again, a response telling me my opinion and argument do not matter, because of the colour of my skin and sex. Instead of educating and changing the **** (which is hard, I know), you'd rather take away another bit of freedom from everyone. Yes, that'll work, for sure. (I'm not a libertarian, so don't mistake my use of the word freedom for political preference. But I do agree this type of law is pretty horrible.)
  24. Merlkir
    Hey, it wasn't me who defined racism as "majority being mean to minorities" (ie. excluding whites entirely), or separated racism into normal racism (ie. whites on everyone) and the mocked and nonexistent "reverse racism". So, excuuuse me, Princess, for derailing your discussion, which seems to be exactly ALL about straight white men. I think a study into the effects of such laws would be quite interesting. My suspicion is that they only reinforce animosity towards these groups. Then again, I think "hate speech" laws are absolute nonsense and should not exist. Employers should also be able to hire or fire whomever they want.
  25. Merlkir
    Because there are kinds of sexism not worthy of discussion, so much so we have to put them in quotes? :D Sure. ad Microwhatevers: Not surprised. Well, **** me sideways.
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