Currently melee and shooting are balanced ENTIRELY around hits and misses. While this make sense for shooting, mostly, melee this makes little sense, evident by the fact that high melee people ROUTINELY get their ass handed to them by low melee.
My idea? Grazes, nicks, glancing blows, weak hits, ect. Sure, that plasteel sword might be amazing, and sharp, but will it really be as effective in the arms of an old, and inexperienced geezer, compared to an assassin? I doubt it. Sure, he might get some hits, but maybe they dont hit right, graze someone, or it shifts in his hand and instead bludgeons them with the side of the blade with a twist of the wrist. Perhaps punches could graze someone, doing little / no damage, but slight pain, or stabs from shivs could just nick people leaving a small cut comparable to a bruise, with no real bleeding, and almost no risk for infection (scabs over in minutes)
Perhaps this could also give bows / old tech a more interesting niche, having them effected too, where a crappy spear toss by someone with no clue how to use it might not fly straight, and would instead of stabbing, would smack the victim. Same for arrows, except possibly not having the full power behind it.
Guns, I imagine would rarely have this issue, but melee especially I refuse to believe every hit would be equal in a thrashing, twisting, frantic melee. Some blows would miss, some would glance off, some lightly knock people, OTHERS, knocking people out cold. And some cuts with a sword would be mild, others INCREDIBLY intense
This could also address the long standing issue of no way to reliably incap with little damage, with fists or mace melee, in very skilled hands letting someone be incapacitated without needing to bash them into a pulp.
My idea? Grazes, nicks, glancing blows, weak hits, ect. Sure, that plasteel sword might be amazing, and sharp, but will it really be as effective in the arms of an old, and inexperienced geezer, compared to an assassin? I doubt it. Sure, he might get some hits, but maybe they dont hit right, graze someone, or it shifts in his hand and instead bludgeons them with the side of the blade with a twist of the wrist. Perhaps punches could graze someone, doing little / no damage, but slight pain, or stabs from shivs could just nick people leaving a small cut comparable to a bruise, with no real bleeding, and almost no risk for infection (scabs over in minutes)
Perhaps this could also give bows / old tech a more interesting niche, having them effected too, where a crappy spear toss by someone with no clue how to use it might not fly straight, and would instead of stabbing, would smack the victim. Same for arrows, except possibly not having the full power behind it.
Guns, I imagine would rarely have this issue, but melee especially I refuse to believe every hit would be equal in a thrashing, twisting, frantic melee. Some blows would miss, some would glance off, some lightly knock people, OTHERS, knocking people out cold. And some cuts with a sword would be mild, others INCREDIBLY intense
This could also address the long standing issue of no way to reliably incap with little damage, with fists or mace melee, in very skilled hands letting someone be incapacitated without needing to bash them into a pulp.