I wonder if there's any merit to the thought that player's weapon choices would have more variation to them if there were more variation in their capabilities.
In other words, everyone trains the lowest dev cost weapon they can for their guild currently because (as I understand it) there are no appreciable differences between weapons after they have been crafted fully (runes and enchantments). By capping the capacity of each weapon, one would have to weigh the benefits of training a cheaper weapon skill against the fact that later in their training that weapon would simply be not as good as a higher capacity weapon type. This is not to say that a knife couldn't be enchanted just as much as a two handed polearm, just that equally crafted items of these different types would be of different power levels in combat.
In the hands of equally skilled warriors, the two weapons would be comparable, but a two handed polearm user would have the benefit of dealing more damage (on average - as they would have a higher maximum damage output) while the knife wielder would have (had) the benefit of paying fewer devs for the same amount of skill.
I can see this as one way of helping to balance weapons, and am in no way implying that it is up here for anything more than open discussion. Please note this means that there are currently no plans to enact any ideas that may be presented here as changes to Darkemud. This is only spitballing ideas for variation, flavor, and balance.
Weapons used are generally the same among all players, as Daniel pointed out (even if he failed to use the proper example), and I for one don't feel this is right with the wide range of weaponry Darkemud has to offer. New players (presuming there are still any truely new players to muds) are often unaware that there is a "best" weapon to choose and, in opposition to the support I've given thus far, this could result in only adding another layer of complexity that will soon be mapped out with a new "best" found, if a poorly made change were carried out.
Am I off base (in addition to slightly off topic) in thinking that this might be a servicable idea though? Do weapons even need to be examined for balance, or is it alright that everyone uses the same weapon type(s)? Are weapons in general too powerful, too weak, or is there a wide enough disparity between those who know the best ways to make them and those who don't that it isn't an issue so easily generalized?
