I think I MAY have the answer to this Dual Wielding suggestion everyone has, I cant say my idea is the best but it could work. Instead of just, throwing away the shields, we can keep them, and add the second weapon on the left hand (since shields do not involve being held what so ever). Then the "Action" command can be changed from just one weapon, to a new animation involving both weapons (The Nightblade line gave me this idea, since the sheath is on the left hand still with the shield in tact) Also, the "weapon slot instead of shield slot" idea can be changed by adding a new function in the "Character window". This new function would involve using players "action command" by clicking on weapons that are in the 1st slot and 3rd slot, giving two options to either use your weapon as "single" or "dual". Single speaks for itself, by not using dual wield, but Dual involves that weapon being your primary and having weapon slots 2 and 4 as the secondary weapon, having both slots in a blue energy outline. When it comes to the Nightblade series, single would still involve dual action, giving the shadow line shadow damage for the blade and the sheath with normal damage. (EX: first Nightblade swing does shadow, swinging the sheath does normal, and having the player do a spin with the (third combo) second Nightblade slash which does shadow) Dual mode for Nightblade would involve the sheath being rested on the knights back as an accessory. The rest of the combos for dual action would depend on how many hits the primary can do, an example would be if the cutter is your primary, no matter the secondary weapon, players will still do 5 hits, but the amount of silhouettes will decrease to 3 with the secondary weapon in the animation. Charge attacks are a mystery at the moment. The only flaw to dual wielding would be bombs, unless they could have a new function of being tossed or dropped, having a small radius.
Dual Wield Idea!
If I were making new shields, I'd rather they just use directional shields(that only block in front), shields with unusual bump ranges (it currently appears to be entirely based on star level and current stratum), different bonuses (bomber shields etc), and ones that give non-stun statuses on shield bash.
I understand that because we've seen so many dual wielding suggestions, people want to find a resolution to those demands, but I don't think it's necessary to build concepts that try to emulate those demands indirectly - I'd rather GH just stay focused on what they want to do with the game, and what they think they can do with the game. There are a million games with pets, so people suggested it, and now we have pets. There are a million games with dual wielding, so it's been suggested. I'd much rather see GH try to come up with original components for their game than try to meet everyone's MMO expectations -- we shouldn't respond to people's suggestions as demands, they should be considered suggestions.
Not really a demand but a suggestion on my part really, but you're right, GH should focus on something bigger and better than just Dual Wielding. Ofcourse if there was a "Shield Patch" new shields should come in, having the same idea you just made.
IMO dual wielding shouldn't involve charge attacks and why do people not think of guns when dual wielding is mentioned get 2 Antigua's and feel like James Bond and about bombs I've heard that in the alpha version of the game they used to have a normal attack maybe bring that back but put a limit to the number of bombs present on the battlefield like 5 for DR 2 for BAB and 3 for the rest imagine doing that with 2 BABs *_*
Welll i can't agree that there are milion games with dual wielding, ok there are plenty where this feature is present but usually it is being simplified to a function exclusive for a certain character class, or to a single wapon that uses 2 models in both haands, i thinkt it's far from what SK could offer with ability to freely choose from equiped weapon which we ant to use, really didn't see many games allowing us to dual wield pistol and sword, or anythinf like that, or at least not many MMO after all. But yeah, i think GH should focus on making this game better with what they already have in 1st place, later they can think of addnig new features.
In the last dual wielding thread I brought up unnecessary complexity, and I'll bring it up here again: by making a weapon more complex, you lose the benefit of it being interesting in the first place.
I see about two avenues dual wielding can take for Spiral Knights while being healthy and actually being expanding of the game. The first is a simple reskin (think furious fork), where having a weapon in the second hand doesn't change much of how it overall functions. A new weapon line that uses both weapons at the same time would be super cool, but should never remove the shield or take up more than a single weapon slot.
The one I'm more of an advocate for is new shield lines. New shield lines that act as a shield with unique mechanics would work wonders. There are about two ways to do this too: A) shield with a unique shield bash that looks like a weapon, or B) shield with unique "reactions" to being used as a shield.
An example of the first option can be a flourish as a shield. It could block piercing damage, and instead of a standard shield bash it could do a less powerful version of the flourish charge attack. A brandish in the same line could do the default shield bash animation, but finish the bash off with a charge attack minus the explosions. These actions still take half the shield health away and require a full shield bar.
An example of the second option would be a parrying blade. Imagine the side blade or parrying blade accessory, but as a shield. When your "shield" takes a hit, your player will automatically counterattack in front of them. This attack is very quick, about as fast as a brandish swing or a cutter swing. Enemies take damage and are knocked back a bit. These shields cannot shieldbump, and have lower overall defenses.
... And bam, there you go. Two "dual wielding" options, and one doesn't have negative effects outside of the clockworks (any sort of dual wielding that can be applied to lockdown is just an increase in power - unless it's a new weapon line that's cosmetically dual wielded, or you can do the no shield thing, in which case it's something no-one in their right mind would ever do). They're fun, intuitive, and don't require any new keybinds or weird mechanics to use.