Courtier
on topic of empire 2 gameplay: i made a big mistake early one because i didnot know that in empire series small races (hobbits, gnomes, and faeries) can't equip "big" weapons.
so my highest STR, highest VIT, highest hit point total 4 foot gnome Fighter spent a big chunk of the early game being bitter at the shop owner because he couldn't equip any of the good 2H hammers, whereas the even the freaking priest could use some of them!
remember, a high (positive) number of THACO on the weapon is bad, you want a minus.
a low number of swings/attacks per swing is bad, you want a high number.
obviously majority of multi-attack weapons tend to have very high number of THACO to balance it out.
the real kicker comes when you factor Armor and accessories into the equation. Take the high-THACO wepaon you like and instead of wearing that Lord's Plate which is -8 AC and +4 THACO (very bad for your accuracy), instead wear a Black Costume or a Sailor's Uniform (heh), which provide -3 and -2 AC (very crappy) but give you a whopping -3 and -5 to your THACO.
this way effectively you regain accuracy and keep the hammer's damage. (only an example hammer). of course every point of AC matters. It all comes down to simple percentages. Every point of AC you "lose" (goal is negative, low AC) is exponentially more important than the point before it. Having -6 AC is 36% increase over -5 AC, which was a 20% increase only, and it continues like that. AC isn't linear. When you reach -10 and on wards, every single additional point is the equivalent of an extra 30-40% miss chance on the enemy attack. of course it's impossible to out-AC late game enemies they will still fuck you up.
so, yeha, and the exact same thing applies to THACO. exactly the same deal. every point lower you go is an exponentially bigger increase in your amount of hits and amount of swings. And yeah, that's right, a character SWINGS his weapon X number of times, for example katana comes default with 3 attacks per swing, , but it doesn't mean you'll hit 3 times.
what determines how many attacks per swing you'll do is: character's STR score (above 15 and each additional STR point counts for 2 in terms of THACO, again, once more the same philosophy of every point is better than the one before. it has always been this way in wizardry) + character's class + character's level + AND THEN the number of atks on the wepaon is factored in, AFTER those things, and then guess what? yep, a die roll. so no, don't always count of getting 10 hits just because your weapon says 20 atks per swing. you figure i should land like half of them at least right? not at all. it's up to your character's attributes, his level, and dice rolls that resolve versus the opponent's AC.
the higher the enemy AC the easier it will be for your THACO die roll (STR + char class bonus + char level bonus + THACO bonus + die roll VERSUS enemy AC which is ONLY determined by their char class, like ninjas for example, and from their armor/gear).
if the enemy has -12 AC, (and they'll have more than that, but you know this already from elmiange) you get 12 points taken off your final die roll result. HOWEVER, specific classes like samurai, lord, ranger, valkyrie and berserkers and fighters gain something very similar to dungoens and dragon's BAB.
every five levels or so (each class varies) these classes gain extra die rolls, basically what i mean is they gain an invisible class level bonus that is rolled AFTER the thaco VS ac roll is resolved, and that can REALLY tip the scales. Once this is won then it means the character performs his FIRST ATTACK.
now he rolls to see if that attack hits. fine, great, it hit. now, since his weapon says 20 attacks, he rolls all over again everything i mentioned to see if he succeeds in getting a 2nd attack. boo, he didn't, not even his class bonus clinched it. So in that example even though the character is capable of performing all 20 attacks (with exceptions) every attack in 1 swing is pretty much random, which is basically... same way wizardry and tons of other rpgs have always been.
now here's a cool thing: single-hand and auxilliary weapons are limited to something like 10 or 15 attacks to actually land, mind you not a max of 15 to be attempted, but to land, which is why then having a second weapon in your other hand is great cos now you get 10/15 more possible attacks per swing.
BUT 2h weapons don't have a limit. 2h weapons can do as many attacks as the char's stats and die rolls allow. I haven't mentioned yet that the martial classes, specifically fighters, lords, ninja, samurai, and berserker (not sure if kunoichi, valkyrie and ranger get THIS) also gain about every 10 levels or so a legit extra attack. If the weapon says 5 atks per swing, and it's a level 20 fighter, then it's actually 7 (attempts).
that's pretty awesome.
this means a super high levle fighter (fighters get the highest bonus to their THACO roll, and they get the highest amount of extra atks per swing as they go up levels, and fighters also get 3x as many hit points as anyone else once classes bottom out around level 30 and onwards, which means that wizardry fighters are irrefutably the best class in the game for high level pwnage)-- a high lvl fighter like say, level 40, wielding a 2h mjollnir hammer or whatever that has like 15 atks per swing... well, you start to get the picture on the madness he can wreak. Much, MUCH more badass than dual-wielding, which get capped and the higher the level the more it shows.
this is why dual-wielding is good for non-martial classes that don't receive all those nice melee upgrades every number of levels.
and btw, the berserker class in empire series is ridiculous it's basically a Fighter with the ability to do 2x the number of atks per swing and deal 4x the damage dual-wielding 2h weapons in each hand.
requirements for berserker are: 19 str, 17 int, 18 piety, 20 vitality, 18 agility, and 17 luck. plus you have to clear the normal dungeons first. I never got one and it's the main reason i'm gonna replay, heh.
i tried adding one via cheating/hex-editing but the game was too smart !!! didn't recognize my edited save!