European Greatsword

WHAT IT DOES

It adds two versions of a european two-hander sword, circa 15'th-16'th century, called a "Zweihaender" or "Bidenhaender". Or in Scotland it would be a "lowland claymore", in Italy it would be a "spadone", in Spain a "montante", etc. Such swords were made and used all over the place.

Unlike modern games which call everything a "two-hander" if it can be used with both hands, historically most such were called a "long sword" and allowed a combination of one and two hand techniques. To be called a Zweihaender (two-hander) or Bidenhaender (both-hander), it had to be a sword of such size that it actually needed both hands on the hilt, full time. It is the final evolution of the longsword as a weapon of war.

Historically, mercenaries certified in the use of the two-hander received twice the pay of a normal mercenary and were called "doppelsöldner" (i.e., double mercenary, though more in the meaning of "double paid".) On one hand this reflected the increased risk to self, but that people were actually paying that high price tends to indicate that it was worth that.

In game the weapon does high damage, has twice the chance to crit, and does twice the damage to limbs. On a crit, it knocks down because of the sheer mass.

As of version 2, it has also been added to a bunch of lists, so you can give it to Lily, sneak it into a casino if you're really good at sneaking, or knock enemies down (even more) with the relevant perk. In VATS, it gets the Mauler attack, same as the legate's sword.

It has a 50 inch long blade, with a width of about 2 inches and a 7 inch unsharpened ricasso which can be used to grab the blade and use the weapon as a short spear. (And it's also where your hand moves when parrying in third person.) These values are calculated assuming that the average human in the game is about 5'10" tall, i.e., pretty much the same as an adult human male nowadays.

The versions are:

1. The Straight Zweihänder, probably the most common variant of this weapon.

2. The Flambard Zweihänder which, as the name says, it has a flambard or "flame" blade. It's wavy, basically. It was also relatively common, though more labour intensive to make and thus more expensive, so not every mercenary had one. It's still debated exactly how the wavy edge was supposed to be better, but lots of swords were made like that.

KNOWN ISSUES

1. The way it's carried on the back IS too low, but I can't fix that. The animation is made for weapons with a much longer handle and shorter blade. The point held by your forward hand really is that low on the back, you just don't normally notice because there's a lot more handle above it and a lot less blade below it.

Sorry. I wish I could do som