Combat speed:
Weapon speed should not be confused with encumbered speed. Why? Because armor is worn on the body, and unless you're wearing long sleeves of chainmail, with platemail covering your arms, weapon speed shouldn't be affected. Why? Because I speak with 17 years of RL experience on how this stuff works.
"awkward" weapons that move slower carry more power behind them. Therefore, there should be a slight dmg boost due to the added weight. However, please keep in mind that just because someone has a spear, doesn't mean he'll move slower than a guy with a sabre. In fact, the guy with the spear can gain a higher defense, and an added attack due to the fact that a person using their staff, or spear never use just one side. Unless of course it is a pike, or halberd. Lances, Claymores, and Flamberges that are very slow and very very heavy would cause someone to lose an attack, and have a heightened chance of real damage being inflicted should they strike their mark.
Encumbered speed:
When one is donning full plate (no such thing ever (EVER) happens in 4D), their movements are slowed down but unlike in the movies, you never really saw knights in ridiculously large pieces of armor that weighed down their arms. Why? Because that would be suicide. If you were a shieldsman, you protected the shield arm which in turn held the shield, which in turn guarded your sword arm, which was less armored than the rest of your body. The most you ever saw in armor for arms would be pauldrons, and vembraces. The weight of pauldrons were carried on the shoulders, and the bracers covered your forearms, but they never weighed very much. I don't think I've ever worn something even close to a pound/kilo on my arms.
To be honest, the only way to properly balance this is through the Armor Class system. Armor truly should not take away form combat speed, since all we do is stand there and beat each other up. It CAN however hurt fleeing, retreating, kicking, bashing, beheading, snaring, and other such actions that require the whole of the body.
Weapon speed needs to be factored by the following:
1) Skill in the weapon type
2) Type of weapon
3) Weight/Size of said weapon.
Which brings me to my next suggestion: Regulate weapon weights and sizes.
You set certain parameters within the building code to prevent over-sizing of a weapon (and under-sizing), and over/under-weighting the weapon.
The only time we should see a weight of 1 on a great sword is when it's an artifact or quest weapon type.
This would of course mean...dare I say?....creating additional choices in the OLC for builders for weapon types.
Anyway, I digress.
Amounts of attacks should only be dependent on the weapon, your skill in that weapon, and its weight depleting your fighting speed.
Movement speed is done via AC.
Also, races.
We need a few more races, and races need to be better written. I'd love to see an actual Satyr race actually. Oh, and my Space Goldfish.
My 30 cents.
