[Xietor]

"but weapons and armor DO NOT have special abilities and CANNOT give them. ITEMS are what you are looking at. If ever there was a modding FAQ question, this one is it."

This is just semantics. Weapons do have special abilities, whether it is through a mechanism called 2ndary effects or whatever, it amounts to the same thing.

So shields could also have special effects, whether we want to make it through some mechanism or not does not really matter.

The only thing that matters is my hero has a sword that pierces armor, or a shield that entangles. The hoops i have to jump through to make it so are basically not known by 99 percent of the player base that does not mod.

All they know or care about is what their sword or shield does when they hit someone with it.

As to the research modification:

From KO in Kingmaker thread:

Hmm, I just realized that it will not be possible to make my suggested change.

However research can go on beyond lvl 9. So it should be possible to mod a bit.

Current cost lvls:

lvl
9: 1100 * researchcost
10: 1780
11: 3000
12: 4000
13: 5000

Thus it is possible to move all lvl 7+ up one or a few lvls (making lvl 7 empty)

Suggested fix: Difficult research
Lvl 2-> lvl 1
Lvl 7-> lvl 8
Lvl 8-> lvl 10
Lvl 9-> lvl 12

This leaves lvl 7, 9 and 11 empty.
7+8 costs (420+680)*researchcost
9+10 costs (1100+1780)*researchcost
11+12 costs (3000+4000)*researchcost

Might even work with standard research.

If these costs are unfit I can change them before the patch, but it will not be possible to make another grading without a more thorough fix.