My guess, looking at most past spears. Not many were truly 1 hand weapon. People used them with shields because they used the shield to prop the spear not needing the 2nd hand on it. I use Spartans and Zulus as fair examples. Neither had a short spear but both carried them one handed.
They need to adjust were we hold the spear when its one handed.
Its also worth noting that when a spear was used with a shield it was primarily to brace and hold the line, not for stabbing and general offensive purposes. Also very useful against cavalry. I also think that a small and light shield should not have a stamina penalty for blocking but heavier shields have a more aggressive penalty.
To you both:
"Long handle" is a denotation in the name of each of the spears in game. Based on all other weapons in the game, this is a modifier of the handle type used in crafting. This implies there is a short handle variant as well, just like in MO1... and IN MO1, short handle spears were infinitely more prevalent over long handle ones due to the stamina benefits and more forgiving strength requirements. It strikes me as odd that they wouldn't toss the spears we've been proven to use more often into the first wave of spear testing. The best theories I have right now are the thought process of relative character strength being quite high with just thursars and humans in the game... it could also be SV just thought "spear long, spear have range, give them long spear" without considering what spear users in MO have traditionally gravitated to (Or maybe quite the opposite! Maybe they DID want to test what we're less likely to use first, that way we don't ditch it and go right for what we know, I'm willing to accept that as well!)
As for spears not being used for stabbing and general offensive purposes...
1.) Stabbing is (not unsurprisingly) the primary use of a spear. Even when holding a line, spear users covered for one another and relied on quick deadly thrusts (usually to someone to the side of them, who didn't have a proper guard up). Spears were an incredibly common melee weapon of many different cultures throughout human history, including ones that never had line-fighting or cavalry. Both with, and without, a shield. Were shields and spear combos always heavy and metal? No! Phen pointed out the Zulus, who used much lighter materials. Although they also had big fat 5 foot long war shields they sometimes used, and used aggressively. (The Greeks actually also used 30 pound bronze plated shields) But anyway see point 2:
2.) That's not how shields get used when coupled with Mortal Online's mechanics. Mortal Online, like most
video games, rewards movement and punishes standing there like an idiot hoping to RP your way to victory. It's fine to have a more aggressive version of shield and spear (and that's what short handle and a smaller shield is/was) as well as a heavier more hold-your-ground variety for fighting cavalry or holding a choke. Sure why not, but do not imply that spears should be relegated to some fictional role of stationary anti-cav.
TLDR:
There's a modifier for handle length in the name of the weapon, yet we're only seeing one length, despite it being the one that was less popular in MO1, and there could be many reasons for this.
Appeals to historical accuracy are dumb as there is always many exceptions or missed realities, especially when you gravitate too much of your understanding in only Medieval Europe.
